Dreams at Silver Spires (5 page)

“We've been swimming,” she was saying. “Actually we often go for a swim before breakfast. It sets you up for the day.”

“Sounds like she's acting in an advert,” said Bryony under her breath. And I thought it looked it too, because Juliet's hair was completely dried and styled. When I go swimming, which is as little as possible, I always come out with my hair sticking out even more than it usually does and dripping down my back, making an uncomfortable wet patch just below my shoulders.

“So what time did you have to get up?” the man filming asked her.

She stopped and looked at her watch. “I guess about six thirty. I don't set my alarm clock, I just use my body clock.”

“We're on our way to breakfast now,” one of her friends added.

“Yes, swimming makes you starving hungry but the breakfasts at Silver Spires are yummy,” said Juliet, sounding all bubbly and bright.

We were almost right up to her by then and for a moment I thought we might be able to sneak by without anyone even noticing us. But to my horror, when we drew level, the man suddenly swung his camera round so it was facing me and Bryony.

“Here's another couple of early birds,” he said.

I'll never forget the thunderous look on Juliet's face. She stood rooted to the ground, hands on hips, as the cameraman carried on talking directly to me.

“No swimming bag, so I guess you're just taking a walk before breakfast?”

I nodded. “Yes…we're just…” I didn't know what else to say, but I had to say something. I didn't want to look stupid on the film. “…Taking a walk.”

The moment I'd spoken I realized how pathetic I must have sounded repeating exactly what he'd said, and I wasn't the only one to think that either. Juliet and her friends were smirking as they watched me go red, and the cameraman swung round to catch their amusement, which made my blood boil and probably made me look redder than ever. But Bryony was walking on and I knew that was the most sensible thing to do, so I followed her, trying to ignore the rage that was flaring up inside me. And neither Juliet nor the cameraman said anything else, thank goodness.

We finally spotted Tony in the distance over near Pets' Place. None of my friends have got pets at school, so we don't often have any reason to come all the way over here.

“Tony! Tony!” I called in my big happiness at having found him.

“Ssh!” said Bryony.

It was true I was being far too loud. I'd only ever actually said the word “Hello” to Tony, and now I was acting as though he was my long-lost uncle or something.

We broke into a jog and as we got near to him I noticed he looked really alarmed. “You all right, girls?”

“Yes, we're fine,” said Bryony. “Emily's just excited because we've been looking for you for ages.”

Tony looked relieved to hear that, and turned to me, eyebrows raised. My heart started hammering as the dread that I might not be able to have the plot of land I wanted came flooding back. Since my talk with Emily and Stan, I hadn't stopped thinking how happy they'd both be to see that land restored to its former glory.

“Er…well, you see, I'm starting a gardening club…”

“Yes, I got the message from Mrs. Pridham.”

“…and I want to grow vegetables and—”

“Vegetables, eh? Well, I don't see why you shouldn't grow a few veggies. Look, there's a little patch right here.”

He was striding off, heading even closer to Pets' Place. “Nice and handy to feed the pets, eh? A few carrots and that?” He was grinning at us over his shoulder and I hurried to catch him up.

“No, sorry. I really wanted a bigger plot of land…”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him my plans about changing Silver Spires back to how it used to be, growing its own vegetables. But then he might think I was just a silly little Year Seven with big ideas, and I'd never be able to explain that I was used to proper gardening and knew what I was talking about.

“What about that land behind the kitchens?” Bryony suddenly asked. “There used to be a vegetable garden there, didn't there?”

I felt myself tensing up as Tony stopped in his tracks and turned round. I kept my eyes glued to his face, searching for a change of expression, dreading him bursting out laughing and saying it was out of the question because that site was being used for something else entirely. But as it happened, he just tipped his head to one side as though he was considering it, and I dared to allow myself to hope.

“Maybe you could use the old herb garden patch,” he said eventually.

“The herb garden? Is that part of the big garden?”

He nodded. “Yep. The kitchen staff kept it going until quite recently, but there's not really much point having a few home-grown herbs when the rest of the food is all supplied by outside firms.”

“But why do the vegetables have to be bought in? Why can't the school grow its own vegetables?” I asked, feeling suddenly daring, but still dreading the answer.

“You're joking!” said Tony. “There are three hundred and sixty girls to feed here. High-maintenance stuff is no good in a place like this.”

He was looking at me as though I was mad, but Mum and Dad often talk about high and low maintenance and productivity, so I know a bit about it and I couldn't help coming right back at him for what he'd just said.

“The thing about growing your own vegetables and herbs is that it's only high maintenance if you let it slip.”

He looked a bit startled for a moment, then broke into a grin. “Exactly! That's why it's high maintenance – because you
can't
let it slip, which takes manpower, and all our manpower is taken up looking after the grounds and the buildings.”

But I couldn't stop arguing my case, even though I felt a bit rude, because I was so sure I was right. “If there was a gardening club, we'd have
loads
of manpower…only it would be girl power!”

“You'd need a pretty big gardening club to provide the whole of Silver Spires with vegetables!” Tony shook his head and pursed his lips. “And I know what you girls are like… You've got too many other things on the go to stick with something. Especially something like gardening.”

I could feel my hackles rising but I could also feel Bryony's elbow in my side. She was telling me I shouldn't be arguing with Tony, and I knew she was right.

“Well, could we just have the herb patch for the gardening club, please?” I asked in a gabble.

“I think that would probably be okay.” Tony looked at his watch and I felt myself panicking a bit.
Probably
wasn't good enough. I wanted
definitely
. Maybe if
I
started talking definitely and mentioned tools and things…

“Er, I'll need a spade and a hoe and a rake – you know, not the flimsy sort…”

He looked a bit taken aback, then nodded. “I can supply you with whatever you need, don't worry. Okay, tell you what, I'll see you at lunchtime tomorrow at the old herb garden. Do you know where to go?”

“Yes, I…I do.”

“That's settled then.”

“Tomorrow?” I didn't think I could wait that long.

“Thank you very much,” said Bryony. “We'll be there after lunch.”

“Yes, thank you, Tony,” I added as Bryony grabbed my wrist and started dragging me away.

“Grown-ups always take ages to sort stuff out,” she said, the moment we were out of earshot. “And just think – you've got yourself a gardening club to start, you've got yourself a plot of land, and all in less than forty-eight hours from when you first thought of it. So that's pretty good, isn't it?”

And when she put it like that, I had to agree it
was
pretty good.

Lessons have never gone so slowly on a Monday morning as they are doing right now. I'm stuck here in ICT and Mrs. Lawson is going on and on about organization, storage and access, when all I want to do is meet Tony.

Actually, I think Mrs. Lawson might be getting a bit exasperated with me. “Emily, why are you continually looking out of the window this morning?”

Because I want to get digging and I'm scared it's going to rain.

“Sorry.”

I tried hard to concentrate on that other window, the computer one on the screen in front of me, but five seconds later my eyes had strayed back to the real one. It was looking very overcast. I glanced up at the clock. Nearly time for the bell. Good. Then just lunch to get through before my big plan could be put into action. All my friends had said they'd come with me to the herb garden, to help me get started. I knew it wouldn't be a proper club with just my friends in it, but I had to start somewhere, and as yesterday had gone on, it had been lovely to hear them asking me more and more questions about what tools we'd be using and which vegetables could be grown at what times of year. And they also admitted that they'd been too tired to take in what I'd been saying before breakfast, but they were genuinely interested.

The moment the bell went, Bryony and I jumped up. She likes ICT about as much as I do, which is not at all. Izzy was next out of the block, because she's almost as bad as me at sitting still, but for a different reason. Mine is to do with wanting to be outside, but hers is because she's done ballet to a very high level and it doesn't feel right to her to be sitting around for long. She'd rather be stretching her muscles.

The others followed close behind and we all rushed over to the dining hall. The ICT block is a bit of a way from the main building, though, so by the time we got to the dining hall there was quite a queue and loads of people had started eating. In fact, some girls were already handing in their pudding plates. They must have got choir or sports practices to go to.

When we were at the counter I found myself taking a big interest in what the dinner ladies were doing with the leftover fruit peelings as they cleared the plates. I'd never paid attention to that before, but if we were to get back to proper gardening then we'd need really good compost, and nothing could be better than leftover peelings all mulched down.

I felt real prickles of disappointment when I saw one of the ladies tipping an apple core into a big rubbish bag that someone else had just scraped chicken bones into, and I couldn't help huffing a bit even though I knew I wasn't being fair on the dinner lady. You should never put meat into compost, but there was no reason why the food waste shouldn't be kept together at the moment. Once the gardening club got started, though, we could recycle it all properly. I couldn't wait.

“What's the matter?” asked Bryony, when we were sitting round a table together.

It always amazes me the way Bryony doesn't miss a thing. She'd even noticed that I was a bit irritated at the counter.

“Just seeing that dinner lady tipping an apple core in with old chicken leftovers,” I said. “I know it's different here, but at home we always keep fruit and veg peelings for compost, and since I met Emily I can't stop thinking about how it used to be like that here too.”

“Woo, listen to Little Miss Green!” came a familiar voice from just behind me.

I hadn't even realized Juliet was on the table next to us or I would have spoken a bit more quietly.

“Ignore her,” mouthed Bryony.

But I couldn't help turning round and saying something, because she'd annoyed me so much. “It won't be long till the school starts recycling peelings and stuff for compost, actually.”

“Oh really?” Her voice was so mocking I could feel myself starting to blush. “Emily's clearly been promoted to head of recycling at Silver Spires!” she added, which made a few of her friends snigger. Then she dropped her voice. “I bet she doesn't even know what recycling means.”

“Ignore her,” repeated Bryony, quietly but firmly.

But she was too late. The words were already fighting to get out of my mouth, Juliet made me so mad. Of course I knew what recycling meant. “It's the cycle that happens over and over… That's what a cycle is. I mean, we make it happen because we
re
cycle…like reusing stuff or…” The more I couldn't find the right words because of Juliet and her friends staring at me with their smirky expressions, the more I felt my hackles rising. And the sort of mocking but pitying look on Juliet's face was winding me right up. This was so unfair. I had to show her I wasn't completely stupid. “I might not be in charge of recycling, but I'm in charge of the new gardening club,” I blurted out.

Then I wished I could shovel the words straight back in again, as Juliet started laughing loudly and, of course, all her friends followed suit.

I could feel myself blushing right to the roots of my hair. If only I'd taken Bryony's advice and just ignored Juliet. I carried on eating as though I wasn't bothered, but what she said next annoyed me even more.