Chapter 6

Chapter SIX At the end of the afternoon, we were all allowed to spend some time in the gift shop. I raced over to the cuddly-toy bittens and looked at the price tag. Yes! I was just able to afford two of them. One for me and one for my cousin Isadora! I spent ages looking at their faces, deciding which ones looked the friendliest.

Finally, I chose two and brought them over to the counter to pay for them. I felt so excited about sending my cousin such a lovely present. I knew she would love the toy bitten just as much as I loved the hair clips, though I did feel a bit disappointed that I had lost the butterfly one in the bittens' cage. 'What are you buying, Lavinia?' I asked her, as she came to stand next to me at the counter. 'Oh, just this!' she grinned, waving a horrid rubbery spider in my face.

The broomstick ride back to Miss Spindlewick's Witch School for Girls seemed much longer, now that we were all tired from a full day at the magical- creature sanctuary. Lavinia and I flew side by side, chatting and laughing about our day. I wondered if we would stay friends once we got back to school, or whether

things would go back to how they had always been. When we eventually landed on the playground tarmac, Miss Spindlewick ticked off all our names on her clipboard. 'Despite one small incident today,' she said, looking pointedly at me, 'I think we've all had a rather good trip, haven't we?' 'Yes, Miss Spindlewick,' we chorused. 'Good!' smiled Miss Spindlewick. 'Well, it's the end of the day so you're all free to fly home!' I waved at Carlotta and gathered up my broomstick, about to hop onto it when I felt someone pulling at my elbow. It was Lavinia.

'Mirabelle,' she said. 'I bought you something in the gift shop.' 'Me?' I said, shocked. I really hoped she wasn't going to give me that nasty, rubbery spider. 'Yes,' said Lavinia. 'To say thank you for being my partner today. It was much more fun than I had imagined!' She reached into her pocket and pulled out a hair clip. 'To replace the one you lost,' she said. I took the hair clip and gazed at it, and a warm feeling spread all the way through my body. It wasn't a butterfly hair clip, but a small bitten-shaped one, with glittery bat wings.

'Oh, I LOVE it!' I said, jumping on top of Lavinia and giving her a huge hug. 'Thank you so much!' 'You're welcome,' said Lavinia, sounding a bit embarrassed. 'I just thought it was nice of you to... Well, you know, get the camera back for us so that