Jerome XV
Jerome wondered how this had become his life. He had hidden in the student lounge for most of the morning as it allowed for a clear line of site to the headmaster's door. Making another note on his notepad Jerome jotted down that Sweetie had been away from his office for three minutes and fifty seconds this time. Every time Mr. Sweet left his office the doors were soundly locked. This wasn't really an issue since Liliana could pick locks, but there was never a clear enough window of time for them to get in and ransack the office in search of the gem.
"Hey bro. How's the stakeout going?" Alfie's voice caught Jerome off guard.
"Not good Alfie, not good at all. I've been watching Sweetie all morning. Did you know that he leaves his office, on average, three times an hour?".
"I did not know that".
"He's gone for approximately four minutes, forty-two seconds. And do you further not know that he leaves his office unlocked, on average, NONE of those times".
"Wow, you're really rocking those stats" commented Liliana as she sat down across from them.
"I mean, what does he think is going to happen if he leaves his office unlocked for four minutes?".
"Dudes like us will come in and take stuff" guessed Alfie while Lili nodded in agreement.
"True, that is why we have to think up a wild goose chase to get Sweet out and us in". The trio sat there for a few minutes eating their lunch and thinking of ideas for possible wild goose chases.
"What about setting off the alarm in the science lab?" suggested Lili.
"No that would evacuate the whole school and the teachers would be taking attendance" rebuffed Alfie. "Roe and I pulled that trick in year 9".
"What about sending him over to the house to talk to Victor?"
"No Roe, I think they are fighting at the moment. Since Sweet seems to be over the whole Society thing".
"Wait… Wild goose chase? Wild goose chase… I've got it covered!"
"Really?"
"What is it?"
"Don't worry about it, I will arrange everything. Just sit back and prepare to be amazed. It should be all set up for you to get in there tomorrow at lunch".
"Good amazed or bad amazed?" Jerome couldn't help but ask.
"Eh… amazed-amazed" Alfie returned. Which really did nothing to settle Jerome's fears. The boy took off out of the lounge before Jerome could say anything else. Sitting back in his seat he resigned himself to this course of action. Whatever Alfie came up with tomorrow should be better than breaking and entering in the middle of the night with a grumpy Liliana.
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Jerome's leg would not stay still as he watched the clock slowly tick towards lunchtime on Friday. The ringing of the bell had him grabbing his stuff and rushing to Mr. Sweet's office door. Jerome had no idea what kind of stunt Alfie would be pulling to get the headmaster out of his office.
A squawking sound drew him out of his thoughts. Turning around Jerome eyed to the large cage that Alfie was struggling to carry. 'Wild goose chase' oh hell no! Rushing quickly over to the lockers, Jerome sought to usher Alfie and his new goose out of the school. Hopefully Alfie had remembered to get a receipt. "Alfie! What is this?" he whispered while gesturing to the large cloth covered bird cage.
"Well, it took a bit of organizing, but…"
"Please, please don't tell me what I know you are going to tell me"
"You said you wanted a wild goose chase" giggled Alfie, "So I got you a wild goose! Well a caged one, but it's close enough right?".
Peeling back the fabric on the top of the cage Jerome snuck a look at the creature inside. Yup! that really was a goose. Gods help them. How were they supposed to get rid of this without causing mass panic? It was of course at this point that Lili and Poppy showed up.
"What's in the cage Gerbil?" asked his little sister.
"Alfie here has procured a wild goose".
"No way! Awesome!" laughed Lili giving a grinning Alfie a high five.
"No. Not awesome. 'Wild goose chase' is a figure of speech Alfie".
"Yeah, that's what got me thinking" his friend returned. "Does it have to be? What would happen if this thing started running around the school?"
"Mass panic?" offered Poppy with an evil little grin.
"Total mayhem!" cheered Lili.
"Pandemonium!" snapped Jerome. Was he the only one seeing clearly?
"Exactly. And who would come running?"
And suddenly all the pieces clicked together for Jerome, "Mr. Sweet". Oh this was going to be good!
"And with all the confusion, you know, I doubt he would even have time to lock his door".
"Let's get this show on the road!" proclaimed Poppy as she snagged the cover off the cage, "Let the wild goose chase begin!".
m*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Utter chaos is the only way to describe what happened next. Alfie released the goose in the far end of the hallway after the girls had taken up positions subtly blocking the exits. This should hopefully allow them to keep the crazed goose somewhat contained. Once Jerome was in position, he signaled Alfie to open the cage.
Feathers flew, squawking filled the air mixed with the screams of startled students. The cacophony was music to Jerome's ears. As the noise grew louder the door to the headmaster's office flew open. Mr. Sweet froze in shock as he saw the renegade goose running about the hallway. A loud squawk broke the spell he was under, "That's a goose!". Pulling the door closed behind him he joined the others in chasing the goose, "Be careful Alfie. It'll bite!".
Seeing his opening Jerome ran into the office closing the door behind him. Looking around frantically he tried to find the suit of armor turned coat rack. There it is! Quickly pulling off the coats, Jerome revealed the long-lost armor. Now where would the gem be hiding? Grabbing the arms he shook them listening for any sign that the gem might be within, no luck. Next he checked the helmet and only found Mr. Sweet's scarf collection. Wait… if the gem was put inside the armor it probably sank down to the feet! Holding his breath Jerome grabbed the left leg and shook it. It rattled. Yes! He had finally found the gem! Pulling hard Jerome tried to remove the leg from the rest of the suit.
The good news is that the leg came off. The bad news is that he had severely underestimated his own strength. As the leg came off so did the rest of the suit. Throwing his hands up to cover his head, Jerome prayed that the noise outside had covered the resounding crash. Looking around in despair, Jerome could not find the gem that he had briefly seen before the rest of the suit had been scattered on the floor. To make the moment worse, he could hear Mr. Sweet telling Alfie to open the office door. Scooting backwards, Jerome pressed his weight against the door to stop the duo from entering while the office was destroyed. He was just in time as the doorknob started to rattle.
The door inched open and Alfie stuck his head inside, "Jerome! Mission accomplished?".
Grunting Jerome pushed him back out, "Negative, I need more time". With the door now closed he stood up and surveyed the mess in front of him. If Mr. Sweet came in, he would definitely know that someone had been in the office and that is what they were trying to avoid.
Working quickly, Jerome attempted to reassemble the armor into something similar to what it had been. He was throwing the final coat on top as the office door once again started to open.
Rushing over to the wall by the door, Jerome hoped to hide in plain sight from the frazzled headmaster. Glancing down he laughed in surprise. The gem that he had been searching for was laying right in front of him. It was at that moment though that the door banged open and the goose followed by Mr. Sweet and Alfie came barreling into the room. Jerome quickly hopped behind the headmaster and put on his most innocent look.
The look of confusion on Mr. Sweet's face was well worth it, "Were you behind me the entire time Jerome?"
"I certainly was".
"Oh, well out, out!" accepting his excuse at face value the headmaster began to shoo them out of the room.
What about the gem! As he was ushered out of the room Jerome could see it glinting on the floor next to the goose. "No! No, please I have to stay".
"No, out of my office please". Turning to the goose the headmaster fixed it with a hard look and ordered it to stay. With the door loceed firmly behind him, the man took stock of the shaken hallway. "All right, everyone! Fun and games are over, nothing else to be seen here".
As Lili approached with the bird cage, Alfie grabbed it and started to make his apologies. "I'm so sorry Mr. Sweet. I have no idea how he was able to get out!".
"Mr. Lewis, can I presume by the cage in your arms that this goose belongs to you?"
"Well I don't know. All geese look the same to me" sassed back Alfie. The firm look he received from the teacher quickly had him changing his tune. "Yeah, um, I'm looking after it for a friend".
"So we will just go get him" added Jerome as he tried to push past Mr. Sweet.
"I'm sorry, but nobody is going into or coming out of that room while there is a wild goose quite literally on the loose"
NO! "What! We have to put it…" argued Jerome.
"Please just go to your lessons, all of you! We will let the goose calm down, and then we will put it back in its cage. Now off you go". Jerome and the others wandered dejectedly to their next classes under the watchful eye of Mr. Sweet.
"So? How did you do?" asked Lili attaching herself to his arm.
"Did you get the gem?" questioned Alfie from his other side.
"So close, and yet so very, very far" he complained.
"Well don't worry Roe" Liliana chirped, "As soon as class is over, we can go back in the office and while Alfie, Mr. Sweet and I are corralling the goose you can get the gem. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!".
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
The trio ran straight back to Mr. Sweet's office as soon as their math class let out for the day. They stood impatiently waiting for the headmaster to exit the teachers' lounge and let them into the office. "Miss Wells, Clarke, Lewis are you ready?" greeted Mr. Sweet as he unlocked the door.
"Born ready sir" the boys responded. On the count of three the group rushed into the room. While Lili and Alfie helped Mr. Sweet wrangle the goose, Jerome crouched down in order to search for the missing gem. Crawling all over the room Jerome still couldn't find it! Where could it have possibly gone? It was right in front of the desk when they left. It's not like it could have grown legs and walked off… unless. Jerome looked at the goose shrewdly. Oh no, this next task was not going to be fun.
"Well done Alfie and Liliana" declared Mr. Sweet after successfully trapping the goose. "Well now, let's get this office tidied up".
"And we will leave you to it" returned Jerome as the student trio tried to slip out of the room without being noticed.
"Oh you will now? I think that you three will find that you are on clearing up duty after you have returned our unexpected visitor".
The trio tore out of the office and booked it back to Anubis house. They still had one more class that day and they needed a place to stash the goose. After a very competitive game of rock, paper, scissors it was decided that the goose would hide in the boy's room not Lili's.
They decided to simply throw down some newspapers and leave the goose in the closet until they got back from class. Making sure there was no noticeable sign of the goose they returned once more to the school to clean up the office and attend their final class of the day.
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Alfie and Jerome spent their afternoon and evening watching the goose. Alfie had not been thrilled when he learned that the goose had eaten the gem. Unfortunately he had to leave for a bit to go do Sibuna stuff but had promised to give Jerome a full rundown of the evening's activities when he returned. Wishing him luck, Jerome returned to his own evening projects.
Jasper had put Jerome in charge of running the social media attached to the exhibit. Running the Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the Treasures of Ancient Egypt was a new, fun and interesting challenge. Having checked the stats for his posts and replying to a couple inquires Jerome signed out and turned his focus to his schoolwork. Despite all of Mrs. Andrew's warnings he was seriously behind on his literature paper. Re-reading his copy of Emma, Jerome turned his attention to the world of Jane Austen for the rest of the night.