by Sue Bentley
‘You can make yourself invisible? Cool! That’s going to make it much easier for me to take you out with me.’
Arrow nodded. ‘This is a safe place. I think I will be happy here,’ he said. He yawned sleepily and rubbed his eyes with one fluffy paw.
Sara smiled at him fondly. It must have been a long journey for the tiny bunny. She began tucking the duvet round him like a cosy nest.
‘There you are. Now you can have a nap.’ She kissed the top of his head, breathing in the sweet smell of his warm fur.
‘Thank you, Sara.’ Arrow tucked his nose between his front paws. Almost immediately his breathing changed and snuffly bunny snores rose from his little body.
Just then the phone rang in the hall downstairs. Sara heard her mum answer it and footsteps sounded on the stairs. Her mum poked her head round the door to hand Sara the phone.
‘It’s Beth for you, love.’
‘Thanks, Mum.’ Sara took the phone from her eagerly, pleased that her best friend had called. ‘Hi, Beth.’
‘Sara! How’s your ankle? I was so worried about you. Everyone in dance class wants to know if you’re OK. Your mum told me you’ve just got back from hospital. Have you got a plaster cast?’
‘No. Just a bandage. My ankle’s badly sprained.’
Beth gave a sigh of relief. ‘That’s not so bad then. You’ll have to miss a couple of classes, but we can do extra practice at my house to make up for it. We’re totally going to win a place in Jane’s new troupe!’ she said confidently.
Despite herself Sara grinned. Beth’s confidence was one of the things she liked best about her.
‘Sorry, Beth, but I won’t be able to dance for at least three weeks. That’s how long it’s going to take for my ankle to heal. I won’t be able to make the auditions,’ she said quietly.
‘Oh no!’ Beth exclaimed. ‘That’s a real pain. I’d really set my heart on joining Jane’s troupe.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Sara said glumly, her spirits sinking. ‘I’ve messed things up for both of us, haven’t I?’
Finding Arrow had taken her mind off her injury for a little while. But now she realized again how much it affected their dance dreams, both hers and Beth’s.
‘You can’t help it. It’s just bad luck,’ Beth said generously. ‘Hang on, Mum’s calling me. I’m going to visit my gran for the weekend.’ She covered the phone with her hand and yelled, ‘Just coming!’ then spoke to Sara again. ‘You’ll be at school on Monday though, right? I’ll see you then!’
‘Yep. Have a good time at your gran’s. Bye, Beth.’ Sara put the phone down on her bedside table.
She sighed. She’d expected Beth to come round so they could at least talk and maybe look at some dancing magazines together. It was going to be a long weekend without her best friend around to cheer her up.
Sara looked down at the tiny fluffy black-and-white bunny. Arrow’s little sides were moving up and down and his whiskers were twitching as if he was dreaming. He was so cute, and so brave to have come here all by himself.
Maybe they could help each other to feel less lonely.
‘I love having you living with me!’ Sara said to Arrow on Monday morning. Even normal things like having breakfast, doing homework in her bedroom and watching TV were fun when you had a magical friend for company. She’d spent quite a bit of time with him in the garden, throwing small twigs for him to bring back to her or cuddling him while she read.
Arrow’s ears twitched. ‘I like it here with you too.’
‘Ready to get inside?’ Sara smiled at him as she finished packing her school bag.
Arrow nodded and jumped straight in.
Sara’s mum gave them a lift to school. Beth came dashing up the road just as Sara reached the school gate. ‘Hi, Sara!’ she puffed.
‘Hi, Beth.’ Sara smiled happily as her friend ran up. She was a bit puzzled about why she was so out of breath. Beth was usually there first and waiting to meet her.
She’d been a bit worried that Beth would be annoyed with her for not being able to dance their routine for the audition. But Beth seemed her usual self as she chatted on their way to class about her weekend with her grandma.
‘So, what did you do?’ Beth asked finally.
‘Oh, not much really,’ Sara said vaguely.
Beth wouldn’t have believed her even if she could have told her about the invisible fluffy bunny that was leaning up and looking out of her shoulder bag.
When the bell went, they walked into class together.
The first lesson was maths, which wasn’t Sara’s favourite subject. She chewed the end of her pen and looked up from her workbook to see what Arrow was doing. His little black-and-white form appeared for a moment between two desks, before he disappeared under them again.
Sara smiled to herself, imagining his little pink nose snuffling up all the interesting smells. After a few minutes, he reappeared from beneath the desk and she saw him making for the nature table.
Arrow reared up on to his back legs to investigate a branch drooping over the side. He nibbled a bit of leaf and seemed to like the taste. His fluffy tail twitched eagerly as he took a firmer grip and started to pull.
‘Uh-oh!’ Sara breathed.
Birds’ nests, leaves and dried plants in empty jam jars that were entangled with the branch began to slide towards the edge of the table. The whole lot was going to tumble on to the tiny bunny at any moment, but Sara was too far away to warn Arrow.
What was she going to do?
Chapter
FOUR
‘Ah-cho-oo-oo!’ Sara sneezed as noisily as possible. ‘Hrr-up! Splurgh!’ she coughed.
Beside her, Beth dropped her pencil in surprise.
The teacher frowned and gave Sara a disapproving look. ‘Whatever’s wrong, Sara? Do you need a glass of water?’
‘Sorry, Miss!’ Sara apologized. ‘I almost … um … swallowed a fly! I’m fine now.’ Her classmates giggled, especially Beth.
But it had done the trick. Across the classroom, the noise had made Arrow jump backwards from the table in fright. His magic key glowed brightly and he landed on Sara’s desk in a whoosh of crystal dust. His fur was all on end and his body looked as round as a soft fuzzy ball.
‘Are you OK?’ Sara whispered to him, as everyone went back to work.
‘I am fine now,’ Arrow told her, shaking himself so his black-and-white fur settled back down. ‘What happened?’
‘You were about to pull all that stuff on top of you. I had to do something,’ she explained. ‘It’s probably best if you don’t nibble things in class. You could get into all sorts of trouble. We’ll be going outside at lunchtime, so you can eat some grass.’
‘I did wrong. I am a bad bunny.’ Arrow buried his face in his front paws.
Sara’s heart melted and she only just managed to stop herself picking him up and giving him a cuddle. ‘No, you’re not! You’re my brave little friend,’ she whispered.
‘Thank you, Sara.’ Arrow hunched down next to her pencil case.
‘When’s it lunchtime? I’m starving!’ Beth whispered loudly a few minutes later. She sat back and stretched her arms. ‘Must be all the extra practice we did … I mean … I did this morning. Oh, sorry …’ she trailed off, raising her eyebrows apologetically. ‘I don’t suppose you want to hear about that.’
‘It’s OK,’ Sara told her with a grin. ‘I know I can’t dance, but I’m not going to get upset if we talk about it. We did come up with a great routine, didn’t we? It’s such a shame we won’t be performing it for Jane’s audition.’
‘Um … yeah,’ Beth said, going red. Ducking her head, she fiddled about in her fake-fur pencil case.
Sara frowned, puzzled. Beth was acting strangely.
Just then, the lunch bell went. Chairs scraped on the floor and desk drawers banged as everyone began filing out of the classroom. ‘It’s probably best if you get into my shoulder bag,’ Sara whispered to Arrow.
‘Very well.’ With a whisk o
f his tail, he jumped straight in.
Beth reached behind the desk for Sara’s crutches. ‘Here you go.’
‘Thanks.’ Sara stood up and adjusted her weight on the crutches. She had slipped the long strap of her bag over one shoulder, so it hung across her body. That way she could be sure Arrow wasn’t jostled about too much as she limped along.
Sara and Beth found a spare bench outside and opened their lunchboxes. Arrow hopped out of the bag and streaked across the grass.
Beth handed Sara an iced cake in a frilly paper case. It had a lemon jelly slice on top. ‘Mum made cupcakes. I brought you one.’
‘Thanks! Looks yummy!’ Beth’s mum was a great cook.
When they’d finished eating, they watched some girls practising dance moves. Sara knew most of them from her dance class. One of them, a tall blonde-haired girl called Olya, was a really good dancer.
‘Hiya!’ Olya called, smiling and waving as she saw Sara watching.
Sara waved back. She turned to say something to Beth and saw her smiling widely and giving the blonde girl a double thumbs up. It looked as if Olya had been waving at Beth and not her.
Sara was puzzled. What was going on? She didn’t think Beth and Olya were all that friendly.
Beth turned to watch some girls who were doing complicated locks and pops. Sara saw Beth nodding her head in time to the imaginary music and doing some of the arm movements in time with the other girls. Olya beckoned to her to join them.
Beth jumped to her feet eagerly and looked at Sara. ‘Do you mind?’
‘Course not. You go on,’ Sara said.
She watched them wistfully, hating just having to sit there. Beth, Olya and the girls were having so much fun doing more and more complicated moves.
Sighing, she hoped it wouldn’t be too long before her ankle healed and she could dance again.
Arrow had finished eating grass. He hopped back across the playing field towards the bench where Sara sat and stopped beside it to groom himself.
Beth was fooling about, doing a moonwalk as the others clapped. She glided smoothly across the grass as if she was sliding on ice.
Sara tensed. Beth was moving closer to where Arrow sat. He was so busy licking his pale tummy that he hadn’t noticed the danger. Any second now, Beth was going to step on her invisible little friend!
‘Look out!’ she cried, lifting one crutch. She only meant to wave it warningly, but before she could swing it out of the way, Beth tripped over it.
‘Ow!’ Beth sprawled full length on the grass.
Startled, Arrow leapt in the air and quickly hopped under the bench out of harm’s way.
Beth scrambled to her feet. She brushed grass off her uniform. ‘What did you do that for, you muppet?’ she shouted.
‘I thought you were going to hurt Arr– I mean bash into my ankle,’ Sara quickly corrected, horrified that she’d almost given away Arrow’s secret. She would have to be more careful.
‘I saw what happened. You tripped Beth up on purpose,’ Olya cried. ‘You’re jealous because Beth’s asked me to be her new dance partner!’
Sara looked up in total disbelief as the tall girl strode towards her, her blonde hair swinging out behind her.
Chapter
FIVE
Sara gaped at her best friend. ‘Beth? What’s Olya talking about? I’m your dance partner!’
‘I was going to tell you,’ Beth said, looking sheepish. ‘I just really wanted to audition for the dance troupe, but our routine doesn’t work as a solo. So I … I asked Olya to dance it with me instead. That’s OK, isn’t it?’ she said quietly. ‘It’s only while your ankle’s getting better. You’re still my usual dance partner.’
Sara knew how much winning a place in Jane’s new troupe meant to Beth. But she had assumed that Beth wouldn’t go in for it without her. What would happen if Beth got a place and she didn’t? She swallowed hard, trying not to feel upset.
‘All right,’ she said, nodding slowly.
‘Thanks, Sara!’ Beth sounded relieved. ‘I’ve been putting off telling you, cos I was worried that you’d be angry with me.’
‘No way! We’ve been friends forever.’ Sara managed a smile, despite the sinking feeling in her tummy at being left out. If Beth and Olya joined Jane’s new troupe, they’d be practising hard and taking extra classes, but she wouldn’t be included. Would Beth still be her best friend?
‘It’s a great routine,’ Olya said. ‘You and Beth must have worked really hard on it. I’m going to dance it the best I can. And I’m sorry for what I said about you tripping Beth up and stuff.’
Sara shrugged. ‘That’s OK.’ Olya actually seemed quite nice. Another time she would have enjoyed dancing with her and Beth. She just hoped that Beth wouldn’t like Olya so much that she decided to become best friends with her instead. Maybe when her ankle was better they could all team up.
The bell went again and everyone began crowding back into school. Sara’s spirits sank a bit as she thought of having to sit around while Beth and Olya had all the fun.
Arrow hopped up to Sara’s shoulder bag and leapt inside. His big brown eyes shone with affection. ‘Thank you for stopping Beth from treading on me.’
‘I’d say we’re even!’ she whispered back. ‘You saved me from hurting myself when I fell over in the changing room.’
Arrow nodded, his little nose twitching. ‘It is good that friends can help each other.’
Sara smiled at him as she shouldered her bag and felt herself starting to cheer up a little. The magic bunny was her very own special secret – she would never share him with anyone.
Two days later, Sara and Arrow were sitting in an empty classroom. It was a cool, rather windy day. From outside came the sounds of voices and laughter from the tennis courts and playing fields.
Sara sighed glumly. The teacher had suggested she stay inside to keep warm, so she was catching up on some reading for their class project. But she just couldn’t get interested in reading about Vikings today.
‘I’m fed up with limping about on these dumb crutches. I can’t do anything exciting,’ she grumbled, closing the book with a thud.
Sara tried to make a big effort to cheer herself up for Arrow’s sake. He didn’t deserve such a grumpy friend. She fished a scrap of paper out of her pencil case, scrunched it up and then flicked it across her desk.
Arrow’s eyes gleamed brightly. One tiny fluffy front paw shot out and he trapped the paper beneath it.
‘Wow! Great reflexes!’ Sara was impressed. ‘Let’s test them some more.’
Arrow looked up at her in puzzlement. ‘How are we going to do that?’
‘I’ve got an idea.’ Sara collected a few books and then stacked them at intervals on the nearby work surface. She propped others up to make a tunnel. ‘There you go. A bunny obstacle course!’
Arrow’s whiskers twitched eagerly as he hopped to one end of the course.
‘Go, Arrow! Go, Arrow!’ Sara encouraged in a singsong voice. ‘Go, Arrow!’
Flattening his ears, the magic bunny hopped forward. He jumped over the obstacles and ducked through the tunnel, his bobtail flicking delightedly.
Sara hobbled to one end of the work surface. Propping her crutches against a nearby desk, she opened her arms as Arrow hopped over the last pile of books. He gave a mighty leap and launched himself straight at her.
Sara caught him and gave him a big hug. She kissed the top of his fluffy head. ‘Yay! This beats playing outside. You’d definitely get a place in the bunny Olympics!’
‘It was good fun!’ Arrow agreed, gently touching her chin with his pink nose.
‘Come on. Let’s go for a walk to the cloakrooms and back. Most kids are outside, so you can hop about for a change without worrying about being stepped on.’
She picked up her crutches and they set off down the corridor. As they reached another empty classroom, Sara thought she saw something moving. The door was partly open, so she stopped to look.
There was a girl
dancing in the centre of the room. She was slim with striking dark red hair and pale skin and looked about ten years old – a year or so older than her. Sara couldn’t remember ever seeing the girl in the playground.
‘I wonder who she is,’ she whispered to Arrow.
They stood in the doorway silently watching as the girl danced around the room. She was doing a series of complicated spins, twists and locks.
‘Wow! She’s really good!’ Sara whispered, totally spellbound as the girl finished her routine with a graceful downward sweep of one arm. She couldn’t contain herself any longer. Pushing the door wide open, she went in. ‘That was amazing! Where did you learn to dance like that?’ she exclaimed.
The girl whipped round, a look of shock on her face. ‘Oh! I … I didn’t know anyone was there!’ she said, flustered. ‘I didn’t mean to … Sorry, I’ve … um … gotta go!’ As she grabbed her bag from a nearby desk, something fell to the floor. But in her haste, the girl didn’t notice.
‘Hey, wait!’ Sara started forward as the girl dashed away towards a door in the far corner of the room. ‘What’s your name?’
There was no answer. The girl had gone.
Arrow hopped into the room and went over to the crumpled object on the floor. Grasping it in his teeth, he dragged it over to Sara.
‘Thanks, Arrow. Look, it’s a gym shirt.’ She read the name tag. ‘Tamara Blake. I wonder why she ran away like that?’
Arrow shook his head. ‘I do not know.’
Sara nodded in agreement. ‘Strange, wasn’t it? If I could dance like that, I’d be really proud of myself.’ She draped the gym shirt over a chair before she and Arrow continued on their walk.
Chapter
SIX
After school finished for the day, Sara and Arrow waited for Beth by the main gate. ‘Beth’s coming home with us tonight. Mum’s treating us to a pizza,’ Sara told Arrow.