Rivalry at Silver Spires (13 page)

“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.”

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…

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.