“WOW! I could do some excellent scares with that,” she thought.
“Mum, can I have this?” she asked sweetly.
“You’ve got quite enough scary things,” Mrs Vine replied.
“Please, please,” begged Buffy. “I’ve helped you with all the shopping, I deserve a little treat.”
Mrs Vine smiled. “You have been very good,” she agreed. “I’ll buy it for you on condition that you promise not to use it at the wedding.”
“Cross my heart,” Buffy solemnly promised.
A whole week had gone by and Buffy hadn’t scared Tina and Lucy once.
“It’s been nice not having eyeballs in my apple juice,” giggled Lucy, as they all sat at their table writing stories in their very best handwriting.
“And I’ve really enjoyed not having spiders in my ham sandwiches,” chuckled Tina.
Buffy smiled. “I haven’t had time for scary things.”
Buffy waited until Lucy and Tina went off to get some clean paper, then quickly took the ink splodge from her rucksack and placed it on top of her friends’ writing books. It looked fantastic – just as if somebody had come along and tipped a whole bottle of ink all over the desk.
Buffy bent her head over her book and waited for her friends to come back. Out of the corner of her eye she saw them stop dead in their tracks and stare in horror at the ink splodge that was covering their books. They gasped, then squeaked, then screamed and ran to the teacher.
“Somebody’s spilt ink all over our books!” they cried.
The class teacher dashed up to their desk. “WHAT ink?” she asked. “I can’t see any ink.”
Tina and Lucy stopped spluttering and looked at the table where their books were neatly laid out alongside their crayons and pencils.
“I do wish you two would stop making a fuss about nothing,” said the class teacher.
“But there really was ink here,” Lucy insisted.
“Who else was sitting here with you?” asked the teacher.
The two girls looked at each other. “BUFFY!” they said.
They found Buffy in the cloakroom, clutching the ink splodge and giggling to herself.
“You scared us again!” cried Tina.
“Oh, you should have seen your faces!” laughed Buffy.
Lucy winked at Tina as if to say, We can’t wait to see your face on the wedding day!
Chapter Seven
The wedding day dawned, wild and blustery. Mum took Buffy over to Aunt Sarah’s house, where she stayed to help dress all three bridesmaids. Molly and Polly were already there, dancing around the house in their frilly petticoats, wild with excitement.
“Thank goodness I’ve got one older bridesmaid,” said Aunt Sarah. “At least you’ll be sensible, won’t you Buffy?”
Buffy nodded.
“She’s promised not to play any scary tricks,” Mum added.
“Good!” exclaimed Aunt Sarah. “I’m scared enough as it is!”
Mrs Vine got the bridesmaids into their dresses, then left them with the hairdresser who’d come to the house to do everybody’s hair.
The twins, of course, wanted lots of curls all fluffed out around their shiny little faces. When the hairdresser suggested curls for the big bridesmaid, Buffy said, “I’d like my hair long and straight, please.”
“YUK! You really look like a witch now!” laughed Polly.
“Ooo, a scary witch!” giggled Molly.
Buffy gave the annoying twins a scary look which sent them scampering out of the room.
“Are you sure you want your hair down?” asked the hairdresser.
“Yes. Long, loose hair will go better with the style of my dress,” Buffy replied firmly.
Shortly after they’d all dressed, the flowers arrived. Posies of roses for the twins and lilies for Buffy and Aunt Sarah.
“You all look lovely!” sighed Mum with tears in her eyes. “Just like little angels.”
“Buffy’s too scary to be an angel!” squeaked Polly.
The wind thundered around the church and rattled the stained glass windows.
When the bride and groom walked out of the church the wind whooshed round them, sending Aunt Sarah’s veil flying up like a misty cloud.
The photographer was frantically dashing around trying to take shots of the guests before the wind blew their hats off! Buffy and the twins had their photographs taken with the bride and groom, then the photographer called for all the ushers.
Bored with standing on the church path, Buffy wandered into the churchyard. As she made her way along a row of gravestones she saw a light flickering behind one of them. Filled with curiosity, Buffy hurried over, but as soon as she got close the light went out. Buffy peeped behind the gravestone but there was nothing there. Strange, she thought. Then she saw the flickering light shining out from behind an old yew tree. Buffy ran towards the tree but just as she reached it the light faded … then she heard something that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It was a low moaning sound which grew louder and louder. Buffy wanted to run but she was too scared to move.
“OOOOOOOO!”
“Wh-h-h-ho’s there?” squeaked Buffy.
“OOOOOOOO!” continued the moaning.
“Wh-wh-wh-what do you want?” Buffy’s eyes widened with fright.
“HAHHHHH!”
To Buffy’s amazement, two figures dressed in billowing white jumped out from behind the yew tree and ran towards her.
“WE WANT YOU!!!” they howled.
“AHHHHH!” went Buffy, and ran screaming up the path.
Hearing the noise, the entire wedding party looked round and saw Buffy heading towards them, with her dark hair flying around her deadly white face.
“Help! There are ghosts in the graveyard!” she yelled.
Mrs Vine ran to her daughter and held her tight. “Buffy, Buffy,” she soothed. “There aren’t any ghosts.”
“Yes, there are,” insisted Buffy. “There are two over there behind that tree.”
She turned and pointed to the yew tree, but the only thing that moved was the wind in the branches.
“There were two ghosts,” Buffy insisted.
“Come on, let’s get you a nice drink of water,” said Mum. “I’m surprised you’re scared after all the tricks you play on people.”
Chapter Eight
Mrs Vine led her trembling daughter back into the church, where she sat her down in the flower room.
“Here, drink this,” she said, as she handed Buffy a glass of water.
Buffy shuddered. “They were wearing white and they made a horrible moaning noise,” she said.
“What kind of white thing were they wearing?” asked Mrs Vine curiously.
“Long white things, like sheets,” Buffy replied.
“Were they anything like those sheets?” Mrs Vine asked, as she pointed to two white sheets thrown on the floor of the flower room.
Buffy looked at the sheets. “Mum,” she said crossly. “Ghosts don’t wear sheets. They’re white because they’re ghosts.”
Mrs Vine smiled and winked. “Do ghosts giggle?” she asked.
Buffy was just about to say, No of course not, when she heard a little squeaky giggle coming from a tall cupboard in the corner of the room.
Pressing a finger to her lips, Mrs Vine crept towards the cupboard and threw open the door.
“AHH!” went the would-be ghosts, crouched down in the bottom of the cupboard.
“You horrible girls!!” gasped Buffy, as she saw Tina and Lucy. “You played a trick on me!”
The two girls looked at Buffy and burst into fits of giggles.
“Well, it serves you right. You should have seen your face!” cried Tina.
“You looked as white as a ghost!” laughed Lucy.
“You scared me!” cried Buffy.
“How many times have you scared us?” asked Tina.
“We always said we’d give you a serious scare and now we have,” added Lucy.
The three girls looked at each other, and then started to laugh.
“OK girls,” Mrs Vine said. “I think there have been quite enough scares for one day.” She looked at Tina and Lucy. “I’ll just phone your parents and ask them to take you home. We’ve got a wedding to get back to!”
“Where have you been?” asked Aunt Sarah, when Mum and Buffy returned to the wedding party.
“I got waylaid by some ghosts,” giggled Buffy.
“I thought I told you I didn’t want any scary things happening at MY wedding,” said Aunt Sarah.
Buffy burst out laughing. “I wasn’t the scary bridesmaid!” she exclaimed. “I was the SCARED bridesmaid!”
Buffy had learned her lesson…
Or had she?
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