10 a queer friendship

it was very hot. the girls simply lived for their time in the swimming-pool. they groaned when thetide was out and they couldn't bathe. fortunately the pool was an enormous one, and would takepractically the whole school when the tide was in.

darrell loved to have a game of tennis and then sprint down to the pool to bathe. oh, the deliciouscoolness of the water then! she couldn't understand how gwendoline or mary-lou could possiblyshrink from getting in. but they insisted that the hotter the day, the colder the water felt, and theydidn't like it.

'but that's what's so lovely about the water," said darrell. "feeling so cold on such a blazing hot dayas this! if you could only make up your minds to plunge in instead of going in inch by inch, you'dlove it. you're awful cowards, both of you.'

neither mary-lou nor gwendoline liked being called cowards. mary-lou always felt very hurt whendarrell so carelessly lined her up with gwendoline, and scorned her, too, for her timidity. she triedher hardest to make darrell pleased with her by running after her more than ever, even to tidying herlocker in the common room, which exasperated darrell because mary- lou always altered herarrangement of things.

' what s happened to my sweets? i know i put them in the front here. and where's my writing-pad?

blow, and i'm in such a hurry, too!'

and out would come every single thing in the locker, higgledy-piggledy on the floor! mary-louwould look on mournfully.

'oh—i tidied them all so nicely for you,' she would say.

'well, don'tv darrell would order. 'why don't you go and bother with somebody else's things? youalways seem to make a bee-line for mine. you seem to have got a craze for tidying things and puttingthem away. you go and do alicia's—they're much untidier than mine! just leave mine alone!'

i only do it to help you,' mary-lou would murmur. it was awful to have such an admiration forsomebody and for them to find it a nuisance. perhaps darrell would like her to tidy alicia's things.

she knew darrell liked alicia very much. very well, then, she would help alicia too.

but alicia could not bear it any more than darrell, and when poor mary-lou succeeded in breakingthe glass of her mother's photograph, alicia forbade her ever to touch any of her things again.

'can't you see when you're a nuisance?' she said. 'can't you see we don't want a little ninny like youalways flapping round us? look at that photograph! smashed to bits just because you started messingaround.'

mary-lou wept. she was always scared when anyone ticked her off. she went out of the room andbumped into

gwendoline in the passage.

'hallo! crying again! whatever's up now?' asked gwendoline, who was always interested in otherpeople's rows, though never sympathetic.

'nothing. it's only that alicia and darrell are always so hard on me when i want to help them,' weptpoor mary- lou, feeling very sorry for herself.

'oh, what do you expect from people like alicia and darrell—yes and betty too?' asked gwendoline,delighted to get in a few hard words about her enemies. 'always so cocksure of themselves, and soready with their tongues. i can't imagine why you want to make friends with them.'

'i've just broken the photograph of alicia's mother,'said mary-lou, wiping her eyes. 'that's what thetrouble was really about."

'well, you may be sure alicia won't forgive you for that,' said gwendoline. 'she'll have her knife intoyou now. she just adores her mother, and nobody is ever allowed to handle that photograph. you'vedone it now, mary-lou!'

as she spoke, a perfectly wonderful idea came into gwendoline's head. she stopped and thought amoment, her eyes shining. in one moment she saw how she could get even with alicia and darrell,yes, and give that stupid little mary-lou a few bad moments too. mary-lou looked at her curiously.

'what's the matter, gwendoline?' she asked.

'nothing. just an idea,' said gwendoline. to mary-lou's intense surprise she suddenly slipped herarm through the younger girl's.

'you be friends with me,' she said, in a honeyed voice. 7 shan't treat you like darrell does, and alicia.

i haven't a w icked tongue like alicia, or scornful eyes like darrell. why don't you make friends withme? 1 shouldn't jeer at you for any little kindnesses, i can tell you.'

mary-lou looked at gwendoline doubtfully. she really didn't like her, but gwendoline smiled at herso sweetly that she felt grateful. and alicia and darrell really had been horrid to her when she hadtried to do things for them. then she remembered how gwendoline had held her under the water.

she took her arm away from gwendoline's. 'no,' she said, 'i can't be friends with you, gwendoline.

you were very cruel to me that day in the pool. i've had dreams about it ever since.'

gwendoline was angry to think that the stupid, feeble little mary-lou should refuse to be friends withher. but she still w ent on smiling sweetly. she took mary-lou's arm again.

"you know i didn't mean anything that time in the pool,' she said. it was just a joke. you've oftenseen the others being ducked. i'm sorry 1 ducked you so hard. i didn't realize you were so frightened.'

there was something very determined about gwendoline, when she had made up her mind aboutanything. mary-lou didn't know how to get away. so, as usual, she surrendered.

'well,' she said, hesitatingly, 'well—if you really didn't mean to hurt me, that time in the pool,gwendoline, i'll be friends. but i'm not going to talk against darrell or alicia.'

gwendoline gave her arm a squeeze, bestowed another honeyed smile on the perplexed mary-louand walked off to think out her suddenly conceived plan in peace.

'it's marvellous!' she thought. 'everyone knows how fed- up darrell is with mary-lou, because she'salways tagging after her, and soon everyone will know how cross alicia is because she has brokenher mother's photograph. so, if/ start playing a few tricks on mary-lou, everyone will think it isdarrell or alicia getting back at her! and oh. goody, goody. alicia has to sit by mary-lou now! thatmakes it easier still.'

she sat down in the court and thought out her plan. she meant to revenge herself on the three peopleshe disliked. she would scare mary-lou to death—but she would make everyone think it was aliciaand darrell! then they would be blamed, and punished.

'and if 1 make close friends with mary-lou nobody would ever think i had anything to do withthings,' thought gwendoline, in delight. 'really, i'm very clever. i bet no one else in the whole of thefirst form could think of a plan like this.'

she was right. they couldn't—but not because they weren't clever enough—but just because theyweren't mean enough. gwendoline couldn't see that. she couldn't even see that she was doing a meanthing. she called it 'giving them all a lesson!'

she laid her plans very carefully. she would wait her time, till alicia or darrell were carrying out theduty of tidying the classroom and filling the vases with water. then everyone would know they andthey only had been in the classroom and so had the opportunity of slipping anything into anyone'sdesk, or taking something out.

she would pop a blackbeetle into mary-lou's desk—or a few worms—or even a mouse if she couldget hold of it. but no—gwendoline quickly ruled out mice because she was so scared of themherself. she didn't much like black-beetles or worms either, but she could manage to scoop those upinto a match-box or something.

she could do that. and she could remove mary-lou's favourite pencils and hide them in alicia'slocker. that would be a cunning thing to do! she might put one or two of mary- lou's books indarrell's locker too. and how sympathetic she would be with mary-lou when she found out thesetricks!

gwendoline began poking round the garden to see what insects she could find. jean, who was a goodgardener, and liked to give a hand with the school garden at times, was most amazed to seegwendoline poking about in the beds with a trowel.

'what are you doing?' she asked. 'looking for a bone you've buried?'

'don't be silly,' said gwendoline, angry that jean should have come across her. 'can't i do a littlegardening? are you to be the only one?'

'well, what gardening are you doing?' demanded jean, who always liked to know the ins and outs ofeverything that aroused her curiosity.

'just digging,' said gwendoline. 'making the earth a bit loose. it's so dry.'

jean gave a snort. she had a wonderful variety of snorts, which she kept mainly for gwendoline,sally and mary-lou. gwendoline dug viciously with her trowel, wishing she could put a worm downjean's neck. but probably jean wouldn't mind, anyway.

gwendoline didn't like to look for worms after that. she decided to look for spiders. but when shesaw a large one in the wood-shed she almost ran out helter-skelter herself. still, it was such a largeone, it would be just the thing for mary- lou's desk. it would come running out marvellously!

somehow gwendoline caught it, though she shivered as she clapped a flower- pot over it. shemanaged to get it into a little cardboard box. then, feeling very clever, she slipped away to thecommon room, meaning to hide the spider in its box away in her locker until the right moment came.

she led the conversation round to spiders that evening. 'i got my head caught in a web in the shedtoday,' she said. 'oooh, it did feel horrid. i don't like spiders.'

'my brother sam once had a tame spider,' began alicia, who could always be relied on to produce abit of family history of any moment. 'it lived under a fern in our green?house, and it came out everyevening for a drink of water, when mother watered the ferns.'

'oooh! 1 should have hated to see it!' said mary-lou,with a shudder. 'i'm terrified of spiders.'

'you're an idiot,' alicia, still cross over the broken photograph. 'terrified of this, scared of that—whata life you lead, mary-lou. i've a good mind to catch a large spider and put it down your neck!'

mary-lou turned pale. the very thought made her heart jump in fright. '1 should die if you did that!'

she said, in a low voice.

'cowardy custard,' said alicia, lazily. 'well—wait till 1 get a spider!'

gwendoline said nothing—but how she rejoiced! could anything be better! alicia had said more thanshe could possibly have hoped she would say—and what was more, every north tower first-formerhad heard it. it was marvellous!

'i'll wait till monday, when alicia and darrell are on duty in the classroom,' she thought. 'then i'll dothe trick. it will teach them all a lesson!'

so, when monday came, gwendoline watched for her moment. she and mary- lou went abouteverywhere together now, much to the surprise and amazement of darrell and alicia and betty. howcould mary-lou chum up with that awful gwendoline, especially after that cruel ducking? and whywas gwendoline sucking up to mary-lou? it seemed very queer to the first-formers.

gwendoline's chance came, and she took it. she was told to go and fetch something from hercommon room, ten minutes before afternoon school. she tore there to get it, then raced to the first-form classroom with the card?board box. she opened it and let the great, long-legged spider run intothe desk. it ran to a dark corner and crouched there, quite still.

gwendoline hurried away, certain that no one had seen her. two minutes later darrell and aliciastrolled in to fill the flower-vases with w ater. ah, luck was with gwendoline just then!