Girl Wonder's Winter Adventures (5 page)

When she closed the door we looked around for Mum. She appeared from behind Mr and Mrs Johnson’s car.

“You were hiding, Mum!” I said.

“Er . . . no I wasn’t,” Mum replied. “My shoe slipped off and I just went back for it.”

“I think Mum was hiding,” Anthony whispered to me.

“I know Mum was hiding,” Edward said.

We went to three more houses. At each house we didn’t even finish the first two lines of our carols before we were paid by our neighbours to go away.

“That’s it,” Mum said, her eyes glinting. “I can’t take any more embarrassment. I’ll never be able to look our neighbours in the eye again. We’re all going home – NOW!”

“But Mum, we’re collecting for charity,” we argued.

“No ‘buts’,” Mum said. “As it’s for a good cause I’ll sponsor all three of you when we get home.”

“Sponsored carol singing?” I asked.

“No, a sponsored silence!” Mum replied.

“Our singing isn’t that bad,” mumbled Anthony.

“Yeah, it can’t be that bad,” Edward grumbled.

“It’s WORSE!” Mum replied. “You three
have given me a raging headache!”

We all walked home. I thought we’d been quite good!

“That didn’t work out very well,” Anthony said.

“That didn’t work out very well at all,” agreed Edward sadly.

“But it sort of worked,” I whispered. “We are going to raise some money for charity through our carol singing.”

“Mum’s paying us NOT to sing,” said the twins.

“Exactly!” I replied.

We were bursting to know what Mum had bought us for Christmas but she wouldn’t tell us.

“Did you buy me a space explorer outfit?” I asked. “And did you get the science kit belt that goes with it? I’ve got to have the science kit belt. Then I can test for new plants and animals on other planets.”

“What about my model plane kit? Mum, is that what you bought me? Is it? Is it?” Anthony asked, jumping up and down.

“Did you get me a toy guitar? Please,
please say yes,” said Edward. Mum just smiled and said nothing.

When the twins went out into the garden to throw snowballs at each other, I tugged at Mum’s arm.

“What did you get us for Christmas? I’ll keep it a secret. I won’t tell the twins – honest,” I whispered to Mum.

“If I don’t tell you then you won’t have any secrets inside you bursting to get out,” Mum replied. “I know you, Maxine, you can’t keep a secret to save your life.”

“I can, I can,” I said.

“No you can’t. If I told you, the secret would sit inside your chest like a balloon. And the more you tried to say nothing, the more that balloon would
grow. It would get bigger and Bigger and BIGGER until it EXPLODED from you!”

“Hhmm!” I sulked. I got the feeling Mum wasn’t going to tell me, no matter how much I begged.

I put on my coat and my wellies and stomped out into the garden. CRUNCH! CRUNCH! went the snow under my feet. It was just like walking on scrunched, crunched, crushed, crumbled ginger biscuits.

“Did you find out what we’re getting for Christmas?” asked Anthony.

“Yeah, did you?” Edward said.

“No . . . but I’ve got a plan,” I said. “This is a job for Girl Wonder . . .”

“And the Terrific Twins,” Anthony and Edward shouted. “Hooray!” And we spun around until we fell down, whirling-swirling dizzy.

“It’s a really good plan,” I said. “Tonight when Mum’s asleep, we’ll sneak downstairs and open our presents at just one end. Then we’ll be able to see what Mum bought us without Mum ever finding out about it.”

“If Mum catches us we’ll be in serious trouble.” Anthony frowned.

“Yeah, seriously serious trouble,” agreed Edward.

“Then we won’t wake her up,” I said.

“This had better work, Maxine,” Anthony told me, his arms folded across his chest. “If we get caught then I’m blaming you.”

“Of course it’ll work,” I said, crossing all my fingers and even crossing my toes.

That night I had to fight to stay awake. Mum stayed up watching the telly for ages and ages. My eyes felt so sandy and sleepy that I had to keep pinching myself to stay awake. At last I heard Mum come up the stairs and go to bed. I searched for Mum’s torch under my pillow. (I’d hidden it there when I came to bed.) I switched on the torch and pointed it down at the carpet – I didn’t want to trip over my slippers and wake up Mum. I got up carefully and tip-toed out of my bedroom and into the twins’ bedroom. They were fast asleep in their bunk beds.

“Wake up,” I hissed, giving them a good shake. “Wake up, it’s Girl Wonder . . .”

“And the sleepy Terrific Twins . . .” Anthony said drowsily, before turning over and going back to sleep.

“Come on, you two,” I whispered. “Don’t you want to know what Mum’s bought us for Christmas?”

They moaned and grumbled, grumbled and moaned but at last I managed to get them out of their beds. I led the way downstairs, shining the torch as the three of us crept down the outside of the stairs. We had to creep down the outside because some of the stairs creaked horribly. We tip-toed over to our presents scattered underneath the Christmas tree. The twins were fully awake now.

About time too! I thought.

We knelt down and searched for our presents from Mum. It was exciting.
Anthony found his present first.

“Open it carefully,” I whispered. “We don’t want Mum to know that we had a peek.”

Slowly Anthony peeled back the sticky tape on one side of his present. Carefully he pulled it out from the wrapping paper. It was a book. I shone my torch on it.
Maths for Everyone
it said on the front.

“Yuk!” Anthony wailed. “Where’s my
model plane kit?”

“Shush! Or Mum will catch us,” I whispered.

Edward opened his present next. It was another book.
English for Everyone
.

“Double yuk!” wailed Edward. “Where’s my toy guitar?”

Next I opened my present. It was the same size as Anthony and Edward’s so I didn’t hold out much hope.

Science for Everyone
.

“What happened to my space explorer’s outfit?” I said sadly.

“I wish you’d never woken us up now,” Anthony said to me.

“Yeah, me too,” Edward said.

We all walked slowly up the stairs and the twins went into their bedroom whilst I went back into mine. I was so looking
forward to my space explorer’s suit. A science book wasn’t the same at all.

The next morning, it was CHRISTMAS DAY. It might as well have been a school day! The twins and I didn’t say much as we ate our Christmas breakfast, listening to the hymns on the telly.

“What’s the matter with you three?” Mum smiled. She had a really funny look on her face, as if she was trying her best not to burst out laughing.

“Nothing . . .” Anthony sighed.

“Not a thing . . .” Edward sighed even harder.

“Nothing . . .” I put my head on my hands.

“Aren’t any of you going to open your presents?” Mum asked. “I thought you would do that before anything else this morning.”

“There’s no point . . .” Anthony began
before I kicked him under the table.

“Why is there no point?” Mum asked, her hands on her hips. “Do you already know what your presents are? I hope you three haven’t been getting up in the middle of the night to see what I bought you . . .”

The twins and I looked at each other guiltily.

“Of course not, Mum,” I said quickly.

“Hhmm!” Mum replied. “Well, if you don’t open your presents soon I’m going to think that you don’t want them.”

We got up and went over to the Christmas tree.

“That’s your present,” Mum said, handing a present to Edward – a present that was guitar-shaped.

Edward tore off the paper. It was a guitar. A wooden guitar with lovely silver strings.

“Hooray!” Edward shouted.

“And this is yours,” Mum said, handing Anthony his present.

Anthony tore off the wrapping paper. It was a model plane kit. It was just what
Anthony wanted. One of those where you had to glue all the pieces together yourself and then paint them.

“Yippee!” Anthony clapped his hands.

“Your turn, Maxine,” Mum said, handing me a large, square-shaped present. It was too big to be the smelly
Science for Everyone
book. I ripped off the paper.