Little Jeremy Parker was always late to school and so, when the bell went and Jeremy’s space was empty in line, no one thought anything of it. 3A did, however, notice the missing space at the front of their line.
“Where is Miss Arnold?” Suzie turned to Amy, who currently had a finger hidden up her nose,
“Iuno!” she replied with a shrug.
Miss Watts, the teaching assistant, pointed to the door and led the class in, mentioning something about Miss Arnold and traffic, but really, she had no idea either. As the class found their seats, Miss Watts riffled through the mounting paper work on the desk to find a copy of the register. The clock was creeping towards 8.35 and she knew they’d soon have a knock asking if they were heading to assembly.
“Lucia… Mitchell… Marisa… Jeremy… Jeremy?” A muffled response was heard from the corridor as he torpedoed his way through the door, passed the book shelf, and onto his chair. The rest of the children responded as usual and the children disappeared to the hall.
In the corridor, Miss Watt’s asked the other teachers if they’d seen Miss Arnold but none of them had.
“Isn’t she in her classroom?” Mr Simons from year 4 offered.
“No, not yet. Probably stuck in traffic…” And then the two proceed to talk about boring adult things like traffic jams and coffee. Jeremy, who happened to overhear everything as he was, as usual, 3 minutes behind his class, stifled a yawn at the very thought of growing old and boring. Jeremy was going to be an astronaut! In fact, he’d told Miss Arnold this yesterday when she accused him of having his head in the clouds. Finally making it into the hall, Jeremy tried to hide his entrance which was nearly impossible after he stood on Lucy Turner’s finger and she let out a ginormous
“OUCH!”
Jeremy spent all assembly ignoring 5T’s re-enactment of their trip to the Natural History Museum. He had more important things to think about. Dinosaurs weren’t important, dinosaurs were never important, unless, of course, they were space dinosaurs! Besides, Jeremy was very busy indeed. He was going to solve the mystery. He was going to find Miss Arnold!
She couldn’t just be late. Teachers were never just late. Besides, Jeremy was almost certain they never left school to begin with. That ruled out traffic, broken cars and all other problems which would come from having to travel to school. She could be lost. Teacher’s had secret tunnels to get to different rooms in less than a second, that’s how they always caught Jeremy misbehaving. Maybe she got lost in one? Maybe she was heading to 3A and ended up in another universe teaching aliens with 5 eyes, 2 noses and 3 hands. Jeremy thought about this idea for a few minutes and he thought it was great until…
“I’ve got it!” Jeremy whispered much too loudly for Suzie’s liking,
“Shhh!” Her finger planted firmly to her lip, not that this stopped Jeremy of course, nothing ever stopped Jeremy when he had a plan.
“Miss Arnold is lost! I bet she went into one of those secret teacher tunnels they have at the back of their cupboards and now she’s teaching aliens!”
“That’s stupid,” Suzie’s mother taught 5B and so Suzie would know if there were secret teacher tunnels.
“Nuh-uh!”
“Uh-huh!” Miss Watt’s had crept up beside the squabbling pair, probably through a teacher tunnel, and they were quickly quiet again, or at least Suzie was. Jeremy began thinking again, he knew he had to solve the mystery and save Miss Arnold and to do so he’d have to be a detective. First, he had to work out exactly where she might be. What had Miss Arnold done the last time he’d seen her? Well, she’d complained about the classroom being a mess but Jeremy was almost certain it wasn’t messy enough for her to be hiding in it; she gave out homework and trip letters but that wouldn’t make her disappear; she spoke to Jeremy’s parents about a small incident in the playground involving the water fountain and a boy in 4S but that wouldn’t matter; and she spoke to Jeremy about his plans to be an astronaut. She thought it was a great idea and seemed to know lots about how to get there, she almost knew as much as Jeremy but Jeremy, of course, knew more. After all, he was an expert. Miss Arnold told Jeremy about all the things he would need to become an astronaut and Jeremy told Miss Arnold about all the aliens and planets he knew.
“That’s it!” Jeremy thought, “She’s gone to space!”
3A had P.E. straight after assembly and so the class didn’t need to leave the hall. This was a problem, Jeremy just needed to get his books on space and his notepad because his second step to rescuing Miss Arnold would take some planning. He wasn’t completely sure how he would get a rocket ship but if Miss Arnold had managed to find one then so would he. Mr Clive, the P.E. teacher, didn’t really like Jeremy and Jeremy didn’t really like Mr Clive. It wasn’t Jeremy’s fault the entire bag of footballs ended up in the school pool a few weeks into the first term, he was only doing what the prefects had told him to do and it definitely wasn’t his fault Mr Clive fell in trying to retrieve them!
“Four to a mat, bend with your knees, teamwork…” Mr Clive’s voice droned on in the background as Jeremy’s class set up the hall for gymnastics.
“Mr Clive,” Jeremy began, “My mum said I can’t do P.E. today, I hurt my head playing with my little brother,” this wasn’t a complete lie, his head did hurt and it was from wrestling his brother, he just didn’t have permission from his mother to sit out of P.E. He also didn’t have a note and Mr Clive wasn’t believing any of it. Jeremy was not getting out this easy.
The lesson began with running and skipping around the hall. Jeremy walked. They then had to get into teams. Jeremy was the odd one out. Finally, they had to make shapes. Jeremy refused. It wasn’t that he didn’t like P.E. he just didn’t like gymnastics, especially when it was stopping him from investigating. Jeremy had to be smart, Jeremy had to be cunning, Jeremy needed the bathroom.
“Mr Clive,” Jeremy began again, “Can I please go to the toilet?”
“You have two minutes, I will be timing you,” Jeremy thought it was weird that he was timed going to the toilet but it made sense after that time it took him so long to get there and back, he’d missed the whole of maths and some of English! Jeremy had to be quick, this would take skill. He actually did need the toilet so he headed there first. Quickly in, quickly out, no time for washing hands because he was on a mission. If he could read his watch correctly, which he couldn’t, he still had 1 minute. His classroom was the other end of the school to the hall but that didn’t bother Jeremy as he sprinted by year 6, then year 5, skidded past year 4 and barged straight through the doors of 3A.
“Jeremy!” Miss Watts was listening to readers and Jeremy had ran straight in.
“Sorry! I was told to get a reading book so I could sit out,” Jeremy’s plan was coming together,
“What have you done this time?”
“Nothing, I just have a headache from playing Wrestle Mania with my little brother!” Jeremy had managed it, Miss Watts didn’t suspect a thing and he could get his books no problem, having time to read them whilst he was meant to be jumping on mats and climbing up ropes was going to be more challenging. He checked his watch and he only had twenty seconds to get back to the hall or Mr Clive would come looking for him! Books tucked under his arm, he ran faster than an Olympian, free arm swinging, corners skidding, teachers avoiding, and, Jeremy was certain, he even hurdled over Lucas from year 5! He made it. Back in the hall he managed to place the books under one of the benches before Mr Clive spotted him. He’d even had enough time to climb onto one of the horses.
“Jeremy, be careful up there!”
“I will!” And that is when Jeremy had his next brilliant plan. He swung his arms around his head, wobbled back and forth and…
“Arrghhh!”
He crashed onto the mat below. Jeremy always fell over so it no longer hurt him. He was tough but Mr Clive didn’t know that.
“Sir,” Jeremy’s voice was suddenly sweet and kind, “Sir, I think I hurt my leg! I don’t think I can do P.E. anymore,” Mr Clive, who had seen the whole thing and believed most of it, agreed and let Jeremy sit out. Jeremy’s plan was working and now he had the whole lesson to plan his rescue.
Jeremy read every page of the first book, every page of the second and, about halfway through the third he found it. A way to save Miss Arnold. He wouldn’t be able to get to space, schools don’t just have rocket ships laying around after all; he wouldn’t be able to try sneaking through a teacher tunnel, they were hidden and he’d get told off if he was found in a teacher cupboard; but he could make a super-sonic-space-shooting-alien-zapping-x-ray-blaster and save Miss Arnold from the playground! Jeremy was going to need tools.
How to Make a Super-Sonic-Space-Shooting-Alien-Zapping-X-Ray-Blaster
Tools
- 1 strong stick
- 1 pair of scissors
- 1 stick of glue
- Paper
- Felt Tips
- Glitter
Instructions
- Colour in the paper with stars and swirls. Remember different colours have different powers to defeat different aliens!
- Cut out paper into the shape of your blaster.
- Stick the paper to your stick. This will make your blaster strong as you defeat aliens!
- Add glitter to the ends to strengthen the beams from your blaster.
- Your blaster is complete! Defeat aliens!
Jeremy could get most of the tools easily, but he wasn’t sure where he would get glitter and it was almost time for French with Madame Benett. On his way back to his classroom for French, Jeremy took a detour. The art cupboard was right by the staffroom and Jeremy knew he wouldn’t be able to get in there at break. He tiptoed past the headteacher’s office, ducked under the window of the reception, slid past the staffroom, and darted into the art cupboard. The art cupboard was a mess, paper was thrown everywhere and not a single tub of glitter was in sight. Jeremy carefully checked under one pile, rummaged through the next, and gave up after the third. Above him he could see shelfs full of paint and little pots. Maybe the glitter was up there. Balancing on a stool and clinging to the shelves, Jeremy managed to be almost tall enough to see what was on them. His short arm riffled through the paint and one finger found something promising. A little pot with little holes on top! He was on his tiptoes now, fingers stretched, arm stretched, legs stretched. If he could just move a little closer and…
CRASH!
Jeremy fell down, a few of the paints fell down and, most importantly, the pot of glitter fell down. The only problem was that Jeremy was now blue, green, and yellow! Jeremy wasn’t bothered, at least until he got to the classroom. Suzie had seen Jeremy going the wrong way and had told Madame Benett when she got to the classroom, first as usual, so Madame Benett had make sure to wait for him and, as he walked down the corridor covered head to toe in paint, her mouth dropped.
“Jeremy! What on earth have you been doing?” Jeremy had already forgotten he was covered in paint,
“I just went to the toilet,” his lie obviously not working, Madame Benett sent him straight to the office for a change of clothes and then informed him he’d be staying in at break to make up for any work he missed. Jeremy quite liked French but not when it took up important alien fighting time. He tried his best to catch up with the class and only ended up missing a few minutes of his break.
Behind the grand oak which sat to the edge of the playground, Jeremy began work. It wasn’t the best blaster he had ever made and he wasn’t sure which colours he would need but it would do. A few of the other boys from year 3 came over to see what he was doing so he explained his mission. Luca claimed he’d seen aliens, Sid claimed he’d destroyed aliens, and Alex claimed he was friends with aliens. That was it, they all agreed to help! Luca stood at the top of the playground and searched the sky, pointing to a spec in the distance. Sid made more blasters, and Alex tried to talk to his friendly aliens. Jeremy blasted upwards.
“You nearly hit them, left, left!” Luca shouted,
“They say they have Miss Arnold!” Alex added,
“I can see them!” Jeremy continued.
Sid handed out the other blasters and all four of them were off!
“I got one, I got one!” Jeremy cheered,
“I hit three of his legs!” Sid cried,
“Between the eyes!” Luca continued,
“Blast, blast, blast!” They all chanted.
“Can you see anymore?” Alex called,
“No!”
“Nope!”
“None!”
They’d done it! They’d defeated the aliens! Maybe now Miss Arnold might be able to return. It wasn’t long before the battle was over that the whistle went for the end of break. The boys all shared their triumph as they made their way to their lines. Miss Arnold was still nowhere to be seen.
As Miss Watts led 3A back in, Jeremy searched the sky for a sign of a returning rocket. Somewhere in the distance he could hear engines, it had to be her! In the classroom, the children all made their way to their maths seats whilst Miss Watts found a book to read, something boring about monsters. Monsters weren’t real, monsters were boring. Just as Miss Watts was about to finish, there was a loud bang in the hallway and in came Miss Arnold!
“Sorry I’m late!” she said to the class, “My engine went and I was stuck!” she said to Miss Watts.
“Was it the engine of your rocket?” Jeremy asked and Miss Arnold just smiled and laughed. That was all Jeremy needed to know he was right and a triumphant smile spread across his face. Fighting aliens was dangerous work and so Jeremy spent the rest of the day making plans in case they ever came back.
Jennifer Pickering 