The Demon Headmaster

by Cross, Gillian

  ‘I told you. We saw a film. It was a film about ants.’ She was talking in that steady, reciting voice again. ‘It was very interesting. We saw how they build their nests and look after their eggs and how their queen lives.’

  ‘That’s what you said before.’ Harvey bounced up. ‘It’s exactly what you said before.’

  ‘And it’s not true.’ Lloyd banged his hand down on the table. ‘So why do you keep saying it?’

  ‘I—I don’t know.’ For a moment, Dinah looked bewildered. Then her face pinched. ‘I don’t want to talk about it. Why do you keep going on about it?’

  ‘Because it’s ridiculous,’ Lloyd snapped. ‘You heard what Harvey saw.’

  Dinah was beginning to look annoyed. A faint pink flush ran along her cheekbones, and the tip of her nose turned white.

  ‘You hadn’t got any business to be seeing anything,’ she said crossly. ‘What did you think you were doing, snooping around like that?’

  ‘I thought there was something peculiar going on,’ Harvey said mildly. ‘And I was right, wasn’t I?’

  ‘You don’t know anything about it,’ Dinah muttered. ‘And if you go on nosing, you’ll get into trouble.’

  ‘I told you not to tell her anything, H!’ Lloyd burst out. ‘Bright green baked beans! Suppose she goes off and tells the Headmaster what you said?’

  Harvey turned pale. ‘Oh, but she wouldn’t do that. Would you, Di?’

  ‘Of course not,’ Dinah started to say. Then she stopped and looked craftily at Lloyd. ‘At least, I might be tempted to. If you don’t leave me alone.’

  ‘Don’t you dare!’ Lloyd jumped to his feet. ‘Harvey hasn’t done anything wrong.’

  ‘Oh no?’ Dinah said triumphantly. ‘Then why is he looking so scared?’

  She was right. Harvey’s round face had crumpled with fright, and he was twitching nervously at the edge of his jumper.

  ‘He was silly, that’s all,’ Lloyd said. ‘I’ve told him a hundred times not to get involved with things. But he didn’t do anything wrong.’

  ‘Can’t he speak for himself?’ Dinah said scornfully. ‘Look at him. He’s shaking like a jelly. He’s nothing but a baby. Running round the school and peering in at windows. It’s so childish.’

  ‘That’s all you know.’ Lloyd had gone red in the face. ‘It was a silly thing to do, but it was very brave. Only I don’t suppose you would understand.’

  ‘Why not?’ Suddenly, Dinah went very quiet. She stopped looking at Lloyd and turned to Harvey. ‘Why don’t you explain to me? I know he doesn’t like me—’ she waved a hand towards Lloyd ‘—but you’ve been quite nice really. And I want to understand. Why was it so brave of you to look in at the Hall?’

  ‘Don’t tell her a thing,’ Lloyd said sharply.

  ‘Go on,’ Dinah said in a soft voice. ‘Tell me, Harvey. What’s going on in that school? Why is everyone so well-behaved? And what do you think happens in Assembly?’

  ‘I—I don’t know,’ Harvey stuttered, ‘but—’

  Suddenly, Lloyd darted at Dinah, pushing her through the door and into the hall, with one gigantic shove. Slamming the door shut, he leaned against it and glared at Harvey.

  ‘Haven’t you got any sense at all, H? Can’t you get it into your thick head that she’s one of them? If you tell her anything—anything at all—she’ll probably go off and repeat it all to the Headmaster. And then you’ll get me and all the others into trouble as well.’

  Harvey went even paler. ‘I don’t think she would. Not really. Would she?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Lloyd said grimly. ‘We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?’

  Harvey chewed nervously at the end of his finger.

  From outside in the hall came the sound of voices. Mr Hunter had come in and he was saying to Dinah, ‘How did you get on at school, then? What do you think of it?’

  Dinah’s mechanical voice came clearly through the door.

  ‘I think the Headmaster is a marvellous man and this is the best school I’ve ever been to.’

  6

  Snow

  Dinah sat up in bed for a long time that night, a stiff little figure in a white nightdress, hugging her knees. She knew that there was something wrong about the school, with its well-behaved children, all doing the right thing at the right moment, but she could not understand what it was. And she knew that she did not like the Headmaster at all. She could not understand why she kept saying how wonderful he was. She hated not understanding things.

  In the end, she did what she always did when things baffled her. Slipping quietly out of bed, she pulled back the curtains so that the room was lit by moonlight from outside. Then she went to stand in front of the mirror. Pale and prim, her reflection stared back at her, the eyes thoughtful and the mouth pursed up, considering.

  ‘Well?’ she murmured. ‘What’s wrong? Why is the school so peculiar?’

  Gazing into her own eyes, she suddenly knew the answer. Fear. It’s because they’re all afraid.

  She nodded briskly. Yes, that was the right answer. ‘But what are they afraid of?’

  The reflection stared back, unwinking, and she heard the reply in her head. That’s what you’ll have to find out.

  ‘How?’ But she hardly needed to ask. The answer to that one was obvious.

  You’ll have to be naughty, and see what happens to you.

  Her hands, clasped on top of the dressing table, began to shake slightly, but the face that looked back at her out of the mirror was amused.

  See? You’re afraid yourself, and you don’t know why.

  Defiantly, she stuck her chin up and pulled a face into the mirror. ‘I don’t care if I am scared,’ she said out loud. ‘I want to know, and if that’s the only way to find out, that’s what I’ll do.’

  With a determined hand, she closed the curtains and climbed back into bed, feeling as though she had settled something. Curling up under the covers, she fell asleep trying to think of something bad she could do.

  When the morning came, she was still considering. She did not expect Lloyd and Harvey to speak to her after their quarrel the day before, and she came down to breakfast in a proud silence, not saying anything even to Mrs Hunter. But things were a bit different. Something had happened that she had not counted on.

  It had finally snowed. Outside in the garden, a white, unbroken sheet stretched across the grass, gleaming in the crisp, clear light. And Harvey was so excited that he had forgotten about everything else. He wriggled delightedly in his chair.

  ‘Oh, I wish we didn’t have to go to school today. Don’t you, Di?’

  ‘Sky-blue sandwiches!’ snorted Lloyd, his mouth full of porridge. ‘D’you ever want to go to school?’

  ‘No, but it’s different today,’ Harvey said earnestly. ‘If we stayed at home, we could build a snowman and have a snowball fight and—oh, Mum, couldn’t we?’

  ‘Don’t be silly, dear,’ Mrs Hunter said placidly. ‘There’s no point in asking questions like that. Just make sure you wrap up warmly. You know the cold’s bad for your chest.’

  She hovered over them while they dressed, insisting on bundling Harvey up in extra scarves and gloves, until he looked like a little round parcel. And all the time he was hopping up and down, peering longingly out of the window at the snow. When she finally let them go, Harvey ran joyfully outside and kicked his boots about, scattering a fine dust of snow.

  ‘Oh, it’s beautiful! It’s lovely! Don’t you think it’s gorgeous, Di?’

  ‘Yes, I like snow,’ she said dreamily. ‘We used to have terrific snowball fights at the Children’s Home. The sort where you pick sides and build up great stocks of snowballs before you start.’

  ‘Oh, fantastic!’ Harvey reached down for a handful of snow.

  ‘Come on!’ Lloyd said crossly. ‘We’ll be late for school.’

  Harvey’s face drooped. Still deep in her own thoughts, Dinah said, ‘We could always have a snowball fight in the playground. In morning playtime.
’

  She was so busy thinking of her own plans for the day, that she did not notice how Harvey brightened and started to whistle. All she could think of was that she had found a good way to be naughty.

  She was so busy thinking, in fact, that she walked into school and into her classroom in a daze. It was not until she was sitting in her desk that she realized that she had automatically moved into line and marched in with the others, as if she had been told what to do. But she did not remember anyone having told her.

  Before she had time to work that one out, however, she had another surprise. Mr Venables, the class teacher, was giving out pieces of paper.

  ‘This morning,’ he said, as he moved round the room, ‘I want you to write down everything you know about the solar system.’

  As it happened, Dinah knew a great deal about the solar system. But she had no intention of writing it all down. That would be asking for trouble. She settled down to consider what she could safely say. But before she had thought about it at all, she found herself writing, in strange, stiff little sentences:

  ‘The planets of the solar system are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

  The Sun is the star of the solar system.

  The Earth is 0.137 light-hours from the Sun.

  The magnitude of the Sun is –29.6.’

  She stopped, with an effort, and stared at the last sentence she had written. But I didn’t know that, she thought. She never remembered seeing that particular piece of information before. Yet there it was, confidently written down on her piece of paper, as though someone had slipped it into her head without her knowing.

  Cautiously, she leaned sideways, to glance at the paper on the desk next to her. The boy beside her had just written, ‘The magnitude of the Sun is –29.6.’

  Although the classroom was warm, she found herself shivering. Everyone in the room was scribbling busily, and she was suddenly sure that they had all just written, ‘The magnitude of the Sun is –29.6.’ Thirty little robots, all obediently writing down the same things, things that had been put into their heads for them. The only person who was not writing was Lloyd. He was chewing the end of his pencil, as if he did not know very much about the solar system. Dinah let herself feel a little quiver of mean pleasure that he was in trouble. Then she started to write again, and the information went on pouring out. Most of it she knew, but every now and again came a little bit she did not.

  And as she wrote, she pursed her lips together determinedly. Things were getting queerer and queerer. And she would find out why. She would.

  At playtime, she put on her hat and coat and marched out into the playground, ready to carry out her plan. Without speaking to anyone, she knelt down and began to make a heap of snowballs, intending to throw them when she had a pile of ten.

  But she had reckoned without Harvey. When she was only halfway through, he came bounding across to her, past all the groups of children chanting tables and dates.

  ‘Oh, Di! You remembered!’

  ‘What?’ She looked up, vaguely.

  ‘You remembered. We really are going to have a snowball fight!’

  Suddenly she realized what she had done. ‘No, Harvey! I didn’t mean you.’

  ‘Don’t be a spoilsport.’ He bent down and picked up two of the snowballs she had made.

  Almost at once, Lloyd was there. He came bounding across the playground at top speed. ‘H! What are you doing?’

  ‘We’re going to have a snowball fight,’ Harvey said cheerfully. ‘It’s Di’s idea.’

  ‘Don’t be an idiot.’ Lloyd knocked the snowballs out of his hands. ‘Let her get into trouble if she wants to, but don’t you get mixed up with it.’

  ‘That’s right,’ Dinah said. She did not realize how odd it sounded until she saw Lloyd staring at her. She stared back defiantly, and while the two of them were distracted, Harvey stooped down and picked up two more snowballs.

  ‘I think you’re both horrible!’ he shouted. ‘And I will have a snowball fight. The snow might be all gone by tomorrow.’

  His yell sounded eerily loud among the mutters in the playground. As he drew his right arm back to throw, Lloyd shouted warningly, ‘H! No!’ And from the other side of the playground came the sound of Ian’s voice, calling, ‘Watch out, you lot!’

  But it was too late. As total silence fell over the playground, the two snowballs flew from Harvey’s gloved hands and spattered messily, one on Lloyd’s coat and one on Dinah’s.

  ‘Lloyd and Harvey Hunter! Dinah Glass! Come here!’ bellowed a voice from the steps.

  Ranged on the steps, the prefects were staring at them, a row of six stern faces. Slowly, Lloyd, Harvey, and Dinah walked to the foot of the steps and stood looking up.

  ‘Wait there!’ Rose said curtly. ‘We’ll deal with you when the others have gone inside.’

  7

  The Punishment

  As Rose began to call out orders, the neat rows of children formed and filed into the building. Lloyd, Harvey, and Dinah stood awkwardly, not looking at each other, until the whole playground was empty and they were alone, gazing up at the prefects, who stood like a row of iron statues.

  Jeff stared down at them and chanted, ‘It is forbidden to waste time by playing in the playground.’

  ‘It is forbidden,’ Rose went on, ‘to make a mess of your school uniform.’

  ‘You must be punished,’ Sarah said.

  ‘In a suitable manner,’ finished off Simon, smiling slightly.

  Drawing together, the prefects whispered for a moment and then Rose turned to them again. ‘Go inside,’ she rapped out. ‘Take off your hats and coats and gloves. Then come back here.’

  As they walked towards the cloakroom, Dinah whispered to Lloyd, ‘What will happen? What will they do?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said sourly. ‘But whatever it is, it’ll be all your fault. I wish you’d never come.’

  ‘No, it’s my fault,’ Harvey said in a miserable voice. ‘I threw the snowballs. And whatever they do, it’ll be terrible.’

  When they came out of the door again, four of the prefects had gone. Rose was standing looking out over the playground, with a pleased smile on her face, and Jeff was by her side, holding three long-handled brooms.

  ‘Now,’ he said in a silky voice, ‘you’re very lucky. We’ve decided to be kind to you.’

  Lloyd and Harvey looked uneasily at each other.

  ‘Yes.’ Rose’s smile broadened. ‘Because you’re so fond of playing with the snow, we’re going to let you have some more of it.’

  Jeff held out the brooms. ‘You will each take one of these, and you will sweep all the snow from the playground into a heap. Then,’ he looked at Rose, with a grin, ‘you will make the whole heap into a pile of snowballs.’

  For a second, Harvey looked perplexed, but Lloyd burst out, ‘Aren’t you going to let us put on our coats and things?’

  Rose went on smiling. ‘Certainly not.’

  ‘But you can’t do that! Harvey’s got a weak chest. He could be ill. He—’

  ‘Silence!’

  ‘Suppose we say no?’ asked Dinah, in a stiff voice.

  Rose and Jeff looked at her as if she had said something unbelievably stupid. Together, they chanted, ‘The prefects are the voice of the Headmaster. They must be obeyed.’

  Then Jeff thrust the brooms at them. ‘Get sweeping!’

  Resigned, Lloyd and Harvey trailed off down the steps, dragging their brooms after them. Dinah lingered rebelliously for a second or two, then joined them at the far end of the playground.

  ‘Let’s do it as quickly as we can,’ she said. ‘Perhaps that’ll keep us warm.’

  ‘Huh!’ Lloyd snorted. ‘Don’t know why you’re so cheerful. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t started talking about snowball fights.’

  He banged his broom crossly into the snow and began to sweep, pushing it into a great white mound in front of him.

  For the firs
t ten minutes or so, it was not too bad. The exercise kept them fairly warm. But then the wind started to blow, scattering the snow as they swept it and freezing their fingers.

  ‘I’m so cold,’ Harvey said plaintively. ‘And we’re only halfway across. We’ll never get it all swept.’

  ‘Don’t give up yet,’ Lloyd said grimly. ‘This is the easy part. Just you wait until we start on the snowballs.’

  Dinah shuddered at the thought, as the wind whipped through her thin school shirt. Then she found that she could not stop shivering. Her whole body was shaking, and her teeth were clattering together uncontrollably. She put down her broom for a moment to clap her arms round herself, for a bit of warmth.

  Instantly, from the building behind them, came an irate rapping. Turning, she saw Rose gesturing furiously at her through the window. She picked up her broom again and began to sweep harder, trying to ignore the shaking.

  At last the snow was piled into a single heap, almost as tall as Harvey. The three of them laid their brooms down at one side and stared at it.

  ‘I don’t think I can do it,’ Harvey said woefully. ‘My hands are hurting.’

  Lloyd watched him anxiously. His face had a bluish tinge and he was starting to breathe wheezily.

  ‘Why don’t you stop?’ Dinah said. ‘Tell them you won’t do it. I don’t suppose the Headmaster would really be angry. He must see—’ Then her teeth rattled together so hard that she could not go on speaking.

  Lloyd and Harvey said nothing. Just looked at her as though she were completely idiotic and bent down to start making snowballs.

  ‘Oh, all right,’ she said crossly. ‘Be like that. I bet I can make snowballs faster than you.’

  As soon as she touched the snow, she knew that it was going to be a nightmare. Her hands were already painfully cold, but at least they had been dry up to now. The snow made them wet, and the cold wind, whipping across, stung them so that they felt almost as if they were burning. Anxiously, she wondered how long it would take before she got frostbite and her fingers started to turn black and drop off.

  It would not have been quite so bad if Lloyd and Harvey had been sympathetic, but neither of them spoke to her. Lloyd was making snowballs in a frenzy, trying to get through the huge heap as quickly as possible. If he looked at her at all, it was only to pull a disgusted face. And Harvey had started to cry. Without stopping work, he was sobbing with pain, his face growing red and raw now as the wind scoured the tears from his round cheeks.