by Enid Blyton
‘Oh, June!’ said Felicity, in dismay.‘That looks awfully painful.’
‘Well, I can’t feel it at all while I’m just lying here,’ said June. ‘But I expect it will be painful when I try to stand.’
‘You had better arrange to have a little accident before Matron sees it,’ said Bonnie.‘She’ll be back to take our breakfast trays away soon.’
‘I know!’ cried Felicity.‘Go into the bathroom, and you can pretend that you’ve slipped on the soap. Hurry, for I think I can hear Matron coming!’
Trying not to put any weight on her ankle, June carefully got out of bed and hopped into the bathroom. She shut the door behind her just as Matron came into the dormitory.
‘All finished?’ she asked.‘Good! I’m pleased to see that last night’s little adventure hasn’t affected your appetites. But where is June?’
Before either of the girls could answer, there came the sound of a crash from the bathroom, followed by a squeal.
‘Ow!’ yelled June.‘Do help me, someone! I’ve hurt myself.’
Felicity and Bonnie were out of their beds in a flash, but Matron reached the bathroom before them.
‘Goodness me!’ she exclaimed, throwing open the door.‘What on earth have you done to yourself, June?’
‘Someone dropped a bar of soap on the floor, Matron, and I slipped on it,’ said June, who was half-sitting, half-lying on the floor, her face screwed up in pain most convincingly.‘I seem to have twisted my ankle.’
Matron crouched down beside the injured girl and rolled up her pyjama leg a little way.
‘You certainly have twisted it!’ she said.‘Quite badly, by the look of it. Normally the swelling and bruising don’t come out for a good few hours,’ she added, looking hard at June.
She stood up and helped June to her feet, saying, ‘You’d better come along to the San with me, my girl, and get it bandaged up.’
Then Matron turned to Felicity and Bonnie, who were hovering by the bathroom door, saying briskly, ‘Get dressed, please, girls, and go to your first lesson. Explain to Miss Peters what has happened, and tell her that I will send June along as soon as I have finished with her.’
‘Yes, Matron,’ chorused the two girls, trying not to laugh as June winked at them behind Matron’s back.
Matron helped June to get dressed, then insisted that the girl lean on her on the way to the San. Their progress was impeded, as they ran into several girls on the way, all of whom wanted to congratulate June for the part she had played in reuniting Jack with his mistress, putting things right for Bill and Clarissa, and bringing Mr Banks to justice.
‘Jolly good show, June!’
‘You deserve a medal.’
‘Yes, a lot of people have reason to be grateful to you and Bonnie, June.’
Matron, knowing that June deserved their congratula-tions, bore with this patiently. But her patience was at an end when Mam’zelle Dupont suddenly appeared and, spotting June, tottered over on her high heels.
‘Ah, this brave and clever June!’ she cried.‘Matron, this girl is to be applauded! If it was not for her, and the dear Bonnie, the evil Mr Banks might have got away with his so-wicked plan.’
‘I am well aware of that, Mam’zelle,’ said Matron crisply.‘But I really must get June to the San, for she has injured her ankle.’
‘Mon dieu!‘ exclaimed Mam’zelle, looking shocked.‘How did this happen? June, were you injured performing some act of bravery, or bringing some desperate villain to justice?’
‘No, Mam’zelle,’ said Matron impatiently.‘She slipped on the soap.’
And, leaving Mam’zelle to gaze after them in astonish-ment, she bore June off to the San. There she bandaged her ankle up very tightly, and very efficiently.
‘You are to rest it completely,’ she instructed, in a tone that invited no argument.‘Keep the foot up as much as possible and, with a bit of luck, you should be as right as rain in a few weeks.’
A few weeks! The tennis tournament took place in three weeks, and June was absolutely determined that her ankle would be healed by then and she would be able to play.
There was another surprise for June and Bonnie when Bill and Clarissa arrived at Malory Towers halfway through the morning. Miss Peters, most surprisingly, allowed them to interrupt her lesson so that they could thank June and Bonnie in front of the whole form.
‘But for you two, we might have had to sell Five Oaks,’ said Bill gratefully.‘We simply can’t thank you enough.’
‘We can’t afford to give you a reward,’ said Clarissa.‘But the two of you can have free horse rides whenever you want.’
Bonnie, who was no horsewoman, didn’t look awfully thrilled at this, though she appreciated the spirit in which the offer was made. June, though, was quite delighted, and cried, ‘I shall take you up on that—once my beastly ankle is all right!’
Alas for June, she was not a good invalid! It chafed her to watch the others splashing around in the swimming-pool, or playing tennis, while she could only sit and watch. It drove her mad when Freddie and Nora had a pillow fight in the dormitory one night and, instead of taking part, she was a mere spectator. And the hardest thing of all to bear was when the third formers decided to have a picnic at the foot of Langley Hill.
Langley Hill was a popular beauty spot, and the girls were thrilled when Miss Peters suggested that they have a picnic tea there one day.
‘Super!’ said Felicity.‘Cook is going to make us some sandwiches and sausage rolls to take with us. Susan and I are going to provide the ginger beer.’
‘And I have a tin of biscuits in my locker that Mother sent,’ said Pam.‘I’ll bring those.’
All of the girls agreed to bring something along to the picnic, except for June, who remained oddly glum and silent.
‘Anything up, old girl?’ asked Freddie, concerned.‘Aren’t you looking forward to the picnic?’
‘I shan’t be coming to the picnic,’ said June in a tight little voice.‘Langley Hill is a good half hour’s walk away, and my ankle will never stand it.’
‘Oh, June!’ cried Freddie in dismay.‘I never thought of that! Well, I shan’t go to the picnic either, then. The two of us will stay at Malory Towers and do something together.’
But June would not hear of this.‘No, I don’t want to spoil your fun,’ she said, trying to sound like her usual, carefree self.
But Freddie wasn’t fooled for a minute. And nor was Julie, who overheard this. An idea came to her suddenly. She was very much in June’s debt, and she was going to repay that debt by making sure that June joined in the picnic.
Julie, of course, was absolutely thrilled to have Jack back, and had spent every spare moment over at Five Oaks.
‘Almost as if she’s afraid to let him out of her sight!’ as Pam said to Nora.
Julie wasn’t afraid, for now that Mr Banks was out of the way, she knew that Jack was not in any danger. But she had missed him quite dreadfully, and wanted to make up for lost time. But she wasn’t so wrapped up in Jack that she couldn’t spare a thought for anyone else—especially June, to whom she owed so much.
She took the others into her confidence and, on Saturday afternoon, when they were in the common-room, Felicity said to June, ‘Do hurry up! We’re going to leave for Langley Hill in a few minutes.’
‘I told you, I’m not coming to Langley Hill,’ said June rather crossly.‘How can I?’
Felicity exchanged a glance with Freddie, who nodded. Then the two girls each grabbed one of June’s arms, hauling her up out of her chair.
‘Hey!’ cried June, bewildered.‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘We’re taking you on a picnic,’ laughed Freddie.
Between them, the two girls managed to get June outside. And there, waiting for her, was Julie, leading Jack.
‘I’ve organised some transport for you, June,’ said Julie, with a grin.‘All you have to do is sit on Jack’s back, and he will carry you to Langley Hill. I’ll hold his reins, so th
at he doesn’t take it into his head to gallop off with you, or anything.’
June was speechless for a moment—a most unusual thing for her. Then her face broke into a broad smile, and she cried, ‘My word, what a picnic this is going to be!’
And indeed it was. The girls feasted on sandwiches, sausage rolls, cake, biscuits—and all kinds of goodies. Then they lazed around drinking ginger beer, chatting and telling jokes. It was a very happy day. But, all too soon, it was time to clear up and make their way back to school.
‘Thank you, Julie,’ said June, as the girl helped her up into the saddle. Then she leaned forward and patted Jack’s neck.‘And thank you, Jack. I’ve had a simply marvellous time!’
‘It really has been a nice day,’ said Felicity to Susan, when the girls arrived back at Malory Towers.‘No quarrels, no unpleasant shocks, no excitement—just a lovely, peaceful time. Just what we all needed after everything that has happened lately.’
The girls were in the common-room that evening when a second former put her head round the door and called out, ‘I say! Miss Grayling wants to see Esme Walters in her study.’
‘Goodness, not more trouble!’ said Susan.‘What does Miss Grayling want with you, Esme?’
But Esme didn’t have the slightest idea, and went off to the Head’s study feeling mystified and a little worried. Whatever could the Head want to see her about?
18
A lovely end to the term
‘Come in!’ called out Miss Grayling, as Esme knocked timidly on her door. Looking rather scared, Esme went in, but the Head was smiling as she invited Esme to sit down.
‘Esme,’ she began, ‘I have been speaking to Miss Peters, and she tells me that your work has improved a great deal as the term has gone on. Miss Hibbert and both the Mam’zelles are very pleased with you too. Now that you have settled down and learned to work hard, you are far ahead of most of the third formers in many subjects.’
Esme turned quite red with pleasure and said, ‘Well, I really have been trying my hardest, Miss Grayling.’
‘That is quite obvious,’ said the Head.‘And your hard work has paid off. You see, Esme, you are quite a bit older than the rest of your form. Starting off in the third form was only ever meant to be temporary, until we saw what you could do. And Miss Peters agrees with me that, next term, when the others go up into the fourth form, you should go up into the fifth.’
Esme was so astonished that she couldn’t utter a word! Her feelings were rather mixed. On the one hand, it was a great honour to go up into the fifth form next term, and her parents would be absolutely delighted with her. But she would miss the others quite dreadfully—Lucy, Bonnie, Amy, Felicity and the rest.
Almost as if she could read the girl’s thoughts, Miss Grayling said, ‘Of course, I understand that you will miss your cousin, and the friends that you have made. But, although you won’t be in the same form any longer, you will still be able to see them.’
‘Yes,’ said Esme.‘But friendships aren’t quite the same if you are in different forms.’
‘True,’ said Miss Grayling.‘But there will be new girls for you to meet, and new friendships to make.’
That sounded exciting, and Esme felt a little cheered as she returned to the common-room to tell the others her news.
The third formers, too, had mixed feelings, for although they were thrilled for Esme, they would have liked her to stay with them. She really had changed a lot as the term went on, and since she had stopped trying to copy Amy, her own natural, very likeable personality had shone through.
Felicity and Susan’s shouts of, ‘Good for you, Esme!’ mingled with Bonnie’s plaintive, ‘Oh, I shall miss you so much, Esme!’
‘And I will miss all of you,’ said Esme.‘Though I feel terribly pleased that Miss Grayling thinks that I’m good enough to go up into the fifth.’
‘I don’t suppose you will want anything to do with us next term,’ said Freddie, with a laugh.‘You’ll go all high-and-mighty on us, I expect!’
‘Never!’ said Esme. Then she turned to Lucy and said, ‘Well, cousin, just as we’ve made friends again, it looks as if we’re about to be split up.’
‘Of course we aren’t, silly!’ said Lucy.‘We shall still be able to have the holidays together—and I shall expect my fifth-form cousin to look after me next term!’
‘I’ll jolly well take you under my wing, all right!’ said Esme, and the others laughed.
‘You sounded quite English for a moment, there, Esme,’ said June. ‘Another term, and I think your American accent will be gone completely.’
‘Well, I don’t know if I will ever lose it completely,’ said Esme.‘I quite enjoy being a bit of a mixture, to be honest. But I have come to see that there are a lot of good things about being an English schoolgirl. Why, I’m even looking forward to learning how to play lacrosse next term!’
This was going too far for Amy, who uttered a faint murmur of protest, but Felicity clapped Esme on the back and said, ‘Well, if you do as well at lacrosse as you have done at tennis, you’ll be just fine!’
‘Speaking of tennis,’ said Pam, ‘do you think that you will be able to play in the tournament, June?’
‘Yes, of course,’ said June, with more confidence than she felt. ‘Matron says that I should be able to take the bandage off next week, and as long as I take things slowly for a few days, everything should be all right.’
When the time came for the bandage to be removed, it was difficult to read Matron’s expression. She prodded June’s ankle gently, ‘hmm-ing’ and ‘aah-ing’ a good deal. Poor June grew quite nervous. Surely she couldn’t have done any serious damage—could she?
But, at last, Matron said, ‘It’s healing very nicely. The bruise has almost disappeared, and the swelling has gone down quite a bit. All the same, I don’t want you doing anything too strenuous for a while, June, or you’ll set yourself back.’
‘Yes, Matron,’ said June in a meek voice that didn’t fool Matron at all!
Then she went off to the tennis court, to find Amanda Chartelow. The sixth former was playing a practice game against one of her friends and, as she watched, June marvelled again that someone who was normally so ungainly could be so graceful and lovely to watch when she played tennis.
Amanda spotted June as she came off the court, and went across to her.
‘Ah, you’ve had your bandage off!’ she said, looking pleased.‘Did Matron say that you will be fit to play against St Margarets?’
‘As long as I take things easy in the meantime,’ said June.‘Which is exactly what I intend to do, for I badly want to play in the match.’
This was just what Amanda liked to hear, and she clapped June on the back, saying, ‘That’s the spirit! All the same, June, if there’s the slightest doubt in your mind about whether you are fit to play, I would rather you told me. I’m going all out to win this tournament.’
And, although she was quite fed up with watching the others all have the fun, June stuck to her word and didn’t do anything that might strain her ankle for the next week or so.
Two days before the tournament, she said to Amanda, ‘I really think it would be as well if I practised a little today. It seems like absolutely ages since I last played tennis.’
‘Yes, I suppose that would be an idea,’ said Amanda.‘And it will be a good way of testing if your ankle really is up to the strain. Go and have a game with Freddie.’
So June found the ever-willing Freddie, and the two of them took their places on the court. She and Freddie played pat-ball at first, just to get June used to swinging her racket again. But June soon grew impatient with this, and said, ‘That’s enough! Let’s play properly, Freddie—and no going easy on me!’
Freddie took June at her word, and a couple of fiercely fought games ensued. Then June ran forward to return one of Freddie’s serves, and suddenly her ankle just seemed to give way. She stumbled, but didn’t fall. And, although June managed to stop herself crying out in pain, s
he winced.
‘What’s up?’ called Freddie, walking up to the net.‘Oh! Don’t say that your ankle’s given out.’
‘No such thing!’ said June, determined to play on.‘I just tripped, that’s all. Serve again, Freddie!’
Freddie did, and no one would have been able to tell from June’s manner that she was in pain. True, her game was a little off, but Freddie put that down to the fact that she was out of practice. June even managed to laugh and joke with Freddie as the two of them walked off to the changing-rooms, but how relieved she was to be able to sit down on one of the benches in there and take the weight off her ankle. Blow! she thought. If only she had listened to Bonnie and not gone to Bluebell Wood that fateful night, she would never have fallen off that beastly bike. Now what was she to do?
It didn’t take June long to decide. She would play in the tournament! And she would jolly well do her best to win. Why, when people learned afterwards that she had played with a badly hurt ankle, they would simply praise her to the skies!
So it came about that, when the Malory Towers team gathered on the drive to wait for the coach that was to take them to St Margarets, June was among them.
As usual, Amanda gave the team a little pep talk while they were waiting.
‘I want you all to do your best, for the honour of Malory Towers,’ she said.‘No one can ask more of you than that. If you play as well as you possibly can, and lose, I shall still be proud of you. But woe betide anyone who doesn’t try her very hardest!’
The girls stood straight and proud, all of them looking very smart in their white tennis dresses and cardigans, as they listened to their captain. Each and every one of them felt determined not to let their school down. But June looked rather pensive. Amanda’s words had given her food for thought. How could she possibly play her best, and try her hardest, when she simply wasn’t up to it? She was letting Malory Towers down just by taking her place on the team—a place that should be taken by someone who really could give of her best. Taking a deep breath, June went up to the games captain and said, ‘Amanda! There’s something I need to tell you. You see, my ankle isn’t really better at all. I thought that it was, and when I realised it wasn’t I kept quiet, because I so badly wanted to play in the tournament. I see now, though, that the best thing I can do for Malory Towers is to stand aside and let someone else play.’
