Davina Dupree's Bizarre Birthday Balloon Ride by SK Sheridan

8 am. Thursday 18 th March
    Guess what, Diary?!
    Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... Yes!! It’s my eleventh birthday at last, which is EXTREMELY over exciting.com .
    At the moment, me and Arabella are sitting in the back of Mrs Fairchild’s favourite car, her silvery blue vintage Aston Martin. She’s not driving of course, Bertie the gardener is.
She’s
sitting next to him wearing flying goggles, telling him hilarious stories about all the antics she got up to in her twenties. Arabella keeps giggling because from where she’s sitting she can see how much Bertie is blushing – she told me in whispers that he actually went bright purple when Mrs Fairchild said she and her college mates once tied their knickerbockers round flagpoles to celebrate the last day of term. Hee hee, very funny.com .
    I’ve brought the letter with me that my mum sent last week. It’s so exciting I’ve re-read it about a million times:
    â€œDarling! Hope you are having a thrilling time at Egmont. Have you had time to take up those sky diving lessons I booked for you? Daddy and I have just escaped from a tricky situation in Columbia, can’t say too much about it but I can say that we sat in the jungle for three days eating insects. Can you imagine?! Anyway Darling, we know it’s your eleventh birthday next week so as a surprise we’ve booked two places on a luxury hot air balloon ride for you and a friend. Daddy’s already cleared it with Mrs Fairchild, she said you deserve a treat as you’ve been helping solve crimes or something – good girl – chip off the old block eh? Go to the website address at the bottom of this letter and enter the password “BIRTHDAY SURPRISE” and it will take you to the tickets, which you’ll have to print off. And Darling, this is no ordinary hot air balloon ride so remember to bring a camera...Hugs and Kisses, Mum xxx”.
    What does she mean, “This is no ordinary hot air balloon ride”? I just can’t imagine. I printed off the school tickets in the computer room using the password a few days ago and now they’re safely in the side pocket of my backpack, I checked them ten times before we left at the crack of dawn this morning.
    Arabella’s always a bit grumpy in the morning and she didn’t actually speak to me until we sat down in the back of the car and Bertie gave us a chocolate chip brioche roll each. She ate hers in three mouthfuls then cheered up no end. She’s such a sugar monster.
    We both keep looking out of the window wondering if we’re nearly at the hot air balloon place. We passed through Little Pineham Village ages ago so we can’t be too far. We’ve driven through a forest of pine trees, over a hill, through another village, and now seem to be in the middle of nowhere.
    Ooh, hang on a minute Diary, I think I’m going to have to go. The car’s slowing down and Mrs Fairchild is pointing at a gate in a hedge although I can’t see what’s on the other side of it because there are too many trees in the way. I think we’re nearly there!
10 am. Thursday 18 th March
    Well, Diary!
    What an adventure we’ve had already and we haven’t even left the ground.
    We had to get out and walk through the gate in the hedge, there was no room for cars. Mrs Fairchild decided to walk with us, so Bertie put his feet up on the dashboard, lowered his cap over his eyes, and was snoring loudly before Arabella had even closed the gate behind her.
    The path through the trees was quite overgrown, although I saw fresh footsteps in the soil. Flowers lined both sides, and between us me, Arabella and Mrs Fairchild spotted bluebells, wild roses, oxeye daisies, fox gloves and primroses. Beautiful and extremely colourful.com .
    Suddenly, the path ended and we BURST into a large open glade. Six stunning hot air balloons were sitting on the lawn in front of us, I never realised how big they