1 Ominous omens

It happened on the last week of school. The summer holiday was at the corner. Every children was impatient, but they had to endure school for three more days. This wait was full of plans, hopes, and merriment for the summer.

But not for all of them. For example in the class of 6/C, the Bond twins were standing in front of the blackboard, and tried to answer the questions of the chemistry teacher. They were not too successful, judging by their increased sweating, and the resigned face of the teacher.

"Valerie, one last question. Draw the structure of the molecule of methane," the teacher asked the girl, and gave her a piece of chalk.

Valerie took the chalk from the teacher's hand, and tried to draw something, but the girl just held the chalk in her hand and didn't draw a simple line to the blackboard. Her brain was totally empty.

"Watch the periodic table!" The teacher tried to help her. It was useless. Valerie still stood there, turned to be a stone statue. "Conrad! It is your turn. Could you draw the structure of the methane?"

Conrad snatched the chalk from his sister's hand, and wrote two letters to the blackboard. A big M and a small t. He smiled confidently at the teacher. The teacher sighed a bit, then he turned to the class.

"Who can tell if the answer is right?"

The whole class remained silent. Nobody answered. Not because they would have not known the answer. They knew it very well: Conrad's answer was wrong. They liked the twins, and this was Valerie and Conrad's last chance to improve their grades. So, nobody answered to the teacher, and all of them was avoiding his gaze.

"Class Rep, is it a right answer?" The teacher asked directly, and a girl with glasses, and braided hair stood up at her desk.

"No. It is the chemical symbol of the element of Meitnerium, not the structure of the methane molecule." She answered, and everyone gave her angry glances.

Well, she was not too popular in the class, and betraying the twins didn't help her reputation either.

"Conrad, you've heard: your answer is wrong, Valerie, you couldn't answer. Both of you failed to improve your grades, so you have to take supplementary exam, after the summer break. Enjoy the summer, and don't break your necks!"

The very moment, the ring chimed, the teacher closed the class register, and left the classroom. The twins returned to their seats, and fell down on their chairs. Valerie burst into tears. Her friends ran to her, and tried to comfort the crying girl.

"Don't worry! A supplementary exam is not the end of the world!"

"But mom and dad said, that we couldn't travel with them to the Maldives, if we have take any supplementary exams!" Valerie cried out loud.

"Don't worry!", a girl with elegantly combed hair tired to console her. " If your parents have already paid the tickets, the will no longer redeem them."

"They will bring you two wit them for sure. You just have to learn a bit in the holiday, and the exam in autumn will be a piece of cake!"

Valerie stopped crying, and smiled to her friends. She was happy that her holiday plans will go smoothly.

"Learning a little?" A question came from backward, from the class rep. All of the girls looked at her with angry faces, but the class rep didn't bother. She was used to it. "They couldn't even answer for the simplest question! They probably have to study during the whole holiday to take the supplementary exam! So their parents definitely will leave them at home... Ouuch!"

The girl exclaimed, because Conrad tore the ribbon from her braid, with some hair. Her braid unfolded, and everyone was amused to see her beautiful long, wavy, brown hair. For a moment. The next moment Conrad throw her ribbon out of the window. Everybody was laughing on her, when she had left the classroom to get her ribbon back. The twins were very angry on her, and at the moment she returned to the class, Valerie and Conrad started throwing her belongings out of the window, in the midst of the laughter of the others. The girl had to go back, to gather her schoolbag, and the books, which became dirty and torn. The whole class were watching her from the windows, and they encouraged her with pity.

The signal of the chime sent the class to their seats, and they returned like nothing strange had happened a moment earlier. The teacher came in, and started the class, when the class rep returned to the room.

"Where have you been?", the teacher asked the girl, but she refused to answer. "Take a seat, and note that it is not appropriate for a class rep to be late. You need to set an example for the class."

The class laughed cruelly on her again, until she reached her desk. Somebody was so kind to her, by spilling some cola onto her seat, so she had to wipe the chair, before sitting down. But this was noticed by the teacher.

"Who did this?", he asked the class and he lifted the dirtied handkerchief high.

Nobody gave themselves up. The teacher became angry and left the room, to return with the form master. The prank was becoming a serious issue. Everybody had to get out of their bottles, and those ones, who had the soft drink of the same color, were reprimanded and sentenced.

"I hope you have learned from this incident. When there will be another one, the culprit will be fired from the school," said the form master, and the chime signed the end of the class.

The two teachers left the room, leaving a big silence behind them. But the silence lasted only a few seconds. At first the kids started whispering, then talking softly, finally the conversation continued with the usual volume and cheerfulness.

Even Conrad and Valerie got their smiles back, and chatting merrily with their friends.

"So bring us something cute from the Maldives!" One of Valerie's friends asked them.

"Sure!" Conrad answered.

"Do you really think, that we will travel there?" Valerie asked him with a little uncertainty in her voice.

"Of course!" His brother answered with wide smile. "We just wouldn't tell mom and dad, that we have to make a supplementary exam."

"Good idea!" Valerie smiled to her brother.

All of their friends agreed that it was a good idea. They could go on a holiday, and take the supplementary exam. The parents were not meant to be bothered this way. So the solution was simple and good. It seemed to be the best thing the twins could do in this situation. Everyone congratulated the twins. Only one girl didn't do that. The class rep. She didn't say a single word, and she lowered her head, not to show her disapproving facial expression.

The day continued uneventfully, and to the sign of the last chime the class emptied. Only one child stayed, the class rep had to fill the daily report.

"Mom!" The twins were running toward their mother, who leaned on the side of the car, and waited her children.

But her facial expression stopped the twins. It seemed she knew everything.

"Come with me!" She told them, and walked back to the school, followed by the guilty Valerie and Conrad. The twins looked at each other. Both of them were frightened. They didn't even have a chance to lie to their mother.

The twins became even more frightened, when they had reached the principal's office. Would they have figured out what they did to the class rep? Her mother quickly knocked on the door, and stormed into the office.

"Mrs Bond, please take a seat!" The principal told her, before she could say a word. "How can I help?"

"The chemistry teacher failed my children. Chemistry! My famous chemical researcher father's grandchildren! That must be a misunderstanding, or they must be picked on! Failing is impossible!"

"Let's ask the chemistry teacher before judging." The principal picked the telephone, and asked the chemistry teacher to join them.

" I almost collapsed, when the chemistry teacher showed me their test papers!" Mother told father in the evening, in the living room. The twins were eavesdropping in the hall, at the door left ajar.

"Was it so bad?" Asked father angrily, and mother handed over her phone. Father started to turn the pages of the twins' photographed test papers. "These are criminal." He said, when he finally found his voice.

"Well, despite all of this, I asked the teacher to give them a chance to improve their grades."

"I guess he refused. I fully understand him."

"No, he gave them another chance on the last day." Mother sighed.

"Okay. We have to find the a tutor in chemistry. Neither of us know much about the subject." Father stated firmly. "Could you ask the principal, or the chemistry teacher?"

"I have already done that." Mother replied resignedly.

"And?" Father asked suspiciously. "They couldn't recommend anyone."

"They could."

"AND? Don't dance on my nerves!"

"They recommend their class rep."

"Then call him. Or her."

"It's a girl."

"Call her, or her parents. It would be the best solution. They know each other, and the girl probably knows the requirements well, if she was recommended by the principal."

"There's no point in calling. The principal called her to the office. Fortunately she had some task to complete, so she was still in the school. But she refused."

"Refused? Why?"

"She didn't justify. She simply said no, and left the office. It was so humiliating."

"Call her parents, and offer her some pocket money. Be generous."

"This could work. They are probably poor. I noticed, that her ribbon was thorn, and her school things are worn, and a bit dirty." Mother was thrilled by the idea, and started to talk to the fellow parents to get the class rep's parents' phone number.

"It will be problematic." Conrad told to his sister in frightened voice.

"Do you think, she really tells mom and dad, that we throw her things out of the window?" Valerie asked back.

Conrad nodded, and both of them were eagerly following mother's conversations on the phone. Their limbs became cold, and paralyzed from fear. Having a supplementary exam is one thing, but their parents would have been extremely angry, if they would have know about the harassment of the class rep… They would be sent to prison. Minimum to the Fort Knox.

So they silently followed the conversations of their mother. One after the another. It seemed no one knew the phone number. The twins' limbs slowly warmed up, until they heard one of the parents could give the number to their mom. They froze again. However their parents were happy, and immediately called the class rep's family.

"Hallo!" Their mom cheerfully greeted the other party. "I am the mother of the Bond twins, and I would like to asked your daughter to help my kids in chemistry….Pardon?...Why not?...Ah...I understand. Sorry for disturbing you. Bye."

"Why did you give up so easily? Why didn't you offer money to them?" Father asked indignantly.

"Because there was no meaning."

"What do you mean it didn't make sense?"

"That girl has already traveled to her grandmother." Mother sighed. "What would we do now?"

"We have to teach chemistry to our kids." Father sighed. "Pray for it to succeed."

So it happened that the whole family spent the two days before the holiday at home. The studying wasn't too successful. Neither the parents, nor the children understood the chemistry book, but they tried everything. Unfortunately it wasn't enough. All their efforts went to waste when the twins failed the supplementary exam on the last day. Although they filled the empty spaces of the questionnaires, both were full with mistakes.

In the evening Valerie, Conrad and their parents were eating dinner in tensed silence. The kids didn't dare to ask their parents, whether they could travel to the Maldives or not. They hoped their parents had forgotten their terms. Both of them were sitting in silence, eating, like robots, but it was evident, that they were immersed in their thoughts. In a movie the creators even put black clouds above their heads. This was also a bad omen, but the kids had high hopes. Neither of them said that the holiday in the Maldives had been canceled. They were probably frustrated, that the supplementary exam was failed. But neither Conrad, nor Valerie was brave enough to ask the most important question.

"Take a shower and go to sleep!" Father told them after they finished the dinner. The kids submissively went out of the dining room, neither of them wanted to upset their parents, so they obeyed without saying a word.

"They will talk about the holiday!" Valerie whispered to her brother after closing the door behind them.

"I know. Hopefully they will evaluate all the efforts, we have taken, and bring us with them." Conrad smiled to his sister with confidence.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! They weren't any help in the supplementary exam, and they are remorsed."

So they did,what they had been told, and both of them smiled in their dreams. In those dreams, they were merrily swimming in the crystal clear ocean after some fish and collecting shells.

The Saturday morning was a sunny one. The twins were happy, and cheerfully greeted their parents in the dining room. The previous day's tense of their parents vanished, so all of them were eating the breakfast in a light mood.

"Come on kids, let's do the washing up!" Father told them after the breakfast.

"Doing the washing up..." The kids echoed in unison. It was strange.

"It is mom's work!" Conrad protested.

"Mom has another, more important work..." Father started, but Valerie impatiently interrupted him.

"Shopping! Shopping! You are going to shopping! Mom! Could I go with you? Could I? I need a new swimsuit! Please, please! I want to choose myself!"

"I am not going to shopping." Mother shook her head. " Moreover your swimsuit, you use in school is appropriate for this summer."

"Please, Mom! I need a new one! I will be a laughing material, when I swim in the school's swimsuit in the Maldives! My popularity will be ruined, when our friends see the pictures."

"Well then you can be glad you don't come to the Maldives with us." Father replied, and the twins froze.

The next moment both of them started to speak, to convince father and mother to have second thoughts. But in doing so, they only upset their parents.

"You will stay at home, as you have been told, and study for the supplementary chemistry exam. Your mother will call a relative to come here and look after you. This is the decision, we have made in the last evening."

"Who will be our childminder?" Conrad asked, with more terrifying thoughts in his head. There were a lot of unendurable persons among their relatives.

"Go and help your father with the washing up!" Their mother told them, leaving the answer hanging in the air, and they had to no other choice, just to obey.

Mother spent the whole morning speaking with their relatives. She was speaking with glee, but she became more serious facial expression, as the numbers of the relatives decreased, and she got nothing, but refusals. However, the eavesdropping twins' faces lightened up a bit with every phone call. After the late lunch - father cooked – mother arrived to the end of the list, and she didn't find anyone, who would be willing to look after the twins.

"I have called everyone." She told exhausted to father. "We don't have any other choice, but bringing them with us."

"No. Definitely. It is the part of their punisment. They stay here, and we will travel. Have you really called everyone in the family?"

"Even all of our second cousins have plans for the summer!"

"Have you called your father?" He asked, and mother shivered.

"No."

"Why? He is your father after all, and the twins are his grandchildren!"

"I haven't met him since my 18th birthday. I don't really know him!"

"Then it is high time to call him! You could build your connection with the help of the kids. It would be great!"

"I have heard, he remarried, maybe his new wife wouldn't like the twins."

"If he refuses, we will call a nanny service, but I think it is worth to try."

"It is just a voicemail." Mother said, when she was willing to call her father.

"Don't worry, just tell him everything. He will surely calls you back later. "

So mother told everything to a machine, and that lifeless thing forwarded mother's request to the air.

"We just have to wait for his answer." She sighed, after she hung up the phone.

The eavesdropping twins' moods deteriorated. It was decided now, and it was final. Their parents leave them at home for sure. Father and mother were just waiting for the phone call of their grandfather. But that phone call didn't come. Hours passed, and mother's phone remained silent.

"We don't want a dirty, old nanny for three weeks!" Valerie begged her mother, when she came to her room and wished her a good night.

"Don't worry. Nannies nowadays are not wearing big black stinky clothes. They are common women, who look after children. Just like your grandmothers. I promise she will be a lovely lady!"

"I don't want you to travel to the Maldives without us!"

"Don't tantrum! We told you, that you need to pass every subject, but you failed in chemistry." Valerie opened her mouth to riposte, but her mother snubbed her. "Your teacher was right. Neither of you could solve the simplest problem in chemistry. So, you have to study the whole summer. You don't have time for a holiday."

The doorbell chimed, and a minute later they heard, that father was speaking with another person. Both the kids, and their mother became curious, and went to the hall. The visitor would have been their grandfather, but they found their father alone, standing at the opened door, and he stared in astonishment to a brown envelope in his hand.