"Blyton, Enid - St Clare's 06 - Fifth Formers at St Clare's" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

Enid Blyton: Fifth Formers of St. Clare's (St. Clare's #6)


1 BACK FOR THE WINTER TERM

ST. CLARE'S had stood silent and empty during eight weeks of the summer holiday. Except for the sound of mops and brushes, and a tradesman ringing at the bell, the place had been very quiet. The school cat missed the girls and wandered about miserably for the first week or two.
But now everything was different. The school coaches were rolling up the hill, full of chattering, laughing childrenЧSt. Clare's was beginning a new winter term !
' Who would think this was a winter term ?' said Pat O'Sullivan, to her twin, Isabel. ' The sun is as hot as it was in the summer. We might be able to have a few games of tennis, still.'
' I shall certainly have a swim in the pool,' said Bobby Ellis, whose face seemed even more freckled than usual. ' I hope there's fresh water in todayЧI might have a swim after tea.'
' Ah, you Bobbee ! Always you must play tennis or swim or run or jump !' said Claudine, the little French girl. ' And your freckles ! Never did I see so many on one face. I have been careful in the hot sun these holidaysЧnot one freckle did I catch !'
The girls laughed. Claudine was always terrified of getting frecklesЧbut never did one appear on her pale face and white hands.
The girls poured into the school, running up the familiar steps, shouting to one another, dumping their lacrosse sticks everywhere.
' Hallo, Hilary ! Hallo, Janet ! Oh, there's Carlotta, looking more like a gypsy than ever. Hey, Carlotta, where did you go for your holidays ? You look as dark as a gypsy."
' I have been to Spain,' said Carlotta. ' Some of my people live there, you know. I had a grand time.'
' There's MirabelЧgolly, she's awfully tall now !' said Isabel. ' Gladys looks more like a mouse than ever beside her.'
' Hallo !' said the big, strapping Mirabel, coming up. ' How's every one ?'
' Hallo, Mirabel, hallo Gladys,' said the girls. ' You've been spending the hols. together, haven't you ? I bet you played tennis and swam all the time !'
Both Mirabel and Gladys were fond of games, and this term Mirabel was anxious to be sports captain at St. Clare's. She had been in the fifth form for two terms, and Annie Thomas, the sports captain, had let Mirabel help her. Now Annie had left, and there was a chance that Mirabel might be captain, for there was no one in the sixth form really fitted to have that post.
' Let's go and look at our classroom,' said Bobby Ellis. ' It was going to be re-decorated in the hols., I know. Let's see what it's like.'
They all trooped upstairs to the big fifth form-room. Certainly it looked very nice, painted a pale banana yellow. The light was clean and clear in the room, and the view from the windows a lovely one.
' We've only got this term hereЧand then we go up into the sixth form !' said Hilary. ' Fancy being at the top of the school! I remember when I first came to St. Clare's, I thought the fifth and sixth formers were almost grown-up. I hardly dared to speak to them.'
' I expect the young ones think the same thing of us,' said Janet. ' I know most of them scuttle out of my way when I come alongЧlike frightened rabbits !'
' I have a young sister in the second form this term,' said Claudine, the French girl. ' She came over with me from France. LookЧthere she is, the little Antoinette.'
The girls looked out of the window. They saw a girl of about fourteen, very like the pale-faced, dark-haired
Claudine, standing watching the others. She looked very self-possessed.
'Don't you want to go down and show Antoinette round a bit ? ' said Pat. ' I bet she feels lonely and new.'
'Ah, Antoinette would never feel so,' said Claudine. ' She can stand on her own toes, like me.'
' Stand on her own feet, you mean,' said Bobby, with a chuckle. ' You'll never get those English sayings right, Claudine. AhЧthere's old Mam'zelle !'
The girls watched Mam'zelle going out into the garden, an anxious look on her face.
' She is looking for the little Antoinette,' said Claudine. ' She has not seen her for two years. Ah, Antoinette will now be swamped in love and affection ! My aunt will think her little niece Antoinette is as wonderful as me, her niece Claudine !'
Mam'zelle was Claudine's aunt, and this fact was at times useful to Claudine, and at other times, embarrassing. For Antoinette just then it was most embarrassing. The little French girl had been enjoying herself, watching the excited English girls catching hold of one another's arms, swinging each other round, chasing one another, and generally behaving in the usual school-girl wayЧa way, however, that the demure Antoinette had not been used to.
Then, quite suddenly, an avalanche descended upon her, two plump arms almost strangled her, and a loud and excited voice poured out French endearments in first one ear and then another. Loud kisses were smacked on each cheek, and then another hug came which made Antoinette gasp for breath.
' Ah, la petite Antoinette, mon petit chou,' cried Mam'zelle at the top of her voice. All the girls stopped playing and stared at Antoinette and Mam'zelle. They giggled. It was plain that Antoinette was not at all pleased to be greeted in public in this way. She disentangled herself as best she could.
She caught sight of her elder sister, Claudine, leaning
out of a high window, grinning in delight. She pointed up to her at once.
' Dear Tante Mathilde, there is my sister Claudine who looks for you. Now that she has seen you greet me, she will wish you to greet her too.'
Mam'zelle glanced up and saw Claudine. Still holding Antoinette, she waved frantically and blew kisses. ' Ah, there is the little Claudine too ! Claudine, I come to embrace you.'
Antoinette wriggled away and lost herself in the nearby crowd of girls. Mam'zelle turned her steps towards the door that led to the stairs. ' I come, I come !' she called to Claudine.
' And I go,' said Claudine, pushing away the giggling girls. ' Mam'zelle will be quite overcome this term with two nieces here.'
So, when poor Mam'zelle panted into the fifth-form classroom to embrace her second niece, Claudine was not to be found. ' I have missed her, but I will find her !' cried Mam'zelle, and she beamed round at the fifth formers there.
' Ah, Bobbee, you have come backЧand you Angela Чand AlisonЧall of you, the dear girls ! And you are going to work hard for me this term, so hardЧfor is it not next term that you go up into the top form, the sixth form. That is indeed a solemn thought !'
The French teacher went out of the room, hunting for her dear Claudine. The girls laughed. ' Dear old Mam'zelle,' said Hilary, ' I shall never forget her, if I live to be a hundred ! The tricks we've played on herЧdo you remember those awful stink-balls you had, Janet, when we were in the fourth form ? I laughed till I cried then, when I saw Mam'zelle's face as the smell reached her.'
' There's only one new girl this term,' said Janet ' in our form, I mean. I saw her name on the list downstairs. She's called Anne-Marie Longden. And Felicity Ray has come up from the fourth form.'
' About time too,' said Mirabel. ' She's older than most of the fifth already. I think she's a bit batty.'
'No, she's notЧit's only that she's a real musical genius,' said Gladys. ' You've said yourself heaps of times that she is, Mirabel. She doesn't seem to care about anything but musicЧother lessons just roll off her, like water off a duck's back. She's always bottom of everything except music.'
' Well, Miss Cornwallis won't be very thrilled if Felicity takes no notice of anything but music,' said Bobby, who had reason to know that the fifth-form mistress was what the girls called among themselves ' a real slave-driver'. ' I bet Felicity will know more geography, history and maths this term than she has ever known all the time she has been at school!'
' Any other girls ? ' said Mirabel.
' Well, it's funny, Alma Pudden's name was down on the list of fifth formers,' said Janet. ' But she's sixth form, isn't she ? I mean, when she came last term, she was put into the sixth formЧbut now her name is down for our form. Perhaps she's been put back into the fifth for some reason.'
' Well, I wish she wasn't,' said Bobby. ' I can't say she thrills me. She's so like her nameЧpuddeny! She's a bit like a suet pudding, fat and stodgy and dull.'
' She's got a beastly temper,' said Hilary. ' I guess she won't be too pleased at coming down into the fifth form!'