Alice Parker's Metamorphosis (Book 1 of the new adventure series for children) (2 page)

‘
Don’t forget you’ll need to squit them,’ he added helpfully. Filled with horror, Alice had tried to study her back in the bathroom mirror, but, thankfully, nothing had appeared yet.

Having gazed at the old glow-stars on her bedroom ceiling for several hours and listened to the dog having a busy dream, she eventually fell asleep.

*

She was woken by her mother knocking on her bedroom door.

‘
Wake up, sleepy! Sarah will be here in half an hour. Your dad and I will give you a lift into town if you like.’

Alice dragged herself out of bed and into the shower. Although she’d managed a few hours sleep, she had the hangover feeling again. Not that she’d ever had a hangover, but had witnessed enough of Thomas’s to be able to imagine how it felt - head spinning and not entirely sure if the world around you is real. Having taken a long shower trying to wake up properly, by the time she was dressed her father was sounding the horn outside. She raced downstairs and saw that Sarah was already waiting in the car with her parents. She joined her in the back seat.

‘
Morning, Brains!’ said Sarah, smiling. Alice cringed. That was all she needed, her parents finding out what had been happening at school.

‘
Brains?’ remarked her father, perplexed.

‘
You must be so proud of her, getting full marks for all her work lately,’ Sarah rattled on. ‘I just wish she’d stop showing me up. My mum and dad want to know why I can’t do the same!’

‘
For pity’s sake, shut up, Sarah,’ snarled Alice, glaring at her.

‘
Alice!’ her parents scolded her in unison. ‘What’s all this? Why on earth didn’t you tell us how well you’re doing? It’s wonderful!’ declared her mother. ‘It must be my healthy cooking improving your brain power!’

Alice looked at her father’s face in the rear view mirror. He rolled his eyes.

‘
Sorry,’ whispered Sarah. ‘I thought they knew. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, anyway. I think it’s brilliant, you lucky thing.’

Of course Sarah thought it was brilliant. She too had a sibling who was clever and a family who encouraged academic achievement. Shame most of the others at school didn’t see things the same way. But enough of that until Monday. Alice was strong-minded – she pushed that thought aside and tried to look forward to the rest of the weekend.

Her father pulled in outside the entrance to the Priory Shopping Centre to drop them off.

‘
Treat yourselves to something nice,’ insisted her mother and handed Alice a £10 note. ‘That’s for working so hard, you modest thing, you!’

‘
Er, thanks Mum,’ said Alice. That was the problem, though. She hadn’t worked hard at all, it just happened. Reluctantly putting the money into her pocket, she felt guilty as if she had cheated. They waved to her parents as they drove off.

‘
Listen, I really am sorry,’ said Sarah. ‘I didn’t mean to drop you in it like that. Why keep it to yourself anyway?’

Alice sighed. ‘I don’t know. Maybe I don’t want them to be disappointed if these results suddenly stop.’

‘
Why should they stop?’

Alice hung her head. More to the point, why had they started? ‘Well, I haven’t been feeling very well and I don’t sleep much at the moment,’ she admitted.

‘
I think you should take the weekend off. Don’t do any homework – if Mrs Knight realises you haven’t read your English chapters, just tell her you were ill.’

‘
Sounds like a plan!’ agreed Alice. ‘Fancy a large hot chocolate with the works?’

‘
Silly question!’ laughed Sarah. ‘I’m cold already!’

At The Coffee Cauldron, their favourite cafe, they were greeted by warmth and the aroma of sweet treats as they pushed the door open. Neither of them liked coffee, but they enjoyed the surroundings. They often came here for a drink and chocolate fudge cake on a Saturday. Sarah chose a comfy-looking sofa while Alice ordered two ‘grande’ hot chocolates with cream and marshmallows and two slices of cake. The usual lady behind the counter smiled at her. She was small with bright green eyes and always had her hair neatly covered with a patterned bandana.

‘
You look like you need this, my love,’ she commented, grinning. ‘It should do the trick. I’ll bring them over to you.’

‘
Thanks,’ said Alice and took her change.

Half an hour of lounging on a blue velvet sofa with silver cushions, over-indulging in sugar and chatting about Christmas presents really did make Alice feel better. She looked around the cafe at shelves stacked with tins of biscuits, jars of sweets and coffee beans and mugs of every description, all decorated with bright ribbons for Christmas.

‘
Only a few days of school until the holidays!’ Sarah reminded her. ‘I need to buy some Christmas cards, do you?’

Alice didn’t feel like spreading festive cheer to anyone at school, but nodded her head and stood up to put on her coat and scarf. Bandana lady came to clear their table and whispered to Sarah,

‘
Take care of her, won’t you? She’s a special one,’ nodding her head towards Alice, who had her back turned.

‘
Of course,’ Sarah promised, slightly puzzled and ushered her ‘special’ friend outside.

After a couple of hours, they had had their fill of wandering from shop to shop in the cold, so walked home at a brisk pace to keep warm. Back at the house they went up to Alice’s room, put on some music and leafed through the magazines they had bought. Alice wasn’t really interested in girls’ magazines, but bought one occasionally so that she could join in with conversations at school. She struggled to get excited about clothes and make-up. One of her secret hobbies was playing the harp. Unsurprisingly, that instrument wasn’t taught at school and so she had a lesson at home once a week. Growing fruit and vegetables was her other passion - not that she could do much gardening at this time of year. She had never seen a magazine called ‘Harpist’s Weekly’ or ‘Vegetable Gardening for Girls,’ and if she ever did, she would have to hide them from everyone at school to avoid being outcast completely. Imagine the reaction if they found out! ‘What a freak, does she think she’s an angel playing on a cloud?’ and ‘Dull old fart!’ were just some of the comments she anticipated.

‘
Shall we watch one of the films you brought?’ she asked Sarah, casting aside her ‘Glitz’ magazine.

‘
Sure, choose which one you like,’ Sarah replied, rummaging in her bag. She handed over four DVDs and Alice turned the TV on. They just caught the news headlines:

‘
Bank robbers have escaped with a haul of over £300,000 – police are trying to determine how they accessed the main safe. Another lottery jackpot in lucky Warwickshire! The winner wishes to remain anonymous. And finally, a local entrepreneur has bought Aylesford Castle.’

Alright for some, thought Alice. She chose an animated film about monsters and they settled down on bean bags with the sweets they had bought earlier, Jack drooling at their feet.

The film was actually quite good, though the challenge lay in preventing Sarah from talking during the important bits. Each time she started to speak, Alice waved a jelly snake or fizzy cola bottle in front of her mouth.

When the film had finished, Alice went downstairs to let the dog out and fetch them a drink. Just as she was putting the orange juice back in the fridge, Jack started barking in the garden. She dashed outside to find him looking up at the sky, wagging his tail and barking.

‘
What’s up boy?’ she asked. ‘Did you see a pigeon?’ Jack loved chasing pigeons, the temptation of those fat, waddling birds was too much to resist, but they always managed to fly off before he could catch one. He grudgingly followed Alice back to the kitchen and she carried the drinks up to her room. Sarah was staring out of the window.

‘
What
on earth
was that?’ she asked anxiously.

‘
What was what?’

‘
That thing that hovered outside your window just now! Jack must have seen it too, he was looking up here barking, I saw him down in the garden!’

‘
Er, a pigeon?’ Alice felt butterflies in her stomach as she dared to hope that her friend had shared one of her strange experiences.

‘
That was no bird, it was something big.’ Sarah had been reading with her back to the window when she noticed a shadow cast over her shoulder. She turned quickly and just glimpsed something darting away.

‘
Perhaps it was a pterodactyl,’ joked Alice uneasily.

‘
Oh, very funny. You saw it as well, didn’t you? I can tell by your face! What was it?’

Alice passed Sarah a drink and sat down on the bed. ‘I didn’t see anything. Not today.’

‘
You’ve seen it before?’

‘
I’ve seen
something
several times. I just don’t know what it was, I didn’t get a good look.’

‘
Well, I could swear it was a...no...it couldn’t be. For a moment, I thought it was a person... Maybe it was a large bird after all, like a heron visiting your pond. Whatever it was, it gave me a fright.’ She sat down next to Alice.

‘
I’m just glad you’ve seen it too,’ admitted Alice, gulping down her orange juice. ‘I began to think I was imagining things.’

After a take-away and plenty of dreadful Saturday night television, the girls went up to bed. Alice had a sofa-bed in her room which they made up for Sarah. For once, Alice was glad that her friend could talk the hind leg off a donkey. At least her whispering helped to pass the hour or two that she needed to fall asleep.

Unfortunately, that night, Sarah didn’t sleep very well either. She remained wide awake, the vision outside the window that afternoon was playing on her mind. The concoction of junk food she had eaten probably wasn’t helping either and she lay there listening to the dog snoring by Alice’s bed. The room was light, as if the moon were trying to force open the curtains and she could see Jack’s paws twitching as he was running along in his dream. Soon Alice began to fidget too and appeared to be fighting with her duvet. Sarah could hear her mumbling as well.

‘
What did you say, Alice? Are you OK?’ she whispered, getting out of bed to see what was wrong.

Like a shot, Jack leaped to his feet and created a four-legged barrier between her and Alice, growling and baring his teeth.

Sarah stepped back, shocked. ‘What’s got into you?’

Jack put his front paws on the bed and licked Alice’s face, whining. She grumbled, turned her back to them and went back to sleep, though the fidgeting and noises would continue all night. Jack resumed his position on the floor, keeping one eye on Sarah as she got back into bed. She had a rotten night and was justifiably grumpy the next morning.

It was quarter past ten when Alice finally woke up and Sarah was ready for her. She sat in her bed, arms folded, at a safe distance from Jack and demanded, ‘Spill the beans then, what’s going on with you and your nutty dog?’

As usual, Alice’s head was spinning as she sat up. Great, an interrogation. She didn’t like Sarah’s snotty tone either, it was out of character. ‘What do you mean?’

‘
First you toss and turn all night, making noises in your sleep. Then, when I get out of bed, your mad dog turns on me and snarls, as if I was going to hurt you. What with that thing outside the window yesterday, I’ll be glad to go home.’

‘
Don’t be like that, I’m sorry if I kept you awake but I can’t help it. I told you I’ve not been sleeping very well. I get these pains and an itchy feeling across my back, then I get so hot and my head starts to hurt. She could feel the anger rising in her. ‘You’re sick of it after one night. Imagine how I feel! It’s been going on for weeks. I’ve had enough!’ she complained, thumping the bed with her fist in frustration.

‘
Well, what do your parents think? Your dad’s a paramedic after all!’

‘
Nothing much. Dad thinks it could be bad posture causing backache and I don’t bother mum with it. She’s too busy with work at the moment. Plus, it’s mostly during the night – it wouldn’t go down too well if I woke them up with an itchy back and a headache would it?’

Sarah just shrugged and pulled a face that seemed to say, you’re weird, I don’t understand and I’m worried. ‘You look awful as well,’ she added.

‘
Thanks very much. I know. Anyway, let’s get some breakfast, your mum will be here soon.’

At the kitchen table, without even realising it, Alice continued to unsettle her friend. Sarah watched in disbelief as she packed away a disturbing amount of food. Five slices of toast with lashings of apricot jam, two huge bowls of honey flakes and a whole carton of pineapple juice. She had noticed that Alice had been drinking a lot of fruit juice at school and assumed she was trying to be healthy. But this eating capacity was something different.

‘
You’ll be sick if you’re not careful,’ she warned, ‘and a fat porker.’

Alice put down her glass and looked guilty. ‘I can’t stop,’ she confessed. ‘I just want fruit and sugar all the time.’

She looked over her shoulder to make sure they were alone and lowered her voice. ‘Mum thinks it’s Thomas taking all this extra food and juice while he’s home.’ Her voice cracked as she added, ‘but it’s me.’

She put her head in her hands and dragged her fingers through her untidy hair, as if she wanted to tear it out. ‘Please help me, Sarah, I don’t know what’s wrong with me and I’m so tired all the time.’ She had begun to sniff as she was talking, and when she looked up, Sarah could see that tears were streaming down her cheeks.