Girl Wonder and the Terrific Twins
Read Girl Wonder and the Terrific Twins Online
Authors: Malorie Blackman
Contents
The Mission to Rescue the Football
Staying Cool at the Swimming Pool
When Maxine has a plan, you can be sure it involves her twin brothers Anthony and Edward. You can also be sure it involves BIG TROUBLE!
Nine fantastically funny short stories, perfect for building confidence in new readers, whether reading aloud or reading alone.
For Neil and Lizzy, with love as always.
“Mum, can we play Catch in the garden?” I asked.
“Please, please,” said my brother Anthony.
“Please,
please
,” said my other brother Edward.
Mum’s head appeared from beneath the bonnet of her car. She wiped her oily hands on her overalls.
“All right then,” Mum said. “But mind the fence by the tree, it’s a bit loose. And for goodness’ sake, keep the ball away from Miss Ree’s flowers.”
Miss Ree is our moany, old next-door neighbour. She has flowers growing all around her smooth-as-paper lawn. She moans if we even breathe near her flowers. We call her Misery. Miss Ree . . . Misery – get it?
The twins and I ran through the house, grabbed the ball and ran out into the back garden.
It was hot, hot, hot, with not a single cloud in the blue sky. We played Piggy-in-the-Middle and Catch for a while.
“I’m hot,” sighed Anthony.
“I’m tired,” complained Edward.
“Let’s play football instead,” I suggested. “We’ll each be a team and you only score a goal if you hit the trunk of the apple tree.”
“Yeah! Football!” said Anthony, clapping his hands.
“Yippee! Football,” said Edward, jumping up and down.
We all like football.
I scored the first two goals, then Edward tripped me up and Anthony got the ball.
“Cheats! Cheats!” I shouted, chasing after them.
Anthony kicked the ball as hard as he could.
“Yah! You missed,” I shouted.
Anthony didn’t miss the tree trunk by centimetres. He missed it by kilometres. The ball sailed over the fence into Miss Ree’s garden and landed with a SPLOP! right in her flowerbed.
Anthony, Edward and I ran to the fence and looked over.
Oh dear!
If we asked for our ball back, Miss Ree would complain to Mum and then we’d get told off.
So I said, “This is a job for Girl Wonder and . . .”
“The Terrific Twins – hooray!” the twins shouted.
We all spun around until we were getting giddy.
“OK, Terrific Twins. I’ve got a plan,” I said. “We’ll climb over the fence and I’ll get the ball whilst you two watch for Misery. Make sure you warn me if she’s coming.”
“OK, Girl Wonder,” said Anthony.
So we all started to clamber over the fence.
CRR . . . RR . . . EAK!
CRR . . . RR . . . UNCH!
The whole fence fell flat – right on to Miss Ree’s flowerbed. And with us on top of it! We were sprawled out and wondering what had happened. Miss Ree’s kitchen door burst open. Then our
kitchen door was flung open.
“My roses! My lupins! My begonias!” Miss Ree wailed.
“My goodness!” Mum said, running out of the kitchen.
“Just look what they’ve done to my flowers,” Miss Ree said to Mum. Mum put her hands on her hips. Her face was like dark grey clouds just before thunder and lightning.
“Maxine, Anthony, Edward, what have you been doing now?” Mum said.
“We just wanted to get our ball, Mum,” I said as we all stood up.
“I’m sorry about your flowers, Miss Ree,” Mum said. “Don’t worry. I’ll fix the fence and we’ll replace all the flowers.”
Then Mum called us into the house.
She told us off in the kitchen. She told us off in the car as we drove to the garden centre. She told us off as we picked out new flowers and rose bushes. She told us off as she fixed the fence. She told us off as we all pulled the scrushed, crushed flowers out of the ground and planted the new ones.
Whilst Mum was resting her mouth for a second, I whispered to Anthony, “There’s our ball. Run and get it and throw it back into our garden.”
Before Mum could say anything, Anthony did just that.
Once we had replanted Miss Ree’s new flowers and rose bushes, Mum called us into the house again.
“Can we take our ball and go to the park?” I asked.
“No you cannot. You three can stay
in
for the rest of the day and stay out of trouble,” Mum said.
So after we’d washed our hands and faces and changed our clothes, the twins and I sat on the carpet in the living room playing Super Mario.
“Your plan was stupid,” Anthony grumbled.
“Yeah! Silly-stupid,” said Edward.
“But it worked, didn’t it?” I said. “We
did
get our ball back!”
It was bright, burning hot.
So hot the branches on our apple tree drooped.
So hot Miss Ree’s flowers hung their heads.
So hot I was sure I was going to melt at any second.
“What shall we do today?” I muttered.
“It’s too hot to do anything,” Anthony murmured.
“Yeah! Too hot!” Edward mumbled.
Mum fanned herself with the newspaper. “We all need to do something to
cool down. I know! Let’s go swimming at the open air pool.”
“Swimming! Yeah!” I said.
“Swimming! Hooray!” Anthony shouted.
“Swimming! Yippee!” Edward clapped his hands.
So we got our swimming costumes and some towels and Mum drove us to the swimming pool. When we’d all changed into our swimming costumes, Mum led us down to the pool.
“I want all three of you to stay near me,” Mum said. “And you’re not to go anywhere near the deep end.”
We reached the pool. It was jam-packed solid full of people. And all around the edge of the pool were mums and dads.
“Oh dear! I should have realized it would be this crowded. Everyone’s had the same idea as us,” Mum sighed.
We got into the pool at the shallow end. We couldn’t even walk from one side of the pool to the other without bumping into someone, let alone swim. But at least we were wet and cool.
“It’s so hot . . .”
“I wish I was in there. I’m so uncomfortable . . .”
I looked up at the man and woman who had just spoken. The woman wiped the perspiration off her forehead whilst the man used his hand to fan himself. Everyone around the pool seemed really uncomfortable. They were all looking longingly at the water.
“Look at those people,” I whispered to Anthony and Edward. “We should do something to cool them down.”
“What?” Anthony asked.
“Yeah! What?” Edward repeated.
So I said, “I think this is a job for
Girl Wonder and . . .”
“The Terrific Twins!” Anthony and Edward splashed up and down in the water. Then we spun around as fast as we could in the water – which wasn’t fast at all so we soon gave up on that.