•Manitoba: she’s having to hide up a tree from a pack of hungry black bears. A posse of Canadian Mounted Police have been sent to find her, but a blizzard is slowing them down.
•Siberia: she’s in a sledge race with a Russian named Ivan. Whoever wins gets an ice palace named after them. She wrote a letter to me explaining she would be late but there are no post boxes in the wilderness of Siberia. Obviously.
Wherever she was, I knew one thing: she had missed another of my birthdays. I had turned eleven, I had touched Serpent’s Tooth Rock and I was about to start school. But I still felt the same. I was still just the lonely girl who lived on an island in the middle of nowhere, who was rubbish at reading and didn’t know where her mum was.
Little did I know all that was about to change.
When I went to bed that night, the sky was filled with strange green lights shining down on Serpent’s Tooth Rock, making it glow. But I didn’t see any of this. I had fallen fast asleep to the sounds of Grandpa pacing in his bedroom, the drip of the kitchen tap and the snoring of a terrier who had eaten too much of my ugly birthday cake.
Chapter 3
The morning I started at my new school, I was so nervous I forgot how to tie my shoelaces. For the record, I know how to do it. It just took me a bit longer to figure it out that day. Grandpa taught me when I was nine, telling me to close my eyes.
“It’s like tying fishing knots. Your hands will remember how to do it. Just shut your eyes and let them do the work.”
But today even with my eyes squeezed shut I couldn’t get the knot right. It kept slipping and coming undone. And I couldn’t ask for Grandpa’s help because I didn’t want him telling Da I still couldn’t tie my own laces. Not on my very first day at Bridlebaine Academy. Finally I threw my school shoes against the wall and pulled on my old yellow wellies. Then I looked at myself in the mirror. I groaned; my uniform hadn’t seemed so bad in the shop, but the purple blazer and skirt looked awful on. It didn’t help that Da had bought my new uniform with “growing room”. My fingers only just poked out of my blazer sleeves and there was room for two of me in my jumper. But the worst bit was the skirt. It was so itchy I felt like it was going to set my legs on fire! I tried to remind myself that the great explorer Mary Henrietta Kingsley refused to wear anything on her lower half but her thick wool skirt after it had saved her life when she fell into a pit of spikes. However, I was pretty sure I would rather face poisonous spikes then have to wear the itchiest skirt in the world. Eventually I gave up fiddling with it and headed downstairs.
Da clapped his hands together when he saw me. “So good to see another McLeod in the school colours,” he said, his whole body puffing up with pride.
“She looks like she’s shrunk,” Grandpa said.
Da gave him a hard look as I tried to tuck in my overly long jumper.
“You’ll have to watch that,” Grandpa said. “I used to be six foot four. Tallest man on the island. I even got talent scouted for Scotland’s goalkeeper.”
Me and Da both raised our eyebrows. Grandpa was barely taller than me.
“You look brilliant,” Da said. “But what’s with the wellies?”
I flushed as I mumbled something about not wanting to get my new school shoes dirty, before shooting out the door towards the harbour.
To get to Bridlebaine Academy you have to take a ferry to Stony Isle. It’s not a very long trip, but going to Stony Isle feels like going to the other side of the world. It’s massive compared to Dark Muir, so big that you’d have to drive to get from one end to the other. It’s so big it has eight post offices in five separate towns. And shops that sell everything, including sparkly shoes and football kits. It even has a hotel where tourists stay. And I was pretty sure that if you lived over there, you couldn’t possibly know everyone’s name, like you do on Dark Muir.
I used to dream about living somewhere big like that. A place where everyone didn’t know everything about me and didn’t constantly ask awkward questions. I knew as soon as I started walking down to the harbour that I would get stopped ten times, by someone wanting to give me some unhelpful advice about starting school, or remark on my new uniform, or asking after Da and Grandpa. It’s not like I could hope to sneak down to the ferry either. Not when I was wearing a purple school blazer with my bright yellow wellies. But as I reached the maze of stone houses at the entrance of the harbour, nobody even looked up.
Everyone I passed was staring out to sea. And everyone was whispering. Even the Selkie Swimmers, the women from church who swim absolutely starkers all year round, including in the winter. Usually they greeted me with a nod and quick “God bless”. But that day they all huddled together, sinking into their jackets so their whispers grew more muffled. I hadn’t seen people act this weird since after Mum left. For a whole year, every time I went into the local shop the women would look at me and whisper and tut. But it wasn’t like that today. It wasn’t just gossip. People seemed scared.
Down by the ferry I could see a group of kids I knew a little.
“What’s going on?” I asked Chloe Baines.
Chloe and me had taken swimming lessons together when we were little. We had both managed to not drown in Miss Hardacre’s torturous four-week kelpie class, and had become best friends. But the days of me and Chloe cannonballing Miss Hardacre and telling each other our secrets seemed a very long time ago.
“I didn’t know you were coming back to school,” Chloe said.
“These skirts feel like they’re made out of wool and fire ants,” I told her with a grimace.
“I know – I have to wear two pairs of tights under mine just to stop the itching.” She grinned at me and I felt a sharp surge of relief. Making friends might be easy after all. “So you really don’t know what’s going on?”
Before Chloe could say another word, Blair Watson turned around.
“Who are you talking to, Chloe?” she said, with a swish of her shiny hair.
Blair Watson was super popular. Partly because her mum ran the hairdressers so she always had perfect hair, partly because she was really good at sports, but mostly because it was better to be Blair’s friend than her enemy. All sorts of awful things happened to people Blair didn’t like. Which was why all the girls copied Blair’s ridiculous hairstyle: a complicated braid that swept all around her head and into a ponytail tied with a purple bow.
As soon as Blair saw me her eyes grew wide.
“Oh my god, it’s Amelia McLeod! What are you doing in that uniform, Home School? Do you even know how to do your school tie?” She stepped forward and flicked at the tie I’d had to tuck into my skirt. “Or did your da dress you?” The group of girls around her sniggered.
“Oh, and nice wellies,” Blair snorted before turning her back on me and marching on to the ferry. The other girls swiftly followed her.
Chloe lingered just a moment longer before glancing at my wellies again and hurrying to join the others. I stared down at my bright yellow feet and fiddled with my tie. How had I managed to get everything wrong before school had even started? I walked slowly on to the ferry, not making eye contact with anyone.
With a jolt the ferry set off and I could finally see what everyone was talking about. The sea had changed colour. It was no longer the bright blue it had been on my birthday; it was dark and glistened like ice and there was something wrong about the horizon. Something missing. With an awful stomach lurch, I realized what it was. Serpent’s Tooth Rock was gone!
The hand that had touched the rock when I’d made my wish started to tingle. Grandpa’s words flooded into my head.
“It chose you, didn’t it? Oh, Amelia, that rock’s dangerous – it grants wishes at a terrible price.”
But that was just old Grandpa getting confused again, wasn’t it? It’s not like my wish came true; I was still here and very much not with Mum. But I thought of how scared everyone seemed. And how dark and troubled Grandpa’s eyes had turned when he warned me. And with a shudder I remembered how the rock ha
d moved when I touched it. Had my wish started something terrible?
I found a hiding spot behind the ferry’s lifeboat and got my book of adventurers out of my bag. Since Mum left I had been carrying it around everywhere, like my good luck charm, using it to give me advice. I’d flick to an explorer and imagine what they’d do when faced with a problem. It was stupid, but it always managed to make me feel better.
I cracked open the spine and turned to the page of one of my favourites.
Alexandra David-Neel
A Belgian-French explorer best known for disguising herself as a Tibetan peasant and trekking some of the most remote and dangerous snowy mountain passes to reach the forbidden city of Lhasa. She became a knight of the French Legion for her daring exploration of Tibet and lived to 101. She even renewed her passport on her 100th birthday, planning to travel much more in the years ahead.
There was a black-and-white picture of her dressed in her disguise of cloaks and furs. She looked very fierce under her hood and I imagined her talking to me in a stern French voice.
“It’s no point being afraid of something that hasn’t happened.”
I soon felt calmer, and before I knew it the ferry had docked at Stony Isle. Then we were rounded up by teachers and pushed on to a school bus. Everyone grabbed seats next to their friends until it was just me alone at the front. I’d totally failed at making a good first impression by wearing my stupid yellow wellies. I hid my feet under the bus seat and tried to pretend I didn’t care.
“Are you a student too? Blimey,” I heard the bus driver say. And then a very tall, very gangly boy got on to the bus. He looked at the empty seat next to me and grinned.
“Hey,” he said, sticking his long legs into the aisle and pushing me up against the window.
“It’s a daddy long legs,” a boy at the back of the bus shouted and there was a ripple of laughter.
The boy blushed and pulled his legs up to his chest.
“Sorry about this. Bet you didn’t think you’d have to sit next to a giant,” he said. “I’m Tom by the way.”
I smiled and tried to remember what Da had said about making a good first impression. Talking seemed like a sensible first step. But I was so nervous I wasn’t sure what to say. It didn’t seem to matter though, because Tom didn’t wait for me to reply.
“So, first day at school. It’s exciting but a bit scary, isn’t it? I kept packing and repacking my bag all last night. I didn’t know what to take. What did you end up bringing?”
I opened my mouth to answer but Tom kept on talking.
“I brought three yoghurts. I couldn’t decide which flavour I wanted. And now I think one’s leaked in my bag and all my books are sticky and smell like strawberry. Which isn’t a great way to start your first day.”
“No,” I managed to squeak in.
“Sorry! I haven’t even asked your name, have I? I get nervous and I talk too much and then I forget what I was meant to be saying in the first place. Mum says it’s because I have a hyperactive mind. Grandma says it’s because I’m an only child and don’t have someone my age to talk to at home. But then Dad says—” Tom said, stopping dead and slapping his head. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”
“I’m Amelia,” I said, grinning.
“So, you ready for your first day at school, Amelia?”
I nodded but I wasn’t sure. So far nothing I had planned was working out that well.
But when we got off the bus, it was hard to be upset about anything because I was reminded that Bridlebaine Academy was an actual castle! Well, most of the very old castle bits had fallen down and the classrooms were actually in three really big old houses. But there was still a tower and a little bit of the battlements and a ruined wall in the garden. I was beginning to get excited all over again.
When we got inside, we were taken to the assembly hall, which was huge and very grand. The room was filled with purple drapes with the school crest on them and a large, wooden stage. Then Miss Rutherford the head teacher came on stage dressed all in black apart from a row of colourful bangles and several large silver rings. The whole school fell quiet, like she was a witch who had us under a spell. She started giving a welcome speech, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as looking at all the things in the hall. There was a pair of antlers sticking out of a wooden plaque, two large swords mounted high up on the wall, and the stage had a full-sized piano on it. I could imagine doing fencing and dressing up in all kinds of mad costumes to perform in plays. I spotted Tom sitting cross-legged at the back; even sitting down he was tall. But I could see he was as pleased as me. He kept drumming a leg excitedly against the floor.
After the talk was over we were taken on something called “orientation” (which is a fancy word that means bored year elevens show you about). We were shown the science labs, with Bunsen burners and test tubes filled with mysterious bubbling things. The art room, which had strange sculptures in the corner and colourful paintings pegged up across the ceiling, and then the library. This was the most exciting bit, because the library at Bridlebaine just happened to be inside a castle tower!
Miss Rutherford joined the year elevens to give us a speech about how old the castle tower was, which turned out to be really old. Then everyone was sent off to meet their form tutors. Well, nearly everyone.
“Could Amelia McLeod, Gregory Wilson, Ian Ross, Beth Jones and Tom Harris stay behind?” Miss Rutherford called out.
Were we in trouble? I hadn’t even properly started school yet. I couldn’t be in trouble already, could I?
“Oh, Blair Watson too,” Miss Rutherford added and I felt my stomach flip.
Blair barged her way through our little group, scowling at me as if it was somehow my fault she hadn’t been able to go off with her friends.
“Well, I’m sure you all feel like you’re settling in,” Miss Rutherford said, checking her watch. “It looks like Miss Archibald’s late again.” She sighed and clucked her tongue.
For a teacher, she didn’t seem to like being around children very much.
“As I said in assembly,” she carried on, “here at Bridlebaine Academy it’s very important that every child flourishes, which is why all of you will have access to special lessons.”
I held my breath. Maybe it was lessons for extra special and talented people. Maybe it was acting classes, or fencing classes with real swords. Or maybe we would get to look after the class pet, which was bound to be something exciting like an eagle or a wildcat.
Miss Rutherford carried on. “So that’s why you’ll be joining Miss Archibald’s STAR unit, which provides extra support for those we consider to have …” She paused, searching for the right words. “Additional needs.”
I looked at our little group. Even Blair was chewing her lip. Tom caught my eye, but he didn’t have to say anything. We both knew what she really meant. She might as well have just said it was the STAR group for the very stupid.
Chapter 4
It turned out STAR classes stood for Spelling and Reading. That’s what it said on the door to our classroom. No one knew what the T stood for. I think it was just there to give it a name that made us feel better about needing “extra help” twice a week. The only good thing was that it was held in the castle tower. There was a little room just off the library we had been shown in orientation. From the classroom window I could see the whole school, including the playing fields and ruined castle wall. I watched a group of kids run out on the field in their PE kits. I wished I was there too. I could run faster than all the boys on Dark Muir and I could hold a handstand for six minutes until I finally got dizzy. But I couldn’t do spelling or reading, so I was stuck in here.
I closed my eyes and imagined I was the queen of the castle and everyone down below were my servants. I was so busy daydreaming that I didn’t notice all the other kids had taken their seats. There was Tom, sitting next to the dark-haired girl called Beth Jones who chewed the end of her hair nervously. Ian and Gregory sat together. I could tell they
were best friends because they were both wearing their ties as short as possible and had matching rubber-band bracelets. And right at the back, scowling, sat Blair Watson. The only empty seat was in front of her. Obviously no one else had wanted to risk sitting there because she was way too close for comfort and also not visible.
As I sat down I could feel Blair boring hot little holes into the back of my neck with her eyes. I was pretty sure she was thinking of all the ways she could murder me and hide the body. I pulled my hair over my shoulder, so she couldn’t get to it, and tried my very hardest to listen to what my new teacher Miss Archibald was saying.
“Sorry I’m a little late. I swear those steps get steeper every year,” Miss Archibald huffed, setting down an enormous stack of folders next to a fish bowl on her desk.
“My name is Miss Archibald and I’m head of learning support,” she said, pushing her glasses back up her nose. Miss Archibald had big round tortoiseshell glasses and thin rainbow-shaped eyebrows, which made her look like a very surprised owl.
“And this is Colin,” Miss Archibald said, pointing to the fish in the bowl.
I looked at the fish disappointedly. It wasn’t nearly as cool as having an eagle or a wildcat as a class pet.
After Miss Archibald finished handing out books she stood at the front of the class and started writing on the whiteboard while humming. I’d never had a proper teacher before, but Miss Archibald wasn’t anything like I was expecting. Judging by the expressions on everyone else’s faces, she wasn’t what they’d been expecting either. But even stranger was that everyone stopped talking and fidgeting. Ian and Gregory stopped yanking each other’s ties. Even Blair stopped kicking the back of my chair. All eyes were on Miss Archibald.
“You might be wondering what all these lessons are for. Well, STAR time is where we can work on classwork and homework together. But since this is your very first day and there isn’t any homework yet—”
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