Party at Silver Spires (12 page)

The loud music pulsed through the room, and when I looked around at everyone I felt a warm safe feeling that I was where I was supposed to be. We danced and played games and had quizzes about celebrities, and we talked and talked as we ate and drank to our heart's content. Mrs. Pridham and Matron joined in with the dancing and the quizzes, but Miss Stevenson seemed shyer and stood by herself quite a lot of the time. Antonia and I spent the entire evening glued to each other's sides, and when she won the Year Seven award for best-dressed person, I was the proudest and happiest person in the room.

“I'm so relieved you two made friends just in time,” said Emily, “or the rest of us wouldn't have had half such a good time, worrying about you both.”

“Have you been worrying about us?” I asked, with another twinge of guilt.

“Course we have! We've spent ages asking each other what to do, and talking to Miss Stevenson about it.”

“You talked to Miss Stevenson?” I squeaked.

“She was the one who brought it up,” said Bryony, “because she was worrying too, you see, but she told us it was best not to interfere.”

“She said she thought you were both too nice not to make friends soon, and we agreed,” said Izzy.

“We were really surprised that Miss Stevenson was so easy to talk to,” added Sasha, “because she doesn't smile much or anything, but she told us she was quite shy.”

“Yes, she even told us she wasn't looking forward to the party very much because she didn't have any posh clothes,” said Bryony. “But I assured her that no way would I be wearing posh clothes, and that cheered her up a bit.”

So Miss Stevenson had been nervous about the party too! “I'd never have guessed that Miss Stevenson was shy until this evening,” I said, thinking how much I was learning today.

“Yes, very shy,” said Antonia, nodding. “I can see that.”

And yet again I realized how observant Antonia was, which got me wondering what else she'd observed. Had she seen the way I blushed whenever there was any mention of parents? She knew now that I came from a poor background, but I didn't think she had any idea just how very different our families were. In fact I reckoned that if you got every girl in this school and lined them up side by side according to how rich their parents were, I'd be standing on one end of the line and Antonia would be at the other end, with people like Suki.

I kept on telling myself that I was stupid getting scared by thoughts like this. But what if we were just too different to be
amiche
? Now I'd found out what a lovely person Antonia was, I couldn't bear there being any risk at all of losing her.

The day after the party I woke up with a lovely sunny feeling and only one little cloud spoiling it. I just couldn't shake away my anxiety that Antonia didn't know the whole truth about me. The problem would be when we got picked up to go home for half-term. Perhaps she'd see our old car and all the paint cans in the back and it would seem so far from what she was used to that she might change her mind about me. And then there'd be the whole week apart from each other. That could distance us even more. I couldn't bear these thoughts. A part of me knew they were stupid, and that Antonia would never be so shallow, but another part was getting all churned up.

After breakfast Antonia wanted to phone her parents, so I decided to phone Mum at the same time.

It felt great telling her about my new best friend, and as I talked I gradually stopped worrying about the differences between Antonia and me, although when the words “best friend” first popped out of my mouth it gave me a bit of a jolt, because in actual fact, Antonia and I had never discussed whether or not we were
best
friends and she might not feel as I did about that. All she'd said was
amiche
– friends
.
I loved that word, and I thought I was quite good at pronouncing it now.

Mum sounded really happy to hear my news, and asked if there was any particular reason why Antonia and I had suddenly got close to each other, as we'd been in the same dorm for a whole fortnight, yet I'd never mentioned her after the first day. I said it was just that it had taken us a while to get to know each other. Then I explained that she was Italian, and that she was quite homesick, missing her family when they were so far away.

“Aah, poor thing,” said Mum in a sympathetic voice. “Well, it's nice that she's got you, sweetheart.” Her voice suddenly brightened right up. “Maybe, once she's more used to the school and not feeling so homesick, she'd like to come and spend a few days with us at home in one of the holidays?”

“Y…yes,” I said, hesitantly. “I'm sure she'd love to.” But another cloud went scudding across my sunny blue sky at the thought of taking Antonia in the back of our old Volvo to our little terraced house.

Almost as though Mum could sense what I was thinking, she suddenly came out with something incredible that cheered me right up. “Oh, guess what, sweetheart?”

“What?”

“I've got myself a little runaround – a Mini Cooper!”

“Hey, that's cool!” I said. “So you can come and collect me in it, can't you?”

“Well, it's only a little car and I know the girls are desperate to come along too, and with your bags and stuff, it might be easier to come in Dad's car.”

My heart sank. It would have been great if Mum had picked me up in her car – then I wouldn't have to worry about the paints and things in the back of Dad's old Volvo.

I was so happy with my life at Silver Spires now that Antonia and I had sorted all our problems out. Every day, we seemed to recall another time when one of us had been upset by the other one, and it was really sweet because Antonia always insisted we clamber up onto one or other of our beds and have another “truth talk”. The others agreed with me that the name “truth talk” was really sweet, and Sasha said it would be good if we made a kind of rule that if ever anyone needed a heart-to-heart discussion, they could call a truth talk and we would all squash onto that person's bed. The number of times we all six sat on Antonia's or my bed was amazing. One of us would bring up something that had happened, then we went through a big explanation about it, and always finished up smiling at how we'd managed to get things so wrong. Apparently, the time when her eyes had looked so fiery as she'd shut her wardrobe door and said it was too late to see her dress, it was because she could tell I was upset at seeing Sasha's and Izzy's party clothes and she didn't want to make me feel worse. And when she'd eyed my old woolly bag on the way to the minibus that time, she was dying to tell me how much she loved the bag, but didn't dare in case it came out sounding wrong. Poor Antonia.

The two of us made sure we spent as much time as possible together, and in our free moments we often went to the library, where I tried to help her with her English and her schoolwork in general. One day she told me excitedly that the maths and science teachers had both said she was going up a set after half-term and that if she carried on like this she'd be going up again after Christmas. I felt so happy when I heard that.

French was Antonia's best subject, because she said it was very similar to Italian in many ways, so when we had French prep it was often Antonia helping
me
. It was lovely being able to sit next to her for everything except English, maths and science, and I couldn't wait till we'd be together for those subjects too. Even after school we stuck together, both going to the same clubs – we'd compromised on fashion and debating society, because Antonia insisted that her English would improve if she had to discuss things. And at weekends, we always went on the same outings.

The house staff found us quite amusing, I think, but I could tell they liked the way we were such good friends now, because we always got special smiles from them. Matron had started a competition between herself and me to see who could learn the most Italian words before the half-term holiday, and when there was only one day to go we compared notes, and it turned out that I knew far more than her. I did admit that I had an unfair advantage because I saw Antonia so much more than she did, and Matron said that was true, and that I'd better watch out, because she was going to study like mad over half-term and give us both a big surprise when we came back to Silver Spires.

The final day before the holiday was a Saturday, and all us girls were due to be picked up by our parents or guardians after lunch, any time between two and five o'clock. We were allowed to leave as much stuff as we wanted in our dorms over the half-term break, because there would always be someone here and the dorms would be locked. We didn't have lessons on Saturday morning so we could sort out and pack all our stuff, and have a nice time with our friends.

Emerald dorm looked a right tip throughout the whole morning, as we all kept changing our minds about how much stuff to take home with us. Antonia didn't pack much at all, because she said she had tons more clothes at home. Now that I understand the way Antonia is, I realize she's not showing off or anything when she talks like that. She's just stating a fact. I planned to leave one of my bags in the basement and quite a bit of my stuff here in the dorm, but to take my other bag home.

I'd thought and thought about the car situation, and I knew I'd so much prefer it if Mum and my sisters came to pick me up in the Mini Cooper. I felt really guilty and horrible, but I phoned Dad in a last attempt to try to get him to change his mind about coming to collect me.

“There's no need for you to take a day off work, Dad, honestly,” I said in my lightest tone.

“Don't you worry yourself about that, Nicole. I worked the last two Saturdays, so I deserve this weekend off!” Then his voice quietened. “And don't worry that your mum and I will argue…”

“No, it's okay.” Poor Dad sounded quite embarrassed, and obviously thought that I was trying to put him off coming because of the way he and Mum had argued when they'd brought me here on the first day. I'd actually forgotten about those angry words that had passed between them though, because my mind had been so full of worries about how old the car was, and how messy, and what on earth I would say to explain so many paint cans still being in there.

By the end of the phone call with Dad, I felt totally wound up, because not only was he definitely coming in the Volvo with Mum and Clare and Clemmie, but to make matters worse, he was planning on arriving at the beginning of the afternoon, which meant that all my friends would still be there to see them.

At two o'clock on the dot, us six from Emerald dorm gathered in the hall of Forest Ash and kept on looking out of the window to see if any cars were arriving.

“What make is your car, Nicole?” asked Sasha.

“It's…a Volvo.”

“What colour?” Izzy wanted to know.

“Blue,” replied Antonia.

My heart hammered. She was so observant.

“We will talk online every day, yes?” she went on, even though we'd already promised and promised to do that.

“Yes,” I laughed, happily. “Every day.”

The others were just having the same kind of conversation amongst themselves, when Antonia suddenly said, “They are here! I see the car!”

And she was right. Our old car was slowly pulling into the drive outside Forest Ash. I swallowed and tried not to go red.

“I do not want you to go!” said Antonia.

I gave her a big hug, then we all went outside just as Mum was getting out of the passenger seat. She didn't spot me at first.

“Your mother's really pretty,” said Sasha in a whisper.

I'd never actually thought about whether Mum was pretty or not, so that gave me a surprise. Then Clare and Clemmie were scrambling out of the back and Clemmie spotted me straight away. “Nicole!” she called out, rushing over and flinging herself at me. “I've been dying for this moment!”

I bent down to hug her but she kept her arms wound round my neck so I couldn't straighten up.

“Ah! Sweet!” I heard Izzy say.

Then Clare wanted a hug too, and it was only when I'd introduced both my sisters to all my friends at top speed that I looked at Mum and Dad and noticed something different about them, but I couldn't work out what it was. They were standing by the car as though waiting their turn for a hug. I hurried over to them and they both came towards me at the same moment, so it was like a triple hug, as I used to call them when I was little.

And that was when it hit me. Mum and Dad didn't seem to mind about being so close to each other now, whereas the last time I'd seen them together they were all spiky and distant with one another.

Mum was smiling like mad and I realized that Sasha was right. She was really pretty. I took her hand and led her towards my friends.

“This is, Antonia, Mum.”

“I am very pleased to meet you, Mrs. Weelliamson,” said Antonia in her politest voice. “You have a very clever and very kind daughter!”