Davina Dupree Predicts a Plot (3 page)

Right, I’m going to take Arabella to the school farm to calm her down. She always likes spending time with our chickens, Lemony and Superchick and anyway, it’s their feeding time. She’s just thrown her pillows on the floor and is sitting crossed legged on her bed, repeating,‘Why does it have to be Clarice? Why oh why oh why?’

I can’t believe it, Diary, there’s been a crime!

Yesterday afternoon me and Arabella were sitting on a bale of straw in the school farm, Lemony was on my knee and Superchick was on her shoulder. We’d just cleaned out their run and Arabella was looking a lot happier.

‘It’s not
that
bad is it, Clarice playing opposite me? I mean, at least I got a main part, Alfie and Stephania must have thought my acting was sort of OK.’ Phew, I thought. Her mood is picking up.

‘Sort of OK?’ I said. ‘For goodness sake, Arabella, you were AMAZING, like a proper professional actress. You actually became someone else before my very eyes, it was magic.’ She grinned at me. ‘And yes, you’re right,’ I went on. ‘You
should
concentrate on what a great acting role you’ve been given, and ignore Clarice if she acts like a rude idiot towards you. But to be honest, her acting wasn’t bad either. Maybe you’ll even enjoy working together.’

‘Hmph.’ Was all Arabella said in reply.

I lifted Lemony off my knee and was putting her on the floor for a bit of a run around, when the barn door crashed open and Melody ran in.

‘Have you heard?’ She panted.

‘Heard what?’ I said.

‘There’s been a theft. Apparently Moira and Lynne’s dorm was ransacked yesterday during the auditions, and some of the treasure their father brought them back from his Rainforest expedition has been stolen.’ Melody stopped for breath. ‘They’re both really upset about it.’

‘What?’ Me and Arabella said together.

‘It’s true,’ Melody panted. ‘I just heard Mrs Pumpernickle telling a sixth former all about it.’

‘Well I’m not surprised Moira and Lynne are upset,’ Arabella said. ‘Their father brought them back bracelets set with rare Amazonian stones. Who on
earth
could have done such a thing?’

‘I don’t know,’ Melody said, sitting down on another straw bale. ‘But Mrs Pumpernickle is FURIOUS, and is off to have a meeting with Mrs Fairchild about it now. Moira said that their room had been completely turned over and messed up, drawers and clothes on the floor, shampoo squirted in the bath, make up all over the mirror, empty jewellery box on the floor. It was obviously someone really horrible doing it, who wanted to badly upset them.’

‘Yes,’ I said, flicking a long brown strand out of my face. ‘What an utterly beastly thing to do. The twins are so nice, I can’t imagine them having any enemies at all. Oh, I can’t
bear
to think of anyone we know doing such a terrible thing. Even Cleo and Clarice wouldn’t stoop that low, would they?’

‘I wouldn’t think so,’ Melody said, rubbing her forehead. ‘Actually, since they found out they’ve been going round putting all sorts of theories forward about who they think the thief is.’

‘Hmm,’ I said. ‘I can just imagine, and knowing those two I bet they’re not very polite theories either.’

Oh diary, a crook is in our midst. But WHO could it be? Unsettling
times.com
.

Oh dear, Diary.

I have to tell you that there was a bit of drama at dinner last night. Me, Arabella, Lottie and Melody were all sitting round a table eating duck and kiwi fruit pate and crackers, when who should turn up next to our table but the lovely Cleo and Clarice. Cleo cleared her throat loudly, making sure lots of people looked up to see what was going on, before saying at the top of her voice,

‘Clarice and I know who the thief is. We know who stole the twins’ jewellery. We’ve worked it out, and we’re one hundred percent sure we’re right.’

She paused for dramatic effect. By now, there was quiet across the dining hall. Everyone in the school had heard about the theft and were very shocked, because things like that just didn’t happen to pupils here, or so we’d thought.

‘Yes,’ Clarice went on. ‘The thief MUST be the poor girl, Lottie Greenwood. Think about it, there were never any thefts before she arrived and she’s the only poor girl at the school who can’t afford to buy jewellery of her own. She must have become jealous, seeing all of our riches and wealth, and decided to steal some bracelets for herself. She wasn’t even in the Grand Hall during the auditions yesterday, I remember. She asked Melody to put her name down on the ‘stage hand’ list.’ Clarice stepped back, staring at Lottie, arms folded.

Lottie’s face crumpled and she gave a big sob.

‘I asked Melody to put my name down because I was too shy to come into the Grand Hall and speak to two famous celebrities. I was in my dorm the whole time, writing a letter to my mum about how I was finally starting to enjoy it here.’ Another big sob. ‘Oh I would never steal from anyone. Never!’ And with that she jumped up and ran out of the dining hall.

‘You ABSOLUTE PIGS!’ Arabella jumped out of her chair and ran towards the two snobs with her fists whirring like windmills in front of her. I also jumped up and caught my friend in my arms just as she was about to whack Clarice.

‘Calm down,’ I whispered. ‘They’re not worth getting into trouble for.’

‘What’s all this fuss?’ Mrs Pumpernickle came bustling towards us through the throng. Most girls in the room had climbed on to their chairs to get a better view, delicious dinners forgotten. Even little Polly was standing on her chair at the back of the room.

‘How dare you accuse Lottie, just because she’s a scholarship girl,’ Arabella said, trembling with rage. ‘You and your snobbish ways disgust me.’

‘It was an unfair, unkind thing to do,’ I agreed, looking from Cleo to Clarice while holding Arabella tightly in case she tried another attack. ‘Poor Lottie, just because she’s here on a scholarship it doesn’t mean she’s a thief, or is jealous of our things.’

‘Cleo, Clarice? What have you done?’ Mrs Pumpernickle demanded, now standing next to me, slightly out of breath. She looked from Arabella to the two blonde haired girls and back again.

‘Oh, just telling a few home truths,’ Cleo simpered, before spinning round in her high heeled shoes and strutting off, followed by Clarice. Mrs Pumpernickle looked around at everyone, eyes narrowed, clearly confused and suspicious. No one wanted to tell her about the horrible accusations so we all kept quiet.

‘Right. The pantomime is
over
,’ she said after a few moments, shaking her head. ‘I hope whatever happened is now finished and forgotten. Sit down, act like ladies and get on with your dinners. Honestly, sometimes you’d think we were in a zoo not a boarding school, the way you lot carry on.’

Poor Lottie, being shamed in public like that. We couldn’t find her ANYWHERE after dinner, I hope she’s OK. I don’t believe for one minute that she’s the thief, but what if Cleo and Clarice have sowed a seed of doubt in people’s minds with their stupid speech? That would be
too
awful. If you ask me, Erica is much more of a likely candidate, she just doesn’t seem to like anyone or join in with anything.

Arabella and I had a long chat about it when we got back to our dorm. Arabella was still upset about seeing Lottie so UNFAIRLY treated, and to be honest so was I. She’s new and such a sweet little thing, it was just so
mean.com
. We both VOWED to find the real culprit and to clear Lottie’s name. She doesn’t seem to have enough confidence to do that by herself, and it would be AWFUL if she decided to leave Egmont because of those two bullies. So we’ll have to do some serious detecting work and sniff out the real crook. This might be difficult in between rehearsals but we’ll give it our best shot.

I’m going to sleep now, tomorrow’s going to be busy as Alfie and Stephania are going to talk us through the whole play. Ooh, I hope they don’t argue like Mrs Fairchild said they used to…

Anyway, night night, Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

To be suspicious or not to be, Diary, that is the question.

Yesterday was very interesting indeed. In the morning, Arabella and I went along to the Grand Hall two minutes after nine o’clock, and found it full of all the first years from Sapphire, Emerald and Ruby classes. Alfie was pacing up and down the stage.

‘You’re late,’ he shouted as we came in. ‘Sit down.’ Honestly, how impatient. It’s not
my
fault my electric tooth brush fell off the bathroom shelf and splattered water on my top so that I had to change it at the last minute, is it?

We went down to the third row from the front and found places near Melody and the twins. I saw Lottie sitting next to Erica at the back, looking very pale. Just looking at her sad face made me RE-VOW to myself that I would clear her name, if I could. Erica was chewing gum, blowing big bubbles that splattered all over her face with a SNAP.

‘Good morning first years,’ Stephania stepped out on to the stage, looking all glowy and fresh. Today her hair was twirled into two buns that looked like twirly pastries on the sides of her head and she was wearing a soft pink tunic over grey leggings. ‘Congratulations to you all for auditioning and for being given your parts. There is a wealth of talent amongst you, and our job is to draw it all together for a mind blowing performance of William Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Everyone’s role is important, the actresses
and
the stagehands, who’ll also be designing the scenery. We must work together as a team to make this play a success.

Now I have one important announcement to make before we get started. Unfortunately Mrs De Nero slipped on a wet patch of moss last night as she and the music teacher, Mr Violette, walked from the minibus to the main school in the rain. The hospital phoned Mrs Fairchild this morning to confirm that Mrs De Nero’s leg is badly broken, so she will be unable to help with the school play from now on. We’ll all have to work extra hard to make her proud.’

There were exclamations around the hall, everyone liked Mrs De Nero and her floaty butterfly ways.

‘Enough of the jibber jabber,’ Alfie strutted on to the stage. He came up to Stephania’s elbow. ‘Let’s get started.’ Stephania shot him a dirty look.

‘Who can tell me anything about “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”?’ He growled. Melody’s hand shot up.

‘I’ve been reading about it on the internet,’ she said eagerly. ‘It’s a comedy and it’s set in Greece. Basically, it’s about falling in love. There are four young people and a group of actors, as well as some woodland fairies and a duchess and duke. As the character Lysander says, “The course of true love never did run smooth”, and they have all sorts of adventures and complications and end up looking rather silly.’

‘Wow you really have done your homework,’ Stephania said, looking impressed.

‘Well that’s a short summary,’ Alfie said, not looking pleased. ‘You haven’t really gone into any detail about the character’s motivations. I can-’

‘Yes you can tell us all about it Mr Clever Cloggs,’ Stephania grinned. ‘But I thought Melody did really well. We will need to tell you all about the plot in more detail as we go along, but to get into the spirit of the play, let’s have a read through now.’

‘Are you questioning my decision?’ Alfie said, going purple. ‘Do you know who I am? I’m the famous one here, not you. You only work on a television talent show for goodness sake. I’m Hollywood royalty. Just look at my entourage, then you’ll realise how successful I am.’

Everyone, including Stephania, looked around at Alfie’s ‘people’, who littered the Grand Hall, doing things like warming his socks on a radiator, brewing him a coffee on his portable coffee machine, unrolling his yoga mat and getting his face powder ready in case his nose went shiny.

‘Well I’m a big girl now,’ Stephania said, her grin turning cat-like. ‘I don’t need people to hold my hand and warm my socks for me. I think it’s because I actually grew up, unlike some people around here.’

Whoa, I thought. One of their famous arguments is coming on. Cleo and Clarice had gone to stand next to Alfie defensively, pushed there by Mrs Blinkham who had brought some fairy costumes to sew while she watched the rehearsal. I thought Polly must be running around the top rows of seats unattended. Come to think of it, there was no sign of Erica or Lottie anymore. Oh dear oh dear, they must have slipped out unnoticed. I do hope there are no more robberies…

‘I did not come here to be insulted,’ Alfie shouted. ‘Especially not by an F-list “celebrity” such as yourself. Marcus, I’m feeling stressed, bring my massage oil and let’s get out of here. I can’t work under these conditions.’

‘Coming Alfie,’ a young man with gelled black hair said, grabbing an enormous bottle of oil from a trolley before running after Alfie who was striding across the stage towards the wings. (That’s a theatrical term Melody told me for the sides of the stage.) Within minutes, Alfie and his entourage had left the building, leaving us first years standing there with our mouths open and Stephania looking slightly less together than usual.

‘Well I didn’t expect him to actually
leave
,’ she said, shuffling her script. Mrs Blinkham shot her a poisonous glance. ‘What a baby. Oh well, let’s get on with the rehearsal. Right, the play opens with Hermia refusing to obey her dad’s wish that she marries Demetrius, so come on Arabella and Lynne, you’re up first. Grab a script and let’s get reading. By the way, I want you all to take your scripts away with you today, so you can start learning your lines.’

After that the rehearsal went pretty smoothly, even if the famous Hollywood director that Mrs Fairchild hired especially for the play was absent! Oh well, I couldn’t help thinking Stephania quite enjoyed having a dig at him, but I couldn’t work out why that might be. Honestly, adults are too confusing for
words.com
.

Right I’m off to meet Arabella for lunch and we’re going to discuss thief-finding tactics, we’ve had a few ideas already…