Charm School (7 page)

‘Interesting,’ said Araminta. ‘But not what we want.’ She flicked another switch. ‘And neither is this,’ she said sternly.

Suddenly Pearl looked bony and ill.

‘How did you do that?’ said Bonny. ‘She looks
terrible
. She looks as if she just crawled out of her grave.’

‘That’s lighting her from underneath. It is about the cruellest thing that you can do, and if you try it on me, I shall break off your arm, and beat you to death with the soggy end.’

‘Charming!’

‘Oh, dear!’ Araminta clapped her hands over her mouth and looked shocked with herself.

Bonny just grinned. ‘I still think it’s brilliant,’ she said. ‘Absolutely
brilliant
.’

‘But I’m not singing a monster song,’ Araminta reproved her. ‘I’m being a pretty snowflake, don’t forget.’ She looked a little wistful. ‘Though it would be fun …’

Very fast, one by one, she flicked more switches. And by turns, one by one, Pearl went all grey and ghostly, then burst out again with rosy health, then turned so shadowy and sinister that she sent shivers down Bonny’s spine.

‘That is
amazing
!’ breathed Bonny when Pearl’s skin changed to pale green before her eyes, and Araminta somehow turned the boards under her feet into shimmering silver wave patterns. ‘Show me again!’

‘You’d better not do anything like this to me,’ warned Araminta. ‘What I want is this.’ She pressed down a whole row of switches. Suddenly Pearl looked as luminous as an angel, with her skin all milky and glowing.

‘Now she even
looks
like a pearl!’

‘Yes, but watch this.’ Araminta slid two of the controls up in their runnels till Pearl’s face was transfigured with a soft pink blush.

‘How did you
do
that?’ breathed Bonny, mesmerized.

Araminta showed her again.

‘That’s what
I
want,’ she said. ‘But, don’t forget, around me I must have a swirling snowstorm.’ She dived into one of the boxes on the floor and drew out a plastic disc. ‘No,
that’s
not the right one,’ she said, holding it up to the light. ‘That’s rain spatters on a pond. Where are the snowflakes?’

She rooted again, tugging out what she wanted. ‘Here it is!’ Bonny watched as she dropped it neatly into the slot in one of the lanterns, and flicked a switch to start it revolving.

‘Look!’

Bonny swung round to the stage again. Poor Pearl was standing in a raging blizzard.

‘Whoops! Too fast!’ said Araminta, twisting a knob to settle the blizzard into a gentle swirl of fat white flakes. ‘There! That’s nice.’

‘It’s
wonderful
!’ said Bonny. ‘It’s astonishing! I think you’re the cleverest person I ever saw. You’ve got magic at a touch and the world at your fingertips.’

Araminta’s eyes shone. ‘If you think I’m good, you should see Maura in action. Maura can conjure up thunderstorms and set off avalanches. She can make sheets of lava bubble out of the tops of volcanoes, and thin coils of smoke trail up from chimneypots. She can send tumbleweed bouncing across the prairie and tornadoes spinning through cornfields. She can turn a baking desert into a flood, and a flood back into a desert.’

‘All at the flick of a switch!’

Araminta spun round on her toes. ‘Full moon. New moon.’

‘High tide. Low tide.’

‘Golden dawn. Blue dusk.’

‘Bright day. Black night.’

‘And then there’s the sound! She has
everything
. Roaring winds. Birdsong. Car crashes!’

Hands locked together, they were both
spinning
now, faster and faster. When Bonny narrowed her eyes, all she could see was Araminta in a swirl of glittering white.

‘Brass bands. Heavenly choirs.’

‘Gunshots. Explosions.’

‘Children outside in the playground.’

‘Breaking glass.’

‘A baby whimpering.’

‘Crashing surf.’

‘A piano in a far-off room.’

‘Trains hurtling past.’

‘Church bells. Whistling kettles.’

‘Street riots. Sirens. Crackling fires.’

Dizzy, they slowed to a halt, still holding hands. ‘You must be mad,’ said Bonny. ‘You must be absolutely crazy.’

‘Crazy?’ Araminta looked baffled, and very hurt.

‘Yes.’ Somehow, Bonny couldn’t help saying it. ‘Crazy.’ All of her earlier disappointment had swept back, and worse. All the long journey in the car alone with her mother she’d hoped so much that, in this strange new town, she’d find a friend – someone as sunny and sparkling and wonderful as Araminta. And now she’d found her. But, to keep her by her side, she’d have to spend at least half of her life drivelling on about things like five-strand bracelets and silver-pink nail polish, and whether flower earrings had somehow suddenly become ‘Totally Yesterday’ between last Wednesday and this Friday.

And it was such an awful waste of time. Too high a price to pay. So she tried yet again to explain to Araminta. ‘Listen. It doesn’t make
sense
. Here you are, with the chance to do all these amazing things, and build whole worlds around you. You could sit in that swivel
chair
and flick switches to frighten people out of their wits, or lull them to sleep with soft music. You have the power to do
anything
.’ She spread her hands and stared at Araminta. ‘And what do you choose to do?’

And then, in her exasperation and frustration, she startled herself by answering her own question rudely. ‘You just choose to sit on your bum and hope you look prettier than everyone around you!’

Tears sprang to Araminta’s eyes and glittered like the shawl. ‘That is so horrible! And so
unfair
.’

Bonny felt terrible. But still, instead of saying she was sorry, she muttered sullenly, ‘What’s so unfair about it? Isn’t it true?’

‘No! No, it’s
not
!’ Araminta glared through her tears and cast round for some way of hurting Bonny back. ‘And you’re only saying it because you’re jealous.’

Now this was irritating. ‘
Jealous?
’

‘Of course!’ Araminta curled her lip. ‘You’re only being horrible because you know that never in a million years could someone like you win Mrs Opalene’s beautiful glistering tiara!’

Bonny said scornfully, ‘And what on earth
would
someone like me want with some stupid, blistering tiara?’

The colour rushed to Araminta’s cheeks. ‘Oh, right! Nothing!’ She took a deep breath, and rushed on. ‘Because it certainly wouldn’t look right on someone with your cheap, raggedy-looking haircut, and your dull face, and those jeans that do absolutely
nothing
for your figure!’

‘Because I prefer to spend the hours of my life actually living, and not just waste them fussing about every silly square inch of my body?’ Bonny said loftily.

‘And it shows!’

‘Who’s being horrible now?’ taunted Bonny.

Araminta went scarlet with frustration. ‘You started it!’ she practically screamed. ‘You said that I was
crazy
.’

Bonny knew only too well that this was her last chance to back down. And maybe she would have tried to make up again with Araminta. But, looking away for a moment, she caught sight of Pearl, still patiently standing waiting in the middle of the stage, her face quite blank, and, for all Bonny knew, her mind quite blank as well.

Oh, they were all the same, these silly,
silly
,
empty
girls.

‘And so you are! Quite crazy!’ she ended up shouting back in her impatience. ‘Sitting for hours in that lolly-dolly circle, with daft Mrs Opalene, learning about cucumber slices and oatmeal face packs.’

She’d gone too far, insulting gentle, friendly Mrs Opalene. Instantly, Araminta sprang to her beloved teacher’s defence.

‘It’s better than being—’

She broke off. And Bonny knew she ought to let it go. But something made her push Araminta into saying it, like some tired, miserable toddler who, not allowed to have the toy she wants, breaks the one that she’s holding.

‘What?’ she asked dangerously. ‘Better than being
what
?’

‘Nothing,’ snapped Araminta.

‘Go on! Spit it out!’ jeered Bonny.

And Araminta cracked. ‘All right!’ she shouted. ‘You’re snooty and mean about all of us, and horrid about dear Mrs Opalene. So I
will
say it! It’s better than being a nasty little scruffpot with no looks at all!’

They stared at one another, shocked, their fresh new friendship in tatters.

‘Oh, go away!’ said Bonny, close to tears. ‘Go back to your pretty little circle and learn something really important, like how to moisturize between your toes.’

Forgetting her shawl in her upset, Araminta rushed to the door and wrenched it open.

‘You act so superior,’ she hissed. ‘But if it didn’t mean we’d have to have you back in the class, I’d tell Mrs Opalene right now that you’re nothing but a
fake
. You go round so sure you know how everybody else ought to live. But you ought to try looking in a mirror. It’s obvious you don’t bother to do it very often, but you
should
, because you’ll see something really interesting.’

‘Oh, yes?’ said Bonny icily. ‘And what’s that?’

‘I’ll tell you!’ shouted Araminta. ‘Oh, yes. I’ll tell you! I absolutely guarantee that, staring back at you out of that mirror, you’ll see—’

She darted forward. Down went her pretty painted fingertips to push up the volume and flick on the echo switch before she finished up triumphantly,

‘—the meanest girl I ever saw!’

Round flew the echoes, round and round, bouncing off walls and curdling the air.

‘The meanest girl I ever saw!’

‘Ever saw!’

‘Meanest!’

‘Meanest!’

‘Meanest!’

‘Meanest!’

C
HAPTER
T
HREE

AS SOON AS
the door shut behind Araminta, tears sprang to Bonny’s eyes.

‘That’s it!’ she muttered. ‘I’m not staying here!’

Tugging at the door in her turn, she rushed out in the corridor. Where was her mother? She’d find her if she had to burst into every single room in the building, waking the babies in Practical Parenting and sending pens skidding in Copperplate Handwriting.

Hurrying round the corner, she bumped into Toby and his trolley.

‘I’ve got something for you,’ he said, and
held
out one of her favourite Scoobydoo biscuits.

The stars on the wrapper winked at her temptingly. But Bonny was in no mood to be cheered by treats.

‘I don’t want it,’ she said. ‘I can’t pay for it, anyway.’

‘It’s already paid for,’ he told her, thrusting it in her hand. And it was only then she noticed the rubber band round it, holding in the folded note.

FOR SALE

One whole day in ghastly,

difficult, slave-driving, no-breaks

Bookkeeping (Advanced).

Will swap for one day being charming.

(Roll on 5pm)

Love, Mum

Bonny unwrapped the Scoobydoo and took a massive bite.

‘Thanks,’ she said, when her mouth emptied. ‘I really, really needed that.’

‘I know,’ said Toby. And Bonny noticed he was looking at the note in her hand, not the chocolate bar wrapper. She guessed he’d seen
her
tears. She didn’t care, though. She felt so much better. Good enough to grin at him cheerfully as he gave her a ride on his trolley back to her little room.