On the opening night of Beauty and the Beast, the audience chattered cheerily as they took their seats in front of the stage in the school assembly hall. Behind the red curtain, Will had finished his technical preparations for the Pong Plot and was making sure his parents were not in their seats. He’d used every excuse he could think of to keep them away, and was relieved to see that it had worked.
‘You’re not in your costume!’ shrieked a startled voice.
Will snatched the curtains back together and turned round to find Miss Star standing behind him, her arms loaded with a pile of tatty scripts. The drama teacher had been running around like a headless chicken for the past hour and judging by her untidy appearance, the school play was starting to take its toll.
‘Er, I was just about to change,’ said Will, and he was hurrying forward when the teacher dropped the scripts all over the floor and burst into tears. ‘Are you OK, Miss Star?’ he frowned, gathering up the sheets of paper.
‘Oh, I just have a lot on my mind,’ she gasped, mopping her eyes with a tissue.
Will had a lot on his mind too, and many things still to do before the Monster Mob arrived. Getting the drama teacher out of the way was one of them, but he had no idea how to do it.
‘I can hand these out for you,’ he offered, shuffling the scripts into a pile. But he stood up to see Miss Star sprinting down the corridor, sobbing loudly as she burst through the exit doors. ‘The St Margaret’s school play finally got the better of her,’ Will sighed, and crossed the drama teacher off his mental list of things to do.
A nearby classroom had been turned into a changing room where the children were merrily pulling on their costumes. With all the hustle and bustle no one paid any attention as Will dumped the scripts on a table, grabbed two foam tree costumes and hid them under the stage. He then legged it down the corridor to the school canteen where Urk would soon be arriving through a hidden doorway.
Will poked his head through the double doors and looked around for his friend.
‘Pssst!’ said the large potted fern in the corner of the empty hall.
Still having no idea where the Monster Mob planned to enter the school, Will held his breath as the plant began to rustle. Then he sighed with relief as Urk stepped through the leaves and waved at him.
‘How’s it going?’ asked the monster, trotting over to his friend.
‘OK so far,’ said Will, leading Urk back through the empty corridor. ‘Luckily the drama teacher has fled the scene, but we still have to make sure my classmates are safe before Rumblefart and his Monster Mob arrive.’
‘What about the undercover monster?’ asked Urk.
‘I’ve been watching Grant Butcher all afternoon,’ said Will. ‘But I lost track of him while I was setting up the stage. He’s not in the changing room, which means he must have crept away to meet with the mob.’
‘Well, I managed to swap the Stinkypink sack with the one filled with roses,’ said Urk, blinking at the bright interior of the school. ‘And Miffni and Pong Pong left early this evening to deliver them to Rumblefart.’
‘What did you do with the real Stinkypink sack?’ asked Will.
‘I stuffed it under Miffni’s bed.’ Urk laughed. ‘Her room is so smelly she won’t even know they’re there!’
As they approached the noisy changing room, Urk and Will pressed their backs against the wall and Will quickly poked his head round the door. Miss Star hadn’t returned and Grant was still nowhere to be seen, but all the other kids were present so he gave Urk the nod.
‘Are you sure we can’t just shut the door and lock it?’ Urk whispered.
‘We discussed this last night and decided it was too dangerous,’ said Will, knowing this part of the Pong Plot would only work if his friend could be scary. ‘Rumblefart’s gassy bottom might start a fire!’
‘So it’s up to me to make sure they stay in there,’ Urk sighed.
‘I know you can do it,’ said Will. ‘Just pretend it’s a play and act like you’re terrifying.’
Urk counted to three and then leapt into the doorway waving his arms above his head while Will stayed hidden and waited for the screams. When the screams didn’t come and Urk’s arms looked like they were getting tired, Will leaned sideways to speak to his friend.
‘What’s happening?’ he whispered.
‘Nothing,’ said Urk, through the corner of his mouth. ‘They’re not even looking!’
‘Then make some noise,’ Will suggested. ‘Growl at them.’
Urk cleared his throat with a series of short coughs and let out an almighty
ROAR! The young monster was not very big or scary to look at, but he had an impressive pair of lungs that more than made up for it.
The chatter in the classroom halted abruptly and everyone turned their heads towards the noise. Upon seeing the monster their silence was quickly replaced with screams of terror, followed by the thunder of footsteps heading for the doorway – where Urk immediately froze.
‘Flap your arms again!’ Will gasped, as the stampede drew closer. ‘Or they’ll trample you to death!’
Urk quickly threw his arms around and added more growls and snarls for good measure. The kids that had intended to charge straight through him swiftly changed their minds and screeched to a halt, slamming the door to keep the monster out and tugging the blind across the window.
‘Phew!’ sighed Will. ‘I thought I was going to have to scrape you off the floor!’
‘Me too!’ gasped Urk, feeling quite proud of himself when he heard desks and chairs being dragged in front of the door. ‘Now let’s hope you don’t freeze like that when we get on stage!’
‘Speaking of which, we’d better get changed,’ said Will, hurrying to the backstage area and pulling out the tree costumes. He sized them up and passed the smaller one to Urk. ‘We can’t risk Miffni recognizing you when the Monster Mob arrive!’
The two friends slipped into the foam tree trunks and shifted them around until they were peering through the eyeholes. It was now five minutes to seven, so they shuffled off to keep a lookout for Rumblefart.
The night before, Urk had studied a map of hidden doorways alongside Will’s rough blueprint of the school and decided the rear entrance was the most likely place where the monsters would arrive – especially if Rumblefart had someone working on the inside. So the two trees took up positions either side of the corridor and waited.
While Will and Urk’s sights were fixed on the rear doors of the school, they heard the flush of a toilet chain and the bang of another door behind them. This was followed by footsteps stomping along the corridor towards them.
The pair exchanged worried glances before shuffling round, and standing before them was a monster.