Alice-Miranda In New York 5 (10 page)

'G
irls, please make sure that you're at the back doors on time today,' Mr Underwood grilled.

‘Where are we going?' Alice-Miranda asked Lucinda, who was sitting beside her.

‘The park. We go at least twice a week. We get to run around and have some fresh air – and the teachers get to buy coffee and hot dogs and pretzels,' Lucinda whispered. They were supposed to be finishing off their poetry.

‘Is it just the fifth grade?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘No, sixth today as well,' said Lucinda.

Felix Underwood groaned.

‘What's the matter, sir?' one of the girls asked.

‘I just remembered that it's 5U's turn to look after Maisy. Any takers?' He glanced around the room at the girls, whose hands seemed glued to their desks.

Only Alice-Miranda's arm shot into the air. ‘I will, sir,' she smiled.

‘No.' Lucinda looked at Alice-Miranda and clutched her hands to her face. She was shaking her head.

‘What?' asked Alice-Miranda. ‘Is something the matter?'

‘No, Lucinda's just being a drama queen, aren't you, Lucinda? I'm sure that you're going to love looking after Miss Maisy,' said Mr Underwood. ‘Thank you for the offer. You'll have to go downstairs to reception and get her lead and accessories.'

‘Accessories?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘The pooper scooper and the plastic bags,' Ava replied.

‘Of course. What about Maisy? Where will I find her?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘Oh, believe me, she knows the routine. She'll be waiting at the back door. Park days are her favourites,' Felix Underwood informed her.

Alice-Miranda could hardly wait to look after Maisy. She reminded her of their gardener Mr
Greening's labrador Betsy. They had the same lovely temperament.

Lucinda kept scowling at Alice-Miranda all through the rest of the lesson, which happened to involve a geometry quiz which meant the girls couldn't talk any more.

Alice-Miranda whizzed through the questions on triangles, and she loved finding the area and perimeter of a range of shapes, some of which required several different methods to achieve the solution. She handed her paper in to Mr Underwood a full fifteen minutes before the test time was up.

‘Are you sure you don't want to go over this again?' he asked her as she placed the paper on his desk.

‘No, sir,' she replied. ‘Thank you for a lovely test. It was very enjoyable.'

Felix Underwood wondered if she was making a strange attempt at humour. Alice-Miranda sat back in her seat and pulled a book from her desk. She had recently become addicted to
Anne of Green Gables
and sat smiling to herself as she read Anne's adventures.

Felix Underwood hadn't planned to grade the papers until after school but Alice-Miranda's
test sat there all alone, just begging for attention. Finally, curiosity got the better of him and he slid it across the desk. The first page involved some fairly straightforward questions about shapes so he wasn't surprised that she got them all correct. The second page was different – much more difficult – and he could hardly believe it when every answer received a tick. Alice-Miranda scored one hundred per cent on a paper that he thought would challenge some of his brightest students.

He scribbled the mark on the top, beside which he drew a big smiley face and wrote ‘well done'. When Jilly Hobbs had told him last week that he was receiving a new student from overseas for a short period he was thrilled by the prospect. Broadening his girls' horizons was a wonderful opportunity for them all. When Jilly told him that the girl hadn't yet turned eight his enthusiasm waned. Babysitting a third-grader was not something he wanted to do for the next month. He had protested that she'd be better served in one of the younger grades but Jilly Hobbs just smiled and said, ‘She'll be fine. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised, Felix.' Not one to argue with the boss, he had hoped she was right.

From the moment he met Alice-Miranda, Felix Underwood knew there was something different about her. He'd never seen a child introduce herself so confidently and when she couldn't contain her excitement about their art lesson at the Met he knew she was something special.

The bell rang, rousing Alice-Miranda from her jaunt in Avonlea. Several girls were still finishing their tests and others were depositing them on Mr Underwood's desk.

‘You shouldn't have offered to look after Maisy,' Lucinda groaned as she and Alice-Miranda made their way out of the classroom.

‘Why not? She's adorable,' Alice-Miranda protested.

‘Did you know that her nickname is Crazy Maisy? She didn't get that for nothing,' Lucinda grinned.

‘So the new girl is about to find out the hard way, hey?' Ava joined Alice-Miranda and Lucinda as they walked towards their lockers.

Quincy caught up to her friends and began to giggle. ‘Man, Alice-Miranda, you're in for something special.'

‘What's the matter? Why do you think it's so amusing that I offered to look after Maisy? I thought
you'd all love to do it,' Alice-Miranda said, frowning.

‘It's okay, Alice-Miranda, we're just teasing,' said Ava.

‘Not!' Lucinda and Quincy burst out laughing.

Alice-Miranda was beginning to wonder what on earth she'd let herself in for. But she knew she'd find out soon enough.

‘Hurry up guys, we want to make sure we have time to eat lunch. Alice-Miranda, I'll get some extra for you,' Quincy offered.

‘Oh, it's all right. I'm not that hungry,' she replied.

‘Believe me, you'll need every ounce of strength you can get if that mutt gets up to her usual tricks,' said Quincy.

Alice-Miranda ducked into reception on her way to the cafeteria.

‘Hello Miss Cleary.' Alice-Miranda appeared at the reception desk window.

‘Hello to you too, Miss Alice-Miranda. How are you enjoying Mrs Kimmel's?' Miss Cleary leaned forward in her seat to get a better view of the tiny child.

‘I love it,' Alice-Miranda replied. ‘Everyone's so kind and the lessons are great fun.'

‘That's good news,' Cynthia Cleary replied. ‘What can I help you with?'

‘I need to get Maisy's lead and her accessories, please.'

‘Really?' Miss Cleary's brown eyes widened. ‘Are you sure?'

‘Of course. I volunteered to look after Maisy in the park,' Alice-Miranda replied.

‘Good luck, sweetie pie.' Miss Cleary hopped off her chair and opened a cupboard behind her. She retrieved a lead with some small plastic bags. ‘Here you go. Just don't mention the “s” word and you'll be fine.'

Cynthia Cleary handed Alice-Miranda the equipment.

‘What's the “s” word Miss Cleary?' Alice-Miranda asked.

The telephone rang and Miss Cleary answered it. ‘Good afternoon, Mrs Kimmel's School for Girls, this is Cynthia speaking . . . Oh yes, ma'am, I can help you with that.' She pointed at the receiver and mouthed to Alice-Miranda, ‘I'm going to be a while.'

‘I'll bring it back after playtime,' Alice-Miranda smiled. ‘Well, not all of it, perhaps.'

Alice-Miranda waved and skipped off to the cafeteria to join her friends.

A few minutes later, Whip Staples opened the front door and walked into reception. He was clutching a pair of garden clippers and a small plastic bag full of geranium offcuts.

‘Hey Whip, what are you doing in about half an hour?' Cynthia Cleary asked him.

‘What do you need?' he asked.

‘You know our new girl, the little one, Alice-Miranda? She just came and collected Maisy's lead. If you can spare the time, you might want to take a stroll over to the park and make sure that pooch behaves herself.'

‘Happy to,' Whip Staples grinned. ‘She's a cutie, that one.'

‘Yeah, she sure is,' Cynthia Cleary smiled.

Alice-Miranda met Mr Underwood at the back door at exactly five minutes to one. Just as her teacher had predicted, Maisy was already there, her tail wagging like a windscreen wiper on high speed. Alice-Miranda reached down and clipped the lead onto her collar, and was rewarded with a slobbering smooch to the side of her face.

‘Thanks Maisy. Yuck!' the child laughed as she took out a tissue and wiped her cheek.

Alice-Miranda spotted Alethea and Gretchen standing with the other sixth grade girls. She looked up and gave them a wave. Gretchen smiled and waved back but Alethea just sneered.

Mr Underwood called the roll for his class and Miss Patrick did the same for the sixth grade. At 1 pm two lines of girls meandered their way down East 76th Street towards Central Park, stopping at the lights at Madison Avenue and then again at Fifth. Alice-Miranda wondered what the girls had been talking about. Maisy wasn't the least bit difficult to control as she trotted alongside her, obeying every command. ‘Sit' when they reached the lights, ‘walk' when they got a green light and ‘stay' when the girls needed to move to the side of the footpath to let other pedestrians through.

‘You'd better hold on,' Lucinda advised Alice-Miranda as the group crossed Fifth Avenue and made their way through the gates towards the Alice in Wonderland statue and the model boat lake.

Alice-Miranda felt Maisy strain against her lead.

‘Settle down, Miss Maisy, we can have a lovely run around once we're safely inside the park,' Alice-
Miranda told her.

There was large patch of lawn for the girls to play on or they could just sit on the grass and chat.

Mr Underwood and Miss Patrick headed straight for the kiosk while the girls dispersed, some climbing onto the mushroom which formed part of the life-sized bronze
Alice in Wonderland
statue, others taking up residence on the park benches scattered around the edge of the grassed area, and a few walked over to watch the tourists navigating their model boats.

Lucinda, Ava and Quincy led Alice-Miranda and Maisy around the lake, pointing out some of the park's more famous landmarks.

Maisy trotted along beside her mistress, perfectly behaved. Alice-Miranda wondered what the others had been fussing about. Alethea and Gretchen were standing by the lake watching the boats when Alethea suddenly called out, ‘Oh look, how cute, there's a squirrel!' apparently to no one in particular.

Maisy stiffened; she stopped in her tracks, her eyes darting from one side of the path to the other.

‘Come on, Maisy,' Alice-Miranda urged her on. ‘I can't see anyth-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ng.'

The labrador took off at breakneck speed with the tiny child behind gripping tightly to the lead.
Maisy raced into the bushes around a tree and shot back out again. Ahead of them a grey ball of fur darted in and out of the trees, at one stage racing straight up into the foliage overhead. Maisy leapt at the tree trunk, jumping up and down on the spot. Just as Alice-Miranda caught her breath the squirrel fled from its hiding spot and raced across open ground. In the distance, Alethea was watching and laughing so hard she thought her lungs would burst.

Maisy raced around the boat lake with the squirrel ahead. Alice-Miranda would never have believed that the dog could move so quickly, the way she lumbered around the hallways at Mrs Kimmel's.

‘Maisy, STOP!' The tiny child strained on the dog's lead. Maisy ran around the edge of the lake, then across the grass and right through the middle of a picnic rug, where she sent the diners ducking for cover.

‘I am so sorry.' Alice-Miranda's brown curls were flying as she strained to keep a hold on the wayward mutt.

‘Why you!' One elderly picnicker shook his fist at Maisy. His wife was busy removing pasta salad
from her hair.

The squirrel stopped. It twitched then stood up on its hind legs, as if daring its hunter to come closer. Alice-Miranda pulled as hard as she could and finally Maisy came to a halt.

Alice-Miranda was puffing and shaking and wanted to get back to the elderly couple and apologise properly. Lucinda, Ava and Quincy reached Alice-Miranda just as a voice from the edge of the pond shouted again: ‘Oh, how cute, can you see it? There's another squirrel!'

The squirrel took off at top speed with Maisy after it. Alice-Miranda fumbled with the lead and realised to her horror that she'd let it go. Maisy was gone and the lead was bumping up and down behind her. The labrador raced along the edge of the lake with Alice-Miranda and her friends in hot pursuit. Maisy headed straight for Alethea and Gretchen, who squealed like piglets. Maisy's lead caught Alethea's ankles.

‘Ah, ah, ah!' Alethea swayed wildly on the edge of the pond, her arms rotating like windmills.

A loud splash caught the attention of the sixth grade teacher who had been busy chatting with the barista in the cafe.

‘Thea Mackenzie, what on earth are you doing?' Miss Patrick yelled.

Alethea was sitting in the lake, wailing at the top of her lungs.

‘Thea, get out of there.' Gretchen leaned over and offered her hand.