The Secret Message
www.BillieBBrown.com
The Secret Message
published in 2011 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
85 High Street
Prahran,Victoria 3181, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia
Text copyright © 2011 Sally Rippin
Illustration copyright © 2011 Aki Fukuoka
Logo and design copyright © 2011 Hardie Grant Egmont
Design and typeset by Stephanie Spartels
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter
One
Billie B Brown has one pair of bathers, seven seashells and a bucket and spade. Do you know what the B in Billie B Brown stands for?
Beach!
It is the summer holidays and Billie B Brown is at the beach.
Today Billie is going to make a sandcastle. She is going to make the biggest, most beautiful sandcastle you have ever seen.
Billie’s mum reads a book under a beach umbrella. Her dad reads the newspaper. Sometimes they even fall asleep. Can you imagine? They are absolutely no fun at all!
Billie puts on some sunscreen and sits out in the sun.
She starts to build a sandcastle. There’s a family with two girls nearby. The girls are building a sandcastle too. Their sandcastle is very big and very beautiful.
Billie feels a teensy bit jealous. She wishes her best friend Jack was here to help her.
‘Lunch!’ Billie’s mum calls. Just in time. Billie’s tummy is growling like a tiger!
Billie trudges up the beach to sit in the shade. Billie’s mum gives her a sandwich. Even though Billie has wiped her hands, her banana sandwich still tastes crunchy.
Billie’s dad says, ‘Would you like extra sand in your witch?’
He says that every time they eat lunch at the beach, but Billie still laughs.
Billie watches the other girls make their castle. One of them looks about the same age as Billie.
She has ginger hair and freckles and she is wearing pink and white polka-dot bathers. Billie wishes she had fancy bathers.
‘Why don’t you ask if you can play with them?’ Billie’s mum says.
Billie shakes her head. She feels shy.
She would love to play with those kids, but she is too scared to go over and ask them.
What if they don’t want to play with me? Billie thinks. What if they laugh at me or they are mean?
No, Billie decides. It is much safer just to play on my own.
Chapter
Two
Billie finishes her sandwich and goes back to her sandcastle. She decides that it needs a moat. Billie digs and digs and digs.
Her spade hits something hard. Clink! Billie reaches into the hole. She feels something smooth.
Billie digs deeper and pulls out a tiny bottle. It is as green as the sea and as small as her hand.
Billie holds the bottle up to the sun.
The glass is so dark that it is impossible to see what’s inside.
A girl walks past collecting shells. She sees the bottle in Billie’s hand.
‘Ooh!’ she says. ‘What’s inside?’
Billie shrugs. ‘I don’t know,’ she says.
‘It’s beautiful,’ says the little girl. She reaches out her sandy fingers to touch the green glass.
‘I’m Billie,’ says Billie.
‘I’m Charlotte,’ the little girl says.‘That’s my sister, Harriet.’ She points to the girl in the fancy bathers.
Harriet, Billie thinks. That’s a nice name.
Then she has an idea. A super-dooper idea.
‘Actually, I think there’s a secret message inside the bottle,’ Billie whispers to Charlotte. ‘It’s probably from a pirate.’
‘Wow!’ says Charlotte. Her eyes open wide. ‘I have to tell Harriet! She loves pirates!’
Billie watches Charlotte run along the beach to where Harriet is waiting.
Chapter
Three
That afternoon, Billie and her mum and dad walk to the shops to buy ice-creams. Billie always chooses banana choc-chip with sprinkles.
Billie has to eat her ice-cream very quickly so that it doesn’t melt. Already it is drip-drip-dripping on her toes.
Billie walks back to the beach and finishes her ice-cream.When she looks up, there is a girl standing in front of her. It’s Harriet. Billie’s heart begins to flap about like a butterfly.
‘My sister told me you found a bottle with a message inside,’ says Harriet. ‘Can I see?’
Billie pulls the bottle out of her pocket.
Harriet squints at the dark glass. ‘I can’t see any message inside,’ she frowns.
‘It has to be very small,’ Billie says. ‘To fit in the bottle.’
‘Hmm,’ Harriet says. ‘Who do you think wrote it?’
Billie shrugs. She feels a little bit shy. ‘Probably a pirate.’
Harriet smiles. ‘Or maybe a princess?’ she says. ‘Captured by pirates?’
‘Or maybe the prince trying to save her?’ says Billie excitedly. ‘But his boat has sunk and now he’s stuck on a desert island!’
‘Yeah!’ Harriet says.
‘Hey, do you want to come and help us build our sandcastle?’
Billie looks at her mum and dad.
‘Sure!’ says Billie’s dad.
‘Let me put some more sunscreen on you first,’ says Billie’s mum.
Billie wiggles as her mum covers her in sunscreen. Then she runs after Harriet to the big, beautiful sandcastle. Charlotte is waiting for them there.
Billie holds the little bottle in her hands. The girls all try to guess what’s inside. Billie feels very special to have found such a magical thing.
Then Billie has an idea. Carefully she balances the little green bottle on top of the sandcastle. It looks magnificent! Now it is the biggest, most beautiful sandcastle on the beach.
Charlotte jumps up and down excitedly. Harriet does a handstand. Billie decides she will do a handstand too.
But she is not used to doing handstands on the soft sand. She wibbles and wobbles, then…
crash! Billie falls down. Right on top of the big, beautiful sandcastle!
Harriet and Charlotte gasp.
Billie stands up quickly. But it is too late. The sandcastle is ruined.
Billie stares at the crushed sandcastle. Right in the middle is her little green bottle. It has cracked neatly in half. The girls kneel down to look at it.
And that’s when they see…there is nothing inside it. Nothing at all.
Billie covers her face with her hands. Big fat tears roll down her cheeks. She grabs the two pieces of the bottle and runs back to her mum and dad.
Chapter
Four
Billie has decided that this is the worst day ever. She has made a sandcastle and broken a sandcastle. She has found a bottle and broken a bottle.
Worst of all, she made a friend but now she is sure the friendship will be broken.
Harriet knows there wasn’t any message in the bottle. Billie was just making up stories. Harriet will never want to be friends with Billie now!
Billie sits on her towel under the beach umbrella and cries.
‘Why don’t you just say sorry?’ Billie’s mum suggests.
Billie shakes her head. She is much too scared to go and talk to those girls now. Especially after everything she has done!
Billie B Brown is good at lots of things. She is good at the monkey bars and she is good at making cubbies.
She is good at soccer and she is good at midnight feasts. But the thing that Billie B Brown is best at is coming up with good ideas.
Billie wipes her eyes. She looks at the little broken bottle in her hand. And then she has an idea. It is the superest-dooperest idea she has had all day!
Can you guess what Billie is thinking?
Billie tears off a corner of her dad’s newspaper. Then she takes his pencil and writes in very small writing.
Billie rolls the message up tightly and puts it inside one half of the bottle. She puts the other half of the bottle on top. Then she takes a hair-tie and wraps it around the two halves. It holds the message inside perfectly.
Billie waits for Harriet and Charlotte to go for a swim. She runs over and puts the bottle on Harriet’s towel. Then she runs back.
Harriet gets out of the water first. She picks up her towel. Billie sees the little green bottle drop onto the sand. Harriet picks it up.
Billie holds her breath and looks away. She can’t bear to watch!
Then Charlotte runs towards Billie with the bottle in her hand. Billie opens the bottle. Her heart is jumping up and down.
But…oh dear! The bottle is empty! Billie hangs her head.
Harriet doesn’t want to be her friend after all!
‘Oh,’ says Charlotte. ‘I forgot. Princess Harriet said she’d love to be your friend. She also said sorry that there’s no message, but she didn’t have a pen and paper.’
Billie bursts out laughing. It’s not the worst day ever, it’s the best day ever! Billie is on the beach, the sun is shining and, best of all, she has a brand-new friend!
Play cool games and leave a message for Billie at
www.BillieBBrown.com