Alice in the Middle (9 page)

T
hose fifteen minutes went veeeeery sloooooowly. Every time there was a creak on the stairs, or a footstep in the corridor or the sound of a door closing, I sat up in bed, hoping that it was Alice and Hazel coming back. But it never was.

At last the fifteen minutes were up.

I stood up and went to the door.

Then I went back and sat down again. Ten minutes, I decided. I could wait ten more minutes.

So I waited ten more long minutes, and still there was no sign of Alice and Hazel. I couldn’t
delay any more. I knew it was time to do something.

I went out into the corridor. It was deserted, and a bit creepy. I tip-toed as far as Sarah’s room. This would be so much easier if she was there to support me. I raised my hand to tap on her door and then stopped myself. It wasn’t fair to involve her in all of this. It was my mess, not hers. So I continued my lonely journey along the corridor.

I knew that the group leaders’ rooms were all on the first floor. I tip-toed down the stairs, and along the corridor. I quickly found the door with Gloria’s name on it. Under her name was a smiley face, and the words, ‘knock if you need me.’ I needed her, but still I was afraid. This was all much too hard.

I stood outside Gloria’s door for a moment. I could hear music coming from her room. Lively, happy music. Just the opposite of the way I felt.

What would she say?

What would she do?

Was I about to make the biggest mistake of my whole life?

I took a deep breath, then I knocked on the door. There was no answer. I waited a minute, and then I knocked again, louder this time. Still no answer. I knocked a third time, louder than ever. Just as I did so, the song came to an end and my knock sounded really loud, almost loud enough to wake up the entire school.

Gloria came to the door with a book in her hand and her usual big smile on her face. She looked surprised to see me.

‘Megan? What is it? Are you sick?’

I shook my head. Now that I was standing outside Gloria’s bedroom, I didn’t know exactly what to say. Gloria shook me gently by the shoulder.

‘Talk to me, Megan. Something tells me this isn’t just a friendly visit. What’s wrong?’

At first I couldn’t talk, but seconds later I couldn’t stop. Everything came out in a rush.

‘It’s Alice. And Hazel,’ I said. ‘They sneaked out of camp. And they haven’t come back. But they’ve been gone for ages. And I didn’t know what to do. I’m so afraid that something dreadful has
happened to them. What if they’ve been kidnapped? What if they’re dead? And if they’re not dead, I will be, because they’ll kill me when they discover that I told you. They went to the pictures. In Cork. But they should be back by now. They should have been back ages ago. I’m so afraid, Gloria.’

The smile had faded from Gloria’s face long before I had finished speaking.

‘When did they go?’ she asked.

‘Just before lunch.’

Now Gloria’s face was really serious. She threw her book into the bedroom, and stepped into the corridor, closing the door behind her.

‘Now Megan, don’t you worry. I’ll deal with this. I’ll have to go and talk to Mrs Duggan.’

Mrs Duggan? I so did not want to get Mrs Duggan involved in this. Now I was sure I’d done the wrong thing. Alice would never, ever, ever forgive me.

It was as if Gloria could read my mind.

‘Telling me was the right thing to do, Megan. Alice and Hazel are probably perfectly fine, but we
need to be sure. We can’t take any chances. Now you run along to bed, and stop worrying. I’ll take care of everything.’

Gloria walked quickly towards the stairs, and out of sight. I stood for a few minutes, wishing I was at home, or at school, or even at the dentist – anywhere but there in that silent empty corridor.

Then I went back to my room, and got into bed.

What else could I do?

A few minutes later, I could hear whispering and giggling out in the corridor. Very familiar whispering and giggling.

My heart sank. All of a sudden I wasn’t glad that my friend was back. I was almost sad that something bad hadn’t happened to her, because now I knew for sure that something bad was going to happen to me.

The door opened and Alice and Hazel tip-toed into the room. Alice reached for the light switch, but Hazel pulled her hand back.

‘Don’t put on the light,’ she whispered. ‘Do you want us to get into trouble?’

I gulped. They were already in very serious
trouble, and it was all my fault.

I sat up in bed. Alice saw me and came and sat next to me.

‘Meg, I’m glad you’re still awake. Oh, we’ve had the best time ever. The film was so funny. You’d have loved it. I’ll go and see it again with you when we get back to Limerick, if you like. And then we went for burgers. Lee and Conor know all these cool places in Cork. And then we just hung out in the park doing nothing really, but it was still fun. And we were enjoying ourselves so much, we forgot about the time, and we missed the last bus home, and we had to walk the whole way, and it’s miles and miles. I’ve got a huge blister on my foot. If it doesn’t get better quickly I so won’t be able to dance at the disco. Did anyone notice that we were gone? Did Gloria say anything? What did you say to her? And Lee is soooo nice. You’d really like him. He said…’

And on and on she went, as only Alice can when she’s excited about something. And I said nothing, because what could I say? And then, it didn’t matter anyway because the door opened and
the light went on and there were Gloria and Mrs Duggan and two other group leaders, and none of them looked very happy. And Alice looked at me in surprise, and Hazel leaned over to me, and gave me the most evil look I’d ever seen in my whole life and whispered,

‘I’ll get you for this.’

Then Mrs Duggan beckoned with her finger and everyone except for me followed her out of the room, and I sat on my bed and waited some more.

M
uch, much later the bedroom door opened again. Alice and Hazel came in with Gloria. The two girls didn’t look cool and sophisticated any more. They had red blotchy faces, and Hazel had a big black streak of mascara down one cheek.

Gloria spoke sharply to them.

‘Take your toothbrushes and towels and go down to the bathroom. Be back here in three minutes.’

The girls picked up their stuff and left the room
without saying anything. Gloria came and sat on my bed. I started to cry. I couldn’t help it. Gloria pulled a big flowery hanky from her pocket and handed it to me.

‘It’s clean. I promise,’ she said.

I wiped away my tears, but it didn’t make any difference. Lots more came to take their place. They dripped down my face and on to my bedcovers.

‘What’s going to happen to Alice and Hazel?’ I asked.

Gloria sighed.

‘They did a very silly thing, and they have to be punished. They’re lucky they’re not being sent home. Mrs Duggan is writing to their parents, of course. And instead of activities, Alice and Hazel are going to have detention after tea in the evening. Every evening.’

I gasped.

‘But what about the disco?’

The disco was the highlight of the camp. Everyone had been looking forward to it since the day we’d arrived.

Gloria shook her head.

‘I’m afraid they’re going to miss the disco.’

‘Alice is going to hate me forever,’ I sobbed.

Gloria stroked my hair.

‘She might for a little while. But she’ll get over it.’

Just then Alice and Hazel came back into the room. Gloria stood up.

‘Straight to bed, you two,’ she said, in a voice very different to the one she’d used to me. ‘And not a peep out of either of you.’

She looked at Alice.

‘Don’t you dare give Megan a tough time about this. She was worried about you. She was trying to be a good friend. And sometimes being a good friend means doing hard stuff.’

Alice didn’t answer. Hazel gave me an evil look. Gloria went out of the room, and I could hear the slap-slap of her flip-flops as she went downstairs. I felt like running after her, and begging her to stay with me, to protect me. It wouldn’t have helped though. Sooner or later I’d have to face up to what I had done.

Alice and Hazel began to change into their
pyjamas. Neither of them looked at me.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said softly.

Still neither girl looked at me.

‘I’m sorry,’ I said again, a bit louder this time.

Still there was no response. I got out of bed and went over to Alice.

‘I’m sorry, Al,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t trying to get you into trouble. I was worried about you. That’s all. I was afraid something bad had happened to you.’

Hazel interrupted.

‘Something bad
did
happen to her. She met you.’

‘Al, please listen,’ I continued. ‘Please, please listen to me. I didn’t mean to get you into trouble. Honestly I didn’t.’

Suddenly Alice turned to face me.

‘But you
did
get me into trouble, didn’t you? I am so dead when I get home. I’ll probably be grounded for the rest of the summer. And the rest of the week is going to be no fun now. Everything is ruined, and it’s all your fault.’

‘But why?’ I asked. ‘Why do you think I’d deliberately get you into trouble?’

Alice pretended to think.

‘Oh, I know,’ she said. ‘Maybe it’s because you were jealous of me and Hazel having a good time. You wanted to get back at me and you found the perfect way.’

I started to cry again.

‘That is so not what happened. I tried to help you.’

I pointed to the bundles of clothes under her bedclothes.

‘Look, I even tricked Gloria when she came to say goodnight. I made it look like you were here. I wanted to help you, but in the end I was scared. You’re my friend and I was worried about you.’

Hazel stepped towards us.

‘Ignore her, Alice. She thinks she can get back with you just by stuffing a bundle of clothes in your bed. She probably did that after she went telling tales to Gloria. I don’t think you should talk to her.’

Alice tossed her head.

‘Don’t worry. I won’t. Ever.’

I got into bed.

‘You’re not even trying to understand what happened. It’s not fair,’ I cried.

Hazel gave a cruel laugh.

‘Life’s not fair. Get over it.’

T
he next day was totally awful.

When we woke up, Alice and Hazel acted as if I wasn’t in the room. They chatted about the fun they had had on their date, and all the cool stuff they’d done with Conor and Lee. Then they went on and on about how they didn’t care about stupid camp activities, and that the camp disco was only for stupid babies anyway.

I tried talking to Alice a few times, but each time she just turned away.

I sat with Sarah for breakfast, as far away from Alice and Hazel as I could manage. Most of the kids had some idea that something had happened the evening before, but Alice, Hazel and I were the only ones who knew exactly what it had been.

When most of the other kids had gone to get ready for activities, Sarah asked me what was going on. I hesitated, but then decided that I had nothing left to lose, and told her the whole story. She listened without saying a word.

‘You poor thing,’ she said, when I had finished.

‘What would you have done?’ I asked.

Sarah didn’t even hesitate.

‘I’d have done exactly what you did.’

I’ll never know if she was telling the truth, but it made me feel a bit better anyway.

‘Come on,’ said Sarah, giving me a quick hug. ‘Try and forget about it for a while. Let’s go and get ready for basketball.’

I hoped that by lunch-time, Alice might have calmed down a bit, and that I could get a chance to explain my side of the story to her. There was no real hope though – now Hazel acted as if she owned Alice. Everywhere one went, the other followed, almost as if they were attached to each other by an invisible string.

And so the day dragged on. I think Sarah told Sam what had happened, because he was
especially nice to me. He was so nice that I even began to feel a bit better for a while. That only lasted till Alice and Hazel walked by though, pointing at me and laughing, and then I felt as bad as ever.

Sarah stayed with me the whole time – a bit like my own personal bodyguard. She was really funny, and kept trying to cheer me up. It wasn’t the same as being with Alice, though. I’d only had one really bad fight with her before, when I was staying in Dublin, and she was trying to get rid of the man she thought was her mum’s boyfriend. Even that had only lasted for a short while though. We said really mean things to each other, but after half an hour we were best friends again – probably better friends than ever before.

This time I didn’t think it was going to turn out like that, though. As long as Hazel was around, she was going to do her very best to keep Alice and me apart. And by the time camp was over, Alice might have got so used to hating me, that she’d never, ever stop.

After tea, I went up to my room for a while.
Alice and Hazel were downstairs in one of the classrooms, being watched over by a very cross Gloria. I sat on my bed and played with the tiny silver bus on a chain that Alice had given me during the spring break. We were very, very best friends then. And now it looked like that would never happen again.

The whole thing was so totally unfair – I’d only been trying to help Alice. The worst thing was, I’d often got into trouble because of Alice, but I always forgave her in the end. So why couldn’t she forgive me?

For a while, I thought about phoning home. If I told Mum and Dad how upset I was, maybe they’d let me come home. Home would have been much better than camp now that Alice and I were fighting. Even with all the porridge and organic vegetables, home suddenly seemed like a great place to be.

Then I got sense though. Mum would have been sympathetic, but she’s a great believer in sticking things out, and after paying so much money for the camp, it would kill her if I left early. Dad might
have been more understanding, but I knew he’d do whatever Mum said in the end.

So I was trapped.

I was public enemy number one, as far as Alice was concerned, and I couldn’t do a single thing to change it.