School for Nobodies

by Susie Bower

  Mr Gold smiled. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘I am honoured. But think about what I’ve said.’

  ‘All right.’ I crossed my fingers behind my back.

  I sat down on the mat. ‘Will you tell me what happened next—after you and Fred and Kula ran away from Murgatroyd’s Circus?’

  Mr Gold sat down. ‘Fred and I got a job in another circus. A good one, quite close to here, where the animals and the performers were treated well.’

  ‘What happened to Murgatroyd?’

  A shadow passed over Mr Gold’s face. ‘We reported him to the police, and Murgatroyd’s Circus was shut down.’

  ‘Yay!’ I said. ‘Served him right!’

  ‘Indeed,’ said Mr Gold. He didn’t look very happy though. ‘But, in doing that, we broke the most important rule of circus.’

  ‘What rule?’

  ‘Circus folk look after their own. They don’t bring outside people in, and they never betray other circus folk. Do you remember all for one, and one for all?’

  I nodded. ‘But you did the right thing.’

  ‘We had to do it—we couldn’t let the animals suffer any more.’

  ‘What about Kula?’

  ‘Kula grew into a fine young lioness. And she always let me and Fred pet her and play with her.’

  ‘Did you train her?’

  Mr Gold shook his head. ‘We weren’t trainers,’ he said. ‘But the trainer at the circus was the best, even though she was only sixteen.’

  ‘I saw her! She was in that photo of the Grand Parade. What was her name?’

  ‘Leonora. From the moment she and Kula met, they were inseparable. Leonora would often sleep in Kula’s cage with her, curled up together in the straw.’

  I could almost feel Kula’s soft fur and hear her low purring. Then my head jerked up—I realized that the sound wasn’t in my head. Someone was purring.

  It was coming from the wood, behind me.

  FERAL SPOILS IT

  I swivelled round, but there was no one there.

  ‘There’s something in the wood,’ I whispered. ‘Can you hear it?’

  The purring, growling sound continued, like a distant rumble of thunder.

  ‘Who’s there?’ called Mr Gold.

  From behind a tree, Feral emerged on all fours, his hair sweeping the ground.

  ‘Come,’ said Mr Gold, and Feral padded into the grass circle and stood right beside me, staring at me with his tawny eyes.

  I turned away. Why did he have to follow me here and spoil everything?

  ‘Were you listening to the story?’ said Mr Gold.

  Feral nodded. ‘Lion,’ he said.

  ‘I’d better go,’ I said. ‘It must be breakfast time.’

  ‘Wait a moment.’ Mr Gold looked from me to Feral, and back again. ‘You two are the same height and build. The boy would be an excellent partner for you.’

  ‘No!’ I clenched my fists.

  ‘What’s wrong, child?’ said Mr Gold.

  ‘Him!’ I said. ‘He spoils everything—’

  I’d been happier than I’d ever been in my life, because of the lessons. And now Feral would be there all the time, staring at my burn and copying me, and Mr Gold would teach him to be an acrobat and he’d probably be far better than me and nothing would be special any more.

  I turned and ran into the wood. Mr Gold called after me, but I ignored him. Then I heard footsteps, echoing mine. Feral was following me yet again. That Feeling began to fizz and boil inside me. I ran faster and faster, dodging tree trunks and bushes, crashing through brambles. The trees whizzed past me in a blur, and I kept tripping on roots and stones because my tears almost blinded me. I turned for a moment to see if Feral was catching up with me—and didn’t see the tree root snaking over the muddy path ahead. I tripped over it and fell headlong into a large patch of nettles.

  ‘Ow, ow, OW!!!’ I sat in the mud, my hands and arms and face stinging like I’d fallen in a bees’ nest.

  The next thing I knew, a pair of grubby hands had grasped my arms and hauled me to my feet, and a pair of tawny eyes was staring into mine. That Feeling was bubbling through my insides like molten lava. I couldn’t look at Feral because I knew that if I did, I might do something really horrible, like hit him. I bent over and pressed my hands to my scratched legs and ankles. The nettle stings were tingling and itching, making my skin burn.

  Then, Feral touched me right on the back of my neck, where my name was.

  That did it. I lost my temper. A voice I’d never heard before came shouting out of my mouth.

  ‘LEAVE ME ALONE!!!’

  I pushed Feral with all my strength and he fell over backwards in the mud. He rolled over onto all fours and a low growl came out of his throat. Maybe he was going to spring at me and bite me, but I didn’t care.

  ‘Just GET AWAY from me! And don’t you EVER come near me again!’

  For a long moment, Feral gazed at me, his eyes full of hurt. Then he turned and padded away.

  My legs shook and tears rolled down my face. I’d never lost my temper and pushed someone, ever. And now everything was spoilt. Mr Gold’s words kept going round and round in my head: ‘If you don’t find someone to trust, life will be pretty lonely.’

  If only my twin was here instead of Feral. We could train together every day, just like Mr Gold and Fred. I’d trust her with my life, and she’d trust me with hers.

  As I thought these things, the wood suddenly became very quiet. It was as if everything had stopped breathing and was waiting for something to happen. Slowly, I wiped my tears and looked around. Was someone—or something—watching me?

  Then, high in an ancient tree above my head, there was a flapping of wings. I stared up. A shower of golden-yellow leaves fluttered down like confetti. They lay on the muddy ground around my feet, and that warm, chocolatey feeling seeped through me, as if an invisible someone was giving me a big, comforting hug.

  And then the next message came.

  NEXT DOOR

  As I stared up at the tree, the flapping got louder and faster and more excited, and lots more golden-yellow leaves came spiralling down. Then a bird flew out from the branches. Its pale grey wings carried it down, down, down… floating on the air… until it landed on a bush, right beside me, and it peered up at me with its soft dark eyes, as if it was trying to speak. It looked exactly like the dove I’d seen before—the one which had untangled the balloon in Sonia and Claude’s garden, and which had brought me my golden leotard.

  ‘Is it really you again?’ I whispered.

  The dove put its head on one side, listening.

  Turrrr! Turrrr!

  Then, before I could say anything else, it hopped to the ground and began to peck at the fallen leaves, carefully lifting each one in its bill and placing it beside the next. Every now and then, it raised its head and gazed at me. What was it doing? Again and again, it picked up a leaf and placed it beside the others. And then I blinked, and realized.

  The dove was making words, leaf by leaf, on the ground. At last it placed the final leaf and nodded its head at me. Then it opened its grey wings and flew up, up through the trees and into the sky, and with its sad, haunting cry, it disappeared into the blue.

  I rubbed my eyes, and read the finished message:

  Flynn, of this you can be sure:

  Your twin is living right next door.

  So it really was true—the girl with the marmalade curls was my twin, and she was waiting for me at the school next door, just as I’d hoped. I wanted to kick myself. I’d already been at Nobodies for four whole days, but I’d got distracted, what with rescuing Feral and the lessons with Mr Gold. I had to get to the Academy. I just had to. In the distance, the sound of voices laughing and shouting drifted through the trees. The children at the Academy were out playing.

  I hurried down the path until I got to the orchard. There was the high brick wall which divided the two schools. My twin might be just on the other side of the wall, not even knowing I was here. I loo
ked round to make sure the coast was clear. Then I crept up to the wall. Low voices were talking on the other side.

  ‘Hello!’ I shouted.

  The voices stopped abruptly. There was a long silence. Then someone giggled.

  ‘Hello!’ I shouted again. ‘I need help.’

  A voice said: ‘It’s one of the Nobodies.’

  ‘A freak!’ laughed another.

  ‘I’m not a freak!’ I shouted. ‘My twin is at your school. Please help me find her—’

  A hand gripped my shoulder. I jumped. Surely Feral hadn’t followed me again?

  I turned to find the hand belonged to Miss Cruet. And, judging by the look on her face, I was in Big Trouble.

  ‘Remind me of the school rules.’ Miss Cruet’s voice was dangerously quiet. ‘Specifically rule two.’

  ‘No contact with the school next door,’ I muttered.

  ‘Then why were you shouting over the wall?’

  ‘I… I just thought I would.’

  ‘You just thought you would.’ Miss Cruet’s knitted boot was tapping ominously on the ground. ‘Exactly what is it about the school that fascinates you so?’

  I thought quickly. ‘It’s got a pool, and a cinema and a gym. And… pizzas and Easter eggs and chocolate fountains—’

  ‘Hmph!’ snorted Miss Cruet, showering the ground with hairpins. ‘So you decided to break a school rule simply in order to indulge your greed for junk food?’

  I hung my head.

  Miss Cruet grabbed my arm. ‘One hour in the Room of Reflection. Now!’

  Miss Cruet opened the door to the Room of Reflection and pushed me inside. The bolt snapped shut.

  My heart beat fast. Any minute now, I’d see the Bird again and it would give me the answer it had promised—it would tell me how to get into the school next door and find my twin. The room was dark, just as it had been last time. I felt up the wall for the light switch and clicked it on. The bulb in the ceiling slowly lit up, casting a dim light on the bare floorboards and the empty walls. There was the big, carved mirror at the far end of the room. I looked around for the cabinet.

  It wasn’t there.

  ‘Bird!’ I shouted. ‘I’m back!’

  Nothing happened. No cabinet appeared.

  ‘I’m back!’ I shouted again. ‘You said you’d give me my answer!’

  But my voice echoed round the empty room.

  I walked slowly round the room, running my fingers over the bare walls. I didn’t know what I was looking for—I just wanted to be sure that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, that the cabinet really wasn’t there. When I got back to where I’d started, I turned my back to the wall and slid down until I was sitting on the floor.

  Then I heard a voice.

  It wasn’t the Bird’s croak. It wasn’t Miss Cruet’s snap, and it wasn’t Mr Gold’s rusty tones. It wasn’t Rule Boy’s sneering voice or Feral’s growl, or Custard’s stutter, or Saddo’s whine.

  It was the sweetest voice I had ever heard in my life—like birdsong and waves and summer breezes and soft bells chiming.

  And it was calling my name.

  I FIND HER

  ‘Flynn… Flynn…’

  Where is the voice coming from? It seemed to be everywhere, all around me, stealing into my ears and winding around my heart. Was I going bonkers? Maybe there really was something wrong with me.

  ‘Flynn… Oh, Flynn…’

  My name sounded so lovely whispered by the voice.

  Now it seemed to be coming from the mirror. With shaking legs, I walked over to it.

  ‘Look, Flynn. Look in the mirror…’

  I stared at my reflection. There I was, with my burn and my curls. But, somehow, I looked different. My eyes looked sort of scared but also full of hope.

  ‘Come closer…’

  I moved so that my face was right up against the surface of the mirror. My breath misted the black-spotted glass, until my reflection disappeared and all I could see was the mist.

  ‘Look, Flynn. Look…’

  I stared. The mist was clearing. In the dim light, I saw the reflection of myself.

  Except that it wasn’t me.

  It was a girl who looked just like me—the same height, the same brown eyes, the same freckled nose. Her hair was marmalade coloured, like mine, but while mine was cut in a rough, shoulder-length bob, the girl’s hair hung in shining curls almost to her waist. And instead of a shabby sweatshirt and trousers, she wore the uniform of the school next door: a crisp white shirt, a navy skirt and a blue-and-silver striped tie.

  But what I couldn’t stop staring at was her face. Her cheeks were smooth and white and perfect. There was no burn mark at all.

  My hand flew out to touch her, and it hit the glass of the mirror. I didn’t even cry out. All I could do was stare at my twin, trying to take in every inch of her, just in case she vanished. Then she gave a laugh so beautiful that I wanted to catch it in my fingers and keep it forever.

  ‘Oh, Flynn!’ she said, and this time her voice was like honey and wildflowers and rainbows. ‘At last—at last you’re here! I’ve been so lonely, waiting for you.’

  I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

  ‘Say something, Flynn! I want to hear your voice!’

  ‘Oh!’ I gasped, and words began to tumble out. ‘I’ve-been-trying-and-trying-to-find-you. Is-it-really-you? Are-you-real?’

  ‘I’m real,’ said the girl, with the sweetest smile.

  ‘What’s your name?’

  Was her name tattooed on the back of her neck, like mine? I wanted to ask her to lift up her hair and show me, but it felt too scary to do it.

  ‘My name is Silver,’ she said, and her smile was like the warmest hug on the coldest day.

  Silver. I wanted to say it over and over. Silver. Silver and Flynn. The more I stared at her, the more all the mysterious things that had happened began to make sense.

  ‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ I said. ‘It was you who arranged all the messages?’

  ‘What messages?’

  ‘Don’t you remember? The messages the doves brought—telling me about my name, and about you being alive and living next door.’

  ‘Oh, those messages! I’m so excited to see you that I forgot! Yes—yes, it was me who sent them.’

  My heart felt like it was being pulled through the glass to her. How could I wait a moment longer?

  ‘I want to be with you!’ I cried.

  ‘Me too,’ said Silver. ‘I’ve been so unhappy without you.’ And a single tear rolled down her cheek.

  I couldn’t bear it. There must be a way.

  ‘I’ve thought and thought how to get to your school,’ I said, ‘but the wall is too high to climb, and when I shouted over it, the children just called me a freak.’

  ‘Oh, them.’ Silver frowned, and it was like clouds rolling in front of the sun. ‘They won’t help us. They’re jealous of us being twins.’

  ‘How then?’ I said. ‘How can we be together?’

  Silver leant towards the glass and began to whisper.

  ‘There is a way,’ she said. ‘But you have to make me a promise.’

  ‘Anything!’ I whispered back.

  ‘You must promise never, never to tell your teachers about me. If they know, they’ll forbid us to meet and we’ll lose one another forever!’

  The thought of losing Silver, now that I’d found her, made my heart squeeze as if it would shatter.

  ‘I promise,’ I said.

  ‘Shhh,’ said Silver. ‘Someone’s coming.’

  Footsteps were creaking up the stairs.

  ‘Quick, Flynn, listen,’ whispered Silver. ‘Meet me here at full moon, at the stroke of midnight.’

  ‘But how? Miss Cruet sleeps on the floor below here. How can I—’

  ‘I know you can find a way. I trust you.’

  She held her hand up to the glass. I placed my own hand there too, so our palms met, exactly the same size, and we gazed at one another, unable to s
ay goodbye.

  There was a rattling of the bolt. Miss Cruet was back. Surely I’d only been here a few minutes? Maybe she’d changed her mind about punishing me.

  ‘Full moon,’ said Silver, her voice beginning to fade. ‘At midnight…’

  Then she was gone, and I was alone, staring at my old self in the mirror, with my raggedy hair and my shabby clothes and my burn.

  The door swung open. I turned, expecting to see Miss Cruet, but it wasn’t her—it was Mr Gold. He limped in, but instead of looking at me, his eyes peered around the room.

  ‘Child,’ he said, ‘are you all right?’

  I couldn’t help smiling. ‘Yes—yes, I’m fine.’

  If only I could tell him that I had a twin, just like he did. That she was more special than anyone in the world—that soon we would be together forever. But I’d made my promise. I covered my mouth with my hands so that the words wouldn’t jump out.

  ‘Did something… happen in here?’ said Mr Gold. ‘I heard voices. Did you see your bird again?’

  I shook my head. I was glad he could only see my outline, not my face, because I was sure I was blushing.

  Mr Gold peered at me, then he nodded and limped towards the door.

  ‘Come on then. Miss Cruet has kept you some breakfast.’

  ‘I’m not hungry,’ I said, which was true. I felt full—full of Silver. Her face and her voice filled my head.

  I followed Mr Gold downstairs. Outside his study, he stopped, leaning on his stick.

  ‘You were upset about my suggestion that you work at acrobatics with the boy,’ he said.

  I nodded, but everything that had happened before meeting Silver seemed a million years ago.

  ‘You need not work with him if you don’t wish to,’ said Mr Gold. ‘But he wants to come to the lessons, and to learn for himself. So how about it? Do you want to continue with your lessons?’

  ‘Oh… yes. Yes, I do.’

  I could teach Silver everything that Mr Gold taught me. Silver and Flynn, the Daredevil Twins. We would perform together—Silver in a silvery leotard, me in my golden one—as the audience roared and gasped and clapped.