Zodiac Girls: Brat Princess

by Cathy Hopkins

  “So, I’ll leave you to it,” said Selene. “You can make up your bed and then the others will be back soon from their hike and you can meet them after their supper.”

  I still couldn’t speak. I pinched myself. Surely I’d fallen asleep on the plane and was having a nightmare? This couldn’t be happening for real. I was Leonora Hedley-Dent. Daughter of Alex and Clara Hedley-Dent. We were loaded. We stayed in the kind of places that most people dreamt about. Places that featured in the top posh mega luxury seven-star locations on the planet. Not dingy dives in Loserville like this dump. So Mum and Dad didn’t like me. So what? I still always got my own way. I did. I diiiiiiid. Did. Did. Did. Did. Surely Mum and Dad couldn’t hate me this much? I bent over, pulled at the bedding on the bed nearest and yanked it off.

  “Er… Marilyn’s not going to like that,” said Selene.

  “Never mind MariLYN. Who’s she anyway? Actually, don’t answer. I don’t care. I’ve met enough deadbeat losers for one day. And you know what? LeoNORA doesn’t LIKE IT!” I shouted, then proceeded to pull the covers off all the beds, shoved them on the floor, then stomped on them. Selene didn’t attempt to stop me. In fact, she didn’t seem bothered at all. She just waited until I’d stripped every bed bare then said, “Okay. Feel better now?”

  “No I DON’T!” I yelled and made my way down to my bed, lay face down and thrashed away with my arms and legs.

  As I wailed into the mattress, I heard the door open and close.

  “Ah, a new girl,” said a female voice.

  “Yeah, and see what the stupid pillock has done to my bed,” said a second voice in a Cockney accent.

  Pillock, I thought. Did someone just call ME a pillock? I stopped mid wail and tilted my head so I could see who had come in. Two girls were standing at the other end of the room staring at me. Both were medium height, one with dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair and glasses, the other with long blonde hair and a wide mouth. Older than me, I decided. Maybe seventeen? The blonde one was wearing a sleeveless T-shirt even though it was cold in the room and she had a tattoo on her upper right arm. Tattoos are so has-been rock star, I thought, but I suppose she thinks that it makes her look hard.

  “Right, introductions,” said Selene cheerfully. She really is deranged, I thought. Like I’d ever want to meet these two? “Now. This is Marilyn Brocklehurst and Lynn Bailey. Girls meet Leonora Hedley-Dent.”

  The dark-haired girl called Marilyn scowled at me. “’edley Bent is it? Oi, you, posh girl. You responsible for messing up my bed?”

  Her friend sniggered and watched to see what I was going to do. I turned away.

  “Oi, ’edley Bent,” repeated Marilyn. “I wanna lie down.”

  I decided I was going to show them that they didn’t intimidate me, so I sat up and looked over at them. “Then get one of the staff to do it,” I said.

  Lynn snorted with laughter and I saw Selene slink away and close the door behind her. Oh God, I thought. She’s left me alone with them. Marilyn fixed her eyes on me, clenched her fists and approached. I took a sharp intake of breath and braced myself for a thumping. However, just as Marilyn got near, she slumped down on the bed next to mine.

  “What you in for then?” she asked.

  I felt torn. Part of me didn’t want to talk to anyone. Another part wanted to know what was going on. Where I was. What the programme was all about. That part won. “Nothing. It’s all been a huge mistake. I’ll be out of here in the morning.”

  Both girls burst out laughing like I’d said the funniest thing ever, and Lynn came to sit next to Marilyn. “That’s what we said too, when we got here,” she said. “All a big mistake.”

  “Okay. So what you in for then?” I asked.

  Marilyn narrowed her eyes and jutted her chin forward, “Murder. Din’t like one of my teachers so I duffed ’im over one night down a back alley.”

  I cracked up laughing. “Yeah, right. Pull the other one. Do I look as if I was born yesterday?”

  Marilyn looked put out. “Yeah, you do actually. And you’ll gerrit too, if you don’t watch it.”

  I laughed again, which I could see annoyed Marilyn even more, but I was sure that she was just trying to scare me and I was determined to show that I wasn’t frightened in the least. “So what you really in for?”

  “None of your business. You ask too many questions,” said Marilyn, who got up and slouched away.

  “So what about you?” I asked Lynn.

  “And what about you?” Marilyn mimicked in a posh voice from behind her. I ignored her.

  “Yeah. Me too. Er… Murder,” said Lynn.

  I rolled my eyes. “Can’t you think up your own dumb answer,” I said.

  “Okay, yeah. I’m in for drink.”

  “Drink?”

  “Yeah. Cider. Baileys. Crème de menthe. I like to drink. Christmas liqueurs are my favourite but… I’m warning you, they have a funny effect sometimes. I don’t know what I’m doing. They send me a bit…” she made a circle near her temple with her finger and made her eyes cross, “...demented. People say it’s chemical like, but, whatever.”

  Behind her Marilyn chuckled.

  “Yeah. Course,” I said wearily as if I’d heard it all a million times. “Chemical. Whatever.”

  Marilyn began mimicking the way I spoke again. “Yeah. Course. Chemicaaaal,” she said in her infuriating version of a posh accent.

  “I do not speak like the queen,” I said.

  “Ay do not spake like the queen,” she repeated.

  I got up off the bed and moved away. Already I wished that I’d kept my zodiac phone. Okay, so I could only reach Mr O, but even he was better than these two psychos. Although I could tell that they weren’t murderers and were putting on the hard act, I wasn’t sure what the real story was and until I was, I thought it was best not to push them too far, especially as there were two of them against me.

  “Yeah you do speak stuck-up,” said Lynn. “Just remember, when we don’t like someone, we do away with them so you’d better watch yer back, Smedley Pent.”

  I turned back to them. “Hedley-Dent,” I said. “If you’re going to say my name, say it correctly. And you don’t scare me. So kill me. See if I care.”

  Marilyn raised an eyebrow, came back up the aisle and put her face very close to mine, not unlike the way Mario had before when I said I wouldn’t take off my jewellery. Up close, she smelt of peppermints. This time, I didn’t close my eyes and I made myself stare back at her. For a moment, my chest tightened as I thought she really was going to thump me this time, but she didn’t.

  “Later,” she said then walked back up to the other end of the room.

  Later what? Is she going to kill me in my sleep? I wondered as the door opened and two boys came in. One was dark, tall and lanky with round shoulders and a pinched expression on his face. The other, short one had red hair tied back in a ponytail and a friendly face. They surveyed the mess on the floor then looked accusingly at me. I did a half lip snarl back at them to show them that I was tough and not to be messed with.

  “You’re not telling me that we share with boys?” I asked.

  Lynn shook her head. “No, they’re in the dorm next door, thank God. Mark and Jake. Meet our new princess.”

  I gave them a royal wave to let them know that I wasn’t intimidated by them either. The dark one shrugged and turned away while the red-haired one knelt on the floor and starting howling like a dog.

  “Cut it out, Jake,” said Marilyn. “No need to keep up the act in ’ere when it’s just us.”

  This nightmare just gets worse and worse, I thought as I glanced over at Lynn and hoped for an explanation.

  “Jake’s playing the nutter card,” she said.

  “Nutter card?”

  ‘Yeah, he’s hoping that by acting insane, he might be sent home.”

  Good idea, Jake, I thought. I should have thought of that. I looked over at Mark, who had gone over to the window and was staring out into the black night.

>   “And Mark has taken a vow of silence,” said Lynn. “Hasn’t spoken for over a week now.”

  “A week! You guys have been here a week!”

  Lynn nodded.

  By the window, Mark had pulled a little notebook out of his pocket and was writing something. When he’d finished, he came over and held up the paper in front of me.

  Keep out of my way and I’ll keep out of yours. If not, you’re dead.

  “Oh, how sweet, another threat on my life,” I gushed. “And sooooo nice to meet you too… loser.” I stuck my tongue out at him. He scowled at me and went back to the window.

  Selene popped her head round the door. “Lights out in five. Boys, back to your dorm,” she said then disappeared again.

  “But I haven’t eaten anything and I’m HUNGRY,” I yelled after her.

  Selene’s hand appeared around the door and dumped a paper bag onto the floor. It was the bag that contained the apple and the sandwich that she’d given me earlier.

  “No WAAAAAAAAAAAAY,” I yelled. “What part of NOOOOOO WAAAAY don’t you understand?”

  Mark, Jake, Lynn and Marilyn all seemed highly amused when the same arm appeared around the door, a little lower this time and took the bag back.

  “Nollucks,” said Marilyn. “I would ’ave ’ad that.”

  The boys left the dorm and, two minutes later, the lights did go out.

  I sat in the dark for a moment and could hear Lynn and Marilyn getting into their beds.

  “Er, girls…” I said. “Er… has anyone said anything about you being Zodiac Girls or anything about planets being here in physical form...?” I trailed off because it sounded insane.

  “No. Why?” replied Lynn. “What you on about? You’re mad you are.”

  “Oh nothing. Forget it,” I said. Maybe the planet nonsense is a special kind of torture they’re saving just for me, I thought as I groped my way to the bottom of the bed, grabbed the duvet and snuggled under it. I kept the horrible clothes on because I was freezing.

  As I lay there and stared into the dark room, my mind played over the past couple of hours. It had been unreal. All that baloney about me being a Zodiac Girl? What was that about? I thought as my stomach growled. Mr O had kept saying that it was a rare honour. Honestly! A rare honour to be put through this mortification and no supper either? If this is a rare honour, Mr O could shove it where the sun don’t shine. This has to be the second-worst day of my whole life.

  I closed my eyes and tried to shut out the nightmare scenario. I was starving hungry and I’d never felt so lonely. I was also beginning to get the feeling that there wasn’t going to be any room service bringing my chips and chocolate.

  Chapter Seven

  Wakeup call

  “Tan tah tat ta TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.”

  It seemed as if I had only just closed my eyes when a disgusting noise blasted into the room. Like someone was playing a very LOUD trumpet a quarter of an inch away from my right ear. I came to with a jolt. I wasn’t sure where I was. For one gorgeous second, I’d imagined that I was back in my room in St Kitts. Coco curled up on the end of my bed. Staff on hand outside to carry out my every whim. But no. It was dark in the room and I felt confused. It didn’t smell like home. It smelt like… boiled onions and bleach with a trace of peppermint.

  A light came on. An overhead very bright light. And all illusions were shattered as the previous day came back to me. I was in hell with a bunch of losers and our captors were psychos who thought that they were living embodiments of the planets.

  “OhmigoooooooooOOOOOOOOOD,” I groaned. “This caaaaaaaan’t be haaaaappeniiiiiiiing.”

  “It can and it is, so zip it, posh girl,” said Marilyn as she blinked sleepily in the next bed. “It’s bad enough ’ere without you whining on.”

  Next to her, Lynn moaned. “I haaaate mornings,” she said.

  Marilyn stumbled out of bed with a scowl on her face. I looked at my watch and saw that it was five-thirty in the morning. I’d never in my life been up at that time in the morning! I snuggled further down into the bed. They’d have to drag me out if they wanted to get me up. For one thing, it was so cold in the room that I could see my own breath and, for another, now that I’d slept a bit, I felt my fighting spirit return and I had to plan out my course of action.

  My fellow inmates fell out of their beds and out the door, which surprised me as neither of them had seemed like a pussycat the night before.

  “Where are you going?” I called to Lynn.

  “Bathroom then breakfast then chores.”

  “Hmm. Sounds like a fun day. NOOOOOOT. So. To get up and join you or not to get up? Hmm. What a difficult decision. Er… switch the light out when you go, Lynn, and ask one of the psychos to bring me a cup of tea in a couple of hours.”

  Lynn curtsied. “Why sure, Your Royal Highness,” she said, “and I’ll ask them to turn up the heating too should I?”

  “Oh yeah. Would you? I’m amazed that we didn’t all die of hypothermia in the night.”

  I turned over and, when she didn’t turn off the light, I pulled the duvet further over my head. As I did, I noticed a note written on bright yellow paper flutter onto the floor. I picked it up and glanced at it.

  Mars is in Capricorn at the moment and Saturn in Aquarius (that’s Mario and Dr Cronus in case you weren’t listening yesterday, Leonora). The day will start with an intense confrontation which you could learn from. Back down if you have any sense. And the Moon may bring up some painful memories. Remember what you resist, persists. Bye for now, kiss kiss, your guardian, Mr O (a.k.a. the Sun).

  “The confrontation starts with you, saddo,” I said as I ripped it up into little pieces. “And I’m not backing down.”

  A few minutes later, I heard footsteps and someone yanked the covers off. It was Mario. He was standing at the end of the bed, legs astride, hands on hips.

  “Hey! Do you mind?” I said as I grabbed for the top of the duvet and tried to pull it back over me. “It’s like a fridge in here.”

  Mario looked at his watch. “You got ten seconds, lady.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” I said as I lay back down and turned away.

  “Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… better get up, missy… four…”

  “Or else what?”

  “No breakfast.”

  “Oo, so bite me,” I said, but actually I felt torn because I was hungry. On the other hand, I didn’t want to give in too easily.

  “Three… two…”

  I leapt up. “Okay, okay. Keep your hair on.”

  “Keep your hair on, sir. You will address me as ‘sir’ from now on.”

  “You have to be kidding. I have never called anyone ‘sir’ in my life and I’m not about to start now.”

  “I’m sure there’ll be a lot of things you’ve never experienced before gonna happen here. Getting up at five-thirty for a start.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Sir. So what happened to Brother Sun, Sister Moon and all that rubbish?”

  “That’s for the others. I prefer you call me ‘sir’.”

  “Oh, get a life, soldier boy. Now, tell me where to go for brekkie?”

  A flash of annoyance crossed Mario’s face and I saw him bite his cheek as if biting back what he’d really like to say. “I’ll tell you where to go, but first you give me some respect, girl.”

  I did a jerky dance around the bed the way that I’d seen the cool rappers do on TV, then I put my forefinger and middle finger together and pointed at the floor, “Okay, my man, get down, get cool. Yo. Respect,” I said in my best street-rapper accent.

  Mario wasn’t impressed. Or amused.

  “You know who I am, girl?”

  I nodded and did a mock salute. “The planet Mars. Here on Earth. In physical form, SIR!” And then I couldn’t help but snigger. I mean, how utterly absurd! If Tigsy was here, we’d both be on the floor laughing our heads off.

  Mario scowled. “According to your birth chart, I am here to teach you some respect fo
r others Miss Hedley-Dent.”

  I began to do my rapper dance around him again. “Yo, get down…”

  “Right, that’s it,” he said. “No breakfast.”

  I straightened up and stuck my bottom lip out. “Am I bothered?”

  “You will be.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “And that just earned you… no lunch either.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him again.

  He turned to go and pointed at the door. “You’ll learn. Bathroom out to the right.”

  After he’d left the room, I ran to the window to see if I could see where I was, but it was still dark outside.

  I was bursting to go to the loo, so I went in search of the bathroom. I didn’t have far to go as I could hear the sound of water. And screaming.

  “What’s going on?” I asked when I opened a door and saw Marilyn by the sink.

  She jutted her chin towards a door. “Shower. Cold. Lynn lost her ’ot shower privilege yesterday for giving cheek.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You have to earn hot water?”

  “You said it, princess.”

  “But that’s inhumane.”

  “Innit? But try telling that to Mario,” she replied.

  Enough, I thought. I don’t care that it’s still dark outside. It will be light soon enough. I quickly used the loo, ran back to the dorm, put on my boot-camp trainers, grabbed the duvet and wrapped it around myself. It would help keep me warm when I was outside because I was leaving and no-one was going to stop me.