Chapter 2
During their lunch break that afternoon, Nick and Bill spotted their Geography teacher sneaking off across the playing field, clutching a battered brown briefcase tightly to his chest. He was heading in the direction of the shed, where the school buses were kept. The boys quickly scoffed down their sandwiches and followed him. From a distance, it sounded like Mr. Hipobaum was humming a tune to himself. He was too far away for them to identify it clearly. When they reached the shed, they hid behind a bush just outside the entrance where they saw Mr. Hipobaum trying to open a padlock. His hands were shaking so much with excitement that he was fumbling badly. What he was excited about, the boys could only guess. A little closer to him now, they could make out the words to the rhyme he was singing.
“Is that When you wish upon a star?” asked Bill quietly.
“It sure is. The same words over and over,” whispered Nick. “How weird.”
Mr. Hipobaum eventually got the door open and after a cautious glance over his shoulder, slipped through as elegantly as his enormous bulk would allow. Ever curious, the boys crept up to the grimy window that was slightly open and peered in. They could still hear him singing that silly nursery rhyme as they watched him open a small metal box that was fixed to the far wall.
“Isn’t the school shed out of bounds to pupils?” said a deep voice suddenly behind them. They spun around quickly only to see their Headmaster, Mr. Winiger towering above them. “What are you doing here?” he asked sternly.
“Er, nothing sir,” mumbled Nick, looking down at his shoes.
“We um, thought we saw a rabbit and we followed it here?” offered Bill. It was weak but the best he could do for an excuse on such short notice.
“Well, you two best go and join your classmates and don’t ever let me catch you sneaking around here again,” warned the Headmaster.
Nick and Bill hurried off, relieved but somewhat surprised that they didn’t get into more trouble.
“That was close!” said Bill, a little breathless.
“I know,” said Nick “But the question is, what was he doing there?”
“He was opening a metal box,” replied Bill. “Didn’t you see?”
“No, I mean the Headmaster,” said Nick. “Mr. Winiger.”
“I wonder …” said Bill. “If it involves him, it must be big.”
“Yes, Titanic!” said Nick, very pleased with himself for once in his life beating Bill at his little nic game.
When the final bell of the day dismissed the students, Nick asked Bill if he could sleep over at his house that night.
“Of course you can mate, I’ll just have to ask my Mom. Got something up your sleeve, haven’t you?” asked Bill on the way to the courtyard. It was thronging with chattering parents who had come to fetch their children. Even though Bill lived around the corner from the school, his Mom still came to walk him home every day. It gave her a chance to chat to Audrey, Nick’s mother.
“Of course I have but I’ll tell you later,” Nick whispered when they got there.
Their mothers were used to the two of them sleeping at each other’s houses and thankfully didn’t mind this time either.
Mrs Pennysworth was making spaghetti bolognaise from the Jamie Oliver recipe book she got for her birthday that year. It had ground nutmeg sprinkled over the top and everything. It was delicious. Mr. Pennysworth described it using very long words like ‘superbly palatable’ and ‘astonishingly delectable’. Bill’s little sister Emmy, who was only three, tried to copy her father’s words but they came out like ‘bubbly bubble-able’ and ‘polishy bu-lickable’ which made everyone at the table laugh. After dinner, the two boys went up to Bill’s room to set up the sleeper couch for Nick.
“So, what’s your plan Mr. Taylor?” asked Bill.
Nick replied with a question of his own, “You got a torch?”
“Oh boy, we’re going back to the school tonight, aren’t we?” said Bill with a sigh, knowing perfectly well that they were.
“We have to find out what old Hippobottomus is hiding and I’ll bet my Dragon- Master pendent it’s in that shed.”
They waited for Bill’s parents to go to sleep before they snuck out. They both knew that students could get expelled for being in the school grounds at night but the allure of a mystery was too strong. They cautiously approached the shed they had seen Mr. Hipobaum enter earlier that day. Sodium lamps cast a sickly orange-yellow glow over the grounds and they had to be careful to stick to the shadows. Because they did not have a key for the padlock, they wriggled through the open shed window and crouched in the semi-darkness. They waited for a few moments, listening for any sign that they had been seen. Nobody came running, nobody came shouting. They were safe, for now.