by Enid Blyton
Kerry had to fight hard to conceal her glee. This was all such fun!
Julian and Joan looked at one another in dismay. They had been sitting there, discussing Elizabeth’s latest walkout in growing alarm. They had hoped all week that Elizabeth would not lose patience and do something reckless. But she had! She had tried to catch Kerry Dane out on quite the wrong thing! The story that Rupert had told Elizabeth was really rather preposterous. And, even if there had been a grain of truth in it, Kerry Dane had been much too clever to be caught out!
‘Poor Elizabeth,’ whispered Joan. ‘We warned her to be patient.’
‘The Naughtiest Girl doesn’t know the meaning of the word,’ Julian whispered back. ‘Something like this was bound to happen.’
‘Now we come to the matter of the boy,’ the head girl continued. ‘Would you stand up, please, er—’
Julian got lazily to his feet, a mocking expression in his eyes.
‘My name’s Julian,’ he said. ‘Julian Holland.’
‘Yes, well – er – Julian. The Meeting has decided that you must apologize in front of the whole school and—’
‘No!’ shouted a voice from the back.
Elizabeth came running into the hall, panting for breath. She was holding something aloft. She halted and everyone turned round to look at her.
‘You’re the one who must apologize in front of the whole school, Kerry Dane,’ she cried out. ‘You must apologize to Rupert for your despicable behaviour. For stealing his chocolates and pretending you wanted them for the Bazaar. When all the time . . .’
Slowly, deliberately, Elizabeth began to walk towards the platform. There was a high colour in her cheeks and a scornful expression on her face. She was holding aloft a floral patterned wastepaper basket. It had come from Kerry Dane’s room.
‘. . . you wanted to eat them yourself.’
The head girl turned white as she recognized the wastepaper basket.
What happened next was very un-head-girl-like.
With a cry of fury, she leapt down from the platform and raced towards Elizabeth, her golden mane flying out behind her. Her face was contorted with rage.
‘How dare you go into my private room!’ she screamed. ‘How dare you go poking around in my wastepaper basket—!’
She took a wild swing at Elizabeth. It knocked the wastepaper basket out of her hands and sent it flying to the ground.
Glittering tinfoil wrappings scattered in all directions. There were loud gasps throughout the hall.
Julian nipped across and picked one up. Quickly he straightened it out. A soldier’s face appeared and then the body, dressed in bright red tinfoil uniform. Silently, Julian held it up and displayed it to the shocked, silent children all around him. At the back of the hall, Miss Belle and Miss Best and Mr Johns had gone very pale.
‘The wrapping from a chocolate soldier, I presume,’ he said drily.
‘It’s mine!’ cried Rupert, his little voice piping up from the front of the hall. ‘It’s all eaten! I didn’t give them to her. I didn’t, I didn’t. She took all my soldiers!’
‘And this stupid school has taken all my money!’ blazed Kerry Dane. ‘I need to be able to buy chocolate when I crave some, don’t I? As soon as some more money comes through, I’ll replace your silly little soldiers. They weren’t even all that chocolatey!’
Gradually she began to regain her composure. The whole school watched, open-mouthed, as she turned on her heel. Slowly, majestically, she walked back to the platform. Her chin was thrust forward, her head held high.
‘I would like to remind you all of something. I am the head girl of this school, you know.’
She remounted the platform and took her place beside Thomas. She did not even notice the horrified expression on the head boy’s face, or on the faces of the monitors behind him.
‘Now, to more important matters,’ she began. ‘The question of Julian Holland—’
Suddenly a strange sound filled the hall. It was a sound that had never before been heard at a school Meeting. It was started by some of the fourth formers.
It was the sound of booing.
Within moments the whole school joined in the booing and hissing, drowning out the sound of Kerry Dane’s voice.
‘Resign!’ cried the children.
‘Resign! Resign!’
Elizabeth, Joan and Julian exchanged joyful looks.
‘We want Emma!’ cried the Naughtiest Girl. ‘Emma for head girl!’
The booing stopped. Everybody clapped and cheered and stamped their feet, taking up Elizabeth’s cry.
‘We want Emma!’
‘We want Emma!’
Kerry Dane gazed at the sea of faces in disbelief. She had suffered the disapproval of many teachers at her last school and it had annoyed her. But this was something very much worse. The disapproval of other pupils, of her school mates, was really horrid. It was humiliating.
She sank down in her chair, deeply shocked.
Thomas picked up the gavel and brought the Meeting to order. He knew that even William and Rita would, at a moment like this, have needed help from the joint headmistresses and the senior master. He looked to the back of the hall.
‘Please, can you give the Meeting your advice?’ he asked them. ‘What should we do?’
Miss Best rose to her feet.
‘The Meeting must follow its own advice, Thomas. It could hardly be clearer! Might we suggest that you now declare the Meeting closed? Next week, when Kerry has resigned and been replaced by her runner-up in the election, the slate can be wiped clean and a fresh start made.’
‘Thank you, Miss Best,’ replied Thomas, looking pleased.
He smiled across at Emma and his smile was returned.
Shortly after, Kerry Dane came down from the platform for the last time. She knew that she had no hope of ever returning to it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
A lovely Meeting
IT HAD been a chastening experience for the young film star. But the days that followed were worse. The seniors tried to be friendly towards her but they found it very hard after what had taken place. Even kindly Emma found it difficult, although she tried her best.
The rest of the school, with few exceptions, shunned her.
To the many children who had seen Zara’s Journey in the school holidays and admired her as Zara, the shock of discovering her true nature had been very severe; just as it had been, that day in London, for Elizabeth and Joan. Kerry was left to her own devices a great deal. She had plenty of time on her hands to think and to contemplate. She was not used to this. She began to feel unhappy and to think about her real self and whether she liked what she found.
In the days before the next school Meeting, Elizabeth by contrast was in very sunny spirits. She was allowed to play in the table-tennis match after all, and did well. Belinda and Daniel insisted on standing down as second form monitors. Mr Leslie agreed that Joan and Elizabeth should take their places and be monitors after all.
Thomas, with Emma as the new head girl, called in all the monitors early in the week, to decide how much money the children should be allowed at the next Meeting. They would need a lot more than usual, for the Earthquake Bazaar.
Elizabeth was proud to have her opinion asked and to be part of the running of the school. She knew that she was going to enjoy every moment as a second form monitor with her best friend Joan.
But she was beginning to notice how much time Kerry Dane spent on her own. For the very first time she began to feel slightly sorry for her.
One day, after school, when Elizabeth and Julian came back from a pony ride, they found her on her own as usual, by the stables. She was stroking one of the ponies.
‘Hello, Kerry.’
The three of them stood and talked for a while. E
lizabeth was as forthright as ever. She knew no other way.
‘I was shunned when I first came to Whyteleafe, Kerry, so I know just what you’re going through!’ she said cheerfully. ‘I was very spoilt, like you, and I made it my business to be as horrid as I could.’
‘Did you?’ asked Kerry in surprise.
‘She wanted to be sent home, that’s why,’ explained Julian, glancing at Elizabeth in amusement. He never knew what his friend was going to say next. He always had to expect the unexpected. ‘That’s how she got her nickname, the Naughtiest Girl in the School. She didn’t want to be at boarding-school! She’s not really horrid, by the way.’
‘You mean, she isn’t like me?’ commented Kerry, drily.
‘No, I wasn’t anything like you!’ Elizabeth declared truthfully. ‘But I did behave badly. And I definitely remember that nobody liked me.’
‘So what happened then?’ asked Kerry.
‘Oh, it doesn’t last,’ replied Elizabeth, airily. ‘Not if you mend your ways.’
Kerry patted the horse once more and then walked slowly back to school.
‘I don’t think she’s a person who can ever mend her ways,’ smiled Julian, as they rubbed down the ponies. ‘She’s too far gone for that.’
‘Perhaps she’ll make a tiny little start some time,’ said Elizabeth hopefully. ‘You never know.’
And at the Meeting the next day, that was exactly what Kerry did.
She sat, pale and silent, on the senior benches while Thomas and Emma moved smoothly through complaints and grumbles. When, finally, they reached Any Other Business, she raised her hand.
‘Yes, Kerry?’ asked Emma, encouragingly.
Kerry rose. She was trembling slightly. She was suffering from stage fright, something she’d never experienced before. But she was determined to go through with this. She held aloft a large box of chocolate soldiers. She had borrowed two weeks’ allowance in advance, to be able to buy them. It had been hard work finding them, too.
Her words came out in a rush.
‘I’d like to present Rupert with this box of chocolate soldiers. And I’d like to apologize to him in front of the whole school for what I did.’
At a nod from the platform, the little boy came running over and took the box. His face was shining.
‘I’m sorry they’re not exactly the same as the other ones, Rupert,’ said Kerry.
‘They’re bigger! They’re better!’ Rupert beamed, his faith in Whyteleafe School restored. ‘I will share them, I promise!’
There were approving murmurs around the hall. Some people clapped. From her monitor’s chair up on the platform, Elizabeth saw the look on Julian’s face and laughed. It was satisfying to think he could sometimes be wrong.
It had turned out to be a lovely Meeting.
Soon after that, Kerry Dane had a birthday. It was no longer a legal requirement for her to remain at school. She had received a batch of letters from her agent in London and amongst them was another film offer. In consultation with her parents, it was decided that she should forego her certificate exams and leave school. She could now become a full-time actress.
From the joint headmistresses’ window, on the day she left Whyteleafe School, the Beauty and the Beast watched her walk towards her father’s small blue car. Her hair was as golden as corn in the sunshine as she stood waiting for her luggage to be loaded aboard.
‘All that glisters is not gold,’ sighed Miss Best, looking at that halo.
‘She certainly glistered though, didn’t she?’ observed Miss Belle. ‘If, alas, not gold.’
‘She was not with us very long,’ continued Miss Best, ‘but I would like to feel that she leaves Whyteleafe a better person than when she came.’
‘Elizabeth Allen saw to that!’ smiled Miss Belle. ‘I will never understand how it was that Elizabeth and her friends divined her true nature long before the rest of us.’
‘Nor me,’ agreed Miss Best.
But it was no mystery to Kerry Dane. Not any longer.
Amongst the batch of letters that her agent had forwarded from his London office, had been a very odd little note:
Dear Miss Dane
Thank you so much for the beautiful flowers you gave to my daughter Elizabeth last week. She was about to catch her train to boarding-school and so passed them to her father to bring safely home. They are very much appreciated and still as fresh as ever.
Yours sincerely
Audrey Allen
Slowly, the truth had dawned.
Cringing in embarrassment at the memory of their encounter, Kerry had gone to find Elizabeth and to apologize. She was playing chess with Julian.
‘It’s all right, Kerry,’ Elizabeth had replied. ‘But it just shows you should always be nice to everybody you meet. Even old tramps and beggars in the street. You never know where you might meet them again.’
‘Yes, I can see that,’ had been Kerry’s humble reply. ‘I suppose it’s cruel and silly to be horrid to someone for no good reason.’
‘Especially when it’s the Naughtiest Girl,’ thought Julian, with a smile.
Enid Blyton has been one of the world’s best-loved storytellers for over 70 years. Her interest in writing began as a child, and before she loved receiving letters from the children who read her books, she enjoyed working with them as a teacher. The Naughtiest Girl stories are inspired by real schools and experiences. Turn the page to learn more about Enid as a child and as a teacher. Afterwards, you might like to write about your school and teachers and the people in your class!
11 August 1897 Enid Blyton was born in East Dulwich, London. Two brothers are born after her – Hanly (b. 1899) and Carey (b. 1902)
1911 Enid enters a children’s poetry competition and is praised for her writing. She’s on the path to becoming a bestselling author . . .
1916 Enid begins to train as a teacher in Ipswich. By the time she is 21, she is a fully-qualified Froebel teacher, and starts work at a school in Kent.
1917 Enid’s first ‘grown-up’ publication – three poems in Nash’s Magazine.
June 1922 Enid’s first book is published. It’s called Child Whispers.
1926 Enid begins editing – and writes – the phenomenal Sunny Stories for Little Folks magazine. (She continues in this role for 26 years!)
1927 So vast is Enid’s output that she has to learn to type. (But she still writes to children by hand.)
1931 Having married Hugh Pollock in 1924, the couple’s first child, Gillian, is born. Imogen, their second daughter, was born in 1935.
1942 The Famous Five is launched with Five on a Treasure Island.
1949 The first appearance of The Secret Seven and of Noddy mark this year as special.
1953 Enid moves away from Sunny Stories to launch Enid Blyton’s Magazine. She is now renowned throughout the world – she even established her own company, called Darrell Waters Limited (the surname of her second husband).
1962 Enid Blyton becomes one of the first and most important children’s authors to be published in paperback. Now, she reaches even more readers than ever before.
28 November 1968 Enid dies in her sleep, in a nursing home in Hampstead.
Can you answer the questions below on Elizabeth’s adventure in The Naughtiest Girl Wants to Win?
1. What film have Elizabeth and her friends seen Kerry Dane in?
a) Zoe’s Journey
b) Zara’s Quest
c) Zara’s Journey
d) Zoe’s Quest
2. What possession of Elizabeth’s does Kerry Dane damage by throwing it into a muddy puddle?
a) Pencil case
b) Maths book
c) School blazer
d) Autograph book
3. What is the name of the boy who
loses his teddy on the school coach?
a) Robert
b) Rupert
c) Robin
d) Toby
4. Who does Kerry persuade to stand as head girl in order to take votes away from the favourite nominee?
a) Nora
b) Belinda
c) Emma
d) Arabella
5. How many votes does Kerry Dane get to be head girl?
a) 34
b) 35
c) 36
d) 37
6. Elizabeth makes it on to a school sports team this term! Which one?
a) Hockey
b) Lacrosse
c) Tennis
d) Table tennis
7. Where does Elizabeth find incriminating evidence against Kerry Dane?
a) The cupboard where things for the sweet stall are being kept
b) The senior common room
c) The head girl’s wastepaper basket
d) The head girl’s bedroom
8. Where does Elizabeth run into Kerry Dane and tell her about being the Naughtiest Girl?
a) Table tennis practice
b) The dining hall
c) The stables
d) The senior common room
ANSWERS
In 1920, Enid Blyton became a governess to the four Thompson children, whose ages ranged from four to ten. The family lived in Surbiton, in Surrey, in a house called ‘Southernhay’. Enid had a small room which overlooked the garden, and it was there that she wrote many of her stories. Enid’s tiny class often had lessons outdoors in the summer months.
Enid was very popular with her students, because her lessons were both practical and creative. She worked with them to put on performances for which they made props, costumes and invitations – and even sold tickets.