Alice in the Middle Read Free

embroidered on the sleeves. It was the most beautiful top I had ever seen.
    ‘Well?’ Alice was grinning at me.
    I didn’t know if I’d dare to wear it, it was so beautiful.
    ‘Maybe….’
    Alice laughed.
    ‘How about you wear it to the disco? It would be great with your white jeans.’
    All of a sudden I could see myself at the disco. For the first time in my entire life, (well since my christening day anyway) I’d be the best-dressed girl around. I nodded and Alice laughed some more.
    We piled everything into one big wardrobe and then we sat on our beds and waited for our room-mate to arrive.
    Every time we heard the sound of the minibus wheels on the gravel, we raced to the window and looked out. We watched as groups of girls and boys got out. Alice kept saying stuff like, ‘bet that’s Hazel,’ or ‘I hope
that’s
not her, she looksreally boring.’
    Then we’d wait, and listen as girls came along our corridor, passed our door, and found their rooms.
    I started to hope that maybe Hazel wasn’t coming at all.
    Maybe she had cancelled at the last minute.
    Maybe she’d got some disease, not too serious, just bad enough to keep her away from summer camp.
    Maybe it would be just Alice and me together in the room after all.
    I’d have liked that.
    * * *
    Much, much later our bedroom door opened, and a girl walked in. She was really pretty, with curly blonde hair, and big brown eyes. She was wearing the coolest denim jacket I’d ever seen – with frayed cuffs and loads of studs and patches. My old rain jacket was on the bed next to me, and I moved it under my blanket so it couldn’t be seen.
    The girl smiled, showing perfect white teeth.
    ‘I’m Hazel,’ she said.
    Alice stood up.
    ‘Hi, Hazel. I’m Alice, and this is Megan.’
    We all said ‘hi’ and then there was a silence. I hate silences like that. I wished Hazel would just go away so Alice and I could get on with chatting.
    I’d only known her for a minute, but already I didn’t much like Hazel. She was a bit too confident – a bit too much like the kind of girl who liked to be in charge. Still though, I decided I was going to make a big effort to be nice to her. She wasn’t as lucky as me – she hadn’t got to go to camp with her very best friend in the whole world.

Chapter three

    H azel had a huge suitcase, and it seemed to take forever for her to unpack. Like Alice, she had heaps of fantastic clothes. I felt a bit like Cinderella with all my old raggy stuff. I felt sicker and sicker as she dragged more and more beautiful clothes from her case.
    After a while she pulled out a totally cool denim skirt. Alice jumped up and touched it.
    ‘That skirt is so nice,’ she said.
    Hazel shrugged.
    ‘That old thing,’ she said. ‘That’s so old I wasn’t even going to bother bringing it.’
    I started to laugh, before I realised that she wasn’t joking. I made a face at Alice, but she didn’t see me. She was too busy admiring Hazel’s four new pairs of sports shoes.
    At last Hazel seemed to be finished. She sat on her bed with a big sigh.
    ‘I so hate unpacking,’ she said. ‘The only thing worse than unpacking is packing. I find it so hard to decide which clothes to bring. Don’t you find that?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Alice.
    I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have any trouble choosing which clothes to bring. What would Hazel say if she realised that almost every piece of clothing I owned was stacked up in the wardrobe next to us?
    Just then there was a knock on the door, and a woman came in to our room.
    ‘Hi, girls, I’m Gloria,’ she said with the biggestsmile I had ever seen. She had a huge mop of black curly hair, shiny black skin, and teeth that were whiter than the milk I’d poured on my porridge that morning.
    She looked down a list that was pinned to a clipboard.
    ‘You must be Alice, Hazel, and Megan.’
    We all nodded.
    Gloria continued.
    ‘I’m your team leader for the week. If you have any questions, or any problems