Heavy is the Head

Belle - 1

Chapter 16

"Five more minutes!"

This had been repeatedly yelled from the office twenty times in the past hour and Belle found herself wishing for the billionth time that she could drive. She clicked off the tab where she had been reading fan-fiction and closed her laptop, sliding it into her brown satchel while tapping out a text to her older sister.

She had been ready for the past two hours and had just received an email from Pocahontas (the student council president) asking to come and see her when she arrived because there was a problem with the tutoring system that she needed to speak to her about since she was vice. Enough was enough. Belle went down the hall to the office and nudged the door open with her foot narrowly dodging the avalanche of books that came tumbling down.

Maurice and the Professor were standing over the desk holding identical cups of tea, poring over a set of diagrams. They didn't even notice her entering the room.

"Remarkable!" The Professor whispered under his breath, taking off his glasses and taking a sip of tea, "I have never seen anything like this before, Maurice! Never in my life!"

Belle bit back a smile. One of her favourite things to do when she had first moved to England was imitate the Professor's famous phrases which were always received well by the rest of the family. "Truly fascinating" and "Remarkable" in his posh, British accent were two of her favourites as well as his introduction, "Greetings, Professor Archimedes Q. Porter at your service. Pleasure to meet you." and his long winded stories about his sister, Isabel.

"Dad?"

"Sweetheart!" Maurice jumped backwards and lay a hand over his heart, "Are you alright? What happened?"

"You were going to drop me off at the airport but I've called Jane and asked her to take me instead because it's getting late."

"Oh, that's what I needed to do this morning." Maurice stroked his beard, "You know, I kept saying '5 more minutes' but I couldn't remember what I needed to do. Sorry, darling."

"This man is a genius, Belle. A genius!" The Professor jumped up and down excitedly, clapping his hands. "We may be on the brink of a truly phenomenal invention if I can just solve this last equation."

Belle peered down at the papers spread across the floor and tried to look impressed. "Wow!"

The front door opened a slightly exasperated voice called up the stairs, "Belle? Are you ready?"

"Janie Jane, you must come and look at this amazing discovery when you get back!" The Professor said, putting his glasses on and settling back into his work again.

"I'll try, Dad. Come on Belle!"

Belle shouldered her satchel, hugged the Professor, kissed her dad on the cheek and made her exit, "Bye Professor! Bye Dad! I'll try and be back for Christmas."

Jane was waiting at the bottom of the stairs looking as though she had just rolled out of bed with tangled hair and a white tank top that had splodges of dried paint on it. Usually, Belle and Jane had a habit of coincidentally choosing similar outfits but today what they were wearing couldn't be any more different. Belle was wearing grey trousers with a white turtleneck and a long cream coat that Jane had given her. Arendelle and London were freezing at this time of year so Belle's suitcase was filled with warm clothing. Not that she was going to get much of a chance to wear them because of the school uniforms being introduced and other than that, Belle planned to be in her pajamas holed up in her room for most of this term.