Children of the Moon. Evadeen Brickwood

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СКАЧАТЬ on the carpet of their dorm room. One of her favorite yoga positions. Her face looked funny upside down as she spoke.

      “No, don’t feel like it,” Katherine said. “How is she supposed to find out?”

      “You know, when Holly is onto something, she’s like a bull terrier. Where is Trevor?”

      Somebody knocked on the door. Two long raps and two short ones. Their secret sign.

      “Ah, there he is.” Chryséis uncurled herself quickly.

      “Ready you two?” Trevor whispered urgently.

      He didn’t feel like being caught in the girls' dorm and sweeping the back veranda or something for the rest of the year. “Let’s get on with it. I don’t want to miss dinner as well.”

      “Why do you always have to think about food?” Katherine asked irritated.

      “I don’t like chocolate.”

      “Stop arguing. Go ahead, Trev, we’ll be there just now.”

      They met in a dead-end passage on the top floor, where sports equipment and old kitchen utensils were stored. Nobody would look for them here. At least not for a while, but they had to hurry.

      “That’s supposed to be the invisibility device?” Katherine wasn’t exactly convinced.

      “Yes, this inventor from Kansas gave an interview with all the details. It’s the most logical design.”

      An aliceband with the box stuck on it and a button to switch it on and off. Ready for testing.

      “Okay then, here goes.”

      Trevor put the prototype on Chryséis’s head and pressed the button. She disappeared almost immediately. Katherine and Trevor caught their breaths. “Unbelievable.”

      “Well, get used to it girlfriend,” a ghostly voice said next to Katherine and made her eyes pop.

      “You mean, when the dinosaur is ready to gobble us up.” Trevor snapped his hands playfully in the direction of the voice.

      “Better safe than sorry is what I say,” the ghost cackled.

      “No nonsense, please Chris,” Katherine warned her. “We’ll see you at the lab in ten. Good luck!”

      Katherine opened the door to the emergency back staircase. Trevor followed her. It was the quickest way to the ‘Whitby Wing’.

      “Nonsense! Would I ever?” Chryséis traipsed down the main stairs, carefully moving along the wall. Somebody might just decide to shoot around the corner and bump into her. The last thing she needed.

      It went well. On the ground floor, Chryséis walked slowly along the passage. First past the library, then the school office. A couple of children were on their way to have their snacks before sports practice. Nobody could see her.

      Chryséis moved more confidently now toward the teachers’ staff room and slid through the half-open door.

      Somebody spoke behind the bookshelves at the back of the long room. She heard soft laughter and whispering. Chryséis crept forward taking care not to make any noise. She peeped out from behind one of the shelves to get a better look. At that moment Mr. Hunter and Miss Gould, two student teachers, started kissing passionately.

      Chryséis stepped back in surprise and bumped into one of the desks. The young teachers tore away from each other and Mr. Hunter stood protectively in front of an embarrassed Miss Gould. “Is there somebody?”

      He walked a few paces forward and nearly collided with Chryséis. She turned around and fled.

      Chryséis ran towards the door, thudding her big toe against the doorframe as she took the corner. It hurt an awful lot, but she bit her lip, trying not to make a noise.

      Only when Chryséis had reached the top of the stairs, she checked if it was safe. Nobody followed her. Then she switched off the invisibility device at last. She bit her lip and tried to walk as normally as possible. Her toe throbbed with pain, but she managed to smile a greeting at Mr. Van Straten, who was on his way to the staff room.

      Trevor and Katherine were waiting for her outside the lab. By the time she reached the Whitby Wing, Chryséis had recovered enough to tell her friends what had happened. She whispered her story in hushed tones, because other students were standing around. Not the best place to exchange secrets.

      To add insult to injury, Katherine and Trevor could barely contain themselves. They kept chuckling and Chryséis threatened not to finish her story if they didn’t keep it down. But then she had to grin as well. Imagine Mr. Hunter and Miss Gould!

      Holly Benson shot stern glances at them from her desk inside the laboratory. Of course it was Trevor Huxley and his two girlfriends, she thought annoyed.

      “Unbelievable! Can’t you be quiet when we have to work?”

      She looked around in search of support, but nobody else seemed to take any notice of them. She wondered what could possibly be so funny. Well, I’ll find out, she thought smugly, and then they’re in trouble.

      But the day didn’t end pleasantly for Holly.

      In the evening, she found a slippery frog in her bed. Holly screamed blue murder, when her feet touched the moist, squirming animal. The blood-curdling scream could be heard everywhere in the girls dormitory.

      She threw the blankets off and the horrified frog jumped up and down trying to escape, and quickly ended up in the flowerbed below, leaping toward the safety of the pond. Holly was furious.

      She suspected now this culprit, now another. Two seven-graders high-fived in their room on the second floor and grinned.

      There was nothing the startled matron could do, except for shooing giggling girls back into their bedrooms.

      And Holly never found out who had played that ghastly prank on her.

      Chapter 5

      Travel Preparations

      It was lunchtime in the dining room and as Cook had promised, they ate a special Sunday meal: crayfish – and roast chicken for those with a shellfish allergy.

      “So what’s your IQ score then, Holfield?” Holly Benson smirked in the new girl’s direction.

      She hadn’t been very friendly to anyone since the prank with the frog. Sally’s face turned the colour of the red crayfish on her plate. She suddenly didn’t feel hungry anymore.

      “Leave her alone Benson,” Chryséis snarled a warning without looking up. They all knew what Holly had in mind.

      “What is it with you, Cromwell? Can’t I ask a simple question without your approval?” Holly sulked.

      It was such a bother with Chris and Katie, she thought. They always had to spoil a bit of fun with the new ones. Holly tried a smile in Sally’s direction.

      “Ahem 144,” Sally breathed, fixing СКАЧАТЬ