Alice in the Middle (3 page)

A
fter breakfast the next morning (not a single bowl of porridge in sight), we went up to our room to get ready for our activities. Alice and I were already in our tracksuits, so we only had to clean our teeth and brush our hair. Alice had a big box of new hair-slides, and she lent me a really nice blue one. She tied my hair up, and then twisted it around and tied it with the slide so it looked great. After that, I helped her to plait her hair. Then we sat on our beds and waited for Hazel.

Hazel had gone to breakfast in her tracksuit, but now she wanted to change. She spent ages
deciding which of her many designer tennis dresses to wear. She tried each one on, and walked up and down the room like a model, asking Alice and me to decide for her. I knew she was just showing off, but I had to admit that she looked really lovely in each dress. Actually, she was so pretty she would have looked lovely in anything. Even my faded old tracksuit.

At last she was ready, and we all stood up to go. Alice hadn’t brought a tennis racquet, but guess what? Hazel had two and was more than happy to lend one to her new best friend. As we went downstairs, Hazel walked next to Alice, telling her how ‘super-great’ it was that they were going to play tennis together. I wanted to laugh at Hazel, but I had no-one to laugh with, so I didn’t bother.

Outside, Alice and Hazel had to go one way to the tennis courts and I set off the other way to the big sports hall for the basketball. I felt kind of lost and lonely – I hate doing stuff on my own.

Alice ran after me.

‘I feel bad, Meg,’ she said. ‘I wish you were doing tennis too. Why don’t you change to our
group? No-one will mind, and someone will lend you a racquet.’

I was really, really tempted, but I knew it would have been a mistake. I’d heard Gloria telling one of the boys that after the first half-hour the tennis people would be divided into groups according to how well they could play. I knew for sure that I’d end up with the total beginners, and wouldn’t be anywhere near Alice. And I didn’t want to give Hazel any more reason to laugh at me. And so I was brave. I shrugged, and said, ‘thanks, but no thanks,’ and set off for my basketball session.

The basketball was really good. The two coaches were nice. We did loads of exercises and drills first, and then we played some matches. I played my very best, and was put on a very good team. There was a really funny boy called Sam on my team. He was the best player there by miles, but he wasn’t all conceited and horrible. He messed around a lot, and made us all laugh with his jokes. One of the girls on my team, Sarah, was really nice too, and she asked me to sit with her and her
friends when we took a break for juice and biscuits. And the biscuits were chocolate ones, and we could eat as many as we liked.

So I should have been really happy.

But I wasn’t.

I kept on thinking of Alice and Hazel together. Hazel would be laughing at Alice’s jokes, and Alice would be admiring Hazel’s tennis shots. At break-time they’d be sitting together, having such a great time, and not thinking of me at all.

Everyone had lunch together. The tennis people were back late, so when I came out of the queue with my tray, I didn’t know where to sit. Sam was there with some of his friends, but I was too shy to go over and join them.

Then Sarah saw me and called me over. I sat down with her, and we ate and chatted for a while. I couldn’t really concentrate on what Sarah was saying though, because I kept watching the door for Alice to come in. It was totally pathetic, I know. But I couldn’t help it.

After about twenty minutes, the tennis group came in. They were all laughing and breathless. At
the end of the group, Alice and Hazel were together. Hazel had her arm around Alice’s shoulders, and Alice didn’t even look embarrassed. This made me really cross, because Alice and I used always laugh at Melissa (the meanest girl in our school) when she and her friends went around like that.

I waved, and Alice and Hazel came over and joined us as soon as they had picked up their food. They went on and on and on about their totally cool tennis coach, and how good-looking he was, and how he once played in Wimbledon, and how he had this special technique for teaching how to serve and how everyone had improved so much already. In the end I felt like throwing up all over my jelly and custard.

After lunch we had art and French and then we went orienteering. Alice and I did everything together, as usual. This was different to usual though, because every time I turned around, Hazel was there beside us, bragging about something.

In some ways, Hazel reminded me of Melissa –
always boasting – always trying to be the centre of attention. The big difference was, Alice had always hated Melissa, but she seemed to love Hazel.

Why couldn’t she see through her?

Why couldn’t she see what she was really like?

What was going on?

As the afternoon went on, Alice must have noticed that I was feeling a bit jealous. She was really nice, and she was careful not to pay too much attention to Hazel, and she didn’t mention tennis once. It didn’t help though. With every minute that passed, I found myself hating Hazel even more.

In art class I kept hoping that Hazel would get tangled up in the pottery wheel until she was all wrapped around it like a big long smiley snake.

In French I kept hoping that she would be so bad at grammar that the teacher would send her to Mrs Duggan’s office for the day.

And in orienteering, I kept hoping that she’d take a wrong path in the woods, and never be seen again.

I know this all makes me seem really, really
mean. But I couldn’t help it – honest. You see Alice had been my best friend since we were toddlers. And in the past year when she’d been having such a hard time, I’d always been there for her. Whenever Alice got a crazy notion, I was there, waiting to help her. And I didn’t mind. That’s what friends do, isn’t it?

And at Easter, when Alice finally got her greatest wish, and came back to live in Limerick, I was there waiting for her. I’d never given up on her. Ever.

The way I saw it was this – there were a hundred girls and boys in the camp, and Hazel could have had any one of those for her best friend.

Any one at all.

As long as it wasn’t Alice.

I only wanted Alice.

O
n the second morning, I woke up slowly. I opened my eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room. Then I smiled. It wasn’t a dream. I really was at summer camp.

Then I looked over and saw Hazel, and my smile faded. She was still asleep, with her curly blonde hair spread out on the pillow, like she’d spent hours arranging it. I made a face. So it wasn’t a nightmare. She really did exist.

Alice and Hazel were soon awake. We all got up and got dressed slowly. I picked my track-suit bottoms off the floor, and looked at them. They seemed even older and shabbier than they had the day before. I sighed as I pulled them on. I knew
Alice would have lent me some of hers, but I was taller than her now, and I knew they’d have been too short.

Alice must have seen my look.

‘Here,’ she said, as she reached into the wardrobe. ‘Why don’t you wear this t-shirt?’

I smiled at her and took it. Maybe if I wore that, no-one would notice how old my track-suit bottoms were.

This morning it only took Hazel ten minutes to decide which tennis dress to wear. Then she decided that Alice should be wearing a dress too. I knew Alice would prefer to play in shorts, or a track-suit, like she usually did, but somehow she ended up in one of Hazel’s dresses. It looked really great on her.

By this time, I was bored of talking about tennis dresses, and ready to go down to breakfast.

‘Come on, guys,’ I said. ‘Let’s get going.’

Hazel gave me one of her lazy looks.

‘You go if you want, Megan. I’m not ready yet.’

I sighed. This girl was really starting to annoy me. She looked ready to me. Her hair was tied up
in a clever twisty kind of knot, her dress was buttoned up, and her snow-white tennis shoes were carefully laced. What else was there to do?

Hazel reached into a drawer next to her bed, and pulled out a large pouch.

‘I haven’t done my make-up yet. I didn’t have time to do it yesterday, and all day I felt wrong without it.’

I started to snigger, and looked over at Alice. She wasn’t sniggering though. She didn’t act like Hazel was saying anything funny.

Hazel began to spread the contents of the pouch onto her bed. It was like a chemist’s shop, with about a hundred bottles and tubes and jars.

She picked up a small mirror, and did her face carefully.

When she was finished, she caught Alice by the arm.

‘What kind of eye make-up do you like best?’ she asked her.

I held my breath and waited for Alice’s reply.

What would her new friend say when Alice told her what she thought of eye make-up?

Alice’s answer came too quickly.

‘Oh you know. Eye-shadow. Mascara. The usual stuff.’

Now I gasped. Why was Alice lying? Neither of us ever wore eye make-up. It was kind of like a pact between us. Sometimes we wore lip-gloss, but that was about it when it came to make-up. Wearing loads of make-up was one of the things Alice and I used to laugh at Melissa for.

I stared at Alice, but she didn’t look at me. She was sitting on Hazel’s bed, and examining a tube of something green and shiny, like it was the coolest thing she’d ever seen. What was going on here? The only time Alice ever had make-up was when she got something free on the front of a magazine, and usually when that happened she just dumped it in a drawer and never touched it again. (Except once when she was doing up my Aunt Linda’s face, but that’s a different story.)

By now the bed was covered with stuff. Hazel pulled Alice even closer.

‘Sit there,’ she said, ‘and I’ll do your eyes for you.’

Alice didn’t argue. She just tilted her head back, and closed her eyes.

I felt like closing my eyes too. I so did not want to watch this.

What was Alice at?

Why was she going along with Hazel?

Why was she so keen to please her?

I pretended to be busy tidying my locker, and a few minutes later Hazel was finished. Alice stood up and went over to the mirror. Then she turned to me.

‘What do you think?’

I didn’t know what to say. Her eyes did look lovely. Kind of brighter, and bigger. But she didn’t look like Alice any more.

‘It’s nice,’ I said quickly.

Alice didn’t seem to notice that I wasn’t very enthusiastic.

‘Do Megan now, Hazel,’ she said.

Hazel looked at me. She didn’t seem very pleased. Still, how did she think I felt?

‘I’m sure Megan doesn’t want her eyes done,’ said Hazel.

‘Of course she does,’ argued Alice.

For one second I was glad that they were arguing, but then I remembered that it was my eyes they were arguing about, and I didn’t feel so great.

‘You don’t want your eyes done, do you Megan?’ said Hazel in a voice that was almost threatening.

She was right. I didn’t want my eyes done, but I didn’t want to sound stupid either. And I didn’t want to find myself agreeing with Hazel, and going against Alice.

So I didn’t resist when Alice pushed me down on to the bed. Hazel gave a sigh, like this was a total pain, and then she picked up a few bottles she hadn’t used before, and did my eyes.

When she was finished, I went and looked in the mirror. Hazel hadn’t been trying, and it showed. My little sister Rosie could have done better than that. My two eyes didn’t even match. And one was kind of black, like someone had punched me.

Hazel stood up.

‘Come on, let’s go down to breakfast.’

I hesitated. I couldn’t go down to breakfast with my eyes looking like that. Everyone in the camp would laugh at me.

Alice looked at me. She knew I felt stupid, but she didn’t want to offend her new friend by saying that the make-up she’d put on me looked awful.

We all stood there for a minute. Hazel had a real mean look on her face, like this whole thing had been a battle, and she’d won.

Then Alice leaned over and looked closely at my eyes.

‘One of your eyes has gone a bit red, Meg,’ she said. ‘Maybe you’re allergic to that eye make-up.’

I went and looked in the mirror. My eyes didn’t look red. They looked green, and mauve, and black and pink. In fact they were very, very colourful. But they weren’t red. I opened my mouth to say so, but Alice poked me in the ribs and made a face at me.

‘Look closer. You’d better take it all off. Quick.’

At last I understood what was going on. She’d thought of a way of saving me from being
mocked, but still she hadn’t hurt Hazel’s feelings. She handed me a nice-smelling wipe from Hazel’s stash on the bed, and I wiped my eyes until I looked normal again, and then we all went down to breakfast.

I’d only been up for half an hour, and already I was exhausted.