First Term at Silver Spires (School Friends #1)

by Ann Bryant

  One lunchtime, we were putting our trays away when she said she’d got something to ask me. We walked towards Hazeldean and eventually she spoke.

  “You know that night when you went out in the rain and you were late for bed?”

  “Yes…”

  “And you know you had straw in your hair?”

  I started to feel sick. “Yes.”

  “And you know how Georgie asked if you’d been to see Buddy, and you said you hadn’t?”

  The panic I felt was breaking out in an argument inside my head. It was me against me.

  Don’t say you were anywhere near Buddy that night, or she’ll definitely think you stole the stopwatch.

  But I can’t lie to Naomi.

  You’ll have to. The truth will only make matters worse.

  No, the truth is important – the best tool of all, remember?

  But…

  Just explain. Go on! NOW!

  “This is going to sound terrible,” I began in a small voice, “but I was upset about something to do with Mum and I couldn’t tell anyone…except Buddy.”

  I managed to meet her eyes and all I could see was doubt. Deep, deep layers of doubt. She didn’t believe me. And suddenly I couldn’t bear the unfairness of it all and I saw red. “Just tell me, Naomi,” I said in a horrible voice, “exactly why would I want to steal Grace’s stopwatch? What possible reason have I got for doing that?”

  She looked shocked. “Yes, I know. I kept saying that to myself but then I remembered the straw in your hair and…well, what am I supposed to think?”

  I knew my voice was getting louder but I couldn’t help it. “Don’t you think that Lydia has got every reason under the sun to steal the stopwatch and then pin the blame on me? You know she doesn’t want you to like me. She wants you all for herself. I don’t get why you can’t just see that, Naomi.”

  And that’s when I realized Lydia was right behind us. “Katy Parsons! You are such a little sneak thief. You’ve had it in for me ever since I arrived at this place. But you’re the one who borrowed that stopwatch! You’re the one who loved it so much you wanted one for Christmas! The problem is you can’t accept that Naomi might actually want to be friends with someone other than you, and now you’re accusing me of taking Grace’s stopwatch? But I wouldn’t even know where to take it from. I don’t know where Grace keeps her stuff. You make me sick!”

  She raced off and Naomi instantly went after her, so I was left standing there feeling an idiot and wishing I’d not lost my temper in front of Naomi, because now everything was ten times worse than before. I heaved a sad sigh and knew I had to talk to Mum right now, because this was unbearable. I tapped in her number, then listened to it ring six times before the answerphone message came on.

  “Hi, this is Cally’s phone. Leave me a message and I’ll get back to you.”

  I disconnected and let my mobile drop to my side. Everything seemed worse than ever now. Then I suddenly felt sick as I realized another bad thing. Mum hadn’t texted or phoned or e-mailed for three days. Why was that? I knew it was silly, but instantly my mind went to the stopwatch. Had Miss Carol phoned her and told her what had happened? Was Mum so cross that she couldn’t even bear to talk to me?

  I told myself to stop being so stupid and irrational. Of course Miss Carol wouldn’t tell Mum when there was no proof that I’d done anything wrong. And even if she had told her, Mum would have been in touch straight away, wouldn’t she? But she hadn’t been in touch, had she? And then I was back in the middle of my anxiety again because I simply couldn’t think of any other explanation. Mum had never left it for three days without phoning before.

  I tapped in her number again and this time when the answerphone message came on I spoke in a shaky voice. “Hi, Mum, it’s me. If you’ve heard from Miss Carol I absolutely swear it’s not true. And I…love you loads.”

  All afternoon I felt miserable. Georgie and Mia wanted to know if anything had happened, but I didn’t dare to try and explain what Naomi had said to me about the straw in my hair because that would probably get me into even deeper trouble. I just said I was sad because I hadn’t heard from Mum in a while.

  I kept my mobile on silent during prep, even though they’re supposed to be switched off, and used up all my concentration on willing it to ring, which meant I didn’t get much geography done. The teacher wouldn’t be too pleased, but I didn’t care about that because I had much bigger things on my mind.

  It was a relief to go up to the dorm and get my sketchbook out, though I didn’t know what to draw now. Nothing could inspire me today. It wasn’t bedtime for another half-hour but no one seemed to be in the mood for going to the common room. We were all lying on our beds or sitting at our desks, and, as usual these days, Lydia was sitting cross-legged on the big rug with Naomi. It was almost half-term, and what was it Miss Carol said to Lydia on that very first day here? We stick with the same dorm mates for the first half of term… I bet Lydia was thinking, Only two more days to go before I can ask Miss Carol if I can swap dorms with Katy. Maybe Naomi and Lydia had already been to see Miss Carol. I’d been doodling on the front cover of my sketchbook while I’d been having these thoughts, and when I looked at the doodle I realized it looked like heavy drops of rain falling into a flat pond.

  Lydia was leafing through a magazine and looking very excited about something or other.

  “We never did have our midnight feast, did we? Let’s do it tomorrow, hey?” she said, looking round at everyone except me. “We can all smuggle stuff out of breakfast, lunch and supper, and have a feast! I’ll sneak out of my dorm and come up here. No probs.”

  Surprisingly, no one was particularly enthusiastic. We were all floppy and tired. I sighed as I opened my sketchbook and leafed through the pages of designs. The fashion club hadn’t got off the ground yet because Mr. Cary, the art teacher who was supposed to be joining up with Mam’zelle Clemence, was ill, and since the discovery of the stopwatch I hadn’t felt like drawing. But I knew I couldn’t carry on being in a depressed mood all the time. I had to snap out of it and get on with some jewellery designs. Then, as soon as the art teacher was better and the club was set up I’d be able to start creating my designs.

  “What are you designing now, Katy?” asked Georgie, peering down from her bed.

  “Earrings.”

  “Cool! Can you design some for me? Something really crazy!”

  “Or something simple and silver for me,” said Naomi.

  “Or something little and boring for me,” said Mia, wrinkling her nose.

  “You’re not little and boring, Mia,” protested Georgie. “You’re little and sweet! But, tell you what, Katy, if you really want a challenge, try designing something for Grace. I mean, something that she’d actually agree to wear!”

  “What a cheek!” said Grace, pretending to be hurt.

  It was lovely to hear them all talking so normally to me. I looked carefully at Grace’s face before turning to the last clean page. Inspiration came flooding in and I felt a moment of happiness after being miserable for so long. “Right, Grace, I’m going to design you the perfect pair.”

  “Yes, and when Mam’zelle Clemence finally starts her fashion club, you can actually make them,” said Jess.

  “But I haven’t even got pierced ears!” said Grace. “You ought to choose someone else, Katy. I’m just not into jewellery at all.”

  “Yes, you are!” Lydia chimed in. “What about that little charm bracelet you’ve got…”

  There was a silence, but I didn’t realize anything was wrong till I looked up from my sketchbook and saw that Grace’s face was pale and she was staring at Lydia as though she’d turned into a monster.

  “What?” said Jess, sitting up sharply. “What’s wrong, Grace?”

  I’d never heard Grace’s voice sound so fragile as it did just then. “How did you know about that bracelet, Lydia?”

  The silence was like thin thin glass. Nobody moved. Nobody wanted to step on the glass.

/>   “I…I’ve just seen it, that’s all,” said Lydia, trying to sound casual, but it was obvious she was unsure of herself because she was flipping over the pages of her magazine at top speed and her eyes weren’t focusing on anything.

  Grace seemed to be having trouble speaking. Her voice was shaking. “It’s impossible to just see it, Lydia. Nobody’s ever seen it because I keep it in my special box at the back of my bottom drawer with my other precious things…”

  Lydia’s face flooded with colour and she slapped her magazine shut with a loud huff of annoyance.

  Then we all gasped as Grace finished her sentence. “…like my stopwatch.”

  The words rang round the dorm as Lydia got up with a face like fury, which she turned on me. “All right, Little Miss Fashion, you don’t have to stare at me like that, you know. You made me do it, always trying to push me out and keep Naomi to yourself. Well, I don’t care. There are loads of people who want to be my friend and, unlike some people, I’m not impressed by princesses so you can stuff yourself.”

  And with that she left the room. No pushing past people. No floods of tears. Completely calmly, her head held high.

  The door clicked shut and the rest of us were left in stunned silence, but it wasn’t like glass any more, it was liquid and flowing, swirling round, buoying me up. I didn’t have to worry now. The missing truth had turned up. One by one I met the eyes of my friends as the silence slowly dissolved and the world came back into focus.

  “I knew it!” said Georgie, eyes wide. Then she repeated it slowly as though those were the only words she could manage. “I! KNEW! IT!”

  Jess just looked shocked, but Mia leaned her head against mine. “Georgie was right.”

  “It must have been awful, Katy,” whispered Grace.

  And Naomi looked as if she was going to cry as she put her arms round me and gave me a tight hug. I felt like crying myself then, but not out of sadness – out of big big relief.

  “Pretty wise dad I’ve got,” said Naomi, pulling out of the hug and smiling at me with tears in her eyes. “What do you reckon, Katy?”

  I grinned back and we high-fived each other. “You’re not kidding!”

  Then everyone wanted to know what we were on about, so I had to explain about running into Naomi when I was crying my eyes out and how she’d tried to make me feel better. And Georgie wanted to go through absolutely everything that had happened, and kept saying, “I can’t believe that girl! I just can’t believe her!” And I got hugs and more hugs and sympathetic words that lifted me up and up, until by the time it was bedtime I was on top of the world.

  Chapter Ten

  The next day Naomi and I were inseparable. It was a bit embarrassing seeing Lydia at breakfast and in lessons, but the odd thing was that Lydia herself didn’t seem at all embarrassed. She’d been right when she’d said that lots of people wanted to be her friend, because every time we came across her she was chatting and laughing with someone or other. She was probably telling them how famous she was in America.

  After lunch, Naomi and I walked across to Oakley to find out from Mam’zelle Clemence if Mr. Cary was back yet. I felt so close to Naomi just then that I suddenly had the urge to tell her my secret. After all, we were in exactly the same boat and I knew she’d never ever tell a soul. But just when I was on the point of speaking, we came across a group of older girls coming out of Oakley, and I knew I’d have to wait for another time to share my secret. There was sure to be a perfect moment.

  The girls saw Naomi and broke into smiles. “Whoooo, we’re very honoured!” one of them said. “A royal visit!”

  She wasn’t being sarcastic, just joking around, but Naomi looked down and I could tell she was upset.

  “Don’t listen to Emma!” said another of the girls. “She’s only teasing.”

  The girl called Emma suddenly turned serious. “Yeah, sorry, Naomi. You must get fed up with people going on about it and wanting to get in on your interviews and everything.”

  “What?!”

  Naomi and I had both spoken together but it was Naomi who carried on while I stood there, open-mouthed. “How did you know I did an interview?”

  The girl looked surprised. “Sorry, I didn’t know it was a secret… I had to deliver a note from Mam’zelle Clemence to Miss Carol one Saturday, and the door to Miss Carol’s flat was open. I went in, but then I could hear that she was busy in the kitchen, so I just crept in and left the note on her table. She’d got visitors and I heard one of them saying that a passing student had just mentioned that she was Naomi’s best friend. Then I heard the other one say, ‘Amazing, isn’t it, how everyone wants to be best friends with a princess? She probably hoped she’d get in on the interview!’ And that’s how I found out.”

  Emma shrugged. “Anyway, see ya!” And off they went, leaving the two of us standing there in a state of shock.

  Naomi was the first to speak. “So it was Lydia’s fault again. I should have realized, shouldn’t I? I mean she started acting like my best friend before she even knew me.”

  “And she acted like she knew exactly what it was like to be a princess, didn’t she? I mean she never asked you any questions or anything. She wasn’t really interested in who you are at all.”

  Naomi giggled. “Not like Georgie… Do you remember? On the way up to the dorm when I’d only just arrived?”

  “Good old Georgie!” I laughed. “It’s just the way she is!”

  “I know,” smiled Naomi. “And you, Kates,” she went on. “You were great…almost as though you really knew what it was like…”

  And suddenly there it was. The perfect moment.

  “I do.”

  “Do what?

  “Know what it’s like. I’m kind of…in the same boat, you see…”

  There. I’d said it. But I wasn’t cross with myself. I just felt completely calm. I trusted Naomi. She was my best friend.

  “In…the same…boat?”

  I spoke quietly. “You know I said I went to see Buddy because I was upset about something to do with Mum?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, it was because I’d just seen her on Lydia’s DVD and I suddenly missed her. You see…my mother is Cally Jamieson.”

  Naomi gasped, then looked at me with big eyes and mouthed the words, “Cally…Jamieson…” in slow motion.

  But only a second later her shock seemed to melt away and she was instantly back to her calm self. “Sorry, that’s probably the very reaction you don’t want!”

  “Thank goodness for that. I thought you’d lost the power of speech!”

  There was a pause, then Naomi spluttered and we both cracked up laughing because it suddenly seemed such a ridiculous moment. I recovered first.

  “You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

  “You know I won’t.” She put her hand on her heart. “I swear on best friendship.”

  Then Mam’zelle Clemence’s voice brought us back to the here and now. She was rushing out of Oakley, heading towards the main building.

  “Katy! Good news. Mr. Cary is better so zee club can start after haff-terrrrm, yes?”

  “Oh yes, that’s great!” I agreed as she went by like a whirlwind.

  “Look!” said Naomi. “There’s Grace and the others. They look pretty full of something or other!”

  Typically it was Grace who got up to us first and she wasn’t even puffed. “I’ve just told Miss Carol the whole story,” she gabbled. “And she said she’d deal with Lydia herself and that we should just leave it alone now…”

  “Yes,” said Mia, rushing up, “and Miss Carol said that she’s really proud of Amethyst dorm, especially you, Katy.”

  “And she said we mustn’t be too hard on Lydia,” said Jess, “because she’s probably just been homesick, as it affects everyone in different ways and especially if you’re an only child!”

  “But she said she’d got a big family!” I spluttered.

  “And there’s more,” said Georgie, puffing her way up to us.
“Let me tell them this bit, guys.”

  The others kept quiet and waited.

  Georgie grinned round at us, loving being the centre of attention. “And Miss Carol just happened to mention that Lydia’s parents only live about thirty kilometres away!”

  “After all that about living in America!” added Mia.

  Naomi winked at me, then turned to Georgie. “Well we can top that…”

  And as we all walked back to the main building, we told the others what Emma had said.

  “Incredible!” said Jess, turning to Naomi. “So, okay, she didn’t do it on purpose, but it was actually Lydia’s fault that your secret was leaked!” Then Jess must have remembered why Naomi and I had been going to Oakley in the first place. “Did you find out about the fashion club, Katy?”

  “Yes and it’s…” But my phone had starting ringing so I pulled it out of my pocket, glanced at the screen, then pressed the green button ecstatically. “Mum!”

  I was only vaguely aware of the others laughing in the background because I was so tuned in to what Mum was saying.

  “Oh, Kates! It’s lovely to hear your voice. My phone was stolen – at least that’s what I thought, only it turned up in some grass where we’ve been filming an episode with a baseball match in it – and I’ve been going mad wondering what to do because filming has been so intensive, and then when one of the crew found my phone it was totally wonderful!”