Episode X: Christmas Bells Part 2

Conner climbed out of Andrea’s car, and walked into St. Mark’s Senior School with Kaylie. As they passed the running children, people would stop, and turn, halfway through their conversations, to stare.

“You’ll get used to it,” Kaylie muttered.
“I feel like we should be walking in slow motion and wearing sunglasses,” Conner laughed.

Kaylie’s reply was interrupted as they walked into the Sixth Form Common Room. Bradley and Gareth Daniels dropped the year seven they were carrying, and turned to stare. Gareth’s girlfriend Hattie Simpson dropped her mobile phone to the floor in surprise, while Catherine and Beth fell completely silent for possibly the first time ever. But the person Conner’s eyes were drawn to was Zac, who was standing in the middle of the room, with a look of shock slapped across his face.

“Hey everyone,” Conner said. “I’m back…”

One month later.

Georgia finished her shift at the Bakery and walked home. The world seemed different now, grown up. Ever since aliens had become known, everything was just that little bit different. As she crossed the street, heading for her front door, her phone rang. Nervously, she pulled it out from her pocket. Was it the Doctor, letting her know he’d be back soon? It wasn’t, but she answered it anyway.

“Hey Zac,” she said. “How’s Conner?”
“Acting strange!” Zac shouted. “Are you with the Doctor?”
“Why are you shouting?” Georgia asked. “What’s going on?”
“Conner’s back at school!” Zac explained in a loud voice. “And he’s not really said anything to me ever since he came back, but he and Kaylie just started a food fight!”

Georgia grinned – Conner hadn’t changed much then.

“Do you want me to come over?” Georgia called. “I haven’t seen Conner for two months!”
“If you don’t mind!” Zac shouted. “I’ve got to go, Hattie Simpson’s brought out the puddings from the kitchens, and they’re rock hard!”

There was a crash, and the call disconnected. Georgia fell silent for a second, before beginning to laugh. She raced inside the house, and shouted up the stairs.

“Mum? Dad? I need you to drive me to St. Mark’s!”

Elizabeth came running down the stairs.

“What’s going on?” she asked.
“I need to help Zac,” Georgia explained. “Conner’s acting strange.”
“The chase is afoot!” Elizabeth trilled, grabbing her coat and leaping out of the door, swinging the car keys in her hand.

Georgia sighed and raced after Elizabeth, who had started the car and swung it so the passenger door faced the front door.

“Get in!” she cried.
“Mum, it’s not life threatening!” Georgia sighed. “Conner’s not dying or anything… I’m just worried he’s missing the Doctor.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth said. “Oh. Well, we’ll go at a much more reasonable speed then. Did Mrs White see anything?”

She seemed disappointed as she realised Mrs White wasn’t pressed up against her window peering out at the scene unfolding in the Bell’s drive. Georgia laughed, and climbed into the car. A few minutes later and Elizabeth stopped the car.

“Mum, we aren’t there yet!” Georgia said. “What are you doing?”
“Richard’s place!” Elizabeth pointed. “That old Fish and Chip shop of his, it’s been turned into a Pizza Takeaway!”

Georgia’s eyes followed the direction of Elizabeth’s finger sadly. Her brother had been killed by the Slitheen, and his Fish and Chip shop had been brought and done up. Georgia turned back to Elizabeth, to say something that would make it all okay, but her mother had gone.

“Mum?”

She looked out of the window, to see Elizabeth trotting over to the Pizza Takeaway. Georgia sighed, and got out of the car to walk to St. Mark’s.

Kate Lipsett downloaded the files on the Doctor, and programmed them into her mobile phone. Excusing herself for a bit of fresh air, Kate headed out of the building and on to the busy streets of London, where she dialled a number on her phone.

“Doctor?” she said. “Please pick up, I need you. Planet Earth needs you!”
“This is the Doctor, leave me a message!” the voicemail trilled brightly.
“This is Kate Lipsett, of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce,” Kate said, saluting. “Oh, sorry, I forgot, no salutes. Anyway, UNIT has been tracking an alien ship, and we’ve discovered that it’ll be arriving on Christmas Eve. Plenty of time for you to just pop up there and destroy it? I would ask Torchwood, but they’re going through a rough patch. I wouldn’t ask unless it we were desperate – this ship is a war ship, and we’re all going to die…”

“Catherine, over here!” Beth cried.

Catherine slid over the soup covered floor, and ducked behind the table Beth was using for cover. Gareth Daniels threw a chicken wing, and it bounced hollowly off of Catherine’s head. A few feet away, Kaylie and Conner were stood on a table each, throwing jelly and orange juice over anyone who was unfortunate enough to stand within their reach.

“Where’s Zac?” Kaylie shouted.
“Dunno,” Conner said. “But he’s missing all the fun!”

Kaylie laughed, and looked towards the door of the canteen. Mrs Sow was stood in the middle of the doorway, a hand on each side of the doorframe. Gradually, the whole canteen fell silent, and everyone waited for Mrs Sow to explode with rage.

“I hope you realise, children,” she said loudly. “That you’ll have to bring in money tomorrow for the Pizza Takeaway around the corner, you’re throwing the rest of this week’s food around! It’ll be Pizza and Chips for the rest of the week I’m afraid.”
“Yay!” Gareth cried out.
“Thank you Gareth,” Mrs Sow sighed. “That’s all I wanted to say. Well, what are you waiting for? Get back on with it! I’ve got a bet with Mr Benton that the first to throw the lasagne will be a year 9, and I haven’t got the £30 to give to him if I lose!”

Everyone laughed, and ran for the lasagne. Zac opened the gates a fraction, letting Georgia in. She smiled at him, and he led the way to the canteen.

“He’s in here,” he said.
“If I get food chucked at me…” Georgia warned.

Zac nodded nervously. He couldn’t guarantee anything where year eleven was concerned. As they approached the canteen, the noise levels increased dramatically, and when Georgia opened the door, she was almost deafened by the screaming. As Zac ran into the fray to retrieve Conner, Georgia heard a different noise over the screams. She gasped, and clutched the door in support.

“The TARDIS!” she muttered.

It was the sound of the universe, ripping into existence. Georgia ran along the corridor, heading for the stairs. The Doctor was on the roof of St. Mark’s! She burst along another corridor and past Mrs Sow and Mr Benton who were arguing about their bet. The door to the roof was made of metal, and with a slight amount of force, Georgia yanked it open and ran onto the roof.

“Doctor?” she called.

There was nothing. No TARDIS, no Doctor. She sighed, and headed back into the school.

“I just miss him,” she told herself. “You’ll be fine – you’ve got Mum, Dad, Brian, the Bakery. The Doctor coming back would just be an added bonus – you don’t need him.”

As Georgia passed Mrs Sow and Mr Benton once more, her phone rang.

“Mum?”
“Hello Georgia,” Elizabeth trilled. “You must come to the Pizza Takeaway! Lucy Stuart’s here, with Brian!”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Georgia promised. “And Mum, can Conner and the Doctor stay for Christmas?”

Elizabeth hesitated. Clearly she didn’t think the Doctor would be coming back.

“Of course,” she smiled, putting the phone down.
“Thanks Mum,” Georgia said quietly to nobody in particular.

Zac led Conner and Kaylie out of the canteen, to the empty corridor.

“Oh,” he said. “She was here, but she must’ve gone…”
“Sorry I haven’t said much,” Conner sighed. “I just… Can’t bear thinking about the Doctor leaving me – I feel trapped here. It’s so… Domestic. I mean, we’re finding out our GCSE results later this week!”
“I’m really nervous,” Kaylie laughed. “Do you wanna go back and help Beth and Catherine?”
“No,” Conner said. “Let’s bunk off, go to the park.”

Zac and Kaylie nodded, and held hands as they walked to the park. Just behind them, Catherine and Beth emerged, covered in mashed potato. Conner turned and saw Catherine clutching her head.

“Catherine, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“I’ve got a headache,” Catherine complained.
“Let’s get you to the staffroom,” Conner smiled. “I’ll meet you two at the park, okay?”

Zac and Kaylie smiled, and walked off. Beth was caught between the two, unsure of whom to follow. With a sigh, she began to run after Catherine and Conner.

“How bad is it?” Conner asked as they entered the staffroom. “We’ve got regular and max strength pills.”
“That’s a tough one,” Catherine said, sitting at the table nearby. “It’s worse than a regular headache, but it’s not a max strength kind of headache. I’ll use max strength.”

She took the small box from Conner, and stirred two tablets in a cup of water. She drank the contents, all the while clutching her head.

“How could anyone ever go back to regular after this?” she sighed.
“Fair play,” Conner and Beth replied.
“I mean, even if I had a regular headache, I don’t think I could bring myself to use regular strength… I don’t think I have that kind of personal self belief, you know?”
“That’ll be the credit crunch,” Beth said seriously.
“I thought we were out of that?” Conner asked.

Beth shrugged, and Conner laughed. Maybe things weren’t so bad at home. It’d just take a bit of getting used to.

Three days later.

Kaylie entered the hall with Conner and Zac, and glanced at Beth nervously. Mrs Sow was handing out the reports to the students, who were refusing to open their GCSE results until everyone had their reports.

“I think I messed Geography up,” Conner was explaining as they walked towards Mrs Sow.
“We were doing Biology when Ikorg Ymashen came to St. Mark’s,” Zac said. “But we did it again, and I revised all the questions I got wrong when we did it first.”

Kaylie, Zac and Conner collected their envelopes, and smiled nervously at Beth, Catherine, Bradley, Gareth and Hattie, who each held theirs. The hall fell silent, except for the ripping of the envelopes.

“Oh God…” Beth muttered.

There was screaming and crying as everyone read their results. Conner skimmed through his – he’d done fairly well.

“Hattie, you go first! What did you get?” Beth screamed.
“B’s and C’s!” Hattie grinned. “And one A!”
“Well done!” everyone smiled. “Gareth!”
“C’s!”
“Bradley?” Beth asked.
“Two A’s!” Bradley gasped. “And B’s and C’s!”
“And one E,” Hattie pointed out helpfully.
“Well Maths ain’t really a proper subject, is it?” Bradley said.
“Fair play,” Beth smiled. “I got B’s, except for English, where I got an A!”
“Well done!” Conner grinned. “Catherine? Catherine, what did you get?”

Catherine had remained entirely silent while they all compared results. Everyone went silent – presumably she’d failed most of her subjects. None of them were really surprised; Catherine had always been excited whenever she’d answered even one question correctly.

“I… I got all A*’s!” Catherine said, amazed.
“What?” Beth asked, astounded. “Let me see!”

Everyone waited for Beth’s verdict.

“She’s right!”
“Well done Catherine!” Kaylie cried. “You even passed Biology!”
“I know!” Catherine grinned. “I can’t believe it.”
“Zac, what did you get?” Kaylie asked.
“I…” Zac stuttered.
“You?” Conner asked.
“I got A*’s, except for History,” Zac said, sounding upset. “I only got an A!”
“I got B’s and A’s!” Kaylie smiled. “Conner?”

Conner looked back down at his list:

English – B
Maths – C
Biology – B
Chemistry – B
Physics – C
Spanish – A*
French – A*
Geography – C
History – A*
Art – B
RE – B
Welsh – A*

“I got A* in History,” Conner grinned. “Thanks to the Doctor. And in all my languages!”
“That’s the TARDIS translation circuits,” Kaylie said. “I’m surprised about Welsh; I didn’t think the TARDIS translated Welsh as well…”

Two months later.

Kate was running out of options. The ship was just a few days away, and the Doctor still hadn’t replied. The message she’d left remained unanswered, along with Georgia’s invites to stay at her house for Christmas, but there was a number she could call. It would bring help almost immediately, and the Earth would be safe. But it came at a cost – Kate would be sacked, and her guilt would overwhelm her. Still, the Earth was more important than her. She dialled the number.

“Petr Costravalos?” Kate asked. “I need your help…”

Conner rang the doorbell nervously. A few minutes ago he’d said goodbye to Kaylie, and asked if he might continue to stay with her after Christmas. She of course, agreed, and in a few days time he’d be back with the Watsons enjoying a new year’s drink or three.

“Happy Christmas, Conner!” Elizabeth trilled, as she opened the door.

Conner stepped into the house with his suitcase, which Colin carried upstairs. He headed into the living room, where a majestic tree stood in the corner, glittering with lights. Georgia was sat on the sofa, and Lucy Stuart was just leaving.

“Hey Conner,” she smiled as she walked out.
“What was that about?” Conner asked as he sat next to Georgia.
“It doesn’t matter,” Georgia sighed. “You know what? I think this is gonna be a good Christmas. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?”

To be continued…