"Right back where we started from!"

"WHAT a relief!" said Dot. She felt like she'd been down the wormhole with Mr Mouse herself!

"Yeah, felt like it was like it was going on and on and on" said Mr Mouse, twizzling his whiskers round and round in his right paw (he always does that when he gets worked up.)

"... and you kept feeling you were slipping back and then you were going on again - it was like FOREVER! I was gettin' tired, too... didn't think I could keep going much longer... then SUDDENLY I saw this little bit of light in front of me!"

He twizzled his whiskers even harder - Dot could see Wizzie was wondering if he was going to pull them out!

"First of all I couldn't believe it was really there but I kept pushing... and it got bigger... and the wormhole didn't seem so tight... and the light got bigger still and bigger and bigger and then it was right in front of me and POP!" - he did that thing where you put your finger in the corner of his mouth and pull it out and it goes - yes that's right, just like that!

"POP! I was out! BOY was I pleased to get outta there - even though we were just where we'd started... except the wormholes - they'd all vanished - gone!"

He let his whiskers go with a snap. They were curly after all the twizzling (looked a bit silly, all on one side!)

"What about the others?" asked Wizard.

Mr Mouse's face fell. He looked sad. "Well... everyone was OK... except Georgia Gerbil... we never saw her again... "

Wiz growled. "I'd just like to bite that Mallow somewhere where he'd remember me!"

"Well" said Mr Mouse, with a shrug "That's showbiz! But we didn't have time to sit around, I can tell you! Before we knew it, we were back in our flying saucers and ZIPPPP! Off to the next test!"

"Didn't Brian Mallow say anything?" asked Dot.

"Oh yeah" said Mr Mouse. "He goes "Oh dear, poor little Georgia Gerbil! Don't think she'll like being in Void very much! Not with those dainty little shoes of hers!"

Dot shivered - she could remember Void - the grey dust everywhere, the funny shapes under the muck, the musty smell - ugh! That Mallow was HORRIBLE!

Wizzie growled again and started pacing up and down, his tail swishing from side to side.

"Cool it Wizzo" said Mr Mouse. "Georgia's outta there now OK!"

"So where were you going?" asked Dot.

"Well it was kind of funny" said Mr Mouse. "It was actually - your school, St Mary's! Remember that time when came back from net-voyaging and got stuck in the stationery cupboard and we couldn't get out 'cos Fred the school keeper kept coming in the room?"

Dot laughed. "Yes I do!!" *

"OK, well, this was a net-version of St Mary's" said Mr Mouse. "One of the classrooms, I mean. When we landed I went like "Ii know this place!" and old Mallow goes "Of course you do Mr Mouse my dear. I needed a classroom for the next test so I just went into your back pages on the Internet and - there it was!"

"Creepy!" said Wiz.

"Yeah!" said Mr Mouse.

"So what was the test?" asked Dot.

"Oh" said Mr Mouse. "It was silly really - kind of a joke. Not for one of us, though! What happened was, old Mallow got off his flying saucer and stood in front of the white board - it was your classroom too Dot, Mrs Redman's name was on it, at the top - and he stands there with Flossbottom the humming bird hovering just above his shoulder. Then he gave us one of his coypu smiles with his little black eyes and his big yellow teeth."

Dot bit her lip. It looked like there was going to be one of those round the class tests. She hates them!

Mr Mouse went on. "Then he looks round at us all still in our little spaceships and says "I hope you're good at spelling, my dears. When I give you a word to spell in a moment, you must write it on the touch screen in front of you. If anyone gets it wrong, he or she goes out. If more than one of you does I will decide who goes. Ready?"

Dot gulped. It was a round the class test. Pants!

"Then old Mallow goes - "Here's the test, then. CONSTANTINOPLE is a difficult word. How do you spell it?"


* See 'Dot and Lonely Darren', Chapters 99 & 100.