Wilkinson True Friends at Fernside

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-78849-627-8
Verlag: The O'Brien Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 272 Seiten

Reihe: Fernside

Fernside House, nestled at the end of a quiet road, is waiting for eighty girls to disturb its holiday peace ... Cousins Robin and Linnet are back at Fernside and school life is busier than ever - with the animals at Rowanbank, a new science class, netball rivalry and fun in the dorms. But the end-of-term exams are not the only test for the girls. As the lower fourth face the good and the bad times of growing up and the cancellation of the Christmas Show, a surprise 'new' girl challenges them to understand what it really means to be a true friend at Fernside.

Described in the Irish Times as 'one of our foremost writers for young people', Sheena Wilkinson is the author of eight novels for children and young adults, and one for adults. Her books have won numerous awards, including the CBI Book of the Year in 2013 for Grounded, and she has been shortlisted three times for the Astrid Lindgren Award, the world's biggest children's literature award. Sheena lives in County Derry with her husband, stepson and two dogs. Sheena has been a lifelong fan of girls' school stories ever since reading the Malory Towers and Chalet School books - she even has a PhD on the subject! Find out more about Sheena on her website, sheenawilkinson.com.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wilkinson, Sheena

Leseproben

Chapter 2

The Anti-Bullying League

It was so lovely not to feel new! Linnet followed Fran and Robin up to Lilac dormitory, remembering how scared she had been only two months ago, when everything was so strange. She still found school noisy and busy, but the girls thronging the hallways and the stairs were no longer strangers, and many greeted her. Mim, the school cat, watching fatly from the windowsill, her tucked-in paws invisible under her soft tortoiseshell fur, opened her pink mouth in a silent mew of welcome.

‘Hello, Linnet,’ said a small girl with a shock of pure white hair and a bright face. She was hand-in-hand with her pal. ‘Did you have a nice holiday?’

‘Hello, Alice. Hello Margery. Yes, I stayed with Robin.’ Robin, ahead with Fran, turned and grinned before disappearing into the dormitory, leaving Linnet with the second formers.

Alice looked disappointed. ‘I thought you’d have gone to America.’

‘You can’t get to America and back in a week!’

‘So you didn’t get any more of that yummy chocolate?’ Alice asked.

Margery yanked her hand, looking shocked.

‘Stop it, Margery, I only asked!’

Linnet laughed. ‘As it happens, there was a parcel for me at Robin’s house,’ she said. ‘I’ve got some sweets – what they call candies. I’ll come and find you later.’

Alice went off looking pleased and important, swinging hands with Margery. Linnet smiled after them. Before the holiday she had reported Gillian Moffatt to a mistress for teasing Alice about her albino colouring. Now Alice regarded Linnet as a heroine, which made her feel odd. But in a nice way.

There was a familiar thud-thud-thud on the stairs and Linnet paused to wait for Sadie, who was swinging herself up on her crutches. ‘You look pleased with yourself,’ Sadie said.

‘I love not feeling so new.’

‘I know. We’re positively part of the furniture now,’ said Sadie with an elderly sigh.

They went together to Lilac, where Babs and Evangeline were putting their things away, already bickering gently. Linnet flung her suitcase down beside her bed and went straight to the open window. She was almost holding her breath as she leaned out and looked to the right, over trees that were barer than they had been before half term.

It was all right. Rowanbank was still there. Of course she knew that it would be, but she had spent so much time thinking about it over the holiday that it was almost a shock to see it there, beyond the Fernside fence, peaceful and green and familiar. There were the tall trees whose rustling was so calming; there was the overgrown paddock, with William the goat and Silver the pony grazing peacefully. Linnet caught her breath. In a corner of the garden, stock-still and alert, as if it had spotted her looking down, was a hare, its long ears red-veined in the late-afternoon sun. For a moment the bustle behind Linnet faded away and there was just her and the hare caught in a moment of mutual awareness. And then the hare’s ears twitched and it zigzagged across the garden so fast that Linnet wondered if she had dreamed it.

Sadie joined her at the window, her short curls tickling Linnet’s cheek as they looked out.

‘I can’t believe we’re actually allowed to go there now,’ Sadie said. ‘It was fun sneaking in when it was out of bounds’ – Sadie was of an adventurous disposition – ‘but it will be nice not to worry about getting into trouble.’

‘I wonder how those dogs are,’ Linnet said. ‘The poor things were so badly hurt.’ She didn’t mention the hare. It had seemed almost too magical to be real, especially as you usually only saw hares at dawn, and you could have so few secrets at school. Well, she might tell Fran.

‘If anyone can help them, Dr Anne can,’ Sadie said confidently. ‘I bet those kittens have grown. I wonder how soon we’ll be allowed to go?’

‘We’d better remember to call her Dr Flynn when she’s teaching us,’ Linnet reminded her.

They found out about Rowanbank after tea, when Miss Rea, the headmistress, stood up to deliver her announcements. It had been a delicious tea, mostly owing to people having come back with goodies to share. The lower fourth felt very sophisticated when Giulia, their Italian classmate, handed round a box of soft almondy ricciarelli.

First, Miss Rea said that the thirds and fourths were to start science classes with Dr Flynn, and then she spoke about Rowanbank in general, explaining that it was being used as a sanctuary for animals in need.

‘As you know, Rowanbank has been out of bounds since Dr Flynn bought it,’ she said. ‘But I am pleased to announce that she is prepared to allow a small number of girls – those with an interest in animal husbandry – to help out. This is a great honour, girls.’ She looked round them all severely over her spectacles. ‘Dr Flynn is a most accomplished person, and I expect every one of you to give her the respect she deserves.’

Most of the girls looked interested, but none more so than the lower fourth.

‘I wonder how they decide who gets to go,’ Linnet said as they made their way to the common room for recreation.

‘We ought to have preferential treatment,’ Sadie said. ‘After all, it was our detective work and then our daring dawn raid which solved the mystery of what was going on.’ She was grappling with an armful of storybooks and trying to get along with one crutch.

‘And we actually know how to look after animals,’ Fran said.

‘Yes, but it won’t work like that,’ Robin, often the voice of reason, pointed out. ‘People wouldn’t think it was fair. Sadie – you’ll drop those books. Why didn’t you put them in your bag? For goodness’ sake, let someone help.’

‘I got so many new ones at half term,’ Sadie said. ‘They don’t all fit in my bag!’ Sure enough, one of the books slipped from her grasp and then, as she tried to retrieve it, all the others tumbled out of her arms and crashed to the floor, one of them just missing Linnet’s toe.

Robin was too kind to say I told you so, but they all bent and took a book each before proceeding along the corridor with Sadie safely back on two crutches. Linnet’s was called The School at the Chalet and Sadie said it was brand new, and ‘utterly fab!’ ‘You can borrow it after me,’ she offered. Linnet would rather have read the street directory than a school story, but she said that would be lovely. Half a term had taught her that it didn’t always do to say exactly what came into your head, however true it might be.

Fran, who never willingly gave up on a grievance, had not stopped muttering about Rowanbank, saying what wouldn’t be fair would be if sensible people who wanted to become vets weren’t given the same opportunities as silly people who only wanted to cuddle fluffy kittens.

‘Honestly, Fran,’ Robin said. ‘It’ll be fine – not everyone will want to help. Some people don’t like animals. And the seniors are generally too busy.’

‘And the little ones are too young,’ Sadie said.

‘How could anyone not like animals?’ asked Linnet, who often found animals easier to understand than people.

‘Gillian Moffatt doesn’t,’ Robin said.

‘Oh, never mind her.’ Fran pushed open the common-room door. ‘We won’t see her for a whole week. Let’s not even mention her beastly name.’

Alice wasn’t the only girl Gillian had bullied; she had been unkind to quite a few of her classmates too, so everyone was happy to agree.

And next morning, as lower fourth filed into their form room under the watchful eye of Miss West, Linnet couldn’t help smiling at Gillian’s empty chair. A whole Gillian-free week! Nobody to call Linnet a baby; nobody to pretend to fall over Sadie’s crutches or call Enid ‘Bessie Bunter’. Lower fourth without Gillian would be bliss!

Miss West, who missed nothing, saw Linnet’s expression. ‘You all know,’ she said, ‘that Gillian is suspended. We will welcome her back next week’ – a few girls made faces at the word ‘welcome’ – ‘and I shall rely on you all to give her the chance to make amends. She has been severely punished and that should be the end of the matter.’ She looked round them all sternly. ‘The end of the matter,’ she repeated when Babs opened her mouth.

At breaktime, most of the lower fourth grabbed buns and drinks and made for their form garden. It was a bright, cold day, and prefects were patrolling the grounds, making sure everyone...