Magic Bunny: Dancing Days (3 page)

Chapter
THREE

When they got home Sara struggled up to her room, closed the door and put her holdall on the bed. Arrow immediately jumped out and sat on the duvet.

He looked round her room with bright, intelligent eyes.

Sara sat next to him. ‘How come Dad didn’t see you get into my bag?’ she asked, stroking the bunny’s fluffy black-and-white fur.

‘I used my magic so that only you will be able to see and hear me,’ Arrow told her, his whiskers twitching.

‘You can make yourself invisible? Cool! That’s going to make it much easier for me to take you out with me.’

Arrow nodded. ‘This is a safe place. I think I will be happy here,’ he said. He yawned sleepily and rubbed his eyes with one fluffy paw.

Sara smiled at him fondly. It must have been a long journey for the tiny bunny. She began tucking the duvet round him like a cosy nest.

‘There you are. Now you can have a nap.’ She kissed the top of his head, breathing in the sweet smell of his warm fur.

‘Thank you, Sara.’ Arrow tucked his nose between his front paws. Almost immediately his breathing changed and snuffly bunny snores rose from his little body.

Just then the phone rang in the hall downstairs. Sara heard her mum answer it and footsteps sounded on the stairs. Her mum poked her head round the door to hand Sara the phone.

‘It’s Beth for you, love.’

‘Thanks, Mum.’ Sara took the phone from her eagerly, pleased that her best friend had called. ‘Hi, Beth.’

‘Sara! How’s your ankle? I was so worried about you. Everyone in dance class wants to know if you’re OK. Your mum told me you’ve just got back from hospital. Have you got a plaster cast?’

‘No. Just a bandage. My ankle’s badly sprained.’

Beth gave a sigh of relief. ‘That’s not so bad then. You’ll have to miss a couple of classes, but we can do extra practice at my house to make up for it. We’re totally going to win a place in Jane’s new troupe!’ she said confidently.

Despite herself Sara grinned. Beth’s confidence was one of the things she liked best about her.

‘Sorry, Beth, but I won’t be able to dance for at least three weeks. That’s how long it’s going to take for my ankle to heal. I won’t be able to make the auditions,’ she said quietly.

‘Oh no!’ Beth exclaimed. ‘That’s a real pain. I’d
really
set my heart on joining Jane’s troupe.’

‘Tell me about it,’ Sara said glumly, her spirits sinking. ‘I’ve messed things up for both of us, haven’t I?’

Finding Arrow had taken her mind off her injury for a little while. But now she realized again how much it affected their dance dreams, both hers
and
Beth’s.

‘You can’t help it. It’s just bad luck,’ Beth said generously. ‘Hang on, Mum’s calling me. I’m going to visit my gran for the weekend.’ She covered the phone with her hand and yelled, ‘Just coming!’ then spoke to Sara again. ‘You’ll be at school on Monday though, right? I’ll see you then!’

‘Yep. Have a good time at your gran’s. Bye, Beth.’ Sara put the phone down on her bedside table.

She sighed. She’d expected Beth to come round so they could at least talk and maybe look at some dancing magazines together. It was going to be a long weekend without her best friend around to cheer her up.

Sara looked down at the tiny fluffy black-and-white bunny. Arrow’s little sides were moving up and down and his whiskers were twitching as if he was dreaming. He was so cute, and so brave to have come here all by himself.

Maybe they could help each other to feel less lonely.

‘I love having you living with me!’ Sara said to Arrow on Monday morning. Even normal things like having breakfast, doing homework in her bedroom and watching TV were fun when you had a magical friend for company. She’d spent quite a bit of time with him in the garden, throwing small twigs for him to bring back to her or cuddling him while she read.

Arrow’s ears twitched. ‘I like it here with you too.’

‘Ready to get inside?’ Sara smiled at him as she finished packing her school bag.

Arrow nodded and jumped straight in.

Sara’s mum gave them a lift to school. Beth came dashing up the road just as Sara reached the school gate. ‘Hi, Sara!’ she puffed.

‘Hi, Beth.’ Sara smiled happily as her friend ran up. She was a bit puzzled about why she was so out of breath. Beth was usually there first and waiting to meet her.

She’d been a bit worried that Beth would be annoyed with her for not being able to dance their routine for the audition. But Beth seemed her usual self as she chatted on their way to class about her weekend with her grandma.

‘So, what did you do?’ Beth asked finally.

‘Oh, not much really,’ Sara said vaguely.

Beth wouldn’t have believed her even if she could have told her about the invisible fluffy bunny that was leaning up and looking out of her shoulder bag.

When the bell went, they walked into class together.

The first lesson was maths, which wasn’t Sara’s favourite subject. She chewed the end of her pen and looked up from her workbook to see what Arrow was doing. His little black-and-white form appeared for a moment between two desks, before he disappeared under them again.

Sara smiled to herself, imagining his little pink nose snuffling up all the interesting smells. After a few minutes, he reappeared from beneath the desk and she saw him making for the nature table.

Arrow reared up on to his back legs to investigate a branch drooping over the side. He nibbled a bit of leaf and seemed to like the taste. His fluffy tail twitched eagerly as he took a firmer grip and started to pull.

‘Uh-oh!’ Sara breathed.

Birds’ nests, leaves and dried plants in empty jam jars that were entangled with the branch began to slide towards the edge of the table. The whole lot was going to tumble on to the tiny bunny at any moment, but Sara was too far away to warn Arrow.

What was she going to do?

Chapter
FOUR

‘
Ah-cho-oo-oo!
’ Sara sneezed as noisily as possible. ‘
Hrr-up! Splurgh!
’ she coughed.

Beside her, Beth dropped her pencil in surprise.

The teacher frowned and gave Sara a disapproving look. ‘Whatever’s wrong, Sara? Do you need a glass of water?’

‘Sorry, Miss!’ Sara apologized. ‘I almost … um … swallowed a fly! I’m fine now.’ Her classmates giggled, especially Beth.

But it had done the trick. Across the classroom, the noise had made Arrow jump backwards from the table in fright. His magic key glowed brightly and he landed on Sara’s desk in a
whoosh
of crystal dust. His fur was all on end and his body looked as round as a soft fuzzy ball.

‘Are you OK?’ Sara whispered to him, as everyone went back to work.

‘I am fine now,’ Arrow told her, shaking himself so his black-and-white fur settled back down. ‘What happened?’

‘You were about to pull all that stuff on top of you. I had to do something,’ she explained. ‘It’s probably best if you don’t nibble things in class. You could get into all sorts of trouble. We’ll be going outside at lunchtime, so you can eat some grass.’

‘I did wrong. I am a bad bunny.’ Arrow buried his face in his front paws.

Sara’s heart melted and she only just managed to stop herself picking him up and giving him a cuddle. ‘No, you’re not! You’re my brave little friend,’ she whispered.

‘Thank you, Sara.’ Arrow hunched down next to her pencil case.

‘When’s it lunchtime? I’m starving!’ Beth whispered loudly a few minutes later. She sat back and stretched her arms. ‘Must be all the extra practice we did … I mean …
I
did this morning. Oh, sorry …’ she trailed off, raising her eyebrows apologetically. ‘I don’t suppose you want to hear about that.’

‘It’s OK,’ Sara told her with a grin. ‘I know I can’t dance, but I’m not going to get upset if we talk about it. We did come up with a great routine, didn’t we? It’s such a shame we won’t be performing it for Jane’s audition.’

‘Um … yeah,’ Beth said, going red. Ducking her head, she fiddled about in her fake-fur pencil case.

Sara frowned, puzzled. Beth was acting strangely.

Just then, the lunch bell went. Chairs scraped on the floor and desk drawers banged as everyone began filing out of the classroom. ‘It’s probably best if you get into my shoulder bag,’ Sara whispered to Arrow.

‘Very well.’ With a whisk of his tail, he jumped straight in.

Beth reached behind the desk for Sara’s crutches. ‘Here you go.’

‘Thanks.’ Sara stood up and adjusted her weight on the crutches. She had slipped the long strap of her bag over one shoulder, so it hung across her body. That way she could be sure Arrow wasn’t jostled about too much as she limped along.

Sara and Beth found a spare bench outside and opened their lunchboxes. Arrow hopped out of the bag and streaked across the grass.

Beth handed Sara an iced cake in a frilly paper case. It had a lemon jelly slice on top. ‘Mum made cupcakes. I brought you one.’

‘Thanks! Looks yummy!’ Beth’s mum was a great cook.

When they’d finished eating, they watched some girls practising dance moves. Sara knew most of them from her dance class. One of them, a tall blonde-haired girl called Olya, was a really good dancer.

‘Hiya!’ Olya called, smiling and waving as she saw Sara watching.