The next day, Ariana made her way down to the breakfast hall after dragging herself out of bed, half asleep from the night's adventures with Theta. Not that she minded as much as she thought she would have, in fact, she felt strangely happy with everything that was happening to her sense meeting that crazy, floppy haired boy.
The entrance hall was a large room with stone floors and walls, tables set up to hold four people at once, all around the room. At the very end of the room was a long table were the teachers and guests would eat while observing the students, making sure they didn't course any trouble. Not likely.
Ariana quickly made her way over to the serving line and grabbed her food before she began searching for a free table until she noticed Theta waving to her from a table, his friends Ushas and Koschei were sitting with him.
"Sleep well?" Ushas smirked as Ariana joined them at the table, noticing the dark circles under her eyes.
Theta shifted sheepishly in his chair, Ariana glanced at him and smiled, "Don't worry, Theta," she shook her head, "I'm fine, tired maybe but I did have fun last night. Even if I did spend most of it panicking about being caught".
Theta smiled back, looking slightly relived before going back to eating his breakfast as Koschei leaned forward in his chair, looking curiously between the two, "Theta's already started bringing you over to our side, then?"
"I thought that was established a few days ago," Ariana titled her head to the side, "You were the one to presume that I would help with your plan to prank Professor Borusa, were you not?"
He nodded slowly, "Yes, but I didn't really expect you to go along with it".
"Yeah right," Ushas rolled her eyes, glaring at Koschei, "You knew that Theta would find a way to talk her into joining us if you couldn't".
Koschei opened his mouth to give her a nasty resort but Theta cut in, "So is everything ready?" both young Time Lords blinked at him, having forgotten were they were for a moment before Ushas nodded.
"I've hidden everything we'll be using in one of the old class rooms".
"What if one of the teachers plans to use that classroom?" Ariana asked, frowning slightly, "Would it not have been better for you to have left all of the equipment in your room, Ushas?"
"No," Ushas gave her a cold look, surprising the other girl, "I made sure to check beforehand".
"Don't mind, Ushas," Theta said quietly, leaning closer to Ariana as he noticed the startled look on her face, eyeing Ushas wearily, "She's always like that. I've never met a person with a temper shorter then hers but you'll get used to her, give her time".
Ariana nodded, looking relieved, "I hope so. I thought I must have offended her in some way…"
Theta laughed, making his fellow students around them glare at him before he cleared his throat, turning back to Ariana, "I wouldn't worry too much about offending her, she's like a stone when it comes to things like that. No, the only time she really gets upset is if she gets topped in a biology test".
"I shall have to keep that in mind the next time I have a biology class with her," Ariana half joked, smiling slightly as she took a sip of her drink.
"Right," Koschei said suddenly, laying his fork and knife beside his empty plate as he finished his last mouthful of food, gesturing to the others to gather closer, "I think it's time".
"Prank time, you mean?" Ariana asked, sounding nervous as she cast a glance toward the teachers table, half expecting one of the professor's to swoop down on them and stop them, "Are you quite sure that we are ready?"
Ushas rolled her eyes, "You're not going to chicken out, are you?"
"Chicken out?" the young Time Lady asked slowly, looking confused.
"It's a phrase that humans use," Theta explained happily, "They say it as a way of calling a person to afraid to go through with something".
"Humans are always finding new ways to surprise me," Ariana smiled, shaking her head.
"How did you know what that meant?" Koschei raised his eyebrows at Ushas who gave him a look.
"I spent two hours last week stuck in a room with him," she gave Theta a dark look, "He refused to shut up the entire time".
"You could have asked," Theta shrugged, smiling smugly, "And you said you would never learn anything interesting about Earth and humans from me".
"And I think you're…"
"Koschei!" Ariana said loudly, wincing slightly at the glares she was sent from other students around them, "Um, I think you were saying that it was time, yes?"
Theta snicked to himself, somehow managing to pass it off as a coughing fit when the others looked at him.
"Yes, of course," Koschei nodded, leaning back causally in his chair, tapping the same four rhythm beat as he always seemed to tap on the table top, "Professor Borusa will be leaving the table shortly so it would be the perfect time to set up while we can".
"He's right," Ushas nodded, glancing at the head table, "Borusa's almost finished, no doubt he'll be stopped by someone on his way toward his office but we'll be needing at least ten to five minutes to prepare first".
"Let's get to it, then," Theta smiled, rubbing his hands together as he jumped out of his chair excitedly, grabbing Ariana's hand and pulling him along with him as they hurried out of the hall, ignoring the odd looks they were receiving as they went.
….
"Sit!" Borusa shouted, pointing at four chairs in front of a large desk, the four students in question glanced at each other, nervously, "Now!" he barked, not needing to be told again, Ushas, Koschei, Theta, and Ariana quickly sat, eyeing the furies Time Lord in front of them.
It would have been amusing if it wasn't so serious, seeing Lord Borusa standing before them, covered in a slimy bright green liquid and bright pink feather's all over his once finely pressed clothing, now dripping all over his office floor.
"Now," Borusa said, taking a deep breath as he crossed his arms and glared down at the four students, "I have seen many things from you three," he pointed at Ushas, Koschei, and Theta before turning to Ariana, making her shrink back into her chair, "But I never thought I would see the day that Lady Arianashedited would allow herself to be pulled into…" he waved his hand in front of him, "I cannot even find the words to describe what this is".
"Ariana had nothing to do with this," Theta said quickly, casting a worried look toward her as he noticed that she had started shaking, "We made her do it. She didn't even know what was happening!"
"Enough!" Borusa held up his hand, silencing Theta, he took another deep breath to calm himself, "Now, I shall be writing to your parents and you will all be receiving punishment…"
"Please, Lord Borusa," Ariana suddenly spoke up, shaking all over and white as a ghost. She was horrified to think of what her parents would say should they find out, "Please, just…just let us explain what happened".
Borusa raised his eyebrows, looking at her coldly, "Lady Arianashedited, I have spent much of my life as a professor, do you truly think that I would not have heard every excuse that there is?"
"And I do not doubt it, Lord Borusa," Ariana nodded, gaining confidants as she formed a plane inside her head, she almost smiled as she noticed that Ushas, Theta, and Koschei were staring at her but managed to stop herself, "But if you will allow me to explain our side, perhaps you will find that we are in fact telling the truth".
Borusa eyed her for a moment, not looking convinced, "Perhaps," he continued to stare at her, waiting for her to look away but she refused, after a couple of minutes of neither one backing down, Borusa slowly nodded, "Very well, you may try to change my mind".
Theta, Ushas, and Koschei's mouths almost fell open as they stared at what was happening before them, never had Lord Borusa ever done something like this before. Usually he would have dismissed them and given them a couple of week's punishment, as well as informing their families, certainly not this.
"Thank you, Lord Boursa," Ariana smiled sincerely, mentally letting out a relived sigh, "First off, Lord Theta approached me a few days ago, wishing to ask me for some assistants in a project that he and his friends had been struggling with for the past few weeks," Theta nodded quickly, trying to look as if everything that was being said was true, "I of course agreed straight away to help, I have always tried to do what I can to help my fellow students".
Borusa continued to watch her, searching for any lie in what she was saying but finding none.
"After the first meeting," she continued, slowly growing more and more confidant, "We all meet and came up with a plane for the experiment…"
"Experiment?" Borusa questioned, glancing behind him toward the papers that lay on top of his neat disk, "I was not informed of any experiment that was to take place today?"
Ariana made herself look as guilty as possibly, thinking of the time when she was younger and had pickpocket her sisters pockets while she was visiting, which luckily seemed to work as Borusa didn't call her out on it.
"Um, yes, well," she said guilty, looking down, "We apologies for that, you see, we forgot that all experiments must be registered with you a couple of days before but we were so busy planning that it slipped our minds," she looked back up, still making sure to appear guilty, "And I wish to apologise once again, Lord Borusa, perhaps this mistake would not have occurred had we not informed you beforehand".
"If it was a mistake," Borusa said, stilling eyeing the young girl in front of him, frowning, "Can you explain to me what the purpose of this experiment was?"
"It was to measure the rate at which objects and liquids fall," Ariana replied at once, already being prepared for his question, "We understand that we could have simply used our minds to calculate it, in fact, it would have been very simply but sometimes first-hand experience is far better than simply calculating something, is it not, Lord Borusa?"
"In some cases, yes," he agreed, cringing inwardly as he rubbed his chin and felt the still cacked on feathers and brightly coloured liquid, "But I still do not see why you would be conducting an experiment such as this outside my office?"
"All of the laboratories were full," Theta answered, seeing that Ariana was beginning to struggle with coming up with believable excuses, "We didn't have anywhere else to do it".
"Really?" Borusa raised his eyebrows, "I'm sure that you, Theta, could have found quite a few places, some of which would mean that you would be undisturbed".
Ariana forced herself to look surprised, "We…we didn't even think of that, Lord Borusa," she looked at Ushas, Koschei, and Theta, thankfully finding them too looking equally surprised, "I can't believe that we didn't see that, we could have saved all this trouble".
"Forgive us, Lord Borusa," Ushas nodded, amazingly, she managed to make herself sound sincere, "We didn't think".
"That is obvious," Borusa replied stiffly, turning away from the small group as he walked behind his desk and sat down, inwardly wincing as the sticky liquid dripped into the fabric. He continued to watch them, thinking very carefully over everything before slowly nodding, "Very well, you all may go…"
"Thank you, Lord Borusa," Theta smiled, jumping out of his chair, almost running toward the door with the others behind him.
"Stop!" Borusa called to them, making them pause and look back at him, "I have not finished," they slowly nodded and turned back around, "I will not inform your parents but you shall all spend the afternoon cleaning until the entire corridor outside is spotless…" Theta opened his mouth to argue but Ariana stood on his foot, sending him a look to be quit, "That will be all the punishment you shall receive, as I see now that what you were doing was to improve you leaning. You may go".
"Thank you, Lord Borusa," they chorused as they hurried out of the room and down the hall, making sure no one could hear or see them as they ran into an empty classroom.
"Mind telling us were that came from?" Koschei asked, staring at Ariana as if he was only just seeing her for the first time.
"I…I really have no idea," she replied shakily, quickly sitting down on the closet desk as she felt her knees begin to grow weak. Never in her life had she done something like that, never had she even dreamed that she could, "I just opened my mouth and that came out".
"Luckily it did," Theta nodded, jumping beside her on the table, swinging his legs back and forth as they only just touched the ground, "If you hadn't said anything, we'd all be in very hot water".
"I'm guessing that 'hot water' is a human phrase?" Ariana titled her head to the side, looking at him, feeling less shaky now.
"Yep," he nodded, "I have a human dictionary that you can have a look at if you want?"
"Love to".
Ushas stepped forward and slowly raised her hand out to Ariana who slowly lifted her own and shook it, looking extremely surprised, "Perhaps there is some hope in you yet," Ushas said thoughtfully before shrugging, stepping back, "We'll see".
"Um, thanks?" Ariana blinked, looking slightly confused but shrugged it off.
"I suppose we had better start cleaning," Koschei sighed, looking disgusted at the idea.
"Fantastic," Theta sighed, losing his happy smile as he climbed off the desk and followed the others out the door, setting to work on cleaning the hallway from top to bottom.
I'm so sorry for the wait but I had a massive writer's bloc and couldn't think of how to word it, and then I suddenly had the idea of Ariana making up this story and tricking Borusa, which is saying something because she's still only a kid while he's an adult. Anyway, I hope you liked it, please review :)
