Free Swap Over by Margaret Pearce Page A

school.
    After class, she headed towards the back street where all the parent’s cars lined up to collect students. Selina came hurrying over to meet her.
    â€œI heard you nearly disgraced the school by flattening Bronwin,” she said, but she grinned as she said it.
    â€œShe was giving Linda a hard time.”
    â€œWell, she sure won’t anymore,” Selina said in that dry way she had.
    Maddy started to giggle. She had forgotten how funny Selina was all the time. She hadn’t been aware of how upset she had been by Selina not talking to her. It was odd, because she had never spoken to Selina before her first day at this school on Friday.
    Selina must have been a very close friend of Jennifer’s, for the feeling of warmth and liking to overlap into Maddy. It was a relief to know that she hadn’t broken up Jennifer’s close friendship over her stupid actions. The red car pulled up.
    â€œSee you tomorrow,” Selina called and ran off.
    â€œHave a nice day, my darling?” Mrs. Walton asked.
    â€œTerrific,” Maddy said.
    â€œI thought I’d go and visit the Matsons,” Maddy said as soon as they reached home.
    â€œGet changed and do your half an hour piano practice first.”
    â€œI can do it later,” Maddy grumbled.
    â€œThe Matson girls won’t be home for another half hour at least,” Mrs. Walton pointed out. “You have plenty of time to fit in piano practice right now.”
    Maddy shrugged, got changed, and hung up her school uniform. She was sitting in the kitchen over her afternoon tea--sliced cantaloupe, ice cream and orange juice--thinking. It was really odd the way nobody seemed to have noticed that she and Jennifer didn’t look as if they belonged in the swapped-over families.
    â€œI look more as if I belong in the Matson family than Jennifer,” she pointed out at last. “I’ve got the same colouring as Milly and Merry.”
    â€œYou get your colouring from my father,” Mrs. Walton said. She smiled as she remembered. “He had this jet black hair and black eyes. He was very intrigued when you were born with his colouring.”
    Maddy sat at the piano and thumped through her warm-up of scales. She was feeling worse and worse. Adults were so odd. They could talk themselves into anything. Even if she and Jennifer did want to swap over, no one was going to believe them anyway!
    She stopped playing. What if the granted wish had something to do with a vanished, mysterious white rabbit and nothing to do with Jennifer? Would she be marooned as Maddy Walton forever?
    She put her head down on the piano. She felt physically sick. What was worse was that because of her nasty, piggy selfishness, poor Jennifer might be marooned in time as the oldest Matson sister. Jennifer had always been so nice to her, and this was how she had repaid her!
    â€œWhat’s the matter?” Mrs. Walton asked, coming into the room.
    â€œI feel awful,” Maddy said and promptly burst into tears.

 
    Chapter Eleven
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    Maddy came out of the bathroom shaking. She had been sick and felt awful. Her head throbbed, and every part of her body ached and ached.
    â€œThink I’ve got flu’ or something.”
    â€œDid you buy anything at the tuckshop?”
    â€œI had one glass of lemonade.”
    â€œWhat else?”
    â€œNothing.” Then Maddy remembered. Everyone was buying chocolate medals and sharing them out. “Just a few mouthfuls of chocolate that’s all.”
    â€œDid it have a filling?”
    â€œMint flavoured cream or something.”
    â€œReally, Maddy,” Mrs. Walton said with a sigh. “You know how allergic you are to chocolate and anything could have been in the filling!”
    â€œI only had a mouthful,” Maddy protested.
    The only thing the Matson girls were allergic to was being hungry. According to their mother, they all had the healthy digestive system of goats. Did