CBB Advent Calendar: December 15th
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#1: CBB Advent Calendar: December 15th Author: CBB Triumvirate,  PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 9:00 am

Matey left the school San and walked away down the corridor thinking deeply. Jane Montgomery was something of a mystery in the school and the staff did not know what to make of her. They knew who she was, of course, and where she came from. Her background was unexceptional. She had seemed just a normal schoolgirl on the journey from England, a little shy, quiet as many new girls were. But she had continued to keep herself to herself even after the arrival at the Chalet School, and that was most unusual. However shy, most people found their feet as the term went on, and fitted into some sort of niche within the school community. Not Jane. She was still as unknown as the day she had joined the train at London for the journey to the coast, brought by her mother and left with the escort mistress with a hearty hug and kiss. There was no indication that the girl was homesick either, and Matey didn’t think that this was the trouble now. She thought back over the events of the evening, her puzzlement growing. She had been in the Staff Room, enjoying a cup of coffee and a chat with her colleagues when Jo Bettany, sister of the school’s founder, had come tearing down the corridor and entered the Staff Room with only the briefest of knocks.
“Please Matron,” she gasped. “Can you come to the Middles Common Room. One of them seems to be having hysterics. I heard the noise and went to see what was happening.”
Matey had risen to her feet and made her way to the room, the noise that had attracted the Head Girl to investigate getting louder and louder. The shrieks were ear piercing, drilling into her skull, but they had an odd ring to them, as if something wasn’t quite right, almost as if they had been put on for effect. When she entered the Common Room she saw Jane lying on the floor, face down, thumping her hands into the floor and screaming. She was red in the face and her eyes were staring fixedly ahead. For an instant even Matey was nonplussed and stood staring at the sight. Then her natural authority, justly feared by most of the girls, asserted itself and she strode forward until she stood over the writhing figure on the floor.
“All right young lady,” she demanded. “What’s the meaning of this ridiculous noise?”
Jane did not answer, just kept on screaming, her feet now drumming on the floor. At this point Nell Wilson arrived, having followed Matey from the Staff Room.
“Will you help me take Jane to the San Please, Miss Wilson. I think she needs some time to come to her senses in peace and quiet.”
“Of course Matron.” The two women lifted Jane as if she weighed nothing and carried her from the room, leaving the girls looking at each other in bemusement. By the time they reached the San they were thankful to place the screaming child onto one of the beds. She had thrashed around for the whole journey, and their arms were not only aching, but felt considerably bruised. Matey left the room for a few minutes and returned with a mug that steamed gently. She had slipped a dose into the milk the mug contained and between them the two women forced Jane to swallow the contents. Before long the dose had taken effect and she had slipped into a deep sleep, allowing silence to fall on the San at last.

It wasn’t until mid-morning on the following day that Matey was able to make any investigation. She had allowed Jane to sleep out, and when she awoke gave her a tray of breakfast and sent her for a bath, before biding her to return as soon as she was dressed. It was the picture of a normal healthy schoolgirl that presented herself to Matey shortly after the break bell had rung.

“Sit down child and see if you can tell me what happened last night,” Matey said crisply. She was sure that it was not the temper tantrum it had looked like. There was something odd going on. Matey was not a person who was easily hoodwinked, and she knew that if Jane had merely been having hysterics the night before she would have snapped out of it well before Matey and Miss Wilson had forced the dose down her.

“Last night?” asked Jane looking perplexed. “I don’t know matron. I was going to ask you. I don’t remember going to sleep in the san, but I woke up there this morning.”
Matey looked concerned at this, “What was the last thing you remember, before this morning?”
Jane thought for as moment, and then her brow cleared, “We were talking about the hobbies club and someone asked if I was going to make anything for the sale, I think it was Margia, and then Loony showed me a pair of mittens she has knitted. They were blue and red, and she had sewed bells onto the cuffs so I think she meant them for a young child. That is all I can remember.”

Matey looked closely at the child, something about the purple eyes struck her as odd, but then she shook her head, she must be mistaken, ‘Purple,’ she thought, ‘no, Jane has blue eyes, nothing wrong there.’ Out loud she said, “I think maybe you are growing too quickly, I would like you to keep to junior bedtimes for the next few days, and I will think about getting Dr Russell to take a look at you next time he is down. Go and join your class for now, break is just ending.”

If Matey had seen what Jane really did next Jane would have had to kill her. The girl left the room, and checking that no one had followed she entered the toilets. Once there she pulled up her dress and took a small silver box from her knicker leg. She flipped open the lid, pressed a button and spoke into the communicator, “Captain, my field report. I hope you are receiving this, as the situation is getting urgent. It appears that I had a metamorphic fit last night. Repeat metamorphic fit. I did not change, but this morning my eyes had a momentary lapse in colour. Drugs are wearing off and we may be exposed sooner than we thought. Please execute evacuation procedure on receipt of this message. Xzjanewigly out.” Then tucking a tentacle back into her gymslip Jane left the bathroom and proceeded to join the fourth form for maths.

While all this was going on at the school, in the ship hanging above the Earth’s atmosphere in geosynchronous orbit, a being was approaching the Captain.
“Sir, may I request some R&R for the children on board? There is a good covering of snow above the school which would be ideal, and you know how much they all love playing in that!”
The Captain opened his mouth in what passed for a smile in his species. “I do indeed,” he said. “Permission granted. Take a shuttle down and make sure it’s cloaked.”
Before long, if there had been anyone to see, the youngsters had morphed into round balls and were leaping from the shuttle to go hurtling down the slope, picking up snow as they went until they were three or four times their usual size. The shrieks and yells echoed around the mountain top as they enjoyed their liberty to the top of their bent.
The ability to morph into any shape they chose had originally been a defence mechanism, an extreme form of camouflage, which they could only hold for short periods of time. Xzjanewigly was involved in long-term morphing, and needed drugs to help her sustain the form. Her normal appearance was similar to an Earth octopus, though her race had furry bodies as they did not live in the oceans of their world. They were currently engaged in researching Earth culture and the ways in which they raised their young, hence Xzjanewigly’s enrolment at the Chalet School. Her urgent message resulted in an early end for the youngster’s R&R much to their disappointment, for they liked nothing so much as romping in the snow, since they had none on their own world.
Xzjanewigly’s ability in maths was phenomenal and she had to be extremely careful to show no more than would be expected in a child of her apparent age. She therefore breezed through the Fourth’s maths lesson, her only problem being translating her usual methods into those used in the school. It was after normal lessons had finished that her difficulties started. Music was very different in her own culture and was one of the areas on which she had concentrated her research. She was studying piano under the irascible Herr Anserl, who was given to raging at students who did not meet his high standards. Xzjanewigly was unfortunately one of these people. Her control over her fingers was usually adequate, but with the drugs starting to wear off they were trying to revert to their natural tentacle state. Today she made every mistake it was possible to make and Herr Anserl was fast losing any semblance of patience. Of course, this gave her added evidence in her task, though she was unable to see through the obvious to the kindly, caring person the old man really was. By the end of the lesson she was as frazzled as he was and her eyes had turned purple again. This time they stayed that way, though naturally she was unaware of this for some time. Not until it was time to wash before Abendessen did she notice the change and she hastened to morph them into the proper colour, hoping that no one had noticed. Matey made her rounds on her way to bed and slipped between the curtains to shine her torch on the strange girl. She had begun to believe that she had made a mistake about the purple yes and wanted to have a quick check. The head on the pillow was quite normal in shape, but to her astonishment the colour was anything but. With the drugs losing their effectiveness, Xzjanewigly had lost her human colouring, reverting to the soft golden brown of her natural fur. Matey gasped and hurried off to get the Head. However, she was too late!
At midnight Xzjanewigly’s wrist alarm woke her and she slipped out of her cubicle, out of the dorm and up the stairs to the attics. She let her human form slip and changed back into her own multi-tentacled appearance. A light flashed briefly outside the window and she opened it and climbed out onto the windowsill. The cloaking device faded and she stepped straight from the window to the main hatch, which closed behind her. Within seconds the aliens were far beyond Earth’s atmosphere and Matey was left to present the Head with the sight of an empty bed.

 

#2:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:09 am

Tricky...

Herr Ansel
a dose
returned with a mug that steamed gently

 

#3:  Author: Amanda M, Location: Wakefield PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:24 am

Margia
Mittens
"I think maybe you are growing too quickly"

Star Wars

 

#4:  Author: Dawn, Location: Leeds, West Yorks PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:36 am

Jo Bettany
hearty hug and kiss
She had slipped a dose into the milk

 

#5:  Author: Helen P, Location: Cheshire PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:36 pm

Miss Wilson
A dose
Matey was not a person who was easily hoodwinked

 

#6:  Author: Guest,  PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:39 pm

Great again!!

Miss Wilson

tentacles

"she needs some time to come to her senses in peace and quiet.”


Ellen (as a guest)

 

#7:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 1:47 pm

Herr Anserl
slipped a dose into the milk
"come to the Middles Common Room"

Liz

 

#8:  Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 4:12 pm

Matey
snow
She had slipped a dose into the milk

*wonders what the aliens will make of Xzjanewigly’s report – not to mention what will happen at the CS when the search parties (and Joey, running off madly into the snow) can't find her *

 

#9:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:09 pm

*giggles wildly!*

Oh dear! Can't even begin to hazard a guess!

 

#10:  Author: Mihiri, Location: surrey england PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:28 pm

lol!

Jo Bettany
dose
i think you are growing too quickly

 

#11:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 5:32 pm

ummm you have a typo - "Loony" knitted the mittens.......

anyway: Matey
mittens
"Today she made every mistake it was possible to make and Herr Anserl was fast losing any semblance of patience"

 

#12:  Author: Kate, Location: Ireland PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 6:40 pm

I have no idea for this one!!

 

#13:  Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination PostPosted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 6:47 pm

francesn wrote:
ummm you have a typo - "Loony" knitted the mittens.......

anyway: Matey
mittens
"Today she made every mistake it was possible to make and Herr Anserl was fast losing any semblance of patience"


Unless Jane thought that anyone who made those sort of mittins had a screw loose!

My (very random) guess:

Margia
A small dose
Allowed to have her sleep out

 

#14:  Author: CBB Triumvirate,  PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:37 am

A lot of varied guesses to this one. The answer is:

Herr Anserl
A pair of mittens
‘She had slipped a dose into the milk’

 

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