First Term at Silver Spires (School Friends #1)

by Ann Bryant

  “Well, come on,” said Jess. “We all know that Naomi’s a princess. What are you?”

  I must admit I was feeling curious myself.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Lydia, with a kind of secretive smile.

  “Let me guess,” said Georgie. “A countess? A dukess?”

  “Duchess!” we all corrected her.

  “No, nothing like that,” said Lydia. “It’s just that…I’ve only ever talked to Naomi about this before because she understands…but my parents own a massive advertising company. Everyone’s heard of it in America. So Mum and Dad are really well known over there. We’ve lived in the States for years.”

  Georgie leaned forwards, wide-eyed. “You mean they’re famous? Do people, like, recognize them?”

  Lydia nodded and smiled round at us. “It’s no big deal, but now you see why I get on with Naomi so well. I mean, I’ve had to do interviews and stuff in America as well…”

  I saw a look of irritation flash across Jess’s face. “Well, I’m nothing special because I didn’t get a scholarship and neither of my parents are famous. In fact they’re both accountants, which everyone says is the most boring job in the whole world!”

  My heart pounded because my moment had come and I knew I had to collect my words and tuck them in quickly underneath Jess’s so as not to draw attention to myself. “Well my dad produces documentaries for videos, and…” I braced myself for the lie. “…My mum’s a set stylist, which is—”

  “It’s when you have to arrange a room in a certain way so it can be photographed for magazines and things,” interrupted Lydia. “I know that because Mum often employs stylists to work for her.” Her eyes suddenly lit up. “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if my mother had ever employed yours!”

  Lydia always had to be the most important person, but it was annoying me more than ever now that she was making out her mum was better than mine. I couldn’t reply, though, even if I’d known what to say, because Georgie was making loud noises with her straw, sucking up the very last bits of her mocha smoothie. We all had to tell her to be quiet because people were looking.

  “Well I think it must be cool to be a set stylist,” said Mia. “That’s probably why you’re so good at art, Katy. You get it from your mum.”

  It was a sweet thing to say but it wasn’t true. “Jess is loads better than me.” Then I remembered something. “Hey, can we look at the drawing you did on the bus, Jess?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “It’s not finished…”

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Grace, leaning forwards.

  Jess pulled the page from my sketchbook out of her bag and laid it on the table, and the hairs on my arms stood up. She’d drawn a cage at a zoo with animals squashed up tight inside it, but you couldn’t really tell what kind of animals they were because they were all standing up on their hind legs and their heads were pressed together so you couldn’t see their faces.

  “I don’t get what it is,” said Lydia.

  “Is it at a zoo?” asked Georgie.

  “Jess and I heard Miss Fosbrook saying to Miss Bromley that we were only being a bit loud on the bus because we’d been caged up all week,” I explained. “It’s really brilliant, Jess,” I added.

  “Are they supposed to be animals or people?” asked Lydia.

  “It doesn’t matter what they are,” said Grace, picking the picture up slowly and staring at it with big eyes. “It’s just a feeling about being caged up.”

  Jess’s whole face lit up at those words and she asked Georgie to swap places with her so she could sit next to Grace, so while the rest of us finished up our drinks those two were deep in conversation together.

  “Let’s go,” said Georgie, looking at her watch. “I want to zip to that new gift shop we spotted before we have to be at the fountain. Come on, Mamma Mia!”

  In the minibus on the way back I sat next to Lydia because Jess was with Grace. I was working on my shoe designs while Lydia was busy texting away.

  She glanced over with a bored look on her face at one point. “You’re obsessed with drawing shoes.” Then her phone bleeped and she scanned the screen quickly. “Text from Naomi. She finished her interview ages ago and now she’s exploring the school.”

  A moment later I got a text too. All it said was Cant w8 2cu. Sthing bads happened. Nao x

  “Who’s it from?” Lydia asked, trying to peer over my shoulder.

  I quickly deleted it. “Same message as yours,” I said, thinking fast. “Naomi must have sent it to both of us at the same time.”

  Then, as Lydia buried herself in yet more texts, I looked out of the window. It had started to rain and the greyness made me go into a daydream all the way back, wondering whatever could have happened to Naomi. I was expecting to see her the moment I jumped off the minibus, but there was no one in sight at Hazeldean.

  “I’m going to find Naomi,” Lydia said, making for the common room.

  We all followed and kind of exploded through the door. There were loads of girls in there but no sign of Naomi.

  “Have any of you seen Naomi?” asked Lydia.

  “No, but guess what!” said a girl called Steph, eyes sparkling. “She’s a princess! It’s true, honestly! Naomi Okanta is a princess!”

  “What?” I managed to squeak. But I knew I’d heard her all right. I just couldn’t believe the news was out.

  It came as a bit of a shock when Lydia’s voice rang out. “Yeah, we know. Naomi told her close friends ages ago, but we’ve been keeping it a secret.” She turned and looked at the rest of us. “Haven’t we?”

  Everyone of us nodded dumbly, and I expect we were all thinking the same thing. How had the secret got leaked?

  Jess was the one who broached the subject. “So how did you lot find out?” she asked, and I held my breath.

  Steph frowned then turned to the girl next to her. “It was you who told me. How did you find out?”

  The girl shrugged. “Dunno. Everyone was just saying it down at the pool.”

  “I’m going to find Naomi,” I mumbled, making my way towards the door.

  Lydia pushed past me. “Me too.”

  And we left the others talking loudly, trying to untangle the mystery of exactly who told who. Neither of us said a word as we raced up the three flights of stairs to Amethyst and I pushed open the door. Naomi was lying on her bed. She looked as though she’d been crying and I wanted to give her a tight hug, but somehow Lydia got there first.

  “You poor thing,” she said, clutching Naomi’s hand. “I can’t believe the secret’s out.” She hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Do you know how it happened?”

  Naomi shook her head as she sat up. “I just don’t get it.”

  “How long have you been up here on your own?” I asked her quietly.

  “Not long. I had a walk around first.”

  “Well, I’m going to dump my bag in Opal,” said Lydia, brightening up all of a sudden. “But first…” She pulled out the box of chocolates with a flourish. “Da-daaaaa! These are for you, Name! I thought they’d cheer you up as you missed the shopping trip.”

  Naomi’s face lost its anxious look for a moment as she took the chocolates and gave Lydia a hug. “Hey, thanks. That’s really nice of you.” Then she suddenly noticed my new scarf. “That looks nice, Katy? Where did you get it?”

  “The Cancer Research shop. I like getting things from charity shops…”

  “Me too,” said Naomi, “because you save money and you know the money you’re spending is going to help someone too.”

  I nodded hard because that was exactly what I thought, but Lydia stared at Naomi as though she was talking double Dutch, then suddenly she tapped the chocolate box and said, “I would have made it an even bigger one if I’d known you were having such a bad time here.” She practically skipped out of the door. “Back in a sec. Don’t move a muscle!”

  As soon as she’d gone Naomi wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like the name, ‘Name’!”

  “Why, be
cause it’s not a proper name?” I asked, which set us off giggling.

  Then her face clouded over.

  “What exactly happened?” I asked her quietly.

  She sighed. “Well, I did the interview with a woman journalist and I had my photo taken loads of times by a photographer. Then both the magazine people went, and I chatted with Miss Carol for about five minutes. She was really nice, just asking me how I was settling in and whether I felt that I’d made any good friends and I told her I’d made quite a few and everything was fine. After that, I decided to go over to the library and when I was there some Year Nine girls asked me if it was true that I was a princess, and I asked them how they knew that and they said they’d heard some other girls talking about it, but they didn’t know what year they were in. And then on my way back some Year Eights started asking me how it felt having a king for a dad and things like that. By the time I got back to the common room the whole of Hazeldean seemed to know, so I went to Miss Carol and it was obvious she was totally shocked.”

  “What did she say?” I asked.

  “She said she was baffled because everyone was at lunch when the magazine people arrived with their cameras and stuff, and there was no one around at all when they were leaving because people were either out shopping or they’d gone swimming or something. So they couldn’t be the reason why everyone knows.”

  Suddenly, I knew I had to tell Naomi what I’d heard on the minibus. “Well, on the way into town, I heard Miss Fosbrook telling Miss Bromley that she saw Lydia talking to Miss Carol’s visitors. She said Lydia was being all smiley at first but then turned sulky.”

  Naomi gasped. “Talking to the magazine people! But I said I wanted to do it on my own, and everyone should carry on as normal.” She sighed again. “She must have talked to them at the end of lunch when she said she was going to do her hair. But that still doesn’t explain how everyone knows my secret, does it?”

  I didn’t say anything, and I was just trying to work out why Lydia had been in a sulk, when she suddenly appeared in our dorm, looking amazing in her black shiny trousers with the new scarf tied round her hips.

  “Lydia, did you—?” began Naomi, but Lydia interrupted her.

  “Have you started the choccies yet?”

  “No…but—”

  “Good, because I was thinking we ought to have a midnight feast in your dorm. If we all sneak something out of the dining hall for the next few meals, we’ll have plenty of stuff. And I’ll bring my bottle of fizzy passion-fruit juice. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion, but this is special, isn’t it, because we’ve got to cheer you up, Name!”

  After that, Naomi mustn’t have felt like confronting Lydia about talking to the magazine people. It might have seemed a bit mean when Lydia was being so nice. And for the rest of the day whenever people clustered round asking Naomi what it was like being a princess, Lydia was right there, practically glued to her side, shooing people away and telling them Naomi simply wanted to be left in peace. “Look, just leave her alone. It’s really annoying having people going on and on about it when you’re well known.” And then of course everyone wanted to know how Lydia knew what it was like to be well known, so out came the story about her parents being famous in America. She was really showing off, but it was true that she was getting the attention away from Naomi at the same time, which Naomi seemed quite relieved about. She kept on flashing Lydia grateful smiles.

  The rain didn’t stop until supper time, and the more the day got greyer and greyer, the more my spirits sank. Lydia was telling Naomi about the shopping trip, but they were too far away for me to join in. I sat at the end of the table poking at my food, while Grace and Jess were taking photos of each other on their mobiles on one side of me, and Georgie was comforting Mia on the other side, because Mia’s piano practice hadn’t gone very well.

  Then an older girl passed our table and I saw her jerk her head at Lydia and Naomi and say to her friend, “Birds of a feather flock together, eh?” I’d heard that saying before. It meant it was no wonder Lydia and Naomi hung out together, because they had a lot in common.

  That was when I felt a horrible anxiety creeping slowly up on me. I’d only been at Silver Spires one week but already a pattern was emerging.

  Georgie and Mia.

  Grace and Jess.

  Naomi and Lydia.

  I shivered. Where did that leave me?

  Chapter Seven

  Hazeldean was suddenly very popular. It didn’t matter what day of the week it was, there were always Year Seven and Eight girls from other boarding houses hanging around. It was obvious they were just looking for Naomi, but they were usually disappointed because she was so rarely there. I was never sure where she’d slipped off to, and I didn’t ask her. Georgie and Lydia did though, and Naomi would answer vaguely that she’d just been “around”.

  Lydia would stand in the hall with a crowd of people round her and act like a teacher explaining to a bunch of little kids that Naomi was perfectly normal – just like any of them – all the time she was at Silver Spires. It was only at home that she had servants bowing to her and people flocking round and taking her photo and so on. Then she’d look all coy and add that that was something you just got used to. I couldn’t imagine that Lydia had servants who bowed to her, because why would they? But when I actually asked her that question she snapped at me that I’d never understand because it was way off anything I’d ever been used to. I’d had to bite my tongue to stop myself coming back with a couple of facts about exactly what I was used to. Lydia just loved all the attention though, and now people were even more interested because they could talk about a princess with a famous best friend.

  One time when Naomi had been away for over two hours, she came back to find Hazeldean nice and quiet.

  “You’ll be pleased to know I’ve got rid of all your fans!” said Lydia.

  Naomi gave her a grateful smile. “Thanks, Lydia. It’s really kind of you.”

  “That’s okay,” Lydia replied, linking her arm through Naomi’s. “All this fuss’ll soon die down, you’ll see.”

  I went to bed feeling quite miserable again that night, worrying that I was getting pushed away from Naomi. But the next day I opened my eyes to find the dorm lit up with bright golden sunlight that slanted through the curtains and cast moving shadows on the walls and the floor. Immediately my spirits lifted, and I made a resolution to stop getting obsessed about being left out of friendships.

  Naomi opened her eyes as I was having that thought and turned straight to me.

  I grinned at her. “Isn’t it lovely and bright?”

  She nodded and stretched, then looked suddenly happy. “Debating club today! Great!”

  “You must be out of your tree,” said a drowsy voice.

  “Go back to sleep, George!” I laughed. But I had to agree with her, it wasn’t my first choice of clubs either. “I might go exploring,” I went on, feeling excited because there were lots of parts of the school I hadn’t seen yet. Then I thought of something even better. “Grace, can I borrow your stopwatch after school? I want to see what distance it is from one end of the school grounds to the other.”

  Naomi sat up suddenly. “I’ll take you on a guided tour! I know every bit of the school grounds now!” Then she pulled a face. “Oh…but I’ve got debating club…”

  By morning break she’d decided to give debating club a miss and come round with me instead. “There’s one place I’m dying to show you,” she whispered. “My secret place.”

  It was French after break but I couldn’t concentrate properly because I kept thinking about exploring with Naomi and seeing her secret place. Then roughly halfway through the lesson we were reading a passage about the Paris fashion show, and I suddenly had a massive urge to draw a jacket with lots of intricate detail. I thought I’d be able to listen to Mam’zelle Clemence at the same time if I kept the sketchbook on my lap and only added a bit to the design when I was certain she wasn’t looking, but I made t
he mistake of thinking she was tied up helping someone at the front, and didn’t notice her coming over to my table until it was too late. Mam’zelle Clemence pointed to the book in my lap and went mad.

  “What is zat, Kateeee!” she demanded loudly.

  I handed it over with a bit of a red face, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. Her face was screwed up in a disapproving frown but then, miraculously, the frown began to melt and she nodded slowly. “Hmmm, nice drawing. Did you copy zees?”

  I shook my head. “No…it’s my own…”

  “Hmm. I like eet.” Then her frown came back as she dropped the book on my table. “Howeverrr, eeet is not to rrree-appear in ze French lesson, hmmm?”

  The others thought Mam’zelle Clemence sounded so funny that they kept on imitating her all through the day, especially Georgie. “Hmmm, I like eet. Deed you copy eet?” Naomi joined in as much as the rest of us at first, but by lunchtime she seemed too fed up to bother because she was being pestered again by people wanting to talk to a princess.

  It was when we’d finished our first course that she suddenly surprised me by turning to Lydia and blurting out, “Did you talk to the magazine people that day I had my interview, Lydia?”

  There was an awkward silence. Georgie stopped like a statue with an open mouth and a forkful of food about to go in it. Jess and Grace broke off their conversation to listen.

  Lydia tossed her head. “No, course I didn’t. And even if I did, what difference would that have made?”

  “Well, Miss Fosbrook said you did,” I couldn’t help myself saying.

  A second later I felt myself shrinking under Lydia’s cold gaze. “Look, all I did was answer when the photographer spoke to me. Terribly sorry, Katy, but I didn’t realize that was against the law,” she said sarcastically. I felt myself blushing as she shut her eyes slowly then opened them and carried on in an over-the-top patient voice. “Miss Carol’s door was open. The photographer saw me passing and asked me if lunch had finished and I said it was just finishing and that Naomi would be along in a moment. He also asked me if Naomi was a friend of mine and I said that she was. Anything wrong with that, Katy?”