The Beach Shack Cafe Read online

  About the Book

  Pippa has just arrived at a new school, in a new town, and even living on a gorgeous island isn’t cheering her up. Her arrival causes ripples at Kira Cove Primary School – but Pippa soon starts to make friends with eco-warrior Meg, boho-chick Charlie, and fashionista and cupcake baker Cici.

  Pippa’s mum plans to buy a rustic old boatshed and start a bookshop cafe. Pippa worries they’ll lose all their money in this madcap venture – until her new friends come to the rescue to help get the grand opening back on track.

  CONTENTS

  COVER

  ABOUT THE BOOK

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  A LETTER FROM PIPPA

  CHAPTER 1: FIRST DAY

  CHAPTER 2: MATHS QUIZ

  CHAPTER 3: THE BOATSHED

  CHAPTER 4: EXPLORING

  CHAPTER 5: DANCE WITH MISS DEMI

  CHAPTER 6: DOLPHIN TALK

  CHAPTER 7: EAVESDROPPING

  CHAPTER 8: THE EVIL SEA WITCH

  CHAPTER 9: THE PERFECT PLAN

  CHAPTER 10: GREEN GLOOP

  CHAPTER 11: WEEKEND WOE

  CHAPTER 12: DOODLE DISASTER

  CHAPTER 13: COURAGE AND CUPCAKES

  CHAPTER 14: SASSY SISTERS

  CHAPTER 15: THE GRAND BOATSHED MAKEOVER

  CHAPTER 16: FINAL COUNTDOWN

  CHAPTER 17: THE SCIENCE COMPETITION

  CHAPTER 18: PREPARATIONS

  CHAPTER 19: FABULOUS FESTIVITIES

  CICI’S LEMON CUPCAKE RECIPE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY BELINDA MURRELL

  CUB REPORTERS

  COPYRIGHT NOTICE

  For Pippa Masson and Zoe Walton for all your wisdom, encouragement and bookish genius. Thank you. I’d never have written this series without you!

  And for Pepper Abercrombie – may all your dreams bring you joy.

  Kira Cove Primary School. It seemed a world away from the friends and school I left behind just a few weeks ago. My uniform smelled new and starchy. When I walked through the school gate, I felt a teensy bit scared. Actually, extremely scared! No one likes starting at a new school, do they? I wondered if the kids would be nice. Would I make friends? Would my teacher like me?

  A lady from the office took me into the classroom, introduced me to the teacher, Mrs Marshall, and left me there.

  The kids all took advantage of the interruption to chat and laugh. Mrs Marshall shushed them with just a glance. She seemed stern and I hoped she wasn’t going to be too mean.

  I stood in front of a sea of strange faces, all of them staring at me. The faces blurred into one another. Boys and girls, wearing the same blue-and-white uniforms. To say I was feeling nervous was an understatement. I had butterflies doing somersaults in my tummy.

  ‘Class 5M, I’d like to introduce Philippa Hamilton, who has recently arrived from London,’ she said. ‘This is her first day at Kira Cove School so I hope you will welcome her warmly.’

  A girl at the back of the classroom whispered something to the girls she was sitting with. They all giggled. I felt myself blushing. I glared down at my squeaky, shiny black school shoes. It was horrible having everyone stare at me.

  ‘Please say good morning, class,’ said Mrs Marshall.

  ‘Good morning, Phil-lip-pa,’ chanted the whole class.

  ‘Good morning, 5M,’ I mumbled. Did my voice give a tell-tale wobble? ‘I’m Philippa but everyone calls me Pippa.’

  ‘Olivia, could you please sit up the back next to Connor?’ asked Mrs Marshall. ‘And Philippa – I mean Pippa – you can take a seat there next to Meg.’

  A girl stood up and packed away her books. She didn’t look very happy about changing seats. I slid into her empty chair and looked around. On my left was a girl with blue eyes and bobbed, honey-brown hair. On my right was a girl with long, blonde, wavy hair, green eyes and a sprinkle of freckles on her nose. Honey-girl smiled at me, in a shy kind of way.

  ‘Hi, Pippa,’ she whispered. ‘I’m Meg O’Loughlin.’

  The other girl leant over with a dazzling smile. ‘And I’m Charlie.’

  ‘Hi,’ I replied quietly, glancing down at my lap.

  ‘If you’re quite finished, girls, we’ll continue with our maths,’ said Mrs Marshall. She sounded gruff but I noticed her eyes looked kind.

  The morning fell into a familiar pattern of maths, spelling and reading. I doodled pictures of flowers and dogs and love hearts in the margin of my exercise book while the others marked their homework.

  When the recess bell rang, the whole class raced for the door. It was chaos in the corridor as everyone searched in their schoolbags for hats and snacks. I finally reached my bag, where I’d left it hanging on a hook, and dug out my own hat and lunch box. I joined the stream of students pouring into the playground.

  Outside, kids were running, shouting, playing and laughing. If I closed my eyes it sounded just like the playground of my old school back in London. But instead of cool and misty air, the sun shone down bright and hot. The air smelled different too. All sea-salty and spicy. And of course the biggest difference was that almost everyone was a stranger.

  Back home, I’d been with the same group of kids since we started nursery school at the age of three. I’d known every student in the whole school. My best friends were Miranda, Ava and Lily, and I missed them terribly. My prep school, Bromley House, was in a beautiful old red-brick mansion, near the River Thames. There was a walled garden out the back where we would play. Lunch was always served in the dining hall, which had a high-pitched beamed ceiling and oak panelling. We’d sit at our favourite table and chat as we ate a hot meal of pasta or chicken with vegetables. It couldn’t have been more different.

  Here, the school buildings were dazzling-white with wide, shady verandas. Hot-pink bougainvillea flowers twisted around the posts and tumbled over the roof. And the playground seemed huge.

  I hesitated, not sure what to do. I didn’t know whether to sit with some kids from my class, or go and find a hidden place to skulk by myself. Or perhaps I should look for Harry and Bella, and make sure they were all right.

  A moment later, I saw my little sister’s trademark corkscrew curls. She ran past, surrounded by a group of year one kids, and with a huge smile on her face. Bella was obviously fine.

  ‘Hi, Bella,’ I called. ‘Have you seen Harry?’

  Bella didn’t pause but just kept running. ‘He’s playing football,’ she yelled. ‘Over there.’

  A big crowd of year four kids was kicking a ball around. My brother was a super-keen football player. I saw him racing around, chasing the ball and hooting with laughter. Clearly Harry was perfectly happy too.

  It didn’t seem to have taken either of them any time at all to make friends.

  It was then that I saw Meg waiting for me. She waved me over timidly.

  ‘I thought you might like to come and sit with us,’ she said. ‘Most of the year fives meet under that tree over there.’

  At the far end of the playground was a huge old tree with spreading branches. A group of students was sitting in the shade.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, with relief. ‘That would be great.’

  We started walking together side by side.

  ‘Was that your little sister?’ Meg asked quietly. She seemed shy but she was making an effort to be friendly. ‘She looks like you.’

  My grandmother Mimi says that Harry, Bella and I are like three peas in a pod, which apparently means we all look alike – wild, curly brown hair, chocolate-brown eyes and skin the colour of caramel.

  I nodded. ‘Bella’s six. She likes to pretend she’s a dinosaur, which usually involves a lot of roaring and stomping. And I have a brother, Harry, who’s nine and the qu
ietest one in the family.’

  Meg laughed. ‘I have a brother too, Jack, but he’s older. He’s in year six. When did you move here?’

  I felt my tummy do the somersault thing again. ‘A few weeks ago. We had a holiday while Mum organised everything. We’re staying with my grandparents until our new place is ready.’

  Meg looked at me with sympathy. ‘Moving is tough, isn’t it? My family moved to Kira Island a couple of years ago. It took a while to settle in, but it’s great now.’

  ‘Didn’t you like it when you first moved here either?’ I asked.

  Meg grinned and shook her head. ‘I hated it! Especially going to school, because I’d never been before. But I got used to it.’

  ‘Really, you hadn’t been to school?’ Starting over at a different school was hard enough. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to face your first day ever somewhere new.

  ‘My mum’s a marine biologist so we travelled around a lot when we were younger and did home-schooling. She studies whales and dolphins in the wild. But then Mum decided we needed to go to a proper school, so she took a job here at Marine Animal Rescue Service. We live on a yacht in the harbour.’

  ‘I’ve never met anyone who lives on a boat.’ All my friends in London lived in big terrace houses just like ours. ‘Isn’t it squishy?’

  ‘A bit,’ agreed Meg cheerfully. ‘But I’m used to it.’

  ‘Wow. That’s fantastic.’ I realised that living on a boat couldn’t be too different to living in a caravan, like my family was. I began to feel a lot better about moving and starting a new school. Maybe I could make new friends and do fun things too.

  We reached the big tree. A group of nine girls was sitting cross-legged in a rough circle, nibbling happily at the food from their lunch boxes. Two of the girls wriggled over to make room for us.

  Meg sat down between them. I sat next to her, feeling self-conscious all over again with everyone looking at us. I pulled my skirt down straight.

  Meg waved towards the two girls who had made room for us. One was the blonde-haired girl who I’d been sitting next to. The other was the Chinese girl who’d sat on the other side of Meg. She was one of the prettiest girls I’d ever seen, with straight black hair, a thick fringe and brown eyes.

  ‘You met Charlie already, and this is Cici,’ said Meg.

  We said hi, then I looked around at the other girls in the circle.

  ‘That’s Olivia,’ said Meg, pointing to the girl who’d had to move seats for me. ‘And Willow, Eve, Jemila, Ariana, Tash and Sienna.’

  They all murmured hellos and looked at me curiously. How would I ever remember who was who? Willow had brown plaits, green eyes and a snub nose. Sienna looked very athletic, or was that Tash?

  ‘Did you really come from London?’ asked Olivia. Her long dark hair was swept up into a high ponytail. She smiled at me in a friendly way. ‘It must be an amazing place to live.’

  Memories of my old home crowded in. ‘Yes, I loved it. We lived in Chelsea before we moved here.’

  Olivia twirled her hair around her finger. ‘My mum’s a marketing manager and she visits London every year for her work. I’ve been with her twice. It’s one of my favourite cities in the world.’

  I warmed to Olivia at once. Anyone who loved my old hometown must be my sort of girl.

  We chatted for a couple of minutes about what she’d done on her trips – high tea at Harrods, visits to the theatre and shopping on Oxford Street.

  ‘Oxford Street is the most amazing place to shop,’ I said. ‘You could spend all day there and still not see everything.’

  ‘Mum bought me some really cool outfits there,’ said Olivia.

  ‘London has the most fantastic fashion,’ said Cici enthusiastically. ‘I’d love to go.’

  ‘Cici’s mum is a fashion designer,’ explained Meg. ‘She and Cici are mad about clothes.’

  It felt comforting to be talking to these new girls about familiar things. Maybe I could make friends here.

  When everyone had finished their snacks, the group split up. Some of the girls raced over to the handball courts, while others joined a soccer game. I drifted along to the grassy lawn, where Olivia, Tash, Sienna and Willow threw themselves into a series of spectacular cartwheels and handstands. Tash could do sixty-seven cartwheels in a row!

  The bell rang for the end of recess, and we joined the others.

  ‘Ugghh,’ said Charlie, scrunching up her face. ‘We have a maths quiz now.’

  Olivia walked beside me. The other girls trailed along behind. ‘Mrs Marshall loves giving us super-hard maths quizzes.’

  ‘It’s all right for you, Olivia,’ said Cici. ‘You top the class every time.’

  ‘Not just in maths quizzes,’ said Meg, turning to me. ‘Olivia got the academic prize for our class last year.’

  Olivia gave a little skip. ‘Well, I like maths.’

  ‘Me too,’ I said. Olivia and I smiled at each other. It looked like we had a lot in common. She seemed exactly the sort of girl I’d like to be friends with.

  Olivia was right. The maths quiz was super-hard. But luckily, I’m pretty good at maths. I whizzed through the paper, chewing my pen while I thought about the hardest questions.

  At the end of the quiz, we had to swap papers. Mrs Marshall read out the correct response and we had to mark each other’s answers. I swapped with Charlie, while Meg swapped with Cici.

  ‘Mine will be terrible,’ Charlie complained. ‘I’m just not good at maths.’

  Charlie’s paper was covered in scribbles and crossing out. She was definitely not good at maths, as I discovered. She barely passed.

  ‘Told you,’ whispered Charlie as I hand ed back her paper. ‘But you did brilliantly.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, quickly checking the score.

  I felt a rush of pride when I noticed that I’d only got one sum wrong.

  Mrs Marshall gathered up the papers and shuffled through them to check the results.

  ‘Well done, everyone,’ said Mrs Marshall. ‘And it looks like we have a new maths star in our class. Congratulations to Pippa for getting nearly full marks.’

  Lots of the kids looked over at me. Charlie patted me on the back. But then I noticed that Olivia was glaring at me as if I was a nasty spider she had discovered in her bedroom. I looked away, feeling uncomfortable. What had I done?

  After maths, Mrs Marshall split us up into groups of four to start work on a new science project. In my group was Meg, Charlie and Cici. Olivia was in a group with Willow, Tash and Sienna. Olivia looked over at our group as though she wished she was with us. I guess she would have been if Mrs Marshall hadn’t moved her.

  We had to design a game or toy made out of re cycled materials. We started by sketching concepts in our science notebooks, brainstorming ideas and discussing names. It was fun.

  Cici kept making the most ridiculous suggestions, just to make us giggle. ‘I’ve got it! How about a game where each player has to set out on a world quest to find the perfect handbag?’

  ‘We could call it Handbag Heaven!’ I joked.

  Cici flashed her fingernails, which were painted summery turquoise. ‘Or the perfect nail colour?’

  ‘Nail Nirvana!’ said Charlie.

  ‘Or how about Shoetopia?’ suggested Cici. ‘To see how many pairs of divine shoes you could collect along the way?’

  The three of us laughed out loud. Mrs Marshall glanced at us. We quietened down immediately.

  Meg huffed in disgust. ‘You guys are not taking this seriously. How about a quest game where the players have to try to save endangered animals like African elephants, mountain gorillas or black rhinoceros?’

  My ears pricked up. My parents had gone on safari in Tanzania for their honeymoon. I loved the stories Mum had told me and the beautiful photos she’d taken of elephants and other African animals in the wild. ‘That sounds like a good plan.’

  ‘Or why don’t we just set up a racing track for toy cars to zip around?’ suggeste
d Charlie. ‘That would be dead simple. I could recycle my brother’s toys off the floor, so I don’t have to step on them!’

  At the end of the lesson, we’d made no progress at all. At this rate we’d never get our project done.

  ‘Looks like we’ll need to have a team meeting after school one afternoon,’ said Charlie.

  ‘I’ll make the cupcakes,’ said Cici.

  ‘Lemon or strawberry-and-vanilla?’

  ‘Lemon’s my favourite,’ said Meg. ‘Are you in, Pippa?’ asked Charlie.

  I beamed at the girls. ‘Definitely.’ An after-school team meeting with lemon cupcakes and lots of laughs sounded absolutely perfect.

  ‘We could meet at my house tomorrow afternoon?’ suggested Charlie. ‘But my house is the furthest from school, so maybe we’d be better to go to one of yours?’

  ‘Mum works from home, and she has a big deadline this week so my place is out,’ said Cici. ‘Maybe we could meet at Pippa’s? Where do you live?’

  I thought of our tiny, crowded caravan in the back garden of my grandparents’ cottage. Then the messy, ruined boatshed. I didn’t feel like having the girls over to either place.

  I shook my head. ‘We’re staying with my grandparents at the moment so that probably won’t work.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ said Meg. ‘You can come to our yacht.’

  Mrs Marshall came over to check our progress. ‘Are you settling in all right, Pippa?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, Mrs Marshall,’ I replied.

  ‘And have you girls come up with a good plan for your project yet?’ She looked right at me.

  ‘Ah, yes.’ I glanced around quickly at the other girls. They looked at me with panicked expressions. Clearly none of us wanted to tell Mrs Marshall about our frivolous ideas for a handbag quest! What could I say? I didn’t want my new teacher to think we had wasted the whole lesson being silly. Then I remembered Meg’s idea.