Sandy and the Parisian Diamond

The Awesome Foursome's First Adventure

Sandy…

Lost?

We’ll find it!

As usual, Pretty doesn’t understand but her highly feminine instincts always guide her in the right direction.

Oh, no! A black cat!

Gabby always keeps on running, but sometimes she picks up the wrong scent.

Stop, you villain!

Without Abdul the end-of-year vacation would have been dull and forgettable…

I’m dreadfully wicked, but I’m enjoying it!

If the girls hadn’t got involved in this dodgy business, who knows what would have happened to you, Parisian Diamond?

and the Parisian Diamond Sandy doesn’t look for trouble deliberately, but somehow she always finds herself in the middle of a huge mess.

Where are my shoes?

Lily is the brains of the team, so she plays an important role in investigations – if only she weren’t so superstitious!

What are you talking about?

At first Mrs Magritte is just a weight around the gang’s neck, but then they realise that she has her wits about her and her heart is in the right place.

What’s this pyramid doing above my head?

...and without Nazim almost certainly more relaxing!

Neiiigh!

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ick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, the alarm clock on the jury’s desk tick-tocked loudly and irritatingly. Just five minutes to go. Now only four. Now only three. Sandy and her friends glanced at the big hand moving relentlessly forward. The questions on the paper were much harder than they had appeared at first, but the Robin Redfern National Competition for Schools wasn’t renowned for being simple.

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And that’s how it was this time too. The beginning was sort of alright when they had to do easier tasks like listing types of fruit.

Then there were the reptiles. Well, that was a cinch. Banana, grapes, lemon, apple. For the reptiles you could write snakes, lizards and chameleons. Maybe dinosaurs but they died out ages and ages ago. So the beginning was sort of alright, but then it was a total nightmare.

When Sandy and her friends won the local round of the competition and their class teacher told them that they could take part in the national final, the girls only smiled. Robin Redfern? That’s a joke! Is that a guy or a gal? And a competition? Come off it! Who wants to go in for that? What good could come of it? Their teacher said something about knowledge being power and moral victory. But the only thing the girls understood was that they would have to spend the whole summer studying and that they didn’t fancy doing. In the end their teacher pleaded with them so much that they decided to put it to the vote. Well, they guessed they owed Miss Marshall that much.

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“Course I’ll do it,” Sandy was the first to agree. She liked Miss Marshall’s geography lessons very much, particularly since her teacher had given her good marks in two tests, which meant she would get top grades at the end of the year.

“I’ve got such a lot on this summer,” Pretty whined. “I hope you don’t expect me to give up my Fashion Camp for Robin Redfern! It’s so exciting I can hardly wait!”

“Try on rags in the morning and put your nose into your books in the afternoon,” Lily, who couldn’t stand her friend’s airs and graces, frowned at her. “Anyway, a bit of studying would do you good.”

“Does that mean you’ll do it, too?” Sandy asked to make sure she hadn’t got the wrong end of the stick.

“Sure,” Lily nodded.

“And I’m in, too. So, it’s three against one,” gloated Gabby, who was the last to show her hand. Really she didn’t mind how she spent the summer. Best of all she would like to run and move and swim a lot. She had also enrolled for a Pilates course in July

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because she had been dying to try it for ages. But she wasn’t bothered if she had to get her textbooks out now and then.

So the girls had voted enthusiastically in favour of Miss Marshall and now they were sitting in their uncomfortable school chairs and literally baking in the scorching sun that was streaming into the classroom.

It was unusually hot for September and the heat poured in through the half-open window. Somehow they hadn’t expected it. They had fifty questions to answer in fifty minutes but towards the end they had run out of steam.

“Pretty, would you mind helping instead of looking at your nails?” Gabby grumbled to her. It was not by chance that she spoke up as the others had given her the job of filling in the test paper for their team. First she thought they had asked her because she had the neatest handwriting. But then she realised she had got the bad end of the deal.

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“Okay, okay,” Pretty scowled. “I was just checking them. I can’t shake hands with the judges with broken nails.”

“If we do well enough to shake hands at all,” retorted Sandy, seeming unusually nervy. Time was running out fast and there were still a few unanswered questions.

“Don’t worry,” Lily said, waving for silence.

Then she sat in the lotus position on her chair, closed her eyes, relaxed and began to hum.

“Ommmm... mmm... mmm...”

“What’s that odd noise?” Gabby lifted her head. She was so involved in writing that for a few seconds she had totally ignored her friends around her.

“Just Lily meditating,” said Sandy, casting a cold glance at the humming girl. “You carry on. You know that I’m the only one you can count on when the going gets tough.”

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“And me!” Pretty exclaimed proudly. “Don’t think I’d ever let you down. Now,” she said turning towards Gabby, “what’s the next question?”

“Which is the largest lake in the world?” she said looking up from the rustling pile of papers in front of her, but with such a look of horror on her face that the others took pity on her. Except for Lily of course, who was still doing yoga. Indeed she was giving a good impression of having drifted off to sleep.

“Lakes, summer, bathing!” cried Pretty.

“I adore Lake Balaton!”

“Thank you for your useful contribution,” Gabby remarked pointedly to the blonde girl’s comment. “It’s nice of you to tell us where your favourite holiday spot is, but it doesn’t help

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much as the Balaton only counts as the largest lake in Hungary. The question is about the whole wide world.”

“So, it erm...” Sandy started fumbling for the answer.

She stared helplessly down at her shoes without really having a clue. She couldn’t even guess. So when help came from the very person the others had given up on, it was truly welcome.

“Come on,” said Lily, suspending meditation and opening her eyes unexpectedly. “You’re not stuck on such a trifle as that. The right answer’s the Caspian Sea.” “Caspian Sea? But that’s a sea!” Pretty snapped indignantly. “We need the largest lake. Go back to sleep if you can’t help!”

“If you had paid more attention in class, you would know that the Caspian Sea is in fact a lake,” Lily reprimanded her friend like a teacher. “Its mildly SEA? saline water led the Romans to believe it was an L A K E? ocean and that’s why they called it a sea. But it’s really a lake. Just write it down,” she gestured to Gabby. “I take the responsibility for it.”

“Okay,” her friend said putting it down on the paper. At least someone had taken that load off her shoulders. Now there was only one question left. The fiftieth.

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“Hurry, hurry! We’re running out of time!” urged Sandy with butterflies dancing in her stomach from the excitement.

“Which is...” began Gabby, turning the pages this way and that in haste. “Oh, where’s it gone?

It was right here!”

“Don’t be so clumsy!” flapped Sandy.

“If we don’t answer all the questions, we certainly can’t win!”

“Okay, okay. I know that, too,” Gabby protested. “But if you hassle me, we won’t be any quicker. I’ll find it in a mo, don’t worry. Where is it? Here! I’ve got it!” Her eyes sparkled as she quickly read the question. “Which is the most southerly distributed bird?”

“We’ve lost,” said Sandy turning pale. “I haven’t got the foggiest.

Any idea?” she asked Gabby despairingly.

“Nope,” Gabby’s bunches flew as she shook her head.

“Lily?” inquired Sandy to her other side.

“What?” came the confused reply from Lily, who had gone back to meditating and lost the thread.

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“Which is the most southerly distributed bird?” Sandy repeated in a hurry, hoping to get the right answer at last.

“Erm… What could that be?

Trick question perhaps?” Lily was flummoxed. “The most southerly distributed bird? Maybe the stork...

That flies all the way to Africa. But no, that’s not right. I’m sorry, I don’t know,” she admitted, spreading her hands helplessly. “My mind’s a blank.”

“We’re done for, then,” sighed Sandy, who turned from ghostly white to ash grey. However, before she had time to faint, help arrived again, but from an even more unexpected quarter.

“What’s the fuss about now?” Pretty adjusted her hair in her hand-held mirror. “What’s so difficult about that?” she stared at her friends totally unmoved.

“Why? Do you happen to know the right answer?” asked Gabby with a glimmer of hope in eyes.

“Of course I do,” replied the blonde girl unaffectedly. “It’s the penguin.”