only found that out later.
It was really tricky going through that maze. You could see the middle all right, but gettingthere took longer than you’d think. The twists and turns were so tight, you couldn’t exactly run fast. Plus I felt like a huge giant jogging along those prickly little paths. The boys got fed up with the whole thing. They treated the hedges like hurdles and hopped over, so Mrs Weaver said they were disqualified.
Emma and Kirstin made the fastest time.
To our amazement Emma offered the chocolates round.
“I couldn’t. They’re yours!” said Frankie stiffly. I knew how she felt. It did seem unnatural to be taking sweets from our old enemy.
“Take two!” said Kirstin. “They’re not ours, dummy, they’re the Sleepover Club’s.”
Frankie still hesitated.
“I didn’t poison them, Francesca,” Emma snapped.
“Wouldn’t put it past you,” Frankie muttered.
Lyndz interrupted what could have been a nasty incident. She came hurtling through the grounds, yelling excitedly. “Mrs Weaver, I found where they put that baby elephant andits mum!” she yelled. “Can I take my mates to say hello?”
“Certainly not, Lindsay. We have a packed schedule as you know,” Mrs Weaver protested. “There’s still the castle to see. Besides after that incident with the peacock—”
To everyone’s amazement Emma interrupted. “Please, Mrs Weaver, that wasn’t Kenny’s fault. The peacock attacked her. All Kenny did was run away. And we’d only be five minutes, wouldn’t we?” she asked us.
Teachers treat you quite differently if you’re their pet, don’t they?
Mrs Weaver instantly changed her tune. “All right, Emma dear. But do be quick. The rest of us will make our way to the castle.”
I heard mutterings from the other kids. They wanted to see the elephants too. You could see that Frankie totally didn’t want any favours from Emma, but she was also dying to see the baby elephant again, so she had to go along with it.
The mother and baby were in a quiet out-building in near darkness. It felt really peaceful in there. The ranger in the body warmer was chatting to the mother, and feeding her bananas.She took them in her trunk really carefully and popped them whole into her mouth.
“I see you’ve brought your mates,” he said to Lyndz.
She was already stroking the baby’s head, crooning softly. “You’ll soon be better, and then you’ll be back with all the others.”
Lyndz is so nuts about animals it’s unbelievable!
The mother finished the last banana and peered around in the gloom, looking for something.
“She’s thirsty,” her keeper explained.
There was a full bucket of water by the door, so Frankie thoughtfully dragged it over.
“There you go, Mrs Elephant,” she said. “Can you reach it now?”
The elephant had a good long guzzle of water, then she studied us all thoughtfully. Afterwards, Frankie swore she’d been smiling.
“You’d better move away!” warned the ranger.
But it was too late. Before we’d realised what she was going to do, the elephant spurted about a gallon of water all over Emma!
It sounds really mean, but we all cracked up. I thought Frankie was going to die actually. She was literally holding her sides and howling with laughter. “Emma, you look just like a drowned rat!”
Poor Emma was soaked through and shivering so I rushed her back to Mrs Weaver.
“Don’t worry, dear, I always bring spare clothes on school trips,” our teacher comforted her.
But Emma flatly refused to change out of her outfit. She got quite hysterical about it. I think Mrs Weaver thought Emma was worried about strangers seeing her underwear. But I’ve had time to think about it since then and I don’t think it was an underwear problem at all.
I think she thought of her hideous combats as her Sleepover Club clothes. She didn’t like us really, but she did admire us. She was desperate to be one of us, even for a day.
I took Emma back to the coach where
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