City of the Falling Sky (27 page)

The following couple of weeks in school were
accompanied by a growing excitement amongst the pupils and some of
the staff. At first, Seckry didn’t know what was going on, until he
saw a poster tacked to the wall outside the musical theory
department.

Estergate Annual Ball

Featuring live music from:

The Crocker Toms & Meow

Formal dress code applies.

After seeing the poster, Seckry couldn’t
understand how he’d been able to miss anyone mentioning it, as
everywhere he went people were talking about it, especially Tenk
and Tippian, who kept changing their minds about who they were
going to ask on a date.

Seckry began to get more and more embarrassed
and nervous around Eiya, and specifically avoided mentioning the
ball when he was around her.

During the nights, his dreams had changed
setting. He and Eiya were now at this ball, standing on the
dancefloor and holding each other, and as Seckry was about to
speak, she’d say, ‘Shhh,’ and all the music would go quiet for her
while she moved in closer to him, her soft lips so close to his own
once more.

Then, three weeks after talking to Mr
Gobbledee about the sanctuary, an assembly was called and he
announced that the sanctuary was being closed down.

“
What happened?” said Seckry
loudly, as he and Eiya stood in the headmaster’s office afterwards.
“We thought you were going to stop it!”

“
I’m so sorry, you two, so .
. . very sorry.” The man looked close to tears. “The sanctuary
means more to me than any other part of this building, and its
closure will be a travesty. The worst thing for me is that it
breaks a promise that I made to Ms Butterkins many years ago. I
tried everything I could to prevent it, but the board of education
couldn’t care less. I don’t have an option, basically. The
sanctuary is being shut down, whether I like it or not.”

Seckry and Eiya were devastated. Aside from
putting down the animals, Butterkins would lose her job and her
home. They had to do something.

That week, they learned that some officials
from the board of education would be turning up on the following
Monday to get Gobbledee to hand them the form which allowed them to
shut down the sanctuary. Apparently Gobbledee had this form in his
office and had to sign the bottom of it before anyone could do
anything. Gobbledee obviously realised he had no choice but to sign
it, but Seckry and Eiya decided they weren’t going to let it
happen. They were going to sneak into the headmaster’s office on
Monday and steal the form. It was the only thing they could think
of that would halt the process and give them more time to think of
a permanent way to prevent the board of education sending a team
in.

When Monday came around, they hid around a
corner until they saw Gobbledee leave his room and they slipped in,
unnoticed.

“
Right, we gotta find this
thing, quick,” Seckry said, pulling out drawers and opening
cupboards.

Eiya flicked rapidly through a heap of paper
on Gobbledee’s desk but shook her head despairingly.

“
Nothing,” she said. “At
least not that I can see. We don’t even know what it looks
like.”

Seckry spotted a briefcase on the floor and
picked it up, but before he could open it, they heard Gobbledee’s
voice out in the corridor.

“
Oh no,” Eiya said,
scared.

“
Quick,” Seckry said, and
pulled Eiya into one of Gobbledee’s giant cupboards, taking the
briefcase with him.

They peered through the keyhole and watched
as Gobbledee entered the office.

“
I have to say,” Gobbledee
raged, “that I am not at all pleased with the treatment of my
school regarding this matter. My students are understandably very
upset.”

Two men in suits followed the headmaster
in.

“
We can assure you,
headmaster Gobbledee, that your school will benefit very
financially from the closure of the sanctuary.”

“
Financially?
”
Gobbledee said, almost spitting. “Animals are going to be put down
for the sake of cutting costs? My most loyal member of staff is
going to lose her job and her home for the sake of cutting
costs?”

One of the men tightened his tie.

“
I think we should get this
over and done with,” he said. “Do you have the contra–”

His words were cut off from a little yelp
from Gobbledee, who’s eyes had suddenly popped open and were
darting around the room.

“
Not now!”
Gobbledee
said to himself nervously.

“
Excuse me?” one of the men
asked.

“
Um . . . nothing . . . it’s
nothing . . . I just need a drink to clear my throat that’s
all.”

“
Here, have some of my
water.” The man held out a bottle for Gobbledee to take but the
headmaster refused.

“
I’m sorry, it has to be
from my own bottle . . . very aware of . . . er . . . the spreading
of germs, you see. Can’t have an epidemic landing on a school of
this size.”

The man looked at his bottle curiously as if
he were now scared to touch it himself.

Gobbledee began rummaging through his desk’s
drawers and searching the floor as if his life depended on it.

“
What’s he looking
for?
” Eiya asked extremely quietly.

“
Oh no . . .
” Seckry
whispered. “
This is bad. Really bad. He’s looking for this
briefcase.
”

Seckry opened the briefcase and found the
blue bottle he was dreading he’d find.

“
If Gobbledee doesn’t
drink this right now, something really weird is going to happen to
him,
” Seckry said.

“
What are you talking
about?
”

“
Mrs Furrowfog told me
not to mention it to anyone but . . . It happened on my first day
here. He’s got some strange medical condition that makes him go
nuts if he doesn’t drink this remedy. Oh no, I think it’s
started!
”

Gobbledee slammed his hands onto his desk and
stared at the two men as if they’d appeared out of thin air.

“
Well, well, well, I never
thought I’d see the day,” he said disbelievingly.

“
Excuse me?” said one of the
men.

“
Excuse you indeed. Would
you like a pot of tea?”

“
Tea? Mr Gobbledee, sir, are
you feeling alright?”

“
Who, me? Yes, of course I
am. Never felt better!”

There was an awkward silence before it was
interrupted by the loud slap of Gobbledee’s palm hitting his
desk.

“
Darned
roachflies!”

The men flinched and one of them squeezed his
bottle in shock, making the cap fly off and hit the roof.

“
Take cover!” roared
Gobbledee and flung himself underneath his desk. “Ooh, there’s a
furry mint down here,” he said excitedly.

The men were now looking at each other with a
mix of confusion and nervousness.

“
What’s happened to
him?”
hissed the one.

“
Don’t ask me. You’re the
one that tried to give him contaminated water. Probably sent him
over the edge.”

“
Right! Where were we?” said
Gobbledee, getting back into his chair. His face was red where all
the blood had drained into it and there was a bit of string hanging
from his moustache.

“
Uh . . . Mr headmaster sir
. . . there’s something . . .” The man was poking his finger around
on his own upper lip but the other man slapped it away.

“
Leave it, Hupkins!”
he whispered furiously.
“Let’s just get the contract and get the
hell out of here!”

“
Wait a minute,” Gobbledee
said, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes. “Is that you,
Fellibrund?”

“
Fellibrund? No, sir, my
name’s Lance. Now if you could just sign the form here, we’ll be
out of your way.”

“
Of course. What am I
saying? Fellibrund died seven years ago.”

“
I’m sure you don’t want us
wasting any more of your time, Mr Headmaster, no doubt you are a
very busy man. Now just sign your name at the bottom here . . .”
The man hovered the contract right under Gobbledee’s
nose.

Gobbledee sniffed the paper twice and then
took a huge bite out of it.

The man gasped and let go.

Gobbledee was staring at them with
uninterested eyes, chewing away now like a donkey chewing on hay.
“Tastes like my aunt Dolly’s roast dinner,” he said flatly.

“
He’s eating the
contract!”
the one man whispered desperately.

“
And he’s enjoying it,” the
other noted, with a hint of unease.

Suddenly, a wooden brush fell from the wall
and hit the ground with a clank.

Gobbledee shot up and picked it up
gently.

“
Dolly! Are you okay? We
were just talking about you! How’s that bunion of
yours?”

“
Mr Gobbledee, sir,” said
the one man, with a slight quiver in his voice. “Seeing as you have
consumed our contract we will have to return tomorrow with a new
copy for you to sign.”

“
Do we have to come back?”
the other said pleadingly.

There was no answer. Instead, the men got out
of their seats and made to leave, but were halted by Gobbledee, who
slammed the door shut with his foot and began swinging the brush
around his body like a very bad martial artist.

One of the men reached for the door handle
nervously but Gobbledee thrust the end of the brush up into his
face so that it looked like an oversized moustache and said, “You
bunch of smelly seadogs. Aren’t you going to put up a fight?”

“
You know what, Mr
Gobbledee?” the man said, petrified. “Just keep the sanctuary,
okay? It doesn’t matter, just keep it! Will you let us leave . . .
please?”

Gobbledee lowered the brush and said
politely, “You’re not staying for tea?”

Neither men answered, and they escaped as
quick as they could.

Seckry and Eiya beamed at each other.
Gobbledee had done it. The sanctuary was saved!

“
We better give him this
medicine,” Seckry said. “He won’t remember any of this, and he
won’t know we hid in his cupboard.”

They let themselves out and said ‘hi’ to
Gobbledee, and after he insisted they were both late, they gave him
the blue liquid which he downed in one go before seizing up and
falling to the floor.

After a few minutes the headmaster regained
consciousness and blinked confusedly.

“
Are you okay, sir,” Seckry
asked.

“
Yes,” Gobbledee said,
standing up and brushing the dirt from his suit. “Oh dear. Seckry?
And Eiya? What happened?”

“
We, uh . . . we saw you
collapse while we were walking past, sir,” Seckry lied. “I
remembered Mrs Furrowfog giving you this medicine the last time it
happened, and we found it in your briefcase on the floor over
there.”

“
Oh my . . . thank you,
Seckry,” the headmaster said, still confused. “Did there happen to
be two men in my office when you found me?”

“
Yeah,” Seckry said. “They
uh . . . said something about a change of plan . . . something
about there being enough money to keep the building . .
.”

“
A change of plan? Enough
money?” the headmaster said, a smile appearing on his face. “Well .
. . that’s tremendous news!”

For the following few days, Seckry and Eiya
looked up to the headmaster like a hero. Even though the scaring
off of the board of education officials had been involuntary, he
had still managed it, and both the animals, and Butterkins, were
safe.

“
So what on earth’s wrong
with him?” Eiya asked. “He just went . . . insane, didn’t
he?”

Seckry shook his head. He had no idea. He had
never seen a medical condition like it.

Eiya’s question, however, was answered sooner
than they expected.

As they were passing the headmaster’s office
once more, on their way to a double period of animal care, they saw
that Mrs Cutson was inside, and had Gobbledee almost pressed up
against a wall.

They made sure they weren’t visible through
the glass and pressed their ears close so they could hear.

“
You had better sack Vance,
Allon, I’m telling you now. The man is undermining me in my own
lessons. And do you know that he spent Seckramas with Seckry
Sevenstars? That’s breaking the rules, that has to be. You can’t go
around socialising with pupils outside of school. Sack him,
Allon.”

“
Cecilya . . . Jonn is a
very valued member of staff and a personal friend of mine,”
Gobbledee said, a quiver in his voice. “I will not be sacking the
man because you have a dislike for him.”

“
Allon, I’m not sure if you
understand what I’m saying here,” Cutson said viciously. “If you
don’t sack Vance I’m afraid I might be inclined to mention a
certain word to the board of education. Do you know what that word
is, Allon?”

Gobbledee said nothing.

“
Chlorocalm,” said Cutson,
and they heard Gobbledee whimper.

“
Chlorocalm?
” Eiya
mouthed silently to Seckry, but Seckry had never heard of
it.