Schoolgirl Secrets

Chapter Thirteen: Traitor

Jenifer opened her eyes. She could tell it was dawn as the sky beyond the trees was orange streaked with magenta clouds. She lay there for a minute or two, listening to the early morning calls and songs of the birds and the soft rustlings of squirrels and rabbits searching for breakfast on the dewy floor below. Pushing herself up on her elbows; Jenifer tried to sit up, but found that she couldn't. Long ropes of twine had been wound around and around her as she slept, tying her to her hammock and leaving her utterly powerless. She struggled and squirmed but the ropes just would not budge. Gently and slowly, she put her hand in her pocket and found that her pocket knife was gone.

"Jane!" she hissed. "Jane!"

"What?" asked Jane, jerking awake. "What is it? Hang on...Why am I tied down? Jenifer? What's going on? Help me!"

"I can't," whispered Jenifer. "I'm stuck too. Have you got a knife on you?"

"I did yesterday," she said, sounding miffed. "But it's gone now. Whoever immobilized us must have taken it."

"Same here,"

Silence fell between them as they both tried desperately to think of an escape plan. Suddenly there was a loud scream and a scuffle beneath them on the forest floor. Jenifer attempted to jump up and felt the leaves supporting her break. She fell five feet, crashed into Jane, knocked her out of her hammock, fell another ten feet and crashed onto the ground. Small, white lights popped in her vision and she was sure she was going to faint. She did. The last thing she saw before everything went black; was the tall form of Elsie dragging a sobbing girl into the trees.

****

Drops of cold water landed on her face. Jenifer opened her eyes. Jane was flicking pond water at her from a nearby pond.

"Where are we?" Jenifer asked groggily, pushing herself up on her elbows and looking around. "What happened? Where's Miriam? Where's Elsie?"

"We're in my back garden," said Jane, clambering out of her dad's Koi pond and brushing soil from her grass-stained trousers.

"What? Why?!" Jenifer exclaimed.

"I had to get us away from Elsie," Jane said. "Right after we fell; you passed out. I felt like I was going to but I didn't. Just felt a little light-headed and all that. Anyway, Elsie ran off with Miriam and then came back for us! Luckily, I got us away before she got back."

"Where did Miriam go?" Jenifer asked wildly.

"I don't know, but I think you already know same as I do," Jane said, with a knowing look down her nose.

"Number 15 Kingdom Road Catalan!" she exploded. "Of course! We have to go there right now and rescue her!"

"Yes we do," said Jane, helping Jenifer to her feet. "But how on earth do we get there without any donkeys?"

"There has to be some way," said Jenifer, looking around Jane's large garden. "There's some pogo sticks in the shed."

Jane laughed.

"They won't work, we're rubbish on them,"

"Well what about a skateboard?" Jenifer suggested impatiently.

"Nope, we don't have any," said Jane.

"I know!" said Jenifer, pointing. "Let's go on your mum's tandem bike."

Jane exploded with laughter.

"And how in the name of heaven do you expect us to learn to ride a tandem in the space of five or so milliseconds?!" she spluttered.

"We've got to try," said Jenifer determinedly. "Come on. You go on the back."

They swung their legs over the saddles and tried to balance. Jane held onto the back of Jenifer's rucksack and Jenifer gripped the handlebars. They wobbled and swerved out of the gate and onto the road where they attempted to start to pedal. Two things happened, both at once, in two seconds. One was Jenifer and Jane both falling from the bike screaming and the other was a neatly folded origami duck floating out onto the pavement in front of them. Neither of the giggling girls saw this however, they merely continued to cycle up the high street, occasionally tipping over or knocking each other off into a nearby flowerbed.

Behind a handsome dark door in a large house; a small boy of about eight peered out of the peep-hole set into the varnished mahogany. He saw the grown up girls messing about in the road but he also saw the small piece of paper glide out and settle neatly; its point pointing down the nearest street. Curiously he turned the gold plated handle and stepped out onto the blustery front porch and then the stone front steps. He picked up the little, fragile bird in his stubby fingers and looked down the street it had been pointing to. A few plastic bags blew across it. It seemed to be unnaturally dark and gloomy down the graffiti-covered alley. Shivering slightly, he unfolded the paper to find a message scrawled in a strange code inside it.

"Harvey? Harvey!" his mother's voice bellowed out of an upstairs window. "Get back inside this instant and finish your supper!"

The boy tucked the bird into his pocket and closed the door quietly behind him.