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'That's fair enough,' said June. And so the bargain was struck between them, a cold sort of bargain with no liking in real interest on either side, June went off jauntily What a shock for the other second-formers to hear her news!

As soon as she appeared in the second-form common-room the others called out to her.

'What was it, June? What did she want you for?'

'How many lines have you got to learn (his time?'

'Did you cheek her? What did you say?'

'She sent for me because she said she wanted to coach me in tennis and swimming,' announced June.

This was so astonishing to the others that they were struck into silence. Felicity gasped.

'Amanda - coaching yew, June! Whatever for?'

'Well, she appears to think I could be in the second tennis team and the second swimming team by the end of the term if I watit to,' said June, airily.

'You couldn't. You always fool about too much,' said Susan at once.

'Right. Amanda appears to think so, I said,' answered June. 'I've no doubt your opinion is more correct, though. Susan.'

'Look - don't bo so exasperating,' said Felicity. 'Tell us what really happened.'

'I've told you,' said June. 'Amanda wants to coach me every day, and I've agreed. That's all.'

There was another silence. The second-formers iound all very hard to believe. But they knew June was speaking the truth. She alwavs did.

'Well, all I can say is, I wish you joy ol being c< iclied ;>v that awful, loud-voiced creature,' said Susan. 'She'll order you about like anything.'

'She'll have to mind her Ps and Qs,' said June, smoothly, '! don't take kindly to being ordered about. II she wants to prove she's right, and get me good enough for the second teams, she'll have to go about it :he right way.'

'You're a pair,' said Harriet. 'A real pair! I shall come md watch the coaching.'

'I don't want you to,' said June, hastily.

'Oh, but we must,' said Felicity, winking at the others. After all - with coaching marvellous enough to push \ou into the second teams so soon, even we might pick up a lew hints.'

'Just a few crumbs from the rich man's table!' giggled Susan. 'Well - what a bit of news!'

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The news about the special coaching soon flew round the school. The games-mistress looked a little doubtful when she heard it. Too much special attention devoted to any one lower-former was not really good.

On the other hand, June could be brilliant at games if she was interested enough. Perhaps this offer of Amanda's would really jerk her into working hard at tennis and swimming. If she only worked hard at .something it would be a help to her character!

'She's a maddening child/ Miss Parker, the second- form mistress, remarked to Mam'zelle. 'All that ability of hers for practically everything - and she's just not interested enough to take the trouble to shine. Except at making the others laugh.'

'Yes - she is too good at that/ agreed Mam'zelle, who had suffered from this ability of June's far too often.

'She's superlative at playing the donkey/ said Miss Potts, who had had June in the first form. 'She's about the only child I've ever had in my form that I really would have liked to see the back of!"

They laughed. 'Well, if Amanda can make her keep her nose to the grindstone, it will be very interesting,' said Miss Parker. 'We'll see!'

Amanda drew up a most intensive time-table for lime. June gasped when she saw it. A time was set aside

every single day for coaching in swimming and in tennis. Inne wondered whether she should protest or not. No - ii Amanda was as much in earnest as all thai, all right, lime would keep her part of the bargain too.

The coaching began. An interested crowd of first- and econd-formers came to watch. Amanda was astonished to see the crowd, and June didn't like it at all. She didn't want to be laughed at, or barracked all the time.

'What's all this?' said Amanda, waving her hand towards the onlookers sitting round the court on the grass.

They've come to watch us,' said June. 'They would, of course.'

Amanda addressed the crowd at once.

'ii you've come to pick up hints, all right, ii not, clear oil. Anyone who interrupts the coaching, or disturbs it in my way, can think again. I've got my Punishment Book vilh me as usual.'

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This was greeted by a dead silence, and then, as Amanda turned away, a low and discreet murmur arose. Amanda was decidedly not popular. She was even less popular than the domineering Moira. A few of the girls uot up and went away. They had only come to call out sunny things to June. Now that it meant their names -loing down in the Punishment Book, there didn't seem much point in staying. June wished fervently that every¬one would go. To her great annoyance and surprise she ;'Hind that she was nervous!

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Amanda began with playing pat-ball, keeping a sharp ■ ve on June's returns and placing. She noted that June tsed her head as well as her hands. She watched the way .he swung her racket right back, and kept her eye on the '·all. She look in every single detail. There really wasn't inch that Amanda didn't know about tennis! She had ii ready played in school-girl championships, and she was t born teacher as well as a born player.

'1 say how long's this going on lor?' complained

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June at last. 'This pat-ball, I mean.'

There was a ripple of laughter lrom the onlookers. They sat up, hoping that June would begin to be funny.

Amanda didn't answer. She sent another ball over to June. June pretended to miss it, almost iell over and, by a seemingly miraculous recovery, hit the ball from behind her back, and stood up again. This was the kind of clowning she did superlatively well.

There was a wave of laughter from the watchers. 'Go it, June!' called Harriet.

Amanda caught the ball in her hand and swung round to the lower-formers. 'One more shout and off you'll all go,' she announced. 'I can tell you straight away now that there is nothing whatever I can teach June in the way of playing the fool - she knows all the tricks there are - but she doesn't know much about playing real tenuis, I'm afraid. P<» you see how badlv she plays a backhand ball? She goes like this - instead of like this! And did you notice her feet when she played those balls off the right-hand side? All wrong!'

June stood still, fuming. Why point out her faults to the audience? But she knew why, of course. It was Amanda's return for that bit of clowning. Every time she clowned, and a laugh came, Amanda would stop and point out other faults of June's!

The next time a ball went near where the spectators were, June spoke lo them in a low voice.

'I wish you'd clear off. It's jolly difficult trying to concentrate with you all looking.'

But they didn't clear off, especially when Amanda stopped the pat-ball play and began to explain to June, in her loud, dominating voice, the few hundred things she did wrong. It was wonderful to see the don't-care June having to stand there like someone from the kindergarten and listen to all her tennis failings' The lower forms really enjoyed it.

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June didn't enjoy it at all. If she had been a weaker character she would have made up her mind to call the whole thing off, and refuse to be coached again. But June was not weak - and besides, she couldn't help ealizing that Amanda really did know what she was ■aIking about. And Amanda also knew how to be patient and how to explain a thing simply and clearly.

June found herself looking at Amanda with unwilling admiration as she illustrated, by various swings of her racket and placing of her feet, exactly what she meant.

I've learned more in this one coaching than I've learned in a whole term, thought June. But she didn't sell Amanda that. She wasn't going to hand the loud- voiced Amanda any bouquets!

Amanda didn't hand June any bouquets either. She merely said, 'That's enough for today. You've plenty of to think about, as you can see Get some of them right for next time. And be down at the swimming-pool lo the minute tomorrow morning. I've only ten minutes io give you, and I don't want a second wasted.'

June was down to the minute. Amanda was there exactly on time too. She put June through a very gruelling ten minutes, and found as many faults with her swimming as she had done with her tennis. Darrell, Moira and Mary-Lou happened to be there too, and they watched in silence.

'If June can stick it, this is going to do her a world of .4ood,' said Darrell. 'My word - what a driver Amanda is she never lets up for a moment.'

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'June can stick it all right. The question is - will she?' ntid Mary-Lou. 'I have a feeling she'll get very tired of all i'his soon - not the coaching, but the way it's done. So i uthless, somehow.'

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Three or four second-formers came down to swim, among them Josephine, fat and pasty-looking, airing her · -pinions as usual. They weren't worth anything, of

course. They never were. Hut, like her father, she loved hearing the sound of her voice, and if she could boast about anything, she did.

She had plenty to boast about. 'My lather has a whole fleet of cars! My mother has a diamond necklace she never wears because it's too valuable. We've a dog at home worth five hundred pounds. My aunt's sending me five pounds for my birthday. My brother's got . . .'

These were the items of family news that Jo continually talked ol. There was no doubt at all that they were true.

'Miss Parker is an old nosey! I meant to get out of swimming this morning, and ol course she must come and poke her nose in and send me out. I told her what I thought of her. I said . . .'

'Shut up,' said Amanda, who was shouting instruc¬tions to June in the water 'Shut up. and get into the water. I'm coaching someone.'

Jo gave a giggle. She hadn't at first recognized Amanda in her swimming-costume. 'Oh, it's Amanda. Oh, do let's watch this. It'll be as good as the tennis.'

She happened to get in Amanda's way, and impatiently Amanda gave her a push. Into the water went Jo with an agonized squeal. The others yelled with laughter.

But Jo had gone into a deep part, and she couldn't swim. She came up, gasping and terrified, trying to feel the bottom with her feet. But there was no bottom to feel. She went under again.

'Look - quick - Jo's in the deep water!' yelled Darrell. 'She can't swim/

June swam up to the struggling Jo, and began to life- save her. But Jo was now completely out of control, and so terrilied that she clutched hold of June and dragged her under too. She was fat and heavy, and June could do nothing with her.

There was a splash as Amanda dived neatly in. In a

moment she was by .Jo and had gripped her. 'Let go, lune!' she ordered. 'I'll manage her!'

Jo clutched blindly at Amanda, who saw there was mly one thing to be done. She must bring Jo back to her ,enses immediately - and she could only do that by ■ Jving her a sharp shock. Otherwise it wouid take ages to ^et the terrilied girl lo the edge of the pool.

She raised her hand and slapped Jo very sharply on ihe right cheek. The slap echoed round the pool. Jo gasped and came to her senses at once, very angry indeed.

That's right. Now you listen to me,' ordered Amanda, Jiarply. 'Don't clutch. I've got you all right. Lie still and i ll lake you to the edge.'

It was only a few seconds before Amanda had got Jo :o the edge, and Moira and Darrell and Mary-Lou were hauling her up.

lo collapsed. She wailed She howled 'I nearlv drowned. You hit me! I'll write to my lather and tell him \ou pushed me in, you big bully!' she wailed. T feel iwful. I nearly drowned. Oh, my cheek does hurt where \ on slapped me!'

'Don't be silly,' said Moira. 'You didn't nearly drown. You just lost control of yourself. You didn't even trv to wim though you've been having lessons!'

'Amanda got you out all right,' said Mary-Lou, gently, seeing that Jo had been really frightened. 'She didn't know you couldn't swim or she wouldn't have pushed \ ou in.'

'She's a bully,' wept Jo. 'I'll tell my lather.'

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Tell him,' said Amanda. 'The only thing that's wrotig w it h you is that you're a little coward. I'll give you special < oaching too, if you like - I'll have you swimming like a iish in a couple of lessons!'

That was the last thing Jo wanted. She dressed and, ■mil weeping and uttering threats, went back to the hoof. The others laughed.

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lo got very little sympathy from anyone except a small iirst-former called Deirdre. Deirdre met her as she was oming up from the pool, still weeping.

'Oh! What's the matter, .lo?' asked Deirdre, in distress. Have you hurt yourself?'

'I've been practically drowned,' said Jo, more tears ■ pringing out. That brute of an Amanda pushed me into die deep end, though she knew I couldn't swim. She ■■sapped me too - look! I shall tell my lather.'

'Oh, I should,' said Deirdre, flattered at the way this second-former was talking to her, a first-former. Deirdre i ouldn't swim either, and she could quite well understand what iear Jo had felt when she had been pushed into the deep end of the pool. 'How wicked of \manda. Nobody likes her and I'm not surprised.'

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To sat down on a ledge of rock, hallway up the Jiff. She wiped her eyes with her hand. T don't feel well,' she said. 'I feel beastly. I'm sure I'm chock-full ■ 1 sea water. I shan't be able to eat anything at .ill today.'

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This seemed dreadful to Jo, and almost as dreadful io Deirdre, who had a very good appetite. She ventured [o feel Jo's arm.