Becky's Terrible Term (3 page)

Chapter Four

Miss Fraser, the school's new history teacher, and the triplets' class teacher, looked nice. She seemed very young, and had really pretty red curly hair and lots of freckles, especially on her arms. She also looked quite nervous – twenty-eight pairs of eyes were watching her with interest as she picked up the register. She started to work her way through the list of names, looking up and smiling as each member of her class answered. When she got to the Ryans she looked faintly worried. “I knew we had triplets in this class, but I didn't imagine you'd look quite so alike. . .”

“Don't worry, Miss Fraser,” Katie reassured her. “We always wear our hair differently.”

Miss Fraser looked carefully at the triplets and felt slightly relieved. It was true – their long golden-blonde hair
was
different. Becky had two long bunches, Katie had hers plaited quite tightly out of the way, and Annabel looked completely the opposite, with her hair loose and just a couple of glittery clips holding it off her face.

Annabel smiled at Miss Fraser. “Almost always, anyway,” she said.

Miss Fraser finished the register, and explained that for most of that morning everyone would stay in their form room to work out timetables and get all their books. Proper lessons wouldn't start until that afternoon. She passed out labels that fitted into the slots on the lockers where they'd keep their books, and told the class that their first job was to decorate their labels. The triplets were sitting with Fiona and Saima, and they chatted as they passed round felt-tips. Katie whispered to Annabel, nodding towards the other side of the classroom. “Look – don't tell Becky, but that stupid boy's over there. We'll have to keep an eye on him,” she said seriously.

Annabel peered round. Katie was right –well, perhaps they could avoid him? She just had a horrible feeling it wasn't going to be that easy.

“So what do you think of Miss Fraser so far?” Saima asked, smiling directly at Becky, so she felt she had to answer.

Becky went pink, and stammered, “I don't know really. I'm just glad we're all three in the same class – I was worried they might split us up.”

“Mmmm,” agreed Katie, “that would have been a bit weird. I don't know if they'd do that, though, would they? Anyway, we were really glad when we got that letter saying we were all in Miss Fraser's class.”

Becky tried hard not to look upset.
A bit weird?
Was that really what Katie thought, or was she being Katie-ish, and trying to sound grown-up? As far as Becky was concerned it would have been more like a total and utter disaster, not just a bit weird.

“I think Miss Fraser's nice,” Fiona put in. “It's really good to have young teachers – I think they're more interesting.”

“Mmm,” said Annabel thoughtfully. “She was a bit thrown by us three, though, wasn't she? She didn't look at all happy.”

“Well, Mum said that might happen,” said Katie. “We'll just have to be little angels for a couple of weeks, to convince her we're not going to be any trouble.”

“Do you really think so?” Annabel sounded disappointed. “I thought we could give her till break to sort out which of us has which hairstyle – and then we could swap round. She'd be completely mixed up!” Annabel's eyes sparkled at the thought.

“No!” squeaked Becky in horror.

“On the first day?” added Katie. “You must be mad, Bel. No. Way.”

Annabel sighed disappointedly. “Oh, I suppose you're right. But promise me we'll do something like that soon.” Annabel was definitely the most daring of the triplets. She had a habit of doing things that sounded fun, and then only realizing afterwards that it might not have been such a good idea. But then, as Katie always pointed out disgustedly, she was also incredibly lucky, and generally managed to get away with whatever it was by looking angelic, and giving the impression that it was all a mistake and she had no idea how it had happened. Katie didn't have the knack, so her reply wasn't encouraging:

“
Maybe
.
We don't know what Miss Fraser's like yet. If she's really strict then it's stupid to get ourselves into trouble. Don't you think so, Becky?”

“Yes. If she's nice and she'll just think we're funny, then OK. But not for a while. Anyway, we ought to check out the other teachers first,” said Becky, trying to calm her sisters down.

Annabel was looking huffy, and the argument might have carried on, but Miss Fraser told everyone to stick their labels on to their lockers and put their new books in. Then she dictated their timetable to them, and they tried to decipher the little maps of the school that they'd been given.

It was very hard to sit still and concentrate after seven weeks of summer holidays – and the playground looked amazingly inviting. As soon as the bell went the entire class jumped to their feet, desperate to get out into the fresh air after the stuffy classroom. Just as the triplets reached the door, though, Miss Fraser called them back.

“Girls! Could I have a word, please?”

Annabel wasn't listening, and she was already dashing out of the door – she always had hated sitting still! Katie had to chase after her to bring her back.

“I'm sorry, Miss Fraser, I didn't hear you,” she panted.

“I won't keep you a minute, girls. I just need to have a quick chat with you.” Miss Fraser seemed to be a little lost for words. “It's . . . very exciting having triplets in the class, but I think it's important that you don't stick with each other all the time. It'll be easier for you to make new friends that way. So, when I split this class up into groups for our history project-work – well, I think we might have to separate you. I imagine some of the other teachers might do the same.”

“You mean we can't work together?” said Becky, sounding worried.

“Well, I really think it would be easier for everyone if you didn't,” said Miss Fraser briskly. “I should think it might be good for you three to learn to work with other people, as well. Don't look so worried!” She smiled at Becky, who was nibbling her nails. “You'll be fine. Off you go outside now. Get some fresh air.”

The triplets traipsed outside slowly, and stood just outside the main door, looking thoughtfully at each other.

“Wow,” said Katie. “I wasn't expecting that. I think she might be stricter than she looks.”

“What are we going to do?” Becky felt panicky, almost as though she might cry. She couldn't believe it! After what Katie had said in the classroom just before, it seemed like some kind of horrible sign that they were going to be split up after all.

“Do?” asked Annabel. “What do you mean? I guess we'll just be in separate groups, like she said. It's not for the whole time, Becky. Just for one subject.”

“Cheer up, Becky. It'll be fine, like Miss Fraser said, we'll get to know some new people.” Katie nudged her with an elbow. “You look as if you're about to be sick.”

The awful thing was, Becky almost did feel as though she might be! The day just seemed to be getting worse and worse. Didn't Katie and Annabel
care
that they were going to be split up? And what if all the other teachers did the same? Becky couldn't imagine being apart from her sisters – they were always together.

“C'mon. Let's go and find Fiona and Saima,” suggested Annabel, and she and Katie led the way over to the big chestnut tree, which seemed to have become their friends' pet place.

“What did Miss Fraser want?” asked Saima with interest, when they got there. “You're not in trouble already, are you?”

“Course not,” laughed Katie. “Though, actually, with Annabel, you never can tell. No, she just wanted to tell us we won't always be allowed to sit together in class.”

“Yeah, we've got to do some sort of project-work, and we've got to be in different groups. Actually, Saima, maybe we could be in a group together?” Annabel suggested.

Saima looked pleased. “OK – yes, that would be cool.”

Fiona, who was a noticing kind of person, looked carefully at Becky as she asked, “And that's OK with all of you? You don't mind being separated?”

Becky spotted that look, though the others didn't seem to have done, and gave Fiona a quick smile. No way was she going to make a fuss about this if the other two weren't bothered. “It'll be different,” she said, shrugging. “That's all.”

Luckily for Becky, something rather strange happened then, which distracted everybody. One of the girls in their class, who'd come from a different school, wandered past the little group by the tree in a casual-but-obviously-on-purpose way. She was very pretty, as distinctive-looking as the triplets, really, with wavy strawberry-blonde hair worn loose like Annabel's, and nearly long enough to sit on. Following her were two other girls, obviously worshipping the ground she walked on. As they went past, all three of them quite clearly sneered.

“Well!” said Saima. “What was all that about? Do you know them?”

“Nope,” said Annabel, confused. “She's in our class, isn't she? And the other two, I think.” She shrugged. “Weird. Never mind. Anyone know what's happening after break?”

Just then the bell went, and they found out – assembly, which was basically a lecture on the school rules. There seemed to be millions of them, and by lunchtime everyone was worried about doing
anything
in case a teacher swooped out of nowhere to give them a detention for it. Becky's sick feeling was still there, in fact it seemed to be getting worse, and she couldn't even tell anyone about it.

 

After lunch in the dining hall (where the triplets had to swap their sandwiches round as usual – why was it that Mum just couldn't get her head round which of them liked what?) they went off to look at the playing fields, which Katie was still longing to try out! Luckily, Year Seven's first PE lesson was that afternoon, so she didn't have long to wait.

Manor Hill had several staff 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.

“Right,” 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.

“Mum!” said Katie in surprise. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to wait for us at home.”

“Oh, 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 you?”

“Don't be such a grump!” Annabel told her sister.

Becky put her arm through Mum's. She couldn't believe how much better it made her feel to see her. Mum was great at making you feel loved, and Becky felt like she needed that just now.

“Sorry, Mum,” said Katie, not sounding particularly sorry. “But you did say we could go home on our own – we're not little any more! We're at secondary school now, it's different.”

Annabel nodded, serious for once. “She's right, Mum.”

Both Katie and Annabel sounded almost eager for things to change, thought Becky, squeezing Mum's arm and feeling the hole that had been growing in the middle of her stomach all day get a bit bigger.

“It's so good to see you!” she burst out, and Mum looked down at her, slightly worried. “But Katie's right,” Becky added quickly, not wanting Mum and the others to know what she was really feeling. “We can definitely walk home on our own now.”

“Well, I promise it was just this once,” said Mum apologetically. “Now, please, put me out of my misery – tell me what it was like! Becky, how did it go?”

Becky summoned a bright smile from somewhere, a kind of emergency back-up smile, and said determinedly, “It was fine. Different, but fine. Really.”

Katie gave up looking cross and started to tell Mum about the PE lesson as they walked home. “Manor Hill's got a girls' football team, Mum!” she chattered excitedly. “Well, two, really, but this is the junior one. And Mrs Ross – that's our PE teacher, she's really nice – said that she was looking for people to be on it, and she'd be keeping an eye on me! They play lots of games against other school teams. It would be so excellent to be on a proper football team!”

“Katie, that's wonderful. Well done,” said Mum in a delighted voice. “Does that mean I'm going to be standing on a freezing football pitch all winter watching you?”

“Definitely!” Katie grinned. “And you two'll come and watch as well, won't you, if I really get on the team?”

“Course we will, silly!” said Becky.

Annabel looked thoughtful. “We could be your cheerleaders! I'm sure we could make some pompoms easily!”

“
No
, thank you! You don't get cheerleaders at football, Bel! You'll just have to come and yell at the ref like everyone else. And can you imagine how cold you'd be on that football pitch in a cheerleader's outfit in December?”

“They're ever so pretty, though, those little skirts. I've seen them on TV. I'd look nice in one of those, I think,” called Annabel, as she went twirling off down the pavement, making up a cheerleader-ish dance and waving her schoolbag in a vaguely pompom-like way. She stopped outside the window of Silver, and beckoned to her sisters. “Look! That's the dress I was talking about this morning. Isn't it gorgeous? I love those glittery beads.”

Katie and Becky caught up with her. “Oooh, yes!” agreed Becky. “That's really pretty. Fab colour.” It was a short dress in a satiny, pale-blue fabric, with twinkly silver beads round the neck and the hemline.

Mum gazed into the window thoughtfully. “Oh yes, that is nice. Well, I don't think I can quite run to buying dresses today, but why don't we go in and have a look? Maybe you should each have a little something – to celebrate your first day at Manor Hill!”

“Oh, Mum! Thanks!” “Excellent!” “Come on, let's go in!” came the excited chorus from the triplets, and Annabel pushed the door open.

Silver was a treasure-trove of gorgeous stuff, and the girls rushed here and there, darting back to show the best things to their mum. After a little while, Katie decided on a little ring with a purple stone in it. Being a definite jeans person, she didn't wear jewellery very often – but it was nice to have it so you could really dress up sometimes. Becky had found a perfect present for herself – a pendant like a silvery cat's face, with tiny green jewels for the eyes. She was convinced it looked just like Pixie. Only Annabel was left, wavering between some nail polish that somehow – no one was quite sure how – had two colours in the same bottle, so that you got a marbled effect when you put it on your nails, or a pair of hairgrips shaped like pink butterflies. In the end she went for the hairgrips – but she knew she'd be back for that nail polish pretty soon.

Mum paid for their presents, and then they headed on home. She had just managed to find time to fit in the shopping, but once the triplets were home, they got the impression she might have been worrying about how they were doing at school while she was wandering around the supermarket as well.

“Mum, where did you put the cat food?” asked Becky, ransacking the cupboard.

“Oh! Cat food!” squeaked Mrs Ryan in horror. “I knew there was something. Oh, Becky, I'm sorry!”

Annabel and Katie, who were sitting on the kitchen counter examining the slightly random stuff that their mother had bought, rolled their eyes at each other. Becky grinned and went back to the cupboard, which was a bit of a black hole. At last she discovered a tin of the cats' least favourite brand lurking behind the orange squash. Orlando and Pixie's whiskers drooped in disbelief.

Mum still had some work to finish off – she really had been worrying about them, and it felt nice. She promised tea soon, if they'd just let her have half an hour. The triplets changed out of their uniform into comfy clothes and curled up on the sofa to watch TV – with the packet of minty biscuits that Mum had luckily remembered to buy! They didn't have any homework to do – none of the teachers had been that cruel. So they looked forward to an evening of just recovering from school. Although, looking at Katie and Annabel, Becky wondered why she felt like she had to do so much more recovering than they did. School had been an ordeal, and she was hugely relieved it was over. The only problem was, she had to go back tomorrow, and keep on pretending that she liked it. Or at least that it wasn't making her feel hollow inside. Katie and Annabel didn't look hollow at all – they were practically bouncy.

The triplets had half an eye on the TV, and most of their attention on the horoscopes in Annabel's
Girl Talk
magazine when the phone rang. Katie jumped, and considered making a dash for it, but then remembered that Mum was in the kitchen working, practically next to the phone. They all listened carefully, though, to see if it was one of their mum's friends, or something to do with them. Their mum sounded pleased to hear from whoever it was. “Oh, hello! Well remembered. Yes, I'm sure they'd love to talk to you, Dan.”

Dan! It was their dad!

The triplets looked at each other in delight, and then there was an undignified scramble off the sofa to get to the kitchen and speak to him.

Mum laughed. “Can you hear the approaching herd of elephants, Dan?” She handed the phone to the triplets, who huddled round it excitedly, all desperate to hear him. “Here,” Mum said, reaching over to press a button. “Put it on speakerphone – then at least you can all hear, and you'll just have to take it in turns to talk!”

“Hello, loves!” came their dad's voice down the line – everybody jumped. Dad was shouting, as it wasn't a very clear line, and that made him very loud on the speakerphone. “How was your first day? I'm really sorry, I can't be too long as I'm supposed to be going to a meeting, but I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you! What was it like?”

“It was great, Dad!” gabbled Katie in excitement. “I might get to be on the football team!”

“Fantastic! That's my girl. All that practice in the park paid off, then! How about you, Becky? All the animals OK? Meet any nice animal-mad friends today?”

“The pets are all fine, Dad. We didn't meet that many new people today, but we saw Saima and Fiona – you remember them?”

“Yes, of course. How about you, Annabel, sweetheart? Keeping out of trouble?”

“Yep, so far. I really want to try and put one over on our class teacher, though. But the other two won't let me.”

“Totally unfair of them, Bel. Give it time, though, I'm sure you'll win them over.”

Katie and Becky exchanged looks. It was just like Dad to agree with Bel. They were very alike in some ways, both with a kind of daredevil streak in them. Dad kept his hidden most of the time, though.

“How's your work going, Dad?” asked Becky.

“Urrgh.” Mr Ryan heaved a huge sigh. “Slowly, I'm afraid. We really are behind schedule on this one. But we're catching up. Anyway, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to go into that meeting now. Love you loads, and speak soon! Don't forget to send me lots of emails, and some more photos of you all. Say bye to your mum for me!”

“Bye, Dad!” chorused the triplets.

Everyone felt a bit flat after Dad had gone. Speaking to him on the phone or on Skype was a real treat, but it made them realize just how far away he was –
and
how long it would be before they saw him again.

“Come on,” said Mum, briskly. “You lot volunteered to help me with the tea this morning. It's fish fingers, I
did
manage to remember those, even though I was thinking about you three instead of my list – can you get them out of the freezer for me, Katie? Top shelf. And there are some frozen peas in there too.”

The girls bustled around, Katie arranging fish fingers on an oven tray – and then taking them off again when Mum pointed out that she needed to grease it first.

“
Katie!
”
said her sisters disapprovingly.

“Oh, as if you haven't done exactly the same thing!” protested Katie indignantly. “Remember those pizzas, Bel? It took us ages to pick charred pizza off those baking trays.” She wiped some vegetable oil round the tray, and replaced the fish fingers. “There! Shall I put the oven on, Mum?”

 

When everything was ready, Mrs Ryan sat down to chat with the triplets as they munched away. Teatimes were one of the things she wasn't laid-back about. They always ate round the table, and only as a special treat could they take their plates into the living room to watch TV.

“So, tell me some more about school. Did you have lots of different teachers today?”

“A few,” said Annabel. “Oooh, we forgot to tell you. Our class teacher's not going to let us sit with each other!”

Becky jumped in. “That's not true, Bel, thank goodness!”

“Yeah, she's exaggerating, Mum,” added Katie. “Miss Fraser just said she'd split us up for history projects. We can still sit together in
most
of our lessons.”

“Well, that sounds very sensible of Miss Fraser.” Mum nodded. “Yes, I think if I were one of your teachers, I might well do the same thing. And it'll be good for you three to make new friends.” Mum eyed Becky thoughtfully as she said this. She'd been quiet all evening, and her mum hoped it was just first-day nerves, and not anything more serious. Becky was definitely a little shy – it
would
be good for her to find new friends to work with. As long as she didn't just decide to hide away like a little mouse. . .