We went down to the third row from the front and found places near Melody and the twins. I saw Lottie sitting next to Erica at the back, looking very pale. Just looking at her sad face made me RE-VOW to myself that I would clear her name, if I could. Erica was chewing gum, blowing big bubbles that splattered all over her face with a SNAP.
‘Good morning first years,’ Stephania stepped out on to the stage, looking all glowy and fresh. Today her hair was twirled into two buns that looked like twirly pastries on the sides of her head and she was wearing a soft pink tunic over grey leggings. ‘Congratulations to you all for auditioning and for being given your parts. There is a wealth of talent amongst you, and our job is to draw it all together for a mind blowing performance of William Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Everyone’s role is important, the actresses and the stagehands, who’ll also be designing the scenery. We must work together as a team to make this play a success.
Now I have one important announcement to make before we get started. Unfortunately Mrs De Nero slipped on a wet patch of moss last night as she and the music teacher, Mr Violette, walked from the minibus to the main school in the rain. The hospital phoned Mrs Fairchild this morning to confirm that Mrs De Nero’s leg is badly broken, so she will be unable to help with the school play from now on. We’ll all have to work extra hard to make her proud.’
There were exclamations around the hall, everyone liked Mrs De Nero and her floaty butterfly ways.
‘Enough of the jibber jabber,’ Alfie strutted on to the stage. He came up to Stephania’s elbow. ‘Let’s get started.’ Stephania shot him a dirty look.
‘Who can tell me anything about “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”?’ He growled. Melody’s hand shot up.
‘I’ve been reading about it on the internet,’ she said eagerly. ‘It’s a comedy and it’s set in Greece. Basically, it’s about falling in love. There are four young people and a group of actors, as well as some woodland fairies and a duchess and duke. As the character Lysander says, “The course of true love never did run smooth”, and they have all sorts of adventures and complications and end up looking rather silly.’
‘Wow you really have done your homework,’ Stephania said, looking impressed.
‘Well that’s a short summary,’ Alfie said, not looking pleased. ‘You haven’t really gone into any detail about the character’s motivations. I can-’
‘Yes you can tell us all about it Mr Clever Cloggs,’ Stephania grinned. ‘But I thought Melody did really well. We will need to tell you all about the plot in more detail as we go along, but to get into the spirit of the play, let’s have a read through now.’
‘Are you questioning my decision?’ Alfie said, going purple. ‘Do you know who I am? I’m the famous one here, not you. You only work on a television talent show for goodness sake. I’m Hollywood royalty. Just look at my entourage, then you’ll realise how successful I am.’
Everyone, including Stephania, looked around at Alfie’s ‘people’, who littered the Grand Hall, doing things like warming his socks on a radiator, brewing him a coffee on his portable coffee machine, unrolling his yoga mat and getting his face powder ready in case his nose went shiny.
‘Well I’m a big girl now,’ Stephania said, her grin turning cat-like. ‘I don’t need people to hold my hand and warm my socks for me. I think it’s because I actually grew up, unlike some people around here.’
Whoa, I thought. One of their famous arguments is coming on. Cleo and Clarice had gone to stand next to Alfie defensively, pushed there by Mrs Blinkham who had brought some fairy costumes to sew while she watched the rehearsal. I thought Polly must be running around the top rows of seats unattended. Come to think of it, there was no sign of Erica or Lottie anymore. Oh dear oh dear, they must have slipped out unnoticed. I do hope there are no more robberies…
‘I did not come here to be insulted,’ Alfie shouted. ‘Especially not by an F-list “celebrity” such as yourself. Marcus, I’m feeling stressed, bring my massage oil and let’s get out of here. I can’t work under these conditions.’
‘Coming Alfie,’ a young man with gelled black hair said, grabbing an enormous bottle of oil from a trolley before running after Alfie who was striding across the stage towards the wings. (That’s a theatrical term Melody told me for the sides of the stage.) Within minutes, Alfie and his entourage had left the building, leaving us first years standing there with our mouths open and Stephania looking slightly less together than usual.
‘Well I didn’t expect him to actually leave,’ she said, shuffling her script. Mrs Blinkham shot her a poisonous glance. ‘What a baby. Oh well, let’s get on with the rehearsal. Right, the play opens with Hermia refusing to obey her dad’s wish that she marries Demetrius, so come on Arabella and Lynne, you’re up first. Grab a script and let’s get reading. By the way, I want you all to take your scripts away with you today, so you can start learning your lines.’
After that the rehearsal went pretty smoothly, even if the famous Hollywood director that Mrs Fairchild hired especially for the play was absent! Oh well, I couldn’t help thinking Stephania quite enjoyed having a dig at him, but I couldn’t work out why that might be. Honestly, adults are too confusing for words.com.
Right I’m off to meet Arabella for lunch and we’re going to discuss thief-finding tactics, we’ve had a few ideas already…
Wednesday 10th November
Oh no Diary, worst news!
There’s been another theft. This time it was Maya and Aretha from Ruby class who had their dorm looted. They came running into the dining hall yesterday during high tea, just after Arabella, Lottie and I had sat down with a plate of cherry scones, clotted cream and plum jam. We were trying to cheer Lottie up, she’s hardly touched her food since being accused of stealing.
‘We’ve been robbed,’ Maya burst out. I like her, she’s really good at singing and has been given the part of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, in the play.
‘Our room is a TOTAL mess,’ Aretha said, arriving next to Maya. She’s playing the part of the Duke of Athens. ‘And our purses have been emptied and the platinum necklace my grandmother gave me is missing.’ She burst into tears. Maya hugged her.
‘And my ring collection is gone,’ Maya said, her lip wobbling. ‘The pot’s still there but the rings are missing, they took me years to collect and I managed to find some really unusual ones.’
‘Look, we’re not being rude, Lottie,’ Aretha said, giving a little sob and coming over to our table. ‘But if what Cleo and Clarice said the other day is true and you have taken our stuff because you can’t afford your own, please could we have it back? We wouldn’t blame you or anything, it’s just that it’s really special to us. The thing is, we noticed you weren’t at the rehearsal again this afternoon.’
‘But it WASN’T ME,’ Lottie cried in a sort of strangled way. ‘I wasn’t at the rehearsal because I went to see Mrs Fairchild to ask if she could send me home. Scholarship or no scholarship, I don’t want to be anywhere that I’m accused of being a thief. Ask her if you don’t believe me. Oh this is all so awful.’ She pushed her chair back and ran out of the dining hall.
‘But Erica wasn’t at the rehearsal today or at the one yesterday either,’ Arabella whispered. ‘I think we need to do some serious detecting.’
‘Me too,’ I whispered back, watching Mrs Pumpernickle put her arms round Maya and Athena before leading them off. ‘I simply couldn’t BEAR it if Lottie was bullied into leaving. Right, I’ve got an idea.’
Thursday 11th November
How unexpected.com, Diary!
So yesterday afternoon, Arabella and I skipped the rehearsal and followed Erica, to see what she did while everyone else was in the Grand Hall. Lottie had gone to sit with Mrs Fairchild again, too upset to face anybody. It was a bit of a shame because Alfie had got over his tantrum and returned to the rehearsal yesterday and I have to admit he’s rather good at what he does, and really pulled everyone’s acting together. We gave Melody a note to g
ive to him, explaining that we couldn’t come as we had a job to do.
‘I hope we don’t get caught,’ I said as we positioned ourselves behind bushes near the door to the Grand Hall. I’d noticed a pattern, Erica seemed to arrive for the BEGINNING of the rehearsal, blow bubbles loudly and annoyingly, then slip out unnoticed once everyone became absorbed in the play.
‘Or more likely WE’LL catch someone: the thief,’ Arabella said grimly.
We waited for about ten minutes, all wrapped up in our cashmere scarves and big puffy jackets. The weather was getting colder and Mrs Pumpernickle said she thought it might snow soon.
One half of the giant door creaked open and Erica tiptoed out.
I waggled my eyebrows at Arabella and we sneaked after her, darting from bush, to statue, to fence, holding our breaths and hoping she wouldn’t see us.
To my surprise, instead of heading back into the main school building where all the dorms are, Erica headed round the side of the school and through the kitchen garden, where Marcel grows his fruits, vegetables and herbs for cooking. She walked straight through the gate at the end and into the Japanese Rock Garden. The one good thing about the route she chose was the amount of things we could hide behind on the way, like sheds, trellises, boulders and trees. But I was completely mystified.com about where she was heading.
We dodged through the rock garden, almost being discovered when she dropped her hankie and turned to pick it up. Luckily we had just enough time to drop behind a mountain of stone before she saw us. We watched her push open the gate and walk through it to the Medieval garden. By now we were a very long way from the main building and by the looks of it, the only ones out in the freezing air.
Arabella and I stayed just behind the gate, peering through the gaps in a nearby hedge to see what Erica would do next. To my UTTER surprise.com, she pulled her fur coat round herself tightly and sat down on a bench near a fountain. Then she took the gum out of her mouth, wrapped it in a tissue, put it in her pocket, and began to sing.
Sweet, sad notes filled the air and wrapped themselves round Arabella and I. A tear rolled down Arabella’s cheek and on to the grass and I found my own eyes were also a bit weepy. What a beautiful voice, but the song was full of such loneliness and passion, it went straight to my heart and made it hurt.
‘Wowzers,’ whispered Arabella. I nodded. At that moment, I felt like we were intruding on something very private; after all Erica had taken great pains to be away from everyone. Maybe she came here every day while were rehearsing. It seemed unlikely now that she was the thief. I wondered what was making her so sad.
‘Hey Arabella,’ I whispered, shifting position. ‘I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we go and get Stephania and ask her to listen to Erica sing. After all, she’s the singing coach and with a voice like that Erica should be in the play. Maybe she’s shy about singing in front of other people or something.’
Arabella gave me the thumbs up, so we crept back through the gardens as quietly as we could and slipped into the Grand Hall, only to get shouted at by Alfie for having commitment issues about the play. But Arabella said we needed to speak to Stephania about an important, private matter and very soon we were tiptoeing back to the Medieval garden with Stephania in tow.
Tears gushed down her cheeks as she listened to Erica sing.
‘I haven’t heard natural talent like this for a long time,’ she whispered, wiping her eyes. ‘But it’s such a melancholy song. Why is she so sad?’
We both shrugged, shaking our heads. We simply had no idea. I was starting to feel a bit bad for just writing Erica off as rude and arrogant, although to be fair that IS how she’d seemed.
‘I can’t bear it any longer, I’m going to go and talk to her,’ Stephania said. You two go and join the rehearsal now please, and thank you for alerting me to Erica and her gift.’
‘Goodness,’ I whispered to Arabella on the way back. ‘I wonder what Erica’s going to say to her.’
Friday 12th November
Mysterious events, Diary…
Erica didn’t tell us or her roommate Lottie about what happened in the Medieval garden, but from that afternoon on, something seemed to change in her. For a start, she stopped going on about how silly things were at Egmont and also stopped blowing bubbles with her annoying gum. She actually gave me a half smile at dinner yesterday, which was a relief because I’d been worrying in case she was angry that we told Stephania about her singing, and was also feeling rather guilty because we’d presumed she was the thief without any real evidence.
When I met up with Lottie in the library yesterday evening so we could do our Maths homework together, she told me that Erica was being much nicer now and had confided in her about how she hadn’t wanted to come to Egmont but that her father had insisted, saying that he and her mother didn’t have time to look after her anymore now that his business was going global. Her feelings had been really hurt and she’d decided to hate everyone here. But apparently Stephania got on really well with her and is going to give her a singing part in the play.
‘I didn’t know there were any singing parts?’ I said, trying to remember the script.
‘Well there aren’t really, but Stephania’s invented some songs for a few of the fairies and elves to sing. I think she wants the girls with great voices to have a chance to show off their talents.’ Lottie said. She was looking a bit better, less pale.
‘Perfect for Erica then,’ I smiled.
‘Yes but apparently Alfie’s mad about it,’ Lottie chuckled. ‘Says it ruins the purity of the script, or something.’
The doors to the library swung open and Amy from Emerald class burst in.
‘I’ve been robbed,’ she wailed. ‘Me and Poppy went straight to our riding lesson after the rehearsal this afternoon and we only got back to our dorm five minutes ago. It’s a tip and my collection of pearls is missing and Poppy’s golden necklace has gone too. What shall I do?’
‘Come on, let’s go and find Mrs Pumpernickle,’ I said, jumping up and putting my arm round Amy. ‘She’ll know what to do.’ Lottie ran past us before we’d even gone through the library doors. I stared after her feeling really worried. She hadn’t been in the rehearsal again and at this rate she wasn’t going to know what props to bring on and off the stage at the right times. I’d started painting the scenery this afternoon, but could really have done with some help. Where on earth was she going every day, surely not to Mrs Fairchild’s office every time? What if we’d been wrong about her? I couldn’t BEAR to have that thought even once…
Sunday 14th November
A disappearance, Diary!
The plot thickened yesterday, that’s for sure, and I’m not just talking about the school play. After hearing about the most recent theft, Cleo and Clarice tried to find Lottie to question her about it and no doubt bully her. But they couldn’t find her anywhere.
Good for her, I thought at first, feeling bad about doubting my new friend, even for a second. Arabella and I tried to find Lottie before the afternoon’s rehearsal but she’d simply vanished. Even Erica had no idea where she was, and seemed quite concerned.
‘She usually comes back to our room when she’s upset about something, to phone her mum, or to write her a letter or an email,’ she said. ‘But she didn’t come back on Friday evening at all. I was so worried I went to ask Matron if Lottie was sick and had been taken into the infirmary, but she said she hadn’t.’
‘How odd,’ I said, twiddling my plait round my finger, while trying to think about where on earth she could be. ‘I do hope she hasn’t run away.’
‘I think we should go and tell Mrs Fairchild,’ Arabella said. ‘If something has happened to Lottie she should know, so that she can call the police to look for her if it turns out she has run away.’
Arabella, Erica and I went and knocked on Mrs Fairchild’s door, making Arabella late for a costume fitting with Mrs Blinkham, which she said she didn’t mind a bit as last time she was sure Mrs Blinkham had stuck pins in
her on purpose.
Mrs Fairchild was listening to a CD of chimpanzee noises while doing yoga on her round mat when we went into her study.
‘The lotus is always the most difficult to achieve, don’t you think?’ she asked. We all nodded, not knowing what to say. I was wondering how on earth her legs were so bendy.
‘Well it’s lovely to see you all my darlings,’ She said, standing up gracefully before going to her kitchenette and switching the kettle on. ‘And to what do I owe this pleasure?’
‘I’m…er…afraid we’ve got some bad news,’ Arabella said. As soon as she said that I felt like what we were going to say sounded really stupid.com, but it was too late to back out.
‘Oh yes?’ Mrs Fairchild did some ballet moves while she waited for the kettle to boil. ‘Nothing fatal, I hope?’
‘Erm, no,’ I said, while Erica fiddled with her bag. ‘It’s just that Lottie Greenwood seems to have disappeared.’
‘Gracious,’ Mrs Fairchild said as she poured tea for everyone. I didn’t think she looked shocked or surprised at all. ‘That is, indeed, unusual news.’
‘Yes it is,’ Arabella said. ‘And we think her disappearance is connected with these robberies. It seems no one’s stuff is safe anymore, and Clarice and Cleo have been blaming Lottie for it so publically, and-‘
‘Yes,’ Mrs Fairchild’s sparkly eyes darkened. ‘They have, haven’t they. Possibly an unwise choice of action, to blame a new girl without any proof, don’t you think?’
‘Yes absolutely,’ I said. ‘We’ve stood up for Lottie from the start, it’s just that she’s never at rehearsals and now she’s gone missing, and um…do you think she might have run away?’
‘It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she felt like running away,’ Mrs Fairchild’s eyes still hadn’t got back their sparkle. ‘How would you feel as a new girl who hasn’t had the same material privileges as the rest of the school, to be named, shamed and blamed so soon after arriving, for a crime you most probably did not commit?’
Davina Dupree Predicts a Plot Page 3