Fiona Cummings - Party Time

“You’ll see,” she grinned. “Just distract the M&Ms for a couple of minutes when we get inside.”

“What?” Fliss looked horrified. “But we’re trying to stay out of their way!”

“We can’t avoid them for ever,” Kenny told her calmly. “Better to get all their sarky comments over with at once.”

Now it wasn’t like her to be so rational, so I knew she had something majorly wicked up her sleeve.

Just then the whistle sounded, so we had no choice but to go into school.

“Remember – distract them!” hissed Kenny as we headed towards the classroom.

As it was December, we were all muffled up in coats and scarves, so we knew that we’d be in the cloakroom with the M&Ms for a few minutes. When we got there, Kenny gave me this big wink, and headed behind the coat rack. The M&Ms were already tugging off their boots. As soon as they saw us they started laughing in a really OTT way.

“Have you got your doll under there then, Frankie?” asked Emma loudly so that everyone could hear.

“We were wondering if you’d like to start a little dolly crèche in the corner of the classroom,” Emily Berryman rasped in her gruff voice.

“Or better still, go back to the nursery class!” guffawed Emma. “Four-year-olds are about on your level, aren’t they?”

We just took off our coats and ignored them. I could see Kenny ferreting about in the M&Ms’ bags and there was a bit of a weird smell, but I couldn’t tell what she was doing. All I did know was that when the M&Ms looked ready to go into the classroom, I had to stall them.

“I was conducting an experiment, that’s all!” I blurted out. The others looked horrified.

“You make me laugh Thomas, you really do!” sniffed Emma.

“What kind of experiment?” asked Emily curiously.

I didn’t really want to tell them about Mum being pregnant and everything. It felt like if they knew, they’d make fun of that too and it would spoil everything.

As I was trying to think of an answer, Kenny appeared and said, “She’s not going to tell you is she? It’s classified information.”

“Get real!” snapped Emma, and gathering up their bags, they walked into the classroom.

“What were you doing?” I asked Kenny when they’d gone.

“You’ll find out soon enough!” she smiled, and tapped her nose.

At least Mrs Weaver had something exciting to take our mind off the dreadful duo. At the end of the Christmas term, each class performs in a concert. This year Mrs Weaver told us that we would be writing our own play.

“Well it’s not a play exactly,” she explained. “It’s going to be a series of sketches about the twentieth century.”

We all looked pretty blank.

“Say someone born in 1900 was still alive,” Mrs Weaver continued. “What changes would they have seen?”

“There’s more football on the telly now!” Ryan Scott shouted out.

Mrs Weaver flashed him one of her ‘you-think-you’ve-got-the-better-of-me-but-you-haven’t-really’ smiles.

“I think what you mean, Ryan, is that yes, we do have television now. But there wasn’t a broadcasting service at all until 1936.”

“Imagine life without Match of the Day!” moaned Danny McCloud. “Bummer!”

“That’s exactly what I want you to do, Danny! Imagine what life would be like,” Mrs Weaver went on. “I want you to think of all the things you take for granted now, and find out when they were invented and how they have developed. Work in your groups, but I don’t want any noise. Understood?”

We all nodded, and started chattering away.

“I love doing this kind of thing,” I told the others. “You learn about stuff without even realising it.”

But Kenny wasn’t listening. She was propped up on the desk, eyeballing the M&Ms. “Open your bags,” she was muttering under her breath. “Come on!”

“There’s almost too much to think about,” Lyndz said, doodling on her notebook. “I mean, loads of stuff must have happened since 1900.”

“Yeah, but what’s the most important?” I asked. I looked around the classroom. “I mean, look at computers. They haven’t been around for that long, have they? And now everyone’s got them.”

“And they use them in supermarkets and banks and stuff where you can’t even see them,” added Rosie.

“My gran thinks supermarkets are really new!” laughed Lyndz. “She says that she used to have to queue up at loads of different shops for her shopping. Imagine that – it would take ages !”

Fliss didn’t seem to be listening to the rest of us either. She was doing loads of little drawings. Typical Fliss.

“Come on Fliss, we’re supposed to be working!” I told her.

“I am working!” she snapped, showing me her drawings of fashion designs. “Clothes have changed loads since 1900. Women still wore long dresses then. And Mum said that when girls started wearing mini-skirts in the 1960s, it caused a real stir. There must have been loads of changes in between.”

Fliss did have a point.

“Drawing dollies, are we?” Emma Hughes sidled across and peered over Fliss’s shoulder.

“No I’m not!” snapped Fliss, and covered her work with her arm.

“What are you doing, Thomas? The development of experiments using dolls?” asked Emily Berryman.

They both giggled in that stupid way they have.

“And what are you doing? The history of not doing any work, as usual,” Kenny sneered. “You haven’t even got anything out of your bags yet.”

“We’re just going to look at some books!” Emma ‘the Queen’ Hughes said crossly, and they both stalked past us to the book corner.

We settled down again and made loads of lists. Nearly everything we could think of that was important in our lives had been invented since 1900. We looked things up in books and on the computer, and the time flashed past. We even talked about the work over break too, which is very unusual for us. Well, the rest of us talked about it – Kenny didn’t. She kept trying to see whether the M&Ms had their bags with them. They didn’t.

When we got back into the classroom after break, Mrs Weaver said that she wanted some idea of what we would all be contributing to our play. I could see the M&Ms huddled together with their cronies. They kept flashing looks over to our table, then whispering and giggling together.

“Well, what are we going to do?” I asked the others. “Any ideas?”

“Fashion!” Fliss piped up. “Please let’s! It’d be dead cool.”

“I don’t want to get involved in a stupid fashion show!” grumbled Kenny.

“It won’t be a fashion show, it’s history. Please, pretty please!” Fliss pleaded.

The rest of us looked at each other.

“Oh all right!” we agreed, but Kenny looked pretty disgusted.

“Right then, who’s going to start?” asked Mrs Weaver.

Emma Hughes stuck up her hand and started waving it about. She always has to get noticed. And with Mrs Weaver, it usually works.

“Yes, Emma, what have you got planned?”

“Well, we thought we’d trace the history of fashion since 1900,” she said, ever so sweetly.

“But that’s what we were going to do!” squealed Fliss. “That’s not fair, she’s copied us!”

Poor Fliss was quite red in the face and angry.

“Now, Felicity, there are lots of exciting ideas to cover,” soothed Mrs Weaver. “I’ll give your group a few more minutes to think of another topic. Well done, Emma, that’s a splendid idea.”

I thought Fliss was going to cry, I really did. Especially when we turned round and saw the stupid M&Ms and their awful cronies grinning at us.

“We’ll get you!” Kenny mouthed to them menacingly.