Spike+Becomes+Principal

Spike Becomes Principal

Spike had been observing Mr Du from the top of his bookshelf for several weeks. He had watched him talking on the phone, he had watched him working on the computer and he had watched him writing in his diary.

On this particular day Mr du was typing on his computer when a message flashed up on the screen: ‘Meeting Mt Cook School 10:00.’ When Mr du had read this message he leapt out of his seat, grabbed his coat and rushed past the school reception and out the front door to his car.

Hela, the receptionist, did not see him leave because she was in the staffroom setting up for morningtea.

Spike saw his chance. He swung down from the top shelf and was soon sitting in Mr du’s chair. He had observed Mr du working at the computer and had figured out some of the programmes he used. Once he had found a cushion to raise him up to a better height, he opened Mr du’s email and began to type. He typed quickly: “Banana emergency. We need three hundred bananas immediately.” He addressed the email to Hela, put ‘Emergency’ in the subject line and pushed ‘Send’. He then climbed back up onto the top shelf of the bookcase and pretended to be asleep.

When Hela got back from the staffroom she saw there was an email from Mr du. It was wasn’t often that she received an email with the title ‘Emergency’ so she immediately leapt into action. She took the school card and walked across the road to the New World supermarket. There she chose a large trolley, wheeled it to the produce section and proceeded to fill the trolley with ‘free trade’ bananas.

Once Hela had taken the trolley through check out, she pushed it across the road, past the pool, through reception and into Mr Du’s office. Mr Du was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had been called to one of the classrooms, or was consulting with the caretaker or was visiting the bathroom. Wherever he was, her mission was complete and she could go back to her normal duties.

Spiked jumped down from the top of the bookshelf straight into the trolley. He then wrestled a large bunch of bananas free from the rest and dragged it back to the top of the bookshelf. Spike made himself comfortable and proceeded to eat bananas, throwing the skins on the floor as he went. When he couldn’t eat another banana he lay down on the shelf and had a nap.

When Mr du had finished his meeting he drove back to school and entered the office through the reception. Hela was not surprised to see him come in as she hadn’t been in his office earlier. Without much ado Mr du walked into his office, took off his coat and stepped across the room. He was surprised to see a large object parked in front of him. He moved closer to see what was in the trolley. As he did so his foot came down on one of Spike’s banana skins. As he moved his weight onto this foot, it shot out from under him and he fell to the floor on his bottom.

When he had recovered himself he surveyed the scene: numerous banana skins on the floor, a supermarket trolley full of bananas in front of him and Spike asleep on top of the bookshelf with a banana in his hand. It was not hard for him to reach a conclusion.

Mr du was furious. He told Spike how irresponsible he has been. When he had calmed down a bit he tried to think of an suitable punishment. There were still a lot of bananas in the trolley. Spike loved bananas, but so to did the students at Thorndon School. Mr Du had an idea. He told Spike to sit in the trolley. He asked Hela to push the trolley from class to class around the school. Spike had to hand out a banana to every student at Thorndon School.