Aisling's Diary

Chapter 24

Friday 9 December (continued)

3:45p.m. 

Three texts already (two from Siobhan and one from Ali), both gently reminding me not to be late. Yikes. I keep telling myself, everything will be OK as long as we keep to schedule. 

3:52 p.m. 

Oh No. Dublin . . . we have a problem. The video camera’s stopped working. What are we going to do? JP says it’s ‘just packed up’. But Dad says bad workmen always blame their tools. IMO, things don’t ‘just pack up’. And if they do, the worst thing to do is to start taking them apart, which is just what JP seems about to do. Nooooooooo. 

3:54 p.m. 

Also IMO things that are mendable do not have little wires hanging out of them. Being the daughter of a plumber, this I know. Beginning to get that weird feeling inside where you can’t stand still and keep wanting something to happen but it doesn’t happen and then you start to feel a bit out of control. You know the feeling. PANIC. 

3:55 p.m. 

OK, so we’re gonna pool resources and get some money together to buy another one, use it for the flashmob and then return it to the store and get the money back. I handed over my twenty euros. It sure was pretty hard to explain the two hundred euros I also had was for a bouncy castle deposit and couldn’t be used. Murphy had looked so relieved when he saw the cash in my hand. I wish I could just let them have the bouncy castle money but I can’t, can I? 

I know everyone’s thinking all I have to do is hand over the bouncy castle money and everything will be OK. I’m trying to ignore all the pleading looks. Mind you, if I did, we could just get the camera, do the library flashmob, return it and I could just, just, just still make the bouncy castle man. Couldn’t I? I mean it would be tight, but it was tight anyway.

Aisling Louise Fitzsimons, you’re surely not going to just hand over Aunty Stell’s bouncy castle money to Murphy’s crew now, are you? Are you? 

3:59 p.m. 

Yep! That’s exactly what I’m going to do. Well, what choice did I have? How else are they going to get to dance with Ace FX? 

No, I couldn’t think of any other way either. 

Here’s the revised schedule. 

Oh no – there’s literally no time to write the schedule, it’s time to just get on with it. 

4:05 p.m. 

Siobhan DID NOT sound happy when I called her to say I was running late. She went really quiet before putting on her really stern voice. She said, ‘Whatever’s going on, Aisling, do not be late for the bouncy castle. That’s all I ask.’ That’s all she asks? At the moment, that’s Everything. I said,‘There’s no way I’ll miss that. No way in the world.’ But as I’m standing outside the library, with a ghoul mask in my hand, waiting for the Chief of the Blockheads (or JP as he’s more generally known) to come back having spent the bouncy castle money on a camera, I’m really not sure I will make it back. Why didn’t I just prepare her for the possibility I might be late? 

From where I’m standing, things are not looking good! I’m going to turn my phone off until after the flashmob. I’m only going to be a tiny little bit late.

4:30 p.m. 

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Un-believable. We totally rocked the Library. I was so nervous at first but as soon as I heard the music I had no choice but to moooove to the music. Murphy and I jumped up on the library tables and there were students actually working at the tables, with their books and everything. When we burst through the doors, everyone looked like they’d seen a ghost–well, several ghosts actually thanks to the masks. Eavanne and Sorcha were at the table Murphy and I were dancing on, which was pretty much perfect. I was so tempted to takeoff my mask at that point. ‘Look who’s dancing with Murphy, Eavanne?’ But the thought of being expelled put me off. All I wanted was just to be part of something cool and it was. 

Then just as soon as we’d started we disappeared again. Out the fire doors, down the fire exit and we were gone. 

What a feeling! 

And now we’re just getting the camera sorted so we can take it back. I’m a tiny little bit on the late side, but nothing turning up with the deposit can’t smooth over. Dec’s going to package it up good as new … so we can .... Oh no, oh no. Not that. Anything but that … 

4:32 p.m. 

It’s broken! The camera, the one I bought with the bouncy castle money is broken. I keep looking at it as if it’s going to magically come together again like it broke apart but of course I know it won’t. And I’m starting to get that really sick feeling inside that things are about to get much, much worse. JP was handing the camera to Dec and it slipped out of his hands on to the floor and smashed. And with it any hopes of us getting the deposit money back now. How am I going to find two hundred euros? 

And even worse the two Wicked Witches followed us out of the library on to the fire escape. I think they took some pictures with their mobiles. How can things have gone so wrong?

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