Girl Wonder to the Rescue Read Online Free PDF Page A

tipped over us. The twins and I were hurrying along the road after school, desperate to get home.
    “I’m soaked,” said Edward, coughing and spluttering as some water ran into his mouth.
    “I bet I’m more soaked than you,” said Anthony.
    “Well, I couldn’t be more wet if Ijumped in a swimming pool,” I said, rubbing the rain-water out of my eyes so I could see where I was going.
    Then I heard a strange sound. I stopped walking.
    “Edward, Anthony, did you hear that?” I frowned.
    My brothers stopped walking and listened too. There it was again. A strange, whimpering noise. And it was coming from behind a horse-chestnut tree in the park beside us.
    “Edward, go and see what’s making that noise,” I said.
    “You go!” Edward told me.
    “Go on then, Anthony. Don’t be a chicken,” I said, trying to persuade my other brother.
    “No way! I’m not going by myself. It might be anything,” said Anthony.
    I sighed. “Then I reckon that this is ajob for Girl Wonder . . .”

    “And the sopping-wet Terrific Twins,” said Anthony.
    “The dripping-wet Terrific Twins,” Edward agreed.
    And we all jumped up and down in the puddle we were standing in, to activate our superhero powers.
    “Right then. We’ll all go,” I said, once we’d finished leaping up and down.
    “You first,” said Anthony.
    “Yeah, you first and me last! I’ll stayhere and act as a look-out,” said Edward.
    “Maxine,
anything
could be making that noise,” began Anthony. “It could be . . .”
    “Shush!” I whispered, my finger over my lips. “We don’t want to scare it off, whatever it is.”
    “We don’t?” Anthony asked.
    “We don’t,” I said firmly.
    We all looked around but no one was near. Anthony and I crept across the wet muddy ground towards the horse-chestnut tree, where the noise was coming from. We crept around the tree – and then we saw it. A tiny puppy in a soggy, soaking-wet cardboard box. The puppy’s fur was so wet it looked like a baby beaver or otter which had just climbed out of a river.
    I picked up the puppy which was too weak to even stand up in my hands. It only had the strength to whimper and sniffle softly as I held it.
    “What are we going to do with it?” Anthony asked.
    “We’re going to take it home,” I said firmly, walking back to the main road.
    “But Mum said we can’t have a dog – remember?” Anthony reminded me. “She’s said that hundreds and hundreds of times.”
    “We can’t just leave it there,” I said. “It’ll die if we just leave it there.”

    Already its eyes were closing. I could feel that the puppy was breathing, but it was so still it scared me.
    “Come on, you two,” I said.
    And without saying another word, we ran all the way home.
    “Mum, Mum!” I called out as soon as we got home.
    Mum came flying out of the living room. “Oh no you don’t, you three! Take off your wellies and your coats and scarves and hats right there, before you go dripping water all through the house.”
    “Mum, we heard a strange noise when we were coming home from school . . .”
    “And so we went to have a look . . .”
    “And we found a puppy in a cardboard box . . .”
    “And the puppy was all wet and cold . . .”
    “And we couldn’t leave it . . .”
    We all spoke at once whilst I held outmy hands to Mum, to show her what we’d found.
    “Maxine, what’s going on?” Mum frowned.
    We all tried to tell her again what happened, but Mum put one hand up.
    “One at a time. Maxine, you start.”
    “We found him in the storm, Mum . . .” I began. And very slowly, very carefully, I told Mum exactly what had happened.
    “So we couldn’t just leave him there, could we, Mum?” I said.
    Edward, Anthony and I all held our breath as we waited for Mum to answer. She looked at each of us in turn and then down at the puppy.

    “No, of course you couldn’t,” she smiled at last. “Bring him into the kitchen.”
    We followed Mum into the