Terror at the Sweet Shop
Page 5
“This is only the beginning! Soon every school will follow my rules. Every child will respect my orders or spend the rest of their lives as a beast of my choosing! These four disgusting vermin will be prime examples! Being fish is too good for them. Watch how I transform them into worms to feed to the fish!” she cried with her piercing cackle.
She closed in on the gang once again as they ducked behind the wall, trying not to make eye contact. Miss Primrose closed the distance slowly, deliberately, each step bringing doom closer to the gang of friends.
However, with each step another noise grew – a distant siren was growing louder and louder by the second until a huge fire engine pulled up in the playground. Driving it was Reece’s dad. He shot out of the truck closely followed by his wife, Mr Baker, Miss Tarrant and Mr and Mrs Kahn.
Reece’s dad grabbed the hose from the fire truck and pointed it directly at Miss Primrose as she turned to face them.
“Give it up!” Reece’s dad, Mr Goodman, called out.
Miss Primrose knew at this point there wasn’t much she could do. She was either going to prison or going to be finished once and for all. If she was going down she was going to take Oscar and the gang with her. Her eyes turned bright red with anger, and fire crackled around her fingertips once more. As the flames licked around her wizened hands she screamed and began to launch magical fire at the friends. The second she moved she was met by a torrent of water as Mr Goodman released the hose and unleashed a jet of witch-melting water directly onto the evil Miss Primrose.
Her scream of anger suddenly turned into a scream of pain; a most disturbing sound. Her body shrank and melted away as the water soaked her from head to toe. Her body and clothes dissolved, leaving only green sludge on the playground floor. A foul burning smell emerged from the slime that had once been Miss Primrose and the children were disgusted. It was revolting; even worse than the REEKFEST 4000.
Before too long, Miss Primrose had completely vanished.
19
THE KIDS IN THE PLAYGROUND couldn’t believe what they had witnessed. Admiring the slime that had once been their evil headmistress, a slow cheer filled the playground as the realisation dawned that Miss Primrose was no more. But the cheering was soon abandoned as the kids ran over to poor Mr McNulty’s cat body.
They all had tears in their eyes; all except Ishy, who was crying like a baby.
“He saved us,” Oscar croaked.
“Sacrificed himself for us!” cried Emma.
Suddenly, however, a white glow appeared from the cat’s body and a huge white flash eclipsed the whole playground. To everyone’s shock, Mr McNulty was now lying on the playground in human form.
He opened his eyes and began to cough. “You’d be surprised what you can live through,” he said in a wheezy tone. “I did have one life left after all,” he added with a wink.
The kids all gave Mr McNulty a huge hug. They were relieved. It didn’t take too long for Mr McNulty to get back to his old self, soon asking if anyone knew what happened to his toupee.
Fortunately, the spell had also broken on Mr Fazey and Mikey, who transformed back into human form in the fish tank. Needless to say, the tank cracked and exploded with them inside it, but they were fine. It just took them a while to get used to walking again.
Emma ran over to her dad and gave him a huge hug.
“Emma, I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you. When you left for school this morning I kept thinking and thinking about what you said. I know you needed me and I haven’t been there for you recently. But I’m here now, I promise. I spoke to your friends’ parents and we knew we had to listen and do something. Your mum always told me no matter what happens I need to be there for you. I promise I will never fail you or her again. The truth is Emma, none of us has long on this Earth; life is fleeting. I promise from now on we are going to make every second count,” said Mr Baker as he embraced Emma in a hug once more.
“You should have seen him, Emma! The way he got all the parents together! He was a real life hero,” Miss Tarrant said as she kissed Mr Baker on the cheek.
“Eeeeewww Mum!” cried Oscar.
“I’m sorry too, sweetie,” Miss Tarrant said to Oscar as she held her son tightly.
Ishy’s mum and dad were making the most of the opportunity by handing out restaurant vouchers to all the kids in the playground. “Make sure you tell your parents it’s two for one on Tuesdays!” Mr Kahn cried.
As for Reece’s parents; well, Mrs Goodman was so impressed with Mr Goodman’s heroic bravery she was too busy smooching the face off her husband to speak.
“Worst day ever…” Reece muttered to himself.
20
THINGS SLOWLY AND SURELY got back to normal. Mr McNulty was now back in his rightful place at the sweet shop. He got rid of the horrible tainted sweets Miss Primrose was serving and brought back all the sweets the kids loved. He also accepted life without a toupee and was very proud to sport his bald head.
Mr Fazey was back as head teacher at the school and his office was turned back into the Elvis shrine it had been before.
Unfortunately Mikey had actually become accustomed to eating worms. It took his parents a while to get him off them, but eventually he stopped. It did take him a while to set foot in a sweet shop again, but who can blame him really?
The kids were heroes. They were allowed free sweets from Mr McNulty’s shop every Friday, which made Fridays even more delightful.
Emma had her dad back. He unplugged the telly and never got round to plugging it back in. TV was replaced by evening walks and a new adventure every day.
Shortly after the demise of Miss Primrose, Mr Baker and Miss Tarrant started to date. This was a bit awkward for Oscar and Emma at first and led to a few jokes being thrown at them by Ishy and Reece, but they soon got over it. They were both pleased to see their parents happy and enjoying each other’s company.
Ishy’s parents’ restaurant got even more popular! As soon as Mr Kahn introduced his latest dish, ‘Chicken Primrose’, people would travel from miles to try it.
As for Reece’s parents, I’m pretty sure they are still smooching in the playground.
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