Welcome to Willowvale

by Rebecca Johnson

  Both the teachers and Hannah and Talika stared at her in silence.

  ‘I’m guessing Mrs Bristow is Chuckles?’ said Mr McPhail.

  ‘Um, no, um . . .’ For the first time since she’d arrived, Abbey was speechless.

  Miss Beckett started to giggle, just a little at first, and then full-blown laughter. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said to Mr McPhail, ‘I shouldn’t be laughing, I know! It’s a nervous habit. I’ve always done it. I’m trying to stop.’ The more she tried to explain, the more she laughed, and pretty soon Mr McPhail was chuckling too.

  Abbey raised an eyebrow at the girls and gave the teachers a pointed look, and Talika and Hannah erupted into giggles too.

  ‘Well, it’s been lovely, but I’d better be off. Good luck, ladies.’ Mr McPhail bowed low and swung out the door, whistling cheerily.

  The girls sat down to show Miss Beckett how to feed the lambs.

  ‘I can’t believe I’m actually looking forward to getting up at two o’clock in the morning,’ she whispered, as Button slurped down the last of his milk.

  ‘I wish we could get up too,’ said Talika.

  ‘Ha,’ snorted Miss Beckett. ‘Can you imagine what Ms Sterling would say if she caught you out of your room at two in the morning?’

  ‘We’d better go to dinner,’ sighed Abbey, ‘or you-know-who is going to do her you-know-what.’

  They tucked the lambs into their little bed and hugged them goodbye.

  ‘Where on earth are we going to find more parasites?’ said Hannah as they walked towards the dining hall. ‘We need to make a list of all the parasites we can think of, and then work out where we would find them.’

  ‘Let us do it over dinner,’ said Talika. ‘I have a pen in my pocket. We could write them on a napkin.’

  The girls took their trays and found a table as far away from the kitchen and Mrs Bristow’s prying eyes as possible.

  ‘Fleas,’ said Hannah as soon as she sat down with her meal. Talika scribbled it on her paper napkin.

  ‘I’ll bet that mad dog is covered in fleas,’ said Abbey grimly. ‘I don’t see it letting us pick any off it though.’

  ‘Leeches,’ said Talika.

  ‘Where on earth are we going to find a leech?’ said Hannah. ‘Aren’t they usually in rainforests?’

  ‘We’ve got heaps of them in the dams at home,’ said Abbey. ‘Has the school got a dam?’

  Hannah thought for a moment. ‘It has two, I think, on the other side of the oval. We should ask Mrs Parry to give us permission to go and have a look there.’

  The girls all nodded.

  ‘Ticks,’ said Talika.

  ‘Didn’t Mr McPhail say that Dr Brown was coming to spray the cattle tomorrow?’ said Abbey. ‘Maybe they have ticks. In fact, maybe Dr Brown can tell us where we might find some more parasites? She might even collect some parasites for us on her rounds.’

  ‘I suspect Dr Brown might be a bit too busy to be doing our assignment,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Mites,’ said Talika. The list on the napkin was getting longer.

  ‘Chickens can get mites,’ said Abbey. ‘We should check out the school’s chooks.’

  ‘Lice,’ said Hannah.

  ‘Chuckles!’ squeaked Abbey, but it was too late. The kitchen head could move incredibly quickly for such a large woman. She reached over Talika’s shoulder and snatched up the napkin, holding it high in the air.

  ‘Do you think this school can afford to supply napkins for you to write dirty little notes?’ she boomed, once again making the girls the spectacle of the dining hall.

  ‘But it’s homework!’ protested Hannah.

  Mrs Bristow cleared her throat.

  ‘Fleas, leeches, ticks, mites and lice do not look like homework to me,’ she snapped. ‘It looks like mischief.’

  Around them, girls started pulling faces and muttering. Except of course the other students in the Vet Cadets Program, who knew exactly what the list was for.

  Elizabeth had gone bright red and looked mad enough to burst.

  Mrs Bristow had an audience now, and she wasn’t ready to lose it. ‘I’m sure Ms Sterling will be most impressed to see that a group of her Willowvale girls are planning to release a great swarm of horrible beasties into the dormitories.’

  Abbey stood up. She faced Mrs Bristow and looked her squarely in the eyes. Smiling sweetly, she said, ‘Please excuse me, Mrs Bristow, but they are not horrible beasties, they are parasites, and we’re making a list of the ones we still need to collect for our biology assignment for Mrs Parry. We will be putting them in vials in methylated spirits, not releasing them in the dorms. We were actually doing homework.’

  Mrs Bristow hesitated, looking around at the other girls, many of whom were now nodding.

  ‘It’s an assignment?’ she asked.

  More nodding.

  ‘Well, either way, napkins are for wiping hands, not note taking,’ she said, thrusting the napkin back towards Talika, who thanked her politely as she stomped away.

  All the girls in the dining hall started talking at once and smiling at Abbey, except, of course, Elizabeth and her friends, who continued to glare from across the room.

  Abbey sighed. The Sheriff was going to be a tough nut to crack.

  As soon as they were allowed to leave the table, the girls raced back to visit Button and Snowflake in the laundry. Miss Beckett had obviously been back there and was taking her lambsitting very seriously. They now had a little corner cordoned off with a soft quilt, hot water bottles and a ticking clock.

  The girls crept in and sat around the sleeping lambs.

  ‘What is the clock for?’ whispered Talika.

  ‘I’m guessing it’s the same as what you do for puppies when they leave their mothers,’ said Hannah. ‘The ticking clock is supposed to sound like their mother’s heartbeat. It never worked for our dog Winston when he was a puppy, though. He still howled every night for a week!’

  Abbey stifled a snort of laughter.

  ‘What?’ said Hannah.

  ‘Trust your family to have a dog with a posh name like Winston!’

  All the girls giggled quietly.

  Miss Beckett tiptoed in with a book and a cup of coffee. ‘Oh, hello, girls,’ she said excitedly. ‘I thought I’d sit with the babies until their next feed at ten.’

  It was clear that Miss Beckett had fallen in love with the lambs too.

  ‘I wish we could stay up and help you,’ said Hannah. ‘How will you manage feeding both at once?’

  ‘I guess I’ll just have to,’ said Miss Beckett. ‘I’m not game to ask Ms Sterling if you can stay up. She’s already being very generous letting the lambs stay here at all. It’s against school policy to have animals in the dorms, as you well know.’

  ‘But she sleeps in the principal’s house . . . Would she even know?’ ventured Talika.

  ‘Girls,’ Miss Beckett laughed. ‘I am the House Supervisor! I would know.’

  The girls reluctantly went up to their dorm room at bedtime.

  ‘I really hope Poppet is going to be okay,’ said Abbey, rolling over in her bed to face the wall.

  ‘I am sure she will be, Abbey,’ said Talika. ‘Dr Brown knows what she is doing.’

  ‘Where do you think they put the wool they sheared off Poppet before they stitched her up?’ said Hannah suddenly.

  The other two sat up to look at her.

  ‘What on earth are you thinking about that for, Hannah?’ laughed Talika.

  ‘I know it’s a long shot, but I wondered whether there might be a slim chance that whatever attacked Poppet may have left some evidence behind?’

  ‘Han, you’re brilliant!’ exclaimed Abbey. ‘I bet Mrs Parry would let us borrow some of those Optivisor things we saw the other day – you know, the magnifying goggles, to take a look! Let’s ask t
omorrow.’

  All three girls lay back down, each thinking about the possibilities of the next day, until eventually Abbey heard the steady breathing of her friends. She tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and at last decided to get a drink of water. As she drank, she stared out at the darkness from their windows, and worried about the dog and their sheep. What if it came back?

  She climbed back into bed, but at ten o’clock she was still watching the minutes on the clock tick over.

  ‘Blow it,’ she said. She climbed out of bed, grabbed her slippers and a jumper, and crept out of the room, holding Talika’s bells still.

  The crack of light under the door in the laundry told her that Miss Beckett was already at work. She held her breath as she turned the knob and peeked inside.

  Miss Beckett was sitting cross-legged on the floor in her dressing-gown. The lambs were pushing each other away from the same bottle and climbing all over her, and the other bottle had been knocked over and had rolled across the floor.

  A rather frazzled-looking Miss Beckett looked up at Abbey in surprise. And then delight.

  ‘Help! I’ve been at this for five minutes and I just can’t seem to manage.’

  Abbey scooped up Button and grabbed the second bottle, and soon the two of them were sitting silently together feeding the hungry lambs.

  ‘How on earth do mothers with twins manage?’ said the teacher when the bottles were empty.

  Abbey smiled and shrugged her shoulders. She lifted the sleepy lamb and put it back in its cosy little bed. ‘I’d better go back to bed. Should I set my alarm for two?’

  ‘I’m sure I’ll be able to manage next time,’ said Miss Beckett. ‘It was just that the little rascals knocked over the first bottle and I couldn’t reach it.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Abbey. Then she smiled at her teacher. ‘Thanks for not being cross that I came down.’

  Miss Beckett winked. ‘I secretly hoped that one of you would.’

  As Abbey crept back into the room, the bells chimed.

  ‘Are you okay?’ asked Hannah, sleepily.

  ‘I couldn’t sleep,’ whispered Abbey, ‘so I snuck down to help Miss Beckett.’

  ‘Did she get cross?’

  ‘Not at all. In fact, she was totally relieved. It was chaos.’

  ‘Should I set my alarm and go down at two?’ whispered Hannah. ‘I could turn the volume down and put it under my pillow for the night.’

  ‘Good idea,’ said Abbey. ‘I think she could really do with a hand.’

  The next morning, on the way down to feed the lambs at six o’clock, Hannah told Abbey and Talika what had happened during the night.

  ‘I got down there okay, and Miss Beckett seemed very happy to see me. We fed them in no time, but on the way back up, the stairs creaked. I heard one of the doors to the senior girls rooms open, and turned around to see Elizabeth peering out.’

  ‘Surely she would understand?’ said Talika.

  ‘Well, that’s just it,’ said Hannah. ‘I went back down the corridor to explain to her, but she shut the door in my face.’

  ‘I’m sure she wouldn’t say anything,’ said Abbey, but as they sat down to eat she felt a twinge of unease. She wouldn’t put it past Elizabeth to dob in her sister. She just didn’t want to say it out loud and upset Hannah even further.

  The girls had barely started breakfast when the chatter slowly died around the hall. They looked up to see what had caused the sudden lull in conversation.

  Ms Sterling had entered the dining hall, followed by Elizabeth and Miss Beckett. Miss Beckett was looking down at a tissue in her hands and twisting it nervously.

  Hannah sunk low in her chair and looked miserably at her friends. ‘Oh no,’ she whispered.

  ‘Ladies,’ said Ms Sterling, very formally. ‘I have been informed that at least one student was seen leaving her room during the night and wandering the halls. This is not, and will never be, acceptable at Willowvale. I have spoken to Miss Beckett about this, and she will be making extra patrols at night from now on. At this stage I have no idea who this person was, or why they saw fit to leave their room, but it will not happen again. Is that clear?’

  ‘Yes, Ms Sterling,’ the girls chorused.

  The principal turned and left the room. Hannah and Elizabeth glared at each other across the room.

  ‘She saw me,’ muttered Hannah. ‘Elizabeth saw me and dobbed me in.’ Her voice was thin and weak and she sounded like she might cry.

  ‘She mustn’t have said who you were,’ said Talika, holding her friend’s hand under the table, ‘just that she saw someone. At least she is not that low.’

  ‘But she’s gotten poor Miss Beckett in trouble,’ sniffed Hannah, tears starting to trickle down her cheeks. ‘Why couldn’t she just have asked me? I was right there, and she closed the door in my face.’

  Neither of her friends knew what to say. Meanness is a horrible trait, but between sisters it was even worse.

  ‘Well,’ said Talika finally. ‘I have always wished I had a big sister, but the Sheriff is changing my mind very quickly.’

  The girls finished their breakfast in silence, then headed down to the stables to see Poppet before their first lesson.

  The sight of her standing up and eating in the stall was just what the friends needed, and Mr McPhail said he would be up to get the lambs as soon as the vet had been.

  ‘What time is Dr Brown coming to spray the cattle and check Poppet?’ asked Abbey. ‘We really need some parasites for our science assignment and we were hoping to check the cattle for some ticks.’

  ‘You might just be in luck there,’ said Mr McPhail. ‘That’s why I’m getting them sprayed. I saw a calf with quite a few on its neck the day before yesterday. I’ll put him in the holding pen and make sure he’s sprayed last. Dr Brown said she would be here just before morning break.’

  ‘Perfect,’ said Abbey.

  ‘Um, Mr McPhail,’ said Hannah as they were about to leave, ‘do you know what happened to the wool Dr Brown cut off Poppet yesterday?’

  Mr McPhail looked a little confused. ‘I put it in a bag in the bin over there. It had some blood on it and I didn’t want flies getting on it. Why?’

  ‘I’d really like to have a closer look at it in the lab. Would that be okay?’

  By this stage, Mr McPhail was looking totally confused. He opened his mouth to say something and Talika quickly added, ‘We would use gloves, of course, and only if Mrs Parry said it was okay.’

  ‘I guess you’re here to study science,’ said Mr McPhail, shrugging. ‘Just be sure to check with Mrs Parry first.’

  ‘Thanks, sir,’ said Hannah.

  Science was first up that morning. And there were even more girls with parasites in vials parading around the classroom. A girl called Charlotte surprised everyone by bringing in some plant parasites called white scale, and a dried branch with flowers from a tree called Australian Christmas.

  ‘This parasitic tree is particularly interesting,’ said Mrs Parry, ‘because it actually makes a cut in the roots of other plants with a tiny guillotine-like structure on its own roots. Then it just connects its roots up to the cut and literally sucks the life out of the plants around it.’

  The girls were all very impressed.

  ‘We really have to get serious about our collection now,’ said Talika. ‘My parents will only let me stay at this school if I get very good grades.’

  ‘Surely your parents would know that this is the best school for you to be at if you want to study animal diseases?’ said Hannah.

  ‘The problem is, I have not really told them that that is what my dream is. I think my parents have let me come here to get animals out of my system. I already know they see me following them into the family electronics business.’

  After class they asked Mrs Parry if they could use the Optivisor magnifying gog
gles to study the wool, and explained the situation with Poppet to her. She was more than happy to help.

  The four of them spread a plastic sheet on the bench and sorted through the wool. Abbey looked around the group – they were all wearing masks, gloves, coats and goggles, which was lucky because the wool was starting to smell.

  ‘I feel like someone from one of those TV detective shows,’ she said, laughing.

  ‘Surely there must be a dog hair in among all this wool somewhere,’ said Talika, peering closely at the wool and parting it gingerly with her gloved fingers.

  No sooner had she said it, Hannah gasped. ‘I found one! I actually found one!’

  Hannah grabbed one of her vials and lowered the hair into it. They all examined it through their goggles.

  ‘So,’ said Abbey to Mrs Parry, ‘if we were able to get hair from the actual dog, and it was a match, could this be used as proof of guilt? Would the council accept it?’

  ‘I’m really not sure,’ she said. ‘Certainly if it was a human crime scene, it would be taken in as evidence. I’m just not sure that the council is going to be quite so serious about your investigation.’

  ‘But it’s worth a try, right?’ said Abbey.

  The teacher shrugged her shoulders and smiled. ‘You would hope that they didn’t dispute good science. I’ll look after this for you. I promise I’ll take good care of it.’

  The girls packed up their things to prepare to head down to see Dr Brown.

  ‘Um, Mrs Parry,’ said Hannah before they left. ‘We’d like to go down to the school dam after school to look for some parasites. Can we get permission from you?’

  ‘Even better,’ she said, ‘I’ll come with you. I was hoping someone might think of heading to the water to add to their collection. I have some great nets you can use. I’ll meet you here after school.’

  The girls couldn’t wait to tell Mr McPhail and Dr Brown about the dog hair.

  Dr Brown laughed. ‘The council isn’t going to know what’s hit them when you lot turn up with your investigative report. It sounds like a good plan to me. But you’re still going to need to get a sample from the dog to crosscheck it, aren’t you?’