Because of Peter’s ‘short cut’, we were more than an hour late getting to the wildlife park. This made us much too late for our lunch booking in the café. Miss O’Herlihy went in to the café to try to sort something out, and when she came back she didn’t look one bit happy.
‘They’ve let another school take our place,’ she said. ‘Obviously a school that didn’t take “short cuts” through fields to get here.’
I thought it was a bit mean of her to say that. After all, Peter had only been trying to help. He didn’t deliberately direct the bus driver into a field.
‘What are we going to do now, Miss?’ I asked.
Miss O’Herlihy sighed.
‘The best they can do is let us queue up for our food, and eat it out here on the grass.’
‘Yippee!’ said Peter. ‘A picnic!’
Miss O’Herlihy gave him an evil look.
Peter put his head down.
‘Sorry,’ he said, ‘You looked upset – I was just trying to cheer you up a bit.’
Miss O’Herlihy looked slightly less evil.
‘Tell you what,’ said Peter. ‘You relax out here for a while, and Rachel and I can bring the kiddies in and organise the food. I’ll bring you out something nice. How about that?’
Miss O’Herlihy actually smiled at him.
Alice nudged me and said,
‘See that, Megan?’ she asked. ‘I think she likes him.’
‘Don’t get too carried away,’ I said. ‘She doesn’t actually like him. She’s just noticed his socks, and she feels sorry for him, that’s all.’
Everyone except for Miss O’Herlihy went in and queued up for food. Alice and I stayed at the back of the queue where we could keep an eye on Peter and stop him getting into more trouble.
While we were waiting, Rachel walked past with her tray of food.
‘Rachel’s kind of pretty, isn’t she?’ said Alice.
I shrugged.
‘Mmmm. I suppose. I love her hair. I wish mine was like that.’
‘And she’s good fun too. She…’ began Alice.
Suddenly I realised what was going on. I put my hand up to stop Alice.
‘No way,’ I said.
Alice looked all innocent.
‘But…’
‘But what?’ I said.
She shrugged.
‘OK, I give in. I just thought if things didn’t work out between Dad and Miss O’Herlihy, maybe he could ask Rachel out instead.’
I shook my head.
‘No way. This whole thing is way too complicated already. Leave Rachel out of it.’
Alice sighed.
‘Spoilsport,’ she said.
She smiled as she said it though, and I knew she knew that I was right.
Peter got lunch for himself and Miss O’Herlihy, and then squashed two cups of coffee and two large glasses of water onto the tray as well. Alice and I grabbed our food as quickly as we could and followed him outside.
Peter seemed kind of happy, and was humming to himself as he strolled across the grass to where Rachel and Miss O’Herlihy were sitting. Alice started to hum along with him. I had to smile. I leaned over and whispered in her ear.
‘What are you going to call Miss O’Herlihy when she’s your stepmother?’
She giggled.
‘Nothing. ‘Cause that’s never going to happen. Mum and Dad can get back together. They can be happy. They just don’t know it yet. Once Dad starts dating Miss O’Herlihy, Mum’s going to come running back. You just wait and see.’
I felt sure she was wrong, but I didn’t argue with her. Alice has always been my best friend, and she deserved my loyalty. All she wanted was her parents to be happy. Was that so bad?
We were near where Miss O’Herlihy and Rachel were sitting when one of the boys shouted,
‘Hey, look over there! There’s a squirrel under the table.’
The shout must have frightened the poor squirrel, as it bounded out from under the table, and right between Peter’s legs.
Peter (who was supposed to love animals so much) gave a funny kind of squeal, and jumped in the air. The tray wobbled, and there was a rattling of dishes. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. There was a lot more wobbling and rattling, as Peter tried to regain his balance. I suppose he did well not to drop the whole tray, but just as it seemed that disaster had been avoided, one cup of coffee slid off the edge of the tray, right towards Miss O’Herlihy’s leg. Peter grabbed for it with one hand, but missed, and the cup fell to the ground, spraying coffee as it went.
Miss O’Herlihy jumped to her feet.
‘You’ve burned my leg,’ she screeched.
Quick as a flash, Peter put the tray on the grass, grabbed one of the glasses of water and threw it all over her. It was only one glass of water, but it somehow seemed to soak Miss O’Herlihy from head to foot. It dripped from her hair onto her face, all over her dress and down to her pretty, sparkly flip-flops.
‘You big fool,’ Miss O’Herlihy shouted.
Peter looked at her surprised.
‘But you were burnt,’ he said. ‘I was trying to save you. Don’t you know you should put cold water on burns?’
Miss O’Herlihy looked at him like he was a total eejit.
‘I was only splashed. I was fine. And look at me now. I’m like a drowned rat. Am I expected to walk around all day looking like this?’
Just then, Melissa came racing over with a bundle of serviettes.
‘Here, Miss,’ she said. ‘Use these to dry yourself off.’
Miss O’Herlihy smiled at her.
‘Why thank you, Melissa,’ she said. ‘How very thoughtful of you.’
Melissa gave Alice and me an evil smile, and skipped back to her friends. I wished I was the kind of girl who did things like punching their enemies. It was bad enough watching Alice’s dad making a complete fool of himself, without having to watch Melissa enjoying it so much.
Eventually we settled down and ate our food. I’d kind of lost my appetite, and by the look of it, so had Miss O’Herlihy. She only picked at the food Peter had chosen for her. When she and Rachel got up to go to the toilet, Peter came and sat by Alice and me.
‘Sorry about that,’ he said. ‘I suppose I embarrassed you a little bit.’
Alice made a face.
‘Totally. What are you on, Dad?’
He shrugged.
‘Hey, spilling the coffee was an accident. These things happen. Anyway, if it has to be someone’s fault, I blame the squirrel.’
Alice rolled her eyes.
‘That’s big of you, Dad. When you get into trouble, blame the small furry creature.’
I giggled, but stopped quickly when Alice glared at me.
Peter went on.
‘And I only threw the water because Miss O’H said she was burnt. I was trying to save her from more severe burns. How was I supposed to know she was being a drama queen?’
Alice ignored the question.
‘And what about the supposed short cut to Charleville?’
‘OK. So that was a bit unfortunate. But there used to be a road there, I’m sure of it.’
Alice put on a stern voice.
‘And what about the rude songs on the bus?’
He laughed.
‘Lighten up, Alice. That was only a bit of a laugh. Even Miss Prissy-Pants should be able to see the funny side in that.’
I sighed. Did Alice still think she could persuade her dad to go out with someone he called a ‘drama queen’ and ‘Miss Prissy Pants’?
Apparently she did. She waggled her finger in Peter’s face, and spoke to him like she was the parent and he was the child.
‘Look, Dad,’ she said. ‘I’m warning you. No more stupid stuff. I want you to behave yourself from now on. OK? Just put your head down and stay out of trouble. You’re making a complete show of me and you’ll never—’
She stopped suddenly.
‘I’ll never what?’ Peter asked.