by Ann Bryant
He didn’t answer, but I noticed the camera never left me as I walked off with the bin liners banging against my legs. They weren’t at all heavy, just awkward.
Five minutes later I walked into Forest Ash and got a shock, because the reception hall was teeming with people. Still lugging my bin liners, I wove a path through the middle of everyone and zoomed upstairs to the kitchen. I’d have to clean the plates up later. I just dumped the bags quickly, then went back down and along the corridor to the break-out room, where I found even more people. A quick glance at the tables told me that masses of stuff had been sold and all my friends were hard at work taking money and giving change.
“Wow! This is good!” I said, as I slotted in between Bryony and Sasha. “Where has everyone suddenly appeared from?”
Bryony grinned at me. “Jet’s party, I guess!”
After that we stopped talking because there was too much work to do, and about twenty minutes later we’d sold everything except two tops and a bracelet, and although we hadn’t counted the money, it looked like we’d made loads.
“Well done, girls!” said Miss Stevenson. “Mrs. Pridham will be proud of you.”
I wasn’t so sure that Mrs. Pridham would be proud of me personally, but at least she might be a little less cross with me now.
Chapter Ten
I’d decided to go and look for Stan at lunchtime on Monday, because of not being able to see him after school as I had to do detention. So the moment I finished my lunch I rushed straight over to the back of the kitchens, and as I drew near I heard the sound of an electric hedge-cutter, and felt so happy and relieved that he must be there, working in Ms. Carmichael’s garden.
I hurried through the gate and across the old vegetable garden towards the gap in the hedge, but then I froze because the hedge-cutter had stopped and I could hear voices. It was impossible to tell what was being said, but one thing was for sure – the two people talking were Stan and Ms. Carmichael. I wasn’t supposed to be round here any more now my gardening club had been taken away from me, and the last thing I wanted was to get into even more trouble. So I sneaked off, feeling more miserable than ever. What if Stan went to the garden to look for me after school and I wasn’t there? He’d think I’d forgotten about him.
As fast as my legs would take me, I rushed off to find Bryony to ask her if she could go and explain to Stan after school about the stupid detention keeping me away, and find out if he’d be there the next day.
But Bryony was supposed to be going to another meeting about the Outward Bound course after classes and she’d forgotten to complete the form she had to fill in. She was planning to rush back to Forest Ash to get it, which would already be making her a bit late. She said she’d go as fast as she could, but she wasn’t certain she’d have time to go to the garden. I could have asked one of the others, but they’re not as brave and daring as Bryony and they might have felt as though they were trespassing after we’d been told that the gardening club was no more. I didn’t want them to feel bad about saying no to me, so I just kept quiet and crossed my fingers like mad that Bryony might manage to fit it in after all.
It was so depressing going along to the library to do detention for Mrs. Egerton. I had to sit at the detention table, which was really embarrassing, because quite a few girls stared at me as if to say, I wonder what she’s done. One of the Year Eleven students was supervising and Mrs. Egerton had given her the work that I was supposed to do, which was copying out all that I’d missed in the lesson plus three other paragraphs about democracy.
At first it was impossible to concentrate, because my mind kept on picturing Stan appearing from the gap in the hedge and looking round for me and not finding me there. It broke my heart that he might think I’d forgotten. I don’t know how I managed to copy out any of the stupid history – I just felt useless and utterly helpless.
Every so often the Year Eleven girl came over to my table to check that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, and once or twice her friends came in and they had a quick chat in whispers. Maybe they were just trying to make it less boring for her. I had to admit it seemed rather unfair that a student had to stay behind to supervise my detention – almost as bad as doing the detention yourself.
But then someone else came to talk to her, and this time I could tell it wasn’t just a friend. A girl was giving her a message that was something to do with me, because they both looked in my direction, and I got a bad feeling about the grave expressions they were wearing.
The girl supervising came over and bobbed down beside me. “You’ve got to go and see Ms. Carmichael.”
I gulped.
“Just give me your work. It doesn’t matter that it’s not finished. I’ll explain to Mrs. Egerton.”
I stood up on shaky legs and felt the colour draining from my face.
“Do you know where to go?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“You go to the main building and knock on the door marked School Office. Ms. Carmichael’s private secretary will show you from there.”
As I walked out of the library and along the corridor to go outside, I felt sick. Ms. Carmichael must have somehow seen me in the garden at lunchtime through the hedge. What if she expelled me? What would Mum and Dad say? If only, if only, if only I could rewind the whole week and start all over again.
My footsteps in the hall of the main building sounded so loud and so did my knock on the door of the office.
“I’ve come to see Ms. Carmichael,” I said in a thin wobbly voice when someone opened the door.
“Ah, yes. Follow me, please.” She wasn’t smiling. “Are you the girl Ms. Carmichael’s expecting?”
“Yes,” I managed to croak.
“So you are…?”
“Emily Dowd.”
We went down a corridor I’d never been down before and she tapped lightly on a door which said Ms. Carmichael, Headmistress. Then she leaned her head against the door as though she had to strain to hear the reply.
“Right, in you go,” she said a moment later. Then she pushed open the door and said, “Emily Dowd to see you, Ms. Carmichael.”
“Come in please, Emily.”
I don’t know how my shaky legs managed to follow that simple instruction and I kept my eyes on Ms. Carmichael’s face right up until she told me to sit down at the other side of her table. I was searching for clues about just how cross she was, but I couldn’t tell at all.
“Now, Emily…” She paused and I felt my heart turn over, because it was as though she couldn’t think what on earth to say to someone who’d done as many bad things as I had. “Miss Gerard came to see me today. I understand you approached her about the school changing its catering policy?”
Her eyes were like magnets. I tried to look away but I couldn’t, so I nodded dumbly and felt my cheeks draining of colour as I prayed that she’d get straight to the telling-off, so then I could find out if I’d been expelled or not.
“And Miss Gerard told you that the school had no plans for such a change?”
She was getting nearer. In fact I could even hear the next words coming: And yet you still went ahead and made gardening an excuse for missing lessons…
I didn’t even nod this time, just waited for the worst.
“Well, I’ve seen what you’ve done in the old kitchen garden…”
I swallowed. “Sorry.”
“…And I must say I’m quite impressed. It was Stan who first told me about your interest in the garden, and as Miss Gerard and the governors and I had been only recently in discussion about what to do with the land, it seemed like quite a coincidence that one of the students was showing such an interest.”
Ms. Carmichael was talking away and I felt numb. I didn’t get what she was saying. Why hadn’t she got round to the part where I got expelled?
“I’ve been keeping an eye on the footage from the production company’s filming, and that prompted me to talk to Mrs. Pridham…”
Did she mean t
he filming of me gardening?
“I know you’ve been in trouble recently, Emily, but Mrs. Pridham is convinced that it’s all because you’re so passionate about gardening and wanting to help the environment. Would that be a fair comment?”
I couldn’t take everything in. I didn’t know what to say. My mind was spinning.
Would it be a fair comment? What had Mrs. Pridham said? That I’m passionate about gardening and wanting to help the environment. Somehow I managed to latch on to that bit and hold it in my mind. Yes, yes I was passionate. Still I didn’t trust myself to speak though, so I just nodded.
“Don’t look so worried, Emily. I’m not a monster.” She broke into a smile. “Just try and tell me what you think. Miss Gerard said you were very sure of yourself. She was really bowled over by the way you expressed your feelings, but you caught her at a time when she was very busy with other things. Miss Gerard is a very thorough person, however, and later that day she went back over what you’d said, in her mind, and really saw the potential in it. She told me she truly thinks that with a strong committee of students and teachers dedicated to the cause, we can change things around and go back to buying in much less fresh produce and growing much more of it ourselves.”
I was totally amazed. I couldn’t believe my ears. But I had to be quite sure…
“So you’re…not exactly…telling me off?” I managed to stutter.
She laughed then. “I’m not telling you off at all, Emily. I’m just checking that you still feel as strongly as you did when you spoke to Miss Gerard…”
It was as though someone had taken a gag off my mouth and I could breathe and I could speak and I was free. “I’ll never ever change how I feel, Ms. Carmichael,” I said in a voice that sounded suddenly a bit too loud for the room. “All I care about is nature and the cycle of the seasons and the earth and the way we live. The secret is keeping in tune with nature.”
Ms. Carmichael nodded and blinked several times. It reminded me of how I’d done exactly the same thing after I’d seen Mrs. Pridham, only that was because I’d been trying to stop more tears from spilling out.
“Yes…yes, that’s right,” she said quietly. “Now, I’ve spoken to Tony and also to Stan, and the good news is that Stan is happy to head up the gardening team and to be in charge of the project. I know from what I’ve seen that you’re a hard worker, Emily, and hopefully you’ll get lots of help if you restart your gardening club…” She paused and did a few more blinks, then her voice turned brisker. “But of course we’ve got the holidays to consider, not to mention lessons, so it’ll be ideal to have Stan overseeing the plot.”
I felt like giving Ms. Carmichael a big hug, because the words she’d just said were the best words I thought I’d ever, ever heard. But for some unknown reason, even though I was so happy, I actually found myself crying, and then Ms. Carmichael came round to me and patted my shoulder.
“I hope these are tears of happiness?” she said.
And I couldn’t even speak for crying but I managed to nod, and she went back round to her own side of the table and spoke into her phone to ask her secretary for two cups of tea. I felt my brain split into three parts then. One part wanted to drink the tea and talk some more about the wonderful new project that was going to happen, one part wanted to run all the way back to Forest Ash and tell Bryony and the others what had happened, and the last part wanted to dance on Ms. Carmichael’s table and to scream out, “I did it!”
A few days later it was announced that the production company were going to film one final special assembly before they left. I couldn’t help feeling a bit sad. It was just the thought that it was the end of their time with us, and I don’t like endings. I prefer things to keep turning round and round in cycles.
As we all filed into the hall, the first thing we noticed was that it looked extra bright with the lights that the film crew had erected. Apart from that, nothing seemed different, because we were so used to seeing cameras around now that we didn’t really take much notice of them.
I thought about what a lot had happened since that other special assembly when Ms. Carmichael had made her announcement about the film crew coming to Silver Spires. It seemed such a long time ago. My friends all said it was amazing that I’d been through so much in such a short time. And I was still in shock about the way everything had turned out.
After my meeting with Ms. Carmichael, I’d called a truth talk in the dorm and we’d all piled onto my bed, where I’d told the whole story of my happy ending in big detail. I love thinking back to how my friends had kept gasping, then breaking into cheers and bursting into applause, and Bryony had seemed like the proudest of them all. I’d been really touched, because it turned out she’d even made herself late for her meeting by going to see Stan after all, and giving him my message.
Then the next day I’d raced over to the garden and found him waiting for me, wearing the biggest grin ever. He’d said straight away how pleased he was that he’d got a proper project to get his teeth into, especially as now he didn’t have to leave Silver Spires after all, which he’d been dreading after such a long time working here. We’d sat down on the little wall just inside the hedge and talked and talked about all the things we planned on growing in the garden and how we were going to try getting lots of other girls interested in the club.
And thinking about that now, coming into the hall, made tears prick the backs of my eyes again. But then I got a shock, because sitting next to Miss Gerard, in a suit and tie and shiny shoes, was Stan himself. He must have been looking out for me, because our eyes met and he gave me a massive smile. And straight after that I got another shock, because right beside him was Emily Peters. She actually stood up and gave me a little wave when she saw me, which made me feel so happy.
When everyone was seated, Ms. Carmichael began to talk. “It hardly seems a minute since we were all gathered in here for me to tell you the important news about the film crew, and now they’re about to leave us. But before they go we’re in for a treat, because we’re actually going to see an extract or two from the footage right now!”
There was a big wave of gasps and a few “Oh no”s spoken in cringing voices, and one big “Yes!”
That was Juliet, and because her voice had stood out, quite a few people turned to look at her, including me, and I noticed she went a bit red. Personally, I was thinking it might be quite interesting to see some bits of film, as long as there wasn’t any of me, which there wouldn’t be, as I’d hardly been filmed at all.
“So now I’m going to hand over to Mark from the crew,” went on Ms. Carmichael. She started off the clapping as the man called Mark went up to the platform at the front, and I saw that he was the same cameraman who’d been there that awful time when I’d been scooping up the cups and plates from Juliet’s party.
“Thank you, everyone,” Mark began. “It should be me clapping you lot, because you’ve done well to put up with cameras popping up all over the place for the last couple of weeks. As you know, we’re doing a programme about your school – its past, its present and its future – and we’ve certainly found it tremendously interesting here at Silver Spires. As soon as we know the date that the programme will be aired I’ll let Ms. Carmichael know, but it won’t be in the next couple of months.” A big groan of disappointment went round the hall when he said that and then we all laughed at ourselves, which made Mark laugh too.
“We don’t normally give anyone sneak previews of what we’ve filmed, but the reason we’re making an exception today is because Ms. Carmichael specially requested it, so I’m handing back to you, Ms. Carmichael.”
Mark left the platform and Ms. Carmichael went back to the centre. “I wanted to show you, girls,” she began in a serious voice, “how if you really believe in something from the bottom of your heart and you feel strongly enough about it to want to do something, you can make a difference. Each and every one of you can. And we have someone here at Silver Spires who has done just that. One of our yo
ungest students has helped convince the staff and myself that it’s time we went back to a greener way of life.” My heart lurched and I found myself blushing and wishing Ms. Carmichael would stop now. But she was carrying on and it was only bearable because Bryony had reached for my hand and was holding it tight. “Now you might think there’s a lot of loose talk about being green. And so there is, which is why Miss Gerard, our domestic bursar, didn’t pay much attention to this student at first. But actually putting that talk into action is a different matter. Now at this point, I’d like to introduce Emily Peters, who came to Silver Spires fifty years ago as a student.”
Everyone clapped politely as Emily walked briskly onto the stage.
“I’m not going to say very much at all, girls, because I know you want to get on with watching the film extracts. But let me tell you this. The girl on the film has impressed me more than any other girl I know, past or present. And it makes my heart sing to think that this school might once again return to its old values.”
Emily nodded firmly and Stan began a new wave of clapping as she went back to her seat beside him.
Ms. Carmichael stood up again. “You’ve all heard the saying ‘actions speak louder than words’. Well, now we’re going to see an example of that.” Then she nodded at Mark and moved to one side as an enlargement of Stan’s old photo of his tall green garden was projected onto the wall at the front. After a few seconds it was gone, and in its place was the garden as it looks now.
I heard a few gasps and then there was silence and the camera angle slowly moved, and the next gasp came out of my mouth, because there was me, digging the soil. I thought I’d be embarrassed to see myself, and I don’t know whether it was because of the stillness in the hall, but it seemed as though everyone was taking it seriously, which was a big relief. I felt Bryony’s fingers squeezing my own tight as I watched myself working away.
Suddenly the shot changed to one of me bending down and scooping up those paper plates and plastic cups. Then we heard Mark’s voice on the film.
