Mrs Brody was planning the play like a military operation and there’d been much anticipation in the staffroom. With a final glance, she adjusted her owl-like spectacles and slid out of the door. Bella just about managed to sort the children out into school dinners and packed lunches before the noise level became too deafening. Grabbing her own packed lunch box, she led them down to the hall. Her stomach bubbled with excitement, as she thought of all the fun this season had to offer: baking with her mum and sister, the village parade, and the new grotto at Bluebell Park. It was going to be a busy one, but Bella wouldn’t have it any other way. Life was too short to waste being bored. Not that Amias ever let her be bored at school.

‘Amias, carry your lunch box in both hands, please. You don’t need to balance it on your head.’

It crashed to the floor, and she helped him gather up his things. Maybe she could be bored for five minutes or so. That didn’t seem such a bad idea right now.

***

‘She’s going a bit over the top this year, don’t you think?’ said Johnny Feker, the Year 6 teacher. He, Bella and Miss Radcliffe, or Nina to her friends, were all stood supervising the playground and musing on Mrs Brody’s plans for the play. ‘I mean she’s even given it a subheading. It’s not just called The Christmas Commotion. She’s added on A Comical Christmas Catastrophe underneath. I thought we were just doing a knock-off pantomime. I didn’t know we were putting on a sitcom.’

‘Surely it’s more of a farce or a musical?’ asked Nina.

‘Do you want me to blow my whistle in your earhole?’

‘Oh, sir! But no thank you,’ Nina replied, teasingly.

If only Johnny would pluck up the courage to ask Nina out, Bella was sure she’d say yes and there were no rules against getting involved with a colleague. If she were Nina, she’d be sick of waiting by now. He’d been there a year or so and they’d been like this from day one. It made Bella wonder what he was waiting for.