Rivalry at Silver Spires

by Ann Bryant

  I nodded but couldn’t reply because she was rattling away again, and I noticed that Georgie and Katy were wide awake and tuning in too. “Anyway, this is the best bit, because Georgie went to the loo during prep and she actually heard Miss Carol and Mrs. Ansell talking, so she stayed out of sight round the corner and listened in!”

  “Let me tell her this bit!” said Georgie, who looked as though she was bursting.

  Jess’s eyes gleamed. “Go on, then. Quick! I can’t wait for Grace to hear this!”

  “Drum roll!” said Georgie. She grinned at me.

  The excitement in the dorm was infectious. I couldn’t wait to hear what was coming.

  “We-ell…” Georgie went on slowly and dramatically, emphasizing all the names, “Mrs. Ansell told Miss Carol that Mrs. Mellor had been to see her about Hannah’s swimsuit, because Mrs. Mellor found it!”

  “Where?” I gasped.

  Georgie looked over-the-top mysterious and I knew she was loving spinning out the tale, but I was wishing she’d get on with it now. “In Felissia’s hands!”

  “What?”

  “Apparently Mrs. Mellor was in that little storeroom at the other end of the pool and she happened to see Felissia come creeping into the pool, fully dressed and carrying something black, so she watched and she saw Felissia furtively make for the spectators’ area and put the black thing down in the furthest corner under a seat. Then, fast as anything, Felissia rushed out of the pool area and out of the whole building. So then Mrs. Mellor went straight over and found that the black thing was a swimsuit, and she asked around and discovered that Hannah had lost her swimsuit, so she went to see Mrs. Ansell, and then Mrs. Ansell went to see Miss Walton and hey presto! Felissia’s nicked!”

  I gasped, then sighed. “That’s good – for Hannah – but I still wish there was a way of proving I didn’t just make up the chat-room stuff.”

  “Aha! There is!” said Jess, giving me a tight hug. “You see, Bibi told us that Evie was really quiet at swimming squad, and she admitted to Bibi that she was one of the people online when Felissia wrote that you were a disgrace and that you’d never be able to prove it was her saying stuff about you. And Evie knows Felissia’s username. She said she’d wanted to tell a teacher but she was too scared of what might happen if Felissia found out it was her. But Bibi persuaded Evie to tell Mrs. Mellor and Mrs. Mellor promised not to mention any names when she reported it to Miss Carol and Miss Walton.”

  I took a deep breath and let it out. “The truth. At last.”

  The others were all nodding vigorously.

  “And the most important thing,” said Katy with a twinkle in her eye, “is that Felissia’s not allowed to swim in the gala! Which means Hazeldean are in with a much better chance!”

  It was as though the muddled mess that was my life yesterday had been completely untangled and straightened out, and my world sparkled with happiness and relief. In fact, for the first time ever, I found myself actually looking forward to the gala.

  Chapter Ten

  The adrenaline pumped round my body as I walked with the rest of the competitors from the changing room into the pool arena. A wall of noise hit us from the spectators’ area. All the girls from Years Seven, Eight and Nine who weren’t swimming in the gala sat squashed up on the tiered benches, their excited chatter ringing round the pool and zinging off the walls. Even the teachers and house staff in the second row looked excited. The Year Eight and Nine competitors went to sit in the front row of the spectators’ area with their towels around them, while we Year Seven competitors filed neatly into the rows of plastic chairs which had been put along each side of the pool. As soon as I was sitting down, I looked over to try and spot Jess and the others. It wasn’t hard. They were jumping up and down, giving me big two-armed waves. My glance skimmed over the rest of the Year Sevens and I saw Felissia, shoulders hunched and looking sulky, a couple of rows in front. No one was talking to her and she happened to glance up. Our eyes met, but she dropped her gaze instantly. It was weird. I almost felt sorry for her at that moment.

  At precisely two thirty, Mrs. Mellor blew her whistle three times and there was instant silence.

  “Good afternoon!” she began, and for some reason everyone burst into applause. “This year’s swimming gala promises to be a hugely exciting event and I know you’re all dying for the action to begin. But first, Ms. Carmichael has something to say!”

  There was another burst of applause, peppered with cheering, as the Head came down from the spectators’ benches to the side of the pool. I saw Jess bite her lip and I knew she was feeling that mixture of excitement and nervousness that I was feeling myself, because Ms. Carmichael was about to announce the winner of the programme design. I had no idea what Jess’s design was, because she’d kept it a secret, even from her friends. I crossed my fingers on both hands and tried to catch Jess’s eye, but she was looking down.

  “Ladies and gentlemen of the staff,” said Ms. Carmichael, in her most head-teacherly voice, “would you kindly raise your programmes to reveal the picture on the front cover…” The thunderous applause spread like wildfire from the competitors around the pool, who saw the programmes first, to the rest of the spectators, as the teachers slowly turned to hold up the programmes for everyone to see. “Jessica Roud of Hazeldean has produced the winning design. Very well done to you, Jessica!”

  Mia and Katy, who were on either side of Jess, gave her a huge hug, and then Mrs. Mellor gave Jess a signal to go down and shake hands with Ms. Carmichael. On the way she looked across at me and gave me a double thumbs up, which made everyone laugh. I was wishing I could see the picture a bit more clearly but it was just too far away to make out what it was, so I’d have to wait till afterwards to look at it properly.

  At precisely two forty I stood on my starting block, waiting. The Year Seven fifty metres front crawl was the very first race. On the starting block to my right stood Hannah, wearing Mrs. Ansell’s swimsuit. Bibi had told us in the changing room earlier that although Mrs. Ansell had only lent it to Hannah at first, she thought Hannah looked so much better in it than she did herself that she wanted Hannah to keep it.

  I glanced nervously at Hannah and she pulled a face, as if to say, Are you as scared as I am? Then we both snapped back to staring straight ahead and getting into position, as Mrs. Mellor’s voice echoed into the silence. “Take your marks…” At the stark sound of the starter gun my nervousness vanished completely and as I dived I felt my competitive spirit flooding in. There were six of us doing front crawl as hard as we could, and for a while I couldn’t see any of the others at all, as I was concentrating so hard on driving myself forwards. The screams of the supporters rose above the splash of the water and gave me a new strength as we forged our way along the lanes. I managed a perfect tumble turn, overtaking Evie and three of the others. There was just me and Hannah in the lead and we stayed exactly level all the way down the second length, stroke after stroke after exhausting stroke. Then, just when I thought I’d die if I had to do another single one, I touched the side and heard the sound of the whistle. A single whistle. I looked to my right. Hannah lifted her goggles and her eyes danced. “We drew!” she said reaching out to give me a hug. And I thought how different this was from that other time we’d drawn, when I’d been too eaten up with worry even to smile, and Hannah had looked away, convinced I didn’t like her.

  “I reckon Hazeldean is winning!” said Georgie, jumping up and down on the benches when I went to join my friends after my last race. “Thank goodness we’ve got you in our house, Grace!”

  I’d come level first in the front crawl, and second in the backstroke, and I’d managed to pull my team into first place for both the medley and the freestyle relays, but after a while it’s impossible to keep score when there are six houses all competing. After the Year Seven races, it was the Year Eights, then Nines, and as time went on we completely lost track of the score, except it was obvious that Beech House was way behind. I expect they were all fed up
with Felissia. From where I was sitting I could see her, with Cassie and Stella on either side of her as usual, but they were talking to the people in front while Felissia stared into space. I couldn’t imagine what was going through her head.

  “It’s time!” squeaked Naomi from just behind us. “Look, Mrs. Mellor’s about to announce the results.”

  The shouts of excitement left their blurred echoes hanging in the air, then a complete hush took over as Mrs. Mellor was joined by Ms. Carmichael and Mrs. Andrews, the Deputy Head.

  “Well done, girls!” came Ms. Carmichael’s clear voice over the PA system. “I never knew we had such talented swimmers here at Silver Spires!” A big cheer went up. Ms. Carmichael smiled as she waited for it to die down. “Talent is twofold,” she went on slowly, her eyes moving round the whole spectators’ area. “It comes from within, but then it has to be coaxed out. I think we are the luckiest school in the country to have Mrs. Mellor to do that coaxing. Don’t you?” We all broke into applause again and lots of people whistled. Mrs. Mellor looked really happy and blew a kiss over to the spectators’ benches where we were all sitting. “So now to the scores…” The silence was gripping. Georgie clutched hold of Mia and I saw Bibi do the same to Hannah just along from us. “In sixth place, Beech House.” Everyone clapped and a few people groaned. “In joint fourth place, Forest Ash and Oakley.” The clapping was shorter this time. “In third place, Elmhurst.” No one moved a muscle. “In second place…” Ms. Carmichael deliberately left the longest pause under the sun. When she finally said, “…Hazeldean!” the whole place erupted, and all the Willowhaven students got up and clapped high above their heads, chanting, “We are the winners!” over and over again. Ms. Carmichael, Mrs. Andrews and Mrs. Mellor were laughing away together, waiting for the place to settle down. I gave Hannah a big thumbs up when her housemates finally stopped patting her on the back, and she looked as though she was going to burst with happiness.

  “Good for Willowhaven!” I whispered to Jess. And inside I felt completely calm and contented. It was strange, but I was only a bit disappointed that Hazeldean hadn’t won. I knew I’d done my personal best and that gave me the most amazing feeling.

  Later, when we were all changed, we took a closer look at the design that had won Jess the prize. It was such a brilliant photo she’d taken of the pool window. Mrs. Mellor had stuck programmes up all over the walls of the foyer and loads of older students were admiring Jess’s work.

  “It’s so effective the way it reflects the outside with all the trees and everything, and yet you can see inside too,” said a girl called Tabitha.

  “Oh yes! If you look really carefully you can actually see someone there at the very back of the spectators’ area!” said another Year Nine. “But it looks like she’s lost in the woods, doesn’t it, because of the reflection of all the trees from outside?”

  A girl from Beech House peered closely at the picture. “That’s Felissia Streeter, isn’t it? What’s she doing there?”

  Then they all wandered off, leaving just me and my friends. We looked at each other with big eyes.

  “Did you realize you’d photographed Felissia?” I asked quietly.

  “No, not till I saw the picture blown up on the computer screen. That was what made me decide to use it for the competition. It was just a moment in time, but to me it captured the whole feeling about the swimming gala.”

  Naomi peered at Jess’s picture. “And what that girl said just then is so true. The way the trees are reflected in the photo, it really does look as though Felissia is lost in the woods.”

  Jess nodded. “And in a way, she was,” she whispered so only I could hear her, and the two of us exchanged our special look which said, Let’s talk about it later. And I knew we’d spend ages discussing that big pool window and whether it was keeping someone in or keeping someone out, and whether we ought to feel sorry for Felissia because maybe everything she’d done had come out of feeling lost.

  Katy suddenly looked round furtively as though checking that no one would hear her, then she said something that had never occurred to me. “Maybe you captured the moment of proof, Jess.”

  Georgie frowned. “What moment of proof?”

  “Felissia hiding Hannah’s costume,” whispered Mia.

  “Maybe I did,” said Jess, with that faraway look in her eyes.

  A thoughtful silence closed in around us for a few seconds until Jess’s phone started to ring. She answered it quickly. “Oh hi, Mum!” Then we all drifted outside, but as Georgie chose that moment to jump up and down shouting, “Hazeldean for ever!” I didn’t hear anything more of what Jess was saying.

  A moment later she disconnected and turned to me with bright eyes. “Guess what! Mum’s got two days off work at the end of half-term, and Jan and Mum have been on the phone to each other, and they’ve sorted out that we’re spending from Saturday to Wednesday at Jan’s and then Thursday to Sunday at mine!”

  “What? Together? At half-term you mean?” I asked, being a bit thick for a moment.

  “Of course, together!” said Jess, giving me a hug. Then she linked her arm through mine and we set off back to Hazeldean. Jess was staring all around her but I wasn’t looking at anything because my mind was swirling with thoughts about all that had happened.

  “You’re very quiet, Grace,” said Jess hesitantly after a few minutes. “You do want to spend half-term together, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do!” I assured her. “Can’t wait, in fact!”

  “You’re not sad because of Hazeldean not winning, are you?”

  I smiled and shook my head. “No,” I said, standing quite still, “I’m not sad at all because I did my personal best. I’m just thinking back over all that’s happened.”

  “I’ve been thinking too,” Jess said. “And I’ve decided something, and this is it: with all you’ve come through, you are the overall winner at Silver Spires.” There was a long silent moment while Jess looked right into my eyes, in one of her little Jess-dreams. “I wish I had my camera right now,” she said finally, “so I could take your photo and put it up on your pinboard with a big heading – THE OVERALL WINNER. Then you’d never forget it.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said quietly. “I won’t ever forget it.”

  School Friends Fun!

  One of the best things about being at Silver Spires is the chance to spend time playing different sports and games with my friends. When I’m competing I’m deadly serious, but now you’re going to see that I’ve got a fun side too!

  How to get active!

  Not everyone likes the idea of serious competitive sports (including most of my friends!), but there are loads of fun games you can play instead. Some are so silly, they’re bound to get you laughing as well as moving! So why not get out there and try something new? Here are a few ideas to get you started…

  * The cereal packet game is great for stretching – and giving you the giggles! Place an empty cereal box upright on the ground, and each take a turn to lean over and pick it up, using only your mouth and without bending your legs. Then rip off the top part of the box so it’s shorter and all have another turn…then rip off another chunk, and so on. See how low you can go without falling over!

  * Have a piggyback relay race! Split into even-numbered teams and decide where you’re racing to. On “go!”, the first pairs should piggyback to that point, then switch so that the person carrying is carried on the way back. When you are carried, no part of your body can touch the ground – otherwise you start your turn again. Don’t forget to tag the next pair! On your marks…

  * If you don’t mind getting messy or wearing old clothes, play silly-string tag – it’s so much fun! It’s just the same as normal tag, except that whoever is “it” is armed with a can of silly string (which you can buy in party shops). They must hit you with the silly string in order for you to be “it”, and then they pass the can to you. It’s great to play at parties too!

  So what are you waiting for? Grab
your friends and have some School Friends fun!

  Now turn the page for a sneak preview of the next unmissable School Friends story…

  Chapter One

  It’s so peaceful here in the secret garden. I can sit on this bench and just think my own thoughts in silence. Not that I don’t love the busy, buzzy side of boarding-school life, hanging out with my close friends in our dormitory, or at lunch, or racing round the athletics track. But out of the six of us I think I’m the one who most needs to be alone sometimes. I came across the garden last September when I’d only just joined this school. My best friend, Katy, found out about it too, and then a bit later we told our other close friends where it was. It’s tucked away behind a high hedge way on the other side of the athletics field and we six from Amethyst dorm think we’re still the only ones who know about it.

  The school is called Silver Spires, and it’s the best boarding school in the world. On a day like today, when the sun shines on the main building’s tall spires, they really seem to sparkle like silver. It gives me a lovely warm feeling, seeing them reaching into the sky, and I love the thought that this is the same sun that shines onto my home country in Africa.

  I come from Ghana, and I’m a princess, but I absolutely hate people knowing that. I tried like mad to keep it a secret when I first came here, but in no time at all people found out, and it was exactly as I’d feared. Loads of girls suddenly wanted to be my friend, not because they liked me but because they liked the idea of having a princess for a friend. But, worse than that, the ones who didn’t rush to be my best friend went round saying I was stuck-up and that I thought I was something special. I was miserable for a while and it was Katy who came to my rescue. At her old school everyone had wanted to be her friend too, because they knew that her mum is a famous actress in America. But that’s one secret that will never ever come out here at Silver Spires. Katy only told me about it at first, but then at the end of last term she told the others too. I’ll never forget that moment. We were all sitting in a circle on the rug in our dorm and when Katy actually said her mother’s real name you could have heard the sun rising. But the six of us best friends from Amethyst dorm are sworn to secrecy about that now.