Alice in the Middle (7 page)

Fifteen minutes later, he was back with a huge foil bag under his arm. As he came close, a
beautiful smell wafted towards me. My mouth started to water – that definitely wasn’t the smell of butter beans.

‘Look what I got,’ said Dad proudly, opening the bag so we could all see.

Mum actually went pale when she saw that the bag was full of potato wedges, chicken nuggets, and sausages.

‘Sorry, love. It’s all they had,’ said Dad, but he winked at me when Mum wasn’t looking, so I had a funny feeling he wasn’t telling the complete truth.

Dad sat down and divided out the food. Mum kept going on about how bad it was for us, and how ashamed she’d be if any of her friends came along and saw her poisoning her family in public. I thought that it would serve her right if her family embarrassed her in public – at least she’d see how I spend most of my life. I didn’t say that though – I was too busy picking non-organic meat off non-organic chicken bones.

Rosie ate loads of the wedges. I don’t think she’d ever had anything like that before. She kept
on patting her tummy, and saying ‘yum-yum’.

Dad and I laughed, but Mum looked as if she’d love to grab what was left of the food and dump it in the nearest bin. She is so totally uptight when it comes to food.

In the end Dad said,

‘Lighten up, Sheila. One bad meal won’t kill the child.’ And to our surprise, Mum did lighten up, and she even laughed at herself. And when she thought no-one was looking she ate three potato wedges and four chicken nuggets.

I
t was nearly tea-time when I got back to camp. I hugged Rosie, then I got out of the car and closed the door behind me. Mum and Dad wound down their windows. Mum was building up for a big emotional farewell scene, but Dad was in a hurry home because there was a rugby match on the television later that he wanted to watch, so I was saved.

I stood in the driveway and waved as they drove off. Dad can be a bit of a pain sometimes, and Mum is a total embarrassment most of the time, but in a way it was nice and simple being around them. I could be myself, and I knew they loved me no matter what, and even if I said something
stupid, they wouldn’t go on and on about it forever. Sometimes it was easier than being with friends.

As soon as the car was gone from view, I went up to my room. There was no sign of Alice or Hazel. I walked around all the places I thought they could have been, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. In the end, I found Gloria lying on a rug behind a hedge in the garden. She was rubbing sun protection cream into her arms. I was puzzled. Her skin was so dark already, it was hard to imagine the sun doing anything at all to it except making it nice and warm. She looked up and saw me. I didn’t know if it was rude, but I had to ask.

‘Are you hoping to get a tan?’

Gloria gave one of her big laughs.

‘Do you think I look a bit pale?’

I could feel my face going red.

‘No. I mean yes. I mean…’

Gloria laughed again.

‘Black skin burns too you know,’ she said.

I didn’t know that. I felt a bit stupid so I said
quickly,

‘Have you seen Alice anywhere?’

Gloria nodded.

‘Yes, I saw her just after you left this morning. Hazel’s parents came to take her out, and they took Alice with them. They should be back soon.’

She stopped and then she said suddenly.

‘Actually, I’ve just remembered they won’t be back soon. Hazel’s parents asked Mrs Duggan if they could keep the girls out for dinner.’

Great. Alice got to spend the whole day with Hazel and now they were hanging out in some fancy restaurant, while I was stuck at camp on my own.

Gloria sat up.

‘Is everything OK Megan?’ she asked.

I nodded, even though I felt like screaming or stamping my foot or crying or something.

Gloria patted the rug beside her and I felt I had to sit down.

‘You and Alice are good friends, aren’t you?’

I nodded again.

‘It’s tough when your friend makes other
friends, isn’t it?’

I nodded.

‘Want my advice?’

I didn’t know if I did want her advice. Gloria was very kind, and I knew she was trying to help, but I could still remember how she had tried to help me by telling Alice she had to be my partner in the talent show. That hadn’t turned out very well, had it? But it would have been rude to say no, so I nodded yet again.

‘Yes, please. Tell me what you think I should do.’

Gloria smiled at me. ‘Just try to relax. If you and Alice are real good friends, it will take more than a few weeks at summer camp to ruin it. Have fun with Alice, but don’t crowd her. Hang out with the other kids too.’

But I
was
hanging out with the other kids. I liked Sarah, and Sam was good fun, but that wasn’t enough.

All I really wanted was for Alice to still be my friend.

Only problem was – all Hazel wanted was for Alice not to be my friend.

‘It’ll all work out in end, you’ll see.’ Gloria lay back on her rug, and closed her eyes. I could tell that the conversation was over.

‘Thanks Gloria,’ I said in the happiest voice I could manage, and I went up to my room and waited for tea-time.

It was nearly nine o’clock by the time Alice and Hazel got back. I was up in my room, trying to read, but not able to concentrate. I heard them before I saw them – chatting and giggling like they’d known each other for ever, not for just a few weeks.

They burst into the room, all happy and excited. Alice was so wound-up she couldn’t stop talking.

‘Oh, Megan. We’ve had such a fun day,’ she said. ‘Hazel’s family is sooo cool.’

Great. Trust Hazel to have a cool family, when I was stuck with the least cool family on the planet.

‘They’re just back from Dubai, you know,’ continued Alice. ‘And Hazel’s brother is sooo funny. He’s called Lee. He’s Hazel’s twin, but they don’t look alike. He’s
much
better looking than she is.’

Hazel gave her a kick in the leg, when she said this, but I was sorry to see that it was a friendly kind of kick. The kind of kick you only give to people you like.

Alice stopped to catch her breath, and then went on.

‘Lee’s friend came out with us too. He’s called Conor. He’s nice, but not as nice as Lee.’ She gave a sly look towards Hazel.

‘Hazel likes Conor, though. A lot.’

‘But what about Jordan?’ I blurted out at Hazel. ‘I thought you liked Jordan.’

Hazel gave a bored sigh.

‘Oh, Jordan,’ she said. ‘Jordan is so last week.’

Poor Jordan, I thought at first – before I realised that he was lucky Jordan to have escaped from the evil Hazel.

Alice gave a small laugh, and continued the account of her day.

‘First we went bowling, and then we had lunch in this really cool place, and then we went out on a really cool boat because Hazel’s dad knows the guy who owns it, and then we went to a really cool
restaurant for dinner, and Lee and Conor played this real cool trick on the waiter, but he didn’t mind, well not very much anyway, and …’

And on and on and on she went. In the end I thought if she said the word ‘cool’ one more time, I’d have to jump up and punch her in the face or something. And all the time Hazel was watching her with a small smile on her face, like having such a ‘cool’ family was no big deal. (But she must have known it was. After all, she’d seen my family, and even a blind person couldn’t call them cool.)

After ages, Alice must have noticed that I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about her day as she was. She stopped suddenly.

‘Sorry, Megan,’ she said. ‘I’ve been going on a bit, haven’t I?’

I was so happy that she’d stopped at last that I decided not to give her a hard time. ‘It’s OK,’ I said. ‘I’m glad you had a nice day.’

That was the truth actually. I
was
glad that she’d had a nice day. I just wasn’t very glad that Hazel had been a part of it. I wished Alice could have had a nice day with me.

‘Anyway,’ Alice said. ‘What about you? What did you do? Did you have a nice time with your family?’

What could I say to that?

I’d had a lovely day out. I’d had fun making endless sandcastles with Rosie, and swimming in the sea. Dad buying the chicken nuggets and the sausages and the potato wedges had been really funny. Still, I knew if I described my day to Alice and Hazel, it would suddenly sound stupid. My day would have sounded totally dull if you compared it with the fun day Alice and Hazel had.

I shrugged.

‘It was OK I suppose. Parent stuff, you know, kind of boring.’

And Alice didn’t ask me any more about it.

In bed that night, I kept hearing beeps and seeing flashes from Alice and Hazel’s phones. At first I thought they were texting each other – telling each other secret stuff about their day out that they didn’t want me to hear.

Then I had a horrible thought.

Were they writing stuff about me?

Was Hazel mocking me and my family?

And was Alice letting her?

For a while I pretended not to care. I listened to my Walkman. (I decided to take a chance, because it was dark, so Hazel couldn’t see it.)

In the end though, I couldn’t take it any more. I pretended I needed to go to the toilet, and when I got back into the bedroom, I kind of casually went and sat on Alice’s bed. She was smiling to herself as she read her latest message.

‘Who are you texting?’ I asked, trying to sound like I didn’t really care all that much – like it wasn’t driving me totally crazy, wondering what was going on.

Alice looked up, as if she’d just remembered that I existed.

‘Oh, hi Megan,’ she said. ‘It’s just Conor and Lee. They are
soooo
funny. Look at this.’

She held the phone towards me and I read the message. It was very long, and was about a bowl of carrot soup and a slice of bread and it didn’t make any sense at all to me.

Then Alice said,

‘Oh, sorry, Meg. You wouldn’t get that one. It’s a joke about something Lee said today.’

She leaned out of bed, and held the phone over to Hazel. As soon as Hazel read the message she fell into a fit of laughing like it was the funniest thing she’d ever in her life read. I felt like throwing my uncool, ancient Walkman at her, because I knew that half the reason she was laughing was because she knew that I didn’t get the joke.

I went back to my bed and climbed in. I heard my Walkman clatter down onto the floor. It sounded as if it might be broken.

I didn’t care.

I didn’t care about anything except that I had never in my whole life felt as left out of things as I did at that moment.

N
ext morning I was kind of glad when the time came for Alice and Hazel to go off to their tennis course. I thought I’d scream if I had to hear another word about Conor or Lee or the ‘cool’ time they’d all had together.

After basketball, Sarah didn’t feel well.

‘I’m going to skip lunch,’ she said. ‘I think I’ll go and lie down in bed for a while.’

‘You poor thing,’ I said, putting my arm around her. ‘I hope it isn’t anything too serious.’

She shook her head.

‘I don’t think so. I’m sure I’ll be fine soon. Anyway, if it turns out to be anything bad, I’ll make sure to breathe on Hazel so she catches it too.’

I laughed, and waved good-bye to her, and then set off for lunch.

I collected my food, and went to sit next to Alice and Hazel. I tried not to care that Alice kept talking to Hazel, and sometimes seemed to forget that I was even there.

By the time we were all finished our jelly and ice-cream though, I was more worried than ever. Not alone had Alice got totally caught up in her new friend’s life, but also she had that funny gleam in her eye that always makes me feel so nervous. She was plotting and scheming again – I was sure of it.

The three of us sat outside in the sun for a while before we had to go to French. Alice and Hazel spent most of that time with their phones in their hands, texting madly, like it was going to go out of fashion any second. Then, during French, they kept giggling and grinning at each other. They were definitely up to something – I just wished they’d tell me what it was.

That night should have been fun. Gloria and the other leaders had set up a treasure hunt all around
the school, and the winners were to get a big box of sweets to share. We were all ready to go when Gloria said the dreaded words,

‘Now everyone, find a partner to hunt with.’

I wondered if she’d told Alice and Hazel that they couldn’t go together, like she had for the talent show. I soon found out that she hadn’t.

Before I could even move, Hazel grabbed Alice’s arm, and said,

‘Partners?’

Alice looked at me with a funny expression on her face.

Was she upset because she couldn’t go with me?

Or did she just feel guilty because this time she’d got the partner she really wanted?

Luckily Sarah was feeling better, and she was standing near me. She came over.

‘Will we go together?’ she asked.

I nodded.

‘Thanks,’ I said, and tried not to watch as Hazel dragged Alice across the room and far away from me.

Two boys won the treasure hunt, but someone
had seen them cheating, so it didn’t really count. Anyway, there were enough sweets for everyone, and there was silence for at least ten minutes while we all chewed happily.

Sarah and I hung out together for a while when the treasure hunt was over. I couldn’t really concentrate on what she was saying though, because I was too busy trying to see where Alice and Hazel had got to. Sarah was being really nice, and I didn’t want to offend her, so I said I was going to go and have an early night.

I found Alice and Hazel up in our bedroom. They were huddled together on Alice’s bed, whispering and laughing.

When I walked in, Hazel jumped up, looking really guilty. Alice just laughed.

‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘You don’t have to worry about Megan. We can trust her.’

I was glad she felt that way, and that she wanted to include me. But what exactly did I need to be trusted with?

Alice grabbed my arms and pulled me until I was sitting on the bed. Hazel sat down on the
other side of me.

‘We have a plan,’ said Alice, and that old familiar sinking feeling hit me right in the middle of my tummy. Alice’s plans always ended up being more trouble than they were worth.

‘There’s a really funny film out at the moment,’ she continued. ‘And tomorrow afternoon we’re going to go to and see it.’

That didn’t sound so bad. How serious could a trip to the cinema be? My tummy began to unsink itself.

‘That’s great,’ I said. ‘I haven’t been to the cinema in ages. Has Gloria arranged it?’

Hazel gave a mean laugh.

‘No, Dork-face. Your precious Gloria hasn’t arranged it. She doesn’t know anything about it. We’re sneaking out of camp.’

My mouth fell open. I knew I probably looked really stupid, but I couldn’t help it.

‘Sneaking out?’

My voice was all squeaky and scared. Even thinking about sneaking out made me afraid.

Would I ever be brave enough to actually do it?

Hazel gave another mean laugh.

‘Yeah, sneaking out. See Alice? I knew you shouldn’t tell little scaredy-cat Megan.’

Alice stood up.

‘That’s not fair, Hazel. Don’t say that. We can trust Megan, can’t we, Meg?’

I nodded weakly.

I took a deep breath, and put on my bravest voice.

‘Tell me everything. I want to know every single detail.’

Before Alice could say anything, there was a tap on the door, and Gloria peeped in.

‘Girls, you should all be in bed by now,’ she said in a pretend cross voice. ‘Lights out in four minutes.’

There was a big scramble as we got ready for bed, and then Gloria’s hand appeared around the door, and switched out the light.

I waited a few minutes to be sure that Gloria was gone. Then I whispered.

‘OK, Al. Tell me what the big plan is.’

‘OK,’ began Alice, but just then her phone
beeped, and for the next ten minutes she and Hazel texted madly, giggling to each other as they did so. By the time Alice finally put down her phone, I was almost asleep. I jerked myself awake though.

‘OK, Al,’ I said. ‘Now tell me about the big plan.’

She gave a big yawn.

‘Sorry, Meg,’ she said. ‘How about I tell you tomorrow? I’m really tired right now.’

‘I suppose so,’ I said, trying not to sound too disappointed.

I felt like punching someone. I
hated
that Hazel knew all the details of the plan and I didn’t. I was supposed to be Alice’s best friend. I was the one she was supposed to share her secret plans with first.

I couldn’t argue though. I didn’t want Hazel to see Alice and me fighting. Still it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Alice is the world champion secret-keeper. I’d have to wait until the next day, whether I liked it or not.

Even though I was tired, I hardly slept at all that
night. All kinds of thoughts and questions raced around my brain.

I wanted to know more, yet at the same time, I didn’t want to.

How would we sneak out?

What would happen if we were caught?

Did I want to see any film so much that I’d risk being sent to Mrs Duggan, or worse, being sent home from camp in disgrace?

I could just say I didn’t want to go with Alice and Hazel.

But then I thought – I had to go with them. This was my big chance to prove myself. It would let Alice know that I wasn’t just a quiet little chicken. And it would let Hazel know that I wasn’t just going to stand back and let her ruin my friendship with Alice.

A few sleepless hours later, I had made up my mind.

For once in my life I was going to be brave.

I was going to break all the rules, and have some fun.

I felt a bit better once I’d decided.

Sneaking out would be fun.

Maybe Alice would lend me the turquoise top she’d promised me for the disco.

I wondered if I’d have time to straighten my hair.

Would Hazel do my face again?

Luckily my best jeans were clean.

Maybe…

When I finally fell asleep I had lots of crazy mixed up dreams about Alice, Hazel and me..