"Is this it?" moaned Ellie, looking around. After the excitement of going through the doors she thought she might at least be going somewhere lively! All it looked like was an ordinary, boring school shop. It was full of old, shuffly assistants trying to help people through the rows of clothes which lined the white washed walls. But then Ellie noticed they did not seem to be uniform. "Mum, are those free time clothes?" she asked. "No" said her mum. "They,re your uniforms." Ellie nearly fell over in surprise. "They are Comrie House Uniforms?" she gasped, amazed. "Yes they're nice aren't they?" said her mum. "Rather," answered Ellie, looking at them. There were combat trousers and hoodies and jeans and skater tops, practically every style any one would want. She began to rifle through the hoodies and skater jeans thinking that this might not be such a bad shopping trip after all. "Ellie come over here," shouted her mum from the other side of the shop. Ellie went and found her mum in front of what looked like an ordinary cash machine. But she had begun to realise that nothing was ordinary here. Her mum took out a silver card and swiped the machine with it. It began to whirr and began emitting those sci-fi beeping noises that you hear in James Bond films. The man came back on the screen and said "Agent Melody Parker. Please press the corresponding button to what you require." At this point option buttons appeared on the screen. Requirement list. Query station. Credits. Replacements.

Her mum clicked requirement list. "Thankyou" said the man. "Your request is being delt with. There was a beep and a piece of paper came out of the end of the machine. Ellie looked at it. "Mum, where are all the books we need." "Er... they're at school." Her mum took her to a lady and began to kit her out.

An hour later mum had paid for her things and they were off home. Ellie had thought some of the items were strange. Very strange. "Mum, why did I have to get a scarf with pockets in the end and ear plugs?" "You'll see poppet, you'll see", her mum said, mysteriously as they drove down the road.