Читать книгу Lottie Luna and the Bloom Garden - Vivian French - Страница 8

CHAPTER TWO

A tall boy was waiting in the hallway of Shadow Academy. When he saw Lottie, he gave her a little wave. ‘Are you Lottie Luna? I’ve been waiting for you. I’m Wilf, and you’re in my form. I’m going to show you around.’

He caught sight of Jaws, and his eyes shone. ‘Hey! Is that your bat? Does he always come to school with you?’

‘Should I have left him at home?’ Lottie was worried, but Wilf grinned at her.

‘It’s fine. Pets are welcome. I’ve got a pet rat myself.’

‘Oh, good.’ Lottie smiled back. ‘They were allowed at my old school – just as long as they didn’t squeak too much during lessons.’ She stroked Jaws’s furry head. ‘He’s usually very good.’

‘My rat’s terribly badly behaved,’ Wilf said cheerfully. ‘He crept into Mrs Wilkolak’s cupboard last week, and knocked all the paint pots over, so now he’s banned.’ He giggled. ‘You should have seen the mess!’

Lottie wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. ‘Did you get into loads of trouble?’

Wilf shrugged. ‘Not too much.’ He gave her a sideways look. ‘Don’t worry. It’s okay here. You’ll get used to it really quickly. We’re really all right.’ Wilf paused for a moment. ‘Well, except for Awful Aggie.’

It was Lottie’s turn to giggle. ‘Awful Aggie? Who’s she?’

‘Agatha Claws –’ Wilf crossed his eyes – ‘she thinks she’s the best at everything!’ He paused for a moment and scratched his head. ‘And then there’s Bruno – Bruno Gnawbone. He’s a bit of a mystery.’

‘How is he a mystery?’ Lottie was interested.

Wilf shrugged. ‘His dad’s the deputy head teacher. They were both new this term, and none of us can make them out. Bruno doesn’t talk much, but he’s always listening in, and we’re sure he tells his dad everything. Don’t tell him any secrets!’

‘I won’t,’ Lottie promised, and Wilf grinned at her.

‘Good! Now, it’s this way. Our classroom’s right at the end of the corridor.’

As Lottie followed Wilf, she whispered to Jaws, ‘He’s nice. I like him!’

There were pictures and notices on the walls and she looked at them with interest. Some of the pictures were of famous past pupils, and others showed exciting-looking moonlit trips and events. There seemed to be a lot of things going on – a forest club, a group that met to do moon dancing, a star-gazing club…

‘I’ll join all of those,’ she decided.

There was also a large notice about a competition. Lottie wanted to stop and read it, but Wilf was hurrying her along too quickly. She only had time to see that it was something about a special garden. Interesting, she thought. I’ll definitely have a look at that later.

‘Here we are,’ Wilf said at last, pulling open a door and giving a mock bow. ‘Please enter!’

‘Thank you,’ Lottie said. She could see rows of faces looking at her, and for a moment her stomach was full of butterflies. Don’t be silly, Lottie Luna, she told herself, they can’t eat you! And she took a deep breath and walked in.

The teacher, an elderly werewolf with greying fur and little gold spectacles, greeted her warmly. ‘Hello, Lottie! Welcome to Shadow Academy! I’m your teacher, Mrs Wilkolak, and I hope you’ll be very happy here.’

‘Thank you,’ Lottie said. ‘Ummm… where should I sit?’

‘Perhaps you’d like to take the empty seat next to Aggie?’ Mrs Wilkolak suggested.

‘That’s me!’ A very neat and tidy girl with a long nose gave Lottie a cool smile. ‘So you’re Lottie… Is that your real name? It’s a bit boring. My name’s Agatha Astra Claws. Astra means star, you know.’

Lottie saw Wilf rolling his eyes, and she smiled at him. He winked back, and a girl on the other side of Lottie stifled a giggle.

Aggie took no notice. ‘So where do you live, Lottie?’ I live in the new house up on the hill, near that awful Dracon Castle. My father says it should be pulled down. He says it’s an eyesore!’

Jaws, sitting on Lottie’s shoulder, gave a protesting squeak. Lottie, making sure no one could see her, put her finger to her lips to silence him.

‘Thank you, Aggie.’ Mrs Wilkolak’s tone was firm. ‘That’s quite enough.’ She turned back to Lottie. ‘Now, Lottie, I should let you know about a competition that’s running here at school at the moment – a competition to transform the wasteland at the back of the academy.’

Aha! Lottie thought. So that’s what the notice in the corridorwas about!

‘This land has been allowed to grow wild,’ Mrs Wilkolak went on. ‘A businessman wants to buy it, but the owner says that if we can make it beautiful she’ll give it to us instead. It would be wonderful to have that extra bit of space at the back of the school. So every pupil is going to draw their dream design, and the head teacher, Mrs Grubeloff, is going to choose the best one. Do you like gardens and flowers?’

Lottie nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes, I do! I had my own garden at our last house, and I loved it! Ma and I arranged little white pebbles all round the edge, and they shone white in the moonlight…’

A wave of homesickness for her old house suddenly swept over her, and she stopped.

Mrs Wilkolak gave her a sympathetic look. ‘That sounds delightful. Why don’t you take a piece of paper from my table and see what you can do.’

As Lottie sat back down at her table, Aggie smiled a superior kind of smile. ‘I don’t expect you know much about gardens, but I do. We’ve got three gardeners, and we grow simply marvellous flowers.’

A small boy with strange green eyes leaned forward from the table behind. ‘Aggie’s sure to win,’ he said. ‘She’s very clever.’

Aggie nodded. ‘I am.’

Lottie wasn’t sure what to say, but the girl who had giggled earlier gave a loud sigh. ‘You don’t need to tell us, Aggie!’

‘Actually, Marjory, I was trying to be helpful to Lottie,’ Aggie said, ‘and so was Bruno.’ She gave the boy with green eyes a little nod. ‘Weren’t you, Bruno?’

Bruno didn’t answer, but Lottie thought he looked pleased. She remembered the name from earlier – so this was the deputy head’s son.

Mrs Wilkolak clapped her hands. ‘Class W! If all you’re going to do is chat, we’ll never find a winner for the competition. I’d like you to work for another thirty minutes, and then we’ll go outside and show Lottie the garden and the lake.’

A lake? Lottie’s eyes shone, and she put her hand up. ‘Please, Mrs Wilkolak – can we swim? Is it allowed?’

‘We do allow swimming on hot days,’ Mrs Wilkolak told her, ‘but you have to be careful. The lake’s small, but it’s very deep. Can you swim, Lottie?’

‘I absolutely LOVE swimming!’ Lottie beamed at her, and Jaws squeaked in agreement. ‘I was—’ She stopped dead as she remembered she’d decided to be ordinary Lottie Luna. At her last school she’d been the year’s swimming champion. She’d have to remember to swim slowly. And splash a lot, she told herself. All the same, she was thrilled, and as she picked up her pencil case she was smiling happily.