The Quiz Mistress Who Was ATHENA

Part One. The Feather

On Monday morning, the grey feather was still in Maya's notebook.

She had not slept much. She had kept it under her pillow, then in her lunchbox, then in a sandwich bag labelled EVIDENCE, and now she held it up behind the compost bin like a tiny grey flag.

"It hasn't written anything new," she said. "It only says what it said. 13. Ask me anything."

"Then somebody had better ask," said Ollie.

"Ask what?" said Kenji. "Ask who? Ask a feather?"

Felix noticed that Willow was not on the wall. Willow is the Bengal Reading Cat, and she is always on the wall at the start of the day, with her tail wrapped round her paws. Today she was sitting at the very front of the playground, looking at the sky.

Alex said, "She knows something."

Willow did not say anything. She never does. She just kept looking up.

That was when the bell rang, and Mr Harris came out with his clipboard, saying, "Everybody inside, please, and be calm, and please do not, er, look at the roof."

We looked at the roof.

There was an OWL on it. It was the biggest owl we had ever seen. It sat on the roof tiles with its grey eyes open, as if it had been there all night, and when we all stared, it turned its head the whole way round, like a door handle, and looked at something behind us.

We turned round.

A tall woman was walking across the playground. She had grey eyes that looked as if they had already read your whole mind and found it rather interesting. In her arms she carried a book so big that Ollie said it must have its own postcode. On her shoulder, a second later, landed the owl from the roof.

"Good morning," she said. "I believe somebody has a question."

Part Two. Ask Me Anything

Her badge said MS ATHENE, QUIZ MISTRESS.

"And this," she said, as the owl shuffled on her shoulder, "is my assistant. His name is Glaux. It means 'owl'. He is not very imaginative."

"Is the owl staff?" said Mr Harris weakly.

"He is the senior member of staff," said Ms Athene. "He has been listening to questions for a very long time."

Glaux blinked at Mr Harris, one eye and then the other. Mr Harris stood up a little straighter.

"Now, class," said Mr Harris, turning to us. "Ms Athene is going to coach our quiz team. There is a Big Quiz on Friday, in our hall, against Pridefield Primary. There will be four rounds, and I will read out the questions, and you shout the answers. The winning team gets the golden trophy."

He held up a picture. The trophy was a golden pencil, as long as a ruler.

"Pridefield has won it three years in a row," he said, "and they are very smug about it."

"Do we have to?" said Ollie.

"The team is Alex, Felix, Maya and Kenji," said Mr Harris. "Ollie, you are the reserve, for Animals."

"I know loads about animals," said Ollie. "I know that cheese is made from cows."

"It's a start," said Ms Athene kindly.

Alex and Felix Bailey are twins, so they have a system. Alex notices things and Felix asks about them. Then they swap, and it works every time.

Alex noticed that the big book had no title on the cover. Felix asked what was inside it.

"Questions," said Ms Athene. "Mostly. The answers are in the next book, which hasn't been written."

Alex noticed that Glaux never ate anything. Felix asked why not.

"He is on a very long diet of knowledge," said Ms Athene.

Then Alex noticed something small and quiet. On the corner of the big book, in a crack of the cover, there was a very small spider. It was no bigger than a lentil. It sat there, polishing one leg, as if it lived there.

Felix asked, "Is that your spider?"

Ms Athene looked at it. For a moment, her face went soft and strange, like somebody remembering.

"She is an old friend," she said. "She is not to be moved. She is not to be squashed. And she is, on the whole, quite good at waiting."

Glaux leaned over and looked at the spider very gently, and did not eat it. Which, for an owl, is a lot.

Part Three. Behind the Compost Bin

Mister Heston, the Making Club teacher, was standing at the other end of the playground. He was holding a small silver hammer and a chisel behind his back, and when Ms Athene looked his way, he went pink and waved with the wrong hand.

"Mister Heston," said Felix, "why do you have a hammer and a chisel?"

"It's a long story," said Mister Heston. "A very old one. A very loud headache. I'd rather not say."

The twins said, "We need Maya."

We met behind the compost bin. Maya had her clipboard, Kenji and Ollie sat on their buckets, and Dot from Reception sat on the lid, because nobody ever told her not to.

"Ms Athene is ATHENA," said Maya. "The Romans called her Minerva. She is the Greek goddess of wisdom, clever plans and crafts, like weaving and pottery. And her bird is the owl, because owls look wise."

"Do they know things?" said Kenji.

"No," said Maya. "They look at you very hard. But that's how the Greeks decided."

Then she told us the best bit. Zeus, the king of the gods, woke up one morning with the worst headache of his life. It rumbled and roared inside his head. Nothing helped, not even a nice lie down.

"So he asked Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, who mends everything," said Maya. "And Hephaestus tapped very carefully, with a hammer and chisel, like opening a tin of paint. Out of Zeus's head stepped a goddess, fully grown, in shining armour, with a spear and a helmet. It was Athena. She was born already wise."

"That sounds like a lot of noise for a head," said Dot.

"It was," said Maya. "And it explains why Mister Heston is nervous. She has never been cross with him, but he is still sorry about the headache."

Maya said Athena was also the great planner. Once she had a contest with the sea god Poseidon, to be the guardian of a new city. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident, and a spring gushed up, but it was salty. Athena planted an olive tree, which gave food, oil, wood and shade. The people chose her, and named the city Athens.

"She won by being useful," said Kenji.

"That's the Athena way," said Maya.

Alex held the pencil. Felix held the notebook, because they always share jobs.

1. THE OWL. Glaux has never blinked at the wrong moment.

2. THE BIG BOOK. It has no title and no end.

3. THE GREY EYES. In the old poems, Athena's eyes are always grey.

4. THE QUESTIONS. Every time anyone asks her something, she asks a better one back.

5. THE SPIDER ON THE BOOK. "An old friend." We don't know yet.

"We don't know yet?" said Maya, frowning. "I have never written that on a list before."

"It is true," said Felix.

"It's the strongest list since Mister Thorley's," said Maya, and then went a bit quiet, because of the awkward item on his that nobody mentions.

Part Four. The Oak Tree

On Tuesday, Ms Athene took the quiz team out under the big oak tree and sat us in a circle on the grass. Glaux sat in the branches above us like a small grey umpire.

"I have one rule," said Ms Athene. "I want to hear you say a sentence you may not enjoy."

We waited.

"I want you to say, 'I don't know.'"

"Why would we say that?" said Ollie, looking horrified. "That's the opposite of a quiz."

"It is the most powerful sentence in the world," said Ms Athene. "Everyone who ever learned anything started with those words. How many stars are in the sky?"

"A million," said Kenji.

"Wrong, but at least you guessed. Does anybody really know?"

We thought about it. Maya said, "No."

"So the right answer is?"

We said it, a bit shyly. "I don't know."

"Good. Now add one more word."

"Yet," said Alex.

"I don't know yet," said Felix.

"Say it slowly," said Ms Athene. "Like a promise."

Ollie said it fast, and very loudly, with his eyes on the answer card sticking out of her book.

Ms Athene lifted one eyebrow. "Ollie, that one is a trick. You peeked."

"I might have peeked a bit," said Ollie.

"Then it is not true, and it won't work," said Ms Athene. "It is only any use if you mean it. If you say it so you can look clever, it is just another way of boasting. Try again, and do not peek."

Ollie sat on his hands. He said, quietly, "I don't know yet." He seemed surprised. "It feels like putting down a heavy bag."

"That's exactly right," said Ms Athene.

We said it together under the tree. "I DON'T KNOW YET." It felt strange and then it felt light. Even Glaux hooted.

"Why does it have to be true?" said Felix. "If a thing works, who minds?"

"Good question," said Ms Athene. "Here is a better one. Why do you think I do not say the answers to you?"

Nobody knew.

"Good," she said. "That is a start."

Part Five. Reading Buddies

On Wednesday, we practised. Mr Harris read out cards, and Maya shouted History, and Kenji shouted Cooking, which was not in the quiz.

Elfine and Marion came to watch. They are twin cousins, and big kids, and not in our class. Elfine wears glasses and tells facts. Marion does the counting.

"The Reading Buddies could be a team," said Marion. "We could practise against you."

"Did you know," said Elfine, "that an owl cannot move its eyes, so it has to turn its whole head?"

"I did not know that," said Alex.

"Did you know that Glaux has fourteen neck bones?" said Elfine.

Glaux gave a very small, offended hoot, as if he would have liked to say fourteen and a half.

We practised until we knew which of us was best at what. Maya knew History. Kenji knew Cooking. Alex knew Nature, because he notices, and Felix knew Questions, because he asks. Ollie was the Animals reserve. By Thursday, we were quite good.

"There will be a team captain on the other side," said Ms Athene. "I am told she is formidable."

Willow came to the practice and sat under the table. Glaux watched Willow. Willow watched Glaux. It was like a stare contest between two very dignified people. Nobody won, and nobody blinked, and it went on for an hour.

Part Six. The Blue Minibus

On Friday morning, the Pridefield team arrived in a shiny blue minibus.

There were four of them, in matching blue blazers, and a teacher who looked as if she needed a lie down. But the one we noticed was the girl at the front.

She was small, with two tight plaits. She carried a pair of silver needles and a ball of shimmering thread, and her fingers went so fast that they were a blur. Click-click-click-click. A long, shining scarf was growing out of her hands.

Her badge said ARABELLA WEBB, TEAM CAPTAIN.

She walked into our hall, with our banners and our chairs and the golden pencil on its stand, and she looked around as if she were measuring it for a carpet.

"I know everything," she said.

Nobody answered. Alex noticed that, high up in the corner of the ceiling, a tiny silver strand had started to glow, just a little, like a hair in the sun.

"I know every capital city," said Arabella. "I know every dinosaur. I know more than all of you put together. I could win this quiz with my eyes shut and my hands tied."

On Ms Athene's shoulder, Glaux ruffled his feathers.

Part Seven. The Boast

Ms Athene stepped forward. "That is a great deal of knowledge," she said politely, "for somebody so young."

"It isn't a great deal," said Arabella. "It's everything. And I am better at it than anybody. Even your goddess."

The hall went very quiet.

"Yes, I know who you are," said Arabella, tilting up her chin. "I read about you. I could out-know you any day. I could out-weave you, too." She held up the glittering scarf. "Did a goddess ever make anything so fine?"

"Oh no," whispered Maya.

"What?" whispered Kenji.

"It's the story of Arachne," said Maya, very low. "She was the best weaver in the world, and she boasted that she was better than Athena. The Greeks tell it as a sad story. Athena gave her chances to say sorry, but she wouldn't."

"What happened?" said Alex.

"Let's hope we don't find out," said Maya.

Ms Athene's grey eyes did not change at all. She said, very gently, "Arabella, would you like to take that back?"

"No," said Arabella.

"Are you sure? It is a very big thing to say."

"I'm sure."

"Would you like to think about it for one minute?"

"No."

Glaux gave one low, sad hoot. Ms Athene sighed, as if a very old door had closed.

"Then let us play the quiz," she said.

Part Eight. Round One

Mr Harris was the quizmaster. He cleared his throat and read from a card.

"Question one. What is the largest planet in our solar system?"

"Jupiter," said Arabella, before he had finished.

"Er, correct," said Mr Harris.

"What is the capital of France?" "Paris." "How many legs does a spider have?" "Eight. And I know all about spiders."

Every time Arabella answered, her needles clicked faster, and the silver thread grew longer. It crept off her scarf and slid across the floor like a snake.

We got some right. Maya got History, and Kenji got Cooking, and Alex and Felix got a question about owls together. But every time Arabella got one first, she said, "TOLD YOU," and the thread went on growing.

By question five, it had wrapped round the leg of a table.

By question eight, it was climbing a wall.

And that was when Alex noticed that the thread had gone up the wall and was running along the ceiling like a long silver river. He tugged Felix's sleeve.

"Look up," he whispered.

Felix looked. The ceiling was full of silver threads, hundreds of them, crossing back and forth like an enormous spider's web. The lights were dim behind them. The thread was round every window, every door and every chair.

On the beam above, Willow had stopped washing her paw. She was perfectly still, looking at the web.

Part Nine. The Web Drops

"TWELVE!" shouted Arabella. "I TOLD you I knew everything!"

And that's when the web dropped.

Silver ropes fell from the ceiling, soft and fast, and wrapped round every child, every teacher and every parent. Mr Harris was pinned to his chair. Mrs Tibbs was tied to the piano. Kenji's arms were stuck to his sides, and Ollie shouted, "My sausage roll!"

The thread was warm and sticky. The more we wriggled, the tighter it pulled.

The lights flickered. The hall went dim and silver, like the inside of a very large shell.

Dot, who is very small, was stuck to Elfine's coat. Marion, who counts, said in a wobbly voice, "That's thirty-one of us. I counted. Nobody is hurt."

"Thank you, Marion," said Elfine, and for once she did not say a fact.

Arabella stood on a chair, with her needles clicking, grinning at her own web.

"See?" she said. "I know everything. I WIN."

The web tightened.

Part Ten. The Grown-Ups Try

The grown-ups tried first. They are, after all, the grown-ups.

Mr Thorley raised his hammer, and the web wrapped round his arm and held it in the air. Mr Hanu leaped for the ceiling, and a silver rope caught his tail and yanked him down. Mr Hermes tried to fly, and his wings stuck to his back. Mr Locke turned into a mouse, and the thread tied round the mouse.

Mr Shah tried to dance, but the thread tied his feet.

"It's not going slack!" shouted Miss Persey. "The more you struggle, the tighter it gets!"

"It grows when she gets an answer right," said Mrs Ibbs, in a very small voice. "She is proving herself, and the web is the proof."

Everyone looked at Ms Athene. She was standing perfectly still, tied from head to foot in silver. She was calm.

"I cannot beat her by knowing more," she said. "That is exactly what the web wants."

Kenji whispered, "I know what to say. Ms Athene told us. Watch." He took a deep breath and said, quite cleverly, "I don't know yet."

The thread round him tightened.

"Why didn't it work?" said Kenji, wriggling.

"Because you said it like a password," said Maya.

Mr Thorley tried next. "I DON'T KNOW YET!" he roared, like a man who had just won a prize.

The thread yanked him against a wall.

"It isn't the words," said Mr Locke from inside the thread, in a small mousey voice. "It's the face you say them with."

Ollie said, "I peeked on Tuesday and it didn't work. Ms Athene said it was a trick."

Everyone went quiet.

Felix turned his head as far as it would go. "Ms Athene," he called. "Can you say it? Please? You know it's true."

Ms Athene shook her head, slowly, with a small, sad smile.

"I could say it for myself," she said. "I could even free myself. But the web is not mine, Felix. A web belongs to whoever spun it. And nobody can say 'I don't know' for somebody else. It has to be yours."

She looked at the twins for a moment longer than she looked at anybody else.

"Listen to the thread," she said. "It is telling you the truth."

Part Eleven. Back to Back

Alex and Felix were tied to the same chair, back to back.

The hall was quiet. The silver light had gone a bit dull, and the dust hung in it. They could hear Ollie sniffing, and Mr Harris saying, "Do remain calm, everybody," in a very unsteady voice.

"I'm scared," said Alex.

"Me too," said Felix.

Neither of them said anything for a bit. It was strangely peaceful, as if both of them had put down something heavy.

"Try it," said Felix. "Quietly."

"I don't know yet," said Alex, as a password.

Nothing happened.

"My turn," said Felix. "I don't know yet."

Nothing happened.

"This isn't working," said Alex, crossly, and Felix said, "Maybe you're saying it wrong," and Alex said, "You try saying it right," and for a moment they did not feel like a team. The thread tightened round their wrists.

Then Alex went still. "Felix," he said. "Look at the thread near my hand."

Felix twisted round. The silver was a little thinner on Alex's side.

"What did you just do?"

"Nothing. I just said I was scared."

"Say it again."

"I'm scared," said Alex. "I don't know what to do. I really don't."

The thread near his hand loosened by a tiny bit, the way a knot does when you stop pulling it.

"That's true," said Felix slowly. "That's all true. The other time you said it, you were trying to win."

"Say yours," said Alex.

Felix took a breath. "I don't know how to get out," he said. "And I don't know how to help Ollie. I don't know yet."

Every strand near them went slack. It slid off their arms like wet string. They stood up, free.

"It isn't a spell," said Felix, so quietly that only Alex could hear. "It's a door. It only opens if you really are not sure."

Alex said, "And the web feeds on pretending to be sure."

Neither of them said anything else. They did not need to. Together, they turned round to the hall.

Part Twelve. The True Thing

They did not rush. Ms Athene had taught them that.

Alex went to the left side of the hall. Felix went to the right. They knelt by the nearest children and picked at the thread, gently, one strand at a time.

Alex knelt by a small boy from Reception, who was crying quietly. "Do you know what the web is?"

"No," sniffed the boy.

"That's the right answer," said Alex. "Say it again, and add a word."

"I don't know," whispered the boy. He thought about it. "I don't know yet."

The thread fell away.

On the right side, Felix knelt by Ollie. "Ollie, tell me something you really don't know."

Ollie thought very hard, with his tongue sticking out. "I don't know how a spider knows where to put the next bit," he said. "I don't know why cheese has holes. I don't know if the sausage rolls got squashed."

The thread fell off Ollie like melting ice.

"I don't know how to be gentle with something I can't hit," said Mr Thorley, rather sadly. His hammer slid to the floor.

"I don't know where my clipboard is," said Mr Harris, and his chair came free.

"I don't know how that worked," said Mr Hanu, and fell out of his web.

Mrs Tibbs said, "I don't know what Friday is for," and was released by the piano. Maya said, "I don't know how a web can do all this," and wrote it in her notebook. Elfine said, in a very small voice, "I don't know a single fact right now, but I would like to find one." Marion said, "That's allowed." Kenji said it honestly, at last, and it was one of the shortest sentences he had ever said.

One by one, children said it. It rolled across the hall like a wave, soft and true.

"I DON'T KNOW YET."

"I DON'T KNOW YET."

"I DON'T KNOW YET."

The web began to shrink. It curled up like a spider in a flame. The lights came back on. The windows glowed.

Part Thirteen. The Knot

At the front of the hall, Arabella was still standing on her chair. Her needles were clicking faster and faster.

"I know everything!" she shouted. "I know it ALL!"

But the thread was not growing any more. It was wrapping itself round her.

Round her ankles. Up her legs. Round her middle. Silver ropes coiled and tightened, until she was tied up like a parcel with only her face poking out, and then they lifted the chair a hand's breadth off the floor, and held it there, swaying gently.

She stopped clicking. Her needles fell on the floor with a ting.

"Help," she said, in a very small voice.

Nobody moved. We had all just been tied up by her. Mr Harris looked at Ms Athene.

Mr Thorley took one step, and the thread began to creep towards his hammer. "Don't!" said Ms Athene. "Any force will only make it tighter. Nobody can pull her out. She has to say it, and she cannot, because she thinks it is the end of her."

"I can't," said Arabella. "I don't know how."

"Then that is a very good start," said Ms Athene.

But Arabella did not hear. She was too scared. The thread was pulling her chair higher, a little at a time, towards the ceiling.

Then something small and brown and dignified walked across the hall.

It was Willow. She walked through the loose silver ropes as if they were curtains, and they parted for her, because a cat has never pretended to know a single thing in her life. She jumped onto the chair, and settled in Arabella's lap, as warm as a hot-water bottle. She began to purr.

Arabella's chair stopped rising.

Nobody had been brave enough. Willow had.

Part Fourteen. Felix and Arabella

Alex and Felix were still shaky, and a little cross. She had tied up the whole school.

But they knew what it felt like to be scared. They walked up the hall, side by side, and knelt in front of her chair.

"Hello, Arabella," said Felix.

"Go away," said Arabella.

"We could," said Felix. "But you look really scared."

"I'm not scared," said Arabella. "I'm the best." Her lip wobbled. "If I'm not the best, there's no point in me."

"That's not true," said Felix.

"How do you know?" said Arabella.

"I don't," said Felix. "But I know what it felt like to say it just now. I said 'I don't know how to get out,' and it was true, and I was free."

"We tried it as a trick, and it didn't work," said Alex. "It only worked when it was true."

Arabella went very still. Her eyes filled with tears.

"Nobody ever told me I was allowed to not know things," she whispered.

"You are," said Felix.

"It's actually the best part," said Alex. "Because then you get to find out."

Felix held out his hand. Alex held out his.

"Do you want to say it with us?" said Felix.

Arabella closed her eyes. She took a long, shaky breath. Willow purred louder.

"I don't know," she whispered.

The thread didn't move.

Alex said, "Add the word."

"I don't know... yet," said Arabella.

Part Fifteen. The Spider

The ropes round her ankles went soft. The ones round her legs fell loose. The chair lowered gently to the floor, and the silver thread slid off her in a glittering heap. Then it began to shine, and rise, and curl into the air.

It swirled up to the ceiling. It spun itself into a small, perfect web, with a tiny spider in the middle, no bigger than a button, spinning a thread of pure gold.

The spider looked down at Arabella. Arabella looked up at the spider.

"Oh," she said.

Ms Athene walked up the hall with Glaux on her shoulder. "Her name means 'spider' in Greek," she said. "Arachne. I think you two have met."

Arabella burst into tears. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so sorry. I was afraid that if I didn't know everything, nobody would like me."

Ms Athene knelt in front of her. She said, "I like you very much. I like the one who weaves, and I like the one who asks. I do not like the one who boasts. But she is gone now, isn't she?"

"I think so," sniffed Arabella.

"Good. Would you like me to teach you something?"

"What?"

"How to make a pattern even finer than the one you made today. It will take years, and you will get it wrong again and again. Would you like that?"

Arabella's face lit up. "Yes, please."

The little golden spider floated down from the ceiling on her thread. She landed on the corner of the big book, next to the tiny old friend who had been waiting there all week. They touched legs, politely, the way old friends do.

"In the old story," whispered Maya, "she never gets to say sorry. She stays a spider for good."

"Some old stories," said Ms Athene, "could do with a better ending."

Part Sixteen. The Quiz Goes On

"Well," said Mr Harris, clearing his throat. "I think the quiz should probably continue. We have only done twelve questions."

So we did.

Both teams were different this time. Nobody boasted. When someone did not know an answer, they said, "I don't know yet," and the others helped. Arabella got questions right, and when she got one wrong, she laughed and said, "Oops!"

The twins won the Science round together. Maya won History, and Ollie won Animals, with the cheese and cows. Kenji won Cooking, which was not on the sheet. Dot won a special prize for the best guess, which was "a sandwich." It was a question about the moon.

At the end, Mr Harris counted the points.

"It's a tie," he said.

Both teams cheered. Nobody minded.

Ms Athene lifted the golden pencil and, with one gentle tap on the edge of Mr Heston's workbench, split it in two. She gave half to each team.

"A pencil is no good alone," she said. "It needs somewhere to write."

Mr Heston, at the back, looked at his chisel and went a deep happy pink.

Part Seventeen. The Oak Tree Again

At home time, the Pridefield minibus waited by the gate. Arabella went to say goodbye to Ms Athene, and Ms Athene whispered something in her ear, and Arabella nodded, and then she hugged Willow, who allowed it.

When it had driven away, we sat under the oak tree. It was nearly sunset. Glaux dozed on Ms Athene's knee with his head tucked in. The tiny spiders had gone to sleep on the big book, side by side.

"Do you know what wisdom is?" said Ms Athene.

"Knowing everything?" said Maya.

"No. That is the trap." She smoothed Glaux's feathers. "Wisdom is knowing that you don't, and being curious about what you might find out."

"Like the stars," said Alex.

"Or the web," said Felix.

"Exactly," said Ms Athene. "You worked it out together in a very dark moment. Alex noticed, and Felix asked, and then you swapped. That is the kind of teamwork even the gods find hard."

The twins went pink.

"And you," she said to Willow, "did the bravest thing in the hall. You did not need to know anything at all."

Willow lifted her chin and gave a long, slow blink, which, from Willow, is a hug.

We all said it, softly, so as not to wake the owl:

"I don't know yet."

And the oak tree rustled, as if it had just thought of something.

Part Eighteen. The Stalk at the Gate

We walked out of the gate in the golden light, six of us and a cat.

Leaning against the gatepost was a long, hollow green stalk, like a giant stick of celery. It was about as tall as Mr Harris. Nobody had put it there. Nobody was holding it.

And inside it, right at the top, there was a tiny orange glow, flickering.

"It is warm," said Alex, touching the side.

"Who left it?" said Kenji.

Ollie blew on it, for a whole minute. The glow flickered and bent, and then stood up again, as bright as before.

Next to it, tied to the gatepost with a bit of string, there was a small sign, in careful, curly writing. It said: MIND THE FLICKER.

Maya went very pale. She opened her notebook. Under the owl's feather, where it had said 13. Ask me anything, there was new grey writing, as if it were being written right then: 14. Mind the flicker.

Willow lifted her nose and sniffed, and she looked up the road, and her tail went straight up in the air.

Nobody said anything.

And at exactly the same time, Alex and Felix said, "Monday."

The End.