Stella and the Surprise Delivery

Hello this is Jana and I’m back with our third story about Stella and her Magic Mirror.

Stella and the Surprise Delivery.

Mr Fry’s art class had been making pottery in an outbuilding in the school grounds known as “The Shed.” The pupils started clearing away the clay, the tools and bowls of muddy water. Stella had made a small cat, which was waiting to be fired in the kiln. Suddenly a loud banging shook the door. It sounded as if somebody was trying to break it down.

Mr Fry rushed to open the door before it collapsed. A young man in a peaked hat stood outside, holding two enormous cardboard boxes. Behind him, a battered old car was parked on the grass.

“Thirty-one burger meals for Mr Fry,” he announced.

“Thirty-one?” repeated Mr Fry in surprise.

The man handed him the boxes.

“Hold on mate, there’s more. I’ll fetch the milkshakes.”

“Take them back!” called out Mr Fry. “I can assure you this is some kind of mistake! I’ve not ordered any of this!”

“Someone’s paid for them!” called back the man.

Mr Fry consulted his phone. His mouth gaped. It was true. He had paid for them. Was he dreaming? 

As the driver hurried back and forth with the milkshakes, voices rose around the room.

“Thanks, Mr Fry!”

“Can we eat them now?”

“They’ll go cold, sir, and we’re starving!”

“The bell goes in ten minutes!”

Mr Fry sighed. He had unknowingly paid £325.50. He hated wasting money, and it seemed crazy to throw away so much food. He opened the boxes and started to hand round the meals. As the pupils tucked in, Stella thought, “What happened here today is a genuine mystery. No teacher is that generous. I’m sure my mirror can solve it.”

By home time, the whole school was talking about Mr Fry’s burger feast.

  Photographs of the kids stuffing their faces during art class were circulating around the school. One photo showed a kid with two chips up her nose. And there was ketchup everywhere! A rumour was going around that Mr Fry was being suspended from lessons while the school investigated. The head teacher was furious that he had broken the school’s healthy-eating policy.

That evening, Stella sat in front of her mirror.  

“Why didn’t you tell me about the burger delivery?” she asked. “You know I like to know all the news before it happens.” The mirror did not reply. All it showed was Stella wagging her finger.

“Okay, I forgive you,” said Stella. “You can make up for it by showing me who really ordered the burgers? Was it Dinesh? He’s always playing pranks.”

The mirror shimmered and the reflection began to change. But it didn’t show the face of a pupil. Instead it showed the face of a chemistry teacher, Miss Vale.

“Oh,” said Stella. “You’re telling me that Miss Vale had something to do with this. Am I right?”

A ripple passed across the mirror and it returned to show Stella’s face. She had a little smile on her lips, because this news was very interesting indeed. 

But the next day at school the head teacher announced that “somebody” had used a teacher’s phone to order a large amount of fast food. That “somebody” had been suspended from school while further inquiries continued. 

  As everyone left the assembly, Stella whispered to her best friend Celeste, “Something’s not right. It wasn’t a kid who ordered the food. It was a teacher.”

“How do you know that?” whispered back Celeste.

“Trust me. I just do,” replied Stella. 

By break time, everyone had worked out that a Year Eight boy called Roddy had been sent home. Roddy was not popular. He had acne and a stammer and, however unfair it was, some of the crueller pupils made fun of him.

 As Stella and Celeste strolled around the school grounds, Stella said, “I just don’t believe it was Roddy. He’s not the sort of person who would do something like this.”

“I know it does feel off,” said Celeste. “But I heard the administrator talking. They have CCTV footage of Mr Fry. He left his phone under a chair after assembly, and Roddy picked it up. And was seen posting it through the  homework slot outside the staffroom.”

“Do they have footage of him ordering the food?”

“No. But all the evidence points to Roddy. I never thought he had it in him to do a thing like that.”

“Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” said Stella defensively. “I still think a teacher did it. I’m going to keep digging.”

“But, Honeyboo, how do you know it was a teacher?” questioned Celeste, puzzled by her friend’s certainty.

Stella was stuck. Now she couldn’t admit that her magic mirror had pointed her towards Miss Vale. The mirror was her deepest secret. She had to think of something quick.

“I just know. I have a strong feeling, and my feelings are never wrong.”

“Hon, feelings are not evidence.”

“Just you wait. The truth will come out.”

Meanwhile, the Roddy-haters were having a field day. Arty and Theresa were saying things like:

“We always said that boy was no good. We just didn’t know he was a phone hacker.”

And:

“No wonder he has spots, with a diet like that.”

Stella fired back. “I don’t think he used Mr Fry’s phone! How would he have known the pin number?”

Arty and Theresa immediately turned on her.

“You’re only saying that because you miss your boyfriend now he’s been kicked out of school.”

Celeste was furious on her friend’s behalf. “How dare you spread rumours!”

And Stella added: “It will turn out to be a teacher that did it. Wait and see.”

“You’re the one causing trouble,” remarked Theresa. “You’re spreading rumours about a teacher and I’m going to tell the head. You’ll be kicked out too. Ha! Then you can spend all day with your spotty boyfriend.”

Stella was still fuming when she consulted her mirror after school.  

“I need to know the truth,” she pleaded.  “Tell me what really happened? The mirror dissolved into another scene. It was early evening, and Mr Fry and Miss Vale were walking down the high street. They were both dressed for a special occasion. Miss Vale had bright red lipstick on and carried a designer handbag.

They passed a little French bistro called La Bonne Affaire. Miss Vale stopped to study the menu. Mr Fry carried on walking.

Next they came to an Italian restaurant called La Vecchia Cucina. Candles flickered invitingly at the tables, and a waiter in a bow tie stood by the door. Miss Vale looked hopeful, but Mr Fry walked straight past.

Then he suddenly crossed the road and beckoned to her.

Miss Vale followed him reluctantly into  McBongo’s Burgers, where the tables were orange plastic and the meals came wrapped in paper.

Miss Vale clenched her teeth as he produced a two for one voucher. If she could have put Mr Fry in detention for a hundred days, she would have done it.

“There you go!” exclaimed Stella when she had watched the whole scene. “Miss Vale has the motive! Revenge on Mr Fry for being such a cheap-skate on their romantic date!”

She couldn’t wait to tell Celeste her hunch the next morning. And although Celeste was the only person she told, oddly the entire school knew the story by the end of lunch time. 

Inevitably the story reached the ears of Mrs Righteous, the formidable deputy head. Stella was summoned to see her before going home. She was so nervous that she forgot to unpin her “Free Roddy” badge.

“I hear you have been spreading rumours about Miss Vale,” said Mrs Righteous. “I, I,” stammered Stella. But before the words could come out of her mouth, Mrs Righteous followed up with. “Don’t lie to me. I know it was you who started the rumour that Miss Vale used Mr Fry’s phone.”

“Yes, Mrs Righteous,” said Stella squirming. “Because it’s true,” she added quietly.

“The truth is not a defence!” fired back the deputy head, banging her desk.  

“But but,”

“What I mean to say,” Mrs Righteous corrected herself, “Do you have any evidence Stella?”

Stella shook her head. 

“Tell me, where did you hear this story?”

“I just had a feeling, Mrs Righteous, that’s all. I just knew it was Miss Vale and not Roddy.”

“You just had a feeling, you say, just a feeling?”

“Yes, Mrs Righteous.”

“Don’t say anything else about the matter to anyone, is that understood!”

“Yes, Mrs Righteous.”

“Off you go now, and remember, no more rumour-mongering.”

Stella was shaking as she walked home. But she was also confused by why she was not in any more trouble. She had received a severe talking to, but no detention, let alone a suspension. 

“Why didn’t you warn me, mirror?” she said when she got home.

The mirror did not give her a good reply. It just showed her the school Assembly Hall. It was empty until Miss Vale walked back in and took something from under a chair. She seemed to know the PIN number of the phone she was holding and then spent a few minutes  tapping on it before returning the phone where she found it. 

“I knew it! It was Miss Vale!” screeched Stella excitedly. “And is it true Roddy found the phone?” The mirror replied by showing Roddy coming into the hall. He liked to practice on the grand piano there during lunch times. He found the phone and went straight out with it, presumably to post it back to the staff room. 

He was innocent! In fact he had done exactly what he should have done!

“But it’s so unfair!” said Stella sadly. “Is life always so unjust! 

The mirror replied. This time it showed a golden weighing scale. Stella was unsure what that meant. 

The following day Roddy was back in school. He didn’t say anything. He just returned as if nothing had happened. Of course everyone wanted to know every detail. Was he really the one who ordered the burgers? He shook his head. But that wasn’t all. It turned out that Miss Vale didn’t show up at school. And she was never seen again. This time it was Celeste who told the story behind the story. Her dad knew Roddy’s dad at the cricket club. Roddy’s dad had sent a letter to Mrs Righteous demanding to see the CCTV footage. And as it happened the school had lost the footage. Somebody had accidentally deleted it. 

“That feels off,” said Stella. 

“That’s what daddy said,” agreed Celeste.

And oddly enough, nobody seemed to bother Roddy about his spots anymore. And when Stella looked in her mirror, it showed the end of term prize giving. Roddy was going to win top prize for his talent and dedication at music.  

So there was a little justice in the world after all. At least this time. 

And that was Stella and the Surprise Delivery, read by me Jana for Storynory.

I hope you enjoyed the story. And if you’d like to support Storynory, you can go to the website where you can support us on Patreon. Speaking of which, here’s Bertie with some updates:

The Big Living Room Roadblock

Lu is a big, fully-grown dog now. He weighs almost thirty kilograms, but he still thinks he is a tiny puppy who can sleep anywhere he wants.

Every afternoon, when I come home from school with a heavy backpack, the first thing I see in the living room is a big, furry roadblock. It is Lu. He loves lying right in the middle of the narrow hallway, directly under the electric fan. He stretches his long legs out and sleeps so deeply that he even snores loudly.

Yesterday, em tried to walk past him, but there was no space.  Lu suddenly rolled over, caught my ankle with his soft paws.,  It made me lose my balance and drop my backpack, laughing out loud on the floor. Lu immediately woke up, sat on my chest, and started licking my whole face.

Warm regards

Tran Tu Anh

 

For now from me Jana, bye bye!