Vase War

Part One And The Last

Beep. An error message popped up on Sienna's screen. No, wait -- it was a warning.

'AN UNKNOWN AND POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS FILE HAS BEEN DETECTED IN YOUR HARDDRIVE, PLEASE RESTART DEVICE'

No! She couldn't restart her computer. She hadn't saved her work, but when she tried to close the error message, it wouldn't budge. Eventually she just had to shut down her computer.

She was at her scouts camp and she had been set a task on the computer -- but she couldn't do it now. She would be behind everyone else.

Her friend Lily was fiddling with the egg-timer.

'How did you do it again?' she asked, handing it to me.

'What're you using it for?' Sienna asked.

'A timer to see how long it takes for me to hang up the Christmas ornaments.'

Sienna twisted the timer to 10 minutes and asked if it was enough. The reply was that yes, it was, but why wasn't Sienna doing one of her tasks?

Because her computer had been hacked.

'Oh,' said Lily.

'I might as well just help you with yours then. If you don't mind.'

'Course not!'

They silently hung up the Christmas decorations for 5 minutes. Everything was going fine.

'Whoopsidaisies!' exclaimed Sienna; she had bumped against a beautifully painted vase and now it lay in pieces on the floor.

Lily glanced around nervously. She picked up a bottle of glue and proceded to stick the tiny pieces together.

Sienna bent down to help her.

'We'll do it quick, so no one sees,' Lily whispered.

Sienna just nodded.

Silence.

Someone stood at the door. Someone who looked very much like their scout captain. Someone who WAS their scout captain.

Sienna and Lily froze and turned their heads in slow motion toward him.

'This is a severe crime,' he announced. 'And for this you shall be punished dearly.'

'What on Earth has gotten into him?' whispered Lily into Sienna's ear.

'I DECLARE WAR!' the captain screamed and rushed toward them.