Josh's Point Of View

There's only two weeks left of term now. That means, two weeks and we're free from school for another seven weeks! Of course, I don't have a complete break from school... Dad's a teacher, and I'll never be away from him, I'm not going back to Mum's... and then Dad'll be doing school stuff at the end of the holidays... and Miss Boston keeps appearing round at our house too. Well, I say appearing, as if she's apparating to our house. No, Dad invites her over, for a takeaway or something. Once he cooked a meal. On a Thursday night. He. Actually. Cooked. A. Meal. Yeah, something's definitely going on there...

Right now, I'm waiting in the courtyard, for the buses that are going to take the whole school to a museum, or those who want to go, anyway. In these last two weeks of term, there are a few trips to different places, the museum and the country park and Alton Towers. Alton Towers was definately being looked forward to the most. We don't have much, if any, work to do now, even in lessons we just watch films or chat. Or we go outside and sunbathe if it's nice. It's great... no work, spending the day with your friends...

"Hey, mate."
Speaking of friends, that's Finn. We have a little group, Lauren and Finn and Trudi and me. Tariq isn't best pleased that Finn and Trudi are going out, but they're a really good couple... Tariq'll get used to it. In the next millenium or so. Maybe.
"Hi, Finn."
"You sitting next to me on the bus?"
"Yeah, but aren't you sitting next to Trudi?"
"Nah, she's sitting next to Lauren. Can't spend all the time with your girlfriend, can you?"
"Nope."

Dad and the other teachers start yelling, telling us to get out of the way so the buses can come in. Most of us follow their instuctions, but some prats stay in the middle of the road. Well, let them get run over. We then get on the bus, and there is faffing to do the registers and to make sure that everyone is there. There's always faffing on school trips, 'cos we can't lose anyone. And even after the faffing, we usually lose someone anyway. It's a laugh.

Soon the bus is on it's way, and Finn and I have turned around to chat with Lauren and Trudi. The teachers on the bus are Chalky, Grantly and some randomers. They aren't really paying attention to us, they're chatting and trying to pretend we're not there. They haven't noticed some people swapping seats and chucking stuff at each other, so they won't notice us turning around.
"So, Finn, how's life?" Lauren asks.
"Good, thanks." Finn says.
"Trudi, how's life?"
"It's great, thank you."
"And Josh, how's life?"
"Life's very busy, playing on the Playstation, putting up with Dad and Miss Boston for the third night in a row..."
"What? Miss Boston?" Lauren giggles.
"Yeah! She's always round our house."
"Ooooh! Your Dad and Boston!"
"Don't go spreading it, Lauren. They're not doing anything yet..."
"Bet they are. When you aren't watching!"
"Yuck, don't put that picture in my head!"
"Clarkson and Boston, sitting in a tree..." Lauren sings. I ignore her. Sometimes, that's the best way to do it. Ignore her and she'll shut up, soon enough.

Finally, we arrive at the museum, and we are told, two or three times, that we have to stay in our groups and not wander off. There are 15 groups, each with their own teacher, paired with a tour guide to go around the museum. I'm in group 12, Mrs Diamond's group, with Lauren. Finn and Trudi are in Dad's group, I think. Mr Byrne tells us to behave ourselves, and then we are off. Waterloo Road has entered the museum.

Tom's Point Of View

It's been an hour and a half, and the kids are getting a bit bored wandering around the museum. We have half an hour until lunch, and they are convinced that if they run through the museum at lightning speed, they'll get lunch earlier. However, that's not the case. We can only move slowly, one part at a time, while the tour guide speaks. The kids are basically asleep on their feet, which I think is a bit unfair on the tour guide. What she's saying isn't boring, it's just... hyper kids and two-hour-long tours don't really mix. As we move onto the next section, I hear some of the kids remarking that they want something, anything to happen to make it a bit more exciting.

Suddenly, the fire alarm starts blaring, and the tour guide looks surprised and slightly nervous. "This isn't a practise alarm." She says. "We have to exit slowly and carefully."
The kids cheer up, babbling excitedly as they walk to the nearest staircase. They got their excitement, all right. As we reach the staircase, the lights flicker once... and go out, leaving us in pitch black on the fire escape stairs. A lot of the girls start screaming.
"Calm down!" I raise my voice. "Stop screaming, be sensible. The emergancy lighting will kick in, in a minute or so."

Sure enough, it does. There is dim light, and we can make our way downstairs, and into the foyer, the fire meeting point. The teachers assemble, and we count the kids. Everyone's there, apart from Nicki's group, and Michael's getting in a state, wondering where they are. Suddenly, they pour into the foyer. We count the kids, and they're all there... but not Nicki. The others haven't seemed to notice, they're trying to organise the kids back into their groups so we can get them out of the way, onto the buses. I go over to Nicki's group, and ask them when they last saw her. They say that she had gone off to the loo just before the fire alarm went off, and she hadn't reappeared. I start to panic- she could be hurt, or stuck in the fire! I look around at the chaos in the foyer, and then I disentangle myself away from the group, dodge away... and sprint down the corridor, determined to find Nicki...
Before it's too late.