Swap Over

by Margaret Pearce

  She sighed with relief as she looked into the study. Mrs. Walton was sitting at the desk, working on the computer with account books strewn around her. She smiled when she saw Maddy.

  “Feeling better, my darling?”

  “Much better, but I’ve slept all day.” Maddy’s bottom lip quivered as she remembered. “And I’ve missed pony club.”

  “It hasn’t stopped raining all day. Pony club was probably cancelled anyway,” Mrs. Walton pointed out.

  “I’ve missed pony club,” Maddy repeated.

  “It’s not a tragedy,” Mrs. Walton soothed. “There’s always next month.”

  Except I only hung in as Maddy Walton so I could go to pony club today, Maddy thought, staring at Mrs. Walton. I can’t hang around for another month of that posh school, after school programs, and all the kids who hate me just for another chance at pony club.

  “You all right, Maddy?” Mrs. Walton asked as she stood up and rushed to support Maddy. “You had better go back to bed straight away. You’re as white as a sheet.”

  “I have to visit the Matson’s,” Maddy wailed and burst into tears.

  “Not today,” Mrs. Walton said firmly.

  She helped Maddy back to bed and put a cooling hand on Maddy’s forehead. She went out of the room and came back with a glass of something cool and lemon-flavored for Maddy to drink.

  Maddy pushed the glass away. She felt sick all over again. She had to get to the Matson’s to try to make a wish, even if it didn’t work. She just had to. Then she was going to have to hunt the district for that mysterious, stupid, white rabbit. What if she was going to be marooned as Maddy Walton forever?

  “Oh,” she said wretchedly.

  “You’ll feel better in the morning,” Mrs. Walton said. “You always do, so there is no need to worry about having to miss any of your school week.”

  “Oh,” Maddy wailed.

  Mrs. Walton looked worried. “You may as well watch television for the rest of the day and rest as much as possible.” She switched on the small colour television on the bedside table, handed Maddy the remote control, and went quietly from the room.

  Maddy tried to blink back her tears. Not even sitting up in the pretty four–poster, white bed, in the spacious bedroom, watching her very own television with no one to fight over the programs made her feel any better.

  It was boring being here all by herself in this creepy, white bedroom with no mess. She was home-sick; for her noisy bickering sisters, the easy-going feel of her own house; and her own mother and her own life. She wanted it back again and right now!

  She would sneak into the Matson yard first thing in the morning and wish. Surely if she wished in her own yard, she would get her own life back again. Maddy cheered up, and started changing channels, looking for something interesting to watch.

  Then another thought crept into her mind. Jennifer had always said how she envied Maddy for having sisters and loved being with the Matsons. What if Jennifer also knew what had happened and didn’t want to change back?

  What if Jennifer had also made an identical wish to swap places? She certainly had looked contented and happy at being a Matson! Was that another reason why Maddy’s wish hadn’t worked? Jennifer didn’t want to swap back anyway!

  Maddy turned off the television and reached for a tissue as the tears started rolling down her face. Mrs. Walton looked worried as she came in with her dinner on a tray, but not even the unaccustomed luxury of dinner in bed on a tray cheered Maddy up.

  Her life was awful, just awful! And it was all her fault!

  Chapter Nine

  The next morning, Mrs. Walton woke Maddy very early.

  “Remember you still have to do half an hour of English homework,” she said quietly.

  Maddy yawned and tumbled resentfully out of bed. It was only six-thirty. She never got out of bed this early at home! How did Mrs. Walton know she had homework? Was it because the school was reporting her every move?

  She was feeling much better this morning, despite having to get up so early. Of course everything was going to work out right! She would grab her chance to nick next door to the Matsons as soon as possible. In the meantime, she was just going to have to put up with the disadvantages of being Maddy Walton.

  She sat at the desk and pulled out her books. It was fortunate she was good at English, and it didn’t take that much time and effort to finish it. She was lucky it hadn’t been arithmetic homework. She started to repack her bag and paused as she thought about Roland Townsend.

  He probably didn’t like his life much at all either. It must be awful to be unattractive, unpopular, and not be too bright as well. It probably took him hours to finish what she had done in twenty minutes. He was lucky he was good at math, though. Maddy remembered the easy way the tutor had showed her to do factions and cheered up.

  “Don’t forget to make your bed, hang everything up, and leave the bathroom tidy after you’ve showered,” Mrs. Walton called as if she had x-ray vision through the wall.

  The rain had cleared. It was going to be a fine and sunny day. A terrible waste of weather for a Monday morning, Maddy thought to herself. Getting dressed in her good school uniform and her well-cleaned school shoes gave her no pleasure. A dreadful day of school and facing everyone who didn’t like her loomed ahead.

  “I think I should stay in bed for another day,” she tried. “I still don’t feel that good.”

  “Rubbish!” Mrs. Walton said briskly. “Nothing wrong with your appetite this morning.”

  Maddy looked at her plate. She had absent-mindedly eaten all of her high-piled plate of tomatoes, eggs and bacon and was finishing off her third slice of toast. She put the toast down.

  “Breakfast was nice, but I still have a terrible headache.”

  “So the fresh air will make you feel a lot better. Go and clean your teeth and wash your face.”

  Maddy sighed. Mrs. Walton wasn’t a very sympathetic sort of mother. Even if she was dying she was going to be made to face school. She walked out the door and then bolted along the side street, heavy bag flapping as she ran into the Matson gate.

  The Matson girls would have already left for their bus stop, Maddy decided. She crept around the back yard and stood in the identical spot by the rabbit hutch. She shut her eyes tightly and wished.

  “What are you doing there, Maddy?” her mother asked. “The others have already left for school.”

  Maddy opened her eyes. Her mother stood at the open back door looking puzzled. Maddy checked herself out. She was still carrying the expensive school bag and wearing the uniform and blazer of Jennifer’s school. Her wish hadn’t worked!

  “I’d hoped to see Jennifer before she left.”

  “After school tonight,” her mother said and went back inside.

  Maddy trudged back around to the Walton driveway. So that was that! Being in the Matson yard had made no difference. She was going to have to find the white rabbit and hold it while she tried again to make her wish.

  If that didn’t work, she was going to have to sound out Jennifer, find out whether she had made a similar wish, and then perhaps they could both wish together. Except Jennifer might not want to change over again.

  Maddy sat in the front seat of Mrs. Walton’s nice red car and sighed. She never dreamed her life would get so complicated. Mrs. Walton drove the car along the main road towards the school.

  The car stopped at the crossing as the lights changed. All the gang was gathered at the bus stop.

  The gutters were still brimming full and the water running fast from all the rain. Everyone was lined up along the gutters racing paper boats. Jennifer crouched on the footpath folding boats. Milly ran along the footpath watching the boats bob along in the gutter, and Merry waited at the drain, rescuing the paper boats before they swirled down.

  Maddy watched enviously. Today there was no pleasure in being driven to school. The gang was all having fun as they waited for the bus.

  Jennifer looked up; saw Maddy watch
ing, grinned and waved. Her long hair looked as if it hadn’t been brushed this morning. The hem was down on one side of her school dress and there was a hole in the elbow of her school cardigan, but she still had the same happy, glowing, contented face.

  The lights changed, and the traffic moved across the intersection. So Jennifer should be happy and contented, Maddy thought as she turned and waved back. She wasn’t expected to keep a big room and bathroom spotlessly tidy, clean her own shoes, or do homework if she didn’t feel in the mood.

  “I'll collect you straight after school tonight.” Mrs. Walton stopped the car by the pedestrian crossing.

  Maddy nodded and dutifully kissed Mrs. Walton. Mrs. Walton’s stern face softened. “Have a nice day, my darling.” The red car accelerated smoothly into the traffic.

  Maddy saw Rowena and Katrina waiting. Her footsteps slowed. Now it would start! They would look through her like everyone else! No one would talk to her all day!

  “Hurry up, Maddy,” Rowena called. “We'll miss the lights.”

  Maddy relaxed and sprinted across the road with them. Perhaps the rest of the school hadn’t heard about her cheating at draughts? Bronwin hadn’t had a chance to tattle about the cheating incident on Friday afternoon.

  “Why didn’t you come to pony club?” Katrina asked.

  “Mum thought it would be cancelled because of the rain and anyway, I was sick all yesterday,” Maddy explained. “Did you really go in all that rain?”

  “We should have had enough sense to stay home,” Rowena said. “Pony club is never cancelled because of rain. The horses splashed around hock deep in water.”

  “We ended up spending most of the day in the big barn polishing our bits and cleaning our saddles and listening to old Scottie jaw on about how we would lose marks if our tack wasn’t spotless,” Katrina explained.

  “Well, yours certainly wasn’t.” Rowena grinned. “Katrina’s Piggy rolled in the mud before she could stop him.”

  “Useless brute,” Katrina said affectionately.

  “Katrina’s tack took most of the day to clean to Scotty’s satisfaction.”

  “Wish I’d been there,” Maddy said with a giggle.

  “Always next month,” Katrina reminded her.

  “Yeah,” Maddy agreed, sobering at the thought.

  “What’s with Selina?” Rowena asked as they strolled towards Assembly. “She walked right past without even seeing you?”

  Maddy took a deep breath. Now it was starting. Even friendly Rowena and Katrina wouldn’t talk to her when Bronwin opened her mouth. “She flipped because I snubbed that snoopy little Linda Lister.”

  “Linda can be a pain,” Katrina agreed.

  “Don’t be nasty,” Rowena said. “With those weird parents, she has every right to be a pain.”

  “What’s weird about her parents?” Maddy asked.

  “She’s not allowed to go out to play and no one is allowed into her place, not even the front yard, so school is the only place she can meet or talk to other kids.”

  “Why?” Maddy asked.

  “I suppose because she has weird parents,” Rowena said. “But she wants to belong with the rest of us so hard, I feel sorry for her.”

  Maddy remembered the hurt expression on Linda’s face. Shame made Maddy’s face feel hot. She suddenly knew exactly how Linda felt. She had been so excited when Jennifer had first shifted into the district. If Jennifer had snubbed her then, she would have sunk through the ground in misery, but Jennifer had behaved as if Maddy was doing Jennifer a favour by being friendly.

  Selina had been so right! She had behaved like a prize pig and worst of all, had enjoyed behaving like one! It wouldn’t be fair for Jennifer to end up blamed and disliked for Maddy’s nasty nature if or when they swapped back again. Maddy decided to watch her speech and actions more carefully! Jennifer was never unkind or unpleasant to anyone.

  “I forgot about her behaving like a snoopy eager beaver because she wants to belong,” Maddy admitted slowly. “No wonder Selina carried on. I should have tried to be nicer.”

  “Linda can look after herself,” Katrina said. “See you lunchtime at tennis.”

  The bell went, and they lined up to go inside to their different classrooms. The morning passed smoothly. Maddy got all her English right and all her arithmetic. The teachers were very nice to her, as if she really was Jennifer Walton.

  She had to keep working solidly all the morning because the teachers seemed to hover over everyone’s shoulders watching all the time. Still, somehow it didn’t seem so bad. It made the morning pass more quickly, and she was looking forward to playing tennis during the lunch break.

  Maddy had often walked down to the tennis club with Jennifer to watch everyone playing. Maddy liked playing sports. She played net ball all the time. She was dying to have a go at tennis. It looked like fun. Jennifer had explained to her how it was played and scored.

  The lesson was over at last. It was time for morning recess. As soon as she walked out, Maddy knew immediately that Bronwin had managed to let the entire school know that she had cheated Mr. Brown at draughts!

  She stared through everyone and kept walking briskly, pretending to be going somewhere. She only had to keep walking for fifteen minutes, and the dreadful morning break would be over.

  “Did you?” Rowena asked as she caught up with her.

  “Really cheat Mr. Brown?” Katrina caught up with both of them. “Our goody-goody Bronwin couldn’t wait to tell us all about it.”

  “Yes, and so what?” Maddy snapped.

  “Wish I had been game enough to do it,” Katrina said wistfully.

  The anger and resentment inside Maddy evaporated. Gratitude and warmth spread through her. At least Katrina wasn’t going to look through her with the cold contempt that was so hurtful.

  “It was a pretty dreadful thing to do, though,” Maddy admitted. Because she didn’t feel so resentful and angry anymore, she realized that she was sorry about cheating. “I just lost my temper because he was such a sneaky player.”

  “Every single one of us has been tempted to cheat when playing with Mr. Brown,” Rowena said. “He is so insufferable when he wins all the time.”

  “You’re the only person in the school who keeps on playing draughts with him,” Katrina said. “No one else bothers. I reckon you deserve a medal for putting up with him for so long.”

  “But not for cheating,” Rowena warned.

  Maddy felt happier. It was wonderful that Katrina and Rowena were still her friends after knowing the worst.

  “Face it,” Katrina said. “We’ve all been tempted after playing with the unbeatable champion of The Walkley Elderly Citizens Retirement Home.”

  “That is not funny.” Maddy tried not to laugh. “I had to handwrite this groveling letter of apology. It just made me sick.”

  This set Rowena and Katrina off. They laughed so much they started to stagger. Somehow it was a nice sort of laughing at Maddy and not a bit nasty. When the morning break was over, Maddy went back into the classroom feeling a lot better.

  It had been stupid to cheat Mr. Brown at their game, but that was all it was, just something stupid she had done. She was sorry she had done it and would never be so stupid ever again.

  At lunchtime, she met up with Katrina and Rowena again, and they grabbed their racquets from the lockers. She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but everyone seemed friendlier and less aloof.

  Only Selina looked through her as if she didn’t exist. Maddy shrugged, but she felt hurt. Selina was supposed to be her special friend, after all. She had no right to be so nasty because she had been irritable and snubbed Linda just once.

  “We’ll finish lunch fast,” Rowena warned. “And be first over at the courts and check which court we’ve got and who we’re playing.”

  Maddy’s lunch was dainty white salad and tuna sandwiches, a piece of homemade fruit cake, and an apple. She bolted it down without even noticing how nice it was. Although they were early, t
hey still had to push their way through the crowd to reach the notice board. Everyone else had the same idea of arriving early.

  “Bother!” Rowena groaned. “I’ve got to go to the third court and practise my backhand with all the other duds.”

  “We’re listed as down in doubles with Bronwin and Linda,” Katrina said cheerfully.

  “Wonderful,” Maddy said bitterly.

  “Her goody-goody pose doesn’t slow down her fearsome serve,” Katrina warned with a grin as they went through to the third court.

  “Right,” the coach said. “Bronwin and Katrina are the strongest players, so Linda and Bronwin play together against Katrina and Maddy.”

  “Well, one thing, Maddy Walton,” Bronwin sneered as soon as the coach turned away. “You can’t cheat at tennis, so let’s see how good you are.”

  Maddy clenched her hand more tightly around Jennifer’s beautiful, expensive racquet. Just because this was a posh school didn’t mean that she wouldn’t give Bronwin a well-deserved punch on the nose!

  “So let’s get started,” Katrina shoved Maddy nearer the net and moved back to the base line. “I’m serving.”

  Chapter Ten

  Katrina was a good tennis player, very good, Maddy thought with respect. Why had she assumed she was just some younger kid who hung around with Rowena, and not realized how very smart she was?

  Although she was small, she was fast, darting backwards and forwards across the court returning balls. Maddy swung wildly when the ball came her way and missed! She heard the thud behind her as Katrina ran across and managed to return the ball. She was accurate too, returning the ball to the most inaccessible spots on the court to where Bronwin wasn’t, and Linda was too slow.

  As Katrina had predicted, Bronwin had a fearsome serve. If Maddy had been the sort of person who discouraged easily, she would have given up. Bronwin’s serve was fast, powerful and nasty, and Maddy kept missing the ball.

  She was fast enough, but her aim was wild and more often than not, when she hit the ball it was always in the wrong direction.