In the Fifth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton

in her to blossom out like this!” said Miss Potts to Mam’zelle. “What these children can do if they’re just given a chance to do things on their own!”
    Another person who was working hard, though in quite a different direction, was Alicia! Alicia, who never worked really hard at anything, because she had good brains and didn’t need to. But now she had something to do that, brains or no brains, needed constant hard work and practice.
    Alicia was to be the Demon King in the pantomime — and he was to be an enchanter, a conjurer who could do magic things! Alicia was to show her skill at conjuring, and she meant to be as good a conjurer on the school stage as any conjurer in a London pantomime.
    “Well — I didn’t dream that Alicia’s ability for playing silly tricks and doing bits of amateur conjuring to amuse her friends would make her work as hard as this ” said Miss Peters, the third-form mistress, shutting the door of one of the music-rooms softly.
    She had heard peculiar sounds in there — sounds of pantings, sounds of something falling, sounds of sheer exasperation, and she had peeped in to see what in the world was going on.
    Alicia was there, with her back to her, practising a spot of juggling! Yes, she was going to juggle, as well as conjure — and she had an array of coloured rings which she was throwing rapidly up into the air, one after another, catching them miraculously.
    Then she would miss one, and click in exasperation. She would have to begin all over again. Ah — Alicia had found something that didn’t need only brainwork — it needed patience, practice, deftness, and then patience all over again.
    “Why did I ever say I’d be the Demon King!” groaned Alicia, picking up the rings for the twenty-second time and beginning again. “Why did I ever agree to do conjuring and juggling? I must have been mad.”
    But her pride made her go on and on. If Alicia did a thing it had to be done better than anybody else could possibly do it. The fifth form were most intrigued by this new interest of Alicia’s. It was such fun to see her suddenly pick up a pencil, rubber, ruler and pen, and juggle them rapidly in the air, catching them deftly in one hand at the finish!
    It was amusing to see her get up to find Mam’zelle’s fountain-pen, and pick it apparently out of the empty air, and even more amusing to see her gravely abstract an egg from Mam’zelle’s ear.
    “Alicia! I will not have such a thing!” stormed Mam’zelle. “Oh, là là ! Now you have found a cigarette in my other ear. It is not nice! It makes me go — what do you call it — duck-flesh.”
    “Goose-flesh, Mam’zelle,” said Alicia, with one of her wicked grins. “Dear me — has your fountain-pen gone again? It’s up in the air as usual!” And she reached out her hand and picked it once more from the air.
    No wonder the class liked Alicia’s new interest. It certainly added a lot more enjoyment to lessons!

Gwendoline Mary and Maureen
    TWO girls were anxiously waiting for Darrell to finish the pantomime. They were Gwendoline and Maureen. Each of them saw herself in the part of Cinderella. Each of them crept away to the dormy on occasion, let her golden hair loose, and posed in front of the dressing-table mirrors.
    “I look exactly right for Cinderella,” thought Gwendoline Mary. “I’m the type , somehow. I could sit pensively by the fireside and look really lovely. And as the princess at the ball I’d be wonderful.”
    She wrote and told her mother about the coming pantomime. “Of course, we don’t know yet about the characters,” she said. “Most of the girls would like me to be Cinderella — they say I look the part. I don’t know what you think, Mother? I’m not conceited, as you know, but I can’t help thinking I’d do it rather well. What does Miss Winter think?”
    Back came two gushing letters at once, one from her delighted mother, one from her old governess, worshipping as ever.

    DARLING