Magic Bunny: Dancing Days (4 page)

Sara waved back. She turned to say something to Beth and saw her smiling widely and giving the blonde girl a double thumbs up. It looked as if Olya had been waving at Beth and not her.

Sara was puzzled. What was going on? She didn’t think Beth and Olya were all that friendly.

Beth turned to watch some girls who were doing complicated locks and pops. Sara saw Beth nodding her head in time to the imaginary music and doing some of the arm movements in time with the other girls. Olya beckoned to her to join them.

Beth jumped to her feet eagerly and looked at Sara. ‘Do you mind?’

‘Course not. You go on,’ Sara said.

She watched them wistfully, hating just having to sit there. Beth, Olya and the girls were having so much fun doing more and more complicated moves.

Sighing, she hoped it wouldn’t be too long before her ankle healed and she could dance again.

Arrow had finished eating grass. He hopped back across the playing field towards the bench where Sara sat and stopped beside it to groom himself.

Beth was fooling about, doing a moonwalk as the others clapped. She glided smoothly across the grass as if she was sliding on ice.

Sara tensed. Beth was moving closer to where Arrow sat. He was so busy licking his pale tummy that he hadn’t noticed the danger. Any second now, Beth was going to step on her invisible little friend!

‘Look out!’ she cried, lifting one crutch. She only meant to wave it warningly, but before she could swing it out of the way, Beth tripped over it.

‘Ow!’ Beth sprawled full length on the grass.

Startled, Arrow leapt in the air and quickly hopped under the bench out of harm’s way.

Beth scrambled to her feet. She brushed grass off her uniform. ‘What did you do that for, you muppet?’ she shouted.

‘I thought you were going to hurt Arr– I mean bash into my ankle,’ Sara quickly corrected, horrified that she’d almost given away Arrow’s secret. She would have to be more careful.

‘I saw what happened. You tripped Beth up on purpose,’ Olya cried. ‘You’re jealous because Beth’s asked me to be her new dance partner!’

Sara looked up in total disbelief as the tall girl strode towards her, her blonde hair swinging out behind her.

Chapter
FIVE

Sara gaped at her best friend. ‘Beth? What’s Olya talking about? I’m your dance partner!’

‘I was going to tell you,’ Beth said, looking sheepish. ‘I just really wanted to audition for the dance troupe, but our routine doesn’t work as a solo. So I … I asked Olya to dance it with me instead. That’s OK, isn’t it?’ she said quietly. ‘It’s only while your ankle’s getting better. You’re still my usual dance partner.’

Sara knew how much winning a place in Jane’s new troupe meant to Beth. But she had assumed that Beth wouldn’t go in for it without her. What would happen if Beth got a place and she didn’t? She swallowed hard, trying not to feel upset.

‘All right,’ she said, nodding slowly.

‘Thanks, Sara!’ Beth sounded relieved. ‘I’ve been putting off telling you, cos I was worried that you’d be angry with me.’

‘No way! We’ve been friends forever.’ Sara managed a smile, despite the sinking feeling in her tummy at being left out. If Beth and Olya joined Jane’s new troupe, they’d be practising hard and taking extra classes, but she wouldn’t be included. Would Beth still be her best friend?

‘It’s a great routine,’ Olya said. ‘You and Beth must have worked really hard on it. I’m going to dance it the best I can. And I’m sorry for what I said about you tripping Beth up and stuff.’

Sara shrugged. ‘That’s OK.’ Olya actually seemed quite nice. Another time she would have enjoyed dancing with her and Beth. She just hoped that Beth wouldn’t like Olya so much that she decided to become best friends with her instead. Maybe when her ankle was better they could all team up.

The bell went again and everyone began crowding back into school. Sara’s spirits sank a bit as she thought of having to sit around while Beth and Olya had all the fun.

Arrow hopped up to Sara’s shoulder bag and leapt inside. His big brown eyes shone with affection. ‘Thank you for stopping Beth from treading on me.’

‘I’d say we’re even!’ she whispered back. ‘
You
saved
me
from hurting myself when I fell over in the changing room.’

Arrow nodded, his little nose twitching. ‘It is good that friends can help each other.’

Sara smiled at him as she shouldered her bag and felt herself starting to cheer up a little. The magic bunny was her very own special secret – she would never share him with anyone.

Two days later, Sara and Arrow were sitting in an empty classroom. It was a cool, rather windy day. From outside came the sounds of voices and laughter from the tennis courts and playing fields.

Sara sighed glumly. The teacher had suggested she stay inside to keep warm, so she was catching up on some reading for their class project. But she just couldn’t get interested in reading about Vikings today.

‘I’m fed up with limping about on these dumb crutches. I can’t do anything exciting,’ she grumbled, closing the book with a thud.

Sara tried to make a big effort to cheer herself up for Arrow’s sake. He didn’t deserve such a grumpy friend. She fished a scrap of paper out of her pencil case, scrunched it up and then flicked it across her desk.

Arrow’s eyes gleamed brightly. One tiny fluffy front paw shot out and he trapped the paper beneath it.

‘Wow! Great reflexes!’ Sara was impressed. ‘Let’s test them some more.’

Arrow looked up at her in puzzlement. ‘How are we going to do that?’

‘I’ve got an idea.’ Sara collected a few books and then stacked them at intervals on the nearby work surface. She propped others up to make a tunnel. ‘There you go. A bunny obstacle course!’

Arrow’s whiskers twitched eagerly as he hopped to one end of the course.

‘Go, Arrow! Go, Arrow!’ Sara encouraged in a singsong voice. ‘Go, Arrow!’

Flattening his ears, the magic bunny hopped forward. He jumped over the obstacles and ducked through the tunnel, his bobtail flicking delightedly.

Sara hobbled to one end of the work surface. Propping her crutches against a nearby desk, she opened her arms as Arrow hopped over the last pile of books. He gave a mighty leap and launched himself straight at her.

Sara caught him and gave him a big hug. She kissed the top of his fluffy head. ‘Yay! This beats playing outside. You’d definitely get a place in the bunny Olympics!’

‘It was good fun!’ Arrow agreed, gently touching her chin with his pink nose.

‘Come on. Let’s go for a walk to the cloakrooms and back. Most kids are outside, so you can hop about for a change without worrying about being stepped on.’

She picked up her crutches and they set off down the corridor. As they reached another empty classroom, Sara thought she saw something moving. The door was partly open, so she stopped to look.

There was a girl dancing in the centre of the room. She was slim with striking dark red hair and pale skin and looked about ten years old – a year or so older than her. Sara couldn’t remember ever seeing the girl in the playground.

‘I wonder who she is,’ she whispered to Arrow.

They stood in the doorway silently watching as the girl danced around the room. She was doing a series of complicated spins, twists and locks.

‘Wow! She’s
really
good!’ Sara whispered, totally spellbound as the girl finished her routine with a graceful downward sweep of one arm. She couldn’t contain herself any longer. Pushing the door wide open, she went in. ‘That was amazing! Where did you learn to dance like that?’ she exclaimed.

The girl whipped round, a look of shock on her face. ‘Oh! I … I didn’t know anyone was there!’ she said, flustered. ‘I didn’t mean to … Sorry, I’ve … um … gotta go!’ As she grabbed her bag from a nearby desk, something fell to the floor. But in her haste, the girl didn’t notice.

‘Hey, wait!’ Sara started forward as the girl dashed away towards a door in the far corner of the room. ‘What’s your name?’

There was no answer. The girl had gone.

Arrow hopped into the room and went over to the crumpled object on the floor. Grasping it in his teeth, he dragged it over to Sara.

‘Thanks, Arrow. Look, it’s a gym shirt.’ She read the name tag. ‘Tamara Blake. I wonder why she ran away like that?’

Arrow shook his head. ‘I do not know.’

Sara nodded in agreement. ‘Strange, wasn’t it? If I could dance like that, I’d be really proud of myself.’ She draped the gym shirt over a chair before she and Arrow continued on their walk.

Chapter
SIX

After school finished for the day, Sara and Arrow waited for Beth by the main gate. ‘Beth’s coming home with us tonight. Mum’s treating us to a pizza,’ Sara told Arrow.

‘What is pizza?’ Arrow’s whiskers twitched in curiosity.

‘It’s sort of flat bread with tomatoes and other stuff, topped with melted cheese. Wait until you taste it. You’ll love it!’ She decided to ask for one with lots of spinach, especially for Arrow.

Arrow licked his lips. ‘I like trying new human food.’