Clementine Rose and the Birthday Emergency (2 page)

Clementine raced into school on Monday morning with her backpack a little fuller than usual. She headed straight for the locker room, where her friends Poppy and Sophie had just arrived too.

‘I've got something for both of you,' Clementine announced, unzipping her bag and pulling out a pile of envelopes that were bound together with an elastic band.

Sophie grinned excitedly. ‘Is it for your birthday party?'

‘Is it a dress-up party?' Poppy asked, her eyes wide.

‘You'll see,' Clementine said cheerfully.

As more children began to arrive, Clementine looked through the little stack of envelopes and handed them their invitations.

‘What is it?' Angus Archibald asked.

‘It's for my party,' she said.

‘Cool.' Angus put it in his pocket. ‘Lucky mine didn't get lost like your one did last year.'

Clementine nodded. It was for exactly this reason that she had insisted on taking her invitations to school and handing them out personally. Clementine didn't want anyone to feel the way she had felt when her invitation to Angus's party had gone missing.

It wasn't long before Clementine's pile was down to just one.

‘That's a great theme, Clementine,' Astrid said, after she'd opened the envelope and read its contents aloud. ‘I've got the perfect outfit for it.'

‘What colour is your dress?' Sophie asked.

Astrid shook her head. ‘It's not a dress,' she said. ‘I'm going as a pirate.'

‘Girls can't be pirates,' Joshua Tribble scoffed, stuffing the envelope inside his bag.

‘Yes, they can,' Clementine said.

‘Well, boys can't be princesses,' Joshua sniffed.

Clementine shrugged. ‘They can if they want to. I don't mind.'

‘That's stupid,' Joshua said. ‘I'm not wearing a dress!'

‘You could be a prince instead,' Sophie suggested, looking to Clementine for confirmation. ‘Couldn't he?'

Clementine nodded.

The bell rang loudly, and the children rushed to the classroom door. The whole of Year One was fizzing about Clementine's party, swapping ideas about what they were going to wear and asking Clemmie about the games she planned to play.

‘Good morning, Year One,' Mr Smee said as the children spilled into the room. ‘What's all the excitement about?'

‘Clementine's having a party and everyone's invited,' Teddy informed the teacher.

‘That sounds like fun.' The man smiled at Clementine, who was marching towards him.

‘This is your invitation,' she said, holding out the last envelope. ‘Mummy said that I could ask you. She also said that you've probably had enough of us by the weekends, so you don't have to come if you don't want to.'

Roderick Smee grinned and turned the envelope over in his hand. He slipped his finger under the flap and pulled out the page. ‘This looks amazing, Clemmie,' the man said, his eyes taking in the hand-drawn picture of a princess pig and a pirate cat. ‘I'll see what I can do.' Mr Smee popped the paper back into the envelope and sat it on his desk. ‘Okay, everyone. I have some news too.'

The voices faded to a low murmur and then
complete silence as the children sat down at their desks and looked at their teacher.

‘Who can remember what's happening on Friday?' Mr Smee asked. Hands shot up like road spikes around the room. ‘Yes, Tilda?' Mr Smee said, pointing at the girl.

‘It's the school sports carnival,' she replied, lowering her hand.

Mr Smee nodded. ‘That's right, and a brand-new event has been added to the program. We now have a parents-versus-teachers-versus-students relay race!'

‘Yesssss!' the children hissed, pumping their fists.

‘So we have to choose the two best boy and girl runners in our class to represent Year One,' Mr Smee finished.

‘Me! Me! Me!' the children yelled, over the top of one another.

‘I thought we could hold races after lunch to help us decide,' the teacher said.

Chatter erupted again as the children speculated about who was the fastest.

‘It's definitely me for the boys,' Joshua Tribble announced.

‘What about Angus?' Clementine said. ‘He's really fast.'

‘I'm faster!' Joshua shouted.

‘I bet Clementine could beat you,' Poppy said.

The boy glared at her. ‘No, she can't. She's a
girl
, and girls are like tortoises.'

Clementine and Poppy shared a look. There was no point arguing with Joshua. He always had to have the last word.

‘Settle down, everyone,' Mr Smee instructed. ‘Take out your writing books and let's see if we can concentrate for a while.'

‘I think you're going to win,' Poppy whispered to Clementine.

‘Maybe,' Clementine said with a twinkle in her eye. She had a feeling that today was going to be a lucky one.

Mr Smee blew the shiny silver whistle around his neck. Most of the children stopped their jumping about and stood still. Joshua Tribble, meanwhile, continued to spring up and down on the spot as if he were on a pogo stick.

‘Joshua, I think that's enough,' Mr Smee said disapprovingly.

‘But it's my warm-up,' Joshua complained. ‘I don't want to pull my muscles. They're really big, you know.'

The teacher glared at him, trying hard not to smile. ‘I think you'll be fine.'

Joshua reluctantly stopped, but not without a few more grumbles.

‘I'm going to split the class into two groups of boys and two groups of girls,' the teacher explained. ‘Those ranked in first and second place will then race against each other to determine which boy and girl will represent Year One on Friday.'

After a few minutes, the Year Ones were formed into four groups of five and six. They stood by the track that the school caretaker, Mr Pickles, had marked out for Friday's carnival. Today, the man could be seen furiously raking the long-jump pit on the other side of the field.

‘What's Mr Pickles doing?' Angus asked as he saw a shower of sand and some large brown lumps fly into the air.

‘I think he's cleaning out the cat poo,' Clementine said, wrinkling her nose.

‘That's gross.' Joshua poked his tongue out at her. ‘I'm not going in the long jump.'

‘I am,' Clementine said, thinking that a bit of cat poo never hurt anyone.

The first group of boys assembled at the start line while the rest of the class stood along the sidelines, ready to cheer.

‘On your marks, get set …' Mr Smee blew his whistle, and the boys were off.

‘Go, Angus!' Clementine yelled. Her hands clenched in anticipation as she watched him tear down the track.

‘Go, Teddy!' Sophie and Tilda called out.

Everyone was cheering, and soon Angus was miles ahead. He hit the finish line with Eddie Whipple coming in second place.

Clementine's race was on next. She was up against Tilda and Poppy, Ally and a new girl called Evie, who liked to skip everywhere. Angus jogged back to the group and gave Clementine a thumbs-up. Her tummy was full of butterflies. She really wanted to run in the race on Friday.

When the whistle blew, the girls tore away.

Tilda was in the lead early on until Clementine
caught up to her and surged ahead. When they hit the finish line, it was Clementine in first place and Tilda in second, followed by Poppy, then Ally and last of all Evie, who had skipped the whole way.

In the second of the boys' heats, Joshua was narrowly beaten by Lester.

‘That's not fair,' Joshua whined. ‘He tried to trip me.'

But Lester had been running on the opposite side of the track to Joshua. Mr Smee told the boy to be a good sport or he wouldn't be allowed to run in the final at all.

The second of the girls' heats saw Sophie coming in first place and, much to everyone's astonishment, Astrid hit the line second.

The girl's mouth gaped open. ‘How did I do that?' she gasped.

‘Well done, Astrid!' Mr Smee called out. He was as surprised as she was. The girl wasn't the most natural of athletes, particularly when it came to ball games, but perhaps running was her thing. Roderick Smee checked his watch.
They might have time for a soccer game before the end of the day if they finished the races quickly. ‘Come on then, boys, line up,' he instructed.

The four lads in the final spaced themselves out across the track. Angus and Joshua were side by side in the centre, with Eddie on the other side of Angus. Joshua glanced at his competitors and sneered.

‘Good luck, everyone,' Angus said.

‘Bad luck, everyone,' Joshua muttered.

Mr Smee shook his head. He'd speak to the lad after the race. He held the whistle to his mouth. ‘On your marks, get set …' The whistle trilled loudly.

Angus was instantly in the lead while the other three lads battled it out, neck and neck. Lester loped along with long strides, and Eddie would have been quicker if he didn't veer all over the lane. Joshua's face was bright red and he looked as if he was about to burst as he made one last surge behind Angus. As the boys hit the finish line, Joshua fell over and clutched his leg.

‘Ow, ow,' he moaned. ‘It's killing me!'

Roderick Smee jogged towards the finish line. ‘What happened?' he asked, bending down to inspect the boy's knee.

‘I pulled a muscle,' Joshua groaned. ‘You didn't let me warm up properly.'

The teacher sighed. Fortunately, Joshua's parents weren't the sort who believed everything the boy said. ‘Let's have a look.'

‘It's not fair. I would have won if you let me do my warm-ups,' Joshua sniffed.

‘Oh, well, you won't be able to play soccer with us then.' Mr Smee clicked his tongue and shook his head gravely. ‘We'll have to send you up to the office to get an icepack, and if it's
really
bad, you won't be able to participate in the carnival on Friday.' The man sighed again. ‘That's such a pity, you might have won some ribbons.'

Joshua gulped. He stared at the teacher and rubbed his knee. ‘I think it feels better,' the boy said, perking up considerably.

‘Are you sure?' Mr Smee asked. ‘You don't want to overdo it.'

Joshua nodded. ‘I think I felt the muscle pop back in. They can do that, you know.'

The teacher offered the lad a hand and helped him up.

‘Do you want me to get the soccer ball?' Joshua asked.

‘Great idea,' Mr Smee replied, and the lad sprinted away.

Meanwhile, the girls had organised themselves on the start line. Clemmie, Tilda, Sophie and Astrid were springing about, eager to run.

‘Is Joshua all right?' Sophie asked.

‘He's fine,' Mr Smee replied. He turned to the rest of the class and clapped his hands. ‘Okay, Year One, let's cheer for the girls.'

The class lined the track for the final race. Seconds later, the whistle blew and they were off. The children's shouts echoed across the playground. It was close the entire way until, in the last five metres, Clementine pulled ahead of the pack. A huge cheer rose up as she crossed the finish line. Angus rushed down the track
and hugged her, closely followed by the girls, who patted her on the back and congratulated her too. Clementine couldn't stop smiling.

‘I told you you'd win,' Sophie whispered with a smile.

Clementine took a deep breath. She couldn't wait to tell everyone at home!

Mr Smee beckoned the children over to him, and the class settled on the hill that sloped down to the oval. ‘It seems we have our runners for the special relay on Friday,' he said. ‘Clemmie and Angus, stand up – let's give them a round of applause.'

The children clapped loudly.

‘You were fast,' Angus said to Clementine.

She smiled. ‘You were too.'

‘I think the kids are going to beat the grownups on Friday,' Teddy said loudly.

Mr Smee chuckled. ‘You know, Ted, with Clemmie and Angus on their team, I think you might be right'.