Alice-Miranda and Millie were playing a game of ‘I Spy’ as the little bus chugged along to their mystery camp site.

‘I can’t believe Miss Grimm hasn’t told us where we’re going,’ Millie said. She was peering around the bus and out the windows, trying to guess what Alice-Miranda was thinking of that started with the letter ‘I’.

‘It’s good to have a surprise,’ Alice-Miranda said and shrugged.

‘What if the camp is horrible? We don’t even know if we have to sleep in tents or if there are dormitories or how many of us will have to share. It might be an old barn in the middle of nowhere, with outside toilets. Gross!’ Millie griped.

‘What do you have against outside toilets? You have to go all the way across the caravan park to the toilets when you’re at the beach,’ Alice-Miranda replied.

‘Mmm, true,’ Millie conceded.

From the back of the bus there was a loud thud followed by peals of laughter.

Miss Reedy turned around to see George Figworth sitting on the floor, having been wrestled out of his seat by Rufus Pemberley.

‘What on earth are you two doing? Get back into your seat and put your seatbelt on immediately, Figworth, or you can spend the rest of the journey up here beside me. Is that what you’d prefer?’ she asked menacingly.

Figgy scrambled back onto the seat and yanked at the seatbelt.

‘Is it an idiot?’ Millie said.

Alice-Miranda frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I Spy. Is it those two idiots?’ She gestured towards the back of the bus.

Alice-Miranda laughed and shook her head. ‘No, it’s not them.’

‘I give up then,’ Millie said.

‘It’s interior lights,’ Caprice piped up from the other side of the aisle.

‘Yes, you’ve got it.’ Alice-Miranda clapped her hands together. ‘I thought that was a tricky one. Well done.’

‘No, it wasn’t,’ Caprice scoffed. ‘I can think of much harder things than that.’

‘Well, it’s your turn now,’ Alice-Miranda said.

‘“S”.’ Caprice turned back to the front of the bus, a smug smile plastered on her face.

Millie looked around. ‘Is it seats?’

‘No.’

Sloane weighed in. ‘Seatbelts?’

‘Wrong,’ Caprice said. ‘You’ll never get it.’

‘What about sun visor?’ Alice-Miranda said thoughtfully.

Caprice sighed loudly, her shoulders slumping.

‘Ha! She’s right, isn’t she?’ Millie said.

‘No!’ Caprice shook her head. ‘That wasn’t it at all.’

‘You’re lying, Caprice,’ Millie said. ‘It was sun visor and now you’re just saying it wasn’t because you don’t think anyone is as clever as you.’

Alice-Miranda touched Millie’s arm. ‘It’s okay, Millie. If it wasn’t, I’m fine with that. We can keep playing.’

Jacinta called out ‘sun roof’. Then she looked up and realised the bus didn’t actually have one.

‘The game’s finished,’ Caprice announced. She picked up the magazine that was sitting on the empty seat beside her.

‘Of course it is. Because Alice-Miranda guessed. You know what, Caprice? People around here like to play fair,’ Millie chided.

Sloane looked across the aisle and raised her eyebrows at Millie.

‘I do play fair.’ Caprice turned and wrinkled her nose at Millie. ‘You don’t know anything about me.’

‘Oh, yes I do. You might be able to fool everyone else but you don’t fool me. For a start, you think you know everything,’ Millie snapped.

‘Well, I know a lot more than you,’ Caprice bit back.

Miss Reedy peered around to check that Figgy was back in his seat and noticed Millie leaning out into the aisle. The girl’s face was bright red and she seemed to be sputtering words all over the place.

‘What’s wrong with you? You’re such a fake!’ Millie huffed.

‘It’s okay, Millie. Calm down,’ Alice-Miranda soothed. Millie had told Alice-Miranda what she’d heard Caprice saying about her the afternoon before. But when Alice-Miranda said that she’d speak to the girl, Millie begged her not to. She was sure that Caprice would deny everything.

Miss Reedy unclasped her seatbelt and stood up. She walked down the centre of the bus, eye balling Millie and Caprice in turn. ‘Is everything all right?’

‘Fine,’ Millie lied.

‘No,’ Caprice sniffed. ‘She’s being mean to me!’ Tears began to flood the girl’s cheeks. Within seconds her sobs turned into great big hiccupy gulps. ‘I want to go home,’ Caprice wailed.

‘Millie, what happened?’ Miss Reedy fished around in her pocket and produced a tissue, which she held out to Caprice.

‘Nothing. I wasn’t mean to her. She cheated in the game.’ Millie could feel her eyes prickling but she was determined not to cry.

‘Perhaps you should apologise, Millie,’ Miss Reedy suggested.

‘Why? I didn’t do anything. She’s faking it! They’re crocodile tears,’ Millie blurted.

By now Mr Lipp was aware of the sobbing and had stood up to join Miss Reedy.

‘Oh, dear me, whatever’s the matter?’ the teacher asked Caprice.

The girl let out several short gasps as another torrent of tears trickled down her cheeks.

‘This is Caprice,’ Miss Reedy explained. ‘She’s new and I think she and Millie might have had a difference of opinion.’

Millie crossed her arms in front of her and stared at the ground.

‘Caprice?’ Mr Lipp enquired. ‘You’re the new girl Mr Trout telephoned me about last night. The one with the voice.’

Caprice looked up through a haze of tears and nodded slowly.

‘My dear, we can’t have this, can we? Why don’t you come and sit at the front with Miss Reedy and me and you can tell us all about it. Then, when you’re feeling better, we can talk about a song I’ve been thinking the group should try. We haven’t had a strong enough soloist for it yet but Mr Trout told me that was all about to change,’ Mr Lipp gushed.

Sloane and Jacinta looked at each other from their seat behind Caprice, their mouths flapping open. Up until now they had been taking turns for most of the solo parts in the Winchester-Fayle Singers and as far as they knew, Mr Lipp had been very happy with their efforts. This was news to them.

‘What about us?’ Sloane demanded.

‘Oh, Sloane, Jacinta, you’re both wonderful, of course, but this part requires a voice with that little bit extra,’ Mr Lipp blustered.

‘But you haven’t even heard her sing!’ Jacinta complained.

‘I don’t need to. I trust Mr Trout’s judgement, and he said that she’s the most naturally gifted vocalist he’s ever encountered in all his years of teaching. You heard her too, didn’t you Miss Reedy?’ Mr Lipp queried.

The woman nodded.

‘And?’

‘Caprice has a lovely voice.’ Miss Reedy didn’t want to talk Caprice up too much at that moment. She was patently aware of how annoyed Sloane and Jacinta were already.

‘I’ve heard that lovely isn’t the half of it,’ Mr Lipp replied. ‘Come along, Caprice. Shall we have a chat?’

Mr Lipp waited for the girl to stand and then ushered her to the front seat. Miss Reedy decided there was no point pursuing the incident until she had a chance to speak with Millie on her own, so she followed them back to her seat.

Millie watched them go. As Caprice turned to sit down, her lip curled and she grinned like a Cheshire cat.

‘Oh!’ Millie gasped. ‘Did you see that?’

But Jacinta and Sloane were too busy sniping about losing their solos and Alice-Miranda was looking out the window.

Alice-Miranda reached out and patted her friend on the arm. ‘I’ll talk to her when we get to camp. Try not to let her get to you.’

But it was much too late for that. Caprice had crawled right under Millie’s skin and she wasn’t going anywhere.