Magic at Silver Spires (10 page)

By the time I got to Forest Ash, though, my hand was really hurting me and I so regretted taking the bandage off. But I forgot all about that instantly when I noticed a big shiny car parked just outside the front door and wondered if it was Papà's. I'd never even thought to ask him if he and Mamma had hired a car or if they were getting around by taxi and train.

And at the same time I realized I'd got grass all down my front, so I leaned one of the crutches against the wall near the front door, and flicked the blades of grass off my sweatshirt. Then as I looked down I saw that there were also bits stuck to my plaster. If Papà saw me in this state he'd think I couldn't look after myself properly, or I'd fallen over or something. So I bent right down, balancing on my good leg, and rubbed at my plaster. Immediately I felt a stinging sensation and realized that I'd forgotten to be gentle with my right hand. I'd used it just as though it wasn't injured at all.

I drew my breath in sharply at the pain I felt, then got a shock when I saw that the skin was all broken and droplets of blood were oozing out from all over the torn area. But worse, there was quite a bit of blood on my plaster. I quickly got a tissue out of my pocket and dabbed the plaster and then regretted it instantly because now I'd made a big pink smear.

This was awful. I needed to get to a wash basin as quickly as possible.

“Antonia!”

I turned to see Nicole and Emily flying towards me.

“Is that your dad's car?” called Emily.

I didn't answer because all my attention was taken up with my bloody plaster and my hand, which looked almost as bad as when I'd first fallen off my bike. Well, it probably wasn't that bad, but my dad hadn't seen how bad it was then so he'd think it was truly awful now.

“What's up, Antonia? Did you fall?” came Nicole's voice, full of worry.

By this time they were almost right up to me and I watched the shock come into their eyes at the state of my hand and my cast.

“Oh no!” gasped Emily. “What happened?”

“Nothing. I mean, I was just rubbing the grass off me and my hand started bleeding…”

Nicole was biting her lip. “Oh, Antonia, we need to sort you out. But
is
that your dad's car?”

“That's the trouble. I don't actually know. But I'm crossing my fingers that it isn't. I don't want him to see me in this state. He'd go mad.”

“It must be him,” Emily pointed out logically. “We don't usually have strange cars parked outside, do we?”

“Look, I'll go in first and see if he's around,” said Nicole, taking charge. “With a bit of luck he'll be in with Mrs. Pridham. I'll come out and get you as soon as I know he's nowhere in sight, then we can go straight up to Matron for a new dressing.”

So Emily and I waited nervously outside and a few seconds later Nicole beckoned me in. “No sign of him. Hurry though. Remember Mrs. Pridham said she'd got a meeting to go to, so we might not have much time.”

Once inside the big reception hall, Emily suggested it would be quicker to go straight to the downstairs toilets. My hand was hurting too much to manage crutches, so I gave them to Emily and just hopped across the hall towards the corridor, with Nicole helping by holding tight to my arm and sort of jumping me along. I could feel myself getting hotter with the worry of having to rush, and I couldn't wait to get to the basin and clean away the blood and get my bandage back on again.

“Well done,” said Nicole, trying to encourage me when we were on the other side of the hall. “Nearly there.” Then she must have seen the funny side of what we were doing, because she broke into giggles. “Sorry, Antonia, it's just that you look such a sight!”

Emily joined in and their laughter was infectious, or maybe I was just getting hysterical. “Stop it, you two! I can't hop when I'm giggling.”

But a moment later the giggles froze inside me at the sound of a door opening behind us and Papà's cheerful voice.

“Ah, there she is!”

Nicole turned to me in horror as we all three stood glued to the ground like statues, not daring to turn right round.

“Lovely to talk to you again, Mr. Rossi,” said Mrs. Pridham, sounding relieved. “I'll leave you in Antonia's capable hands. Sorry I have to rush off.”

“Not a problem,” said my dad. And I knew I absolutely had to turn round now.

I swallowed and was about to face the shock and the anger that I knew I'd see in my father's eyes, when I realized Matron was coming downstairs. I also knew immediately that she'd seen what a state I was in.

“Ah, Antonia, there you are,” she said, much more briskly than usual. “Well done for getting here so promptly.” She hurried down the last few stairs and took the crutches from Emily. “I've just got two minutes to change that dressing, so could you come…” Then she looked across at my dad and spoke as though she'd only just noticed him. “Oh hello, Mr. Rossi. I'm so sorry to drag Antonia away. We'll be very quick.” Her eyes came back and rested on Emily. “Could you look after Mr. Rossi, Emily? Show him the kitchen, dear, and we'll be with you in a jiffy.”

It had all happened in seconds and I still hadn't turned round, but Emily was obeying Matron's instructions and Mrs. Pridham was calling out, “See you on Saturday then, Mr. Rossi.”

With Matron's hand on my back I had the courage to quickly call over my shoulder, “See you in a minute, Papà,” and he smiled and nodded, then switched his attention to Emily, who was introducing herself to him.

“Hello, Mr. Rossi. I'm Emily Dowd, Antonia's friend,” I heard her say.

“Dearie me, whatever have you done, Antonia?” Matron said in a loud whisper as we went into the downstairs loos.

“I…I…” But suddenly everything seemed too much and I felt like crying.

“All right, let's get you sorted out,” came Matron's soothing voice as she helped me sit down on the bench that ran along one wall. Nicole sat down beside me and stayed silent as Matron went into one of the toilets and unrolled some loo paper, saying, “This will have to do.” Then she let the water run warm and began dabbing away at my hand. Her face took on a disapproving look the more she dabbed. “You really shouldn't have taken the dressing off, Antonia,” she said, making a tutting noise with her tongue. “You don't want to get it infected, do you?” She frowned and peered closer. “Hmmm… It looks worse than it is, but I can imagine your dad wouldn't have been too pleased.”

“Thank you for…”

Matron's teachery look was gone, thank goodness. “What, for rescuing you?”

I nodded.

“That's all right.” Then she chuckled. “I must say I'm quite proud of myself actually. Right, Nicole, I need you to run up to my room for a new dressing. You'll see it on my table.”

Nicole was staring anxiously at my plaster. “We'll need something to cover that bloodstain up with, won't we?” Her eyes suddenly sparkled. “
I
know. Nail varnish! I'll raid our cupboards and see what I can find. I'm sure the others won't mind. It's all in a good cause!”

“Right, off you go, dear! You'll need to be quick.”

As soon as Nicole had disappeared, Matron said she'd been thinking about attacking the pink blotch with soap and water, because she was concerned that my dad might get anxious about it, but she'd been worried that might make it worse.

“But with the nail varnish it will look as though someone has purposely done me a colourful pattern instead of signing their name,” I said. “Won't it?”

I felt so grateful to Matron as she and Nicole and I made our way along to the kitchen. She was reminding me of my grandmother more and more each day, being so gentle and caring, and yet also a bit crazy and very individual. I loved the way she was determined to learn Italian, for example, rather like my grandmother learning to play the accordion. It was lovely to think that I'd be seeing so much more of Nonna after Sunday, but very sad to think that Matron would no longer be in my life.

Emily and my father were just coming out of the kitchen as we approached. The first thing I noticed was that Emily looked relieved to see us. Her eyes flicked from my hand to my plaster and I saw her blink a few times as though she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

“Hi!” I said cheerfully to them both, willing Emily not to say anything about the nail varnish.

“Hello, Toni. All done?” said my dad, glancing at my hand. But like Emily, his eyes went straight to the gleaming blobs of colour on my cast. “Whatever is that?” he asked, with laughter in his voice. “I thought people just wrote messages on casts!”

“No, these days the girls are full of much
brighter
ideas!” said Matron, breaking into her lovely chuckle. “Nail varnish!” she added, rolling her eyes at Papà, as though they were in a grown-ups' conspiracy together. “What will they think of next?”

Papà laughed, then changed the conversation to the Italian evening and said he was sure that the Forest Ash kitchen would be absolutely fine for the cooking and preparing of the food. “I've got some ingredients in the car that I'll leave in the cupboard if that's all right,” he went on.

“Of course,” said Matron. “I'll be getting on then, and I'll see you on Saturday, Mr. Rossi.”

“And actually I've got to do some gardening now,” said Emily.

“Ah,” said Papà. “Well, thank you very much for your help, Emily. I'll see you on Saturday!”

“I'll take the ingredients to the kitchen for you, Mr. Rossi,” Nicole immediately offered.

I realized that my dad had never met Nicole before. “This is Nicole, my best friend,” I said, and Papà shook Nicole's hand and said he was very pleased to meet her. Then we three went outside to the car, and while Nicole hurried back inside with the carrier bag, I stayed with Papà.

“Well you seem to be coping fine, Toni,” he said once we were alone.

I nodded and felt my heart yo-yo at the thought of what he would have said if Matron hadn't come to my rescue.

“And your packing is begun?” he went on, his eyebrows raised. I nodded, because I had the feeling he was just about to go, and definitely wouldn't come up to the dorm to check.

He smiled. “Good. Now, Mrs. Pridham says the Italian evening starts about six on Saturday, so Mamma and I will be here at four thirty to give me time to cook.”

“Okay.” I didn't know what else to say. I think I was still feeling a bit shocked about all that had happened. And it was actually a relief when he went. I waved his car out of sight, then went shakily back inside Forest Ash to find Nicole.

On Friday morning I could hardly concentrate at all during double English, because I was going over and over in my mind the words that my friends and I had worked out together in the dorm the night before. The words that I was about to say to Mrs. Stockton in just a few minutes when the bell went for the end of English.

After lights out we'd all sat up and talked by the light of the little lamps built into the cabin bed headboards. It was such a sad time for all of us, and Nicole and I had been close to tears at the thought that there were only two more nights to go and then Emerald dorm would never be the same again. Then Sasha had got upset too and it had gradually spread round us all.

“We've got to find a way to stop it happening!” Emily had declared dramatically, and that was when Nicole and I had told the others our plan to ask Mrs. Stockton if she'd have a word with Papà to try and convince him that he'd be harming my future career if he took me away from Silver Spires.

But now I was actually here in English class, I found that my heart was beating much faster than usual and my mind was running over and over what I was about to say.

When the bell went, I knew that all my friends who were in set one and set two for English would be crossing their fingers for me and Nicole would be – what did she call it? – yes, sending me her best vibes. And I also knew that when I'd finished talking to Mrs. Stockton I'd find them all waiting outside this room for me.

Around me, everyone was packing away their books or shutting down their computer programs. I was going through those motions too, only very slowly to let the English room empty of students. Mrs. Stockton had dismissed us and now she was tapping away on her laptop at the front.

I carefully eased my way on my crutches to the front of the class. “Er, sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Stockton, but I was worrying if I could have a word with you.”

“You were
worrying
?” she said, looking up at me with a smile.

“Wondering,” I quickly corrected myself. But actually “worrying” probably explained it better.

Mrs. Stockton got a chair for me and gave me her full attention. “Yes, Antonia. What can I do for you?”

“It's a bit complicated. You know I'm leaving…”