Party at Silver Spires (2 page)

“So do I!” I said, feeling another burst of happiness fizzling around inside me. But the happiness was all mixed up with flutters of nervousness because, although I felt sure I'd love Silver Spires school, I also knew it was going to be incredibly different from everything I'd been used to before. And not just because of it being a boarding school. The big worry for me was that all the girls here seemed so different somehow too.

Emily had already explained that her parents ran a farm in southern Ireland, with twelve fields full of cows, and outbuildings and stables and paddocks, so they must own masses of land. And Sasha had got photos on her laptop as her screen saver, and one of them turned out to be her house. I couldn't believe how enormous and grand it looked, with beautiful tiles all down the top half, and the bottom part painted gleaming white.

“Thees ees my house,” Antonia suddenly said, as she pinned another photo on her noticeboard.

I think we were all so surprised that she'd volunteered something which wasn't just an answer to one of our questions, that we jumped down from our beds and crowded round her desk instantly to look at the photo. My nervousness grew as I moved up next to Izzy, dreading seeing a palace or something. But I actually got a nice shock, because the house was only a small chalet. I admit it wasn't as small as our terraced house back home, but it was still small compared to Sasha's mansion. It was on its own at the foot of a mountain covered in snow, and there were lovely fir trees lined up behind it. In front of the main door to the house stood a man and woman.

“Who are those people, Antonia?” asked Bryony.

“Nonna Maria and Nonno Paulo,” said Antonia slowly, as though she loved saying their names out loud.

“What's Nonno?” I asked her without thinking. Then I felt my cheeks going pink in case it was something amazingly obvious that everyone knew.

“Nonno ees grandfather,” Antonia said rolling the
r
.

“And Nonna is granny!” I finished off, desperate to show that I wasn't stupid as well as knowing no Italian.

“Oh, grandma, right!” said Bryony. And I'm sure she wasn't meaning to correct me, but I felt my cheeks turning pink. Of course it's
grandma
, not
granny
.
Think, Nicole. Just think before you speak.

I couldn't believe I'd already made a mistake, because when I'd first found out for sure that I'd be coming here to Silver Spires, I told myself that it was really important that I act just like all the other girls so that people would like me. It wasn't that I wanted to be particularly popular, it was just all part of fitting in properly. And I knew from my primary school that if there was anything at all different about you, you got teased or mocked, like the boy in my class who was no good at sport and the girl in Year Five who had a lisp. There were other children like that too, and I always tried to be nice to them. But the trouble was, if the king kids, as we called them – the kids who ruled the class and the playground – saw you being nice to one of the losers, as they called them, then that made you a loser too.

“It's a lovely house, Antonia,” I quickly said.

“Eet ees our holiday home.”

I swallowed and felt small and anxious again, especially when Bryony asked where it was and then said in a matter-of-fact voice that her second home was in France, and Izzy joined in too, saying she had a holiday home in Spain.

“Well,
we
haven't got a holiday home,” said Sasha, going back to her own bed. A nice little wave of relief came over me, until she added, “But Dad's got a flat in London for when he works late.”

I was dreading anyone asking me about our tiny house, so it was a relief when Izzy changed the subject.

“Hey, Nicole, your hair's really long, isn't it?” She was standing shoulder to shoulder with me. “Look,” she said, clutching the ends of her own hair and of mine. “Yours is at least four centimetres longer than mine. Does it grow quickly, or have you been growing it for ages?”

“It does grow quite quickly,” I said, feeling safe in this conversation, “but I wish it was blonde or…anything but mousy really.”

“Well, watch out, you two, you've got competition from over here,” said Bryony, tugging on a clump of her own really short, dark, spiky hair.

That made us all laugh again. Then, as we each climbed the ladder back up to our own beds, I had a lovely feeling of excitement, because I'd just noticed through the dormitory window that the sun had come out from behind a cloud, and a picture of the main school building with its sparkling silver spires had come into my mind.

The main building is what I remember most from when I came to my interview last term. It's very old indeed, and Ms. Carmichael, the headmistress of the whole school, said it was in a gothic style, which explains the little turrets and diamond-shaped panes of glass in the windows that glint all the time, and the heavy, dark front door with its brass latch. Inside the building there are beams and columns and beautifully carved wood. But it's the outside that I love the best and that's because of the tall thin spires that rise up from the roof. They shine like pure silver when the sun catches them. I can't wait till it's teatime and we go over to the canteen, because then I can see that beautiful building again.

The first time I ever saw it was on the Silver Spires website. When Mum told me I was going to take an exam to see if I was clever enough to get a scholarship to come here, I wanted to see what the school looked like. As soon as I saw the building, even before I'd looked at any other photos, I set my heart on being here. And from that day on, I worked as hard as I could, doing masses of extra reading in the hope that it might help me in the exam. I remember how nervous I was, sitting in a huge hall with loads of other girls, knowing that the only way I'd be able to come here was if I managed to win a scholarship, which meant getting at least eighty-five per cent in the exam. I finished my paper really quickly, and it seemed ages before I saw anyone else putting their pen down, so I kept going over and over my answers and rereading the questions to check I hadn't missed one out or done anything really stupid. And then, finally, the lady at the front told us to finish off, and after that I had two whole weeks to wait to hear whether I would be allowed to come to this dream school.

When the letter finally dropped through our letter box at home, I gave it to my mum to open, because I was just too scared to hear the worst. And before Mum opened it, she looked at me and said, “Nicole, sweetheart, if you haven't got the scholarship, it doesn't matter. We're still very proud of you, because all your teachers wanted you to go for it and they all say that you're amazingly bright.” I remember holding my breath and sucking my lips inwards as Mum read through the letter with a frown on her face. Then when she said, “You've done it, Nicole! You've got a scholarship, sweetheart!” I screamed the place down with my “
Yessssss!
” and Mum and I hugged each other and jumped up and down, and my little sisters, Clare and Clemmie, stared at us with pouty faces because they didn't want me to go away to school.

All of this came flooding back to me as I sat on my bed, and it filled me with a rosy
I did it!
feeling as I looked round at my friends, who were still laughing at what Bryony had said about her hair. But then my excitement turned to anxiety, because I didn't really have any right to call them friends yet, and a flurry of fear settled in the pit of my stomach. What if these girls didn't want to be friends with me?

I'd decided before I'd even got here that there was no way I was going to tell anyone about my scholarship. I wasn't sure if there was a rule at Silver Spires that scholarships only went to girls from families who couldn't afford the fees, and I didn't know if I was the only girl to have got a scholarship in Year Seven. All I knew was that I planned to keep the secret of my scholarship to myself, partly because people might think it's geeky to be good at schoolwork and partly because of not wanting anyone to know personal stuff about me yet.

It was a funny feeling chatting away with five people who seemed so different from me, with their big houses and their second homes, and I didn't think I'd ever been in this position before. I'd tried not to stare, but I'd caught a glimpse of some of Antonia's clothes when she'd been unpacking, and they were incredible. It looked like she had to leave half her stuff in one of her cases, because the wardrobes are only narrow. Luckily mine is exactly the right size for what I've brought with me, and the chest of drawers is the right size too, so unpacking was very quick for me.

I'm organized and tidy at home – I've had to be, because I've got such a tiny bedroom. Clare and Clemmie share a bigger one, and they're still going to share even while I'm here at Silver Spires, as neither of them likes being on their own at night-time.

“Do you think it'll be teatime soon?” I asked. We'd come to a silence in our chatter and I wanted to fill it. But my question was never answered because, at that moment, there came a knock at the door.

“Come in,” we all said at exactly the same time, and then we burst out laughing. Well, all of us apart from Antonia. She had climbed down the ladder from her bed and was looking at something on her desk. It was impossible to see the expression in her eyes, because her face was hidden by her hair. Looking at it from the side, it seemed to fall in ringlets to her shoulders and really shone in the bright dormitory light.

Miss Callow, our matron, had come in. “And how is Emerald dorm getting on, girls?” she said with a little chuckle. “Making friends? Settling in? Having fun?”

I only met Matron this afternoon when I first arrived here at Forest Ash House. But I liked her straight away because of the way she looked right into my eyes when she was talking to me, as though she really wanted to get to know me. And also, she seems like such a jolly person that I can't imagine her ever being in a bad mood. “You'll be going over to the dining hall for supper in a few minutes,” she was saying brightly now, “but first I just want to check that there aren't any more bags for Mr. Monk to pop into the storeroom.”

I realized suddenly that I was staring at her, which I knew was really rude of me, but I couldn't help it. I'd got two things wrong. Firstly, I must remember to think of the canteen as a
dining hall
. But more important than that, Matron had mentioned “supper”, and, of course, I'd stupidly used the wrong word just before she'd come in. My cheeks flooded with colour again.
It's not called tea at Silver Spires, so get that word out of your head, Nicole!

The thought of tea sent a little rush of homesickness through me, because I was imagining Mum and Clemmie and Clare sitting around the table in our cosy front room. I wondered whether they'd be talking about me. Mum had decided not to let my sisters come here with her and Dad to drop me off, because she said they'd probably only cry their eyes out half the way home afterwards. They could easily have come along, as it's a Sunday today, but instead they spent the day at Granny and Granddad's. I guessed they'd be home by now, though, having tea and asking Mum loads of questions.

“What about washing hands?” chirped Matron, interrupting my daydream. “All right, Antonia?”

I noticed, as we got down from our beds and made for the door, that Antonia wasn't moving. Matron spoke to her in a slow, loud voice. “We need to wash our hands before supper, Antonia…
Si?
” Then she burst out laughing because she'd managed one little Italian word. I was pleased, because it made Antonia giggle, but it gave me quite a shock when I realized that was the first time I'd seen her smile at all.

“
Si.
I come.”

Matron looked delighted to hear Antonia's lilting accent. “Ooh! Do you know, I've been at Silver Spires for many years and I think we might have had a couple of Italian girls in other houses, but not a single one at Forest Ash! I'm very pleased to have you here, Antonia!”

Antonia nodded and gave a small smile, but I wasn't sure if she'd understood everything. I hung back so I could walk with her to the bathroom, as the other four had gone off already. But she looked down and I had the feeling she didn't want to come with me, which hurt me a bit. I quickly told myself not to be silly, and went to catch up with the others.

Just ahead of me, Emily was telling Bryony that she was glad she was in Emerald dorm because she came from the Emerald Isle. Bryony asked Emily what she meant, but I knew from my geography that “the Emerald Isle” is the nickname for Ireland. Just behind them, Sasha had linked arms with Izzy and was trying to imitate Izzy's way of walking with her toes turned out.

“I bet you've done ballet, Izzy, haven't you?”

I didn't hear Izzy's answer though, because the four of them had gone into the bathroom by then.

“Hey, Nicole! Look at the tiles in here!” Bryony poked her head back out of the doorway and was beckoning to me to hurry up. I didn't need telling twice. I rushed to join them.

It was true, the tiles on the walls of the shower were beautiful. Lots of them were plain white, but every so often there was an odd one with a picture or a colourful pattern on it.

“This is my favourite!” said Emily, pointing to a tile with an orchard on it.

After that, everyone started searching for their favourite tiles, and in the end Matron had to tell us to hurry up and wash our hands. “Mrs. Pridham's going to be after me, wondering what I've done with Emerald dorm!” she said in her hearty voice. Mrs. Pridham is the housemistress of Forest Ash, but it was Miss Stevenson, the assistant housemistress, who appeared. “All the others have set off to supper,” she said quietly to Matron.

“There you are! What did I tell you?” Matron chuckled. “We're late! Go on now!”