by Enid Blyton
‘It is a treek,’ she muttered to herself.‘Either that, or my poor eyes are deceiving me!’
The French mistress asked Amy, Felicity and Susan to read out the next three questions, which they all did most convincingly, so that poor Mam’zelle was quite at a loss. She walked up to the blackboard and ran her hand across it, then examined it from all angles, her expression of bewilderment so comical that several of the girls found it hard to contain their laughter.
‘Perhaps it is something to do with your new spectacles, Mam’zelle,’ suggested Pam.
The French mistress considered this, taking off her new glasses and looking at them closely. But that was no good at all, for without them Mam’zelle could hardly see a thing! She put them back on again, just in time to see June waving at someone through the open window—but there was no one there!
‘June!’ she called sharply.‘Who do you wave to?’
‘Why, it’s Amanda from the sixth form,’ answered the wicked June. ‘Look, there she is, over by the flower beds. Hi, Amanda!’
June leaned out of the window, waving frantically and Mam’zelle, fearing for her sanity now, cried, ‘But there is no one there!’
‘It’s Amanda all right, as large as life,’ said Freddie, also leaning out of the window.‘Coo-ee! Amanda!’
This was the signal for all the girls who were seated by the windows to begin waving furiously, all of them shouting to attract the attention of the non-existent Amanda, and soon the noise became quite deafening.
‘Silence!’ shouted Mam’zelle, covering her hands with her ears.‘Back to your seats at once!’
But, before the girls could sit down, the door opened and Miss Potts appeared. She had been taking the first formers in the classroom next door, and wondered what on earth was going on in Mam’zelle’s class! The third formers were making so much noise that she could barely hear herself think!
The mistress pursed her lips as she took in the scene before her. Half of the third formers seemed to be hanging out of the windows yelling themselves hoarse, while the other half watched, with tears of laughter running down their cheeks. As for Mam’zelle herself, her attempts to restore order were having no effect at all!
Miss Potts raised her voice and said sharply, ‘Mam’zelle Dupont! What is the meaning of all this noise?’
No one had heard Miss Potts enter, and Mam’zelle wheeled round sharply, the girls at the windows returning quickly to their seats, some of them looking a little scared.
‘Ah, Miss Potts!’ cried Mam’zelle.‘My eyes, they have gone wrong! The girls, they wave to that big Amanda, but I cannot see her!’
Miss Potts marched over to the nearest window and looked out. ‘Mam’zelle, you can’t see Amanda because she isn’t there. June!’
June jumped at the sharpness of Miss Potts’s tone and, turning slightly red, said, ‘Yes, Miss Potts?’
‘Was Amanda outside?’
‘Well, I thought that I saw her,’ said June, not wanting to tell an outright lie to the mistress.‘But I think that she’s gone now.’
Before Miss Potts could reply to this, Mam’zelle claimed her attention again, crying, ‘But that is not all, Miss Potts. I cannot see the writing on the blackboard either. There is something wrong with my eyes, I tell you!’
Miss Potts looked at the blackboard and then at Mam’zelle Dupont, wondering if the French mistress was in her right mind that morning, and said crisply, ‘Well, there is nothing wrong with my eyes, Mam’zelle, and I can see no writing on the blackboard either.’
Mam’zelle stared at Miss Potts and said, ‘But this is impossible! The dear girls, they can see the writing.’
‘Can they indeed?’ said Miss Potts, sounding very sceptical indeed. ‘I think, Mam’zelle, that the girls have been playing a trick on you. No doubt June or Freddie will be happy to explain it to you!’
And with that, Miss Potts stalked from the room, leaving the girls staring at one another apprehensively, while Mam’zelle stood in the middle of the floor, her mouth agape. At last she found her voice, and cried, ‘So, June! And you, Freddie! Once again you have tricked your old Mam’zelle. You will please explain to me how it was done.’
So the two girls went to the front of the class, and while June explained to Mam’zelle how the disappearing chalk worked, Freddie demonstrated by writing her name on the blackboard.
Mam’zelle watched intently, and Felicity grinned to herself as she realised that Mam’zelle’s anger was giving way to enjoyment, as the French mistress exclaimed over the ingenuity of the trick.
‘Oh là là!‘ she exclaimed.‘See how the writing fades! And now he has disappeared altogether. It is a most marvellous treek indeed!’
Then she made her expression very stern as she turned to face June and Freddie, saying, ‘Of course, I must confiscate this chalk at once.’
‘Yes, Mam’zelle,’ chorused both girls meekly.
‘I shall take it with me when I go to France in the holidays,’ went on Mam’zelle, the stern look vanishing as she beamed.‘My sister teaches the petits enfants at the school in our village, you see, and I shall play a treek on her! How les petits will laugh when they see her writing vanish before their eyes!’
And how the girls laughed. What a sport old Mam’zelle was!
‘Thank goodness that Mam’zelle Dupont has a sense of humour,’ said Freddie to June later.‘If we had played that trick on any other mistress in the school we would be in real trouble. It was a jolly good trick, though, wasn’t it?’
‘I’ll say!’ said June, with a grin.‘And it has put me in the mood to play a few more!’
9
Tricks and tennis
Miss Potts, who knew Mam’zelle Dupont well, was not surprised to hear her squealing with laughter shortly after she had left the third form’s classroom. And although Miss Potts couldn’t help smiling to herself at Mam’zelle’s little ways, she shook her head as well.
‘I sincerely hope that you have punished those two girls, Mam’zelle,’ she said to the French mistress later, in the mistresses’ common-room.
‘Of course,’ said Mam’zelle, with great dignity.‘I confiscated the trick chalk that they used, and I scolded them most severely. The poor June was almost in tears.’
‘Really?’ said Miss Potts, disbelievingly, quite unable to picture Mam’zelle reducing anyone—let alone the brazen June—to tears.
Then the French mistress began to chuckle.‘Ah, it was a very funny treek they played on me, those wicked girls! That June, she is so clever.’
‘Very clever and very naughty!’ said Miss Potts, sternly.‘If you were a little firmer with her, Mam’zelle, she might not be encouraged to think that she can get away with anything!’
And, indeed, it seemed that June did think that she could get away with anything, for she and Freddie went‘trick-mad’, as Felicity called it, over the next few days. They made Bonnie squeal by putting insects in her pencil case, infuriated Amy by replacing her expensive talcum powder with itching powder, and ruined Felicity and Susan’s tennis practice by substituting a trick ball for the real one.
June also managed to sneak a bottle of invisible ink into Eleanor Banks’s satchel, laughing as she said to Freddie, ‘I’d love to see Miss James’s face when Eleanor hands her prep in, after she’s used my special ink!’
But Felicity called the two to order after they put a frog in Esme’s bed, and the girl screamed so loudly that both Matron and Miss Peters appeared on the scene. Neither of the grown-ups was amused at being dragged from their beds, but they accepted Esme’s explanation that she had had a nightmare. And Esme went up in everyone’s estimation for not sneaking on the two culprits, for she hated frogs and really had been very frightened indeed.
Lucy, with her mother’s letter in mind, went up to her cousin the next morning and said, ‘It was jolly decent of you not to split on June and Freddie.’
Esme, surprised and rather pleased at being spoken to in such a friendly way by Lucy, smiled
and said, ‘Well, I didn’t want to get them into trouble. And they only meant it as a joke—I guess they weren’t to know that I’m scared stiff of frogs!’
‘I don’t much like them either,’ said Lucy, with a shudder.‘But of course, you know that already, don’t you? Do you remember that time when we were little and we found one by the pond in your garden?’
Bonnie and Julie, standing nearby, exchanged glances and Julie said in a low voice, ‘Let’s hope that this is the start of a better understanding between those two.’
Bonnie nodded and said, ‘It must be difficult for both of them, after what’s happened in the past.’
‘Oh, so Esme told you about that, did she?’ said Julie.‘Lucy confided in me as well.’
‘Hmm,’ said Bonnie, looking thoughtful.‘It’s an awful shame. If only we could think of a way to get the family back together again. If you ask me—’
‘Hush!’ hissed Julie.‘They’re coming over, and they won’t be very pleased if they think that we have been gossiping about their private business.’
So Bonnie immediately changed the subject and began talking about the forthcoming half-term.
‘I’m so looking forward to it,’ said Julie, as Lucy and Esme joined them.‘My parents and brother are coming on horseback, and we’re going for a picnic on the cliff-tops.’
‘How super!’ said Lucy enviously.‘My mother will be coming alone on the Saturday, as Father can’t get away until Sunday. She doesn’t care for horses, I’m afraid, so I won’t be getting such a marvellous treat! I expect we’ll be going to a restaurant instead.’
‘Well, I think that’s much nicer than a picnic, with the sun ruining your complexion, and insects buzzing around all the time,’ said Bonnie. ‘What about you, Esme? Are your parents coming?’
‘I don’t know yet,’ said Esme.‘They’re going on holiday the week before and they may not be back in time. I sure hope they can make it, though.’
All of the girls were looking forward to half-term enormously. Most of them had parents, or brothers and sisters, coming to take them out for the day, and to watch the tennis and swimming displays.
Felicity and Susan were both taking part in the diving, while June had been chosen to play against one of the fourth formers in an exhibition tennis match.
‘It’s a tremendous honour for the third, June,’ Felicity told her, when they were in the courtyard one day.‘You’re the only girl in the school who is playing against someone from a higher form. Has Amanda told you who you’re going to be playing against yet?’
‘Well, it was to have been Penelope Turner, but she sprained her wrist last week,’ said June.‘So if she’s not fully recovered, I shall be playing Hilda Fenwick instead.’
‘Golly!’ said Susan, coming up just in time to hear this.‘Penelope’s a marvellous player, but Hilda is quite superb—and very aggressive! She came jolly close to beating Amanda herself once, and no one else has ever done that before. I hope for your sake, June, that Penelope is better in time.’
‘Well, I’d rather play Hilda, thank you very much!’ retorted June. ‘And I’d rather lose against her than beat Penelope.’
‘You must be mad!’ said Susan roundly.‘Just think of the glory that you would bring to the third form if you beat Penelope.’
‘To my mind, there’s not much glory in beating someone who has just recovered from an injury,’ said June.‘If I win against Penelope, people will say that she only lost because her wrist wasn’t quite right. Now if I’m up against Hilda, I can really give it everything I’ve got. And, win or lose, no one will be able to say I didn’t do my very best and put up a good fight.’
‘Well!’ said Susan, as June went off to find Freddie.‘Wonders will never cease! If anyone had told me a few terms ago that June would one day go all out to win a tennis match for the honour of her form, I would have said that they were quite mad.’
Felicity laughed, but said thoughtfully, ‘Do you really think that she’s doing it for the third form, Susan? Or for herself?’
‘Whatever do you mean?’ asked Susan.
‘Well, June has certainly knuckled down to swimming and tennis since Amanda started taking an interest in her. But those are sports where one plays as an individual, and not as part of a team. And June still doesn’t have any team spirit. Do you remember what happened when Amanda put her in the lacrosse team last term?’
‘Yes,’ said Susan.‘We drew, when we could so easily have won. Because June was determined to shoot a goal herself and hogged the ball. Elizabeth Jenkins from West Tower was in a perfect position to shoot in the last few minutes, and would probably have won the match for us. But June simply had to try and score herself, even though she was too far away.’
‘Exactly!’ said Felicity.‘June wanted to be the heroine of the hour, and that was more important to her than whether the team won or lost. Miss Maxwell was absolutely furious with her, and gave her a thorough ticking off afterwards.’
‘I remember,’ said Susan.‘But Amanda didn’t scold her at all. I thought at the time that it was rather odd.’
‘I overheard Amanda talking to Kay Foster about it afterwards,’ Felicity said.‘She was frightfully disappointed that Malory Towers hadn’t won the match, but she told Kay that she understood exactly how June felt. Amanda said that she had been just the same when she was training for the Olympics, and that she had always gone in for swimming and tennis because she didn’t want anyone else sharing in her glory.’
‘Golly!’ exclaimed Susan.‘But old Amanda has plenty of team spirit now. Miss Grayling wouldn’t have made her games captain otherwise.’
‘Yes,’ said Felicity.‘But she told Kay that she had only learned to play as part of a team since coming here. Which doesn’t surprise me at all! If you have any team spirit in you at all, then good old Malory Towers is the place to bring it out.’
‘Well, let’s just hope that June has some team spirit in her!’ said Susan.‘She still has a few years in which to find it.’
But, for now, June was concentrating solely on her tennis, determined to make a good showing at half-term and in the match against St Margaret’s. She spent every spare moment on the tennis court, badgering Freddie, or Felicity, or Susan into going with her so that she had someone to practise against.
‘My word, she’s good!’ said Penelope Turner to her friend Meg, as they watched June playing against Felicity one afternoon.‘I almost hope that my wrist doesn’t get better in time for half-term! Imagine the humiliation of being beaten by one of those third-form kids!’
Someone else who was devoting a lot of time to tennis, much to the astonishment of the third form, was Esme. The girl had finally‘confessed’, as she put it, to Amy and Bonnie that she was to be reserve for the tennis matches, and had been unsurprised at their reaction.
‘Oh dear!’ Amy had said, looking most dismayed.‘Please tell me that you aren’t becoming one of these dreadful, sporting types, like Felicity, or that big, ungainly Amanda Chartelow.’ Amy shuddered and went on, ‘She’s so loud and aggressive that I simply can’t bear her. And she looks more like a boy than a girl.’
‘I blame myself,’ Bonnie had said sorrowfully.‘I should have thought of a way to get you out of tennis practice earlier. Perhaps it’s not too late, Esme. Let me have a think and I’ll see if I can come up with a plan.’
‘Yes, but the thing is,’ Esme had said, rather hesitantly, ‘I—I don’t actually want to get out of it. You see, until I came to Malory Towers, I didn’t even know that I could play tennis. I’ve never really been good at anything before and—well, I actually feel quite proud of myself. Not only that, but I’m enjoying it as well.’
Amy looked quite horrified at this, but the more large-minded Bonnie said, ‘It seems very queer to me, but I suppose if that’s the way you feel there’s nothing we can do about it. You must promise that you won’t go all tomboyish on us, though. In fact, Esme, I think it’s your duty to show Amanda and the rest of them that it’s po
ssible to play sport and still be feminine and pretty and graceful.’
‘Yes, I’ll do that,’ Esme had agreed, relieved that Bonnie, at least, seemed to be taking the news quite well.
Amy, however, remained extremely disapproving and after Esme had left the common-room she said to Bonnie, ‘I feel quite let down by Esme, when I think of all the help that we tried to give her. I don’t know that I want to be friends with her any more.’
Amy sounded rather petulant, and Bonnie, picking up her sewing, smiled to herself. She knew that Amy had only befriended Esme because she thought that the American girl admired and looked up to her, and didn’t have much genuine liking or affection for her at all. Attempting to turn Esme into a replica of herself had been more for her own gratification than the other girl’s. And Amy’s conceit made it difficult for her to accept that Esme was beginning to realise that she didn’t want to be just like her.
Bonnie, for her part, genuinely liked Esme and, although she missed seeing so much of her, now that tennis was taking up a lot of her time, she was pleased that Esme had found an activity that she enjoyed. Unlike Amy, Bonnie was interested in people, and her sympathy had been stirred by Esme’s story of her family’s quarrel. How she hoped that the two fathers would be able to put their differences behind them!
Esme, meanwhile, went off to her tennis practice. The good-hearted Freddie, overcoming her own disappointment at not being chosen as reserve, selflessly gave up her time so that the others could practise with her. Today, she and Esme were playing doubles against Felicity and Susan. The weather was extremely warm, and by the end of the first set all four girls felt uncomfortably hot.
‘Phew!’ said Freddie, flopping down on the grass and fanning herself with her racket.‘I’m worn out after just one set!’
‘Me too,’ said a red-faced Susan.‘I’m roasting! Perhaps we should stop now.’
Felicity frowned at this suggestion, but it was Esme who surprised everyone, saying bracingly, ‘Nonsense! If we were playing in a tournament we wouldn’t be able to stop after one set, simply because we felt hot and tired. I say that we should play on.’