by Holly Bell
Abbey swallowed and looked at her hands. She didn’t want to go to school tomorrow. She just knew she’d get in big trouble with Miss Michaels, no matter what Matilda said.
Her mum caught the look on her face. ‘Well, since you’re up, I was about to make a late-night hot chocolate,’ she said. ‘Want one?’
Abbey nodded gratefully. She watched her mum search for the mugs, warm the milk and stir in the chocolate. Then they huddled up together on the sofa.
Abbey sipped her hot chocolate slowly. It was deliciously thick, just the way she liked it. But it wasn’t enough to make her feel better. She looked up at her mum, who was watching her.
‘So, are you going to tell me what’s wrong, love?’ asked her mum gently.
Abbey shook her head, but before she knew it the whole story was spilling out. She told her about Matilda’s idea as well, to give back the test first thing in the morning. And she explained that she’d probably get into huge trouble. Abbey figured she might as well warn her mum about that.
Abbey hung her head, waiting for her mum to say how disappointed she was in her. But instead, her mum gave her an extra-big hug.
‘Oh Abbey, you should have told me straight away,’ her mum said. ‘But Matilda is right. You’ve got to tell your teacher. Unless you want me to talk to Miss Michaels?’
‘No, Mum, I can do it myself,’ Abbey said. Then she quickly added, ‘As long as Matilda comes, too.’
‘OK, my brave girl,’ her mum said, giving her kiss. ‘Come on, then. Bed!’
The next day, Abbey’s mum dropped Abbey and Matilda at school. They were super early.
Matilda grabbed Abbey’s hand and they walked inside together. Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor.
As they reached their classroom, Abbey’s stomach started doing somersaults again. Miss Michaels was at her desk, sipping hot tea. Abbey could see the steam rising from the mug.
‘Hi, Miss Michaels,’ Matilda said.
‘Hello, girls,’ Miss Michaels said. ‘What are you two doing here so early?’
‘Um,’ Abbey said, her throat dry.
‘It’s about the spelling test,’ Matilda began helpfully.
Abbey nervously placed the envelope on the desk. Miss Michaels raised an eyebrow.
‘I found the spelling test for Friday in my homework book,’ Abbey said, stumbling over her words. ‘But I don’t know how it got in there and I swear I didn’t look at it!’
Abbey reached for her dog-tag necklace. Her heart was beating super hard. She was sure Matilda and her teacher could hear it.
A loud squeak came from the corridor. It was Simon Shearer in his running gear, standing in the doorway. ‘Cheater, cheater,’ he whispered.
Abbey felt her face burning. This was her worst nightmare. That bigmouth Simon would tell the whole school that she was a cheater!
‘Simon Shearer!’ Miss Michaels snapped. ‘Stop that right now. Come in here!’
Miss Michaels sounded really angry. Abbey grabbed Matilda’s hand.
Simon came and stood next to Abbey. She didn’t dare look at him, but she guessed he was smirking.
Miss Michaels turned back to the girls, still holding the envelope. ‘Thanks for bringing this back, Abbey,’ she said. ‘I’ve been looking for it everywhere.’
Abbey bit her lip.
‘I knew I had it Wednesday morning,’ Miss Michaels said. ‘I wonder when you picked it up by accident? Maybe when everyone was pushing and shoving to pick up the homework books from my desk.’
Matilda squeezed Abbey’s hand.
Abbey’s heart was still racing. She braced herself for being told off. But then Miss Michaels smiled at her and said, ‘Anyway, it’s just the test for Ms Howard’s class, not the one you’re having today. I wanted to see which words she was using.’
Abbey realised that she’d been holding her breath. She looked at Matilda. Her bestie was grinning from ear to ear.
Miss Michaels patted Abbey on the shoulder. ‘But if you thought this was today’s test, it took a lot of courage to bring it back to me. Thanks, girls.’
Abbey and Matilda beamed at each other. They turned to walk out of the classroom, but then Miss Michaels called them back.
‘One more thing!’ she said. ‘Simon, you need to apologise to Abbey.’
Simon went bright red. ‘Sorry, Abbey,’ he said quietly. ‘I shouldn’t have called you a cheater.’
Miss Michaels raised an eyebrow. ‘And you shouldn’t listen in on other people’s conversations, either, Simon.’
‘Yeah, sorry about that, too,’ muttered Simon.
Abbey shrugged. She didn’t feel upset anymore. ‘That’s OK,’ she said, and walked out into the sunshine with Matilda.
‘Are you ready for your spelling test?’ Miss Michaels asked the class. ‘I’m going to read each word and say it in a sentence. Then you can write it down on your paper.’
Abbey nodded. She was ready.
‘The first word is shine,’ Miss Michaels said. ‘As in, I polish my car to make it shine.’
Abbey grinned, and laughter filled the classroom. Everyone knew how much Miss Michaels loved her little red Volkswagen. It was always the shiniest car in the car park.
‘No laughing during the test, please,’ Miss Michaels said, smiling.
The cloud of worry that had been hanging over Abbey was gone. She spelled out the word in her head and carefully wrote it down.
‘The second word is might,’ said Miss Michaels. ‘Next holidays, I might go to the Greek Islands.’
Abbey concentrated hard. She had got this word wrong before. She remembered the G and the H and wrote the word down.
When the test was over, Abbey handed her paper to Miss Michaels.
‘How was that, Abbey?’ Miss Michaels asked.
‘Good, I think,’ Abbey said. But inside she was feeling extra-confident.
After school, Abbey’s mum took the girls to Olivia’s mum’s cafe.
Abbey, Matilda, Kate, Emma, Maddie and Olivia were busy ogling the delicious sweets behind the glass.
‘Who’s ready to order, girls?’ Olivia’s mum asked.
‘I’ll have two scoops of vanilla ice-cream, please,’ Abbey said. ‘With lots of raspberries!’
The girls laughed. Abbey always ordered everything with lots of raspberries.
As the others placed their orders, her mum asked quietly, ‘How did it go today with Miss Michaels?’
‘Really well,’ Abbey grinned. ‘She wasn’t mad at me at all, and I got sixteen out of twenty on the test! But I couldn’t have done it without Matilda.’
Sharing her troubles with Matilda had really helped Abbey. She felt so lucky to have such a great bestie.
The six girls piled into their favourite booth. Emma put her finger to her lips and the girls huddled in close. She pulled out six four-leaf clover stencils.
Olivia squealed excitedly and the others quickly shushed her. Then they all giggled. Stencilling their secret clubhouse together would be so much fun!
Olivia’s mum came over with bowls of ice-cream and sorbet for the girls. Abbey’s bowl was heaped with raspberries, just the way she liked it.
With her mouth full, Abbey grinned at her friends. Just three more days of school, and then they were going to have the best summer holidays ever!
