The Worst Witch to the Rescue (3 page)

‘Don’t worry, Mildred,’ said Ethel. ‘You grab Tabby and I’ll pick everything up for you.’

Ethel climbed down the tree, painstakingly picking up all the paperwork and the pencils and carefully putting everything back into the bag.

‘I’m so sorry not to help,’ called Mildred. ‘I’m trying to keep hold of Tabby or he’ll be off and I’ll never find him up here. Have you got everything?’

‘
Nearly
everything!’ called Ethel, who was out of sight at the base of the tree. ‘How many coloured pencils were there?’

‘Twenty!’ called Mildred.

‘Hang on!’ Ethel shouted. ‘They’re scattered all over the place.’

For several minutes, Mildred heard Ethel rustling about in the bushes, then it went quiet. ‘Are you all right, Ethel?’ she called, holding on tightly to the struggling Tabby.

‘Yep!’ called Ethel. ‘Got the very last one – the red one! Coming right back up now!’

Ethel appeared through the branches with the bag across her shoulder and Mildred could see that it was nicely
full, with the precious blue folder slightly sticking out between books and exercise books. Ethel patted everything neatly down into the bag and fastened the straps. ‘There you go!’ she said, handing it over, sounding really glad to have helped.

‘Thanks so much, Ethel,’ said Mildred. ‘This is such a great way to start a new term, isn’t it?’

‘Isn’t it
just
!’ said Ethel. ‘Come on, race you to school!’

y the time Ethel and Mildred had rearranged their belongings and launched themselves from a suitable cluster of branches, the morning was well under way and little knots of pupils could be seen converging on the school from all directions.

‘You don’t mind if I zoom on ahead, do you?’ asked Ethel. ‘I’m sorry, it’s just that you
are
still a bit slower than me.’

‘Of
course
I don’t mind,’ said Mildred cheerily. ‘Thanks for helping when I dropped everything.’

‘Don’t mention it,’ said Ethel, who shot off like a bullet and was out of sight in seconds.

Mildred bobbed along slowly towards the school feeling delightfully light-hearted. She could hardly wait to see the class turn in their seats, gazing up at her with admiration as she read out her well-researched notes, then gave a demonstration of how the spell worked. Best of all, she imagined the expression on Miss Hardbroom’s face, unsure at first, then fascinated and finally deeply impressed as she realized how hard the worst witch in school had been working during the holidays and how much she had improved.

The school bell began to clang in the distance and Mildred urged the broomstick on as fast as she dared, with Tabby yowling on the back.

‘Hang on, Tab,’ she called over her shoulder. ‘Nearly there now. Gosh, I can hardly wait!’

Mildred almost literally bumped into Maud and Enid, her two closest friends, as they approached the school, which rose up ahead of them in the most sinister way, like a cross between a castle and a top-security prison. Mildred looked upwards at the seemingly endless grey stone walls, which blotted out the sunny sky, and headed for the schoolyard wall.

‘Hey Mildred!’ yelled Maud, waving enthusiastically. ‘Over here.’

‘Hi, Milly!’ called Enid. ‘Here we are again.’

‘Great to see you,’ said Mildred, putting a protective hand behind her
to keep Tabby firmly in place as they hovered down the wall on the other side and landed among the throng of pupils.

All around there was a loud hum of voices chatting, laughing, calling out to friends and exchanging tales of the holidays.

‘So, what’s new?’ asked Mildred, sitting down on her suitcase and giving Tabby a calming cuddle.

‘I had a holiday job most of the time,’ said Enid. ‘Fixing handles on cauldrons at a cauldron-maker’s. It’s a bit like a blacksmith’s, but of course I wasn’t allowed to do any of the interesting work at the furnace – health and safety, you know. I just did the fiddly bits, fitting the handles –
very
fiddly on the smaller ones for schools. It was grim really – incredibly hot and hardly
any
pay – but I managed to save up a bit for the summer hols. What about you, Maud?’

‘Oh, nothing much,’ said Maud. ‘Just being at home and trying to come up with something good for the holiday project – NOT! Couldn’t think of anything stupendous, though. In the end I just rehashed an old spell from
Year Three Spell Sessions
. H.B.’s bound to notice where it really came from. How about
you
, Mil? What did
you
come up with?’

Mildred beamed at her friends.

‘You’ll just have to wait and see,’ she said mysteriously.

‘Oh, go on, Mil,’ said Enid. ‘What is it?’

‘
Do
tell,’ agreed Maud.

‘Nope,’ laughed Mildred. ‘I’m unveiling my project to the world at the proper moment. That is, when we have the first potions lesson this afternoon. All I
will
say is – prepare to be astounded!’

After that, neither Maud nor Enid could get another word on the subject out of their friend and soon they were busy unpacking their clothes and going down to breakfast, followed by assembly.

Usually, they all met up in Mildred’s room for a quick chat before the first lesson, but Mildred was being uncharacteristically secretive. At one point, Maud opened Mildred’s door to see if she had five minutes to spare and found Mildred muttering into the cat basket. She obviously wasn’t chatting
to Tabby, because the little striped cat was draped around her shoulders in his usual position, like a shawl. Mildred jumped up as soon as she heard the door open.

‘What?’ she asked, sounding flustered.

‘Sorry,’ said Maud. ‘I just wondered if you were free for a little natter. What’s in the basket, Mil?’

‘Basket?’ asked Mildred. ‘Oh –
that
basket. Nothing. Why?’

‘You were
talking
into the basket,’ said Maud, ‘and it obviously isn’t Tabby.’

‘Oh,
that
,’ said Mildred. ‘Er, yes, well, I was just practising the words to that new chant. I keep getting them muddled up.’

Maud looked at Mildred, eyes slightly narrowed.

‘And there’s some extra stuff from home in the basket,’ Mildred blundered on. ‘I sort of used it as an extra suitcase
for the journey – there’s the bell!’ she exclaimed, sounding heartily relieved. ‘See you in the art room, Maud. It’s
pottery
. What a brill way to start a new term.’