Alice-Miranda Shines Bright 8

About the Book

Alice-Miranda and Millie have made a dazzling discovery in the woodlands near their school. They vow to keep the secret to themselves, but it seems that a greedy politician and a pair of old friends are searching for the same treasure. Back at school, the sixth grade girls are preparing for a change to high school. Jacinta is being particularly grumpy with everyone and even with the most persistent questioning, no one quite knows why. When Myrtle Parker's husband awakes from his coma and disappears, Alice-Miranda puts on her detective hat. She's determined to find Reginald Parker, deter the politician and uncover exactly why Jacinta is playing up.

 

 

 

For Ian and Sandy, and for my mother-in-law, Joan Harvey

 

U
rsula turned the photograph over in her hand. His smile beamed out at her like a ray of sunshine. His short blond curls framed an almost perfect face. He had always been the pretty one.

‘Two peas in a pod,' everyone used to say. ‘Inseparable.'

Ursula closed her eyes and she was back there. The rain beating down, the swirling water, the log across the stream, the crack, the fall. Her hand gripping his, the screaming in her ears and the thunder overhead. Then the silence that reached all the way to the sky.

They shouldn't have been there in the first place. It was her idea. But it was an accident, a terrible, senseless accident. After the sobbing and the howling came the whispers and accusations. Her mother's finger always pointed straight towards her, while her father tried to broker peace. No one was to blame and yet Ursula felt so much guilt.

She'd left home the day after her last exams and found a job in the city. At first she wrote to her parents but there was never a reply. After a few years she stopped.

Now, almost twenty years had passed. Ursula had lived all over the world but always carried the photograph with her. She put it back in the little timber jewel box.

Ursula stood up and smoothed her trousers, then walked into the bathroom and tamed her curls into a ponytail. Life had taken some unexpected turns bringing her back to Downsfordvale. She was almost home.

 

 

 

J
acinta Headlington-Bear could hear the girls returning from their afternoon games. She scribbled a few final words in her diary and hid the little red book under her mattress just as Sloane Sykes burst through the door.

‘You missed a good game,' Sloane puffed. She slumped onto her bed and leaned forward to untie the laces on her football boots. ‘We won three-nil. And I killed it.'

‘Hooray,' Jacinta said sarcastically.

‘What's the matter with you?' Sloane glanced over at her room mate, who was lying on her bed and flicking through a magazine.

‘Nothing,' Jacinta snapped.

‘It doesn't sound like nothing,' Sloane replied. ‘It's only a week until you can go back to gymnastics training. You can walk perfectly now anyway, can't you?'

There was a knock at the door before Jacinta could answer.

‘Come in if you're good-looking,' Sloane yelled.

Alice-Miranda appeared.

‘Hi Sloane, great game,' she said. ‘You should have seen her, Jacinta. Sloane flew down the field and scored the winning goal.'

‘And broke a nail,' Sloane complained as she inspected her fingers.

It was a surprise to almost everyone – Sloane included – that she was becoming quite an accomplished athlete.

‘Are you feeling okay, Jacinta? I thought you would have come to watch.' Alice-Miranda walked over to Jacinta's half of the room and sat on the end of her bed.

‘It was only a stupid game,' Jacinta said. ‘We have them every week.'

Alice-Miranda ignored Jacinta's grumpiness. ‘How's your toe?'

‘I don't know. Why don't you ask it?' Jacinta replied, raising her leg in Alice-Miranda's direction.

Alice-Miranda smiled at her but she had a strange feeling there was more to Jacinta's bad mood than a broken toe. She looked over at Sloane, who was pulling out some clean clothes.

There was a sharp knock at the door. Millie didn't wait to be invited in. ‘Pooh, what's that disgusting smell?' she said, pinching the end of her nose.

‘Sloane's feet,' said Jacinta. ‘They reek like blue cheese.'

‘Do not,' Sloane retorted.

‘Do so,' Jacinta bit back.

Sloane reached down to pick up her discarded socks from the floor. In one swift move she was rubbing Jacinta's nose with them.

‘Get off me!' Jacinta screeched. ‘You're disgusting. I can't breathe.'

‘Stop it, Sloane, or Howie'll . . .' Millie began.

The door burst open and the housemistress, Mrs Howard, stood with her hands on her hips. Her bulk took up most of the doorway. ‘Sloane Sykes, leave Jacinta alone or I will have you on sock-washing duty for the whole house. Is that what you'd like?'

Sloane skulked back to the other side of the room. ‘No,' she muttered.

‘I beg your pardon?' Mrs Howard gave the girl a steely stare.

‘No, Mrs Howard,' Sloane replied.

‘Good. Now hurry along, girls. You don't want to be late for Miss Reedy and Mr Trout's end-of-year concert auditions. I trust you've all been practising something?'

Alice-Miranda beamed. ‘Oh yes, I've learned a new poem.'

‘Wonderful. I look forward to hearing it.' Mrs Howard smiled back at the tiny child.

‘Are you coming to the auditions?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘Yes, I'm going to pop over now. You'd better get moving, girls.' And with that Mrs Howard bustled away down the hall.

‘What are you going to do for the concert?' Millie asked Sloane.

‘I thought I might sing,' said Sloane.

‘Good idea,' Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘Your sing­ing in Notre Dame was amazing.'

Jacinta sat up and eyeballed her room mate. ‘Only because she stole my part.'

‘And that was
only
because you were injured,' said Sloane. ‘Do you want to sing something for the concert together?'

‘As if I'd want to sing with you.' Jacinta stood up and grabbed a cardigan that was slung over the back of her desk chair.

Sloane frowned. ‘What's the matter? You're so crabby.'

Jacinta ignored the question and stalked across the room. She pulled the door open and slammed it behind her.

‘That was weird,' Millie said.

‘No, that's normal – at least, since we got back from Paris,' said Sloane.

‘Has she told you what's bothering her?' Alice-Miranda asked.

Sloane shook her head. ‘She's been in a permanently bad mood. I don't know what it is but she won't tell me anything. I've asked her if she's mad with her mother or her father – well, she's always mad with him but that's pretty understandable – and she didn't answer. When I asked if she'd had a fight with Lucas I thought she was going to knock me on the head.'

‘She must be terribly disappointed about the gymnastics championships,' Alice-Miranda decided. Jacinta's broken toe had ruled her out of the competition, which she'd been training for all year. ‘I'd be upset about that too.'

‘Yeah, but she doesn't have to be such a cow about it,' Millie grumbled. ‘She's got less than a month here until the end of school. The way she's going, Miss Grimm will send her off sooner.'

‘Or make her repeat. That would be worse,' Sloane said.

Alice-Miranda wrinkled her nose. ‘Do you think so? I never want to leave Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale. It's the best school in the world.'

‘I didn't think I'd ever say this but I agree,' Millie nodded.

Sloane looked thoughtful. ‘Well, it is much better than that awful school I went to in Spain.'

‘I hate the thought of you all leaving and me staying on my own,' said Alice-Miranda.

‘Well, you're safe for a while yet. I don't know where I'm going when I leave here anyway,' Sloane said. ‘I hope it's the same place as all of you. But I suppose that's up to Granny.'

‘At least you've still got another year to convince her that it's worth spending her money on your education,' Millie grinned. ‘Lucky you repeated, Sloane, or you'd be off with Jacinta now too.'

Alice-Miranda glanced at the clock beside Jacinta's bed. ‘Look at the time. Come on, we don't want to be late.'

Sloane slipped her feet into a pair of sandals and followed Millie and Alice-Miranda out the door.