Viva Alice! by Judi Curtin Page A

We’ve got all the time in the world.’
    ‘OK,’ said Alice slowly. ‘It’s about Melissa.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Grace. (Grace used to be friends with Melissa, a long time ago, before she got sense.)
    ‘What about Melissa?’ I asked.
    ‘The thing I want to tell you is that I met her last week,’ said Alice.
    ‘But that’s not a secret,’ I said. ‘I was there with you, remember? Melissa tried to bully me as usual.’
    ‘No,’ said Alice. ‘I don’t mean that time. I met her again, the day after that.’
    ‘And?’ asked Grace. ‘Why is that such a big deal? Melissa’s always showing up. She comes home from boarding school every chance she gets.’
    ‘We talked for ages,’ said Alice. ‘And Melissa was really upset ‘
    ‘Oh, dear!’ I said sarcastically. ‘Was she sadbecause I wasn’t there for her to pick on? That must have been awful for the poor girl.’
    ‘I’m being serious, Megan,’ said Alice. ‘Melissa was
really, really
upset. She’s very unhappy at boarding school.’
    ‘We knew that,’ I said. ‘She told us ages ago, remember. But what’s all this about, Alice? It sounds like you care – except that’s totally impossible. How could you care about someone who’s such a total bully?’
    ‘Things have got worse since we last talked to her about her boarding school,’ said Alice, ignoring my question. ‘Melissa says she hasn’t got a single friend there. She says she cries herself to sleep every night. She says she hates every minute she spends there.’
    Normally, I’d have been sympathetic. I know what it’s like to be sad and lonely. But it’s hard to feel sorry for someone when their life’s mission is making
your
life a misery.
    ‘So why doesn’t she just change schools?’ asked Grace. ‘Wouldn’t that fix things for her?’
    ‘Melissa is afraid to tell her parents how unhappy she is,’ said Alice. ‘Her parents paid tons of money for that boarding school, and she doesn’t want to disappoint them by telling them how much she hates it there.’
    ‘That’s kind of a problem,’ said Grace.
    ‘And there’s more,’ said Alice. ‘Melissa’s parents don’t like our school very much. Her big sister made all these weird friends and went a bit crazy while she was there, so––’
    ‘Whoa,’ I said. ‘Hold it right there. What are you saying? Do you mean Melissa wants to come to
our
school?’
    ‘Of course,’ said Alice. ‘Where else would she go?’
    A boarding school on Mars sounded good to me, but that was probably a bit cruel, so I didn’t say it.
    ‘I don’t get why this whole thing about Melissa is a secret,’ said Grace. ‘Why didn’t you tell us before?
    ‘Well,’ said Alice. ‘I didn’t say anything,because I’ve been trying to work stuff out in my head. I’ve been thinking – maybe we should help Melissa.’
    ‘How?’ asked Grace.
    ‘Well, we could go to her house and sort of casually meet her parents. We could talk about all the good stuff we do at our school, and how good it is for developing our personalities as well as our academic achievements.’
    Grace giggled. ‘You mean all that garbage the principal goes on about at assembly?’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Alice. ‘That kind of stuff. And then Melissa’s parents would realise that it wasn’t the school’s fault that her sister went crazy. And then …’
    ‘And then what?’ I asked.
    ‘And then, because we’re there with her, Melissa will be brave enough to tell her parents how unhappy she is at boarding school, and they’ll let her leave. I
know
it’ll work. What do you think?’
    Grace didn’t answer. I sat there as all kinds ofemotions fought it out in my brain. I remembered what it was like when I was in sixth class, after Alice had moved to Dublin with her mum. Melissa picked on me nearly every day while Alice was gone. Every day she found something new to mock me for. Every morning I woke up feeling scared and lonely. Every morning I wanted to pull the covers up