Second Form at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton Read Free Book Online Page B

something short so that a word would appear on Mam'zelle's skirt and send everyone into fits? It would have to be a short word.
    “I'll write “OY,”” said Darrell to herself, in glee. “I'll have to write it backwards, so that it will come off on Mam'zelle the right way round.”
    So, very painstakingly she rubbed the chalk on the seat of the chair in the form of the two letters O and Y. OY! Fancy going about with that written on you! How all the girls would yell!
    The bell went for lessons. Darrell slipped the chalk into her pocket and went to her place. She giggled when the rest of the form came in.
    “Did you do it? Did you have time?” whispered the girls. Darrell nodded. Then in came Mam'zelle, appearing to be in quite a good temper, and the door was shut.
    Mam'zelle sat down at once. She had very tiny feet and did not like standing. The girls watched eagerly. When would she stand up? Darrell could hardly wait for her to turn her back to the class. What would they say when they saw what she had written on the chair!
    Jean was called to the blackboard to write something. “Do it all wrong!” hissed Darrell. Then Mam'zelle will get up to correct it.”
    So, much to Mam'zelle's surprise, the usually careful Jean made ridiculous mistakes in the French words she wrote down, and appeared to be quite unable to put them right, despite Mam'zelle's exasperated instructions. At last thoroughly annoyed, she dismissed Jean to her seat, and got up to put the mistakes right herself.
    The class saw her back view at once, and gasped. Written across her tight-fitting skirt in bright pink letters was the word “OY!” Even Darrell was surprised to see it so clearly, and suddenly felt very uncomfortable. It was one thing to make a patch of pink appear on somebody's clothes—it could easily be explained away—but how could the word ‘OY’ be explained? It was quite impossible.
    The class gaped at Mam'zelle's back view. They were absolutely taken aback. They didn't know whether to giggle or to be alarmed.
    “Darrell! You idiot! I Suppose she goes walking up the corridor in front of all the other mistresses with that written on her skirt!” hissed Alicia. “Really, you might have more sense.”
    The thought of me other mistresses seeing Mam'zelle's “OY!” really alarmed the form. Miss Parker would certainly not approve. She would consider it most disrespectful.
    But how to get it off? That dreadful pink ‘OY’ flashed back and forth as Mam'zelle wrote on the board, turned to the class to explain, and wrote again.
    I'll tell Mam'zelle she's got some dust or something on her skirt and I'll brush it off.” promised Darrell, in a whisper. “At the end of the lesson.”
    But she had no chance to, for Mam'zelle walked off in a hurry, remembering that she was late for the first form, next door. And the first-formers had the surprise of their lives when they saw Mam'zelle's pink ‘OY’ flashing at them every other minute!
    They couldn't keep back their giggles and Mam'zelle grew more and more furious. “What is there so funny about me this afternoon?”“ she demanded. “Is my hair untidy? Is my face black? Are my shoes not a pair?”
    “No, Mam'zelle,” said the first form, almost helpless with trying to stop their laughter.
    “I am not funny and I do not feel fumy,” said Mam'zelle, severely. “But I shall soon do some funny things. Ah, yes! I shall soon say “One hundred lines of French poetry from you, please, and from you and you! Aha! I shall soon be very funny!
    With that she swung round to the blackboard and the “OY!” flashed again. The first form clutched one another in agonies of suppressed laughter.
    But all the same they had the sense to grab Mam'zelle before she went out of the room. “We'll have to get that off her before she goes,” said Hilda. “Or else the second-formers will get into awful trouble. I expect they meant to brush it off somehow and didn't have the chance.”
    So, before