Eventually Flame landed next to me and nudged his head against my side. I gave him a bite of the apple, put the rope around his neck and walked him back to dungeon,' Charlotte explained.
'Thank you, thank you so much!' Molly hugged her.
'That's okay, it was easy to lead Flame back to the dungeon as the corridors were all empty. Even from a distance, I could hear that you did a great job distracting everyone,' she smiled.
'Yeah,' Molly muttered.
'I heard you singing, I don't know how that came about, but it was a clever idea. How did it come about?' Charlotte asked.
'Those minor details don't matter, the important thing is that you rescued Flame and now he's safe.'
'It was nothing,' Charlotte blushed. 'I don't mean Flame's nothing, in fact, he's everything. I just mean that rescuing him was no big deal, not that he's no big deal just that…'
'Charlotte, stop,' Molly smirked. 'It looks like we're both suckers for that cheeky, scaly scamp.'
'See you later, you know where,' Molly grinned.
Charlotte gave an awkward smile. She decided not to say anything else to Molly in case her words rambled on again, so instead she gave a wave before she walked up the corridor.
Chapter Seven
'Let it go, let it go...' Alice sang into a hairbrush, as she danced around her bedroom.
'Alice, shut-up,' Stef chucked her pillow at Alice, which knocked her in the head.
She glared at Stef before she continued to sing even louder.
'I can't hear myself think,' Stef shouted over to Charlotte and Gerty.
'I can't hear you,' Gerty pointed to her ear. 'What did you say?'
'Huh,' Stef shrugged. 'I can't hear you over this racket.'
Charlotte couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. Alice had been driving them all crazy with her endless singing and because of this she now had the lyrics stuck in her head. Yet right now, she found this situation funny and the more she tried not the laugh, the more she found herself giggling.
'This isn't funny, I'm being deafened here,' Stef shouted over to Charlotte.
Charlotte could see that Stef was trying to say something to her, but she couldn't make out what it was over Alice's singing, a fact which made her laugh even more.
'Alice, just shut-up!' Stef screamed at her.
Alice continued to sing. When she got to the end of the song she paused to catch her breath...before she began to sing the song again.
Gerty pressed her pillow over her ears, Charlotte continued to laugh and Stef threw another pillow at Alice, but this time she dodged it in time.
'This is Molly's fault, it was her stupid idea to enter that daft singing competition and it was her even stupider idea to get Alice to sing that song. So I think it's only fair that Molly should sort this out before we all go crazy!' Stef shouted, but no one heard her.
Stef jumped to her feet and stormed out of the room. Margaret was standing in the doorway of her room next door, her arms folded.
'I've been knocking on the wall for the last five-minutes, why have you not shut her up?' Margaret said snidely.
'Because Margaret, we can't hear ourselves think, let alone your pointless knocking. I'm going to talk to Molly about this, she started it, so she can sort this out.'
'Fine, but I'm coming with you.'
Stef rolled her eyes...although maybe having Margaret alongside her wouldn't be a bad thing, after all Margaret was good at getting her own way.
'Leave this to me,' Margaret said, as she thudded her fist against Molly's door.
When there was no answer she thudded on the door again. When she heard footsteps coming from within the room she took a step back and folded her arms.
'Stef, Margaret, I'd never have expected to see you two standing there together,' Molly smirked, after she'd opened the door.
'Well we wouldn't be standing here at all, if it wasn't for you,' Margaret sounded really angry.
'I suggest you don't take that tone with me again or I'll turn you into a mouse.'
'Go ahead, at least then I could crawl through a hole and not come out again until this stupid singing contest is over.'
'And what exactly does this have to do with me?'
'Let's see, you're the one who came up with the great idea to enter it,' Margaret replied.
'And you're the one who thought it'd be a good idea to get Alice to sing that song,' Stef said.
'And now she won't stop singing it and it's impossible to concentrate. She's disrupting the entire corridor; she even hums it in her sleep. Her SLEEP!'
'It's okay for you, you're next door. I'm in the same room as her,' Stef glared at Margaret.
'One flimsy wall doesn't stop her from sounding like a foghorn.'
'Girls, quit it,' Molly shouted. 'I can't very well stop her from practicing.'
'Oh come on Molly, this is so unfair. She has a big enough head as it is! And the really really really annoying thing is...that when she hears someone else practicing their singing, she puts her hands over her ears! She thinks that her own singing is brilliant and superior and we all know that it ISN’T!' Stef was getting super frustrated and furious about the whole situation.
'This is now officially NOT funny, I have bags under my eyes,' Stef pointed to her eyebags. 'I think it's only fair that you share your room with Alice until the contest is over.'
'No chance,' Molly quickly said. 'Besides, I only have one bed in my room.'
'Then magic up another one,' Stef snapped.
'I'm not sharing my room with anyone, maybe you should show your friend some support instead of criticizing her,' she glared at Stef.
'She's not my friend,' Margaret snorted. 'She also has zero talent, it's like listening to a drowning cat over and over and over again.'
'We can't take much more of this, she's sending the whole corridor loopy.'
'Leave it with me, I'll think of something.'
'Make sure you do or you'll be getting a new room-mate!' Margaret snarled.
'Zip os,' Molly flicked out her wand. A closed zip appeared across Margaret's mouth, she clutched her hands to it and desperately tried to unzip it, but it wouldn't budge.
'I was fed-up with her whining and you are not far behind from getting the same treatment!' Molly said to Stef, before she rolled her eyes and disappeared back into her room, slamming her door shut.
Margaret waved her hands in front of Stef and her words came out as squeaks.
'I can't understand you,' Stef shrugged.
She grinned as she walked away from Margaret listening to her desperately knocking on Molly's door.
As soon as Stef reached her corridor and heard Alice's awful singing, her grin quickly faded. She hoped that Molly would think of something to block out Alice's singing and that she'd be quick about it. Stef hoped that once this singing contest was over that she'd never have to hear Alice sing again.
***
It was evening and Alice was doing her usual singing routine with the hairbrush. Charlotte was sitting on her bed with her homework sprawled out across it. She couldn't hear Alice, not any more. Molly had shown up earlier with three glittery pairs of headphones and she'd given them each a pair.
Charlotte looked over at Stef who was tidying up her clothes with her sparkly blue headphones pressed firmly across her ears. She looked over at Charlotte and gestured over to the bathroom door. Charlotte gave a nod and Stef disappeared into the bathroom.
Charlotte looked over at Gerty who was reading a book on her bed. Charlotte gave her a wave but she was too engrossed in the book to notice. That was the main problem with the headphones, they might have blocked out Alice's singing but it meant that they couldn't hear each other talking, so they now had to communicate through hand signals.
Alice twirled around so much that she bashed into Gerty's bedpost. Gerty giggled and Alice shot her a stern look before she went back to her dancing and singing routine.
Charlotte tried to block out Alice whilst she continued with her hom
ework. She appreciated that Alice was enthusiastic about the competition, but there was a time and a place to practice and all hours of the day and night weren't it. Still, she didn't want to dampen Alice's spirits and at least she had her sparkly purple headphones which were better than nothing.
'The competition will be over soon,' she said to herself. 'And then peace will return.'
As Charlotte looked at Alice in full on singing and dancing mode, she couldn't imagine their room ever returning to normal any time soon.
***
In the room next door, Margaret was perched on the edge of her bed, she was wearing the sparkly pink headphones that Molly had given her. They rubbed against her ears and the lack of sound was making her feel dizzy, so she took them off.
She looked over at the empty beds which used to belong to Demi and Destiny and she let out a thoughtful sigh. She was glad that they'd gone, especially Destiny, but she couldn’t deny the fact that she felt lonely. She didn't have any friends to boss around and show off her spells too. She let out another sigh as she took off her headphones and threw them onto her bed.
'Let it go, let it go,' Alice's voice shrilled through the wall.
'Argh,' Margaret screamed, as she jumped to feet. 'Shut-up! Right, that's it,' Margaret shouted, as she stormed across the room. 'I've had enough!'
She hurried out of her room but instead of barging into Alice's room and turning her into a toad, she found that her feet were leading her the other way along the corridor. She soon found herself sneaking outside and sitting under a large willow tree out in the yard.
'Silence,' she said under her breath, as she leaned her head back against the tree.
She sat up and rubbed her hand against the back of her cardigan, a green gloop coated her fingers.
'Yuck!' she jumped to her feet.
She looked at the tree, this strange green gloop was splattered all over it. She tore off a leaf and wiped her hand on it before she moved onto the next tree, checking its trunk before she sat down next to it.
At first, she thought that the gloop was made by bats, but as she looked around her she noticed that there were large, thick patches of it on more than one of the trees. There would have to be a lot of bats to make this much mess, so it had to be something else.
All she wanted was some time to think, without having to listen to out-of-tune singing or getting covered in gloop. At times, she really despised this Academy and its snooty rules. She couldn't wait until she was older as she was in no doubt that she would become head girl, when that happened she was going to make some serious changes around here and banning singing in bedrooms would be the first thing on her list.
***
The following evening, Margaret was sitting outside again so that she could get away from Alice's awful singing. This time she'd steered clear of the trees and instead was sitting down next to the wall of the Academy. As she looked up from her book she noticed that patches of the green gloop were splattered on the ground.
She sighed before she went back to reading her book. A strange noise came from above her, it sounded like it was coming from a creature, it was high-pitched and loud and sounded like nothing she'd ever heard before.
Margaret stood up and peered up at the sky but nothing was there. She moved into the center of the yard and looked over at the Academy. The sound began again and she traced it to one of the upstairs rooms. Even with the curtains closed she knew exactly whose room that belonged to…Molly.
Margaret shook her head and decided that Stef must have grown so sick of Alice's singing that she'd managed to convince Molly to put up with her for a bit. Maybe they were practicing in there? Alice and Molly both had atrocious singing voices, ones that could easily be mistaken for wailing animals.
She walked back over to the wall and dodging the gloop patches, she sat back down and leaned against the wall. She decided that this was probably the most peace she was going to get tonight, so although it was far from perfect, it was better than staying in her stuffy room wearing those irritating headphones. She took another glance at the strange gloop stains before she opened her book and began to read.
***
Molly knew that the wise thing to do would be to keep Flame in the dungeon, especially after the whole escape-through-the-window thing. She left him in the dungeon during the daytime when both her and Charlotte were in classes, as she couldn't risk him flying out of the window again. But at night-time, she snuck him into her room and let him stay with her until the early hours of the morning when she would take him back to the dungeon. She hated leaving him down there, looking all sad and lonely, but she knew that it was for his own good and at least she got to watch him snuggle up on the end of her bed every night.
'Flame, if you don't quieten down I will have to stop bringing you into my room,' Molly said sternly.
He looked up at her and let out a high-pitched sound before he flapped his wings.
'Flame, stop being naughty,' she gritted her teeth.
Flame stuck out his tongue and then flapped his wings again.
'Flame!'
He shuffled over to her, gave her a smile and then licked the side of her face.
'If I come out in pimples from all this face-licking, then I'm blaming you,' she couldn't help but smile.
Flame cuddled up to her and again licked her face and she found herself gently patting his head. She couldn't be mad at him for long, after all he was not only her dragon, he was also her friend.
***
The next evening Margaret headed back out to the yard and sat down against the Academy wall. She was enjoying the quiet as she read her spells textbook, she had just flipped the page of her book when she heard that high-pitched sound again. She closed her book and got up onto her feet and took a few steps backwards.
Molly's curtains were open and she could make out two silhouettes. She squinted her eyes as she looked up at the room, Molly was one of them and the other was someone shorter. There was a flash of light and Margaret saw exactly who the other girl was, it was Charlotte.
Margaret found herself wondering why Charlotte was in Molly's room? Was she trying to convince her to let Alice come and sing in her room? Margaret could see that they were talking about something, but she was too far away to make out what they were saying.
Something was in Charlotte's arms, something large. With a blink of her eyes Margaret noticed that the object had gone.
'What are they up to?' she muttered to herself.
Silence. Then there was a flash of light, the fire alarms began to ring and Margaret saw a creature flying around the room.
Charlotte was coming over towards the window. Margaret rushed over to the wall and stood pressed against it just as Charlotte pulled shut the curtains.
Even though Margaret had only ever seen one in a book and movie before, she knew exactly what she'd just spotted flying around Molly's room. Molly 'perfect prefect' McDonald and Charlotte 'goody-two-shoes' Smyth were hiding a dragon in the Academy dormitory.
What would Miss Moffat say if she found out? What would Professor Alexander and Mistress Ravenwolf say? Demi, Destiny and the Mistress of the Books had all paid the price for getting involved with dragons, yet this hadn't deterred Molly and Charlotte from hiding one in a bedroom at the Academy.
Molly would lose her position as head girl and Charlotte would surely be expelled and de-witched for harboring a dangerous creature. Margaret knew that this information was worth more than a vial of phoenix tears or a bottle of an ice bear’s breath.
Margaret knew that she could make Charlotte and Molly do anything she wanted to keep their scaly beast a secret...anything! Or she could expose their secret in a very public manner and receive all the credit. Either way, she knew that she possessed all the power, which to her was an alluring thought.
'Well, well, well, what do we have here? Revenge is traditionally best served cold but it seems that in this case it's best served hot. Dragon hot,' she said to herself, a devious look on her fa
ce.
There was no rush, she could hold onto this secret for as long as she needed to. One thing was for sure, she was going to make sure that Molly and Charlotte weren't going to get away with hiding a dangerous dragon in Molly’s room. By the time she'd finished, everyone was going to know that they weren't as perfect and sparkly as they made out, not one bit.
By the time she'd finished, Charlie wouldn't want anything more to do with Charlotte and he would be all hers.
Books for Girls - WITCH SCHOOL - Books 2-6: Book 1 is FREE! Page 32
