Macdonald Hall #6: Lights, Camera, Disaster!

The Super-Duper Jumbo-Boomer

It was the last day of filming and, as a tribute to his hosts, Seth Dinkman was making it something of an occasion. Only two scenes remained to be done at Macdonald Hall — the grand finale, which was the explosion of the miniature Faculty Building, and the re-shooting of the stunt Bruno had hijacked on the eve of Die-in-the-Woods. Figuring that nothing else could possibly go wrong, Dinkman had thrown the set open to both schools, and most of the reporters tracking Jordie Jones were there, too.

Miss Scrimmage, once again wearing her sweater, jeans, and hiking boots, stood with the Sturgeons, proudly watching as the star mingled politely with her students, shaking hands and signing autograph books. Headmaster and Headmistress had settled their differences, and all lawsuits were dropped. Macdonald Hall had agreed to buy Miss Scrimmage another shotgun.

Only Goose Golden was absent. While waiting to be airlifted out of the woods, he had sustained a severe sunburn on the top of his bald head and was recovering in Jordie's trailer.

Cathy and Diane had separated themselves from the crowd of girls surrounding the teen idol and were standing with Bruno and Boots.

Cathy watched her fellow students with tolerant amusement. "Can you believe those girls, drooling over Jordie like that?"

Boots stared at her. "Yeah, I can believe it! Two minutes ago it was you, not only drooling, but dragging poor Miss Scrimmage halfway across the province, and screaming the woods down!"

"The point is," Cathy continued, "sure, it's great to meet a movie star. But once the mystery is gone, it's no big deal. I mean, Jordie's a nice guy, but he's just a guy. The glamour is strictly on the screen."

"I'll tell Cutesy," said Bruno coldly. "He'll be so thrilled to know he's nothing special."

"Okay," flushed Diane. "So we went a little overboard. But you two were just as bad, getting so mad about it."

Bruno didn't smile. "Just call it one of those babyish reactions you have when your best friends blow you off like you didn't exist."

"Well, you didn't have to get all jealous," said Cathy. "You know a million movie stars couldn't replace you guys."

Bruno and Boots looked at each other.

"Okay," said Bruno finally. "I think they've groveled enough."

"You're off the hook," grinned Boots. "But you owe us."

"Plus Elmer Drimsdale needs a favor," added Bruno. "He wants you to help him make a tape of different wildcat sounds. He'd ask you himself, but he's in his room reading up on the spotted tundra leopard."

"Shhh!" hissed Mark, steadying his reloaded video camera. "Mr. Dinkman's ready to talk." Mr. Sturgeon had given Mark permission to record one last day of filming, provided he promised never to touch another VHS cassette until summer.

"Okay, sports fans," called Dinkman into the megaphone. "This is the home stretch. We blow up the school, we re-shoot the busting water pipe stunt, and we're on the plane to LA. So let's get it right. The school comes first. Flag me when the explosives are hooked up."

A short distance away, two special effects technicians were running wires from their detonating plunger to the hidden cable that led to the carefully placed charges inside the Faculty Building model. One of the electricians reached down and pulled the end of an insulated wire that was partially buried in a flower bed.

"Here she is. Hook er up."

His colleague frowned. "Are you sure we ran the cable all the way over here? It's sixty feet to the model."