Girl Wonder's Winter Adventures (4 page)

Mum got out of the car and walked up the garden path. We dawdled behind her.
I walked up the garden path last. I think I’d rather go to the dentist than see my cousin Jayne.

“Hello, everyone.” Aunt Joanne opened the door before Mum even rang the door bell.

“My goodness, Maxine, haven’t you grown!” Auntie bent down and kissed me on the cheek. She always says that. She always does that. And I hate it!

Yuk! In fact, double yuk!

“Hello, Maxine. Hi, Ed and Tony,” Drippy Jayne said to us. “Come and see my new toboggan.”

I looked at the twins. They looked at me. It hadn’t taken her long to show off this time. It must have been all of about five seconds.

“What’s a toboggan?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah, what’s that?” Edward added.

“It’s like a sledge that I can lie on or sit
on. Then I can slide over the snow,” Jayne said with her nose in the air. “I can go really fast. It’s a really good toboggan.”

“Go on, you three,” Mum said. “Go into the garden and have a look at Jayne’s toboggan.”

We dragged our feet and walked slowly as we followed Jayne out into the garden. I did want to see the toboggan but I didn’t want to see Jayne show off.

“Isn’t it terrific?” Jayne said, dusting some snow off it.

I must admit it did look good, and Jayne’s garden was just perfect for tobogganing. It was huge and ever so slightly hilly, so that there was enough of a slope for the toboggan to whizz along but not too much of a mountain for the toboggan to get out of control. I was longing to try it out but I knew it was no use asking Jayne. She liked to show us all her new things
but she never let us touch any of them.

“Watch me,” Jayne ordered, going to the far end of her enormous garden. As we watched, she lay down on her toboggan and kicked off with her feet.

WH-III-SH!

Jayne came skiing down the slope. She dug her toes into the snow to stop the toboggan just before it got to us.

“Watch me again,” she commanded, running back up the garden.

“Maxine, can’t we have a go?” Anthony whispered to me.

“Maxine, I want to go on the toboggan,” Edward said.

“It’s up to Jayne, not me.” I shrugged.

“Huh! Then we might as well go indoors,” Anthony sighed.

“Right this second!” Edward agreed.

“Don’t give up yet. We’re each going to have a go on Jayne’s toboggan before leaving for home,” I said.

“Do you have a plan?” asked Edward.

“Not yet, but maybe this is a job for Girl Wonder . . .”

“And the Terrific Twins,” my brothers said without much enthusiasm, and we spun around slowly so that we didn’t skate and glide and slip and slide over the snow.

“Here I come!” shouted Jayne from the other end of the garden.

SHH-WHISH!

Jayne whooshed over the snow, stopping just in front of us again.

“Watch me again,” she demanded. She ran back up the garden, dragging her toboggan behind her.

“Pretend you’re not really interested in what she’s doing,” I whispered to the Terrific Twins as Jayne tobogganed towards us.

“Come on, you two, let’s make a snowman,” I said out loud.

We moved out of Jayne’s way and knelt down. Then we started piling up snow to make the snowman’s body.

“Don’t you want to watch me?” Jayne asked, puzzled.

“Why should we?” I replied. “We’re building a snowman.”

“A big snowman,” said Anthony.

“A huge snowman,” said Edward.

“The best snowman in the world,” I told Jayne.

And we piled up more snow. Jayne stood watching us for a while, her toboggan behind her.

“Why don’t you want to watch me?” Jayne asked, even more puzzled.

“We did watch you. Now we’re doing something else,” I replied.

“Something far more exciting,” added Anthony.

“Something much, much more interesting,” said Edward.

Then Cousin Jayne, the pain, did something really nasty. She walked over to us and kicked our snowman’s body over. The Terrific Twins and I jumped to our feet.

“That was really spiteful,” yelled Anthony.

“That was really nasty,” shouted Edward.

“Is it any wonder we don’t want to play with you?” I told Jayne. I was furious. “Whenever we see you all you do is show off and boast about what you’ve got and you never share anything. You’re selfish and we hate coming to your house. We mega-hate it.”

The Terrific Twins and I glared at her. Jayne glared back but her bottom lip was trembling. Then her face scrunched up and she burst into tears.

“Would anyone like a hot drink?” Uncle Stan asked from the kitchen doorway before he saw Jayne crying. “Maxine, Anthony, Edward, what have you been doing to Jayne?”

Uncle Stan looked really annoyed with us.

On either side of him stood Aunt Joanne and our mum, looking really stern.

“We didn’t do anything, Mum . . .” I said quickly.

“No, we didn’t,” said Anthony.

“Not a thing,” said Edward.

“Jayne dear, did they hurt you?” Aunt Joanne came out into the garden in her slippers and hugged Jayne.

“Maxine, why is Jayne crying?” Mum asked quietly.

I looked at the twins, they looked at me. None of us said a word.

“It . . . it wasn’t them,” Jayne whispered
to her mum. “I . . . I fell off my toboggan.”

I stared at her. She was taking the blame.

“Are you hurt, my precious?” Aunt Joanne asked Jayne.

“No, I’m fine,” Jayne sniffed before wiping her eyes. “Maxine and Anthony and Edward are going to use my toboggan and I’m going to help them build a snowman.”

“Maxine, are you all OK?” Mum asked.

“Yes, Mum,” the twins and I said.

“Well, don’t stay out too long,” Mum said.

“We won’t,” we replied.

“Come on, Joanne, before you catch a cold,” Mum said to our aunt.

The grown-ups walked back into the kitchen and shut the kitchen door behind them. My brothers and I looked at Jayne.

“Did you mean it about letting us use your toboggan?” I asked suspiciously.

“Only if you let me help you with your snowman,” Jayne replied.

“It’s a deal,” I said. “And we’re sorry for all the mean things we said.”

The twins and I had great fun toboganning down Jayne’s garden. Each of us kept falling off until Jayne told us how to do it properly. It was just as well that the snow was soft. After that we built a huge snowman. Jayne got us a carrot to use as the nose and two satsumas to use as the eyes and she wasn’t a pain at all. Our snowman was the best in the world. We had the most fun we’d ever had at Jayne’s house.

We didn’t mean to make her cry but at least our plan worked – sort of. We did all get to use Jayne’s toboggan.

“Mum, everyone in my class is doing something to collect money for charity,” I said when I came home from school. “I thought that maybe the twins and I could go carol singing and we could collect money that way. Will you take us? Please,
please?
”

“Carol singing. Hooray!” said Anthony.

“Yippee! Carol singing,” said Edward.

Mum frowned. “Oh, all right. We’ll go tonight – but only tonight.”

“Thanks, Mum,” we said.

“Come on, you two. We’re going to
practise,” I said to my brothers.

We ran upstairs and into Edward’s and Anthony’s bedroom, shutting the door behind us.

“Edward, Anthony, we’re going to collect a lot of money for charity,” I said. “And we’re going to be the most ace-dazzling carol singers ever.”

“We are?” asked Anthony.

“Are we?” asked Edward.

“Yes we are,” I said firmly. “And just to make sure, I think this is a job for Girl Wonder . . .”

“And the Terrific Twins,” said my brothers. And we spun around until we rolled and reeled all over the place.

We practised and practised until we could remember the words of each of the four songs we were going to sing – ‘Silent Night’, ‘Oh Come, All Ye Faithful’, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ and
‘Christmas is Coming’. We couldn’t wait for evening to arrive.

At last it was time to set off. We had my drum and Anthony’s red trumpet. We all went to Miss Ree’s house first.

Anthony played his trumpet – ROOOOMPH! ROOOOMPH! And I banged my drum – DUUUM! DUUUM! – and Edward and I started singing.

“We wish you a merry Christmas . . .”

“Good grief! What is that ghastly racket?” Miss Ree said after pulling open her front door. “Maxine, Anthony, Edward, what are you three doing?”

I turned around to look at Mum. She was at Miss Ree’s gate and looking anywhere except at us.

“We’re carol singing, Miss Ree,” I replied. “If you want to donate something we’re collecting for charity.”

“Will you go away if I give you some money?” Miss Ree asked.

“Yes.” I frowned.

Miss Ree dug into her skirt pocket, gave us a coin and quickly shut the door.

“I don’t think she liked our singing . . .” Anthony said.

“Maybe she didn’t like the song,” said Edward.

“She’s just tone-deaf and doesn’t have any taste,” I decided. “It’s a shame though. We didn’t even get past the first line of ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’.”

“But we’re doing really well,” said Anthony. “We’ve already collected some money for charity.”

“This is fun,” added Edward.

“Let’s try Mr McBain,” I suggested.

Mr McBain is our other next door neighbour. We walked up to his front door.

Anthony blew his trumpet – ROOOOMPH! ROOOOMPH! – I banged my drum – DUUUM! DUUUM! – and we started singing.

“O come, all ye faithful . . .”

Mr McBain opened his door.

“What is that dreadful din?” he said.

“We’re collecting for charity, Mr McBain,” Edward said.

Mr McBain dug into his trouser pockets.

“Here, take that,” he said, handing us five coins. “It’s all I’ve got but take it, please.”

And he shut the door.

“Hhmm!” I said. “He doesn’t appreciate good singing either.”

We went to the next house.

“Silent night, holy night . . .” we sang.

The front door was flung open.

“What a frightful noise,” Mrs Johnson said.

When she saw us she took some coins out of the drawer of the little table in her hall. She didn’t even wait for us to explain that we were collecting for charity!