Winnie is at Alfie’s house when he arrives home; she announces that she made him a dental appointment with Miss Root for the next afternoon at two o’clock. He will miss the dreaded “double maths” at school, but he’d much rather do math than go to the dentist. Alfie claims that he will take the bus from school to the dentist’s office, but in his head, he prepares imaginative excuses that will explain why he never arrived, including bank robbers taking the bus to Mexico or the bus changing to a robot. Winnie decides that she will take Alfie to the appointment and deliver him back to school afterward.

That night, Dad tries to engage Alfie in a tale about King Arthur’s knights, but Alfie thinks about how other boys his age watch movies and play video games. Alfie claims that he has a lot of worrisome schoolwork to explain his distraction to Dad; actually, he wants to plan to escape the dentist the next day.

Alfie wakes up early to help Dad before school, as usual. Dad reminds Alfie that Winnie will pick him up for the dentist, but Alfie plans to hide in the school instead of reporting to the gate to meet Winnie and then walk out with all the students at regular dismissal.