How To Survive Summer Camp (ePub) Read online

  ‘I’m ever so tired, Rosemary. Couldn’t we go to sleep now?’ Janie begged.

  ‘I’m not a bit tired,’ said Rosemary.

  ‘Well I am,’ Louise groaned. ‘Put your wretched donkey over your head and pipe down.’

  Rosemary did as she was told.

  ‘Dora smells funny,’ she said, sounding smothered.

  Karen snorted. ‘Of course she does, stupid. She’s been in a cowpat, yuck yuck yuck. You shouldn’t put it round your face, you’ll catch some awful disease.’

  ‘No I won’t. Will I, Stella?’

  For some reason Rosemary kept asking me things now. It was beginning to annoy the others.

  ‘Stella washed all the cow stuff away so Dora doesn’t smell nasty any more,’ Rosemary continued. ‘She just smells funny. Wet. Like my swimming costume when it’s been rolled up in my towel a long time.’

  ‘Is she still wet then?’ said Marzipan. ‘You’d better not have her in bed with you.’

  ‘But I can’t sleep without her.’

  ‘You don’t seem to be able to sleep with her either,’ said Louise.

  ‘I can’t help it. I said, I’m just not tired,’ said Rosemary, tossing to and fro. ‘And I can’t get comfy. My sheets are all wrinkled up and my pillow won’t go right and Dora can’t get comfy either.’

  ‘Shall I tuck you up?’ said Karen, getting out of bed. ‘Oh for goodness’ sake, your donkey’s still sopping. No wonder you can’t get comfy. Look, put it over here and—’

  ‘No! I want Dora!’

  ‘You can’t, you’ll get pneumonia. And I bet it’s still crawling with germs. You’ll end up with foot and mouth disease if you don’t watch out.’

  ‘Give me Dora!’ Rosemary roared.

  ‘Give her it back, Karen, or she’ll wake the whole house,’ said Louise impatiently.

  Karen flung Dora back to Rosemary.

  ‘Stella, can you get me comfy?’ Rosemary called.

  Karen said something very rude indeed. I got out of bed and went over to Rosemary.

  ‘OK then, let’s get you sorted out. Let me have a little chat with my friend Dora. Oh, I see. She says she wants her own bed tonight so she can stretch her hooves and swish her tail about. Here we are, this can be her pillow and this can be her coverlet.’

  ‘Do you mind? That’s my cardigan. Get it off that smelly germy old donkey,’ Karen shouted.

  ‘Will you shut up, Karen?’ Louise demanded. ‘You’ve got a voice like a foghorn. Just get into bed and stop interfering.’

  Karen snatched her cardigan and slunk back to bed. I didn’t even glance at her but I knew she was looking daggers at me. I rearranged Dora’s bed and tucked her up and then I tucked Rosemary up too.

  ‘Now go to sleep like good girls,’ I said, patting Dora’s matted mane and Rosemary’s curls.

  ‘We want a story,’ said Rosemary. ‘Please, Stella. Tell us a story. Tell about Princess Stellarina.’

  ‘Princess Stellarina!’ Karen snorted. ‘How incredibly yucky can you get? Princess Stellarina, did you ever!’

  ‘Princess Stellarina is private,’ I said quickly to Rosemary. ‘But I’ll read you a fairy story out of my book if you like. It’s a hundred years old, my book, and it’s got lovely coloured pictures. It’s ever so valuable.’

  Rosemary sat up in bed and switched on her torch so that I’d be able to see to read. I went to my locker to get the fairy tale book, wondering which story to choose. Not a very long one, I was too tired. Rosemary would like a story with a donkey in it but the one in my book was a bit silly, all about a hen and a dog who kept climbing on the donkey’s back. I decided to read one of my own favourites, Snow White or Cinderella.

  I found my book and as I picked it up the blue leather spine came away in my hand. The front of the book flapped loose and the back was all tearing away too. My book was falling to pieces. My precious valuable book.

  ‘Stella,’ Rosemary called. ‘Stella, what are you doing? Can’t you find your book?’

  I couldn’t even speak. Let it be a mistake, I muttered to myself. Let it be all right after all. Let it be some sort of trick.

  I went and switched on the light so that I could see properly. It was even worse than I’d thought. My book was ruined.

  ‘Have you gone mad, Stella?’ said Louise, blinking in the sudden brightness. ‘Switch that light off at once or Miss Hamer-Cotton will be along.’

  ‘Look at my book,’ I croaked, holding out the blue leather tatters.

  There was a small silence.

  ‘What’s happened to it, Stella?’ Rosemary whispered.

  ‘I’ll tell you what’s happened,’ I said. ‘I’ll tell you. Someone’s torn it. Someone’s taken hold of it and ripped and ripped until they pulled it all to bits.’

  ‘But who—?’

  ‘I’ll tell you who,’ I shrieked and I ran over to Karen. ‘You did it, didn’t you? You ripped up my book.’

  ‘I didn’t! Don’t be mad. I never touched your stupid book,’ Karen gabbled. ‘Louise, we never touched her book, did we?’

  But Louise was staring at Karen, looking shocked. She knew Karen had done it too.

  ‘I’ll get you for this,’ I shouted and I sprang on Karen. I hit her and I pulled her hair hard but then Marzipan and Louise got hold of me and prised me away.

  ‘She’s mad, she nearly killed me,’ Karen whimpered. ‘And I never touched her stupid old book. My lip! I’m sure it’s bleeding. And my hair, she was tugging out handfuls. I’m telling on you, Baldy, you wait and see. In the morning I’m going to go straight to Miss Hamer-Cotton.’

  ‘So am I. I’m going to show her my book,’ I said, picking it up and trying to fit it together again. ‘Criminal damage. That’s what it’s called. Criminal damage. This book was worth a fortune. My mum paid twenty—no, fifty pounds for it, and that was years and years ago. It could be worth a hundred pounds now. Maybe even five hundred. You wait, Karen, you’re going to end up in prison, you’ll see.’

  Karen clutched hold of Louise.

  ‘I didn’t, did I, Louise? All right, I tipped out some of her clothes, we both did, and we ate a bit of her chocolate, but that’s all. It was only a joke. The book might have got tipped on the floor but we didn’t rip it, did we?’

  ‘I didn’t rip it,’ said Louise, pushing Karen away.

  ‘But I didn’t either! I didn’t, I didn’t!’

  ‘No, you didn’t, Karen,’ said Janie.

  We all stared at her.

  ‘Me and Rosemary were here when you and Louise mucked up Stella’s things. You didn’t rip her book.’

  ‘There. See!’ said Karen, nodding at me triumphantly. ‘Now just say you’re sorry, Baldy.’

  ‘She can’t have done it, Stella,’ said Marzipan. ‘I helped you pick up your things and we put the book back and it was fine then, wasn’t it?’

  I couldn’t work it out. I knew Karen must have done it somehow. I held on to my book, trying hard not to cry.

  ‘Let me have a look at it,’ said Marzipan. ‘It’s badly torn but it’s only the actual outside part. The pages are all right, all the colour plates and everything, look.’

  I couldn’t bear to look any more.

  ‘It’s ruined,’ I said flatly, and I took my book and clutched it to my chest.

  What was Mum going to say?

  ‘She’s crying,’ Karen sneered. ‘What a baby. All this fuss about a stupid old book. She leaps on me and practically murders me and then doesn’t even bother to apologize when it’s proved that I didn’t do anything to her rotten old book.’

  ‘Yes you did!’ I suddenly shrieked. ‘And I know when you did it too. When you were up here after lunch, after you’d fallen off your chair. You were here all by yourself. That’s when you did it. That’s when you ripped up my book.’

  Karen shook her head violently.

  ‘No, I didn’t. I didn’t, I swear I didn’t,’ she said, but she was wasting her time.

  No one believed her, not even L