Archie's Unbelievably Freaky Week Read Online Free

down the corridor and into the classroom. A moment later the door had opened and two men were standing in the doorway gazing at them. One of them was Mr Gunn, the Head Teacher.
    ‘I don’t believe it!’ he said, staring at the foam on the floor, the broken vent and the burned handbag. ‘What happened?’
    ‘The door handle came off,’ Archie explained, ‘and we were trapped.’
    ‘I’m glad you found the note,’ said Cyd, pointing to the piece of paper the Head Teacher was holding. ‘We thought we might have to stay here all night.’
    ‘Well,
I
didn’t find it,’ said Mr Gunn. ‘He did.’ He pointed to the young man standing beside him, wearing a postman’s uniform. ‘He was walking down the road just outside the school when your dart landed at his feet. He brought it in to me and . . .’ He paused, looking anxiously at Miss Henley. ‘Are you all right?’
    Miss Henley did not answer, and Archie could see why the Head Teacher was concerned. She had not moved or spoken since the door to the stockroom had opened. All she had done was stare, open-mouthed, at the man in the postman’s uniform.
    ‘Gary?’ she said, her voice no more than a whisper. ‘Is that you?’
    ‘Penny!’ The young man knelt down and took Miss Henley’s hands in his own. ‘I don’t believe it! Penny! Have I really found you at last?’

    ‘You . . . you’ve been looking for me?’ asked Miss Henley.
    ‘I have done nothing but search for you for the last eight months!’ said the man, and in a great sweeping motion he took Miss Henley into his arms and kissed her.
    ‘Please!’ said Mr Gunn. ‘Please! Not in front of the children!’

    An hour later, as they were walking home, Archie and Cyd could still hardly believe what had happened. They had listened, entranced, to Gary’s story of how, eight months before, on the day he was meant to fly back to England, he had been injured while trying to rescue a kitten from the hotel balcony.
    ‘I was in hospital for three days,’ he said, sitting in Mr Gunn’s office with Miss Henley beside him. ‘But when they gave me my clothes back, the address and phone number you had given me was gone, and the only part of it I could remember was the name of the town. So I moved here, got a job as a postman and hoped that one day I’d see you in the street, or find your name on a letter.’ He held Miss Henley’s hands tightly in his own as he spoke. ‘And now I’ve found you again, I shall never let you go!’
    ‘It’s like something you read about in story books, isn’t it?’ said Cyd, as they walked up the road to her house. ‘The two of them are going to live happily ever after, and it’s all thanks to you, Archie! I think you should feel really pleased!’

    And Archie did feel quite pleased – at least he did until he got home and his mother saw him.
    ‘What have you done to your coat?’ she demanded, pointing to the scorch marks caused by the fire in the stockroom. ‘And what are all those stains round the bottom of your trousers?’
    ‘Honestly!’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t believe it, Archie!’

ON THURSDAY, ARCHIE’S class had yet another new teacher.
    Mrs Hemp was an elderly woman with grey hair and a hearing aid, who had in fact retired three years before, but still occasionally taught in schools when she was needed.
    Mr Gunn did his best to warn to her about Archie.
    ‘We’re not sure
why
something odd happens to him every day,’ he said, ‘but you will need to watch out for it.’
    Mrs Hemp, however, only laughed. ‘I’ve been teaching for forty years,’ she said, ‘and I’ve seen children do just about everything. Nothing odd is going to surprise me, I promise you!’
    Mr Gunn hoped that she was right, but what happened later that day came as a surprise to both of them.
    It was about halfway through the afternoon when Mrs Hemp appeared in the Head Teacher’s office, carrying a school bag. She was accompanied by a small black and white