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CBB Advent Calendar 12th December 2004

#1: CBB Advent Calendar 12th December 2004 Author: CBB Triumvirate,

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 9:53 am

Bride Bettany tapped her pencil on the desk. It was raining outside and she had managed to snaffle just enough cocoa from home to be able to invite the other prefects for tea in her study. The school kitchen had supplied some bread for them to toast and some biscuits and Tom said that she had some ‘scrapings’ of jam left in her tuck box. Bride grinned at Tom’s definition of ‘scrapings’ as the leggy prefect obviously expected it to be enough for all the prefects. The Head Girl was trying to finish her maths prep before the others descended on her, but was having a hard time of it. It wasn’t that it was difficult, or that she had something on her mind. It was more that the comfortable chair by the fire and the waiting toast and cocoa was so enticing. Bride had been called a born scholar, but there was something about this miserable wintry afternoon that was just not conducive to study and eventually she gave it up as a bad job.

So it was that when the other prefects entered one by one they found their Head Girl reprehensibly ignoring her rightful work and piling up warm toast on a plate by the fire while the kettle simmered. They perched around the room, on the table, the armchair and on the cushions that Bride had brought from home. They chatted about the Sale at the end of term, the new girls, the work they had been doing and Bride handed round the plates when they suddenly realised that one of their number was missing.
“Where’s Tom?” asked Nancy Chester. The other prefects looked round and shook their heads.
“No idea,” said Bride, “Why didn’t she come with the rest of you?”
“She wasn’t in the prefects room before we came down,” said Julie, “I don’t think she had come back from prep.”
Bride smiled. “That would explain it,” she said, “Wasn’t she with the middles this afternoon?”
“She ought to be here by now though, it must have been a bad outbreak if she is still with them at this time,” said Nancy.
“No doubt we will hear all about it soon enough” said Bride, putting some toast aside for her friend.

It was another five minutes before Tom Gay herself burst through the door. The Head Girl looked on in astonishment as her friend dropped a large cardboard box onto the floor and gesturing at it said dramatically, “Some things are the outside of enough, and that is the outside of enough!”

The rest of the Prefects looked at Tom in amazement, but it was Bride who voiced what they were all thinking.
“What on earth do you mean Tom? And what’s in that cardboard box?”
“You may well ask! No, don’t interrupt or I shall never finish. Is that toast I can see? Let me have slice and then I’ll tell you all what the Middles have been up to tonight.” Tom took a huge bite out of the toast that Bride passed her, and beamed round at her friends looks of frustration at her effective method of holding their attention.
“Come on Tom,” cried Nancy. “Hurry up and finish that mouthful. You’ve left us dangling off the edge of a cliff quite long enough, let me tell you, and folk who do that in this establishment come to a sticky end!”
The rest of the Prefects giggled a little at that, for more than one of them had been guilty of the same crime, and though all enjoyed inflicting such things on their friends, not one of them enjoyed suffering at the hands of others. However, this time Tom manfully swallowed her mouthful half-chewed and began her story.
“It was Emerence Hope of course,” she said. “At least Emerence was behind it all as she was quick enough to confess when it was all over. She brought the contents of that box back to school with her, and where she got it from I have no idea, nor where she found the time either come to that.”
“What IS in the box?” asked Elphie when Tom paused for another mouthful of toast. “You haven’t told us that yet.”
“All in good time. Let me finish my toast before I expire of hunger before your eyes. Now where was I?” Tom’s eyes were gleaming with mischief.
“Exactly nowhere Tom, and you know it,” said Bride. “Do get on. The changing bell will be going at any moment and you still haven’t told us a thing.”
“Patience my child, is the sign of a gentleman,” said Tom. “All right, I’ll tell you. Don’t slaughter me. They were pretty quiet at the start of Prep, which should have warned me, but I had enough of my own to do to be grateful for small mercies. However, everyone seemed to be settled into their work, so I got on with mine. Then I heard a strange noise at the back of the room, though I couldn’t see anything when I looked up. One or two of the girls seemed to be shaking slightly - suppressing giggles of course - but since I could see nothing to account for it I just told them to get on with their work. But I was suspicious now, and kept a wary eye open. Before long I heard the sound again, and knew what it was as well. The boys in the village have them you know, though not such beauties as this.” Her eyes were twinkling in such a way that her listeners stifled their natural eagerness to find out what was in the box, determined not to give her the satisfaction of jumping off her cliff by asking. Tom just grinned in her usual manner, and continued blithely. “Well this time I saw it,” she said. “As you can imagine I was out of my seat in a flash, and grabbed it before any of the little dears could move. It was still whirring as I held it up so that they all could see it. ‘Whose is this, pray?’ I asked. Emerence stood up straight away. I’ll say this for her, she’s as honest as anything when it comes to owning up for a thing. She thought it would be fun to bring it back to school to play with at break time, and then the fun palled a bit, so she thought it would be fun to brighten up Prep. However, she sits at the front of course. No one in their right minds would let her sit at the back, or anywhere near it, so she got one of her little friends to set it off for her. Don’t you want to know what it was? You don’t seem very eager to find out.” Tom fended off their threatened attack at her teasing words with a laugh and bent to open the box. The rest of the Prefects gasped as she lifted out a beautiful model racing car, complete with driver.
“It’s clockwork of course,” said Tom. “One of the best I’ve seen. Miss Emerence will just have to do without it until the end of term, and so I’ve told her, much to her disgust.”

When the end of term came Emerence approached Tom hopefully. She had been rather indignant about the confiscation of her toy, after all she hadn’t been the one who had let it loose in prep, even if she had given it to Betty to wind up for her, silly moke getting caught. She had left it to the very last minute, wanting to avoid the possibility of Tom giving her a lecture, and in the end wound her way to the prefects room with a hockey stick in one hand, suitcase in the other, a rug under her arm (why do they always seem to have rolled up rugs with them), her coat hanging off one shoulder, and her train ticket clutched between her teeth. She knocked at the door with her elbow, and when bid enter she tried unsuccessfully to comply.

The prefects who were engaged in checking they had left nothing behind were aware of a scraping sound as someone pushed at the door, they saw the handle half turn, and then fly back again. The door remained firmly closed. They could hear a muffled exclamation and a banging. Nancy sprang to open it and was knocked off her feet as a veritable bundle of middle fell on top of her.
“What on earth,” began Bride in her most Head Girl like tones, when she saw whom it was.
“Emerence Hope, I might have known. Get up and explain yourself this instant.”
“I came for my car,” said Emerence, rubbing her thigh warily.
“Your car?” Bride looked confused for a moment, before her brow cleared and she recalled the toy that had been sat in the prefect’s cupboard for most of the term.
Emerence steeled herself, this was probably going to be bad, not only were all the prefects there, but she had entered the room in such a conspicuous way. Tom glancing over guessed this and grinned,
“Give the kid her car Bride,” she said, “and let her get on, she’s done enough damage to Nancy, we don’t want her hanging around any longer or we might not make it home in one piece.”

Julie Lucy meanwhile had been rooting around in the cupboard and had found the box containing the car behind assorted paraphernalia that the prefects had decided to leave to next term trusting to luck that Matey would not take it into her head to inspect during the holidays. Emerence’s eyes were on stalks as she saw the door close on all this mess, but as she had obtained her car with very little fuss she decided that discretion was the better part of valour and to say nothing. Taking the box with a muttered thanks she grabbed her belongings as best as she could and ran.

It was only after she had left, after the coach had left, after all the girls had left, that one of the maids found her train ticket as she was sweeping the floors. She picked it up, then presuming that it must be an old one, not looking at the date properly she threw it away, but Emerence’s adventures on her way home, are as Kipling would say ‘another story’.

#2: Author: Kate, Location: Ireland

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 12:12 pm

Emerence Hope
the prefects room
“Some things are the outside of enough, and that is the outside of enough!”

love the part about the cliffs!!! Smile

#3: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 3:07 pm

Tom Gay
car
“Patience my child, is the sign of a gentleman.”

I’ve always interpreted the “rugs” as the sort of blanket you tuck around yourself in a chilly train (or sleigh or “motor car,” where such “rugs” are more often described in fiction), and hence wanted on the journey. A wise precaution even today, if you mean to ride Amtrak in winter.

#4: Author: ellend, Location: Bow, London

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 3:16 pm

Good story

Tom Gay

Tuck box

"You’ve left us dangling off the edge of a cliff quite long enough, let me tell you, and folk who do that in this establishment come to a sticky end!”

Ellen

#5: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 4:21 pm

Was there a dig at some CBBers in there by any chance? Laughing

Nancy Chester
assorted paraphernalia
"grateful for small mercies"

Liz

#6: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 7:29 pm

Nancy Chester

Hockey Stick

"as Kipling would say ‘another story’."

#7: Author: Ann, Location: Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 8:55 pm

Lovely story - any chance of Emerence's adventures appearing at some point?

Bride Bettany
Hockey stick
"the outside of enough"

#8: Author: Helen P, Location: Cheshire

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 9:15 pm

Thankyou, Triumvirate!

Tom Gay
Toast
The outside of enough

Edited to correct spelling of triumvirate!

#9: Author: Mihiri, Location: surrey england

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 9:37 pm

Thank you

Bride Bettany
car
the outside of enough

#10: Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 1:08 am

Aargh - I can't decide

Emerence Hope
Scrapings of jam
Outside of enough

#11: Author: Ellie, Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 1:38 am

Bride Bettany

Racing car

Outside of enough

#12: Author: CBB Triumvirate,

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:33 am

The answer to this drabble is:

Emerance Hope
A train ticket
Some things are the outside of enough and that was the outside of enough (although changed was to is!)

#13: Author: Susan, Location: Carlisle

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 12:59 am

Another one I missed but great story. Loved the topical inserts.

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