Alice-Miranda at Camp 10 (6 page)

Alice-Miranda and Millie were playing a game of ‘I Spy' as the little bus chugged along to their mystery camp site.

‘I can't believe Miss Grimm hasn't told us where we're going,' Millie said. She was peering around the bus and out the windows, trying to guess what Alice-Miranda was thinking of that started with the letter ‘I'.

‘It's good to have a surprise,' Alice-Miranda said and shrugged.

‘What if the camp is horrible? We don't even know if we have to sleep in tents or if there are dormitories or how many of us will have to share. It might be an old barn in the middle of nowhere, with outside toilets. Gross!' Millie griped.

‘What do you have against outside toilets? You have to go all the way across the caravan park to the toilets when you're at the beach,' Alice-Miranda replied.

‘Mmm, true,' Millie conceded.

From the back of the bus there was a loud thud followed by peals of laughter.

Miss Reedy turned around to see George Figworth sitting on the floor, having been wrestled out of his seat by Rufus Pemberley.

‘What on earth are you two doing? Get back into your seat and put your seatbelt on immediately, Figworth, or you can spend the rest of the journey up here beside me. Is that what you'd prefer?' she asked menacingly.

Figgy scrambled back onto the seat and yanked at the seatbelt.

‘Is it an idiot?' Millie said.

Alice-Miranda frowned. ‘What are you talking about?'

‘I Spy. Is it those two idiots?' She gestured towards the back of the bus.

Alice-Miranda laughed and shook her head. ‘No, it's not them.'

‘I give up then,' Millie said.

‘It's interior lights,' Caprice piped up from the other side of the aisle.

‘Yes, you've got it.' Alice-Miranda clapped her hands together. ‘I thought that was a tricky one. Well done.'

‘No, it wasn't,' Caprice scoffed. ‘I can think of much harder things than that.'

‘Well, it's your turn now,' Alice-Miranda said.

‘“S”.' Caprice turned back to the front of the bus, a smug smile plastered on her face.

Millie looked around. ‘Is it seats?'

‘No.'

Sloane weighed in. ‘Seatbelts?'

‘Wrong,' Caprice said. ‘You'll never get it.'

‘What about sun visor?' Alice-Miranda said thoughtfully.

Caprice sighed loudly, her shoulders slumping.

‘Ha! She's right, isn't she?' Millie said.

‘No!' Caprice shook her head. ‘That wasn't it at all.'

‘You're lying, Caprice,' Millie said. ‘It was sun visor and now you're just saying it wasn't because you don't think anyone is as clever as you.'

Alice-Miranda touched Millie's arm. ‘It's okay, Millie. If it wasn't, I'm fine with that. We can keep playing.'

Jacinta called out ‘sun roof'. Then she looked up and realised the bus didn't actually have one.

‘The game's finished,' Caprice announced. She picked up the magazine that was sitting on the empty seat beside her.

‘Of course it is. Because Alice-Miranda guessed. You know what, Caprice? People around here like to play fair,' Millie chided.

Sloane looked across the aisle and raised her eyebrows at Millie.

‘I do play fair.' Caprice turned and wrinkled her nose at Millie. ‘You don't know anything about me.'

‘Oh, yes I do. You might be able to fool everyone else but you don't fool me. For a start, you
think
you know everything,' Millie snapped.

‘Well, I know a lot more than you,' Caprice bit back.

Miss Reedy peered around to check that Figgy was back in his seat and noticed Millie leaning out
into the aisle. The girl's face was bright red and she seemed to be sputtering words all over the place.

‘What's wrong with you? You're such a fake!' Millie huffed.

‘It's okay, Millie. Calm down,' Alice-Miranda soothed. Millie had told Alice-Miranda what she'd heard Caprice saying about her the afternoon before. But when Alice-Miranda said that she'd speak to the girl, Millie begged her not to. She was sure that Caprice would deny everything.

Miss Reedy unclasped her seatbelt and stood up. She walked down the centre of the bus, eye balling Millie and Caprice in turn. ‘Is everything all right?'

‘Fine,' Millie lied.

‘No,' Caprice sniffed. ‘She's being mean to me!' Tears began to flood the girl's cheeks. Within seconds her sobs turned into great big hiccupy gulps. ‘I want to go home,' Caprice wailed.

‘Millie, what happened?' Miss Reedy fished around in her pocket and produced a tissue, which she held out to Caprice.

‘Nothing. I wasn't mean to her. She cheated in the game.' Millie could feel her eyes prickling but she was determined not to cry.

‘Perhaps you should apologise, Millie,' Miss Reedy suggested.

‘Why? I didn't do anything. She's faking it! They're crocodile tears,' Millie blurted.

By now Mr Lipp was aware of the sobbing and had stood up to join Miss Reedy.

‘Oh, dear me, whatever's the matter?' the teacher asked Caprice.

The girl let out several short gasps as another torrent of tears trickled down her cheeks.

‘This is Caprice,' Miss Reedy explained. ‘She's new and I think she and Millie might have had a difference of opinion.'

Millie crossed her arms in front of her and stared at the ground.

‘Caprice?' Mr Lipp enquired. ‘You're the new girl Mr Trout telephoned me about last night. The one with the voice.'

Caprice looked up through a haze of tears and nodded slowly.

‘My dear, we can't have this, can we? Why don't you come and sit at the front with Miss Reedy and me and you can tell us all about it. Then, when you're feeling better, we can talk about a song I've been thinking the group should try. We haven't had
a strong enough soloist for it yet but Mr Trout told me that was all about to change,' Mr Lipp gushed.

Sloane and Jacinta looked at each other from their seat behind Caprice, their mouths flapping open. Up until now they had been taking turns for most of the solo parts in the Winchester-Fayle Singers and as far as they knew, Mr Lipp had been very happy with their efforts. This was news to them.

‘What about us?' Sloane demanded.

‘Oh, Sloane, Jacinta, you're both wonderful, of course, but this part requires a voice with that little bit extra,' Mr Lipp blustered.

‘But you haven't even heard her sing!' Jacinta complained.

‘I don't need to. I trust Mr Trout's judgement, and he said that she's the most naturally gifted vocalist he's ever encountered in all his years of teaching. You heard her too, didn't you Miss Reedy?' Mr Lipp queried.

The woman nodded.

‘And?'

‘Caprice has a lovely voice.' Miss Reedy didn't want to talk Caprice up too much at that moment. She was patently aware of how annoyed Sloane and Jacinta were already.

‘I've heard that lovely isn't the half of it,' Mr Lipp replied. ‘Come along, Caprice. Shall we have a chat?'

Mr Lipp waited for the girl to stand and then ushered her to the front seat. Miss Reedy decided there was no point pursuing the incident until she had a chance to speak with Millie on her own, so she followed them back to her seat.

Millie watched them go. As Caprice turned to sit down, her lip curled and she grinned like a Cheshire cat.

‘Oh!' Millie gasped. ‘Did you see that?'

But Jacinta and Sloane were too busy sniping about losing their solos and Alice-Miranda was looking out the window.

Alice-Miranda reached out and patted her friend on the arm. ‘I'll talk to her when we get to camp. Try not to let her get to you.'

But it was much too late for that. Caprice had crawled right under Millie's skin and she wasn't going anywhere.

Josiah Plumpton leaned closer to the steering wheel. His right foot pressed hard against the accelerator pedal but it had no effect on the little white bus's speed. Its diesel engine clattered loudly as it chugged to the top of the hill.
I think I can, I think I can.
The teacher smiled to himself as the childish words repeated in his head.

Livinia Reedy was sitting directly behind him and organising the children into their camp groups. Ideally she would have had it all done before they'd
left, but even with a couple of hours off class that morning there still hadn't been enough time. She was beginning to rethink where to put Caprice too – obviously she and Millie weren't a good combination but Alice-Miranda would be a positive influence. Across the aisle, Harold Lipp was interrogating Caprice about her singing experience.

‘Mr Trout told me that you won the National Eisteddfod last year,' he gushed.

Caprice sniffed and nodded.

Miss Reedy thought the girl looked remarkably unblemished for someone who had spent the past twenty minutes crying.

‘We're going to have choir practice this evening,' said Mr Lipp. ‘I'm looking forward to hearing you sing.'

Caprice stared up at him, her blue eyes shining. ‘I could sing for you now.'

‘Oh no, you've been upset. Your voice might not be at its best. That wouldn't be fair at all.'

Caprice blinked away the last of her tears and shrugged. ‘I don't mind.'

Livinia Reedy interrupted. ‘Perhaps not now, Caprice. You wouldn't want the other children to think that you were showing off, would you?'

‘But Mr Lipp said that he'd like to hear me,' the girl retorted. Then, ignoring Miss Reedy's suggestion, she cleared her throat and began.

At first she sang softly. No one further back could hear her but as she reached the chorus she raised the volume and the chatter on the bus stopped.

‘Hey Mr Plumpton,' Figgy called out. ‘Can you turn the radio up? We can't hear it properly down the back.'

‘That's not the radio,' said Alice-Miranda, her brown eyes widening.

Millie sighed. ‘No, it's Little Miss Perfect.'

‘Wow! She's amazing …' The boys were all talking over the top of one another and nodding in agreement.

Sloane and Jacinta looked at each other. ‘There go our solos,' said Sloane.

Caprice's high note warbled for what seemed like an age before she stopped and Figgy let out a whoop and a cheer that got the whole bus going.

Caprice smiled at Mr Lipp, whose grin almost touched each ear.

‘Mr Trout was absolutely right,' he gushed. ‘Your voice is the nearest thing to perfection I've ever heard.'

‘Encore, encore,' Figgy yelled from the back seat.

‘I think that's probably enough for now,' Miss Reedy said, and pursed her lips.

Caprice was about to say otherwise when Figgy called out again. ‘Hey Mr Plumpton, there's a police car behind us.'

Miss Reedy turned around in her seat. ‘George Figworth, please keep your voice down. I'm quite sure that Mr Plumpton is well aware of what's going on behind him.'

‘Have you been speeding, sir?' the boy shouted.

‘Figworth!' The English teacher gave the lad her best evil stare. He opened his mouth like a fish then closed it again.

‘As if.' Rufus Pemberley laughed. ‘We could walk faster than this old bomb.'

Mr Plumpton glanced in the rear-vision mirror again. He'd first noticed the police car a few miles back when it had sped up behind them. The officer had pulled out to overtake but slipped back into the left lane and stayed there. Josiah wondered if there was a problem, but he couldn't imagine for a second what it was. Unless a tail-light was out. The bus had been hired from Downsfordvale, as Charlie had taken the school bus to be repaired. Rufus was right
when he said that they couldn't have been speeding. It simply wasn't possible.

Josiah spotted the exit to Dunleavy and put on his indicator. The police car followed.

‘It's still there,' Figgy updated the passengers.

By now several more of the children were trying to guess why they were being followed. Everyone had forgotten about Caprice's impromptu performance.

‘I know where we are,' said Alice-Miranda, as she looked out the window at the pretty countryside. ‘Pelham Park is just up the road. That's where Daddy grew up. He and Mummy have turned it into an aged-care home. And there's an amazing camp next door called Bagley Hall. It's got the most incredible facilities. There's a ropes course and a climbing wall, canoeing, cycling, archery – just about everything, I think.'

‘Cool!' Millie started to sound like her usual self again. ‘I hope we're going there.'

Alice-Miranda grinned. ‘Me too.'

‘Whoa, that's a mansion and a half,' exclaimed Sep Sykes. He didn't know it but he was admiring Pelham Park, which sat atop a rise well back from the road and down a tree-lined driveway.

‘This is it,' Mr Plumpton called as the bus came to a halt. He was waiting for the traffic to pass so he could turn right.

Suddenly the police car's siren blared.

‘Hey Mr Plumpton, you'd better pull over,' Rufus Pemberley shouted. ‘Looks like you're in trouble.'

The children laughed.

The teacher ignored the lad's taunts.

‘What's going on, Josiah?' Miss Reedy craned her neck to see the car behind them.

‘I don't know. I haven't done anything wrong.'

Mr Lipp was twitching in his seat. ‘Well, you'd better pull over. I don't like this at all.'

‘I can't stop here. This road's too dangerous. I'll just pull into the driveway.' Josiah saw a gap in the traffic and planted his foot on the accelerator much harder than he'd meant to. The bus wheels spun and the vehicle lurched forward, jolting the children from side to side.

‘Are you gonna outrun him, sir?' Figgy yelled. Several of the boys roared with laughter.

As the bus flew through the gates the police car sped past and skidded to a halt in front of it.

Mr Plumpton stomped on the brake and his
passengers were thrown forward. Fortunately they were held in by their seatbelts.

‘Steady on there, Plumpy! You'll kill us all!' Mr Lipp exploded as his head stopped just short of hitting the metal bar in front of him.

A tall thin woman wearing navy trousers and a white shirt stepped out of the police car. She rapped sharply on the driver's window and demanded that Mr Plumpton open the door.

‘What did you do, sir?' Rufus Pemberley called. The children leapt up from their seats to see what was happening.

‘Sit down, everyone,' Miss Reedy barked from the front of the vehicle. ‘Don't move a muscle – or else.'

The children reluctantly returned to their seats.

Mr Plumpton pulled the lever and the bus door opened with a whoosh.

The woman held up a shiny silver badge as she walked up the stairs and onto the bus.

‘Can you see what's going on?' Alice-Miranda asked as Millie craned her neck to try to get a better look at the officer.

‘I'm DS Freeman. You, you and you.' She pointed at the three teachers. ‘Off the bus, please.'

For the first time on the journey, you could have heard a pin drop.

‘I beg your pardon.' Mr Lipp stood up. ‘What on earth's going on? We could have been killed the way you pulled in front of us like a maniac.'

DS Freeman pursed her lips. ‘You look fine to me.'

‘Well, what has Plumpton done wrong?' Mr Lipp demanded. Tiny beads of perspiration sprang up along his moustache like dewdrops on a spring lawn.

‘Is this your vehicle?' the policewoman asked Mr Plumpton.

‘No,' he replied.

‘That's all I needed to know. I am arresting you for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.'

Mr Plumpton gasped. ‘Stolen?'

‘Yes, you heard me.'

‘Stolen!' Rufus blurted. ‘Cool!'

‘Yeah, and they kidnapped us too,' Figgy yelled, waving his hands in the air. ‘And they're holding us against our will. We're just a bunch of innocent kids. Please help us.'

‘Stop it, Figworth,' Miss Reedy barked.

DS Freeman looked up at the children. It was as if she hadn't registered their presence at all until that
moment. ‘What are they doing here?' she asked, a look of uncertainty creeping across her face.

‘There must be a mistake, detective sergeant,' Mr Plumpton said softly. ‘You see, we're on a school trip. I hired the bus this morning.'

‘I can assure you I've checked, and you are driving stolen property,' the woman said firmly. ‘Would you step outside, please?'

Mr Plumpton and Miss Reedy hopped off the bus, followed by Mr Lipp.

The officer took one last look at the children.

Alice-Miranda shuffled past Millie and scurried towards the front of the bus. ‘Excuse me,' she said as the woman was about to depart. ‘My name is Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones and I'm very pleased to meet you. Mr Lipp was telling you the truth. We are on a school trip. In fact, we're on a school trip because Queen Georgiana arranged it for us. George was just joking about us being kidnapped. He's like that, always playing tricks.' She glanced around at the boy, who had a smirk on his face. Some of the other children were looking daggers at the lad.

DS Freeman gulped. ‘Queen Georgiana, you say?'

Alice-Miranda nodded.

The detective sergeant couldn't imagine why the Queen would send children to camp in a stolen vehicle. ‘Stay right there.' She hopped off the bus and joined the teachers outside. She had a bad feeling about this.

Alice-Miranda followed her to the door.

The children on the right side of the bus rushed into the aisle, eager to see what was happening.

Mr Lipp's arms were flying wildly in the air, just as they did when he was conducting, and Miss Reedy's face was set in a scowl. Mr Plumpton cupped his hands to his cherry-red cheeks. Detective Sergeant Freeman wore a heavy frown.

‘I wonder what they're saying,' said Jacinta.

‘Look!' Millie gasped.

The detective sergeant produced a shiny pair of handcuffs and held them up at Mr Plumpton.

Figgy wrestled with one of the bus windows and slid it open so the children could hear what was going on.

‘This is an outrage!' Mr Lipp was sputtering and spluttering. ‘You can't be serious about arresting Mr Plumpton. I demand to speak to your superior.'

‘Plumpy's being arrested!' Figgy turned to the children and called out in horror. The boy barged
his way to the front of the bus and leapt off. ‘No, no! I didn't mean it. We're not kidnapped. It was just a joke!'

‘Get back on that bus,' the detective sergeant fumed.

‘But I … I just said that to be funny,' Figgy pleaded.

She glowered at the boy. ‘Well, you're not.'

‘Look, this is ridiculous,' said Miss Reedy. The teacher was shaking. ‘Call the hire company.'

DS Freeman glanced back at the bus and the children sitting with their mouths open like a bowl of gasping goldfish. ‘All right, stay there.' She glared at the three teachers and the boy with his mop of wild hair.

Back in the police car, Fenella Freeman radioed through to the station.

‘Wilson, where are you?' she barked into the handpiece.

There was a crackle and an explosion of static.

‘Yes, DS,' came the reply.

‘Where have you been? Oh, never mind. I need you to look up a registration for me.' She spat out
the sequence of letters and numbers. ‘Check the status of that vehicle, will you?'

‘It's a white minibus, listed as stolen from Downsfordvale,' Constable Wilson replied.

‘Good, thanks, that's all I needed to know. I've just located it.' Fenella smiled smugly to herself. She'd show that lot.

She was just about to hop out of the car when the radio burst back to life.

‘Ah, DS Freeman?' It was Wilson again.

She rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, what is it? I haven't got all day.'

Wilson cleared his throat. ‘That bus was found and returned to its owners three days ago.'

‘What? How?' She could feel her face going red. ‘Downsfordvale Station has been understaffed and so they sent some paperwork over for Barker and me and I just saw it on top of the pile,' Wilson admitted.

‘And you haven't done it? What on God's earth have you been doing for the past three days? It's not as if we've been overrun. Now I have to go and tell them it was all just a stupid mistake – and thanks to you, I'll be doing it in front of a bus load of kids on
their way to camp. I won't half be a laughing stock!' Fenella exploded.

It was just as well she couldn't see Wilson. Back in the station, he mimicked her perfectly, throwing his hands around and stomping his feet.

‘Don't forget my coffee,' he said cheerily. Then again, he thought, judging by how cross Freeman sounded, she'd probably put poison in it.