The Golden Shell

by Paula Harrison

  “But that’s the good news!” Rosalind burst out. “We told Miss Goldwin that you hadn’t got a pet and she said you could choose one of the new baby rabbits and look after it!”

  “Really?” said Ella.

  “Yes, really!” said Rosalind, grinning.

  Ella’s heart lifted. “Oh, thanks! That’s amazing!”

  “It was Rosalind’s idea,” said Lottie. “Then Summer found Miss Goldwin and I asked her if it was OK.”

  “That sounds like excellent teamwork,” said Rebecca, smiling. “I hope you enjoy choosing a bunny, Ella. I must get on now – the horses need feeding.” With a quick wave, she headed out of the barn.

  “Bye, Rebecca!” called the princesses.

  “Can I choose a rabbit right now?” asked Ella.

  “Of course you can! I’ll show you where they are.” Rosalind skipped down the barn, avoiding a bucket of water that stood by the sheep pen.

  Summer and Lottie ran after her and they stopped next to a large hutch that was full of hay.

  “Come and look, Ella,” said Summer. “You’re going to love these bunnies. They’re so cute!”

  Ella hurried to join the others and crouched down in front of the hutch. There was no movement inside. A bundle of small fluffy shapes lay huddled together in a dark corner. “They’re sleeping!” she whispered.

  “They were born a few weeks ago just before the start of term,” Rosalind told her. “There are five of them altogether.”

  Summer undid the catch on the door. “There you are! You can stroke them if you like.”

  “Aw! They’re lovely.” Ella reached in and gently touched the rabbits. Their fur was warm and soft. There were two brown ones, two grey ones and a honey-coloured one with a little pink nose.

  “Which one would you like?” said Lottie. “None of them even have names yet.”

  The rabbits opened their eyes at the sound of the girls’ voices. The grey ones pricked up their ears. The honey-coloured rabbit hopped along the run. Then she looked up at Ella and twitched her pink nose.

  “I’d like this one.” Ella pointed to her. “And I’d like to call her…” She thought for a moment. “I’d like to call her Daisy.”

  “That’s a pretty name!” Rosalind carefully lifted the honey-coloured rabbit out of the hutch and gave her to Ella.

  “Hello, Daisy. You’re so cute!” Ella stroked the bunny’s floppy ears and they felt like velvet. Daisy’s nose twitched and she wriggled a little. Ella smiled and pressed her cheek against the bunny’s soft fur.

  “She likes you!” said Lottie, grinning.

  “I like her too,” said Ella. “I’m glad I’m not going to be the only one here without a pet.”

  Just then there were heavy footsteps outside the barn and a girl with thin, dark hair came in. Ella recognised her. It was Molly, the girl who’d complained about Summer’s parrot.

  “Didn’t you hear the bell for dinner?” snapped the older girl. “It went ten minutes ago. Miss Goldwin made me come and find you.”

  “No, we didn’t hear it,” said Lottie. “Thanks for telling us, Molly.”

  Molly ignored Lottie’s thanks. She folded her arms and glared at them. “Who said you could take one of the rabbits out of their hutch? No one’s allowed to touch them yet.”

  “Miss Goldwin said we could,” said Rosalind. “This one belongs to Ella now.”

  Molly snorted. “Poor rabbit! I bet you don’t know anything about looking after it. You’re not even holding it right.”

  “Oh! Well, I’ve never had a rabbit before but I will look after her really carefully.” Ella bit her lip. She didn’t want the older girl to be cross with her. She just wanted to make friends. “Would you like to hold her? You can show me how to do it.”

  She walked towards Molly, but as she got closer Daisy wriggled frantically. Ella clutched at the little rabbit, afraid she was going to leap out of her arms. Her foot caught on a bale of hay and she tripped, bumping into the older girl.

  “Watch it!” Molly stepped backwards, knocking over the bucket of water by the sheep pen.

  Water gushed everywhere. The metal bucket rolled across the ground with a hollow clang. Molly slipped, her arms flapping. Then she landed on her bottom on the wet floor.

  “Are you OK?” Ella wanted to help the older girl but Daisy was still wriggling.

  “Here you go! Take my hand.” Lottie held out her arm but Molly wouldn’t take it.

  The older girl leapt to her feet, her face bright red. Her skirt and jumper were soaking, and bits of hay and dirt were stuck to her clothes. “Ugh! I’m wet and muddy, and it’s all your fault!”

  “I’m really sorry!” Ella felt her cheeks flush. “I didn’t mean to bump into you.”

  “You will be sorry!” hissed Molly. “I’m going to make you all wish you’d never come to this Academy. I’m a captain and I can stop you coming down to the pet barn if I want to!” She gave them a final glare and walked off.

  Rosalind’s eyes were fierce. “I don’t know why she has to be like that! I’m going to tell Miss Goldwin what she said.”

  “Don’t!” said Lottie. “It’ll just make things worse.”

  “Are you all right, Ella?” said Summer. “Don’t worry, it was just an accident.”

  “I know,” said Ella. “I just wish I hadn’t been so clumsy.” She gave Daisy one more stroke and put her back with the other little bunnies. “I’ll come back and see you really soon,” she told the baby rabbit.

  She hoped the older girl, Molly, didn’t really plan to stop them coming to the pet barn. She wanted to spend time with her new baby rabbit more than anything!

  Over the next few days, Ella settled in to life at Harebell Castle. She got used to sharing a bunk bed with Summer in their room in Seahorse Tower and she even liked the school dinners, which always finished with a large helping of pudding!

  With the help of Rebecca, who looked after the pet barn, she had learned all about taking care of baby rabbits. She knew what food Daisy needed and how often to clean her out. The princesses were meant to check on their pets every morning and night. It wasn’t easy as school life was very busy and Molly, the dark-haired captain, seemed to think of lots of jobs for Ella and her friends to do.

  Ella liked her new teachers too. The only one who made her nervous was Lady Eggley, the Royal Skills teacher, who had perfectly smooth hair and eyes as sharp as needles. At first, Ella had liked going into the magnificent Throne Room for her lessons. The shelves were full of silver trophies, and the golden throne gleamed as if it was polished every day. But Lady Eggley swooped down on Ella every time she made a little mistake, telling Ella that her curtsies were terrible and her tiara always wonky.

  Ella began to dread the Royal Skills lessons and talked to the others about it back in Seahorse Tower.

  “Don’t worry about it,” said Lottie. “Lady Eggley is a right royal fusspot.”

  “I’ve heard that she’s madly keen on eating carrots and always keeps some in her bedroom,” said Rosalind. “Maybe her name should be Lady Carroty instead of Lady Eggley.”

  Ella giggled, feeling a little better.

  Summer put down her reading book and climbed off the top bunk. “Now we’re all together, why don’t we go down to the pet barn and see the animals? You can check on your rabbit, Ella, and we can look at the other baby bunnies too.”

  The door swung open and Molly stood there, smiling meanly. “Oh good! You’re all here. I need you to help with some chores.”

  “But we were just going down to check on our pets,” protested Ella. “We don’t want Rebecca to think we’re not looking after them properly.”

  “No, Rebecca wouldn’t be pleased if you didn’t take care of your rabbit,” said Molly, with a spiteful look in her eye. “But first, all the rooms in the tower need dusting and the corridor needs sweeping. Hurry up now!” And she slammed the door.

  “Every time we try to go to the pet barn, she invents a job for us,” said Lottie. “I
haven’t seen Strawberry for three days. If this carries on, Rebecca will have to report us to Miss Goldwin for not looking after our animals. We might not even be allowed to keep our pets any more. We have to get away from Molly!”

  “I wish her room wasn’t right at the start of the corridor,” said Summer. “No one can leave the tower without her seeing.”

  Rosalind folded her arms. “We can beat her easily. All we need are some ninja moves.”

  “Some what?” said Ella, surprised.

  Rosalind put her hand over her mouth. “Oops!”

  Lottie rolled her eyes. “You’ve said it now, Rosalind! I think we should tell you our secret anyway, Ella. You’re one of us now.”

  Ella turned pink. “Thanks, Lottie!”

  “Let’s explain later. We don’t want Molly hearing,” said Summer.

  So, after dinner, they found an empty classroom downstairs instead of returning to Seahorse Tower. Rosalind took out her torch. “Don’t switch the lights on. We don’t want anyone to know we’re in here.”

  Ella felt a swooping in her stomach. Now she would find out what the secret was!

  “First of all you have to promise not to tell anyone about this,” said Lottie.

  Ella nodded quickly. “I won’t tell.”

  Rosalind took a deep breath. “You see, we’re the Rescue Princesses and we rescue animals in danger.”

  “I was the first one to set up the club,” said Lottie. “Well, it was my sister, Emily, actually. She rescued some deer in Mistberg Forest with the help of her friends. But when she left to go to school, I took over.”

  “That’s when I joined,” added Rosalind. “It was me, Lottie, Amina and Isabella. You haven’t met Amina and Isabella because they’re not coming here till next term.”

  “Then I met everyone in the springtime,” said Summer. “We rescued a snow leopard with the help of a princess called Maya.”

  “So you’ll be the twelfth Rescue Princess,” said Lottie. “But the number isn’t really important. The point is we help animals, no matter how dangerous it is, and we have magic jewels that help us and we know ninja moves too! We even have a book about ninja moves hidden upstairs.”

  “Wow!” Ella stared at them all. “That is so cool.”

  “So would you like to join?” said Lottie.

  “Yes, please!” Ella beamed. “It sounds very exciting.”

  “Good! So tomorrow we’ll use our ninja moves to get past Molly,” said Lottie, pushing back her red curls. “We’ll wait till lessons are finished and then sneak out before she can stop us.”

  “Oh, one more thing!” said Rosalind. “I made a few more rings in the holidays just in case we needed them and yours is a yellow diamond.” She dropped a ring with a beautiful yellow jewel into Ella’s hand. “Pressing the jewel lets us talk to each other.”

  “Thank you!” Ella slid the ring on to her finger and pressed the diamond. The jewel lit up instantly and the rings on her friends’ hands shone brightly too. Lottie had a ruby ring, Rosalind had a deep-blue sapphire and Summer’s jewel was a beautiful purple amethyst.

  The princesses were still admiring their magical rings when the door creaked open. Ella swung round and was dazzled when someone switched on the light.

  “Hey! What’s going on?” said a voice.

  The girls leapt up. Lottie and Summer stuffed their hands behind their backs to hide their glowing rings. Ella tripped over a chair and grabbed hold of a table to stop herself falling over.

  “You should have knocked,” snapped Rosalind. “You made us jump.”

  Ella got her balance back and turned round, worried that Molly had found them.

  There were five girls standing in the doorway and thankfully none of them was Molly. The girl at the front had long red curls and looked familiar somehow.

  “Emily!” said Lottie.

  The girl with the red curls grinned. “Hi, little sis! Sorry we made you jump. We heard voices and wondered what was going on. What were you doing in the dark?”

  “We’re inviting a new girl into the Rescue Princesses,” said Lottie. “It’s OK!” she told the others. “These are the old members of the gang. This is Lulu, Clarabel, Jaminta, Freya and my sister Emily. They all belong to Coral Tower.”

  The older princesses smiled. “We heard you’d carried on the Rescue Princesses and had lots of adventures,” said a girl with black hair and lion-like eyes. “Well done!”

  “Thanks, Lulu,” said Lottie. “Actually, we’re organising a mission right now.” And she told the older girls about the problem with Molly and what had happened in the pet barn.

  “Molly’s being so unfair,” added Rosalind. “So we’re going to use our ninja moves to get out of Seahorse Tower and away from her! Otherwise we can’t look after our pets properly.”

  Emily looked a bit worried. “Well, be careful when you’re sneaking around! I’ve heard that this castle has hidden doors and secret passages!”

  “That’s right,” nodded Lulu. “After all, this place was a proper castle in the olden days before it became a school!”

  “I wish we could find some of the secret places,” said Lottie. “Then we could hide from Molly and her endless list of chores!”

  “Do take care, little sis,” Emily said to Lottie. “You have such a way of getting into trouble.”

  “Oh, don’t worry!” said Lottie. “We’re not babies. We know exactly what to do!”

  The next day crept by slowly. At last, lessons ended and the four girls hurried back to Seahorse Tower.

  Once the bedroom door was closed, Rosalind lifted up her mattress and took out a book hidden underneath. It had a black cover with Book of Ninja written on it in gold letters. Ella noticed how old it looked. Some of the pages were worn and speckled with brown marks.

  “I had a quick look last night and I think I’ve found the perfect thing,” said Rosalind, flicking through the pages. “This move will give us a way of distracting Molly while we sneak out.” She turned the book round to show them.

  The picture showed someone dangling a shoe out of a window using a piece of string. Another picture showed the person in the room below looking out of the window at the floating shoe in amazement.

  “So we can surprise Molly and make her stare out of the window while we escape,” said Summer. “There’s a bathroom above her bedroom so we should be able to get in there easily.”

  “But what shall we put on the end of the string?” said Lottie. “If we’re not careful she’ll realise that it’s a trick straight away.”

  “We could dangle one of our teddies,” suggested Summer.

  “I’m not dangling mine.” Lottie tucked her teddy under her arm. “He might fall off!”

  “It should be something that’s supposed to fly,” said Ella. “Then she’ll think it’s real. Something like a butterfly or a— I know!” She jumped to her feet, opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of stripy black-and-yellow socks. “A bumblebee!”

  “Ella! That’s a great idea!” said Rosalind. “Those stripes do look like a bee. We can stuff the sock with paper and put wings on it. Then when Molly looks out of the window she’ll wonder if she’s seeing a giant bee.”

  There were heavy footsteps and the door opened. Ella quickly hid the stripy socks behind her back.

  Molly looked in and scowled. “There’ll be a room inspection in ten minutes so don’t think you can run off anywhere.”

  “Molly, I just want to visit my rabbit today,” began Ella. “Do you think—”

  “Forget it!” snapped Molly. “You haven’t got time!” And she closed the door with a bang.

  Lottie waited a moment and then opened the door a crack and checked that the older girl had gone. “That’s it, then! She’s had her chance. Let’s put together our ninja trick.”

  Together, they stuffed one of the socks with paper to give the bee a round body. Then Summer found two pieces of clear plastic that they cut into wing shapes and stuck on with sticky tape.

 
Ella fetched her sewing kit and took out a blue cotton reel. “If we use blue-coloured thread then hopefully she won’t spot it. The cotton will be camouflaged against the sky.”

  “Be as quick as you can,” urged Rosalind. “Molly will be back any minute.”

  Finally, the fake bumblebee was ready.

  “I’ll take the bee up to the bathroom and dangle it from the window,” said Rosalind. “You three go ahead and sneak out. I’ll catch up with you in the pet barn.” Stuffing the bee under her jumper, Rosalind ran swiftly upstairs.

  “OK, is everyone ready?” whispered Lottie. “Let’s get a bit closer.”

  Ella, Lottie and Summer tiptoed down the corridor. They heard heavy footsteps inside Molly’s room. Lottie signalled for them to stop but the older girl didn’t come out into the corridor. They crept even closer and peeped round the door.

  Molly was standing in front of the mirror doing different poses. She put her hands on her hips. Then she folded her arms and grinned at the mirror. Ella had the urge to giggle and clapped her hand over her mouth.

  There was a soft tapping sound. A yellow-and-black stripy bee-sock swung through the air and thudded gently against the window.

  Ella had a sudden brainwave. “I know what will help,” she murmured to Summer.

  Whump! The bee-sock bumped against the window again. Molly caught sight of it and swung round.

  “Bzzzzz!” Ella began making a soft buzzing sound. “Bzz, bzz!”

  Molly stepped closer to the window. “Huh! What’s going on?”

  “Bzz!” Ella got a bit louder, and Summer and Lottie joined in.

  The bee-sock outside the window began bobbing up and down in the air, as if it was doing a little bumblebee dance.

  Molly ran to the window, opened it and stuck her head out. The bee-sock soared over her head into the sky. “No way! That bee was enormous!”

  With one final buzz, Ella, Lottie and Summer raced past the doorway and down the corridor. They ran until they reached the bottom of the stairs, then they collapsed into giggles.