Chapter 13

Day 7; Smoke and Mud

'Didn't they learn about parabolas and that kind of stuff in maths anymore?'

Everyone sleeps in on Sundays, and Sundays are 'mufti days' so everyone wears whatever they like, making it also laundry day for everyone who hadn't been bothered to do any during the week. Contrary to the first fact, Kelly was extremely tired. It was hidden well; the bags under her eyes expertly covered up by high quality make-up and the determined expression that was one of her dominant features. Her exhaustion was to be expected as Ace knew for a fact that Kelly had not slept in the dorm that night. Rather, she had snuck into the dorm around 4:30 in the morning after being who knows where all day, and didn't wake a single person when she passed them. Ace had not been woken; she had been awake the whole time. Everyone had been so quiet and calm that it had nerved her. They always seemed to be plotting something, so having nothing happen did not ease her worries.

The hours she'd spent watching and waiting in the dark started taking their toll as the day went on. Nitro timer improving had been on the agenda for there were no classes on Sundays (Ace had then decided that Sundays were the best day of the week), until she noticed a plain slightly faded post-it note had been slipped into her jacket pocket when she was in the corridor. She had turned her head and had just sighted Kelly passing through a doorway in the opposite direction.

The note's instruction was simple, but vague. "Make Alex's books disappear."

Hoping there was a reason for all these missions, Ace monitored the Geeks while they studied in the language classroom (Studying on a Sunday! They were completely mad! Was the stock market important enough to spend four hours of a precious Sunday watching?).

After patiently waiting for just over four hours, the group left. Having noted where the girl called Alex had left her stuff, Ace found an open side window and slid inside. Alex's books in tow, she couldn't decide where a good hiding place for them would be. Then it hit her and she stashed them there (the most elusive place in the school), and then slipped into the corridor as though nothing had happened.

There was something odd about the way the twins eyes opened wider than normal when they saw her coming their way, and how they jumped when Ace greeted, "Hey." Either they had recently been the subject of a prank just as she had, or the duo was up to something. The later was more likely.

Ace casually asked, "What have you two been doing?"

Looking up with wide innocent eyes, they replied, "Nothing."

The two little cherub angels with invisible halos might have fooled her once, but Ace knew better than to believe that they had been doing 'nothing' when tiny containers of unknown content had been concealed in their soaks and the insides of their buttoned jackets and faintly smelt of smoke and chemicals.

"It doesn't smell like nothing. Just like sodium nitrate, if I'm right. Now, if you've been using sodium nitrate you've got-"

Ace snatched a canister from an unsuspecting twin and opened it. Something was squished inside. She gave it a cautious sniff.

"Smoke bomb?" Not quite what she had been expecting. "You made this?" Ace asked.

The grins on the little devils' in training's faces said it all.

Be good, Ace reminded herself. You have to be good. Prove that you can. Fight the urge. You can do it. Be good. Be good. Be...

She lost the battle. "Show me."

Leading her by the arm through the chemistry lab where a small frying pan with white and yellow bits was soaking in a sink, they took her to the storeroom and picked up a container of sugar and a jar labelled 'KNO3'. Both prime ingredients of smoke bombs, but what was the sodium nitrate for?

One of the twins vanished and reappeared wearing safety glasses, carrying something small covered in foil. She pealed the foil off and then lit the exposed pasty substance with a match. It caught alight and gave off yellow flames and lots of tinted smoke. Sodium makes it yellow, Ace remembered.

"Nice." This pleased the pair. "What where you planning to do with that?"

They whispered their idea in her ear. Her own smirk grew.

"Great, but I think I know how you could make it even better. Only if you let me help," she added seeing their glee and excitement. "Deal?"

"Deal," they replied.

Scientific Report

By Ace, Tara and Tania (AKA the Twins)

Aim: Evict Mr Baily (English teacher) from St Trinian's.

Hypothesis: When confronted by something that absolutely terrifies to death him, he will run and not come back.

Equipment: Coloured smoke bombs, helium canisters with nozzles, giant blow up balloons, fishing wire, frilly garments (Often found in Posh Totty wardrobe), Sellotape, safety pins, rope, a very long hose, dirt, large deep hole (Dug with the help of several First Years), and one Mr Baily (Referred to as 'Target'.

Method: Secret.

Results: The Target opened the door to his room and found himself covered in very frilly undergarments. He quickly tried to entangle himself then bolted down the corridor again when several gigantic helium-filled balloons propelled along hidden fishing wire rapidly approached him.

Concealed smoke bombs ignited and obscured his vision, causing the Target to trip over a rope tied at ankle height through a door at end of the hallway. This was meant to cause him to trip and fly forward and land in a specially created puddle of thick mud just outside. Onlooking crowd watched from balconies and windows and 'Ohhh'ed as target soared like a pigeon and then dive-bombed. A mildly satisfying splat was heard; not belonging to the Target's landing in the mud pit.

Evaluation: Successful, but in future, more planning and careful predictions of flight path are required.

Conclusion: Target overshot the pit and will not be returning in the foreseeable future.

Ace's eyes widened as she watched Mr Baily fly several meters past the mud pit. She winced when he hit the ground and turned to look at the trouble-making pair.

"Opps…" they breathed.

Ace shook her head in disbelief. Fancy predicting the path of projection wrong. Didn't they learn about parabolas and that kind of stuff in maths anymore? Good thing they had called the ambulance in advance. They needed it now.

Still, it was worth it.

After waving goodbye to the ambulance as it left in rather a hurry, Ace hurried back along the driveway and eventually returned to the roof where Kelly had been waiting. She didn't even have time to open her mouth before Kelly issued another command.

"Find Celia's hockey stick and bring it here without her knowing."

By this time, Ace knew most of the girls by face, and some by name. Celia was the girl with extremely wild hair, she recalled. She didn't seem to belong to any group in particular, and was, frankly, odd. Off in her own little world a lot. She was the strange girl who sat down and read books in the middle of a hockey game. Her hockey stick scarcely ever hit anything other than the ground when she dropped it. This made it easy to tell it apart from the numerous other hockey sticks that lay everywhere but in a sports storeroom and snag it when no one was around.

Celia also had a hammock for a bed, which Ace found "Wicked" and quickly set her mind to making one of her own. She started scavenging material and rope; however the rope she discovered wasn't quite strong enough and required plaiting in order to hold Ace's body weight. It was an understatement to say that plaiting wasn't one of Ace's talents. You could even say she found it a challenge to plaiting her own hair without laying on the fact too thick.

Her efforts, or, to put it more accurately, her attempts, entertained the girls who slept around her especially when Ace got annoyed at the rope because it kept coming undone and she started yelling at it. "Gordon Bennet! There it goes again!" was often followed by long meaningless muttering about hating this and that. The others didn't quite understand what she was saying, but her frustration was amusing.

She didn't make much progress on the hammock until Celia came down to earth long enough to see what Ace was trying to do. She was even in a good mood and showed her how to do it properly. To Ace's delight it was completed by that afternoon.

Kelly had another task for her when she returned. "Go to the kitchen and arrange Chloe to get Taylor's dinner."

Everyone has little voices in their head, mainly telling them when they're hurting or hungry. Ace had them too, but she had another one that said 'Oh! Look at that! Investigate, investigate!' That was exactly what it was saying now. She heard this voice a lot, particularly when she sees signs that say 'Do Not Enter', or 'Restricted Access'. The only exception she'd encountered here so far was the Head Girl room as it belonged to Kelly, she didn't want to annoy Kelly, and, judging by the first time she'd encountered it, a high voltage current ran through it. She was in no hurry to encounter that again.

She had a feeling she knew the reason behind all these little missions. Kelly didn't want her to be somewhere. She wanted her out of the way. Ace needed to know why. Why she wasn't wanted, and what was going on that they didn't want her to know about? Kelly was using the tasks to conceal it, but they weren't working. In fact, they just drew her attention even more.

Instead of rushing off to be a good obedient new girl, Ace started collecting ideas about where it could be. It wasn't anywhere she'd been sent to. That knocked out the possibility of the dorm and the kitchen.

Figuring the best way to know where she wasn't wanted was to follow Kelly, Ace made her way outside and walked around the building. There were a few shrubs, plants and the occasional tree around, and Ace started assessing her choice of access. One of the trees had a few branches close enough to the second storey to be used to access a window. Checking to see if anyone around was watching her, she reached up and heaved herself stiffly up into the tree. Surprisingly, it was not as painful as she thought it would be, and with that bit of encouragement she continued climbing.

She found the branch that had caught her eye and to her dismay, there were no handholds to get to it from beneath. Going around the other side of the trunk and clambering up and around until positioned directly above it, Ace sat and gently lowered herself down. It swayed and groaned slightly as it took her weight. She hesitated for a second wondering if it would snap, but it didn't. Bending down low, Ace walked purposely along, hands outstretched ever so slightly to keep balance. Upon reaching the narrow end just under the window, she judged the distance carefully. The window ledge wasn't a big as she'd thought. Her hands had good grip however, so it would do.

Anyone student who might have been inside the classroom would have been surprised to see Ace suddenly appear out of nowhere and pull herself up onto the roof using the gutter. The occupant of the room had not been expecting to see this, but was not really surprised. Many strange things happen at St Trinian's and this was hardly one of the oddest. With a chuckle that Ace would describe as more of a series of strangled snorts, they turned away from the window, feeling confident about the bets they'd made and began their way downstairs to collect their winnings.