by Nikki Young
On reaching the main playground of Hickley School, they all stopped and doubled over, breathing hard. The feeling of unease Jess had on the train grew stronger, as she looked around, taking it all in for the first time. The main building of the school looked familiar, but somehow it seemed newer; the black, soot-stained Yorkshire stone had been cleaned overnight and was now the colour of golden sand. Directly in front of them should have been the dining hall, but it was missing and to the right, there was no sports hall either. Whole buildings had somehow disappeared overnight.
As they stood in bewilderment, wondering just what to make of it all, a boy jogged over to them. He looked about their age, but Jess didn’t recognise him. His uniform, though the familiar dark brown with brown and yellow striped tie, was unusual in that he had teamed it with a full, buttoned-up, waistcoat, and trousers that ended just below the knee.
“What you doing in our yard?” He was looking at Nadia and Jess. “If Crawford catches ya, you’ll cop it.”
The girls looked at him then at each other. Neither had noticed they were the only girls in the playground, which was normally full of pupils from all years. No one around looked familiar and it was as if all the pupils had been replaced with a new set.
“This is a bit weird,” Nadia said, whispering in Jess’s ear. “Is there something going on today we don’t know about?”
“I don’t know,” said Jess. “But the school looks different. How can buildings be missing? It’s creeping me out. Shall we go see if we can find the other girls?” Jess was desperate to find something, or someone, familiar, otherwise, she didn’t know what to think.
“Yeah, good idea, come on. We’ll see you at break time,” Nadia said to Tomma and Ash, as she linked arms with Jess and they set off across the yard towards the main doors: Nadia’s confident strides paired with Jess’s uncertain shuffles.
They’d only got halfway across when a loud bell sounded. It wasn’t the usual steady, beating pulse of the school bell. Someone was standing at the door with an actual bell in his hand, shaking it up and down in a slow, rhythmic motion.
Jess jumped and clutched Nadia tighter as they stopped, wondering what they should do next. They watched as the boys in the yard started to form neat lines. The bell seeming to be the only prompt they needed to make them comply.
“What are they doing?” Jess asked in a quivery voice.
“What are they wearing?” Nadia said, looking them up and down with distaste.
It was typical of Nadia to notice that, Jess thought, but she had a point. Everyone was dressed the same way as the boy they’d spoken to. Most were wearing flat caps and some had on duffle coats.
“Is it a dress-up day?” Nadia said.
Too absorbed in what was going on around them, they didn’t notice the man with the bell striding towards them at a determined pace, his mouth set in a tight line.
“What are you doing here? Get around to the girls’ yard at once!” he said, snapping his fingers and thrusting his arm in the direction of the door he’d just come from.
Jess’s first thought was how freakishly long his finger seemed as it pointed the way. She looked at Nadia, whose expression was blank. The man, whom they presumed was a teacher, let out an exasperated sigh that made the large moustache on his upper lip quiver.
“Well, go on then! What are you waiting for?” He stepped aside, holding out his arm in an open gesture towards the door.
Although Jess opened her mouth to speak, no words would come out. She had no idea what the man was talking about and it must have shown in both her and Nadia’s expressions. Losing his patience, he grabbed Nadia by the arm, marching her towards the door.
“What are you doing?” she yelled, trying to free her arm, determination set in her face. Being an only child, Nadia was used to getting her own way and being treated like a princess.
Even so, Jess was shocked at how rough the teacher was being. No teacher she knew would treat pupils this way—princess or not. The man, who was not in the slightest bit phased, became more exasperated than ever.
“You clearly have no regard for my authority and I haven’t got the time to deal with you right now, so you will go through to the girls’ yard and I will see to it that Miss Yardley deals with you in the correct manner.”
He stared at them with a look that could turn someone to stone and in a desperate plea for help, Jess turned to look at Tomma and Ash, who both shrugged, equally as dumbfounded as they were. Angry at their response, she huffed, before turning and hurrying to catch up to Nadia.
Shuffling along behind her, she glanced anxiously around. Everyone in the playground was staring at them with open mouths. Jess inwardly cringed, knowing on the outside, she would be beetroot red from head to toe.
When the teacher eventually let go of Nadia’s arm, she brushed at her jacket to straighten it out, glaring at him all the while. Without speaking, he merely pointed towards the end of the corridor and nodded his head in the same direction.
“Come on,” Jess said, pulling Nadia along before she could say anything else and get into more trouble.
They walked down the corridor, where at the end on the left were doors leading to another yard. As Nadia pushed open the heavy glass doors, Jess stood close behind her, looking tentatively over her friend’s shoulder.
This yard was full of girls, dressed in long, dark-brown pinafores, heavily pleated down the front and cinched in at the waist with matching belts. They had on white, scalloped-necked, long-sleeved blouses, but no tie. Some wore overcoats, others had shawls. There was a female teacher, standing with a bell in her hand, inspecting the lines. She had on a floor-length, heavy-duty, black skirt and white blouse and some kind of sleeved cape that made her look more like a witch than a teacher. Her hair was tied neatly in a low bun, which made her features even sterner.
“You’re late! Get in line now,” she said, glaring at Jess and Nadia, which nearly made Jess almost faint with fear. Even Nadia was quick to move and they scrambled to the back of the first line they came to.
“Hi. . . sorry, is this the Year Seven line?” Jess whispered to the girl at the end, as she stood in line behind her.
The girl put her head down and turned it slightly so she could whisper back, “What are you on about? This is the First Form.”
Not knowing what to make of that reply, Jess shrugged and gave Nadia a blank look. Then, realising the line was beginning to move, she stared at the floor and followed the other girls as they filed into the school building. The sick feeling in Jess’s stomach began to worsen. All she wanted to do was get to her form room and find out from her teacher what was going on.
“What is the meaning of this. . . this attire?” the bellringing teacher said, blocking Jess and Nadia’s path, and looking down at them with the face of someone who had just been sucking on a lemon.
Jess jumped, as she came to a sudden halt, almost walking straight into the back of Nadia. She put her head down, not daring to look the teacher directly in the eye, and watched the lower halves of the other girls get further and further away from them.
“What do you mean, Miss? This is what we always wear,” Nadia said.
“Don’t answer back, girl.”
“But you asked us a question.”
“I said, don’t answer back, what is the matter with you?”
“But you—” Nadia began.
“Nadia!” Jess nudged her in the back.
Didn’t she know when to be quiet?
“Since when do girls wear ties?” she said, flicking Nadia’s tie in the air with her fingertip. “And what is the meaning of these short skirts? It’s quite disgraceful showing so much flesh. Get to Matron’s office at once and see to it she finds you some of the correct uniforms from the spares box. I don’t want to see you looking like this again, do you understand?”
The girls both nodded.
“I said, do you understand?” Her raised voice made Jess straighten up alongside Nadia. She felt as if they we
re army recruits.
“Yes, Miss,” both girls chorused.
“What did she mean by that?” Jess said once they were out of earshot and on their way to Matron’s office. “I don’t remember getting a letter that said we had changed uniforms. Mum is gonna be so cross.”
Nadia sighed, before stopping to turn to Jess. “I’m not going to lie; this is all feeling a bit weird. Don’t freak out Jess but there is something strange going on today. Look at the school. It’s all clean and new for a start. And where are the sports block and dining hall?”
Nadia’s eyes were dancing with excitement, despite her best efforts to keep calm in front of her less adventurous friend. “What if we’ve travelled back in time?”
Jess whacked her on the arm. “Do not even say that. You read too many fantasy books you do.”
“But think about it, how else do you explain all this?” Nadia was getting into her idea. “Buildings are missing and the school looks new. Maybe this is what it looked like when it was first opened?”
“Shut up Nadia, you’re freaking me out. Let’s just get to Matron’s office and sort out the uniform so we don’t get in trouble with that teacher again.” Jess didn’t want to listen to any theory about time travel. All she wanted to do was find some semblance of normality and cling on to that, hoping everything else would start to make sense eventually.
“That is, if Matron’s office is there...”
Jess groaned. There was a possibility this was all a bad dream and she would wake up soon, finding everything as it should be, and there hadn’t been a power cut after all. She concentrated on that, ignoring Nadia’s comment, as she marched on ahead.
Chapter 5
War? What War?
To Jess’s relief, they found the office in the place where they expected it to be—right at the far end of the school in the downstairs of the Sixth Form annexe. However, Matron looked more like Florence Nightingale than Mrs Mortimer, whom they were used to. This particular school nurse was wearing a floor-length, full-sleeved uniform complete with a short cape that fitted around her shoulders. She even had on a funny little hairpiece that hung down her back a bit like a veil.
Jess was thankful, though, that the kindly-looking nurse didn’t shout at them or question why they were dressed so differently. On being asked, she merely handed them each a set of clothes in what she thought were the right size and told them where they could change. Both girls were in too much shock to ask her what was happening to their school.
“This day just gets weirder,” Nadia said in a low voice as she looked at the clothes.
They were in a room that had a small, metal-framed camp bed in the corner. There was a sink to the right of an open fireplace and a desk under the window, the glass of which was obscured so no one could see in.
The material of the pinafores was so stiff and itchy. Once they’d both put theirs on and fastened the belts, the bottom half of the dresses stuck straight out at each side. Nadia desperately tried to smooth hers down but to no avail. The blouses were just as bad, the material stiff, with no give to them whatsoever. Beginning to see the funny side, Nadia looked at Jess and laughed.
“You don’t look so great yourself,” Jess said. “I hope they haven’t changed the uniform permanently. I am not wearing this thing every day.” She grabbed the sides of her skirt, pulling at the scratchy material and frowning in disgust. She put her own clothes into her bag.
“Come on, let’s get to class.” Nadia put an arm around her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. The gesture was enough to make Jess cry, but she managed to hold in the tears by taking a few deep, calming breaths to still her wobbly chin.
They left Matron’s office and walked back to where they’d come from. There was no one around; everyone else having gone to their form rooms. Jess was hoping they wouldn’t bump into anyone and could make it to their own form room unseen, but unfortunately, the female teacher who had sent them to Matron happened to be walking along the corridor at the same time. Jess felt herself shrink as she moved closer to Nadia’s side.
“Ah, there you are. That’s better,” the teacher said, looking them up and down. “Get to your form room now. Quick, hurry along, no talking.”
“I guess we just go to our usual room and hope for the best,” Nadia said, in a low voice.
“I said, no talking!”
The girls stifled giggles as they did their best to shuffle along in the full-length dresses. Their usual registration room was off the main hall, which meant they had to retrace their steps back along the corridor, but this time, instead of going left into the girls’ yard, they turned right, going through the doors into the main hall, then turning left towards one of the classrooms that led off it.
As soon as they pushed open the door and stepped tentatively into the classroom, all hopes of a normal day faded. The room looked like someone had transformed it overnight by knocking down a wall to double its size. Their usual desks were gone, replaced with some old-fashioned wooden ones with lids you could lift to put your things inside. These weren’t the graffiti-marked, battered old desks Jess was used to seeing at her school. The desks in front of Jess and Nadia looked new and, in a way, they were kind of beautiful with wood so smooth and flat it made Jess want to reach out and stroke her hand along the surface.
Sitting at a larger desk at the front of the classroom was not Mr Ward, the girls’ usual form teacher. He, along with the desks, had also been replaced. In his place sat a lady dressed in a long, black cloak with her hair in a tight grey bun and round glasses perched on the very end of her nose. She looked over the glasses at Jess and Nadia as they stood unsure what to do.
“Ah, Chadwick and Kaminski there you are. Good of you to join us.”
Jess thought she detected a hint of sarcasm in her tone, rather than one of actual pleasure at their arrival. She braced herself for another shouting-at. Instead, the teacher turned back to her desk and put two ticks on the page in front of her. At least they were in the right place, Jess thought, if their names were on the register. She took that as a good sign.
There were only two empty desks left in the classroom, one at the front and the other right at the back. Jess bolted towards the furthest one, throwing an apologetic look at Nadia. Scanning the room, she didn’t see one single person she recognised, and the resulting fear and panic made her feel sick again. She was glad to be able to sit at the back of the classroom and hide.
“We will begin morning lessons with arithmetic, but first, it is time for assembly, girls. Please line up and make your way into the hall in an orderly fashion. Do you all have your hymn books?”
Jess rummaged around in her bag and found her copy. She clutched it close to her chest as though it was the most precious thing in the world. It felt comforting to have something familiar, even if it was only a little blue book with hymns in. It was also a relief to see everyone else had the same book.
She was just about to stand when the girl to her right leaned over and put a hand on her arm. It was the same girl from the back of the line in the yard.
“You new?” she asked.
Jess stared at the girl. Her thoughts were too incoherent to process. Not only was she confused about the situation: the change in teacher, the different layout of the classroom, the pupils, the uniforms, but in addition, she couldn’t help but gawp at the girl’s hair. It was the most beautiful shade of auburn Jess had ever seen, like a canopy of autumn leaves lit up by the setting sun.
“I’m Martha Stenchion,” the girl said, in barely a whisper and seemingly oblivious to Jess’s dumbstruck state. Martha’s head darted to the side to check the teacher wasn’t looking.
“We get people like you here all the time now. Since the bombs started, there’ve been more. Orphans, are you? Who’ve you lost? My brother is away. Haven’t heard anything for a while. Dad came home because of a shrapnel wound. He’s in hospital still, but at least he’s back now, thank the Lord.”
Martha looked so sad and lost
Jess finally began to pay attention. She found herself wanting to reach out to Martha, even though she had no idea what Martha was talking about, but she didn’t have time. The other girls were standing up and beginning to form a line in front of the door.
Jess followed them, behind Martha, as the line headed out of the classroom and down towards the front of the hall. Martha’s words stuck with her, riding around her head with everything else, but she told herself to stop being such a worrier and that everything was going to be fine. Nadia, who was nearer the front of the line and now a few rows ahead of her, turned around. Jess caught her eye.
Nadia mouthed, “You okay?”
Jess nodded back, forcing a smile, before concentrating on finding the right hymn number.
Assembly began in the usual way, with a hymn, followed by a prayer. Normally the Headteacher led the assembly, but in his place stood a bald man with small round glasses. He wore a black suit, the jacket of which reached down to the back of his knees. Under the jacket was a pinstripe waistcoat, with a chain hanging down between the two pockets. Standing before them in silence, he pulled at the chain and brought out the pocket watch at the end of it. After checking the time, he tucked the watch away again. He began to speak.
First, there were some general announcements about a debating club meeting and a chess tournament. All seemed normal and non-eventful until the man began to talk about the war. At this, Jess straightened up, feeling all her senses go on full alert, her skin go cold and goosebumps begin to form on her arms and the back of her neck. The man read out the names of two former pupils of the school who had died, along with a short eulogy, then he said how proud he was to have known them. He asked the school to pray for their families in their hour of need and the room fell silent as everyone bowed their heads.