The Butterfly Club Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Take Tina’s Test!

  The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

  All About Butterflies!

  Create Your Own Butterfly Garden

  Maddie and Phil’s Puzzle Page!

  Make Tina and Selma’s Butterfly Cakes!

  Visit the Website!

  About the Author

  Also by Jacqueline Wilson

  Copyright

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  Tina is a triplet, but she’s always been the odd one out. Her sisters Phil and Maddie are bigger and stronger and better at just about everything. Luckily, they look after teeny-tiny Tina wherever they go – but when the girls start in scary, super-strict Miss Lovejoy’s class, they’re split up, and Tina has to fend for herself for the first time.

  Tina is horrified when she’s paired up with angry bully Selma, who nobody wants to be friends with. But when Miss Lovejoy asks them to help her create a butterfly garden in the school playground, Tina discovers she doesn’t always need her sisters – and that there’s a lot more to Selma than first meets the eye.

  A beautiful, heartwarming story about friendship, confidence and becoming your own person, from the mega-bestselling author of Tracy Beaker, Hetty Feather and Sleepovers.

  To Tilly and Harry

  And in memory of Lily Rose

  Chapter One

  THERE ARE THREE of us. Phil and Maddie and me.

  We all have fair hair cut in fringes. I once tried to cut mine myself. Whoops!

  We have blue eyes, and Dad says we have button noses. He sometimes pretends to pinch them but it doesn’t hurt.

  Phil’s proper name is Philippa. I sometimes forget how you spell it and get the ‘l’s and ‘p’s muddled up.

  Maddie’s proper name is Madeleine. Her name’s hard to spell too. I put the ‘e’s and ‘i’s in the wrong place.

  My name’s Tina. It’s easy-peasy to spell, thank goodness.

  We are triplets. Surprise! Everyone thinks I’m the little sister. It’s very annoying. I was the littlest even when we were born. I was very, very little.

  I didn’t grow big enough when we were all inside our mum. I think Phil and Maddie must have sat on me and squashed me. When we were born I was too little to go home with Mum and Phil and Maddie. I had to stay all by myself in a tiny metal cot with a lid on it called an incubator. Well, I expect I had my teddy. I couldn’t wear proper baby clothes, and I had to wear a silly little hat to keep my head warm.

  The doctors found out that I had something wrong with my heart. Perhaps it was too small, like me. I had to have an operation. They put a tiny little box in my chest to make my heart pump properly. Thank goodness they put me to sleep so I didn’t know anything about it.

  I nearly died. I did, truly. I’m not meant to know but I’ve heard the grown-ups whispering about it. Mum and Dad came to visit me every day, while Gran and Grandad looked after Phil and Maddie. Mum cried because she couldn’t give me a proper cuddle. I had to stay inside my incubator.

  But I got better! I was even allowed out into the open air!

  I grew nearly big enough to go home, but then I got a chest infection and had to have lots of medicine. I didn’t have it in a spoon like I do now – the nurse just dripped it straight into my arm. I’m sure she was very gentle. I like nurses. I still have to go to the hospital for check-ups and they always make a fuss of me.

  Anyway, I got home at last. I could be with Phil and Maddie again. They were still much, much bigger than me.

  They stayed bigger.

  I was a bit scared when I started school because I was so much smaller than all the other children. I wasn’t used to lots of big children. I’d never played their kind of games.

  Mum was a bit scared too. She had a word with the Reception teacher, Miss Oxford.

  ‘I’m worried about Tina because she’s still very delicate. She’s got a w-e-a-k h-e-a-r-t and can’t take too much rough and tumble. Phil and Maddie know they have to be gentle with their sister, but perhaps the other children won’t understand. Do you think you could keep a special eye on Tina?’ she said. She spelled out weak heart, but I knew what she was talking about even though I couldn’t read yet.

  Miss Oxford was very kind.

  ‘Of course, Mrs Maynard. Don’t worry. How lovely to have triplets in my class! You all look very special girls. Would you like to sit together?’

  ‘Yes please!’ we said.

  Miss Oxford watched over me in the playground whenever she could.

  Phil and Maddie looked after me too. If the big boys played chase and barged into me, my sisters got very angry. If the girls – like horrible Selma Johnson – wouldn’t let me join in their games, then Phil and Maddie shouted at them.

  Oh goodness, that Selma! I hated her. She was the biggest girl in the class with a great red scary face. Her hair was pulled back in such a tight ponytail it made her look even scarier, especially when she pulled a silly face. She was boss of the whole class, even the boys. She pushed and she poked and she called people mean names. She couldn’t even be bothered to work out the difference between Phil and Maddie. It’s easy, even though they are very, very alike.

  Look closer!

  Phil has a tiny mole on her cheek. She doesn’t like it, but Gran says it’s her beauty spot. Maddie has a scar on her chin from when she fell over the first time she tried to skateboard. She’s absolutely brilliant at skateboarding now. Phil gets annoyed because Maddie is better than her. I don’t know if she’s better than me because I’m not allowed to do skateboarding.

  Maddie’s always the best at sporty things, especially football. She jokes about a lot but she’s very brave. She always stands up for Phil and me. Phil is the sensible one. The teachers always pick her to run errands. She’s top of the class. She nearly always gets ten out of ten and a gold star. Maddie gets at least nine out of ten. I’m not going to tell you what I get. Sometimes Phil and Maddie help me.

  Selma calls both Phil and Maddie Dim Twin – which is very stupid, because Phil and Maddie aren’t dim at all, they’re very clever. It’s especially stupid because they’re not twins, they’re triplets.

  Selma calls me Little Bug. This is even more insulting, though actually I quite like bugs.

  I don’t mind worms. I can pick them up. It’s great fun, because Phil and Maddie run away screaming. I’m good with spiders too. Do you know something – even Mum is scared of spiders! And I like caterpillars, with all their little feet. They tickle when they go for a walk up your arm. I particularly like ladybirds because they’re so pretty. I’ve got a red dress with black spots and I call it my ladybird dress. Phil has a pink dress with white spots and Maddie has a blue dress with yellow spots. I like mine best. We wear our spotty dresses to parties.

  We just go to little parties. There’s a funny boy called Harry in our class, and when we were in Year Two he invited us all to a football birthday party. Phil and Maddie and I wanted to go