Magic Bunny: Classroom Capers by Sue Bentley Page B

‘Ta dah!’
    ‘It looks a bit wonky on one side,’ Julia observed. Half of the tent seemed to be sitting in a dip in the ground. ‘Maybe we should move –’
    ‘Oh, let’s just get inside,’ Ellie interrupted, combing her hair with her fingers. ‘I need to shake out my clothes. My jeans must be horribly creased.’
    ‘Oo-ooh, so are mine!’ Lex said in a silly babyish voice. ‘I think I might ask Mr Potter to iron them for me.’
    The others laughed. Ellie narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
    Julia hid a smile. Lex and Ellie were like a double-act. She hoped they weren’t going to argue all holiday, though. Not for the first time that day, Julia found herself wishing that Lucy had been able to come on their trip. Lucy was great at stopping arguments and Julia was certain that she would have found a way for everyone to get along.
    She felt a couple of raindrops plop on to her head. One of the boys felt them too and there was a sudden mad scramble to get into the tent. Julia forgot about the tent being lopsided as she crawled in after the others.
    There was a bit of jostling and scuffling about as everyone tried to decide on the best place to sleep. In the end, just for the sake of peace, Julia spread her sleeping bag nearest the porch opening.
    Rain began drumming on the tent in earnest. Oh great , Julia thought. She needed to go to the loo and the toilet block was back at the farmyard.
    Ellie was unrolling her sleeping bag. It was violet with little flowers all over it and had a matching pillow. ‘Right, everyone. Now we need to check for spiders,’ she announced.
    ‘There can’t be any in here. The tent’s only been up for about five minutes!’ Lex said.
    ‘Says you! If I wake up with a big leggy brute on my pillow, I’ll scream the place down!’ Ellie promised.
    ‘Don’t be so pathetic –’ Lex began.
    ‘I hate spiders too!’ One of the other girls stuck up for Ellie.
    Julia didn’t mind spiders. The poor things were scared of people, and she often rescued any she found in the house and put them outside. A row looked like it might break out, so Julia pulled on her hooded waterproof jacket and crawled out of the tent.
    ‘I won’t be long,’ she called, but no one answered.
    From outside the tent, Lex and Ellie could still be heard having a go at each other. Julia sighed, starting to feel a bit fed up with them both. She agreed that Ellie could be a bit fussy at times, but Lex wasn’t helping by being so bossy. If only Lucy were here – she knew she’d laugh with her at how silly Lex and Ellie were being.
    Black clouds had gathered overhead and there was no one outside. The other teams were all sheltering inside their tents too. The grey stone buildings of Penryth House looked washed-out behind a curtain of lashing rain. Julia jogged towards the farmyard.
    She reached the toilet block and shook out her wet jacket before going into a cubicle. After washing and drying her hands, she went and stood in the doorway that opened on to the yard.

    It was still raining heavily and Julia was wondering whether to run straight back to the tent or wait for the rain to ease off. Suddenly there was a flash of bright light and a shower of crystal dust drifted towards her like a shimmering cloud.
    ‘Oh!’ Julia blinked hard, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. As the dust slowly dissolved, she spotted a tiny fluffy silver-blue bunny crouching in the rain.
    ‘Can you help me, please?’ it asked in a small scared voice.

Chapter
TWO
    Julia stared at the cute fluffy bunny in utter amazement. The pattering of the heavy rain on the metal roof had sounded almost like a tiny voice for a moment. She shook her head slowly. This might be the first time she’d been around farm animals, but she was pretty sure they couldn’t talk!
    She saw that the bunny’s long floppy ears were laid flat and it was twitching its silver-blue nose nervously.
    The poor little thing was getting soaked. Where had it come