Alice in the Middle (2 page)

T
he
minibus
stopped a t the front door. Alice and I climbed out, and took our rucksacks from the driver. There was no-one else around. The driver jumped back in to the bus, and was about to drive off, when Alice shouted to him.

‘Hey, what are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go?’ He shrugged.

‘I don’t know, do I? I’m only the driver.’

‘But where is everyone? There’s supposed to be a camp on here.’

The bus driver shrugged again.

‘Looks like you’re the first ones here. Now I’ve got to go. I’ve got to pick up another lot at the railway station. I’ve got six more runs to do, and I really don’t have time for hanging around chatting to you. Try finding Mrs Duggan, the camp leader. Follow the signs saying office.’

‘OK, thanks,’ called Alice, as he drove off with a big spray of gravel.

Alice picked up her rucksack and led the way in through the huge doors. I followed her. I was glad she was there. If I’d been on my own I’d probably have stood outside on my own like a big eejit, waiting for someone to come along and find me and tell me what to do.

We quickly found the office. Alice knocked loudly on the door.

‘Come.’ It was a deep, cross-sounding voice.

Alice and I looked at each other. That wasn’t the kind of voice that camp leaders on the television had.

This was all wrong.

Where were the happy, bouncy women in
track-suits and the jolly men with silly voices?

Alice made a face at me, and then she opened the door and went inside. I followed her because I couldn’t think of anything else to do.

Mrs Duggan sat behind a huge wooden desk. (We knew she was Mrs Duggan because she was wearing a big shiny badge with her name on it.) She was writing long lists of numbers into a huge book. She didn’t look up.

Suddenly I felt a bit afraid, and a bit stupid.

Maybe Alice and I were meant to be somewhere else.

Maybe we were never meant to approach Mrs Duggan at all.

Maybe she was the kind of person you only got to see if you were in really, really bad trouble.

Was it too late to turn around and run out the door, and pretend that we had never been there at all?

Alice gave a small cough. Mrs Duggan didn’t even look up. She just kept concentrating on her book. I was beginning to wonder if she’d forgotten all about us, when she finally put down
her pen, took off her glasses and looked at us fiercely.

‘Well?’

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have to, because I knew Alice would crack first. Sometimes it’s nice being the quiet one in a friendship.

After a few seconds, Alice spoke softly.

‘We’re here for the summer camp.’

Mrs Duggan made a sudden snorting noise.

‘Well, I hardly thought you were here to repair the roof.’

There was another long silence. Finally brave Alice spoke again.

‘Where should we go? What should we do?’

Mrs Duggan gave a big long sigh, like we were really annoying her just by existing.

‘You’re early. No one’s meant to be here for another hour.’

‘We got the bus.’ Alice said this confidently, as if it explained everything.

Mrs Duggan sighed again.

‘Names?’

‘Alice O’Rourke and Megan Sheehan.’ This was
Alice again. I felt like my tongue had gone on strike.

Mrs Duggan picked up a sheet of paper and looked at it for a long time. Then she said in a cold voice.

‘You’re in room 28. Second floor. Your group leader will come and get you at tea-time. Now run along and don’t bother me again.’

We left the room, and closed the door carefully behind us.

Alice giggled.

‘I soooo do not want to meet her again. I’m going to be on my very, very best behaviour.’

I grinned.

‘Me too.’

We both meant what we said, but I wasn’t sure how things would turn out. Alice hadn’t mentioned secret plans yet, but trouble seemed to have a funny way of following her around, whether she liked it or not.

It took us ages to find room 28. It was a bit creepy, wandering around the deserted school. If we spoke in anything louder than a whisper, our
voices echoed loudly, like they were the first sounds heard in the building for hundreds of years.

As usual, Alice was much braver than me, opening doors, peeping into rooms, and racing around corridors. She even slid down a big curvy banister.

She laughed out loud as she got to the bottom, and then covered her mouth as her echoed laugh bounced madly around the huge space.

‘That was soooooooooooooo much fun,’ she whispered. ‘Come on, Meg. You do it. I’ll stand here and catch you if you go too fast.’

I shook my head. I was never as brave as Alice. And I really didn’t want to find myself back in front of Mrs Duggan’s desk again so soon.

‘No thanks,’ I said. ‘We have to find our room. And I need to find a toilet.’

I didn’t really need the toilet. I just said it to get Alice away from the banisters – otherwise she’d have slid down over and over again, until she was caught.

Alice muttered a bit, but she followed me as we
continued our search. At last we found room 28. The door opened with a loud creak. There were three beds, with a name tag on each: Alice, Megan and Hazel.

Alice picked up Hazel’s name tag, and twirled it around in her fingers.

‘Hazel’s a nice name, isn’t it? I wonder what she’ll be like? It’ll be fun sharing with someone new, won’t it?’

I kind of half-nodded. I wasn’t really looking forward to meeting this Hazel person. I’d have liked it better if it had been just Alice and me together. I couldn’t say that though.

We started to unpack. I had brought all my best stuff, but when it was laid out on the bed, it looked a bit old and faded. My mum believes that a girl only needs three or four outfits, and that each one should last for about a hundred years.

I looked across at Alice’s bed. Her stuff looked so much newer and brighter than mine – like it had all come out of a real expensive clothes shop about five minutes earlier.

She saw me looking.

‘Hey,’ she said. ‘It’s the broken home thing again.’

She was kind of right. She’d always had more clothes than me, but since her parents split up, she had more than ever. Her mum and dad seemed to be having a competition to see who could buy her the most things. Alice had a huge wardrobe in each parent’s house, and both were stuffed full of really cool clothes.

Alice came over and dumped all her tops on to my bed.

‘For these two weeks, let’s not have “your stuff” and “my stuff”. Let’s just share everything.’

I smiled at her.

‘Thanks, Al.’ I said. I knew that given the choice, I wouldn’t end up wearing any of my own stuff, but that didn’t matter. Alice had more than enough for both of us.

I picked up a gorgeous turquoise top.

‘This is sooo nice,’ I said. ‘Where did you get it?’

‘Dad brought it back from Spain last month. Do you want a loan of it?’

I didn’t answer. I was too busy feeling the soft
fabric, and looking at the tiny green and yellow stripes, and the weenchy flowers embroidered on the sleeves. It was the most beautiful top I had ever seen.

‘Well?’ Alice was grinning at me.

I didn’t know if I’d dare to wear it, it was so beautiful.

‘Maybe….’

Alice laughed.

‘How about you wear it to the disco? It would be great with your white jeans.’

All of a sudden I could see myself at the disco. For the first time in my entire life, (well since my christening day anyway) I’d be the best-dressed girl around. I nodded and Alice laughed some more.

We piled everything into one big wardrobe and then we sat on our beds and waited for our room-mate to arrive.

Every time we heard the sound of the minibus wheels on the gravel, we raced to the window and looked out. We watched as groups of girls and boys got out. Alice kept saying stuff like, ‘bet that’s Hazel,’ or ‘I hope
that’s
not her, she looks
really boring.’

Then we’d wait, and listen as girls came along our corridor, passed our door, and found their rooms.

I started to hope that maybe Hazel wasn’t coming at all.

Maybe she had cancelled at the last minute.

Maybe she’d got some disease, not too serious, just bad enough to keep her away from summer camp.

Maybe it would be just Alice and me together in the room after all.

I’d have liked that.

Much, much later our bedroom door opened, and a girl walked in. She was really pretty, with curly blonde hair, and big brown eyes. She was wearing the coolest denim jacket I’d ever seen – with frayed cuffs and loads of studs and patches. My old rain jacket was on the bed next to me, and I moved it under my blanket so it couldn’t be seen.

The girl smiled, showing perfect white teeth.

‘I’m Hazel,’ she said.

Alice stood up.

‘Hi, Hazel. I’m Alice, and this is Megan.’

We all said ‘hi’ and then there was a silence. I hate silences like that. I wished Hazel would just go away so Alice and I could get on with chatting.

I’d only known her for a minute, but already I didn’t much like Hazel. She was a bit too confident – a bit too much like the kind of girl who liked to be in charge. Still though, I decided I was going to make a big effort to be nice to her. She wasn’t as lucky as me – she hadn’t got to go to camp with her very best friend in the whole world.

H
azel had a huge suitcase, and it seemed to take forever for her to unpack. Like Alice, she had heaps of fantastic clothes. I felt a bit like Cinderella with all my old raggy stuff. I felt sicker and sicker as she dragged more and more beautiful clothes from her case.

After a while she pulled out a totally cool denim skirt. Alice jumped up and touched it.

‘That skirt is so nice,’ she said.

Hazel shrugged.

‘That old thing,’ she said. ‘That’s so old I wasn’t even going to bother bringing it.’

I started to laugh, before I realised that she wasn’t joking. I made a face at Alice, but she didn’t see me. She was too busy admiring Hazel’s four new pairs of sports shoes.

At last Hazel seemed to be finished. She sat on her bed with a big sigh.

‘I so hate unpacking,’ she said. ‘The only thing worse than unpacking is packing. I find it so hard to decide which clothes to bring. Don’t you find that?’

‘Yeah,’ said Alice.

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have any trouble choosing which clothes to bring. What would Hazel say if she realised that almost every piece of clothing I owned was stacked up in the wardrobe next to us?

Just then there was a knock on the door, and a woman came in to our room.

‘Hi, girls, I’m Gloria,’ she said with the biggest
smile I had ever seen. She had a huge mop of black curly hair, shiny black skin, and teeth that were whiter than the milk I’d poured on my porridge that morning.

She looked down a list that was pinned to a clipboard.

‘You must be Alice, Hazel, and Megan.’

We all nodded.

Gloria continued.

‘I’m your team leader for the week. If you have any questions, or any problems you all come to me. OK?’

We all nodded again.

Gloria didn’t seem to mind that none of us appeared to be able to speak.

‘Now all you second floor girls are in my group. Along with the boys from the ground floor. From now on you’re known as the blue group. Got it?’

Once more the three of us nodded silently.

Gloria gave a big long laugh.

‘Can’t wait to hear your sweet voices,’ she said. ‘Tea is in five minutes. Go down the stairs and follow the signs for the dining hall. Last one
down has to do all the washing up. It’s camp tradition.’

Then she went out, half-closing the door behind her. There was a huge scramble as Alice, Hazel and I jumped up and raced to put on our shoes. Gloria put her head around the door, and treated us to one of her huge smiles.

‘Just kidding. See you in five.’

Tea was great. Chips and sausages and heaps of ketchup – with nothing organic or healthy in sight.

All the blue group had to sit in one section of the dining room. There were also sections for the red, yellow and green groups. I sat with Alice of course, and she invited Hazel to sit with us. Hazel barely stopped talking. She told us all about her big house and her pony and how she was going to America for four weeks as soon as camp was over. She went on so much about her fabulous life that she almost put me off my sausages. By the time tea was over, I was really fed up of her, but Alice didn’t seem to mind.

Gloria moved around all the blue tables, talking
to everyone. When she came over to us, Alice said,

‘Gloria, can I ask you something?’

Gloria smiled.

‘Sure. Ask me anything.’

Alice hesitated.

‘Well, it’s about Mrs Duggan. Does she…? I mean is she ……’

Gloria laughed.

‘Mrs Duggan is the big boss. You don’t bother her. She won’t bother you. If you’ve got a problem, you just come to me. OK?’

We all nodded. I was very relieved. There was something really scary about Mrs Duggan, and if I never saw her again, it would have been too soon.

When we had finished eating, it was time to sign up for our optional sport. As Alice and I walked over to the notice board, Hazel followed us. She spoke in a loud voice,

‘I’m doing tennis, that’s for sure. I’m going to be playing a lot in America – after all, we will be staying in a place with eight tennis courts – so I need to get some practice in.’

Yessss
. I thought. At least Alice and I would
have a few hours a day away from her.

Suddenly Alice stopped walking. She looked at me.

‘Maybe we should change to tennis too,’ she said.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

‘But we’re doing basketball. We agreed. Remember?’

Alice shrugged.

‘We do basketball at school all the time. Tennis will be fun. Let’s change.’

‘But I don’t even like tennis,’ I said. That was only half true. I don’t mind it so much, but I’m really, really bad at it.

Alice shook my arm.

‘Come on, Meg. Don’t be so boring. Let’s change to tennis.’

Hazel was watching us with her arms folded. She smiled sweetly at me.

‘If you want to play basketball so badly, why don’t you just sign up for it?’ she said. ‘And Alice can do tennis with me.’

I felt like crying.

Alice and I
always
do the same stuff.

We like the same stuff.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Hazel went on.

‘Or are you afraid to do anything without your best friend?’

I looked at Alice. She looked back at me, and gave an embarrassed kind of smile. Hazel grabbed the pen that was tied to the notice board with a dirty piece of string. She found the tennis list and wrote her name in big roundy letters with a long swirl on the last letter. Trust her to have a fancy signature.

She handed the pen to Alice. Alice looked at me. I shrugged. I didn’t know what to say. I wanted her to do basketball with me, but I didn’t want to sound like a baby who depended on her for everything.

Alice looked at Hazel, and then back at me. Then she wrote her name on the tennis list. She handed me the pen.

‘Tennis will be fun,’ she said. ‘Bet you’ll love it.’

I stood there with the pen in my hand. I didn’t
know what to do. I’m so, so bad at tennis it’s unbelievable. After five minutes on the court everyone would surely be laughing at me and wondering where such a loser had come from. Alice is a good tennis player, and Hazel probably had her own tennis court in the back garden, and was brilliant. I’d look totally stupid next to the two of them.

And I’m not too bad at basketball.

And Hazel’s remark about being afraid to do anything without Alice hurt – probably because it was true.

My hand was actually shaking from the stress of trying to decide what to do. And then two girls behind me told me to hurry up, because they wanted the pen this year if possible. And so, I took a deep breath and reached over to the basketball list and wrote my name in small, shaky letters.

Hazel gave a smile of triumph.

‘Good decision, Megan,’ she said. ‘If you’re not totally brilliant at sport, it’s probably best not to go for the tennis.’

Alice gave me a funny look. Then she smiled and said,

‘We’ll be together for all the rest of the time anyway. It’s no biggie.’

We set off, back upstairs to our bedroom. Hazel tucked her arm into Alice’s, like she owned her. Alice kindly put her other arm in mine, and we walked like that, as if the three of us were stuck together. I felt a bit stupid. Alice and I don’t usually do that arm-in-arm stuff.

Up in the bedroom, Alice and Hazel swapped iPods. Of course Hazel had a super-duper video one with a sparkly cover and about a million songs downloaded on to it. I had an ancient Walkman at the end of my rucksack, but there was no way I was taking it out. I knew Hazel would only laugh at it. So I sat on my bed and tried not to feel like a total loser.

After a while, Alice noticed that I was sitting on my bed looking cross. She came and sat next to me, and gave me one piece of her earphones, and we each half-listened to Hazel’s cool songs.

All of a sudden I had a funny feeling that
summer camp was going to be a bit more complicated than I had expected.