Ophelia was trying to decipher the code she received from Mavis earlier that day.
'Tofou snubob teltoi'
Tofou snubob teltoi?
What the...
"Oh blubber fish my life. Johnny English slap my shoes. Fish head curry! Holly macaroon!" she howled in frustration, causing a six year old girl named Loiusa to startle and scurry away.
"Hey Oph. What's the matter?" asked Julianne, a friend of Ophelia's, walking towards her.
"This!" Ophelia screamed, shoving the paper in Julianne's face. "This is the matter."
"Tofu snoo bob tell toy?" she read.
"Mavis gave it to me and I think it's important but I have no idea what it means. Besides, my blasted twin is hiding from me so she can't help and I can't find any of my other sisters either."
"I think it's a puzzle," Julianne noted, studying the paper.
"Yeah," relied Ophelia with heavily laid sarcasm. "I totally did not know that."
"I was just trying to help," Julianne said, hurt.
"Well thanks. But no thanks." Ophelia snatched the paper from Julianne and tried walking sassily away but failing miserably as she walked right into Miss Polly, the girls' tutor.
"Ouch!" Miss Polly yelped and dropped the file she was carrying. Miss Polly was a plump and lively woman. She loved butterflies.
"Terribly sorry, Miss," Ophelia said quickly and made to pick up her tutor's file.
"What's this?" both Ophelia and Miss Polly asked simultaneously. Miss Polly referring to Ophelia's note and Ophelia referring to a letter that fell out from the file.
"Resignati-" Ophelia began but Miss Polly instantly took the paper away before her student could read anything else.
"Your resigning?" gasped Ophelia.
"Miss Vine, please mind your own business. Anyway, what's that you are holding?" She hastily changed the subject, taking no notice of the irony in her question.
"A paper."
"What's written on it?"
"Tofu snoo bob tell toy," she quoted Julianne.
"Excuse me?" Miss Polly tilted her head.
"Tofu snoo bob tell toy," Ophelia repeated and showed Miss Polly the note.
"Oh. Toff oo snob bob tell toy. Hey it's unscramble! I love this game!"
Ophelia stared mutely at her tutor and waited for the magic to occur. And it did.
"Of course! You put this letter here and this there. Mmm. Hmmm. Yeah... Right. Mhmm. Ok... What?"
"What?" asked Ophelia eagerly.
"Out of bounds toilet?"
"What?"
"It says 'out of bounds toilet'."
"Gasp!"
Miss Polly handed the note back to Ophelia who immediately took off for the second floor.
"You can't go to that toilet. It's out of bounds for goodness sake! And it should stay that way! You'd get into trouble, Miss Vine!" Miss Polly called after her.
Ophelia continued running.
•••
"It took you long enough," Violet told Ophelia after her sister kicked open the toilet door.
"Why did you have to make it so hard and why choose here of all places?" she asked Mavis, panting a little. She rested her hands on her knees.
"That was kind of like a test," Mavis replied, twirling her curly hair round her finger and choosing not to answer the second questions. Even she did not know the answer to that.
"What? It's a test? What! I failed didn't I? I'm a failure. Scarred for life. No one would hire me to be a secret agent anymore. I am a disgrace to James Bond!" wailed Ophelia. She always had a flair for the dramatics.
"The results," said Mavis, rolling her eyes at her immature sister. Everyone gathered around her and held their breath.
"In first place, Violet. Second: Gemma. Third: Eleanora. Then Penelope and after many many many hours of waiting, Opheeeeelia. Oh and I get the bestest best place as I was smart enough to create this test."
Ophelia groaned. "So what now? I failed."
"No one failed. You- You- You just came in last?" Penelope said, trying to sound as kind as possible.
Ophelia raised her eyebrows.
"Okaaay. Why did we have this meeting in the first place?" Gemma asked, leaning against the dry sinks.
"I just thought since we needed to put a stop this -well- madness. We should assign roles for each other. So based on this test, Oph can definitely NOT be the code breaker. So, Violet, you are now the code breaker and Gemma could help you out if you need assistance."
Violet grinned widely. Everyone -even Ophelia- applauded as quietly as possible.
"Ok. So this meeting is over?" asked Eleanora, speaking for the first time since Ophelia entered the toilet.
"Ye-"
"No," Ophelia cut.
Mavis looked at her in
surprise.
"No," she repeated, suddenly a little proud that she had something important to say. "I have something to tell you all."
"Carry on," urged Violet.
"Today, I bumped into Miss Polly. Like, literally bumped into her."
"I'm thinking sick," muttered Gemma.
"I knocked whatever she was carrying to the floor and then I saw a letter. A letter of her resignation," Ophelia continued, ignoring Gemma.
"Resignation?" exclaimed Eleanora.
"But why?" asked Penelope.
"I don't know!" answered Ophelia, just as bewildered.
"I have a feeling it's related to the Madness," contributed Violet.
"If the madness really is true," mumbled Gemma. "It might just be because Miss Polly is getting old and wants to live the rest of her life to the fullest."
"Miss Polly? Old? Ha! How old is she anyway? Twenty something?" Ophelia said.
"I think she's twenty six," said Penelope.
"No way! She likes all those oldies music. She can't be that young!" Violet giggled.
"Don't be mean!" snickered Penelope.
"It's true!" protested Violet.
"Well we can't do anything much now. We just have to add that to our list of things to do at the moment," Mavis said sensibly.
They sighed in unison.
"This meeting is over," Eleanora said.
They nodded and Penelope opened the toilet door. Suddenly, she screamed.
"What is it?" asked Eleanora, panicking.
Penelope turned and faced her siblings. "Someone was eavesdropping on us."
