Читать книгу The Second Form at St. Clare's - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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It was very strange at first to be in the second form, instead of the first. The twins felt very important, and looked down on the first-formers, feeling that they were very young and unimportant. But the third-formers also looked down on the second form, so things soon shook themselves out, and every one settled down.

“It’s funny to go to the second form class-room instead of to Miss Roberts’s room,” said Pat. “I keep on going to the first form room, as I always used to do.”

“So do I,” said Janet. “Miss Roberts is beginning to think we’re doing it on purpose. We’d better be careful.”

“There’s a whole lot of new girls in the first form, after all,” said Pat. “Miss Roberts must have collected them altogether on the train. That’s why we didn’t see them. There’s about twelve!”

“I shall never know all their names,” said Isabel. “Anyway—they’re only little kids—some of them not yet fourteen!”

“All the first-formers have been moved up,” said Bobby. “Except young Pam—and she’s only just fourteen. I bet she’ll be head of the first form!”

Pam Boardman had been new the term before; and was a very hard-working child. As Bobby said, she was made head of the first form, and was extremely proud of the honour. She had many new girls under her, and was eager to help them all.

Only two girls had been left down in the second form—Elsie Fanshawe and Anna Johnson. The girls who had just come up were sorry to see them there, for they were not much liked. Elsie Fanshawe was spiteful, and Anna Johnson was lazy.

“I suppose one of them will be head girl,” said Hilary, with a grimace. “Well—I don’t fancy either of them, do you, Bobby?”

“They both think themselves very superior to us,” said Bobby. “Just because they’ve been second-formers for a year.”

“I should be ashamed,” said Carlotta. “I would not like to spend more than a year in any form. But Anna is so lazy she will never get up into the third form, I’m sure!”

“I believe Miss Jenks didn’t send them up because she hoped they’d buck up a bit if they were heads,” said Pat. “I rather think she’s going to make them joint head girls. We shall have to look out if Elsie’s head—she’s really catty.”

“We’ve got that Misery-girl in our form after all,” said Bobby, looking at the new girl, who was standing mournfully not far off, looking at another. “She never says a word, but looks as if she’ll burst into tears at any moment!”

The Misery-girl, as the others called her, was named Gladys Hillman. The girls tried to make her talk and Bobby did her best to make her laugh, but Gladys took no notice of any one. She walked by herself, seemed to dream all the time, and hardly spoke a word.

“Better leave her alone,” said Hilary. “Perhaps she’s homesick.”

Not many of the St. Clare girls felt homesick when they returned to school, because it was all so jolly and friendly, and there was so much to do that there seemed no time to miss home and parents. The beginning of term was always fun—new books given out, new girls to size up, new desks to sit in, and sometimes new forms to go to.

“There’s a new mistress,” said Bobby, in excitement. “She’s to take Elocution and Drama! Look—there she is—isn’t she dark?”

Miss Quentin certainly was dark, and extremely good looking. She had black piercing eyes, and a beautiful voice. Alison thought she was wonderful.

“You would!” said Bobby. “You’ll be doing your hair like Miss Quentin next, swept over your brow and round your ears. There’ll always be some one for you to copy, my dear Alison! Do you remember last term how you copied everything your dear friend Sadie did?”

Alison flushed. She was always being teased and she never seemed to get used to it. She turned away with a toss of her pretty head. The others laughed at her. There was nothing bad in Alison—but on the other hand there was nothing very good either. She was, as Pat so often said, “just a pretty little feather-head!”

The second form soon settled down with Miss Jenks. At first it seemed strange to them not to have Miss Roberts teaching them for most of the morning. They missed her dry remarks and crisp words of praise. Miss Jenks was not so shrewd as Miss Roberts, nor was she so cool when angry. She could not bear the slightest hint of rudeness, and she had no sympathy at all for “frills and fancies” as she put it. No girl dared to fuss her hair out too much, or to wear anything but a plain gold bar for a brooch in Miss Jenks’s class.

“Alison is in for a bad time!” grinned Bobby one morning, when Alison had been sent to remove a bow from her hair and a brooch from her collar.

“So is Carlotta!” said Pat. “Miss Jenks doesn’t like frills and fancies—but she doesn’t like untidiness either! Just look at your hair, Carlotta. It’s wild enough in the ordinary way—but it looks like a golliwog’s hair at the moment.”

“Does it really?” said Carlotta, who never cared in the least what she looked like. “Well, those sums we had to do were so hard I just had to clutch my hair all the time!”

“Old Mam’zelle’s still the same,” said Isabel. “Funny, old, hot-tempered, flat-footed thing—but I like her all the same. She always gives us some excitement—and I bet she will this term, too. Do you remember how she and Carlotta nearly came to blows last term?”

Yes—the summer term had been a very exciting one. The girls looked at Mam’zelle and remembered all the jokes they had played on her. Dear old Mam’zelle, she always fell for everything. She was very terrifying when she lost her temper, but she had a great sense of humour, and when her short-sighted eyes twinkled behind their glasses, the girls felt a real fondness for her.

“Ah,” said Mam’zelle, looking round the second form. “Ah! You are now the second form—very important, very responsible, and very hard-working, n’est ce pas? The first-formers, they are babies, they know nothing—but as soon as you arrive in the second form, you are big girls, you know a great deal. Your French will be quite per-r-r-r-rfect! And Doris—ah, even Doris will be able to roll her R’s in the proper French way!”

Every one laughed. Poor Doris, always bottom at oral French, could never roll her R’s. Doris grinned. She was a dunce, but nobody minded. She was a wonderful mimic and could keep the whole form in roars of laughter when she liked.

“R-r-r-r-r-r-r!” said Carlotta, unexpectedly. She sounded like an aeroplane taking off, and Mam’zelle frowned.

“You are now in the second form, Carlotta,” she said, coldly. “We do not do those things here.”

“No, Mam’zelle,” said Carlotta, meekly. “Of course not.”

“Tricks and jokes are not performed in any form higher than the first,” warned Mam’zelle. “Whilst you are first-form babies, one does not expect much from you—but as soon as you leave the bottom form behind, it is different. We expect you to behave with dignity. One day the head-girl may be one of you here, and it is not too soon to prepare for such an honour.”

Winifred James, the much-admired head-girl, had left, and Belinda Towers, the sports captain, had taken her place. This was a very popular choice, for Belinda was well known by the whole school, and very much liked. As sports captain she knew practically all the girls, and this would be a great help to her as head-girl. She was not so gentle and quiet as Winifred, and many girls were afraid of her out-spokenness, but there was no doubt she would make an excellent head-girl.

Belinda visited every common room in turn and made the same sort of speech to the girls there.

“You all know I’m head-girl now—and I’m still sports-captain too. You can come to me if you’re in a spot of trouble at any time and I’ll help if I can. You’ll all have to toe the mark where games are concerned, because I want to put St. Clare’s right on the map this winter, with lacrosse. We must win every match we play! We’ve got some fine players for a school team, but I want every form to supply players for the second and third match-teams too. So buck up, all of you, and practise hard.”

Alison groaned as Belinda went out of the second form common room. “Why do we have to play games?” she said. “They just make us hot and untidy and tired.”

“You forget they do other things as well,” said Janet. “We have to learn to work together as a team—each one for his side, helping the others, not each one for himself. That sort of thing is especially good for you, my dear Alison—you’d sit in a corner and look at yourself in the mirror all day long if you could—and a fat lot of good that would do to you or anybody else.”

“Oh, be quiet,” said Alison. “You’re always getting at me!”

It was fun to be back again, and to hear all the familiar school chatter, to groan over prep., to eat enormous teas, to talk about lacrosse, to laugh at somebody’s joke, and to look forward to the class you liked the best—painting, maybe, or music, or elocution—or even maths!

There was a surprise for the second form at the end of the first week. Another new girl appeared! She arrived at tea-time, with red eyes and a sulky mouth. She looked defiantly at every one as she took her place at the second form table.

“This is Mirabel Unwin,” said Miss Jenks. “She has arrived rather late for beginning of term—but still, better late than never, Mirabel.”

“I didn’t want to come at all,” said Mirabel, in a loud voice. “They tried to make me come on the right day but I wouldn’t. I only came now because my father promised I could leave at half-term if I’d come now. I suppose he thought once he got me here I’d stay. But I shan’t.”

“That will do, Mirabel,” said Miss Jenks, soothingly. “You are tired and over-wrought. Don’t say any more. You will soon settle down and be happy.”

“No, I shan’t,” said the surprising Mirabel. “I shan’t settle down and I shan’t be happy. I shan’t try at anything, because what’s the use if I’m leaving at half-term?”

“Well, we’ll see,” said Miss Jenks. “Be sensible now and eat some tea. You must be hungry.”

The girls stared at Mirabel. They were not used to people who shouted their private affairs out in public. They thought Mirabel was rather shocking—but rather exciting too.

“I thought she was another Misery-girl at first, but I believe she’s just spoilt and peevish,” said Pat. “I say—the second form is going to be quite an exciting place this term!”