The Worst Witch and the Wishing Star (5 page)

iss Drill was deeply delighted with her new position as form teacher. She was waiting for Form Four on the platform at the front of the classroom half an hour early, wearing a dark green suit with a lilac shirt and a purple tie with yellow stars emblazoned all over it. She was so excited about being in proper clothes, instead of her customary shorts, Aertex shirt and black fleece if it was chilly, that her sense of taste had rather deserted her. Trying to fit in as many colours as possible, without deviating too far from the traditional dark colours, had proved tricky. However, Miss Drill had gazed at herself approvingly in her long mirror that morning and felt confident and fashionable. ‘Yes,’ she thought to herself, ‘I look quite … 
trendy
. I think the girls will be
most
impressed.’

The girls
were
impressed when they filed into their new classroom after breakfast, but not quite in the way that Miss Drill had hoped for.

‘Settle down now, girls,’ said Miss Drill. ‘I don’t know what is causing all this giggling and silliness.’

Enid and Maud were staring desperately at the floor, neither of them daring to look at Mildred, whose shoulders were beginning to shake as she tried to focus on anything but Miss Drill’s almost fluorescent tie. They all managed to pull themselves together after arranging their books and writing equipment in their desks and they were soon all sitting up straight, politely awaiting their instructions for the day.

‘Good morning, girls,’ said Miss Drill, an excited catch in her voice as she spoke.

‘Good
morn
ing, Miss Drill,’ chorused the girls in that sing-song way used by schools everywhere.

‘First of all,’ announced Miss Drill, ‘I promised Miss Hardbroom that I would give out the essential equipment to all three of our Lantern Monitors. Come up here, Ethel, Drusilla and Mildred.’

Miss Drill handed each of them a surprisingly large canvas holdall, which contained a fire blanket, a fire extinguisher, several boxes of candles, a box of tapers, a box of matches, a large lantern with a clip on the side for a taper and a special handle (a bit like one of those holders for coffee glasses), so that the monitor could easily dip in a taper to light all the lanterns, and a snuffer for dousing the candles in the morning.

‘Miss Hardbroom asked me to make it clear to the Lantern Monitors that she will be expecting them to commence their duties at twilight this evening,’ said Miss Drill. ‘Make sure you leave yourselves plenty of time, and you should take your brooms with you, as some of the lanterns – and candelabras – are quite high and you will need to fly up to light them. You may also keep your broomsticks in your rooms, as you will need them to hand. Oh, and you don’t have to take the cats on lantern duty.’

‘Yes, Miss Drill,’ said Mildred, trying hard to remember the instructions as she lugged the holdall back to her desk and put it under her seat.

‘Thank you, Miss Drill,’ said Ethel and Drusilla together, though Ethel didn’t look too happy.

‘Now then,’ continued Miss Drill. ‘I expect you are all longing to know the details about the swimming-pool competition. It hasn’t been decided yet which class or who in particular will be representing the school, but this competition is quite unusual as it is more of a talent competition than the usual formal display.’

The girls all perked up at this piece of news.

‘I
thought
that would catch your interest,’ said Miss Drill with a beaming smile. ‘There will be one act representing each school and the judges are to be the Supreme Magician, the Grand High Witch and the Chief Wizard. The judges have stated that they want to be thoroughly entertained! The act can be anything at all, but the person or persons
must
have star quality – something that puts them above everyone else.’

‘Excuse me, Miss Drill,’ said Ethel, putting up her hand. ‘Could we have a chanting choir?’

‘Or a dance troupe!’ exclaimed Enid.

‘I’m not sure if Miss Hardbroom would approve of a dance troupe, Enid,’ said Miss Drill, ‘especially if it was one of those modern ones, with everyone leaping about in an abandoned fashion wearing leotards – and, of course, it has to be something to reflect our position as a witches’ academy. A chanting choir sounds very suitable, Ethel. We’ll have to put our thinking caps on, but before we do you can all run down to the broom sheds, fetch your broomsticks and fly three times round the school to wake yourselves up! I’ll come down with you and time everyone with my stopwatch.’

There was a huge groan, which rippled round the class like thunder.

‘Now, now, girls,’ chirped Miss Drill. ‘That is
not
the attitude! Look at the glorious day waiting for you out there, with a perfect rain-washed blue sky; it’s just splendid after yesterday’s storm clouds and there’s a lovely light breeze to keep you on your toes, so to speak. Up you get and off you go – and don’t forget to fetch your cats; I’m sure they could do with some exercise too.’

Miss Drill held out her arms and shooed them from the room like a large flock of unwilling geese.

here doesn’t seem to be much wrong with her knee, if you ask me,’ grumbled Mildred to Maud as they hastened to collect their cats.

‘I think she just pretended she’d hurt it, so that she could be a class teacher and keep out of the cold,’ agreed Enid. ‘Anyway, she seems even more exercise-mad than she used to be –’

‘– as long as
we’re
the ones doing the exercise,’ commented Mildred mutinously.

‘I still think it’s better than another year of Miss Hardbroom,’ said Maud. ‘Miss Drill’s always quite cheerful, even if she
is
going to wear us out!’

Tabby was appalled when Mildred roused him from his deep morning slumber on her pillow.

‘It’s no use, Tab,’ said Mildred, scooping him up gently and carrying him yowling down the spiral stairs and out to the broom shed. ‘
I’m
not crazy about flying either, but we both have to do it.’

‘Poor old Mildred,’ sneered Ethel, already on her broom, with her cat, Nightstar, sitting behind her like an ebony statue. ‘It must be so hard for you, stuck with that stripey weirdo – I mean, you’re not a bad basic flier really; it’s just that you look completely ridiculous with that
thing
doing its nut behind you. I can’t imagine anyone’s going to be rushing to put
you
in line for this competition. Maybe you’d stand a better chance if you pleaded with Miss Cackle to get you a better cat.’

Mildred cuddled Tabby under her cardigan, hoping that he hadn’t understood what Ethel had said.

‘There’s no better cat than Tabby!’ she said fiercely. ‘Anyway, Miss Cackle
did
try to give me another cat once, ages ago, when she sent Tabby to be a kitchen mouser, and we were both so miserable that in the end she let me have him back.’

‘Actually,’ said Maud, ‘they might not choose
anyone
from our class. It really
is
going to be whoever has the best idea.’

‘And another thing, Mildred Hubble,’ said Ethel, hovering alongside Mildred, who was trying to peel Tabby off her front. ‘How come we get holdalls full of safety equipment as Lantern Monitors these days? It always
used
to be a jam jar with a candle and a taper.
I
think H.B. made sure we’ve got safety stuff because she knows you’ll probably set the school on fire otherwise. It’s so embarrassing, as well as heavy to lug around. You always manage to ruin everything before it’s even started.’

At this point, Miss Drill joined them in the playground (having taken quite a long time to hobble down the spiral staircase). Happily for Mildred, this stopped Ethel from working herself up into a full-blown rant – Mildred could always tell when Ethel was gunning for her, as she started addressing her by both names.

‘Right then, girls!’ Miss Drill announced encouragingly. ‘I want you all to line up so that you get a fair start and I’ll time each lap. Don’t go any higher than the third floor, watch out for turrets and there’ll be a tin of caramel toffees for the person who’s the fastest – I can’t say fairer than that on this beautiful morning. Ready, steady, GO!’