she’d pinched the bag from someone else. “I know you two,” she said, in a voice that sounded like it was giving us an exam. “You’re the twins who got rid of the headmaster, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I said. “What’s your point?”
“Hmmph,” she sniffed. “I liked him. He chose me as a prefect, after all.”
Mr Bartholomew, the old head, had tried to bring back the prefect system when he took over the school back from Miss Fox. His choices were utterly terrible, but the teachers wouldn’t be picking new prefects until next year.
Ivy gaped at Cassandra, while I just stared daggers at her. She was mad if she actually liked the old man. “He murdered a student!” Ivy pointed out.
“Well, perhaps she should have behaved,” the tall girl said with a wry smile.
Elsie smacked her on the arm. “You’re such a card, Cassie!”
Cassandra giggled, as if she’d been terribly funny. I wanted to give her a smack myself, but it would have been a lot harder, and probably round the face area.
“Right,” I said. “Will you lot get out of our way so we can get to class?” I wasn’t particularly in a rush to learn, but I was fed up with being taunted.
The other prefect, who had dark hair and a horse-riding rosette pinned to her uniform, spread her arms out wide. “Is that any way to talk to your betters?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” I said. I wasn’t about to let them walk all over us. I pushed the horsey girl out of the way and stomped into the aisle. Ivy and Ariadne darted behind me.
“Watch it, Grey,” Elsie hissed, as her friend dusted herself off in mock horror. “We’ll be keeping an eye on your little friend on the trip, and you wouldn’t want her to get into trouble, would you?” She glanced pointedly at Ariadne, who gulped.
At that moment, Mrs Knight headed across the quickly emptying hall towards us. “Problem, girls?” she asked.
“Oh, none at all, Miss,” said Elsie, pulling out her cheerful sucking-up-to-teachers voice. “We were simply telling these little ones how excited we are about the trip. It’s going to be so wonderful!”
Mrs Knight beamed. I clenched my fists to prevent myself from punching anyone.
“How lovely to see some school spirit again,” the headmistress said happily. “Right then, off to lessons with you all.”
I wasn’t about to be told twice, so I grabbed Ivy and Ariadne’s hands and we hurried away from the prefects.
“I can’t believe Mrs Knight is putting those smarmy slugs in charge,” I muttered as we walked through the corridors.
“Me neither,” said Ivy. It had been bad enough going for a short bus ride with Elsie last term, let alone having to suffer a whole week of her bossing us about.
Ariadne had gone a bit pale. “Please don’t leave me alone with them,” she said.
“We won’t,” I promised. “We’ll find a way.”
But at that moment, I had to admit – I was out of ideas.
But what I was even more worried about was leaving Ariadne in the company of unscrupulous prefects for a week. Scarlet was right. We had to get permission. But how?
“We could forge a letter from our parents!” Scarlet suggested as we walked to ballet that afternoon.
“That’s just a recipe for trouble if we get found out,” I said. “Not to mention that they don’t just have to say we can go, someone has to actually pay for both of us.”
“Hmmph,” my twin folded her arms. “You haven’t made any suggestions so far.”
“I’m thinking about it,” I insisted.
Ballet was a little different these days. Our teacher, Miss Finch, had been struggling for some time with her injured leg. Then last term the strange Madame Zelda had arrived when Miss Finch disappeared – just a coincidence, it turned out, as Zelda had actually turned up hoping to apologise for being the one to cause the injury.
They must have had a long talk, because now they seemed happy to be in the same room as one another – or at the very least, they accepted it. Mrs Knight had decided that it would be best for them to share the job of teaching ballet in order to give Miss Finch a bit of a rest now and then.
We descended the steps into the chilly basement ballet studio, where Miss Finch and Madame Zelda were waiting. Miss Finch sat at the piano, while Zelda stood staring into the mirror. They weren’t talking, but the atmosphere didn’t seem too unfriendly.
“Ah, girls,” said Madame Zelda as we walked in. “Begin your warm-up, please.”
We started lacing on our shoes, never quite sure whether we had to remain silent as Madame Zelda usually insisted, or whether we could talk more freely as Miss Finch had let us in the past. I watched as Nadia and another girl came down the stairs into the room.
“I’m just so excited for the trip,” Nadia was saying. “A whole week away from school!”
Madame Zelda looked at her sharply. “I hope you will be practising extra hard this week, then, Miss Sayani. You don’t want to get behind with your ballet.”
Nadia straightened up. “No, Miss!” she said.
The new teacher seemed pleased with her answer. “Good. And you two? Will you be leaving us as well?” she asked, looking down at me and Scarlet.
“Couldn’t get permission,” said Scarlet, glaring at the floor. “Awful parents.”
“I can sympathise,” called Miss Finch from the piano.
I got to my feet, and Madame Zelda placed a thin hand lightly on my shoulder. “Then we shall enjoy having you both in class,” she said, and winked at me.
I tried to smile, but Scarlet looked so miserable that I couldn’t quite manage it.
Penny walked in then, and Madame Zelda turned to her. “What about you, Miss Winchester? Will you be going on this trip?”
Penny’s expression turned thunderous.
