It all started at the end of a school day, the boy, Tom, strolled up to his teacher, and asked casually if he could bring his pet to school the following day. She looked fondly down at the boy, ruffled his hair, and nodded her head, not knowing the chaos that would ensue the next day.
Tom skipped home, fed his pet and lay down on his straw covered bed, his pet, Graham, lay next to him.
In the morning, Tom was late for school, his alarm clock had broken by Graham falling out of bed, so by the time he woke up, packed his packed lunch (a banana, two waffles and a crate of lettuce for Graham) and trotted to school, it was already 9 o'clock.
His class mates stared at him for a moment, and you could have heard a piece of paper drop, indeed they did, because Jacky Hill had been standing near the door, she was handing out the maths tests.
Teacher cleared her throat, opened her mouth like a goldfish, and cleared it again. Shakily, she sat down, still staring. Tom, smiling slightly, made his way over to the front, Graham following obediently behind. He addressed the class.
"Hi guys, Miss said I could bring my pet in... so here's Graham."
Everyone continued to stare at the giant gorilla that sat at Tom's heels like a dog. Tom casually handed a lettuce to graham who split it and began eating messily.
That triggered speech, the teacher jumped up, and whacked Graham around the head.
"No eating in class!!"
It didn't hurt Graham who swallowed his last bite contently.
When they had sat all sat down (Graham sat on the floor, four chair legs and a plastic backing under him), the teacher asked if everyone could come to the front of the class and talk about their weekend which they hadn't had a chance to talk about the day before. When it was Toms turn he brought Graham with him but as he was walking up Grahams foot got caught on one of the desks and it started dragging behind him, Henrietta Bennet, a small girl with a puffed up ego was tipped backwards into Judy Shedam.
And so the chaos ensued.
Tom had gone to the toilet and the teacher had no idea how to calm the great beast who had a big shock when Henrietta had screamed and started lopping around the room in panic not caring of the chairs that were so inconveniently placed in the way, or the students in them. the gorilla had escaped safely out of the confines of the classroom and in to the playground where he swung expertly from bar to bar on the adventure playground. Tom arrived, oblivious to the ruffled clothes and out of place furniture.
In English, Graham was given alphabet blocks to play with, Miss figured it would be very hard to cause destruction with them. She was proved wrong when three children were sent to medical room with large square shaped bruises on the back of their heads. However, Tom hardly noticed for he was reading Jane Eyre in the book corner.
During art, Graham showed a great talent with paints, although the large yellow banana imprinted on the wall was not what miss expected. The rest of the kids were inspired by the wall art and by the end of the lesson, the sides of the classroom were splattered with every colour you could think of. Tom, meanwhile, was engrossed in recreating the arts of Henri Matisse.
Afternoon P.E. saw the children struggling to catch up with Graham, who on his four legs was miles ahead. But, in their haste, the pupils crashed in to miss, who was sent flying and landed in the scvhool vegtable patch. Tom was at his music lesson and tootled away on his trumpet with Adam Bavis.
As the bell rang at the end of the day, Miss drew Tom aside and whispered in his ear.
"It would be best if next time you could bring something more sensible." Tom smiled.
"Don't worry Miss, next time I'll bring Georgia, my giraffe."
She had to steady herself on the desk.
