Another escapade similar to
the hijinks you can get up to with raised floors.
End of third term (in a 4 term year), 7th form (that's the last year of high school here). The teacher's late, and Kieran, Andrew, and I are standing under the trapdoor in the ceiling which we've been eyeing all year.
The decision, is made, we maneuver a desk into position, and climb in. No real plan, just being bastards I guess. After Shannon removes the implements of subversion from their telltale positioning immediately below the door, we replace it and wait for the teacher to arrive. We can hear everything that's going on below, of course...
The cast:
- Leith (myself, Pseudomancer) - the class' most arrogant member. I always argue with the teacher, because she's always either wrong or presenting such a simplified interpretation as to be wrong anyway.
- Kieran - class music geek. He and I drove our teachers mad percussing the desks that year.
- Andrew - class hunk. Does rock-climbing to a high level, can lift self onto anything provided he can get his hands on it.
The plot:
At about this point everything went horribly wrong, though we didn't realise it yet. Substitute teacher...
Ah hell I'm sleepy and I'm not afraid to admit it. I'm off to bed, and you can have the rest of the damn story, the bit with the fire alarm and the broken ceiling, the rats and the impromptu engineering in about 24 hours.
16 hours later, after sleeping...
Aiiee, I can't believe this got upvoted in my absence... anyway, on with the story.
So we maneuvered for a bit, getting the hang of not falling through the ceiling. Turned out I was the most experienced, a fact that mystifies me to this day, so a hushed crash course in what = solid was in order. After a bit I risked a peek into the class... this young serious-looking substitute guy had replaced our normally tolerant english teacher! Nooo!
Ah this story is already boring the shit out of me. We panicked for a bit, came up with a few plans, gave Shannon some tips on the chess game he was playing directly underneath us, panicked again when the sub wandered over to watch, and then, reassured by the state of general anarchy which had developed, I jumped out of the roof, dusted my hands off, and said
"Nope, no rats in there."
Then Kieran jumped out after me (Nearby observers heard me mutter "Hmmm, seems I was mistaken...") and everything was cool until the sub asked "Any more of you up there?" and two things happened simultaneously.
Andrew's foot came through the ceiling at precisely the same moment that the fire alarm went off. Do not underestimate the amount of panic this can make you feel.
From this point on the story gets silly, but suffice it to say we got away with it, all thanks to that fire alarm.