Thanks Rannera!
Bella went downstairs to the dining room, where the rest of her family were already eating breakfast. Her mother looked at her strangely.
“Bella, dear, where’s your uniform?”
“Uniform?”
“Yes, your school uniform.”
Bella groaned. “I thought today was the last day of summer.”
“That was yesterday. Today’s Monday, and there’s school.”
“Man.” She sat down, sighing. Her father passed her a bowl of cereal, before returning to the newspaper.
“The llamas lost again. Looks like the alpacas walked all over them.”
Michael tugged the newspaper out of Simis’ hands and flicked through to the scores. “10-2? Man, that’s rubbish. That’s the fourth straight game we’ve lost.”
“Well, Keaton hasn’t been playing for the last two months, what with little Alex, so hopefully when he’s back they’ll sort themselves out a bit.”
Jocasta smiled. “Have either of you two met him? Happiest little baby I’ve ever seen. I went round to give Justine some flowers and he was gurgling all the time I was there. He’s so sweet.”
Bella rolled her eyes. “Oh c’mon. All babies look the same, don’t they?”
“Cheer up, dear. I know you’re back to school and everything, but try and smile a bit about it, hey?”
“Whatever.” She got up and grabbed her schoolbag. “I'll go change, then I think I’ll walk today. Go through the park.”
“Ok. We’ll see you later, then?”
But Bella had already slammed the door. Michael raised his eyebrows.
“Wouldn’t want to be her.”
“Now just because you have an extra day off doesn’t mean you have to gloat about it, young man.”
Apart from a few lingering tourists, the park was all but empty. The summer festival banners and stands looked a little feeble in the September light, and the face painting tent looked as though it was about to collapse. No doubt it would all be taken down today, and the park set up for autumn instead. Good, Bella thought. Summer was rubbish. Way too hot.
Malcolm and Mortimer were the only two in the classroom when she arrived, as per normal. Malcolm jumped up as soon as she walked in.
“Bells! Have you seen ‘Galaxy Battles’?”
“Er, what?”
“It’s only the best TV show and video game series ever made! I’ve been trying to get Mortimer excited about it but he really isn’t interested. Please tell me you’ll come over this weekend and watch some.”
“I think what Mal’s trying to say is that over the summer he’s turned into a massive nerd,” said Mortimer, flicking through a book.
“It’s really really good! And Dad said that he’ll get me some of the official action figures for my birthday. And the Frozen Realms expansion! That’s the one based on series 4...”
“Yeah, right, we get it,” Bella said. “It's some TV thing. I’ve hardly seen you guys for two months. Can't we catch up or something?”
“Oh. Okay,” said Malcolm, sadly.
Simis strolled into Doo Peas, whistling under his breath as he went. It was rare that he felt this cheerful about his less-than-thrilling job, but something about today felt... right. He nodded his head to Nick as he passed him in the foyer, and then ascended the stairs up to the offices of the Sunset Valley Times.
Fiona raced up to him almost before he was even inside. She looked panicked.
“Simis! Thank goodness! I was starting to wonder where you were. Listen, something’s happened. I’ll let Connor show you.” She all but pulled him into the editor’s office, where Connor was typing something into her computer. He barely acknowledged Simis, instead pointing to an email that was sitting in Fiona’s inbox.
“I couldn’t trace the IP,” said Connor, “It’s probably been sent from a secure network, one that hides the sender’s details. I won’t bore you with the technical stuff.”
Fiona wrung her hands. “Simis? What do you think?”
from: blocked
to: [email protected]
subject: no subject
There will be a major event in Sunset Valley in a few days time. You will know it when it happens. If the article I send you at that time is not published the following day on the front page in its entirety you can be assured that the details of a certain relationship of yours will be sent to the Simnation Chronicle, who will undoubtedly find it merits their attention. Do not go to the police. You have been warned. So much for a peaceful day.
He turned to Fiona. “Is this real? It could just be a hoax or something.”
Fiona shook her head. “It sounds real. I mean...” She sighed. “If they do have the information they claim to, I don’t want that getting out.”
“What is it?”
“None of your business, that’s what it is.”
“But, you’re going to do what this person’s telling you? What about journalistic integrity, and all that?”
“I have to think of River, Simis. This is big. Whoever this person is, they’re right. The Simnation Chronicle would be very interested in that story. It could be the end of my career, or worse. And it would hurt River more than you can imagine.” She looked round at Connor. “This doesn’t leave this room. You’d better get back to work.”
“Sure.” Connor stood up and left without any further comment. Fiona gulped. “I’m sorry Simis. I’d hoped you’d have seen something that would expose it as fake. I don’t know why I showed you. But I have to do this. There’s no other option.”
“And what if someone finds out? You’d breaking every rule in the book, Fiona.”
“I’m aware. I suppose I’ll just have to take that chance.”
Simis nodded slowly, then turned and hurried out, his mind whirring.
“There you go, Mrs Clavell. These should sort your headaches out in no time.”
She picked up the tablets and smiled. “Thank you, doctor. You’ve been most helpful.”
“I do my best. Do you need someone to show you out or do you know the way?”
“I think I’ll be okay, but thank you all the same.”
“Alright. Goodbye, Mrs Clavell.”
Bessie headed off down the corridor just as Morgana Wolff stuck her head around the door.
“Oh, Geoffrey. Mind if I have a word?”
“Sure. Is this about that seminar this afternoon?”
“Not really.” She bit her lip. “Actually, it’s not about the hospital at all. Or, at least, not directly.”
“I see. Well, you’d better come in. I don’t have any patients for an hour or so.”
“Okay then.” Morgana closed the door and sat down, a strange expression on her face. “Well, it’s, well...”
“Take your time,” Geoff said kindly.
Something in Morgana’s expression changed, but Geoff couldn’t quite work out what it was. “I’d been wondering what you wanted for Christmas,” she blurted out.
He raised an eyebrow? “Christmas? That’s months away.”
“Well, good to be prepared, right?”
“Er, ok. Well, you don’t need to buy me anything. Don’t worry about that.”
“Fine. Well, that’s all then. I’ll see you around.” She all but ran from the room, leaving Geoff staring after her in bemusement.
The first day back, and they were doing maths? Malcolm himself was rather pleased, but he knew the others wouldn’t be. Mortimer was busy making a paper aeroplane from one of the pages in his exercise book. He threw it towards Bella, but it swerved towards the front of the room, where Mr Steel caught it neatly, raised his eyebrows at Mortimer and sent it gliding towards the bin.
“Mortimer, see me at the end please.”
Mortimer scowled.
He came out into the corridor a few minutes after the bell went, where Bella and Malcolm were waiting.
“What? He told me not to do it again, that he’d give me detention if anything else like that happened, the end. Big deal. Now, anyone fancy going to mine? Dad won’t be back for ages and Mum won’t care. We could get pizza or something.”
Bella grinned, but Malcolm made a face.
“I dunno. I’m not really allowed...”
“And? Just tell your Mum you went to the library to do your homework.”
“But we didn’t get any homework.”
Mortimer groaned. “It’s called a white lie. Don’t be such a goody-two-shoes, Mal.”
“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Bella chimed in.
“I really don’t know...”
“Hey!” They turned to see Arlo watching them, sneering a little. “What are you weirdos up to?”
“None of your business,” snapped Mortimer. “Get lost.”
“Woah! I was just being friendly.”
“Yeah, well, don’t,” Mortimer said, “And you weren’t.”
Bella grabbed his arm. “Morty, leave it.”
“Morty? How cute. Your girlfriend’s sticking up for you, is she?”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Yeah, I really wouldn’t date him. He’s a right loser,” said Bella.
“Bella’s way too annoying for me,” added Mortimer.
“Guys, this isn’t the time,” cried Malcolm. “Let’s just go. Bye Arlo.”
They hurried off, but not before they heard Arlo and a couple of others break into song behind them.
“Bella and Morty, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S...”
“Idiots,” muttered Mortimer.
“It’s great to see you, Aggie. How’s everything going?”
“A little better,” Agnes sighed, sipping her tea.
“How’s the job at the school working out?”
“Nelly, I’ve only been in it a week. I’ve yet to form an opinion, frankly.”
“Well, I can see why they wanted you as headmistress. You were a good teacher, before... yes, you were good.”
“Hmm.” There was an uncomfortable silence, punctured by the sound of the front door slamming and a couple of loud voices. Cornelia looked into the kitchen to Mortimer and a couple of his friends laughing about something. He came into the dining room, but stopped dead when he saw them.
“Oh, hi Aunt Agnes. Didn’t think you’d be here.”
Cornelia shook her head. “Morty, dear, I don’t recall saying you could have friends over.”
“Aww! C’mon Mum. It’s the first day back. And it’s just Bella and Malcolm. Can we get pizza?”
“Morty!" She hesitated. "Oh, all right then. Don’t tell your father.”
“Cheers.” Cornelia heard him say something to the others that sounded rather like “Told you so,” and the three of them filed upstairs, still talking loudly. She smiled slightly.
“I can’t believe he’s twelve already. Where does the time go?”
“Where indeed,” said Agnes.
