13 Midnight Feast!
Alicia ran up the cliff-path, annoyed with herself for forgetting the key. She slipped in at the side-door of the Tower and went up the stairs. As she went along the landing where the first-form dormy was, she saw a little white figure in the passage, looking out of the landing window.
“Must be a first-former!” thought Alicia. “What’s she out at this time of night for? Little monkey!”
She walked softly up to the small person looking out of the window and grasped her by the shoulder. There was a loud gasp¹.
“Sh!” said Alicia. “Good gracious, it’s you, June! What are you doing out here at midnight?”
“Well, what are you?” said June, cheekily.
Alicia shook her. “None of your cheek,” she said. “Have you forgotten the trouncing I gave you last summer hols for cheeking me and Betty, when you came to stay with me?”
“No. I haven’t forgotten,” said June, vengefully. “And I never shall. You were a beast. I’d have split on you if I hadn’t been scared. Spanking³ me with a hair-brush as if I was six!”
“Served you jolly well right,” said Alicia. “And you know what would have happened to you if you had split—Sam and the others would have trounced you, too!”
“I know,” said June, angrily. She was scared of Alicia’s brothers. “You wait, though. I’ll get even with you some time!”
Alicia snorted scornfully. “You could do with another spanking, I see,” she said. “Now—you clear off to bed. You know you’re not supposed to be out of your dormy at night.”
“I saw you all go off with bathing-things tonight,” said June, slyly. “I guessed you were up to something, you fourth-formers, when I spotted⁴ you and somebody else getting bathing-dresses in the changing-room tonight. You thought I didn’t see you, but I did.”
How Alicia longed for a hair-brush to spank² June with—but she dared not even raise her voice!
“Clear off to bed,” she ordered, her voice shaking with rage.
“Are you having a midnight feast, too?” persisted June, not moving. “I saw Irene and Belinda with

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