Back to School Read online

  But I didn’t mind, not one little bit. For once I was actually glad I had made a mistake!

  There wasn’t much lunchtime left when I’d finished talking to Mrs Clarke. I had to hurry. There was something else I needed to do before the bell rang.

  I ran as fast as I could to where my friends were practising. They stopped when they saw me coming and looked at me without smiling – like they weren’t even my friends anymore.

  Dani started to walk away when she saw me, but I grabbed her arm. I had to say this right now.

  ‘Dani, I’m really sorry about what happened this morning,’ I said.

  I said it loudly so the others could hear me too. ‘It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. Ever. And I know you might never forgive me. But I promise never to do anything like that again and I really hope we can be friends again.’

  Annabelle had her arms crossed. ‘What you said to Dani was really mean,’ she said.

  ‘And it wasn’t even true,’ added Nicole. ‘She’s not the teacher’s pet.’

  ‘I know she’s not,’ I said. ‘I don’t know why I said it.’

  ‘You should do something to show how sorry you are,’ said Sarah.

  She was right. I wanted to show Dani that I knew what a dumbo I’d been. But what could I do to show her?

  And then I had an idea.

  Not the greatest idea, but an idea all the same. I lay on the ground and waggled my arms and legs in the air. My friends stared at me, wondering what I was doing. Then Nicole started laughing.

  ‘She’s doing a dead ant!’ she said.

  ‘You’re getting grass and stuff in your hair,’ said Annabelle, giggling.

  But I didn’t care.

  I kept on doing the dead ant.

  At first Dani wouldn’t even look at me. She pretended there was something really interesting happening on the oval. But after a while she couldn’t help taking a peek. And I saw her start to smile, even though she tried to hide it.

  ‘You don’t look anything like a dead ant,’ she said. ‘You look more like a puppy that wants its tummy scratched.’

  I knew then that Dani had started to forgive me. I was so glad! It was horrible to think that I’d almost lost my best friend.

  I decided right there that I would never let anything like that happen again.

  On the day of the school assembly Dani and I made sure we had a seat in the front row. After all the announcements were over, Mr Stavros got up on stage with his guitar and his class stood behind him. In front of them all were our friends!

  When the music started, the whole class started to sing. Annabelle, Sarah and Nicole started dancing.

  It was strange to see them dancing some of the steps I had made up. I thought I’d feel jealous that it wasn’t me up there, but I didn’t feel jealous at all. Instead, I was proud. They weren’t bad steps!

  ‘They’re such good dancers,’ I whispered to Dani.

  She nodded. ‘They are good, but we’re good, too. Maybe Mrs Clarke will let us do our own dance at assembly one week,’ she said.

  Once I would’ve thought that there was no way Mrs Clarke would let us do that. But I knew her better now.

  I nodded. ‘Let’s ask her,’ I said.

  Our friends only made a couple of small mistakes. Annabelle nearly tripped over at the start and Sarah spun to the left instead of to the right. But she did a good job of covering it up and I think only we noticed.

  When they finished, everyone in the audience went crazy! Kids were jumping around and cheering. I even saw some of them trying to copy the moves themselves.

  It was really funny.

  Then it was my turn to read out my story. Watching the dance, I had forgotten all about it and had stopped feeling nervous. But once I stood up on stage, in front of all those faces, I started to feel nervous again.

  Then I told myself it was just like diving. I looked at the page and imagined I was standing on the edge of a pool, getting ready to plunge into the water. And when I started reading, my voice didn’t wobble at all.

  Everyone was very quiet while I read my story. I couldn’t tell if they liked it or not until I finished and everyone clapped.

  They clapped a lot, especially Mrs Clarke! Someone in the front row was cheering and whistling really loudly.

  It was Dani.

  And sitting beside her were Annabelle, Nicole and Sarah, cheering just as loudly, too.

  It had been a bit of a rough start, but I knew it was going to be a good year now.

  Back to School

  first published in 2006

  this edition published in 2012 by

  Hardie Grant Egmont

  Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

  Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  EISBN 9781742737881

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

  Text copyright © 2006 Meredith Badger

  Illustration and design copyright © 2012 Hardie Grant Egmont

  Illustration by Aki Fukuoka

  Design by Michelle Mackintosh

  Text design and typesetting by Ektavo