The Naughtiest Girl Again
 First edition | |
| Author | Enid Blyton |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | W. Lindsay Cable |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Naughtiest Girl series |
| Genre | School |
Publication date | 1942 |
| Media type | Print () |
| Preceded by | The Naughtiest Girl in the School |
| Followed by | The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor |
Elizabeth is excited to be going back to school this term. As soon as she’s back at the station, Nora greets her with “Hallo! So the naughtiest girl is back, is she? Dear oh dear, I’ll have to keep an eye on her, won’t I?” “I don’t think so” replies Elizabeth. She hunts all over for Joan, her best friend. There are three new children this term, two girls and one boy, Robert, whom Joan doesn’t like the look of very much. For a few weeks all is peaceful, but one day Elizabeth is going to talk to her rabbits and she hears a scream coming from the direction of the swings. She goes to investigate and sees Robert swinging Peter almost over the top of the swing post. “Stop!” she says “you’re making Peter ill!” Robert ignores her and when she tries to stop the swing again, he pushes her over and swings him even higher. Elizabeth comes to the end of her fuse and flies at Robert, pulls his hair out and slaps him. She gets Peter off the swing and says “Don’t let Robert swing you again!” That evening, at the school meeting, Robert complains that Elizabeth flew at him and pulled his hair out for no reason. Elizabeth jumps up and says “Well, I did fly at him and pull his hair out, but there was a good reason. He was swinging poor wretched Peter almost over the top of the swing post, and Peter was terrified! I myself was frightened he’d fall off, and anyway, Robert is a mean, hateful bully who picks on little kids for no reason that I can see.” “Peter, stand up” says William “Was Robert swinging you high?” “Yes, pretty high” he says “Was your screaming genuine or just play-acting?’ asks William and Peter says he was just play-acting because he was frightened of losing his guinea pigs (by Robert’s hand) so Elizabeth has to offer Robert an apology he doesn’t deserve. A few days later, Jenny doesn’t put all her mice back in their cage before class resumes and unfortunately it’s a lively young mouse which causes chaos and much amusement in the classroom. Miss Ranger understands, but says Jenny has to count her mice more carefully in future and asks her to take him back to his cage. A few weeks later, Kathleen forgot to bring her homework to class and when the teacher scolds her for her forgetfulness, she says – would you believe it? “You didn’t give me any” which infuriates the teacher even further. She sends Kathleen outside for the rest of that lesson, not because she forgot her homework but because she argued and lied. Jenny enjoyed that scene and on the next rainy day she imitates them and then goes a bit too far when she says in the teacher’s voice “Ah, truly, Kathleen, I do not like your greasy hair. I do not like your spots. I do not like your manners, and Elizabeth suddenly notices Kathleen’s in the room; she’s sneaked in on everyone’s blind spot “Shut up, Jenny!” says Elizabeth “Kathleen’s in here!” – Ooops! Kathleen plans her revenge. She starts to spread slanderous rumours about Jenny and when Elizabeth overhears she says “Kathleen, if you say one more unkind and untrue thing about Jenny, I’ll report you at the next meeting.”, and Kathleen becomes even more sneaky and unkind. She dirties Elizabeth’s tools, ruins Jenny’s homework, hides Elizabeth’s books and worst of all puts two of Jenny’s mice in Miss Ranger’s desk which she disturbs when she’s getting spare paper for Elizabeth. She is furious with Jenny and won’t take “I didn’t do it” for an answer, she treats Jenny like a liar. The mice disappear under the door and are never seen again; they were probably eaten by the school cat. Elizabeth suspects Robert of the tricks and begins spying on him and catches him in the act of making Leslie sit on the hot water pipes. “Caught you good and proper this time!” she says “you won’t be able to deny this act of bullying. And you’ve been playing nasty tricks on me and Jenny, you horrid sneak!” “Tricks?” says Robert “what tricks? I haven’t played any tricks on you or Jenny – really I haven’t” “Humph!” says Elizabeth “you’ve just made it worse by lying. See you at the meeting tonight!”, and she makes good her word. William recalls there was a case of bullying when he and Rita were small fry and looks it up in the book “Hmm” he says “a girl called Lucy was jealous of her two adopted sisters, so she began to be nasty to small fry. Okay, Robert, do you have any small brothers or sisters?” “Yes, I do, and I hate them. They hogged the limelight and I began to hate littleuns.” “Oh, I see” William says kindly “well, no matter how much you hate your brothers, you can’t take it out on innocent small kids.” Elizabeth says she will help Robert, but she says he should be punished for the tricks that he played on her and Jenny and William says “Well, Elizabeth, you may play in the match tomorrow, instead of Robert” He then turns to Robert and says “Mr Jones says you should take care of something, so that kindness will shut down your unkindness. He says you love horses…” “I do” says Robert hopefully “Well, you may take charge of two horses and take someone riding with you every morning.” Robert is ecstatic about that “Well, thank you, William” he says “I’ll take the littleuns I’ve been beastly to out first” “I’ll come riding with you someday” says Peter. The meeting breaks up and everyone’s happy except Kathleen, who’s got a cloud hanging over her head, knowing she’s cost Robert his place in the match. The next day is the day of the match and Nora notices Robert has come to watch and says “Funny that a boy so mean as to play those tricks can be so generous as to come and watch the match. Almost makes me wonder if he’s really the culprit.”, and Elizabeth feels a little uncomfortable. The weatherman suddenly spoils everything by making it rain. “Bad luck, Elizabeth” says a voice “can’t do anything about it. Sorry!” and when Elizabeth looks up she finds it was Robert – Robert! Meanwhile, Kathleen mopes around and then finally decides to own up and then run away. “Oh, Kathleen” Jenny and Elizabeth cry in disgust “so it was you who played the tricks. You made Elizabeth get Robert in trouble.” “I know” sighs Kathleen “but you won’t be bothered with me much longer” and goes to get her things. Joan comes along and when Elizabeth tells her about Kathleen she says “I know how mean Kathleen’s been, but don’t think of that. Think instead of how it must be to be plain, spotty and dull and now to have a guilt-cloud hanging over your head.” Elizabeth and Jenny feel ashamed of themselves and go to apologize to Kathleen for how they treated her, but she says “But I’d have to own up at the next meeting, and I can’t do that; I’m not brave enough, so goodbye” They report to Nora that Kathleen has run away “Good gracious!” she exclaims “we’ve got to tell William and Rita and Miss Belle and Miss Best! Quick!” racing down the hallway. Elizabeth says “Kathleen’s not brave enough to own up to the school meeting; she’s not very brave at all; although she does argue with teachers in a way I simply wouldn’t dare to do.” “Well" explains Miss Best "that’s because she feels herself a failure; though she has never admitted it up till now, and now she’s been forced to, she’s run away” Thankfully she’s missed the train and Rita is able to persuade her to give up her foolish idea of running away. Kathleen soon finds out that Jenny and Elizabeth have what they have not through luck, but through themselves, they have shiny hair and smile a lot, whereas Kathleen has greasy hair, spots and mopes and grumbles all the time, so if she stopped eating sweets all the time, she’d have a better complexion and if she went out in the wind and the sun, she’d have rosy cheeks “Well” sighs Kathleen “at this point I don’t feel like smiling and in fact I don’t feel like turning over a new leaf, I’ll do it to please you because you’ve been so nice to me. But don’t make me own up at the school meeting or say I was the one who played the tricks, because I’ll run away if you do, or straightaway afterwards.” “Well” says William “we’re not going to make you; nobody is. There is no point forcing anyone to do things like that if they’re not ready. We are going to have to clear Robert of blame, but we won’t mention your name and who knows, maybe you will be brave enough to own up.” “I will never be” sighs Kathleen “Well, you’ve missed dinner, so why don’t you come with us and have chocolate biscuits with cocoa; they’re delicious” Kathleen accepts the offer and soon is giggling at William’s silly stories. The next day, Elizabeth and Jenny treat her warmly and Robert says she should come riding with him and Kathleen happily decides to do so. Elizabeth notices her name down for the lacrosse match and thinks “Well, I really should let Robert play” and talks to Eileen about it. Robert notices his name is suddenly on the list instead of Elizabeth’s and when he makes inquiries, Nora tells him that Elizabeth felt that he should play instead of her “Well, that’s very sporting of her” he says, “but I can’t let her do that.”, and goes to find her, but Elizabeth refuses to play and at the next meeting Robert says “Elizabeth is letting me play in the match to make up for making wrongful accusations about me. That’s very nice of her, isn’t it?” What goes around comes around and on the day of the match Peter is suddenly sick and everyone chants “Let Elizabeth play, Mr Johns! Elizabeth play!” and Mr Johns agrees. Kathleen gets a wise word on courage from Joan and is able to own up to the tricks after all, and Joan is rewarded by being appointed a monitor. All goes well until Peter, Kathleen, Joan, John and Elizabeth all want to ride and they’re one horse short, Peter’s horse is lame and Robert doesn’t trust Tinker, the only available horse, but hot-headed Elizabeth goes against Robert’s advice and lets Peter ride him and Elizabeth ends up injuring her wrist, so no piano-playing, gardening, riding, lacrosse or hockey for the rest of that term. She’s a real crosspatch, but Joan says “You’re such a strong person and everyone’s disappointed to see you being so weak.” “Joan’s right” Elizabeth thinks “I’ve got to pull myself together” and she does. She watches the matches and cheers like anything when someone from Whyteleafe shoots a goal. She helps as much as she can in the upcoming school play. A new monitor has to be appointed at the end of that term and almost everyone writes – would you believe it “Elizabeth Allen” on the slips of paper and William and Rita have noticed what a brick she’s been the last three weeks or so, so they choose her.