Girl Wonder's Winter Adventures (2 page)

“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I think this is a job for Girl Wonder and . . .”

“The Terrific Twins,” said my brothers. And we all spun around until the kitchen dipped and dived around us.

“Do you have a plan, Girl Wonder?” Anthony asked.

“A good plan, please!” Edward added quickly.

I thought and thought. Then I had a wonderful idea. But then my ideas are always wonderful. (Which is why I don’t understand why they often get us into a lot of trouble. This one wouldn’t though. Mum would like this one!)

“Mum says that we don’t frighten her, but if we could make her jump, that would prove that we’re super-duper scary. The scariest!” I said.

“So what should we do to make her jump?” Anthony asked.

“Drop an ice-cube down her back?” Edward suggested.

“I don’t think she’d like that, somehow.” I shook my head.

“How about if we drop a worm down her back?” Anthony said, excited.

I thought for a moment.

“I don’t think she’d like that one either,” I sighed.

It was a shame because both the ice-cube and the worm were good ideas.

“How about . . . how about if we get a frog from Miss Ree’s pond and drop that down Mum’s back?” Anthony said.

“That’s it!” I said.

“Brilliant!” said Edward.

We all thought that was a wonderful idea. There was just one problem. How
could we get into Miss Ree’s garden, get the frog and get back home without being seen? Miss Ree is our grumpy next door neighbour and if she saw us in her garden we’d be in big, BIG trouble!

“I know!” I grinned. “We could drop Frodo, my rubber frog, down Mum’s back and pretend it’s a frog from Miss Ree’s pond.”

“Will that scare Mum?” Anthony asked.

“No, it won’t,” Edward said.

“Yes it will, if we do it right,” I argued. And I told the Terrific Twins my super-duper, wonderful plan.

“Not bad,” Anthony said, surprised.

“Not too bad,” agreed Edward.

We all dashed up to my bedroom to get Frodo off my pillow where he slept every night.

“OK, Terrific Twins,” I said. “I’ll get Mum to stand in the hall. Edward, you have to creep down the stairs without Mum hearing you. When you’re close enough you can drop Frodo down the back of Mum’s blouse. Then you, Anthony, must make a noise like a mad frog.”

“This is going to be fun,” laughed Anthony.

“Yes it is!” Edward clapped his hands.

“This is sure to make Mum say we’re the scariest,” I said happily.

Anthony and I ran downstairs whilst Edward crouched on the landing.

“Mum! Mum! Come and look at this,” I called out.

“What is it?” Mum asked, coming out of the living room.

“Mum, look at that,” I said, pointing up
at the wall above the living room’s door frame.

“I can’t see anything.” Mum frowned.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Edward tip-toeing down the stairs. But Mum was too far away from the banisters for Edward to reach her.

“You’ll have to move back a bit to see it,” I said to Mum.

“To see what? What are you talking about, Maxine?” Mum asked.

“Stand back here against the banisters, Mum,” I said. “Then you’ll see it.”

Mum took a step backward to stand against the banisters.

“I still don’t see . . .”

I looked up. Edward pulled back the neck of Mum’s blouse and dropped my frog, Frodo, down her back.

“It’s a frog from next-door’s pond,” I said quickly.

“Cro-oo-oak! Cro-oo-oak! Rei-ei-bit! Cro-oo-oak!” Anthony called out, jumping up and down and all around just like a frog himself.

Mum screamed and pulled the bottom of her blouse out of her skirt. She screamed again as Frodo hit the carpet and bounced around. Anthony, Edward and I creased up laughing. I laughed so hard that my witch’s hat fell off.

“We scared you! We scared you!” we called out.

I picked up my frog. “It’s just Frodo,” I laughed. “Look Mum, it’s just Frodo.”

Mum stared at us without saying a word. Then her lips began to twitch, then to quiver, then to quaver.
Then she burst out laughing. I don’t think she wanted to – it’s just that she couldn’t help it.

“You three are going to drive me bonkers!” Mum laughed.

“We were going to use a real frog out of Miss Ree’s pond,” Anthony began.

“Yeah! But we decided to use Maxine’s frog instead,” said Edward.

Mum’s smile instantly disappeared. “I’m glad you decided not to drop a real frog down my back,” she said quietly. “I wouldn’t have liked that. I wouldn’t have liked that one little bit.”

The way Mum said it made me think we’d had a very lucky escape! I don’t think Mum would have laughed quite so much if Frodo had been a real frog!

“Come on, you three.” Mum smiled. “Time to go to your cousin Jayne’s party.”

As we walked to the car Anthony said, “Your plan to scare Mum wasn’t as seriously smelly as your plans usually are.”

“Yeah! Not too smelly at all,” said Edward.

“I do get it right sometimes.” I grinned.

As soon as my eyes were open I was awake. I jumped out of bed and ran to my bedroom window. I drew back the curtains eagerly and . . . no snow! Where was the snow? It was pouring with rain but – NO SNOW!

It wasn’t really winter without snow and snowmen and snowball fights and catching freezing, falling snow on your tongue and feeling it melt.

WHERE WAS THE SNOW?

I had my shower and got dressed before going downstairs. Mum took one look at
my face and said, “What’s the matter with you, Maxine?”

“I want it to snow,” I replied.

“I want it to snow too,” said Anthony.

“And me,” agreed Edward.

“Well, there’s nothing you, I or anyone else can do about that,” Mum said.

“Would you like it to snow, Mum?” I asked.

“Yes, I would.” Mum smiled. “I love the snow.”

Mum went into the kitchen to get our breakfast.

“Anthony, Edward, we’re going to make it snow,” I whispered to my twin brothers.

“How are we going to do that?” Anthony asked with a frown.

“Yeah, how?” Edward repeated.

“Er . . . I haven’t worked that bit out yet, but this is definitely a job for Girl Wonder . . .”

“And the Terrific Twins,” laughed Anthony and Edward.

And we all stood up and whirled and twirled around until we almost knocked over the table.

“So what do we do now, Girl Wonder?” asked Anthony.

“Yeah, what?” said Edward.

“All three of us will have to think about that one,” I replied.

Just then, Mum walked into the living room with our breakfast, so I couldn’t say any more.

“You three are quiet. What are you up to now?” Mum asked suspiciously, as we sat eating our breakfast at the table.

“Mum, why won’t it snow?” I asked.

“It’s not cold enough yet,” Mum said. “When it’s cold enough, water vapour high in the sky turns into snow.”

“Oh, I see . . .” I said.

“Your dad’s grandma used to tell me about the snow they had in Barbados,” Mum carried on.

“I thought Barbados was hot?” I said.

“It is. It never gets cold enough there for snow, so at Christmas, Grandma’s family used to sprinkle marl throughout the house and in the garden. That made it look like it had been snowing everywhere – even inside the house.” Mum chuckled. “Of course, that was a long time ago.”

“What’s marl, Mum?” Anthony asked.

“Marl is like chalk, little bits of white chalk,” Mum explained. “And sprinkled around the house it looks just like snow.”

And that’s when I had my extra-brilliant idea.

After breakfast, whilst Mum was busy fixing the light in the twins’ bedroom, I told my plan to my brothers.

“We’ll make it snow in the house, just like Dad’s grandma’s family used to do in Barbados.”

“How will we do that?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah, just how?” said Edward.

“That’s a good question.” I frowned. “We need something white like chalk to sprinkle around.”

“How about flour?” Anthony suggested.

We all had a think.

“No! Flour is too fine. It’d disappear into the carpet,” I decided.

“Then how about sugar?” said Edward.

We all had another think.

“Nah! Sugar is too sticky. Our feet would stick to the carpet,” I replied.

“I got it!” I said. “This is super-duper brilliant. We’ll sprinkle the washing powder Mum uses to get our clothes clean all around the house. Washing powder is white and looks like snow. It’ll be a big surprise for Mum.”

“That’s a good idea, Girl Wonder.” Anthony nodded.

“Not bad,” said Edward.

“It’s mega-brilliant!” I argued. “After all, Mum said she’d like some snow.”

We went into the conservatory where the washing machine was kept. Anthony and Edward started arguing about who should sprinkle the washing powder until I said, “There’s no need for that. There’s plenty of washing powder for all of us to have a go. Besides, superheroes don’t argue.”

So Anthony sprinkled washing powder in the conservatory and the kitchen. I did the living room and Edward used the last of the washing powder in the hall and at the bottom of the stairs.

And when we’d finished, it looked TERRIFIC!

“Mum, come and see what we did,” I called out.

“What is it?” Mum asked, walking down the stairs.