At 5 O'clock I looked out the window again and to my relief Dennis was gone. All I could see was the dull grey view of Beano town. To be honest it wasn't much like the colourful version in the comic.
If you were looking for Beano town in the tourist books you'd see a town with brightly coloured house, clean streets and children having fun playing pranks on other people. In the book it looks interesting, exciting and just like the one in comic. Really it's not like that.
If you go to the far side of town there is a part of town especially made for tourists. It's fake, plasticy and a replica of the one in the comic. There are statues of Dennis and Minnie; people in costumes and sometimes the real Beano stars are there. Sometimes we get the day off school to go there.
When you're there you're allowed to throw rotten tomatoes, use peashooters and play all the other pranks that are shown in the comic. You can even go on a tour of the Beano office and see how the comics made.
There are loads of tourist shops with red and black stripy jumpers, dodge books and catapults. You can visit Dennis's tree house and even go to the softie's chalet. There's a school there, which is supposed to be Bash Street and if you want you can try food cooked by Olive. That is one thing they got right in the Beano. Her food is disgusting but it made her famous.
Most tourists stay in that part of town where they can spend their holiday messing around and going to fun fairs. Unfortunately some stray into the actual town itself hoping to meet with the Beano stars again.
The real life Bash Street School is slightly different. It was a sort of experiment to see whether children learnt better in a small class with the same people for the entire of their education. It may have worked if the pupils paid attention or if the teacher was any good at teaching.
Originally, there was meant to be 15 pupils in the class but not that many people wanted to join. When we first started school there were more people and I wasn't the only girl. There was a girl called Ella and two boys called Jimmy and Teddy. They left when we were about 7.
Mum didn't particularly want to send us there, but when we didn't get into any of the other schools she had no choice. I believe it was the same for Cuthbert who moved here a few years ago. His parents couldn't afford to send him to a private school but the state schools were all full. Like us he had no choice but to go to the dreaded Bash Street School.
The other people in the class are quite similar to the ones in the comic – Danny is the leader, Spotty is spotty, Plug is ugly (but he doesn't look quite the same as the one in the Beano), Wilfred wears a polo neck jumper all the time, Erbert has bad eye sight, Smiffy is sometimes very stupid (but not quite as dumb as in the comic), Fatty is obsessed with food and Sid loves animals – but he doesn't act quite as stupid as the one in the comic sometimes does. I am a bit like the me in the comic but I'm more mature and kinder. I'm also not so stupid.
At 7.15, I'd put Ellie to bed and was waiting for Sid to come in. If he didn't hurry, he'd be in trouble with Mum again. Mum is very stressed at the moment, which can sometimes cause her to get really angry with us. She always apologises afterwards though, but it's best to just keep out of trouble.
At 7.25, I was about to ring Sid to see where he was but suddenly the doorbell rang. I went to get it, hoping it wasn't Mum. It wasn't.
There stood Sid, covered in dirt with a big black eye. I sighed. Mum isn't supposed to know about the fights, misbehaving at school or getting detention. That's our secret.
Even though, she may be tired, Mum still has perfect eyesight. Keeping this a secret is going to be easy