“It’s her! It’s Madame Shirley,” I yelped, just as the coach sped up and pulled away.
I leaped to my feet but Mrs Rose hissed at me to sit down!
“No, but I have to speak to that old woman!” I yelped. “I think she did a magic spell on me.”
Mrs Rose glared at me. The coach pulled out of the car park and on to the motorway, and I flopped back down into my seat. It was too late. Madame Shirley had been right there and I’d missed my chance.
Still, if she was at the park then she wasn’t in Poland or America or North Korea. She was somewhere nearby and that meant I could find her again.
As the coach picked up speed, a smile spread across my face. I’d exposed Wayne for what he really was, I’d discovered Madame Shirley was still in the country and, as a bonus, I’d learned quite a bit about the UK rail network.
“You know what, Theo, today hasn’t been too bad,” I said.
“That’s good.” Theo smiled. “Because tomorrow will probably be much worse.”
“You think?”
Theo nodded. “Oh yeah. And not just tomorrow. You’ve got the school play coming up, that inter-schools contest thing with the debates and the team-building exercises, all that stuff.” He shook his head. “Man, I’m glad I’m not you.”
“Well, thanks for those reassuring words,” I said.
“Sorry, Beaky, but it’s the truth,” Theo said. “Much as I hate to say it, I think you’ve got some pretty rough times ahead.”
“Yeah,” I groaned. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
As it turns out, he was right.
But he didn’t know the half of it.
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
First published as an eBook by Stripes Publishing in 2016
Text copyright © Barry Hutchison, 2016
Illustrations copyright © Katie Abey, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-84715-843-7
The right of Barry Hutchison and Katie Abey to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Worst Ever School Trip Page 9