"You'll survive it," said Madge consolingly, and Allison remarked: "I hope you don't find her too unbearable?"
"Oh no. We're not really bad friends at all. I can't say I liked her at first; she was so hard and unfriendly. But somehow we get on better now. I suppose we've got used to each other. At times I really find myself quite liking her."
"Then she can't be such a desperate character after all," declared Madge. "Only bad in spots perhaps."
"Like the rest of us," added Allison. "Come along, Madge. We really must be going." She nodded good-bye to Nat. "I'm so glad you two are on better terms. Only don't follow her example and work too hard, Nat."
"Couldn't if I tried," replied Nat as the two seniors departed.
Five minutes later Monica came in.
"There's a netball match on Saturday," she announced, "and I'm playing in the team. Centre-attack—though I'm not quite sure where that is. Pam's playing hockey and two others of the team are laid up with very bad colds, so they are rather hard up for players. They don't want to have a team composed entirely of youngsters, so they've called upon me to assist them in their difficulty."
"They must be in a bad way," was Nat's unflattering comment.
"That's what I told them. But Ida, who is captaining the team in Pam's absence, said I was quick and could jump, and that was pretty well all that was necessary in netball. She and Prue are awfully wild with Pam for deserting them, as they call it. What about you? Have they asked you to captain the team on Saturday?"
"No," sadly, "I'm not in it. Still, they've put me down as reserve, so I shall be able to go with the team and see the match. You also get a free tea. I know this school—last year they gave us doughnuts and cream buns."