by Ann Bryant
“We’ve done really well,” I said. “I just want to get this massive root out, and then we can call it a day.”
“But it’s a root. Why will you call it ‘a day’?” asked Antonia, her eyebrows knitted in confusion.
We all burst out laughing and as Nicole explained what the expression “call it a day” meant, I bent down and tugged like mad at the root that was sticking up. I pulled and pulled, but it seemed to be buried deep in the ground, and it was really annoying me. “Can someone help…?”
Bryony immediately picked up the spade and started digging all around the area where the root was stuck, while the others watched with interest and I kept pulling. Bit by bit she was releasing more and more of the root, and when it finally came out altogether, and I nearly fell over backwards, Nicole punched the air and said, “Yesss!” and the others all cheered.
“Teamwork!” I said, high-fiving Bryony.
We trooped back to Forest Ash feeling really dirty but happy, and on the way we had a lovely surprise, because the sun came out properly and for a moment there was a beautiful rainbow in the sky.
Antonia and Nicole rushed ahead to look at the spires on the main building and when we caught up, sure enough, they were sparkling bright, and I felt so happy to belong to such a lovely place as this school.
But a moment later my happiness came crashing down.
“Emily! My flat. Now!”
I turned to see a furious Mrs. Pridham right behind us. My heart seemed to stretch as she fixed me with an icy glare and then walked off, her footsteps stamping out an angry trail that led to Forest Ash.
“Oh, Ems!” whispered Sasha as the others stared at me with big eyes, except for Bryony, who frowned hard at the ground.
I bit my lip and followed Mrs. Pridham.
Chapter Nine
“I cannot believe that one of my girls from my boarding house is so naïve that she imagines she can skip lessons willy-nilly and no one will notice. Just because the teachers don’t treat you like infants and take a register after lunch, Emily, doesn’t mean that they aren’t fully aware of who is present and who is absent.”
Mrs. Pridham and I were sitting in upright chairs in a room in Mrs. Pridham’s flat that I’d never been in before, like a tiny office, and I felt stupid and ashamed. My friends had warned me I could get in trouble and they were so right.
“Mrs. Egerton came to see me just now. She’d noted your absence in her history lesson on Tuesday and told me that she knew there’d be a good reason. However she’d not been able to follow it up because she’d been on a course since then, so her first opportunity to mention it to me was this morning, and she just wanted to check you were all right.” Mrs. Pridham’s eyes flashed in a sort of scornful way and she spoke a bit more loudly, stressing some of the words more than normal. “Mr. Pattle heard us talking and mentioned that you’d missed geography on Monday, but that you’d explained your absence in his next lesson by saying you’d been stuck in the loo feeling sick.” The angry look Mrs. Pridham was giving me was really making me feel sick now. I felt myself shrivelling inside as she carried on. It was all the more shocking because the actual words she was saying weren’t horrible at all, it was just the way she was saying them. “At this point, another teacher chimed in, saying that she’d seen you racing along towards the language lab on Monday, and I’ve looked at the timetable, and this was when you were supposed to be suffering with a stomach ache! What is going on, Emily? What were you doing when you should have been in class?”
I hung my head and felt a lump in my throat. This was going to be the worst bit.
“I was…gardening…”
There was a moment’s silence, then Mrs. Pridham’s voice seemed to have grown weaker somehow. “Gardening?”
I nodded.
“You missed lessons because you were gardening?”
“Yes,” I managed miserably.
The crossness was right back in Mrs. Pridham’s voice and when I looked up I saw it in her eyes too. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing! Just because you’ve started a gardening club, it doesn’t mean you’re free to break rules and garden whenever you want, Emily.”
I sat very still, dreading what was to come.
“Well, you’ll have to go and see Mr. Pattle and Mrs. Egerton to apologize, and I expect they’ll both give you a detention…” She paused and pursed her lips, then took a breath, and I knew there was more to come. “But now, Emily, something else has come to my attention. It seems that you and Bryony have gone ahead and put up notices about a clothes sale to take place tomorrow, despite the fact that you know very well I hadn’t given permission for it. I can’t believe you’ve acted like this. And I think it’s clear that it’s not Bryony who is the ringleader.”
I swallowed. “Sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t good enough. I am incredibly disappointed in you, Emily. I find your behaviour underhand and…odious.”
I’d never heard the word “odious” before, but I knew it must be something really horrible and I could feel tears gathering behind my eyes. I hated myself for having acted so stupidly and for upsetting Mrs. Pridham so badly. Why couldn’t I have just waited for her to tell us it was all right to go ahead with the clothes sale? Why did I have to rush everything?
“Have you got anything to say for yourself, Emily?”
“I…”
“Yes?”
“No.”
Mrs. Pridham’s eyes were really boring into me, but then she suddenly leaned back in her chair and shook her head slowly. “Well, it looks as though you’ve learned your lesson, but this can’t go unpunished, Emily. As I said, you’ll go and see Mrs. Egerton and Mr. Pattle, and they’ll no doubt give you detentions. I’d like to stop the clothes sale altogether really, but that would be punishing others who’ve done nothing wrong, and I know there’s a lot of excitement about the sale. However, the money will go to a charity now. I’ll sort that out myself. But…” She paused and my heart did that stretching thing again. “If you can’t be responsible, then I’m afraid your punishment from me is no more gardening club. Is that clear?”
A tear that had formed in my left eye rolled down my cheek. And as I nodded, a few more fell down too.
“All right then, Emily. You can go now.”
It was horrible going up to the dorm and seeing Bryony and the others watching my face so carefully as I went through the door. They were all standing or sitting like statues and seemed to be raising their eyebrows, except for Sasha, who gave me a sad smile. Maybe she could see I’d been crying, even though I hadn’t shed a single tear since I’d left Mrs. Pridham’s flat.
“I’ve got to give up the gardening club,” I said, as I climbed the ladder up to my cabin bed and flopped back onto it.
A gasp went up from my friends and immediately they all clambered up the ladder and told me to move up a bit so there’d be enough room for us all.
“Truth talk,” said Antonia. “Truth talk, Emmy. We’ll help you find the answer.”
Then I did cry. Because there was no answer.
It rained and rained for the rest of the afternoon. Before supper, Bryony and I walked around Silver Spires in our wellies, with the hoods up on our coats. There wasn’t a soul in sight and we guessed everyone was probably in their boarding houses or maybe at Oakley at Juliet’s birthday party. As we walked past the main building, we actually came across Mr. Pattle getting into his car, and Bryony thought I ought to speak to him straight away to get it over with.
I was dreading what he’d say, but, as it happened, he wasn’t half as mad as I’d thought he’d be and just said he could tell I was sorry and that was the most important thing. So then we thought it might be a good idea to go and find Mrs. Egerton too, and in the end, after asking a few people, we tracked her down in the main library.
Things are often the complete opposite to what you’re expecting them to be, and this afternoon certainly turned out like that, because Mrs. Egerton was furious and gave me a detention
to do after school on Monday. She said she was very disappointed in me, and then she shook her head slowly as though she couldn’t think of another thing to say to such a terrible person.
That was the final horrible happening in a day of horrible happenings, and it was a doubly bad one, because I’d been so looking forward to seeing Stan on Monday, and now it looked as though I wouldn’t be able to.
On Sunday morning it was still pouring down, and by lunchtime I felt as though the whole world was against me. We’d kept checking the break-out room all morning, but not one single person had brought along any clothes or accessories or anything for our great sale, and I began to get neurotic and to wonder whether Juliet had been at work, persuading people not to come. Actually, I didn’t really care whether or not we sold any clothes any more, because there was no reason for this sale now that I’d lost my gardening club. Only it did still matter in a way. Just to make me feel as though something in my life was working.
So it was a nice surprise when, very gradually, people started to turn up, and belts and shoes and scarves and tops and even jewellery began to pour into the break-out room at Forest Ash. For a while, all six of us had to work really hard to sort everything out on the trestle tables. Miss Stevenson was helping us. She’d got big pieces of card and marker pens so we could price everything, and she said it would be best to keep it simple and not to sell anything for more than five pounds, and some things at only one pound or fifty pence. “You don’t want to be left with loads of stuff at the end, do you?” And she’d organized a float with plenty of change. Then gradually the clothes stopped arriving and, after a bit more sorting out, we were all ready for action, standing behind the tables like soldiers on guard.
But there wasn’t any action and a little while later, Antonia looked at her watch. “It’s past three o’clock and no one’s here.”
“They’re probably giving us time to get organized,” said Miss Stevenson. “Don’t worry, they’ll be here soon.”
And she was right, because quite a few older Forest Ash girls trooped in shortly afterwards, and looked through all the clothes and things. One of them bought a bracelet for fifty pence, but the others didn’t buy anything, which was disappointing. As they went out though, another handful of girls came in, and one of them spent ages deciding about a top. But in the end she didn’t buy it, and I felt my disappointment starting to weigh me down again.
“Do you know where everyone is?” Miss Stevenson asked the girls who were just going out.
“Er, I think lots of people have gone to Jet’s party,” came the reply.
“Party?” said Bryony. “I thought that was yesterday.”
“No, she decided to have it today in the end.”
I looked at Bryony and saw fury in her eyes. She was obviously thinking what I was thinking – that Juliet had deliberately done this to spite me.
“Well, we don’t all need to stay here with so few people around,” said Miss Stevenson brightly. “Why don’t we take turns to have breaks?”
So that’s what happened. Antonia and Nicole took the first break, and while they were away hardly anyone came to the sale. Even Mrs. Pridham and Matron had gone off duty, so the place felt completely empty. It was Sasha and Izzy and Miss Stevenson herself who took the next break.
“I’ll see if I can drum up a bit of custom. And perhaps the party will finish soon,” she said, smiling encouragingly at Bryony and me as she left. And I had a sudden memory of another Sunday ages ago when I’d only been about seven and I’d stood at the front gate of our farmhouse with ten bunches of asparagus that I’d bundled up in rubber bands myself. I had a little table and a box for the money and I thought that ten cars would all come neatly along the road together, and see the scrawly ASPARAGUS FOR SALE sign that I’d written, and each stop to buy a bunch. But I’d stood there all afternoon, with my big brother coming to check on me every five minutes, and only a handful of cars even passed by, because we live on such a quiet road, and not one of them stopped. I remember that I didn’t feel sad, just really confused, because I’d been so sure that what I’d imagined happening would actually happen.
Bryony and I were the last to take a break and the moment we were outside on our own I told her furiously that Jet made me sick. “I feel like going to Oakley and gatecrashing her party to tell her exactly what I think of her!”
Bryony put her arm round my shoulder for a moment and I felt her fingers gripping me tightly. “Poor Ems!” Then she let go and giggled. “You’d be like that nasty old fairy in the Sleeping Beauty story. You know – the one who goes stomping into the princess’s christening party.”
I imagined myself in a black cloak, swirling up to Juliet. “I’d like to get that five-tiered cake of hers and crown her with it, you know!” I snapped.
Bryony creased up with laughter and could hardly walk because she found that so funny. But I was already striding off towards Oakley. I didn’t really have any intention of going inside, because I knew I’d be the one to finish up looking a fool, not Juliet. But for some reason, I just wanted to see if there was any sign of the party. Knowing Jet, she’d probably invited the TV crew.
Once we got there, Bryony seemed uncomfortable. “Come on, Ems,” she said. “We’d better be getting back, just in case…” She stopped talking and stared ahead of her towards the back door of Oakley. “Actually, isn’t that Jet with a rubbish bag?”
I followed her gaze. Sure enough, Juliet was heading straight for the wheelie bins at the side of Oakley. Mel was following, also carrying a black bin liner.
“What do you think is in the bags?” I asked Bryony in a hiss, feeling a new layer of fury rising up inside me.
“Leftovers,” Bryony replied. “The party must be over. Good. Maybe people will come to our sale now.”
Then the next second, two more of Jet’s friends came spilling out of the building, laughing and chatting, making their way across to the wheelie bins. One of them spotted us and must have said something to Jet, because the next minute she called out to us.
“Hey, you two! How did the clothes sale go? Did you make enough money for the ‘worthy cause’?”
The sarcasm in her voice made the worst kind of prickles come out all over me and before I knew it, I’d marched right up to her.
“’Fraid you’re a bit late for the party, Emily,” she said mockingly.
I ignored that. “What’s in the bag?”
She seemed to flinch for a second as though I’d hit her or something, but then she recovered instantly and I noticed her eyes turn nasty. “Well, let’s take a look, shall we!” And with that she tipped the bin liner up so its contents spilled out all over the ground.
I looked with disgust at the mass of plastic beakers rolling and bobbing around, paper plates scattered amongst them.
“You weren’t even going to bother recycling those, were you?” I said through clenched teeth. “You couldn’t even be bothered to do that.”
She laughed then, only it wasn’t a proper laugh, more like a dry little snort. “Oh, just listen to her! Doesn’t she get on your nerves?” She turned to her friends and a few of them sniggered, but I didn’t think they sounded very comfortable. “You’re welcome to recycle the lot if you’re so keen,” Juliet went on, snatching the other bag off Mel and shaking it out dramatically. A mass of crumpled wrapping paper fell out amongst the cups and plates, before Juliet dropped the bin liners themselves and marched back inside. Her friends followed, but one or two of them looked back to where I was standing like a statue in the middle of the mess, and I noticed no one was laughing any more.
The moment the Oakley back door shut, I bent down and began stuffing the plates and wrapping paper into one bin liner, and the beakers into another, feeling my fingers getting sticky with dark chocolate icing and cake crumbs and pale globs of filling, and sweet fizzy drops of something that smelled of mint. It flashed through my mind that the paper plates might be okay to be torn up and used in the wormery, but then I remembered
with a stab of sadness that of course we weren’t getting a wormery any more.
“You ought to go back to Forest Ash,” I said to Bryony when she tried to help me. “This won’t take me a minute, honestly.” I was determined not to appear anything except completely calm and matter-of-fact, just in case anyone was watching from a window, waiting to taunt me if I showed even a shred of self-pity.
“It’s okay. I’ll help you,” Bryony said firmly.
But I wanted at least one of us to get back to the sale. “I’m fine, honestly. You go and explain to the others.”
Bryony frowned, but I could tell she knew I wanted to be left alone. “Okay,” she said, simply.
“I’ll be there just as soon as I’ve done this.”
So off she went and I carried on working, but it was taking me longer than I’d thought, because there was quite a bit of wind and the plastic cups kept rolling off. As I chased after one of them, I suddenly realized that someone had stopped it with their foot. I looked up to see one of the cameramen – the same one who I’d crashed into in the dining hall that time.
“Oh dear, had a bit of a spill?” he asked, sounding concerned. “Hang on a sec. Let me put this down and I’ll give you a hand.”
“It’s all right, I’ve done most of it.”
“Well, if you’re sure.”
I didn’t say anything, and he kept filming.
“Someone had a party?”
“Uh-huh.” I didn’t feel like talking.
“Oh, right. And what are you doing with the rubbish?”
“Taking it to be recycled…” But then I realized I ought to clean all the globs of filling and icing off the plates first. “…When I’ve cleaned the plates.”
I was stuffing the last few plates and cups into the bin liners when the man said, “So how come you’re the only one doing the work?”
I shrugged and just said, “Dunno,” but then I felt as though I was being a bit rude, so I tried to add a bit more, only it came out all stumbly and stupid. “I think it’s…quite important…you know…to recycle stuff.”
