New Girl

by Laura Sieveking

  ‘And you’re sure you haven’t lost it?’ Ivy asked.

  ‘I’m sure,’ Zoe said firmly.

  ‘OK, I’m going to write all this down and log it. I’ll also bring this up at our Prefect meeting in a couple of days. In the meantime, I want you to have a really good look for the necklace, Zoe. If it doesn’t turn up in a couple of days, I’ll go with you to speak to Ms Montgomery about it. We need to be careful we don’t jump to conclusions about it being stolen. That will send everyone into a panic. So can you just keep looking for a day or two? Does that sound like a plan?’

  Zoe nodded sadly.

  I looked up and saw Saskia in our doorway, a confused and annoyed look on her face. She continued up the hallway with a huff.

  Ivy rolled her eyes and stood up. ‘Let me know how you go.’ She walked out of the room with a wave.

  I looked at my best friend’s sad face. Her dark brown eyes were red and puffy. I put my hand on her leg. This was the first time since moving to Eden College that I’d seen Zoe upset. Even on those first couple of nights when heaps of girls were teary and homesick, Zoe wasn’t. Zoe just copes. She can handle pressure and turn it into something positive. When I get a bit dramatic (which only happens SOMETIMES), she is always the one to talk me back down to reality and see sense, whatever the situation. It was unusual for me to be the comforter when it came to the two of us. And I hated seeing her so down.

  I looked up at Grace and shrugged, silently asking her what we could possibly do to help.

  ‘You know, I think we need a bit of fun to cheer you up, Zoe. It’s the weekend, and just because we live at school, it doesn’t mean we can’t loosen up a bit,’ Grace said, jumping off the bed.

  ‘What do you suggest?’ I asked Grace, as Zoe wiped her eyes.

  ‘It’s Friday night! We need to live a bit. Let’s sneak down to the common room for a midnight feast!’ Grace laughed.

  ‘What would we feast on—bread and milk from the kitchen?’ Zoe said sarcastically.

  ‘No … THIS!’ Grace opened her bottom drawer with a flourish and revealed a stash of lollies and chocolate.

  ‘Where did that come from?’ I laughed.

  ‘My dad just got back from a business trip to the US and brought home all these American lollies. So I brought them here. For emergencies.’ Grace smiled impishly.

  ‘Won’t we get in trouble, sneaking downstairs at night? Why not just have it here in the dorm room?’ Zoe asked.

  ‘That’s boring. Plus we want the other girls to come too, don’t we? Year 7 bonding time?’ Grace asked.

  I looked at her, unsure. I didn’t want to get into trouble. But then I looked at Zoe, who was smiling despite her red, watery eyes.

  ‘Let’s do it,’ I said, making up my mind.

  ‘I’ll spread the word,’ Grace said, jiggling up and down with excitement. ‘Tonight. Midnight. The common room.’

  ‘Ella!’ a voice hissed. ‘Get up! ELLA!’

  It was Grace, standing over me with a torch. I rubbed my sleepy eyes and rolled over in bed. The clock on the desk flashed 11.52 p.m.

  ‘I don’t want to anymore, Grace. Go back to bed,’ I moaned as I snuggled deeper under my covers.

  Grace pulled back my blanket in one swift movement.

  ‘Get UP!’ she hissed.

  I rolled my sleepy body over and hung my legs over the edge of the bed. Grace had already brought over my slippers and gown, which were sitting on the floor, ready for our escapade.

  I could see a sliver of light glowing through the blinds.

  On the other side of the room, Zoe was sleepily pulling her gown across her body. Violet snored on. She had said earlier that afternoon that candy wasn’t ‘her thing’ and that she didn’t want to come to the Common Room Midnight Feast (or CRMF, as we had code-named it).

  Grace grabbed her torch, then slowly opened the door. She looked up and down the hallway, switched on the torch, then beckoned for us to follow her. I heard the quiet padding of footsteps as girls from the other rooms giggled their way up the hall. We all tiptoed downstairs and let ourselves into the common room.

  It was dark and cold in the stark moonlight—the bean bags were stiff and chilly. We plonked ourselves in a circle.

  There were about fifteen of us who had decided to join the CRMF. Everyone else had said it was too dangerous and that we were stupid to try it. Surprisingly, Saskia, Portia and Mercedes were there. I thought Saskia would have been way too much of a goody-goody to sneak out at night. But Saskia constantly surprised me.

  ‘I hereby declare the first Year 7 CRMF open!’ Grace giggled, as she pretended to cut an invisible ribbon in the air.

  We all laughed but then shushed each other, aware that Ms Montgomery’s room was only down the hall.

  Grace pulled out the lollies from under her gown and dumped them in the middle of the circle. We all swooped on them like seagulls.

  ‘So, what now?’ Zoe asked in a whisper. ‘Ghost stories?’

  ‘Truth or Dare, I say,’ Saskia said.

  ‘Yeah, Truth or Dare!’ Portia and Mercedes chorused.

  ‘OK, I’m first!’ Saskia declared in her pompous way. Pompous means self-important.

  ‘Let’s flick this chocolate bar in the air,’ Grace said. ‘If it lands face-up, it’s Truth. But if it lands face-down, it’s Dare.’

  We all agreed.

  Grace flipped the chocolate bar up into the air and it landed on the carpet, face-up.

  ‘TRUTH!’ we all screamed.

  ‘SSSSSHHHH!’ Grace hissed. ‘OK, who has a truth question for Saskia?’

  ‘What’s your biggest fear?’ Zoe asked.

  Saskia thought. ‘Spiders,’ she said.

  ‘Really?’ Zoe asked. ‘That’s your true biggest fear?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Are you sure it isn’t your beautiful hair turning green?’ Portia teased.

  ‘Or your clothes being mismatched?’ Mercedes laughed.

  Saskia jokingly punched Mercedes in the arm.

  ‘Or not being in the top class for everything?’ I laughed, joining in.

  Saskia looked at me and her smile vanished. She took a sharp breath and tucked her hair behind her ears. Then she frowned, shook her head and quickly grabbed the chocolate bar, flicking it into the air.

  ‘This is for you, Ella,’ she said. She sounded annoyed. Had I said something wrong?

  The chocolate spun through the air then landed face-down. Dare.

  ‘I dare you,’ Saskia jumped in before anyone else could speak, ‘to sneak up the hallway, touch Ms Montgomery’s doorknob, then sneak back.’

  ‘No way!’ I protested. ‘She’ll hear me! The floorboards creak!’

  ‘That’s your dare!’ Saskia said.

  I looked around at all the faces staring back at me in the darkness.

  ‘OK,’ I agreed finally, standing up.

  I walked out through the big double doors of the common room and began to tiptoe slowly up the hallway. I tried to walk nice and close to the wall, as the floorboards seemed to squeak less there. I turned around about halfway to see multiple giggling faces watching me from the common room doorway.

  SQUEAK!

  I paused, wincing, but nothing happened so I continued on.

  The hallway became darker as I approached Ms Montgomery’s room, which was towards the back of the house.

  The grandfather clock was so loud in the quiet hallway.

  Tick.

  Tock.

  Tick.

  Tock.

  SQUEAK!

  Ugh, another floorboard. I froze. I was within a couple of metres of Ms Montgomery’s room. Was that a shuffling noise inside? I stood as still as a statue. No, it must not have been.

  I took a couple more steps and reached out my hand, ready to touch the doorknob.

  Suddenly, the door flung open!

  Ms Montgomery was standing tall in her dressing gown, looking down at me with my outstretched hand. Her face looked ice cold and her brow
was furrowed angrily.

  ‘Ella!’ she gasped. ‘What are you doing?’

  My mind raced. How was I going to get out of this one?

  I heard the girls in the common room shuffle back from the doorway. Ms Montgomery’s head shot up, craning her neck to see what the noise was that she had heard up ahead. If Ms Montgomery went to the common room, we were dead meat.

  I slowly walked past Ms Montgomery so she had to turn away from the common room to keep facing me.

  ‘Mum, is it breakfast?’ I mumbled sleepily.

  Ms Montgomery looked confused.

  Behind her, I saw the girls file one by one out of the common room and back up the stairs to the dorm rooms. If I could just keep her looking the other way for a couple more seconds, she wouldn’t see them.

  ‘Can I have pancakes?’ I asked in a slow, sleepy voice.

  ‘Ella, are you … are you sleepwalking?’ Ms Montgomery said, frowning.

  ‘Is it time for ballet, Mum?’ I mumbled in my best dream voice.

  Ms Montgomery shook her head and took me by the arm. ‘Ella, come back to bed. It’s not morning and you are sleepwalking.’

  ‘Can I go swimming today?’ I murmured as I let Ms Montgomery lead me up the stairs. She walked me into my room, where Zoe and Grace were already tucked back up in their beds.

  She gently helped me onto my bed and pulled the covers over me.

  ‘Go to sleep,’ she whispered, as she tucked me in tightly.

  Ms Montgomery took a quick look around the room. Satisfied everyone was fast asleep, she turned and left, quietly shutting the door behind her.

  I let out a huge sigh of relief.

  Grace and Zoe burst out laughing, muffling the sound with their pillows.

  ‘Thanks for saving us!’ Grace giggled.

  I rolled my eyes and shook my head. That was enough excitement for one night.

  Chapter 7

  × −

  From: Ella

  Sent: Wednesday, 5:40 PM

  To: Olivia

  Subject: Scandal!

  Hi Olivia!

  Thanks for posting me the new Millie Mysteries book! I can’t wait to read it. I’ll let you know if it’s as good as the first ones. How’s everything at home?

  Things here at Eden are going great. Sometimes I feel like I’ve lived here for years! All the girls are getting along really well. Oh, except for the latest scandal.

  Zoe couldn’t find her precious necklace from her Nonna. She said she didn’t lose it, so we told Ivy, a Juniors’ Prefect, that we thought it was stolen. Since then, other things have been going missing from the Year 7 dorm. A girl called Annabelle has had her watch stolen. And another girl named Chloe says her silk scarf has gone missing. She got it from her aunt who lives in Paris, so it was totally chic and special.

  Everyone is starting to blame each other. I’ve made sure all my precious things are locked in my drawer. I’ve heard a rumour that they are going to have to lock all our bedrooms in the daytime. We’ve got a meeting about it with our housemistress and the headmistress later.

  Email me soon!

  Love, Ella

  xx

  All of Year 7 was sitting together in the common room after classes—some on the floor, some on the couches and some on beanbags. There was an ominous mood in the room—that means the feeling that something bad was coming. A bit like grey clouds before a storm or when the phone rings in the middle of the night with news about your great-grandma.

  I was gazing at the paintings on the common room wall. There was one of a field peppered with white rabbits, which always made me think of my Nanna Kate.

  Nanna Kate once told me about the summer she spent in an Italian circus. She used to be a good gymnast, just like me, so she was really strong and bendy. When she was at university, she travelled to Italy with her best friend over a summer break. They needed to make some money and met some people who were in a travelling circus in Tuscany. When they found out my Nanna Kate could do cool gymnastics tricks, they asked if she’d like to be part of the show while it was in town. She did tumbling with the acrobats and learned to juggle.

  Nanna Kate said there was a magician named Emerald who could do amazing tricks. She did this one trick where she put a big, slithering snake into a bag. When she opened the bag at the end of the trick, out came five bunnies, as white as the purest snow. Nanna Kate never found out how the trick was done, but every night there was a snake at the beginning of the show and bunnies at the end. When Nanna Kate asked Emerald about it, she just told her that things aren’t always what they seem to be.

  I looked around the room at the girls in my year. It was so funny to think that I would be spending the next six years with these people—that we’d go from being twelve-year-olds to almost-adults together. It’s like they were my sisters. Tight friendships were already forming—some girls were resting on beanbags together and there was a long train of girls sitting in a conga line, braiding each other’s hair. Zoe and Grace were squished on a couch with me. I saw Violet sitting over by the wall with her earbuds in. Everything looked normal, but something was up.

  ‘Attention, everyone,’ Ms Montgomery said as she glided into the room. Behind her came Mrs Sinclair, who was looking unusually grave. They shut the big double doors behind them.

  ‘We are holding this meeting with you in the common room because this is where we relax, like any normal family,’ Mrs Sinclair said. ‘And that is what we are—a family. So you can imagine my sadness to hear that there have been thefts amongst our Year 7 students.’

  The girls began to murmur between themselves.

  ‘This is very serious. We have reason to believe this is only a Year 7 problem, as all the missing items are from the Year 7 floor. We imagine it would be easier for someone living on that floor to be taking items from that floor,’ Ms Montgomery continued on from Mrs Sinclair.

  ‘We want to give the culprit the opportunity to come clean,’ Mrs Sinclair said. ‘If you come to my office with the items, I would love to talk to you about why it is you’ve taken them. But I will also be gracious—it’s a big deal moving away from home to boarding school. I understand this can have an effect on you. And I’m here to help.’ She smiled her characteristic warm smile.

  ‘Now, go and get yourselves ready for dinner. I’m hoping the culprit will have come clean within the next 24 hours. Otherwise we are going to have to put in place some very inconvenient precautions, which none of you will enjoy,’ Mrs Sinclair said.

  Everybody stood up with glum faces. It was horrible to think there could be a thief in our midst. And this was affecting everybody.

  I suddenly had a thought.

  ‘Mrs Sinclair,’ I said, walking up to the headmistress. ‘Can I talk to you for a moment?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Let’s sit over on the couch, Ella,’ she said. I loved how Mrs Sinclair knew every girl in the school by name.

  As the other girls filed out of the common room, I sat with Mrs Sinclair. It felt like sitting with Nanna Kate.

  ‘How are you settling in, Ella?’ she asked warmly.

  ‘Oh, I love it here, I really do!’ I said. ‘There’s so much to do and be involved in. Which brings me to my question.’

  ‘Go on,’ she said.

  ‘I’ve joined Eden Press and we’ve been talking about writing stories about things that really matter to the girls. Readership is dropping and I think this is possibly due to us not being … not being relevant enough,’ I said, trying to sound as professional as I could.

  Mrs Sinclair’s mouth turned up into a small smile.

  ‘So, I was wondering if I could write about the thefts,’ I said.

  ‘Oh, Ella, I’m not sure about that,’ she said, frowning. ‘We certainly don’t want accusations being thrown around. And we don’t want panic either. Do you think this is really a good idea?’

  ‘Well, I think this is what matters to us—we all want to feel like we are safe here and nobody likes to think their stuff is in d
anger of being stolen. It’s important, don’t you think?’

  Mrs Sinclair tipped her head to one side slightly, thinking.

  ‘And,’ I continued, ‘what if I interviewed the people with items missing and gave the story a personal feel. The thief might even read it and be convinced to turn herself in!’

  Mrs Sinclair sat silent for a few seconds. Then she slapped both her hands on her thighs. ‘OK, yes, Ella!’

  I smiled a big smile.

  ‘But,’ she cautioned, ‘this is on the condition that you do not accuse anybody of the crimes. Innocent until proven guilty, yes? No trial-by-media.’

  I nodded enthusiastically. ‘Definitely not,’ I assured her. ‘This will be a personal piece giving a voice to the victims.’

  Mrs Sinclair nodded and patted me on the shoulder. She stood up and headed out the double doors.

  YES!

  This was my chance to write a really exciting and relevant piece for Eden Press. It was going to get me the role of Junior Journalist for sure.

  I bounded out of the common room, up the stairs and burst into my dorm room. Rifling through my drawers,

  I found my special notebook and pen. I needed to start investigating.

  Right now.

  Chapter 8

  Zoe’s eyes were shining. And I knew exactly why— we were having our first science lesson in a proper laboratory. Now that we were halfway through our second week and all settled in, it was time to hit the labs. In primary school, we did plenty of science. But it was just in our normal, boring classroom with our regular teacher. Our experiments never really went beyond using magnets or mixing colours. Pretty tame. But I knew here at Eden we would be using proper scientific equipment, like Bunsen burners and test tubes and chemicals.

  I wasn’t that excited because science isn’t my thing. That is NOT because I am a girl. Oh no, it’s not. Nanna Kate says she hates how people think writing is for girls and science is for boys. I know that’s wrong, wrong, WRONG because my Nanna Kate has a PhD. That means she’s a doctor. Not a doctor like the one you go to for medicine—it means she has a doctorate in a special subject. And my Nanna Kate? She is a doctor of science. When she was at university, she studied microbiology. I think that has something to do with tiny germs and stuff, and it was super important. She did all this research into human cells and disease, and she was even part of a team that created a new vaccination.