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to teach PE, and it was Mrs Ross who came to fetch the girls in their class that afternoon to take them to the changing rooms. She seemed fun, and even Becky was feeling chirpier by the time they’d got out to the playing fields. Katie was positively jumping up and down with enthusiasm, especially as Mrs Ross had told them that they’d be doing ball skills today. She and Saima were lugging a big net full of brand-new-looking footballs, and various other members of the class were carrying traffic cones. The boys, who were heading out to the field as well, mostly seemed to be wearing the traffic cones on their heads. This seemed to involve weird whooargh noises as well, but none of the girls could see why.
    â€œRight,” called Mrs Ross. “Put the cones over here, in a line, that’s right. Lovely. Now, an orderly queue, please, and we’re going to practise dribbling through the cones. Who wants to go first?”
    Everyone shuffled their feet a bit, and avoided looking at Mrs Ross, so she picked a girl that the triplets didn’t know. She looked terribly embarrassed, and unfortunately managed to trip over her feet and knock two of the cones over halfway round. Almost everyone pretended not to notice – they were too busy being glad they hadn’t had to go first to laugh. The girl with the strawberry-blonde hair and her two little mates had their sneering faces on again, though. When it got to Katie’s turn, Mrs Ross got very excited. Katie had been to a soccer summer school, and done lots of this sort of thing. She moved round the cones amazingly fast, expertly dribbling the ball from foot to foot as the rest of the class watched open-mouthed. From the other side of the field, the dark-haired boy who’d been so horrible that morning looked very sulky indeed as Mrs Ross enthused about Katie’s flying feet.
    After that they practised kicking the ball backwards and forwards in pairs, trying to keep it under control. Katie’s partner was called Megan. She wasn’t bad at football herself, but she explained she preferred being a goalie. She was very impressed with Katie’s ball skills and Katie showed her a clever trick she’d learned at the summer school, using the side of her foot to get the ball going exactly where she wanted it.
    Annabel and Becky were paired together, and had a good time – quite a lot of it spent chasing the ball when it went wide, but they still had fun. The running about seemed to blow away the stuffy feeling of the classroom, and by the end of the lesson practically everyone was feeling ready for a sit-down; even if it had to be sitting down doing maths.
    Their new maths teacher, Mr Jones (definitely not one to mess with – not yet, anyway – the triplets decided) made no allowances for it being the first day. It was straight into revision of long multiplication and division, strictly no calculators allowed. Katie was galloping through the problems on the board (Becky and Annabel chewed their pencils and sighed – Katie was unfairly good at maths, and Mr Jones would be bound to think they could do it, too) when the loud shrill of the bell interrupted – it was the end of their first day!

Chapter Five
    The cloakroom was a mad scrimmage as everyone fought to be first out of the school gates. Eventually, though, the triplets got their stuff together and headed off home. They were just turning into the high street when they spotted a familiar figure.
    â€œMum!” said Katie in surprise. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to wait for us at home.”
    â€œOh, I know,” agreed Mrs Ryan, “but I just couldn’t – I was sitting there worrying, not getting any work done. I wanted to know how your first day had gone, so I thought I’d meet you halfway.” She noted Katie’s scowl. “I’m sorry, Katie – you really wanted to walk home on your own, didn’t