Warning: Possible character death
Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman went along to the meeting with the New Theatre staff and found the prize was a more than generous one. Free minibus travel from Holby to St Pancras; an overnight stay in a Travelodge for everybody the night before. Eurostar travel from St Pancras direct to Marne-La-Vallee, the station for Disneyland resort. Places for two more teachers as well as Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman on the trip. Four nights in the Disneyland Hotel, which was five minutes walk away from the parks, but that meant actually five days there, because of the ingenious offer from official Disney hotels. Luggage would be checked in at St Pancras, and as long as it was correctly labelled, sent straight down to the hotel so that travellers could begin their visit to the resort after disembarking from the train. On the day of departure the luggage would be sent to the station to be stored until it was time for everybody to travel home in the evening, which meant a full day in the actual resort. Five day passes for everybody, for both the Studio and Disneyland Park. This included fasttrack tickets, a clever way of beating the queuing system for popular rides. And a very generous amount of spending money to be divided between the kids.
This news led to a special Fierce, Brave Gang meeting.
"Zax believes that it's wrong that only us kids get the spending money when the teachers helped us all win but Mrs Beauchamp says she'll not take a penny of it as it's all for us. Who wants to go on a mission to find the best presents for the teachers ever while we're there?"
"But they'll guess that we're buying for them and they'll not let us go in the shops on our own." Cal was practical as usual.
"Get just one of the teachers in on the plot? Beg them not to snitch?" Lofty had high hopes that Mr Keogh would help. He was over the moon that Mr Keogh was to be one of the people going.
"Good point, Ben. You shall have a gold star to wear on your bag."
Zax had taken to giving out gold star stickers now.
"Do you think Big Mac'll take care of Janie Rabbit?" Ethan asked anxiously.
"Oh who didn't love Janie Rabbit at all when she first came? Who was going to turn his back on her?" teased Cal.
"Well I love her now."
"Ethan, I'm not sure about you going on those scary rides; you're only little", said Cal with all the wisdom of a seven-year-old.
"The teachers'll go on them too. Maybe Ms Chao can hold me so I can go on", Ethan persisted. Cal let him be; he knew all about Baby Brother's crush on Miss Chao. And Miss Honey. And Mrs Dixon… but he had to tease Ethan just to show him who was boss:
"We'll get Mrs Beauchamp to mark out all the places you can go to wee, on a big map."
"I don't wee all the time!"
Mrs Beauchamp had arranged a meeting with the kids' parents to outline what was needed for the trip. Max, Zoe, Jeff and Noel already had passports. The others prayed that their parents wouldn't say passports were too expensive, but there were no protests from any of the parents. Compared to what they'd have had to spend taking the kids on holiday, a new passport was nothing. The kids prayed the passports would turn up before the holiday start time.
School continued as normal; the kids settled down relatively easily into lessons again, excited as they were for the last week in June. Mrs Beauchamp had received permission to take the Mixed Infants away from school for a week, as long as the trip would be educational as well as fun for them. And they were all learning French.
"Bonjour, je m'apelle Max. J'aime Zoe." (Hello, my name's Max. I like Zoe.)
"Bonjour, je m'apelle Ben. J'aime mon chaton Eric Chiltern." (Hello, my name's Ben. I love my kitten, Eric Chiltern.)
"Bonjour", said wicked Cal at playtime, "Je m'apelle Ethan. J'aime pisser tout le temps." (Speaks for itself!)
"I DON'T wee all the time!"
Dervla Day came round and Mr Keogh thought the kids might enjoy going to the shopping arcade, not expecting any friction now the school had won. Taylor stood in a shop doorway, but she just stared at them as if they were invisible. Until they'd reached the end of the street. Taylor's plan was to throw a stone at Mr Keogh's bum, so he'd get really angry and hit her, and then be banned from Disney. Sadly, Dervla had been allowed off her lead because she was so well trained. The stone hit the dog in her side and she yelped in pain, and ran into the road. There was a squeal of brakes and a sickening thud….