Emily Feather and the Secret Mirror by Holly Webb Page A

since you starting vandalizing valuable paintings.”
    â€œI didn’t.” Emily rolled her eyes.
    Katie shrugged. “Maybe. It looked like you did. And if you tell Mrs Daunt anything, I’ll tell her I saw you get out a pen, and you were just about to write on that painting, except you got caught first. Who’s she going to believe?”
    â€œEmily,” Rachel said flatly. “You’ve been caught bullying people before. Mrs Daunt knows what you’re like. Stupid, and mean.”
    There was a sharp indrawn breath from the girls sitting around them, and even people sitting further away were leaning round to see what was going on now. Emily swallowed worriedly. Katie had a reputation to keep up. If Rachel kept taunting her, Katie would have to do something incredibly horrible to keep everyone scared of her.
    Katie obviously decided exactly the same thing. Her dark eyes hardened, and developed a glassy sheen like black marbles. Then she darted out one plump white hand and wound it swiftly into Emily’s hair – Emily’s, not Rachel’s, as though she knew who was to blame for this strange rebellion. She jerked her hand back, yanking at Emily’s hair so hard that she yelped and her eyes filled with tears.
    Everyone gasped, and most of the girls around them pretended not to be looking. Katie sat back with a hank of Emily’s hair still wrapped round her hand. She smiled triumphantly at Emily, who was clutching the side of her head and still gasping.
    â€œShe pulled your hair out!” Rachel whispered, horrified.
    â€œI know,” Emily agreed, grimacing as she rubbed her hand across her eyes. “I can feel it.”
    â€œStill want to tell?” Katie murmured through the gap between the seats.
    Emily didn’t say anything – for once, she couldn’t think of anything to say.
    Â 
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Robin stared at Emily, frowning.
    â€œNothing.” Emily walked on down the road.
    â€œNo, there is; you look funny.”
    Emily glanced round at him in surprise. Rachel had lent her a hair band and she’d pulled her hair back in a loose sort of knot. She’d checked in the loos before they left school – she definitely couldn’t see the tiny bare patch. She was sure Robin couldn’t either. “I don’t…” she said doubtfully.
    Robin flicked a glance under his eyelashes at Rachel and muttered, “I’ll talk to you at home.”
    He couldn’t say what he wanted to say in front of Rachel, Emily realized. It probably meant that he wasn’t looking at her in the way anyone else would. Perhaps it was the same sort of thing as the miserable fog feeling he’d sensed around the girls the day before. He could sense what had happened to her. Or at least that something had.
    â€œYou don’t want to tell him?” Rachel whispered as Robin stalked away in front of them.
    â€œHe’d probably tell my mum.” Emily shrugged. “I just don’t feel like turning it into a big drama. She’d be up at the school in minutes, having a go at Mrs Daunt. My life wouldn’t be worth living.”
    â€œI suppose,” Rachel said doubtfully. “But maybe someone should tell the school. She pulled out a chunk of your hair!”
    â€œI’ll make her stop somehow,” Emily said wearily. “I don’t want to bring my parents into it, that’s all.” She frowned, imagining what her mum could do to Katie if she felt like it. She wouldn’t use magic, of course, she was far too sensible. But she might be tempted to. And Emily didn’t want her to be upset.
    Emily shook her head firmly. It didn’t hurt that much now. No real harm done, she told herself.
    Providing Katie wasn’t actually a witch. If she was, what might she do with a lock of Emily’s hair?
    Emily shuddered, imagining cruel spells – perhaps one of those wax dolls with pins