Chapter Six: The Secret of the Uniform Room
"Ok, so now that we've discovered this tunnel underneath the bandhall and this rope between the ceiling tiles, what do you propose we do about it?" Katie asked, her eyes glued to the rope, her hands on her hips. "Oh, I don't know, I thought we'd just look at it for a while," Gillian replied sarcastically. "Oh, honestly, stop it! Why don't we just do a little investigating? After all, if the entire band knew about what we were doing, then we wouldn't get anything done, would we? So let's just go up there right now," Allison suggested, beginning to talk faster as her plan took shape. "Shouldn't we tell someone where we're going? I mean, we could get eaten or shot or stabbed or kidnapped or who knows what up there!" Gillian pleaded, her words tumbling out of her mouth in a frightened heap. "What do you think is up there, Gillian, a DRAGON?? We're in the bandhall, for crying out loud! If there was anything up there, I should think it would have become so aggravated with our brass's lovely blats and blasts that it would have come down and fried or devoured us all by now," Katie attacked in a sarcastic tone to match Gillian's best. Gillian sighed in defeat. "Fine. If you're sure. But if I get eaten up there, we all know whose fault it is, and you get to pay for my funeral." "If you get eaten, I find it highly unlikely I won't." "AHHH! Would you two just shut up and help me figure out how to get up there!?" Allison shouted in frustration.
"Ok, so let me get this straight. Harry Potter. Boy Wonder. Some little wizard kid who goes to this wizard school and is real famous and has to beat this evil dude with a stupid name all the time. That's what this is all about?" Jeff held up a heavy copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "More or less, yes." Jenny the French horn replied. "That's not so special at all. I think I could probably write something better. More original, that much is for certain, at least," Jeff plunged ahead recklessly. He obviously didn't know when to quit. Stupid French horn. "How dare you just show up in OUR bandhall at OUR school and insult OUR favorite literature!" one of the French horns accused in a disgusted, highly offended tone. "The affrontery!" "It's not MY fault!" Jeff whined. "I didn't even want to BE here! I wanted to be back in my own safe bandhall where not everyone is psycho except for Jimmy. But you never get to choose whether or not you get sucked up by these weird vortexes in bandhalls that apparently take books and things right from under our noses, and I got sucked up right along with all the geometry books this time!" "Tough luck, kid, now shut-up about Harry Potter or you'll wish you WERE a geometry book," one of the older French horns muttered threateningly. "And that's another thing. Those dumb Harry Potter books. I TOLD you you guys were psycho. I think you should hook up with Jimmy Nowell, our assistant director at Cy-Fair," Jeff continued, seeming to think his little joke was rather hilarious. He was favored with another splitting headache as a torrent of Harry Potter books, and not just GOF this time, hit him square in his stupid, empty, "foreign" French horn head.
"Guys, I hate to be a wet blanket, but this isn't working too well," Chris called up to the tubas that had managed to balance on top of the first level. "You really ARE as dumb as they say you are. You're not a blanket at all! You're a PERSON, Chris!" one of the tubas called down to the ground level. Chris sighed heavily, and the slight motion threw the stability of the tuba pyramid (what little there was to begin with), and all the tubas came tumbling to the floor.
"What's going on in there??" Mr. McAdow called from the other side of the Bandhall Hall door. Everyone near the door gasped in surprise and fear. They had completely forgotten that their head director was on the other side of the door. Actually, they had rather begun to enjoy their time in the bandhall in which they did not have to be absolutely quiet or DO anything, really. "Somebody talk to him!" one of the Band Nerds near the door hissed urgently. "How about YOU do it, then?" another Band Nerd fired back. "Are you crazy?? I'M not going to talk to him!!" "Where's Allison, she'll be able to do it!!" "I don't know, I haven't seen her in a while." "Can anyone hear me??" McAdow called, more fiercely and urgently. "AHHHHH, somebody's gotta talk to him!!" "Oh my GOSH, I'LL do it!" Jenny, the flute player, almost shouted crossly. She was immediately shushed by the other Band Nerds by the doorway. She only rolled her eyes in response. "Yes, Mr. McAdow?" Jenny called sweetly through the Bandhall door. "I want everything to be absolutely quiet in there!" McAdow called back grumpily. "Oh, darn, I was beginning to think he'd forgotten. We ALWAYS have to be quiet!" Sandy sighed in frustration, and then obediently shut her mouth.
"Ok, now that we've FINALLY got all the French horn reflectors piled up, we just need to figure out how to get from that stack up to the ceiling," Allison speculated as she stood back and surveyed their set-up. "Watch and learn," Katie replied confidently. She hopped on top of the reflectors and then motioned Gillian over to stand behind her. "Ok, Gillian, we're gonna do a partner stunt up here. I think that'd be safer than a basket toss. Once I'm up there, I'll turn around and pull you guys up, ok?" "No problemo," Gillian nodded. She mounted the stack of reflectors, and turned Katie's back to her and grabbed her hips, and Katie held on to Gillian's wrists. "On three. One. Two. THREE!" On three, Gillian bent her knees and hurled Katie straight up into the air. Katie pushed herself up off of Gillian's wrists, and as Gillian straightened up and extended her arms, Katie's feet fell right into them. The whole thing ended with Katie balancing precociously in Gillian's hands at shoulder-level. "Ok, Gillian, just walk over there and I'll step off onto that shelf of extra shoes," Katie directed from her perch in the air. "I should've known," Allison muttered under her breath. "Cheerleading." "Allrighty," Gillian replied, and began to slowly walk over to the high shelf. Once she had made her way there, she carefully called up to Katie "Are you going to step off now?" "Wait a minute," Katie said, sounding puzzled and intrigued. "What's this?" "What's what??" Gillian cried desperately. "I can't hold you up there all day, you know!" "Just wait one minute, will ya? I've found something!" Katie shouted back indignantly. She wasn't THAT heavy. She stood in Gillian's hands, staring at the large, round red button just behind a pair of shoes she had accidentally dislodged in an attempt to locate a foothold on the shelf. "If you were to just find a big red button in a really obscure place, would you push it?" Katie called back ambiguously. "What are you talking about??" Allison yelled back, wondering what on Earth Katie was up to. "I did, that's how I got here!" Gillian pointed out. Katie was heavier than she apparently thought she was. Either that or playing clarinet had wasted all of Gillian's muscles as well as her brain cells. *Heh heh heh.* "You've got a point," Katie admitted. She hesitated for just one moment longer, and then decided to go for it. "Hey, you know what they say- Just Do It," she muttered under her breath. She stuck out a finger and pushed the big red button. The ceiling tile that had the piece of rope trapped slowly slid back as a gust of wind blasted down to meet the three girls. Gillian completely forgot she was holding Katie, and rubbed her stinging eyes incredulously. Katie toppled off of the stunt, and landed in a surprisingly gushy (although dusty) pile of long unused concert dresses. A shiny silver ladder slid gracefully out of the hole the ceiling tile had revealed, and as it glided to a stop on the uniform room floor, a pleasant, robotic voice accompanied it. "Welcome back, Mr. Bachelor." Gillian and Allison stared at each other in utter disbelief. Katie coughed and spluttered and grumbled, trying to fight her way out of the seemingly animate pile of concert dresses.
SO THE SECRET OF THE UNIFORM ROOM HAS BEEN REVEALED! COULD THIS BE WHERE MR. BACHELOR HAS GONE? AND WILL THE TUBAS FINALLY LEARN THE MEANING OF THE PHRASE "A WET BLANKET" AND REALIZE THAT THEIR UTTERLY IDIOTIC PLAN IS SIMPLY NOT WORKING? AND EXACTLY WHEN WILL THAT DAD-GUM CY-FAIR FRENCH HORN PLAYER JEFF LEARN: WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS? NOT EVERY BANDHALL IS JUST LIKE HIS, FOR GOODNESS' SAKE! AND WILL MCADOW RELENT AND GRACIOUSLY ALLOW HIS BAND TO TALK? TUNE IN TO THE NEXT CHAPTER OF "HELP! (WE'RE TRAPPED IN THE BANDHALL!)" TO FIND OUT!!!
A/N: Look, I wrote another chapter! Yay for me! Ok, ok, I'll admit it, it's Christmas break. I'll try to write more, I really will. Even though I say that every time. So hopefully I'll actually DO it this time. Merry Christmas to everybody, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!!
"Ok, so now that we've discovered this tunnel underneath the bandhall and this rope between the ceiling tiles, what do you propose we do about it?" Katie asked, her eyes glued to the rope, her hands on her hips. "Oh, I don't know, I thought we'd just look at it for a while," Gillian replied sarcastically. "Oh, honestly, stop it! Why don't we just do a little investigating? After all, if the entire band knew about what we were doing, then we wouldn't get anything done, would we? So let's just go up there right now," Allison suggested, beginning to talk faster as her plan took shape. "Shouldn't we tell someone where we're going? I mean, we could get eaten or shot or stabbed or kidnapped or who knows what up there!" Gillian pleaded, her words tumbling out of her mouth in a frightened heap. "What do you think is up there, Gillian, a DRAGON?? We're in the bandhall, for crying out loud! If there was anything up there, I should think it would have become so aggravated with our brass's lovely blats and blasts that it would have come down and fried or devoured us all by now," Katie attacked in a sarcastic tone to match Gillian's best. Gillian sighed in defeat. "Fine. If you're sure. But if I get eaten up there, we all know whose fault it is, and you get to pay for my funeral." "If you get eaten, I find it highly unlikely I won't." "AHHH! Would you two just shut up and help me figure out how to get up there!?" Allison shouted in frustration.
"Ok, so let me get this straight. Harry Potter. Boy Wonder. Some little wizard kid who goes to this wizard school and is real famous and has to beat this evil dude with a stupid name all the time. That's what this is all about?" Jeff held up a heavy copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "More or less, yes." Jenny the French horn replied. "That's not so special at all. I think I could probably write something better. More original, that much is for certain, at least," Jeff plunged ahead recklessly. He obviously didn't know when to quit. Stupid French horn. "How dare you just show up in OUR bandhall at OUR school and insult OUR favorite literature!" one of the French horns accused in a disgusted, highly offended tone. "The affrontery!" "It's not MY fault!" Jeff whined. "I didn't even want to BE here! I wanted to be back in my own safe bandhall where not everyone is psycho except for Jimmy. But you never get to choose whether or not you get sucked up by these weird vortexes in bandhalls that apparently take books and things right from under our noses, and I got sucked up right along with all the geometry books this time!" "Tough luck, kid, now shut-up about Harry Potter or you'll wish you WERE a geometry book," one of the older French horns muttered threateningly. "And that's another thing. Those dumb Harry Potter books. I TOLD you you guys were psycho. I think you should hook up with Jimmy Nowell, our assistant director at Cy-Fair," Jeff continued, seeming to think his little joke was rather hilarious. He was favored with another splitting headache as a torrent of Harry Potter books, and not just GOF this time, hit him square in his stupid, empty, "foreign" French horn head.
"Guys, I hate to be a wet blanket, but this isn't working too well," Chris called up to the tubas that had managed to balance on top of the first level. "You really ARE as dumb as they say you are. You're not a blanket at all! You're a PERSON, Chris!" one of the tubas called down to the ground level. Chris sighed heavily, and the slight motion threw the stability of the tuba pyramid (what little there was to begin with), and all the tubas came tumbling to the floor.
"What's going on in there??" Mr. McAdow called from the other side of the Bandhall Hall door. Everyone near the door gasped in surprise and fear. They had completely forgotten that their head director was on the other side of the door. Actually, they had rather begun to enjoy their time in the bandhall in which they did not have to be absolutely quiet or DO anything, really. "Somebody talk to him!" one of the Band Nerds near the door hissed urgently. "How about YOU do it, then?" another Band Nerd fired back. "Are you crazy?? I'M not going to talk to him!!" "Where's Allison, she'll be able to do it!!" "I don't know, I haven't seen her in a while." "Can anyone hear me??" McAdow called, more fiercely and urgently. "AHHHHH, somebody's gotta talk to him!!" "Oh my GOSH, I'LL do it!" Jenny, the flute player, almost shouted crossly. She was immediately shushed by the other Band Nerds by the doorway. She only rolled her eyes in response. "Yes, Mr. McAdow?" Jenny called sweetly through the Bandhall door. "I want everything to be absolutely quiet in there!" McAdow called back grumpily. "Oh, darn, I was beginning to think he'd forgotten. We ALWAYS have to be quiet!" Sandy sighed in frustration, and then obediently shut her mouth.
"Ok, now that we've FINALLY got all the French horn reflectors piled up, we just need to figure out how to get from that stack up to the ceiling," Allison speculated as she stood back and surveyed their set-up. "Watch and learn," Katie replied confidently. She hopped on top of the reflectors and then motioned Gillian over to stand behind her. "Ok, Gillian, we're gonna do a partner stunt up here. I think that'd be safer than a basket toss. Once I'm up there, I'll turn around and pull you guys up, ok?" "No problemo," Gillian nodded. She mounted the stack of reflectors, and turned Katie's back to her and grabbed her hips, and Katie held on to Gillian's wrists. "On three. One. Two. THREE!" On three, Gillian bent her knees and hurled Katie straight up into the air. Katie pushed herself up off of Gillian's wrists, and as Gillian straightened up and extended her arms, Katie's feet fell right into them. The whole thing ended with Katie balancing precociously in Gillian's hands at shoulder-level. "Ok, Gillian, just walk over there and I'll step off onto that shelf of extra shoes," Katie directed from her perch in the air. "I should've known," Allison muttered under her breath. "Cheerleading." "Allrighty," Gillian replied, and began to slowly walk over to the high shelf. Once she had made her way there, she carefully called up to Katie "Are you going to step off now?" "Wait a minute," Katie said, sounding puzzled and intrigued. "What's this?" "What's what??" Gillian cried desperately. "I can't hold you up there all day, you know!" "Just wait one minute, will ya? I've found something!" Katie shouted back indignantly. She wasn't THAT heavy. She stood in Gillian's hands, staring at the large, round red button just behind a pair of shoes she had accidentally dislodged in an attempt to locate a foothold on the shelf. "If you were to just find a big red button in a really obscure place, would you push it?" Katie called back ambiguously. "What are you talking about??" Allison yelled back, wondering what on Earth Katie was up to. "I did, that's how I got here!" Gillian pointed out. Katie was heavier than she apparently thought she was. Either that or playing clarinet had wasted all of Gillian's muscles as well as her brain cells. *Heh heh heh.* "You've got a point," Katie admitted. She hesitated for just one moment longer, and then decided to go for it. "Hey, you know what they say- Just Do It," she muttered under her breath. She stuck out a finger and pushed the big red button. The ceiling tile that had the piece of rope trapped slowly slid back as a gust of wind blasted down to meet the three girls. Gillian completely forgot she was holding Katie, and rubbed her stinging eyes incredulously. Katie toppled off of the stunt, and landed in a surprisingly gushy (although dusty) pile of long unused concert dresses. A shiny silver ladder slid gracefully out of the hole the ceiling tile had revealed, and as it glided to a stop on the uniform room floor, a pleasant, robotic voice accompanied it. "Welcome back, Mr. Bachelor." Gillian and Allison stared at each other in utter disbelief. Katie coughed and spluttered and grumbled, trying to fight her way out of the seemingly animate pile of concert dresses.
SO THE SECRET OF THE UNIFORM ROOM HAS BEEN REVEALED! COULD THIS BE WHERE MR. BACHELOR HAS GONE? AND WILL THE TUBAS FINALLY LEARN THE MEANING OF THE PHRASE "A WET BLANKET" AND REALIZE THAT THEIR UTTERLY IDIOTIC PLAN IS SIMPLY NOT WORKING? AND EXACTLY WHEN WILL THAT DAD-GUM CY-FAIR FRENCH HORN PLAYER JEFF LEARN: WHEN IN ROME, DO AS THE ROMANS? NOT EVERY BANDHALL IS JUST LIKE HIS, FOR GOODNESS' SAKE! AND WILL MCADOW RELENT AND GRACIOUSLY ALLOW HIS BAND TO TALK? TUNE IN TO THE NEXT CHAPTER OF "HELP! (WE'RE TRAPPED IN THE BANDHALL!)" TO FIND OUT!!!
A/N: Look, I wrote another chapter! Yay for me! Ok, ok, I'll admit it, it's Christmas break. I'll try to write more, I really will. Even though I say that every time. So hopefully I'll actually DO it this time. Merry Christmas to everybody, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday!!