The Girl Who Stole the World

by Laura Pearson

  Whatever Mrs Potion had said to Mrs Peabody was so exciting that the headmistress couldn’t bring herself to repeat it. Next to her, Mrs Potion was jumping up and down.

  “Crabtree School has … we’ve…”

  Lottie could stand it no more.

  “CRABTREE SCHOOL HAS WON THE Our Beautiful Green Planet Intergalactic Environmental Award!” Lottie shouted.

  There were shouts and cheers all around, hoorays and well dones from every corner of the playground.

  Then, from a few places down from Isabel, a timid hand was raised.

  “Yes, Rani?” said Mrs Peabody. Rani was the new girl at Crabtree School. She was in Year Three and Isabel liked her very much. Last week, Rani had even come round to Isabel’s house with Ava, Zoe and Lottie to help Isabel begin work on the igloo.

  “Sorry, Mrs Peabody,” said Rani. “But what is the Our Beautiful Green Planet Intergalactic Environmental Award?”

  “It’s … well … it’s … I don’t know exactly,” said Mrs Peabody. “But isn’t it wonderful?”

  Everyone nodded as Mrs Potion hurried to explain.

  “We’ve won the Our Beautiful Green Planet Intergalactic Environmental Award because we take such wonderful care of our beautiful green planet here at Crabtree School. How do we do that, girls?”

  Isabel put her hand up. “We recycle!” she said proudly.

  “That’s right!” said Mrs Potion. “What else?”

  Isabel put her hand up again, but Mrs Potion decided to give someone else a turn. At Crabtree School, the Green Thumb Club grew fruit and vegetables for school dinners. The Crabtree School Jolly Neighbourhood Helpers Club helped tidy Crabtree Park across the street. Lots of Crabtree girls walked to school, or took the bus or came by bicycle or scooter, instead of coming in the car. All of these things were good for the planet.

  “Those are all correct, girls!!” said Mrs Potion. “And because we work so hard at being green, Crabtree School has been given this special award by the mayor!”

  Mrs Potion held up a golden ball. It was about the size of an apple, and it shone in the sunlight. It was the Our Beautiful Green Planet Intergalactic Environmental Award trophy.

  “I’ll pass it round, girls,” said Mrs Potion, “but be very careful! It is made of real gold.” She put it gently into the hands of a Reception girl sitting in the front row.

  “AND NOW,” Mrs Potion continued, “we also want to acknowledge one special Crabtree student. According to Mrs Peabody, this girl goes well and truly beyond what any of us would expect in her love for our planet.”

  Isabel straightened up in her seat. There was no one at Crabtree School that loved the planet more than Isabel.

  “This girl,” said Mrs Peabody, “is a shining example to all of us here. And in two weeks’ time, she will get to meet the mayor. The mayor is coming to Crabtree School to officially present the award!”

  Isabel had butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She was nervous and excited all at the same time. The golden ball was making its way down the row towards her. She could see now that it was a globe; yes, the ball was a beautiful golden planet Earth and she, Isabel, had helped to win it. Mrs Peabody was going to say her name at any moment: Isabel Donaldson. Isabel held her breath.

  “And even though this girl is one of the smallest among us,” Mrs Peabody continued, “she is very grown-up when it comes to recycling!”

  Now wait just one minute. That didn’t sound right. Isabel was the second tallest girl in Year Three. She was taller than all of Year Two and all of Year One and all of Reception. Why would Mrs Peabody call her small?

  “I’m so proud of this little lady,” Mrs Peabody gushed. “To have only just started at Crabtree School this autumn and still find her way to the recycling bins all on her own!”

  Isabel felt a bit sick.

  “Our Crabtree School Green Planet Golden Girl,” said Mrs Peabody proudly, “and the girl who will get to give the mayor a tour of our school in two weeks’ time is…”

  Ava thrust the golden ball into Isabel’s hands just as Mrs Peabody said, “Lucy Lu Miller!”

  Isabel Donaldson had not won. Lucy Lu Miller, who didn’t even know what a planet was, had won instead.

  Isabel was so shocked that she dropped the world.

  The golden globe rolled under the chair in front of her. Hot tears sprang to Isabel’s eyes as the girls in the seats around her gasped and scrambled under their chairs to save the planet.

  Isabel herself didn’t move. For even though it was shiny and real gold and a proper special award from the mayor, the Our Beautiful Green Planet Intergalactic Environmental Award trophy suddenly didn’t look so beautiful after all.

  Isabel took one last slurp of her juice carton. They’d just come home from school, and her mum was looking through the refrigerator. Isabel could see her reward chart taped to the refrigerator door, shining with dozens of gold stars. Isabel had earned nearly one hundred stars for doing her chores, having good manners, being kind to her sisters, practising piano, and looking after the pet bunnies. She had done a lot more good things than the Reds had. Their chart hung below Isabel’s, and between them, Scarlett and Ruby had a total of three stars.

  As she stood there, Isabel noticed that her mum had forgotten to give her a star for practising the piano yesterday. There was also a blank space for clearing the table this morning, which Isabel had done without being asked. Her mum was ALWAYS forgetting stars, unless they were for the Reds. When the Reds got a star, her mum practically had a party for them. It wasn’t fair at all.

  “I’m sorry, Izzy,” said her mum when Isabel pointed out the missing stickers. “But you are so good all the time, such a lovely big girl, that I don’t think you need rewarding so much now. Maybe we don’t need your star chart any more?”

  No stars? It was as if her mummy had suggested they didn’t need air to breathe, or food to eat.

  “Why do I get my stars taken away for being GOOD?” cried Isabel. “That’s not fair!”

  “I didn’t mean that, Izzy,” said her mum. “If it is that important to you we will carry on with them.” Her mum got out two stickers and added them to Isabel’s chart, but Isabel was still cross. What was the point of being good if no one noticed? Not her mum, not Mrs Peabody…

  Isabel looked down at the empty juice carton in her hand. It was made of cardboard, and it belonged in the recycling bin. But why should Isabel bother?

  After a quick glance around, Isabel dropped the juice carton into the normal bin. Mrs Peabody wasn’t there to see this terrible act, and Isabel’s mum didn’t pay any attention. The Reds were emptying the contents of a cupboard on to the floor. No one cared that Isabel hadn’t recycled.

  Isabel reached into the recycling bin and took out an aluminium soup tin. She tossed it loudly into the regular bin.

  No one noticed.

  Isabel walked over to the kitchen tap. She turned it on. She walked back to the bins and looked for more things to un-recycle. She thought about all of the water that she was wasting.

  After ages and ages, Isabel’s mummy took her head out of the fridge. “We’ve absolutely no food left in the house!” she said. “Izzy, darling, you’ve left the tap on.”

  “Who cares?” said Isabel crossly.

  “Who cares?” is a very rude thing to say to your mummy. At any other time, Isabel’s mum would have been shocked to hear her most well-behaved child say such a naughty thing. But emptying an entire box of cereal on to the floor is also very naughty, and that is precisely what Scarlett did at that very moment.

  Scarlett and Mummy began to clean up the cereal together, and Isabel’s rudeness was forgiven and forgotten. The juice carton and the soup tin stayed in the normal bin. The water from the tap ran on and on. And no one cared, especially not Isabel. She did not care one tiny little bit.

  Back in her room, with her door secured against the Reds, Isabel did not do her spelling homework. Instead she set straight to work on the igloo. Her mum had washed
loads more milk cartons out and they needed gluing. She hadn’t got very far when the Red alarm began to jingle.

  “Go away!” shouted Isabel. “I mean it!”

  But they didn’t. The Reds jingled and pushed and pleaded with Isabel. The Red alarm wasn’t working very well these days. Finally, with a great sigh, Isabel moved the teddy and the chair and the rug and the bell. In came the Reds and they headed straight for the igloo. They jumped around it and climbed over it. They broke off two containers – two containers that had taken ages to glue. Then the Reds went for the markers. They still wanted to colour the igloo.

  Isabel shouted for her mum, but her mum didn’t come.

  Angry butterflies fluttered in Isabel’s tummy again. It wasn’t fair for the Reds to wreck her igloo. Why did littlies get away with EVERYTHING? She watched them poking at the igloo. She wanted to grab their arms and drag them out of her room. She wanted to push them out and slam the door and lock it forever and ever with a real lock. But then she’d get into trouble. Maybe she’d even lose stars from her chart. And the Reds wouldn’t, because they hardly had any stars to lose. It just wasn’t fair.

  Then she got an idea.

  “I know what we can do with the markers,” Isabel said to her sisters. She led them over to her craft table and took down her best new markers. They were the permanent kind, and they were scented.

  “We do the igloo?” asked Ruby.

  “No,” Isabel told her. “I have a much better plan.” For Isabel had decided that perhaps the way to get noticed for doing good things was to do some really awful things too, every once in a while. It was risky, but it seemed to work for the Reds.

  The three sisters coloured away happily for nearly an hour. They were so quiet that Isabel’s mum came to check on them.

  “ISABEL ELIZABETH DONALDSON! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?” Isabel’s mum shouted.

  Even though she had the two naughtiest toddlers in the world, Isabel’s mummy did not shout very often. She had once been a teacher, and she was patient and kind. She only really shouted when she was very surprised.

  Which was now. Isabel’s mummy was VERY surprised to find her three blonde daughters with hair streaked every colour of the rainbow.

  Scarlett had coloured Ruby’s hair in shades of orange and green, and Ruby had chosen purple and blue for Scarlett. Isabel had done her own hair mostly pink; the twins had helped her with the places she couldn’t quite reach. Then they’d all sprinkled glitter over their heads because it turns out sparkles look as good in your hair as they do on your windows.

  Isabel’s mummy stared. “Girls, what have you done?” she demanded. “And why do I smell strawberries?” The whole room smelt of scented markers.

  They all stood looking at each other. Isabel’s mummy was getting ready to be very angry. So angry that it was taking her a while to get started.

  Then Isabel’s daddy came in. He said that the three of them looked like they were in a band. He laughed and laughed. He said he couldn’t help himself, because they looked so funny. Finally Isabel’s mummy laughed too. The Reds sang and Isabel pretended to play the drums.

  After quite a few songs from the band, which they decided was called “Izzy and the Red Rainbow-Heads”, they went downstairs for dinner.

  At bath time they discovered that Cottontail had been a lucky bunny. It took way more than four washes to get marker pen out of people’s hair. For many weeks afterwards, Isabel’s plaits had a pink glow and smelt of bubblegum.

  But they’d got away with it. Isabel and the Reds had been naughty and they didn’t get into trouble. Not at all. In fact, it had been fun. And Isabel hadn’t even lost any stars.

  As Isabel lay in bed that night, breathing in the scent of bubblegum marker, she thought about how she hadn’t been in real trouble for a long time. She was the best-behaved girl in her class. She was the best-behaved girl at Crabtree School.

  But really, thought Isabel, who cares?

  Did anyone care? Was there any point to being good when no one noticed and being naughty was so much more fun?

  When she finally fell asleep, Isabel dreamt of running taps and of trying to colour Lucy Lu Miller’s bouncing bunches with a green marker pen.

  The next morning Isabel wore purple socks with her school uniform. The girls were supposed to wear white socks with their Crabtree uniforms, but Isabel chose fuzzy purple knee-high socks instead, just to see what would happen. Purple socks were much more fun, and Isabel knew that her friends would like them.

  “Izzy, are you allowed to wear those socks to school?” asked her mummy at breakfast.

  “Yes,” Isabel lied. “It is Special Sock Day today.”

  Her mummy believed her. She had no reason not to, for Isabel was her good girl. Isabel’s mum had already forgotten about last night’s naughtiness.

  When Isabel walked up the path to Crabtree School that morning, the butterflies were fluttering in her tummy again; in fact, they felt a bit like wasps buzzing. Surely Mrs Peabody would notice her socks and make her change? Isabel’s hair was still pink too. Maybe she looked so wild and crazy that Mrs Peabody would send her home? Isabel opened the door with shaky hands and stepped into the school’s front hall.

  Mrs Peabody was there to greet everyone, just as she was every morning. She was standing next to the statue of Lady Constance Hawthorne, the very first headmistress of Crabtree School for Girls. At Lady Hawthorne’s feet was her little stone dog, Baron Biscuit. Isabel could see that Mrs Peabody was admiring something on a pedestal next to the Baron.

  It was the Our Beautiful Green Planet Intergalactic Environmental Award trophy. On the same pedestal as the award was a picture of Crabtree School’s Green Planet Golden Girl, Lucy Lu Miller.

  Isabel and her purple socks went up the stairs to the Year Three classroom.

  “Are we allowed to wear purple socks now?” Lottie asked Isabel. “I didn’t know that.”

  “No,” said Isabel. “I just felt like it.” Lottie stared as Isabel sat down at her desk in the front row of the classroom. She watched as Isabel stretched her legs and her purple socks out in front of her, right under their teacher’s nose.

  “Isabel, you look colourful today!” said Miss Moody.

  Miss Moody liked to see Isabel bend the rules sometimes. She thought that being good and proper absolutely all the time must be hard for Isabel. So Miss Moody did not bother about Isabel’s socks.

  “Do I smell bubblegum in here, girls?” said Miss Moody, sniffing the air. “Please remember that there is no bubblegum allowed in school, except for on special occasions. Now, let’s start with our science lesson!”

  Isabel did not get in trouble for her purple socks or her bubblegum pink plaits.

  In fact, it turned out that Isabel was very good at doing naughty things and not getting punished. And it turned out that naughty things were quite fun.

  At lunchtime, it was Year Two’s turn to have ice lollies for their golden ticket reward. Isabel watched them queuing up for their treat. She thought of all the good things she herself had done to win golden tickets for Year Three. She had written her homework extra neatly, kept her PE kit tidy, been quiet whilst queuing up, helped Colonel Crunch water the flowers on the playground… But Year Three still had not collected enough golden tickets to have ice lollies. That was because not everyone in Year Three was as good and helpful as Isabel.

  Which wasn’t fair really, when you thought about it.

  With the butterflies fluttering in her tummy again – butterflies must like ice lollies – Isabel joined the Year Two queue. Mrs Crunch was handing out bright red lollies with white sprinkles. The kind that tasted like strawberries and cream. The kind that were Isabel’s absolute favourite type of ice lolly. Keeping her head down so Mrs Crunch wouldn’t notice that she didn’t belong there, Isabel took one.

  Miss Cheeky, the Year Two teacher, didn’t notice Isabel eating her illegal ice lolly in the corner until one of the Year Two girls told on her. Miss Cheeky was busy shooi
ng her class into the toilets to wash their sticky hands. She made a frowny face and wagged her finger at Isabel, which made the tummy butterflies go mad.

  Then Miss Cheeky winked. She wasn’t really cross. Like Miss Moody, Miss Cheeky was pleased to see Isabel, who was always so good and mild-mannered, do something a little bit, well, cheeky.

  Isabel threw the lolly stick and the wrapper in the normal bin in the lunch room, which was another naughty thing. But by now, Isabel had figured out that being naughty had its own rewards, and not just an ice lolly. After lunch, Isabel marched right to the front of the Year Three queue to go outside. She pushed in front of Zoe, who was so surprised to see Isabel be rude and break the rules that she didn’t even tell on her. Isabel got to be first out on to the playground.

  Then, during break, Isabel did something she had secretly wanted to do for ages: she made daisy chains. You weren’t supposed to pick the flowers that grew around the playground. They were for everyone at Crabtree School to look at and enjoy. But no one was watching, and so Isabel convinced Ava that they should make bracelets and crowns and belts. The two friends were dripping with daisies, and by the time break was over, there wasn’t a single daisy left growing in Colonel Crunch’s beloved flower bed.

  When the bell rang to go inside, Ava felt guilty. She hid her daisies in the tree house, in a sad, wilted pile. But Isabel was brave, and kept her daisy jewellery on. She knew she wouldn’t get in any trouble. All Miss Moody said as she led her class back into the school was, “Isabel, don’t you look just like a flower fairy!”

  Isabel had broken the school dress code. She had sneaked an ice lolly and jumped a queue. She had made the Crabtree School playground a lot less beautiful.

  But all this was nothing compared to what she did next.

  On her way back to Year Three, Isabel did not bother to keep up with her class. She wandered slowly through the school’s front hall. She stood before the Our Beautiful Green Planet Intergalactic Environmental Award trophy and studied the photograph of Lucy Lu Miller. The caption under the photo read Our Green Planet Golden Girl: Lucy Lu Miller, Reception. Lucy Lu had a huge smile on her face in the picture. She was proudly holding the golden globe, like she had won it all on her own.