Free Lulu and the Duck in the Park by Hilary McKay Page B

of the apple she was eating, stuffed the stem and seeds in her pocket, jumped at the highest point of the swing, and after a wonderful, but very brief, time flying through the air, landed with a smash.

    Then she gathered up Sam’s jump rope leash and hobbled away.
    So Mellie, who was to have dinner with Lulu that day, stopped her swing by scraping her toes on the ground, and ran after her (leaving her sweater hanging forgotten on the jungle gym).
    They walked back to Lulu’s house, arguing.
    Lulu said it was not fair that the poor guinea pig had to live all alone with no friendly visitors.
    Mellie said it was not fair if Lulu made Mrs. Holiday so angry that he had to be swapped for the Class Two stick insects.
    Lulu made a list of all the quiet, peaceful animals she could bring to school that Mrs. Holiday would never notice. Mellie got angrier and angrier. The animals on the list got bigger and less quiet, just to annoy Mellie.
    They did annoy Mellie.
    “You just dare!” she said, when Lulu said rabbits in a backpack would never be noticed.
    “Anyway, it would be cruel to the rabbits,” said Mellie.
    “Not at all,” said Lulu. “They could wear sweaters and bounce around the play—”
    “ Lulu !” wailed Mellie.
    “What?”
    “Where’s my sweater? My sweater’s gone! Didn’t I have it when I came out of school? Didn’t I? I did! I know I did!”
    “You must have left it by the swings,” said Lulu, and they ran back together to see.
    It was gone.
    Mellie’s things were always gone. Mellie tipped her school bag upside down on the pavement to see if her sweater could possibly, magically, be at the bottom. Pencils and pens rolled everywhere and disappeared. A quarter spun neatly on its edge for a moment and vanished down a drain. Mellie sat down in the middle of the muddle and wailed, “It’s all your fault, Lulu!”

    She hated losing things.
    Lulu collected books and pencils, hairclips, water bottles, homework sheets, and crumbled cookies. Sam licked Mellie’s face, enjoying the taste of tears.
    “I wouldn’t have lost it if I hadn’t been worrying about stick insects,” said Mellie, sniffing and feeding Sam cookie crumbs while Lulu repacked her bag for her. “I just DON’T like stick insects!”
    “Well, we won’t have stick insects!” said Lulu kindly. “You can stop worrying. I won’t bring visitors for the guinea pig, and Mrs. Holiday won’t get mad and... I know what will cheer you up!”
    Lulu scrambled out of her sweater, chewed off the name tag with her teeth, shook it out, and pulled it over Mellie’s head.

    “I’ve got another one at home,” she said.

Chapter Two
Morning in the Park
    Tuesday was Class Three’s favorite day at school.
    This was because Tuesday was swimming day.
    The big swimming pool in the center of town was so close to school that Class Three did not have to take a bus to get there like other schools did. They could get there in a few minutes by walking.
    First thing every Tuesday morning, Class Three walked down the hill from school, around the narrow cobbled streets by the church, and across the town park to the pool.
    The town park was wonderful. Twenty times bigger than the little playing-field park where Mellie and Lulu swung after school.
    It had huge trees and grassy slopes and twisting paths.

    It had a climbing wall and a giant slide.
    It had a candy shop and a life-size pirate ship becalmed in a sea of bark.
    It had a lake with two little islands and a hundred noisy ducks.
    Getting Class Three past the climbing wall without anyone climbing, and the candy shop without anyone darting in, and the lake without anyone getting wet, was the hardest part of Mrs. Holiday’s week.
    Getting them back to school again, wet- haired, starving, and weighed down by soggy swimming bags, was nearly impossible.
    Mrs. Holiday didn’t even try.

    On Tuesday mornings after swimming, Mrs. Holiday marched Class Three to the bandstand by the lake. In the bandstand bags