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It was summer. The school year had almost come to an end, and everyone was looking forward to the long holidays.
In fact, everyone would have been really, really happy, except for one thing.
Before the holidays, they had to do exams. And nobody likes to do exams, unless they are the swottiest of swots.
And Katie didn’t think that exams were at all nice.
No matter how good you are at magic, you still have to remember things for yourself. And Katie had twice as much to learn as all the other children.
She did the witch exams in the evenings – and her mum gave her four and a half stars for her work. But then she had to get ready for the tests at her school.
“Mum, it’s not fair” she complained. “I have to learn so many magic spells. And I have to learn all the school lessons too.”
“Well just think yourself lucky,” said Mum. “Other children have to tidy their rooms, but you can just say a magic spell and it’s done just like that!”
So Katie sat in her room and tried to read her school books. But to tell you the truth, she also looked out of the window and made up fairy tales about herself.
Only in the stories, she wasn’t a witch. She was a beautiful princess who could also do magic tricks.
When exam week came, the first test was spelling. If it had been magic spelling, Katie would have been alright. But in this test the teacher read out words like “accommodation” and “Mississippi” and other words that are tricky2 to spell.
Katie was really cross. She thought the teacher had chosen the most difficult words just to be mean.
That wasn’t fair.
So she tried a little magic. She couldn’t say a spell out loud, because everyone would hear.
So she just thought the words in her head really hard – and Wow! It worked. Her pen wrote the correct spellings all by itself.
Next they had to do maths problems. Katie could do the first few – because they were easy-peasy – but then there was a mean question about a monkey and some bananas.
So she thought up another magic spell, and again her pen wrote down the right answer.
In history, she had to remember all the names of the gods of ancient Egypt.
And in geography she had to remember the capital cities of Europe.
And in french she had to remember some really, really tricky words like “le singe3 est sur la branche “ which means4 “the monkey is on the branch.”
In fact, all the exams had mean questions in them. And in every case, a little magic spell came in handy5.
In fact, the magic worked so well for Katie that she thought to herself: “Why should I bother learning6 all these stupid things? I can just say a magic spell and my pen will write the answer.”
She told the class that they had all done very well, especially Katie who had scored top marks in every exam. She hadn’t got a single answer wrong.
“Wow Katie,” said Julie. “You’re a genius.”
The teacher said: “Congratulations Katie. You certainly did very well. Maybe too well. I think that you and I should go and have a little talk with Mrs Hepworth.”
And Katie felt just a bit worried.
Because Mrs Hepworth is the head mistress8. And when you go to have a little talk with Mrs Hepworth, that usually means that you are in trouble.
Big trouble!
At lunchtime, the teacher took Katie to see Mrs Hepworth. She explained that Katie had got top marks in all her exams and hadn’t got a single question wrong.
“You are a very naughty girl,” said Mrs Hepworth.
And Katie started to cry.
And to cry.
And to cry.
And the teacher dried her tears with a handkerchief.
“There there,” she said.
Eventually Katie stopped crying.
“Do you know why you are a naughty girl?” asked Mrs Hepworth.
Katie said: “You’re just cross with me because I’m a witch and I know how to do magic. That’s really mean of you because I can’t help being a witch. I was born that way.”
“Now you are talking nonsense9.” said Mrs Hepworth. There are no such things as witches10 or magic. You are in trouble because you cheated in the exams.”
“I did not not NOT!” said Katie.
“Just tell us how you did it, and we will let you off – this time,” said the teacher.
Katie knew that she was in big trouble. She just wanted to run out of the study and all the way back home to her mum. But she couldn’t do that, so she thought she had better own up.
“Well I did do a few magic spells,” she said. “Just little ones.”
But they didn’t believe her.
“Oh dear. What are we going to do with this problem child?” said the teacher.
“Katie.” said Mrs Hepworth. “You are in big, big trouble. You have till the end of term to tell us how you cheated in the exams. If you don’t tell the truth by then, you won’t be coming back to school next term. We don’t have girls who make up stories about witches and magic in this school. Goodness11 gracious12! You’ll be frightening all the other children with these silly stories.”
And Katie was very very sad about that, because she was telling the truth about being a witch.
And it wasn’t fair.
It was the last week of term. And before the holidays, the school always had a special treat. This term, Katie’s class went on a trip to the safari13 park.
It was a big park full of wild animals from places like Africa. There were giraffes, and elephants, and long-legged deer called gazelles.
Katie’s class were all safe inside the bus, and they looked out of the window at all the animals. It was ever so cool. Everyone was really excited and happy.
Except for Katie. She was sad because she was still in big, big trouble.
The best animals were the chimpanzees14. They climbed all over the bus. The driver got really cross when they stole his windscreen wipers. Everyone else thought that was ever so funny.
They had lunch in a restaurant on top of a tall rock. The rock was on a big island surrounded by water. And in the water there were crocodiles.
And the crocodiles were really scary.
Even more scary than the lions.
There was boy in Katie’s class called Clive. Clive was always doing silly things. But the teachers didn’t seem to mind.
Clive never got into trouble, however silly he was.
But then, he didn’t know how to do magic. So that was probably why he always got away with things.
In the restaurant, Clive did something very silly indeed. He asked to go to the loo, and on the way back, he went through a door that said:
“Staff Only.”
It was the room which they used to feed the crocodiles.
It had a window and the keepers17 threw meat out of it, down into the river. And somebody had left the window open.
Clive climbed up to look through the window. Then he saw that if you climbed out of the window, you could get onto the rocks. He thought it would be really cool to walk around the rocks, and look in at the other children eating their lunch. They would get a really big surprise to see him out there.
So that’s what he did.
Only he slipped18 on a banana skin left by a monkey. Then, he fell down the rocks and broke his ankle19. Fortunately, one of the keepers saw him and sounded the alarm.
Everyone in the restaurant rushed to the window to look out, and they saw Clive lying on a rock near the river. A crocodile was waddling20 slowly towards him. Its face had a sort of smile on it, and its tail was swishing.
Everyone screamed.
Except for Katie and Wendy.
“Katie. Do something. You’re the only one who can save poor Clive. Just say a magic spell. Quick!!!!”
Mrs Hepworth heard this. But she was too frightened to tell off either Wendy or Katie. After all, poor Clive was looking into the jaws22 of a crocodile.
Katie thought really hard about what would be the best magic spell to do. And then she decided23: “I know. I will make Clive fly.”
Fortunately, she knew the spell to make somebody fly, off by heart. She had learned24 it when she was getting ready for her witch exams. Now she shouted it out at the top of her voice.
I can’t tell you what she said, because it’s a secret. But it worked well, because everyone saw Clive rise up in the air, and gently fly back up to the restaurant.
Even the crocodile was impressed.
Then Katie said another spell to make everyone forget what they had just seen.
Except for the crocodile.
And Mrs Hepworth.
After that, Katie wasn’t in trouble any more. Because Mrs Hepworth now knew that she was telling the truth when she said she was a witch.
And Katie was glad that she had worked very hard that term – to learn all her magic spells. And when she got home and told her family what had happened, her mum gave her another half star for passing her witch exams.
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1
witch
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| n.巫婆，女巫；vt.施巫术，迷惑 | |
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2
tricky
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| adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的 | |
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3
singe
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| v.(轻微地)烧焦；烫焦；烤焦 | |
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4
means
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| n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富 | |
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5
handy
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| adj.方便的；手边的，近便的；手巧的 | |
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6
learning
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| n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词 | |
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7
papers
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| n.文件，纸币，论文 | |
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8
mistress
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| n.（文学用语）使男子为之倾倒的女人，女主人 | |
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9
nonsense
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| n.胡说，废话 | |
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10
witches
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| n.女巫，巫婆( witch的名词复数 )；讨人嫌的丑女人v.女巫，巫婆( witch的第三人称单数 )；讨人嫌的丑女人 | |
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11
goodness
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| n.善良，善行，美德 | |
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12
gracious
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| adj.亲切的，客气的，宽厚的，仁慈的 | |
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13
safari
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| n.远征旅行(探险、考察)；探险队，狩猎队 | |
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14
chimpanzees
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| n.黑猩猩( chimpanzee的名词复数 ) | |
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15
scary
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| a.引起惊慌的；害怕的 | |
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16
corridor
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| n.走廊，回廊，通路 | |
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17
keepers
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| n.饲养员( keeper的名词复数 )；保管人；管理人；负责人 | |
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18
slipped
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| adj.打滑，打滑的v.滑( slip的过去式和过去分词 )；滑脱；下降；（健康状况等）变差 | |
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19
ankle
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| n.踝，踝节部 | |
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20
waddling
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| v.（像鸭子一样）摇摇摆摆地走( waddle的现在分词 ) | |
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21
toad
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆 | |
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22
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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23
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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learned
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| adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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