Clementine Rose and the Pet Day Disaster 2 (2 page)

‘Good morning, Clementine. Are you all ready for the big day?’ he asked, his grey eyes twinkling.

‘Oh yes, Uncle Digby,’ said Clementine, nodding. ‘I’ve been ready forever.’

Digby and Clarissa smiled at one another. That was certainly true.

‘Well, eat up your toast and drink your juice. You’ll need lots of energy. I’ve packed your morning tea and I think –’ her mother opened the lid of the red lunchbox which had Clementine’s name written neatly on the lid – ‘Uncle Digby has added a treat.’ She snapped the lid closed again.

The old man winked at Clementine. She tried to wink back but she just double blinked instead.

‘I’ve got the camera ready,’ said Digby. He walked over to the sideboard and picked up a small black bag.

‘Goody!’ said Clementine. She finished the last bite of her toast and jumped down from the chair. ‘I’ll just get Lavender ready. She had a sleep-in.’

‘Clemmie, I don’t know if we can take her with us today,’ said her mother. ‘I’m not sure how the school feels about pets.’

‘But I told her she could come. Please,’ Clementine begged her mother.

Pharaoh let out a loud meow as he stood up in his basket and arched his back.

‘No, Pharaoh, you are definitely not coming. Can you imagine what would happen if we took you to town and you got away?’ Digby shook his head.

‘We don’t want to make Aunt Violet cross again, that’s for sure,’ Clementine replied. ‘But Lavender will be so sad if she has to stay home. She’s been looking forward to school for as long as I have.’

‘Well, what about if I take care of Lavender when you and your mother go into school,’ Digby suggested. ‘We can go for a walk around the village and I can pop into the patisserie and see Pierre.’

‘And you can get a great big cream bun for your morning tea!’ Clementine announced.

‘Oh, I haven’t had one of Pierre’s cream buns for ages.’ Digby’s stomach gurgled at the thought of it.

‘All right, now run along, Clemmie, and brush your teeth. We’ll have to leave soon,’ her mother instructed.

Clementine skipped up the back stairs to her room on the third floor, singing to herself on the way, ‘I get to go to school today, I can’t wait, hip hip hooray . . .’

‘Look, Clementine, there’s Sophie and Jules,’ Lady Clarissa said as Digby Pertwhistle’s ancient Mini Minor trundled to a halt outside the school gates. Clementine loved the way the ironwork on the gates was woven together with fancy letters on either side, the same as on her blazer pocket.

Ellery Prep was in the centre of Highton Mill, a short drive from her home in Penberthy Floss. The limestone school buildings nestled behind a neatly trimmed hedge, and several chimney pots poked up into the sky from the slate rooftops. Behind the classrooms and the office there was a large field where the children played at break times. The far end of the ground was bordered by an ancient stone cottage with a rambling garden of creepers and flowers that did their best to invade the school grounds.

‘And there’s Poppy and Jasper and Lily too!’ Clementine leaned forward, craning her neck to see who else was among the group arriving at the gate.

‘So, young lady, what do you think you’re going to learn today?’ Digby asked.

‘Everything!’ she exclaimed.

‘Clemmie, I don’t know if you’ll learn
everything
on the first day,’ Lady Clarissa said. ‘You might have to be a little bit patient.’

‘But I don’t like being patient.’ Clementine frowned and shook her head. Lavender grunted as if to agree.

‘Oh dear, even the pig knows that’s true,’ Digby laughed.

‘Come on, we’d better get you inside,’ said Lady Clarissa as she got out of the car. Clementine hopped out and lifted Lavender off the seat and put her on the ground. Today the little pig was in her best red collar and matching lead.

Digby retrieved Clemmie’s enormous backpack from the boot. ‘Ready?’ he asked.

‘Yes. Mummy, can you take Lavender’s lead for a minute?’

Digby settled the bag onto Clementine’s shoulders. ‘You still look like a tortoise, my dear,’ he said with a smile, ‘but at least now you’re part of a family of tortoises.’ He gestured towards the growing crowd of new students, whose gigantic bags were almost tipping them backwards.

‘Clementine!’ Poppy caught sight of her friend and raced towards her. Sophie saw her and rushed over too.

The three girls linked arms and giggled.

Lady Clarissa said hello to Poppy and Sophie and walked over to where their mothers, Lily and Odette, were standing together talking. Sophie’s brother Jules and Poppy’s brother Jasper had disappeared inside the school grounds. They were older and knew exactly what to do.

Clementine and her friends were chatting about this and that when Clemmie noticed a boy with wild brown curls. He was standing beside a stout woman with the same brown curls and he was staring at Clementine and frowning.

She waved at him but he didn’t wave back. He just kept on staring.

‘Who’s that boy over there?’ Clementine asked her friends.

‘Where?’ they replied.

‘Over there next to the lady with the curly hair. He keeps looking at me.’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before,’ Sophie replied.

Poppy shrugged.

It was almost a quarter past nine. All the older students had disappeared into their classrooms and it was time for the new students to meet with Miss Critchley, the head teacher.

Clementine Rose thought that Miss Critchley, a pretty young woman with long auburn curls, was the most beautiful lady she’d ever seen. On the day Clemmie had gone for her interview, Miss Critchley had been wearing a pale pink cardigan with silk roses embroidered around the collar and a pale pink dress with a matching pair of ballet flats. Clementine had decided to ask Mrs Mogg if she could make her a dress just like it.

‘Clementine, we have to go in,’ her mother called. Lily and Odette beckoned for Poppy and Sophie to join them too.

Clementine nodded at her mother. ‘I’ll just say goodbye to Uncle Digby and Lavender.’ She raced away to where Digby Pertwhistle was standing a little further along the footpath. Lavender had been chomping on a clump of sweet clover growing beside the fence.

‘Have a wonderful day, my dear,’ said Digby. He leaned down and Clementine wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

‘Thank you, Uncle Digby,’ she said, smiling excitedly. Then Clemmie bent down and gave Lavender a kiss on the top of her bristly head. ‘Be a good girl for Uncle Digby and I will see you after school.’

Lavender grunted.

‘No, you can’t come with me, Lavender. Mummy says there’s a rule that pigs aren’t allowed to go to school.’ Clementine sighed. ‘I know, it’s silly, but I shouldn’t break the rules on my first day.’ Clemmie then leaned down and whispered into Lavender’s ear. ‘One day, I’ll find a way for you to come.’

‘Run along, Clemmie, you don’t want to be late. I think I’ll go and pay Pierre that visit.’ Digby winked at the girl.

Clementine double blinked back at him. She hadn’t noticed that the boy with curly hair was still staring at her.

As Digby strolled off, the boy approached Clementine. ‘Your dad’s a hundred,’ he said.

Clementine looked at him and frowned. ‘My dad? Oh, you mean Uncle Digby. He’s not my dad,’ she replied. ‘And he’s not a hundred. He’s seventy-one.’

‘Where’s your dad, then?’ the boy asked.

‘He’s a mystery,’ Clementine replied.

‘He’s a mystery?’ the boy repeated. ‘That’s stupid. How can a dad be a mystery?’

‘I don’t know exactly, but mine is,’ Clementine replied. She’d never been asked about her father before. Everyone in Penberthy Floss knew that she had arrived at Lady Clarissa’s house in the back of Pierre Rousseau’s van, in a basket of dinner rolls. It had been an unusual way to join a family, but the adoption papers had all been in order and Clementine had definitely gone to the right home.

Clementine wanted to tell the boy that he was stupid too but then she remembered what her mother and Uncle Digby were always telling her: ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.’

She kept quiet and rushed off to her mother, except that her tongue poked out at him at the last second. She didn’t really mean to. It just sort of happened.

‘Well, excuse me, young lady!’ The boy’s curly-haired mother had reappeared just in time to spot Clemmie’s lizard tongue. ‘You’re a rude little creature, aren’t you?’

Clementine felt like a thousand butterflies were having a party in her tummy. And they hadn’t been invited.

The children and their parents were ushered into the small school hall, which also doubled as the gymnasium. Clementine sat next to her mother with Sophie on the other side and Poppy along further. There were twenty children starting in the kindergarten class. Miss Critchley approached the microphone and welcomed the students and their parents.

Clementine was busy studying the young woman’s outfit. Today she had on a dark blue blouse with a bow at the front and a pair of grey pants. Her hair was pulled back softly from her face. Clementine still thought she was the most beautiful lady she’d ever seen.

‘Now, I know that some of you might be sitting there with a few butterflies in your tummy,’ said Miss Critchley with a kind smile at the group. ‘But let me assure you, that’s absolutely normal. I imagine you’re a little bit nervous and a little bit excited all in one.’

Clementine nodded. So did lots of the other children. Miss Critchley definitely knew a lot about kindergartners, Clementine thought to herself.

‘I just need to go through some of the school procedures so that we all know what we’re doing and then I will introduce you to your class teacher.’

Clementine wondered if she’d misheard her. Wasn’t Miss Critchley going to be their teacher? She didn’t want to have anyone else.

‘In the afternoon, all of the students will wait for their parents at the school gate under the supervision of a teacher, unless of course you live here in the village. If so, you can walk home and perhaps in the future you might like to ride your bike to and from school . . .’

Clementine wasn’t listening. She was wondering who was going to be their teacher. The butterflies in her tummy now seemed to be having a boxing match. She didn’t like this one bit.

‘We encourage parents to come along and help with reading and other activities in the classroom . . .’

Clementine’s eyes darted around the room, looking for the person who could be their teacher. There was a man in the front row. He had greasy hair and the tail of a dragon tattoo poking out from his shirt sleeve. But then she saw a little girl sitting beside him and guessed he was one of the fathers. There was a lady with blonde hair at the far end. Perhaps it was her.

‘And now I’d like to introduce Mrs Ethel Bottomley, who’ll be teaching the kindergarten class this year. Mrs Bottomley has many years of experience and is an excellent educator. I know she’s looking forward to working with you all.’

Clementine’s stomach lurched as she looked up and saw a short woman wearing a drab brown check jacket and matching skirt heading for the microphone. Mrs Bottomley’s low-heeled brown shoes clacked on the timber floor and were just about the ugliest things Clementine had ever seen. A helmet of brown curls perched on top of her head and Clementine thought they reminded her of someone else.