(Josie Sayz: This is the thirteenth story, from my ‘AMSND’ series that my friend and I wrote when we were 15 years old. This story follows in the series of the ‘AMSND’ stories, which inspired me to create the Arcturus High series. This story is loosely based on Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, I believe.)
Although each story is a stand alone piece, you can find the rest of the AMSND
series here:
1) A Magic School’s New Dream: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/ansnd-1-magic-schools-new-dream.html
2) The War of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-2-war-of-crooked-burrow-school.html
3) Six Se’enarians Go To Sea: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-3-six-senerians-go-to-sea.html
4) The Arrival of a New Headmistress: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-4-arrival-of-new-headmistress.html
5) The Day Before the Last (Day of Term):
https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-5-day-before-last-day-of-term.html
6) The Story of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/02/amsnd-6-story-of-crooked-burrow-school.html
7) The End of the Octopus: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-7-end-of-octopus.html
8) The King of Magic: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-8-king-of-magic.html
9) The Return of Dr Straizer, Featuring Agent 009: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-9-return-of-dr-straizer-featuring.html
10) Fifteen-Eighty: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-10-fifteen-eighty.html
11) Accidentally in Love: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-11-accidentally-in-love.html
12) Ariel and the Seven Dudes: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/11/amsnd-12-ariel-and-seven-dudes.html.)
The End of the Arians Part 1
By Shada
“I hate Charlie! Why did he have to go and get picked for being Second-Best
Ellarian?” moaned Fred to Bert. It was a gloomy afternoon after school and they
were at their favourite meeting place; down the secret alley-way in which Woody
was once pulled into by his old English teacher, Ms. Harris. This was where
Fred had been released from imprisonment in a magic lamp, and even though he
had no recollection of that as his mind had been wiped clean of everything that
had happened at that time, subconsciously he still liked the place.
“You
mean to say you’re jealous of your own cousin?” asked Bert.
“Well, yeah,” replied Fred looking a bit ashamed. “I mean, Charlie’s okay at
some things, but he’d be rubbish as Second-Best Ellarian. He’s just not that
kind of person to talk to people and sort out their problems.”
“Whereas you, on the other hand would be excellent at that sort of thing?” asked Bert wryly.
“Of course I would,” was Fred’s joking reply. “No, seriously, it’s just the power Charlie wants.”
“I see,” remarked Bert. “So while Charlie will be doing all the hard work as Second-Best Ellarian, you will be…?”
“…Doing the boring job no one else wants to do,” replied Fred sadly. “I’ve been chosen to be the Secretary.”
“It’s not that bad,” Bert said, trying to hide a smile.
“It’s not funny! It’s okay for you; you were Best Ellarian last year and Best-Everything all those other years. But I have absolutely no chance of getting that job, as you well know. Pete has everyone’s vote.”
“Yeah, it is a bit unfair that Pete has been Best Arian for all his five years. But then again, he is a good leader,” Bert thought out loud. “And a good girlfriend-stealer.”
Fred rolled his eyes. “You’re not still wishing you hadn’t broken up with Ariel?”
It
was Bert’s turn to look uncomfortable. “I didn’t have much choice. You know
Ariel. If she wants to do something, she’ll do it. Now she’s decided to become
an Art. I just hope she’ll be okay in later life.”
“I’m sure she will,” Fred thought about that for a bit, then had a great idea.
“If you want to see someone get angry, then we could tell Robin about Ariel
going out with Pete.”
“Doesn’t he already know?” Bert asked in surprise.
“No, and he’d be really angry. You know how he fancies Ariel.” Fred grinned.
“Right, come on, let’s go back to school, and find Robin,” Bert agreed.
“Hi everyone. What’s with the
glum faces?” Bert said to Lyra, Lola and Robin, going to sit down by Robin on
the floor in Music. Fred followed him.
“We still can’t get over the fact that Zilla made us poison Ariel,” Lola
explained.
“Well
at least Ariel’s okay now, well kind of” Bert said, and then looked
meaningfully at Fred.
Fred said, “Robin, Pete's going out with Ariel.”
Robin went bright red and said, “But, why are you telling me?”
“Um...
because you like her! Come on Robin, there’s no point denying it!”
Robin sighed and muttered, “Okay, so I do. So what? Are you trying to stir us
up against Pete?”
“Well, yeah. But I'm not meant to tell you,” grinned Fred.
“Fred...”
Bert said warningly. Turning to Robin he said, “How long have you liked Ariel, Robin?”
“In Year Seven, when we were Se’enarians, we went out. But then… you came
along,” Robin said, looking directly at Bert. “She fell for you. And then when
you two split up I thought, great, we would get together again. But we won’t
now. We won’t ever.” He turned away.
“Hey, it’s not that bad,” Fred said.
“How would you know? Anyway, I’ve decided I’m going down to Art to find Pete.
You coming?” he asked Fred and Bert.
“I’ll come,” said Bert straight away. But Fred said he had to go to see his
girlfriend Elly. “She might have forgotten me,” he explained.
So Bert and Robin walked down
the stairs to go to Art. Inside the classroom, Charlie was sitting next to
Shada. They were both doing some finger-painting. Shada’s friends Zilla and
Samantha were there too. And Ariel sat next to Pete in the corner, Ariel painting
a picture and Pete painting some words on a big, big piece of paper. “Hi Pete,”
Robin said. “Wotcha doin’?”
“Oh, just a poster,” was the reply.
“Just a poster, eh?” Robin asked suspiciously. Pete looked up, frowning.
“What’s wrong with that?” Pete asked.
“Nothing, just unusual to be doing such a thing in Art.” Ariel looked up now.
She was getting cross.
“Will you two go away, we’re busy,” she said, beginning to paint an autumnal
leaf on a blue ethereal sky.
“No,” said Bert, sitting down opposite Pete. “We want to know why you’re going
out with Ariel now,” he said, looking at Pete.
“That’s none of your business,” Ariel began hotly. But Pete stopped her.
“No, we can tell them the whole story,” he said with a grin. “It’ll probably
take all night. Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with us two being in love, is
there?” He looked at Ariel.
“Hmmm,” she said, dipping her brush in the black paint and flicking it at Bert.
So Pete began a long story about how Ariel had stopped going up to Music every
day after school and had instead gone to Art, and there had got to know Pete
who had become an Art a little while before, and then they both fell in love.
“And that’s how we’re both going out,” he finished. Robin sat back, and from
the front of the classroom came a sharp voice. “Out! Now!” It was Miss Bell,
the Art teacher who was horrible to everyone. Normally it was Ms. Beste who was
in charge of Art after school but today she had to go to the dentist, leaving
Miss Bell in control. Then they heard her horrid voice again, “If your four
don’t leave now, then you’ll be banned from Art after school for life!” She, of
course, meant Pete, Bert, Robin and Ariel.
“But why?” they all complained.
“You’re talking too much, and not getting on with WORK, which is the only
reason you’re here for.”
“Huh!” Ariel said as they all stormed out, leaving Shada, Charlie and the
others to put the paint and paper away that Ariel and Pete were using. “This is
all your fault,” she said to Bert and walked off in the opposite direction to
go home with Pete.
“I’ve given up,” Bert sighed
to Fred as they walked home eventually. “I don’t care about her anymore.”
“Hah! You admitted it! You did like Ariel still!” Fred shouted.
“Yep, I did. But not anymore. Not ever.”
“That’s like what Robin said,” Fred remembered. “Anyway, you don’t need to give
up on her. If you can get Pete to think Ariel doesn’t really like him, then
Pete will dump Ariel, and you’ve got a chance again!”
“Robin likes her too. If I try to split her and Pete up then Robin’ll think I’m
doing it for him, and get really mad when he realises I want her, won’t he?”
Bert reminded Fred.
“Yes, but we’ll come to that later. First we need to think of a way that we can
get Pete to think Ariel doesn’t like him. How about if we tell him: Ariel was
cheating on him by going out with another boy say, Charlie?”
“No, how about she’s secretly going out with Robin!”
“No, because Robin would prove that wrong instantly. You know how good he is at
truth spells,” Fred reminded Bert.
“That would have fitted, though!” Bert said despondently.
“Yeah, but you’ve still got a chance with Ariel. Now it’s Charlie that stands
in your way.”
The next morning, Pete was
walking into school when Fred came up to him. “Pete, I’ve come to tell you
something I’ve only just found out. It might shock you, but I saw Ariel in town
last night, kissing Charlie, my cousin.”
“What!” gasped Pete. “It can’t be true!”
“It’s true. Why would I lie?”
“But…but she said she was having a night at home to finish homework!” Pete said
in dismay. “Why would she lie?”
“I dunno,” said Fred, shrugging. “Maybe she really likes Charlie.”
Pete turned red and stormed inside.
After school Fred met up with
Bert again. “I told Pete about Charlie,” he said. “Now what you need to do is
get Charlie to do something to you to make everyone feel sorry for you and hate
Charlie for doing it. I know. You two get involved in a fight. Make sure
Charlie hits you hard or something.”
“Why me?” moaned Bert. But he went to Art anyway to call Charlie out of the
classroom.
“What d’you want?” asked Charlie suspiciously, cross at having to miss
finger-painting with Shada.
“Come with me for a bit,” Bert said, looking over at Ariel, who was in the
corner of the classroom, finishing off her painting. Pete wasn’t there.
They both walked out into the Quad and sat on one of the benches.
“Charlie…I don’t really know you that well, after all the only time we’ve ever spoken to each other was only a few weeks ago when Zilla was being so mean to Ariel but –” Bert began but was interrupted.
“What do you want?” demanded Charlie.
“Well you see it’s about Shada. She seems upset at the moment, in fact she told me last week that didn’t know what to do, to put it plainly she likes someone else.”
“Who is it she likes then?” Charlie growled.
“Fred,” Bert replied promptly.
Charlie thought about this and smiled to himself. “So it’s come to that has it?”
“Come to what?” asked Bert cautiously.
“You’re a rubbish liar Bert. Stick to the stuff you’re good at, and don’t try to steal Shada away from me.”
“I’m not – I don’t want Shada!”
“Who does?” Shada called tearfully from the corridor door, having overheard Bert’s last statement.
“I do,” Charlie called back, looking towards her. Then he turned back to Bert. “You made her cry,” he threatened.
“Only by telling the truth,” Bert protested.
“Ha, you must be joking to think I’d believe you,” Charlie said in disgust and was about to leave when he remembered something. He hit Bert round the face.
“What was that for?” Bert asked bewilderedly, dabbing at his bleeding lip.
“For
mentioning Fred in front of me,” Charlie replied and stormed off to comfort
Shada, furious that Bert should try to trick him like that – both he and Shada
had a mutual hatred of Fred (for different reasons).
But the next day, Pete got to
hear that Charlie had hit Bert, so Pete removed Charlie from the post of
Second-Best-Ellarian. Now Charlie wasn’t the Second-Best anymore, Fred had a
chance of getting the job. But, to his annoyance, Pete didn’t choose anyone to
fill the place. It looked as if he had guessed that Fred had told him a lie
about Ariel cheating on him and had made Charlie hit Bert, but he didn’t have
proof either way. All Fred had to do was find him some “proof” that Ariel was
cheating on him and then he would have to believe everything Fred told him. And
Fred knew just what…
Charlie arrived at Art one night
feeling cross. He’d just been talking to Fred, who he hated, about Ariel. Fred
said to talk to her. Also Charlie had nothing to do at Art apart from homework,
because Shada was away. The same thing had happened to Ariel; Pete wasn’t there
again and she had nothing to do except homework. She had finished her special
painting of the leaf on the sky. She had stuck it in pride of place on her
planner. The leaf was one she had copied from a real leaf given to her by Pete.
Apparently Shada had stuck a real leaf onto a book of hers, but Ariel hadn’t
wanted to risk completely destroying something given her by someone who had
been so special to her. Then Charlie came over to her. “Ariel,” he began.
“Because Pete’s away, can I ask you to tell him when you next see him that I’m
sorry for hitting Bert. I need my job back again!”
“All right, then,” Ariel said. Then suddenly Pete came in and glared at
Charlie, who hurriedly went over to where he’d put his homework and started to
scribble in a book.
“What’re you doing, talking to him?” Pete asked Ariel angrily.
“Homework,” she said.
“Oh, right, homework!” Pete said. “On that subject, can you tell me what
homework we had for Maths?”
“Erm, yeah, two sheets of formulae to rearrange,” she said, looking in her
planner. Pete happened to see the front, with the picture of the leaf on, and
asked to look at it. “Did you do this all by yourself?” he asked suspiciously.
“Are you saying I’m rubbish at Art?” she asked incredulously.
“Not really,” he muttered. “But it’s very pretty.”
“It’s of the leaf you gave me. Of course it’s going to be pretty!” she replied
hotly.
Meanwhile, Fred had watched
Pete leave Ariel’s planner on a desk. After Pete and Ariel had come out to go
home a little while later, Fred asked Charlie, who was the only one left in the
Art room apart from Ms. Beste, to look after Ariel’s planner until the morning
at least, because she’d forgotten it. Ms. Beste offered to, but Charlie said
that he wouldn’t mind looking after it for a bit.
“Hey, Fred, have you got any
more proof for me?” asked Pete. “If you have, I’ll consider making you
Second-Best-Ellarian.”
“Really?” Fred asked. “As a matter of fact, you know you left Ariel’s planner
in Art? Well, Charlie looked through it. I watched him. And now he’s kept it. I
think he’s torn the leaf off the front. Ariel knows, but she’s keeping it a
secret.”
“Thanks. Okay, that's worthy of promotion. I now promote you, Fred Brooks, to
Second-Best-Ellarian! Your first instruction is to catch Charlie red-handed.
I’ll deal with him then. And tell Bert to come to the next Arian meeting, I
need to reward him for being so brave,” Pete said.
Ariel sat glumly in her lesson
one particular Thursday, worrying about her planner. It was missing. She wasn’t
worried that she had nothing to write her homework in, she was worried that
Pete might now think she was cheating on him. She wasn’t, of course, but she
couldn’t prove that. And sure enough at breakfast…
“Ariel, where’s you’re planner?” Pete asked innocently.
“Um, I dunno, I think I might have left it in my locker. Why?”
“Oh, nothing.”
Pete went straight back to his
lesson, which happened to be I.T.
“Fred,” he said. “I’ve just been talking to Ariel and she says she’s
left her planner in her locker. She lied to me. I know Charlie’s got it. What
should I do?”
“See if you can get her to tell the truth. No – I don’t know how!” he exclaimed
as Pete looked at him questioningly.
Next lesson, English, Pete was
on laptops, “accidentally” went on Fred’s email as he knew his password and
read the emails. Fred’s latest sent email read:
“Hi Charlie. Are you bringing your girlfriend to the dance tonight?”
Pete thought they were talking about Ariel, not Shada. He was furious as he
went to lunch.
Charlie walked into the Dinner
Hall and was immediately met by a cross Shada. “What you doing, giving me
Ariel’s planner?” she demanded angrily. “And how come you had it in the first
place?”
“I just did,” said Charlie. “So you
didn’t want to copy the leaf?”
“No! You know you gave me a leaf already!”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot.”
Pete, who had been listening
to the whole conversation, grew angrier and angrier. So Charlie wasn’t telling
his girlfriend the whole truth? How dare him! He wondered why Fred hadn’t been
able to catch Charlie yet, and if he’d set him too hard a task. He decided he’d
go to talk to Fred, to see if he had any more ideas. He found him in the
playground. “Hi Pete,” greeted Fred. “Is the next Ellarian meeting up in Music
or in Art?”
“Art,” Pete said shortly.
“I’m not going then.”
“It was in Music last time. It’s only fair for it to be in Art this time.”
“I’m not going.” Fred repeated.
“You’ve got to come! You’re Second-Best Ellarian! You can’t desert your post
for some stupid feud!” (This feud had been going on since Shada and Samantha
had complained about the meetings always being held in Music, not Art. The
people who stayed behind after school for various reasons had split themselves
into two groups: the “Musics” and the “Arts”; the people who stayed up in Music
after school and the people who stayed in Art. “Musics” thought they were
superior and were always mean to the “Arts”, who didn’t care as much).
“Yes I can and I will. Louis, Luke, Robin, Ben and Elly won’t be coming,
either.”
Pete
glared at Fred and then said, “I really came over here to ask you for your
advice. But if you won’t even come to the next Ellarian meeting, then I’ll just
go…”
“What d’you want me to advise you on?” Fred asked quickly. “Is it Ariel again?”
“Yeah, and Charlie. He lied to Shada about Ariel’s planner. Is that enough
proof, do you think?”
“Well, yeah. What were you gonna do? Announce it at the next meeting?”
“Yep. Why?”
“Because it’s not really enough – you need to explain how you came to know
about Charlie having Ariel’s planner. And I’m…”
“And you’re the only one who has that proof!” Pete finished his sentence. “So
come to the meeting!”
“I can’t.”
“Stubborn!”
“No, I just can’t. It’s not only my future; it’s the future of all Musics.”
“Us Arts are prepared to go up to Music.”
“That’s different. Music’s different to Art. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Yes I would! I was a Music for four years! And I’m kind of both now, only if
you asked me to choose, then I’d say Art, of course.”
By now it was time to go back to lesson. People from the playground normally got back to lesson before people who stayed inside for lunch. So when Pete and Fred got back to English (their lesson) Charlie (who was in their class) wasn’t back yet.
“I have an idea,” said Fred mysteriously.
“What?” grumbled Pete, still cross over Fred saying he wouldn’t come to Art for the meeting.
“You go into the classroom, and listen behind the door, where Charlie won’t be able to see you, and I’ll talk to him about Ariel, and you can see his reaction.”
“Sounds good,” admitted Pete, and went to hide behind the door.
Eventually Charlie turned up. “How are you doing on getting your job back?” asked Fred to Charlie.
“Why should I talk to you?” Charlie told him. “But if you must know, I’m just about giving up.”
“If you try asking Ariel again, you can be sure she’ll do her best for you,” Fred assured him, and then spoke much quieter. “But if Shada was in charge of this, how quickly she’d get you your job back!”
“Yes, she’s good at that sort of thing!” He paused. “I think she loves me.”
Pete, listening behind the door immediately thought that he was talking about Ariel.
“She says you pair have got engaged,” Fred continued.
“Oh, and I suppose we’ll be married soon too. Well, I don’t know where you’ve heard these rumours from; it’s nothing that I’ve said. But…it all depends on Pete.”
“What does?” asked Fred curiously.
“Getting my job back of course,” replied Charlie seriously, over which Fred had a coughing fit, so somehow Pete didn’t manage to hear.
“I see,” Fred mumbled.
Then along the corridor came Shada. To Pete, Charlie seemed slightly disappointed, but of course he wasn’t really. Shada then gave him Ariel’s planner to get back to Ariel somehow, because she didn’t need it.
“My leaf!” whispered Pete.
Then Shada ran off, Charlie following her. “I’ll speak to you as soon as possible,” he called to Fred.
Then Pete came out of the classroom, furious. “How can we get rid of Charlie?” he demanded loudly.
“Did you hear Charlie talking about Ariel? Did you see the leaf on the planner?” asked Fred.
“Yes, both. But…I’m finding it hard to believe this, especially as Ariel seemed so nice to start with. That’s the trouble with nice people though; it’s always a show,” was Pete’s thoughtful conclusion.
At the end of the day, Lyra, Lola and Ariel came along to see Pete and Fred. Lyra and Lola brought some information from the last Arian meeting, and Ariel came to meet Pete.
“How’s Charlie?”
“Oh, he’s still alive,” Fred replied carelessly.
“Charlie and Pete have fallen out,” Ariel informed them.
“Really? They were such good friends,” said Lyra.
“It will all be sorted out soon,” Ariel said optimistically.
“Yeah right,” said Pete disbelievingly.
“It will,” Ariel assured him. “Because I like Charlie a lot.”
Pete swore.
“Pete!” said Ariel, shocked.
“It must be because of what he read in the information,” Lyra said. “It’s about Charlie and that it’s likely he won’t get his job back.”
“That’s not fair,” said Ariel.
“I’m glad you’re cross,” smiled Pete.
“Why?” asked Ariel. Then Pete slapped her. “I didn’t deserve that!” cried Ariel, beginning to cry.
“Hmmm, this won’t be believed in the next Arian meeting, but I’ll prove it did,” said Lyra. “You really should apologise to Ariel.”
“No way, she’s just pretending,” Pete said. “Ariel, just go.”
“I won’t stay to offend you,” she replied.
“You can go to Charlie for comfort,” Pete said bitterly.
“Why is Pete acting all jealous all of a sudden?” Lyra whispered to Fred. “And why would he slap such a nice person like Ariel?”
“I think you and Lola should watch Pete to see what you think of him, and whether you should make him resign from being the Best-Ellarian.” Fred replied quietly, so Pete wouldn’t hear.
Later on, Pete and Fred went to meet Elly, who as well as being Fred’s girlfriend was also Ariel’s best friend. Pete asked Elly about Ariel, especially if Charlie and Ariel had ever been together without her (Elly) there. She told Pete that that had never happened. Then Pete asked Elly to get Ariel so he could talk to her, because they had kind of fallen out. Eventually, Elly came back with Ariel and Pete and Ariel went into a nearby classroom to talk alone. Elly kept guard outside, just in case a teacher came by.
“Ariel, I know you’re cheating on me,” Pete began. Ariel just laughed, because it sounded so silly to her. Of course she wouldn’t cheat on Pete! But to Pete, her laughing made it seem like she was happy that she was cheating on him. He decided not to say anything else to her that he might regret, and called Elly back in before he went.
“So, what was all that about?” asked Elly to Ariel.
“He thought I was cheating on him! How ridiculous!” laughed Ariel. “Now, I wonder who’s behind all this – Pete wouldn’t have said that without some sort of evidence…Elly, will you go and get Fred for me? He’s good friends with Pete, surely he’d know something about what’s going on.” Elly went off to find Fred.
But Fred acted all innocent. “What sort of person could make Pete believe the lies he was telling me?” asked Ariel.
“I don’t know,” said Fred. “Someone who wanted to get you back because you’d hurt them a long time ago?”
“No, it wasn’t Bert,” Ariel decided. “I haven’t seen him in ages, apart from that other day when he came to Art with Robin. Come on Elly, let’s go home. Fred’s not going to tell us anything else worth hearing.”
As soon as Ariel and Elly had gone, Bert appeared to talk to Fred.
“I’ve had enough of you saying one thing and doing another and I’m this far from taking it into my own hands,” Bert warned Fred, holding his finger and thumb a centimetre apart.
“Hey, don’t worry so much. I know what I’m doing. Oh, and by the way, Charlie’s meeting up with Shada tonight at her house so I was thinking maybe you could scare him into confessing that he’s going out with Ariel.”
“In front of Shada? Are you mad?” demanded Bert.
“Erm, well, you have a point there. Maybe you could ask to have a quiet word with him, without Shada.”
Elly and Ariel were walking home. Pete had ordered Ariel to meet him at his house later, but she still had time to go home to do some homework. “Elly?” Ariel asked her best friend.
“Yes?”
“I’ve got “Living is a problem because everything dies” stuck in my head. Is that good or bad?”
Elly knew that Ariel didn’t get songs that weren’t by bands she knew personally (like Bert’s band) stuck in her head easily. “Erm, isn’t that about dying? I’d say bad… are you scared about meeting Pete tonight?”
“No, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“He slapped you,” Elly reminded her.
“Oh yeah.” Ariel lifted a hand to rub her eyes, which were itching. “Also my eyes are itching, does that mean I’ll cry soon? I’ve heard that saying before.” Not waiting for a reply, she continued. “I think this whole thing’s absolutely ridiculous. Whoever told Pete I was cheating on him is so stupid. Don’t you agree?”
“Totally. If anyone told Fred I was cheating on him then he would probably just dump me. Maybe Pete just wants to see what your reaction is. Maybe he’s just feeling a bit jealous.”
“You give the best advice, Ell’,” said Ariel as she reached Elly’s house. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”
“Have a good time at Pete’s,” replied Elly as she went inside.
Meanwhile, Bert was waiting down a nearby street to talk to Charlie. It was getting dark, but he could just see him and Shada approaching, and walked up to meet them.
“Not you again!” Charlie moaned, and turned around to walk away, pulling Shada with him. Shada looked over her shoulder at Bert who was looking very cross. Then Charlie saw her looking. “Wait,” he said. “Shada… you don’t know Bert, do you?”
“Yeah I do,” she replied. “I was Best Se’enarian while he was Best Ninarian, remember? And I was Best Itarian, when he was Best Tenarian.”
“I see,” said Charlie grimly. “So this is what he meant when he said you liked Fred, actually he meant he does like you.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Shada, shaking her head. “Like he would even look at me. He still likes Ariel, you can tell.”
“Everyone likes Ariel,” sighed Charlie.
“Do you like her, Charlie?” Shada asked worriedly.
“No. I never have done, unlike most boys,” he assured her. “I certainly don’t like her now, and that’s what matters the most.” Bert had crept up behind them and heard this, and was surprised.
“Are you sure you don’t like her?” he asked Charlie softly, making him jump. Charlie turned round immediately and saw it was Bert again.
“In answer to your question, yes I’m sure, and you might as well let Pete know that too. I know he can get very jealous, and all these rumours flying round don’t help,” he replied. Shada looked up curiously but didn’t say anything. “Ariel’s meant to be meeting Pete tonight,” Charlie continued. “I hope she’ll be okay. Maybe you should go and make sure, because Pete can be a bit unpredictable sometimes,” he added.
“I’ll do that,” promised Bert and turned to walk away. Just at that moment, Fred appeared from the shadows and cast a spell to wound Charlie in the leg, and then hid again before Charlie could see who had hurt him. “Ow!” Charlie gasped in pain.
“What’s wrong?” asked Shada quickly.
“My leg… Bert! How could you?”
Then they heard a shout. “Fr-aagh!”
Shada turned around to see who it was. She couldn’t see, because it was so dark, but she thought she could see a body lying on the floor some distance away. “Charlie, there’s someone hurt up there,” she began.
“And what am I, scratched?” Charlie moaned. “Look!” he showed Shada his hand which had been holding his leg. It was covered in blood. “Someone must have stabbed me in the leg. I thought it was Bert, but either that’s him up there, lying on the floor, or he hurt that person and ran off. Come on, let’s go and find out.” Charlie hobbled up to the body, with the help of Shada, and they could see it was Bert’s. He was just lying there, with his eyes closed. Then Fred appeared. “Are you okay?” he asked Charlie, concerned. “I saw Bert stab you, in your leg. So I knocked him out for you. Here, let’s bind that leg up for you,” and with that, Fred took off his school shirt, ripped it into strips and bound Charlie’s leg up for him.
“Thanks,” said Charlie in surprise. Shada had gone to sit down on a nearby bench and was now crying with the thought that Bert might be dead – Bert who had comforted her so many times, and always been there for anyone who needed him.
“You know what, Charlie, I shouldn’t be surprised if Shada had something to do with this,” Fred said in a low voice to Charlie. Then he bent over Bert and felt his wrist to find a pulse. He straightened up, looking worried. “I think Bert’s dead,” he told Charlie. Charlie just sighed and looked gloomy. Then Elly walked past on the other side of the road. “Elly!” called Shada, recognising her. Elly looked over and saw Fred with Charlie and Shada. She crossed over and came to talk to them. “Shada, you’re so stupid!” she shouted when she’d heard the tale from Fred. “How dare you kill Bert!”
“What?” asked Shada, frightened and confused. “I haven’t killed anyone. Charlie?” she looked imploringly at Charlie to prove to everyone that she didn’t kill Bert. But Charlie didn’t say anything. This was because he didn’t know what to believe.
So Elly continued shouting at Shada, to try to get rid of her anger. “You know what I think? I think that you’re so ugly, you must have given Charlie a love potion to make him want to go out with you!”
“Do
you now?” Shada asked, trembling with fear and anger. “So everything’s all my
fault is it?” The two girls carried on shouting at each other while the boys
discussed what to do. No one noticed it when Bert disappeared.
Meanwhile, Pete and Ariel were
in the shed at the bottom of his garden. “What’ve I done?” she demanded to
know. She could tell that something was wrong by the look in Pete’s face.
“You gave Charlie your planner,” he told her.
“I didn’t! Ask Charlie, and he’ll tell you that’s a lie!” she begged.
“A likely story! He confessed and now he’s dead,” Pete lied. “And you’re to
join him,” he said as he took from behind him a cup full of poison to kill
Ariel. He made her drink it, and she collapsed on the floor, choking.
Suddenly, a knock sounded at the shed door. Pete jumped. “Who-who’s there?” he asked cautiously.
“It’s me, Elly. Let me in, I’ve got some bad news to tell you,” she sighed.
“Okay,” Pete said shakily and opened the shed door. He opened it because he had a soft spot for Elly, and also because he knew eventually everyone would find out that he had killed Ariel, so there was no point trying to pretend he hadn’t.
“Oh, Pete, so many bad things have happened today!” Elly cried. “You wouldn’t believe it! First Charlie was stabbed by Bert, and then Shada killed Bert! I’d never have thought it possible, but there you have it!”
“What? Shada killed Bert? No, I don’t believe it,” said Pete. “Bert’s not actually dead, is he?”
“Yes, I’ve seen his body,” Elly sobbed. “And where’s Ariel?”
“Here,” murmured a voice. Ariel wasn’t quite dead yet, as the poison took a while to work. Because Pete looked so sad, Elly thought that Ariel was just very ill and that Pete was upset that she was ill.
“You say Charlie was stabbed by Bert?” asked Pete thoughtfully. “Any chance that he’s dead too?”
“I beg your pardon? You surely don’t want another person dead?” Elly questioned incredulously. Then she realised something. Ariel was humming a few bars of the song about dying that she had got stuck in her head earlier that day. “Pete…what have you done to Ariel? I want the truth!”
“The truth? I poisoned her. She was cheating on me. She went out with Charlie.”
“No,
she didn’t. She couldn’t possibly have done!” Elly exclaimed.
“Well, I was acting on information from a reliable source, i.e. your
boyfriend.”
“Fred?” Elly asked, surprised. “But…”
“Yes,” said Pete, looking back at Ariel. “Fred told me he thought she was
secretly going out with Charlie, and then we found out it was true, so I
decided I would have to get rid of her, so she wouldn’t be able to trick any
more boys again.”
“Fred?” Elly asked again in disbelief. “My Fred?”
“Of course it was your Fred! What other Freds do we know?” asked Pete impatiently.
“What other Freds would hatch such an evil plot,” Elly agreed, feeling sad. “That’s it; I’m getting him to come here.” She texted Fred, asking him to come to the shed. She hoped to soften his heart by making him see poor Ariel’s dead body (Ariel was one of his first friends, and he used to fancy her) and then she might get a confession out of him, and maybe Pete could do something about it then. Like lock Fred up for the rest of his life.
Eventually, Fred arrived, with Lyra and Lola who had been informed of Bert’s death by Shada. “How dare you, Fred!” Elly raged. “You are such an evil liar!”
“Me, an evil liar! How dare you!”
“You made Pete believe Charlie and Ariel were secretly going out, when you knew it was a lie!”
“I did nothing of the kind,” Fred replied smoothly. Of course he had really, but it was all for one purpose – to try to get Bert and Ariel back together and also to annoy Charlie because he’d always hated him. He thought that Bert and Ariel were a really good couple and that everything had gone wrong since they split up. He thought that they should stay together – in death, like Larissa and Nicky who had died recently. But he didn’t want anyone to know, because they would just call him a murderer. “You’re mad to think this was all my doing,” he told Elly.
“It’s you who’s mad,” Elly replied hotly.
Pete was upset by everything he’d learnt and sat down to stare at Ariel’s corpse. Then they got more bad news.
“Robin died earlier this evening, of a broken heart,” Lyra suddenly said. Pete and Elly gazed at her in shock.
“That makes three deaths, all in one day,” said Elly in astonishment. “We really have had bad luck this year, what with Larissa and Nicky as well.”
“Just out of interest, does anyone know what happened with Ariel’s planner? Did Ariel actually give it to Charlie?” Pete asked.
“Don’t be stupid! Ariel would never give a planner to Charlie! It had the copy of your leaf on, if you remember, and Ariel treasured that above anything else!” Elly told him. This made Pete extremely upset. Fred stabbed Elly in the back before she could admit anything else (about Bert), and ran out of the shed into the night.
Everyone stood there, shocked. Before Elly died, she told Pete that she and Ariel had always suspected Fred of lying about Ariel and Charlie liking each other. She convinced Pete that Ariel was innocent. Pete now became angry and went out to find Fred. He managed to catch him, and brought him back to the shed. The rest of them stayed inside, discussing everything. Then another knock came at the door. Lola opened it and saw it was Charlie, with Alan and Harry who he had recently made up friends with who were carrying Bert’s body, and also Shada who Charlie had decided he trusted enough to help him get to Pete’s shed. Alan and Harry saw Ariel’s body and thought it would be appropriate to put Bert’s next to hers, seeing as they had gone out for over three years. Fred looked slightly happier, but no one noticed. They were too busy discussing everything that had happened. Lyra was asking Pete if he and Fred had ever talked about killing Charlie.
“Yeah, we did. I was so angry after listening to Charlie talking about Ariel in that way that I was ready to do anything.”
“But… if you mean the time when Fred and me were talking about me getting my job back, I was talking about Shada, not Ariel! You owe me an apology!” demanded Charlie.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry for believing that you liked Ariel and were going out with her behind my back!” said Pete. “Fred, why did you tell me such lies?”
Fred refused to answer. He was spared further questioning by Lyra, who had found a text on Bert’s mobile from Fred about their plans of what to do with Charlie. Then Pete asked Charlie how he came to get Ariel’s planner. “I gave it to Charlie to keep,” Fred admitted.
“Is this true,
Charlie?” Pete asked.
“Yep,” said Charlie, “only not to keep. To look after, were the exact words.”
“I’m an idiot,” remarked Pete. “To believe Fred just because he sounded like he was telling the truth and giving me real proof was obviously a very stupid thing to do. And poor Ariel…”
“Everything seems to be Fred’s fault then, really,” Charlie observed.
“Yes, he’s certainly cruel enough,” agreed Lyra, glaring at Fred. “Let’s lock him in the shed and go into your house, Pete.”
“Okay,” said Pete. “Let’s lock him up here with all the dead bodies, to see if he can feel any remorse by the time you get back.”
Charlie noticed that Pete said “by the time you get back”, not “by the time we get back” and wondered what Pete meant. Maybe he just didn’t want to come back to deal with the dead bodies, especially Ariel’s.
Pete’s parents were out for the night, staying at a relative’s house, so they had the house to themselves. They sat down in the living room, and Pete talked to Charlie about being Best Ellarian, and gave him tips on the job. Charlie began to suspect that Pete might be running away, because he was talking about giving the job up, and Charlie would be the next one in line for it, not including Fred of course. But then Pete began to tell everyone a story.
“Once upon a time, there was a boy who had a really good potion, but just because he couldn’t do magic very well, he chucked it away. And as most people would say, that was completely the wrong attitude to have – he could have at least given it to someone else, who was good at magic. And then the boy found out too late, that it was a very stupid thing to have done, because it turned out that he couldn’t live without the potion. So the boy died.” Then Pete drank the rest of the poison in the cup he had made Ariel drink from, to demonstrate the point of his story, which was now obvious to everyone that it had been about himself (he was the boy) and Ariel (she was the potion).
Charlie was a bit surprised. He had expected Pete to run away, not kill himself. He waited until Pete’s body had been hidden in his shed and then he hobbled off with Shada, Alan and Harry to tell Luke and Louis what had happened, as they had been quite good friends of Pete’s.
The next day before school, all the Ellarians, except Fred, Charlie, who had decided to give up being an important Ellarian and spend more of his time with Shada, and obviously the ones who were dead, met upstairs in Music in the second practice room. There were only six of them there.
“Everyone,” Luke
began. “I’ve called this meeting now because there is a very sad matter to
discuss. It involves Pete, who was Best Ellarian and is now dead…, and Charlie,
the old Second-Best Ellarian, and Fred, the new Second-Best Ellarian. All other
Ellarians that aren’t here are Elly and Ariel. They’re dead. Robin has also
died, but that’s a different story. I’ll try to explain everything as best as I
can, but…”
Then suddenly there was an explosion. Everything went black.
The dead Robin looked down from ‘Heaven Academy’ and smiled to himself. Just before he had died he had cast a spell to make them call an Ellarian meeting in the second Music practice room just before school the following day, and then he had put an exploding potion there, which would have the effect of a bomb. It had killed all the six Ellarians in the practice room and blown a huge hole out of Music. It had also killed five girls who had been practicing for the Christmas concert. They were Lucy (a Year Nine student), Xanthe (a Year Ten student), Arwen and Francesca (two Year Elevens) and Sophie (who was Nicky’s sister who was in the first Year of the school’s sixth form). But blowing up the girls was accidental. The reason why Robin had blown up Music was because he had been so heartbroken after finding out what Bert wanted to do (he had used a truth spell on Bert) that he had ruthlessly decided to make all his friends die too. And now, he realised, they would all be making their way up to meet him...
The End
