Pep Squad (11 page)

‘Yep, very encouraging,' said Jess.

She threw her suitcase in the boot. It was a lot fuller than when she'd arrived. As well as her formal uniform, it was packed with books for homework. Several of the teachers had set assignments over the holidays, including an essay on Art History, a lengthy French translation and a Mathematics worksheet. Miss Kwan had also set her some Chinese revision, with strict instructions to keep it out of sight of her parents.

It began raining heavily as they drove out of the grounds.

‘It's forecast to be like this for most of the afternoon. It'll be a slow drive back, I'm afraid,' said Dr Leclair.

Great
, thought Jess, steeling herself for hours of endless questions from her mother about her friends, classes and the food.

‘Now don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of how well you're doing, and that Mr Parry seems to be a decent fellow,' said Mrs Leclair, right on cue, ‘but I was rather hoping to meet some of your friends and their parents. Especially Emily and the twins.'

‘Their interviews were scheduled earlier in the day, as they had to catch the one-thirty flight to Dublin,' said Jess.

‘I wish we were on the one-thirty flight to Dublin,' muttered Dr Leclair, who was not a fan of driving in the rain.

‘They live abroad,' explained Jess.

‘Yes, Emily's the South African girl. And where are the boys from again?' asked Mrs Leclair.

‘Australia,' said Jess.

‘Aren't you a little young to be hanging out with boys?' said Dr Leclair.

‘Dad, I'm almost sixteen.'

‘They're her classmates, Pierre,' said Mrs Leclair. ‘Plus, they work them very hard at Theruse so they'd hardly have time for … Besides, Jess is way too young to worry about what you're worried about.'

‘It's not her I'm worried about. Don't forget I was a teenage boy once,' said Dr Leclair.

‘Times have changed,' said Mrs Leclair.

‘Any homework for the holidays or are they letting you have a break?' asked Dr Leclair, changing the subject.

‘As if,' snorted Jess. ‘They gave me so much stuff to do I'll hardly have time to open Christmas presents.'

‘That's lucky, because we haven't bought you any,' laughed Dr Leclair. ‘Do you have much to do with the Krivlyakaev boy?'

‘
Who
?' said Jess, wondering how on earth her father knew about Krivan.

‘The client who recommended the school to me. His name was Krivlyakaev. Alexi Krivlyakaev, I think. Eastern European bloke. Nice chap, but terrible teeth.'

Jess sat quietly while she processed the information. In her experience the words ‘Krivlyakaev' and ‘nice' didn't belong in the same sentence. At least now she knew who the mystery P.E.P. Squad recruiter was.

‘Do you know him, Jess?' asked Mrs Leclair.

‘Yeah,' said Jess. ‘He and my friend Ben don't get on so well.'

‘Well, everybody can't be friends with everybody,' said Mrs Leclair. ‘What's that up ahead?'

A car had pulled over on the verge with its hazard lights flashing. Two youngish women were standing outside the car, flagging them down.

Dr Leclair pulled over.

The women ran up to the car and knocked on the driver's window. Dr Leclair wound down the window and both women started speaking at once in Russian.

‘I'm sorry, I don't understand you,' said Dr Leclair. ‘Do you speak English?
Parlez-vous Français
?'

‘They're speaking Russian, Dad,' said Jess from the back seat. ‘They have a flat tyre.'

Jess's parents looked at her in surprise.

‘There are a couple of Russian kids I hang out with sometimes at school. I've picked up a few words,' said Jess quickly, trying to cover her mistake.

‘
Flat tyre
was one of the phrases you happened to pick up from your friends in passing?' Dr Leclair said incredulously. ‘I suppose I'd better help them. Pass me my mac.'

Red-faced, Jess passed him one of the raincoats folded next to her on the back seat, and her dad got out to help the women change their tyre. Several minutes later he returned to the car, dripping wet and covered in mud.

‘I don't suppose you'd know how to tell them to get to a tyre shop ASAP to replace the flat?'

‘I can try.' Jess grabbed her raincoat and went over to the women. When she got back into the car, her parents were gaping at her.

‘What?' said Jess, peeling the drenched raincoat off.

‘How much time do you spend with those Russian friends of yours?' asked Dr Leclair.

‘I've picked up a few words,' said Jess again, thinking quickly. ‘Shop, broken, new, tyre, pointing at my watch. It got the message across.'

‘Impressive,' said Mrs Leclair.

Jess settled back into her seat as her father drove off, feeling her stomach churn. She wasn't even halfway home and already she'd nearly blown her cover, letting it slip that she could speak some Russian. It was a scary wake-up call to how careful she'd have to be – not just for the rest of the holidays but for the rest of her life.

Jess managed not to slip up for the rest of the holidays. Her body was still conditioned to waking at 6:15 a.m., so she managed to knock off an hour or two of homework every day before breakfast. She helped her mum around the house, went Christmas shopping with Saoirse in Grafton Street and totally forgot about her optimum-performance diet. Although she enjoyed being home, she missed the twenty-four/seven contact with her school friends, and by the end of the holidays she couldn't wait to get back to school for spring semester.

‘Now you're sure you've got everything?' Mrs Leclair asked as they unloaded Jess's bags from the car boot in the Theruse Abbey car park.

‘It's a bit late now if I've forgotten anything,' said Jess.

‘Well, if you do need anything, then remember we're only a phone call away.'

‘I know, Mum,' said Jess, feeling slightly guilty. Ever since her slip-up on the road home, it had gnawed at her slightly that she couldn't tell her parents the truth about what she was doing. But that was part and parcel of being a spy.

‘OK, darling. I won't make a scene this time. See you on Presentation Day,' said Mrs Leclair, giving her a quick kiss and then driving away without looking back.

‘They have to grow up some time,' said a wistful voice next to her.

‘Em! How was South Africa?' asked Jess, giving her roommate a big hug.

‘Absolutely stinking hot. You know it's summer there when it's winter here, and by summer I mean real summer, not the hour or two of sunshine you get here,' said Emily. ‘How was Dublin?'

‘Pretty boring, actually,' said Jess. ‘The food was good though. Not a single fish-oil salad in sight.'

‘We'll pay for that in training tomorrow, you realise?' said Emily.

‘Yeah, that's tomorrow,' said Jess. ‘Let's go and see if the boys are here yet.'

Jess and Emily dumped their bags in their room and knocked on Ben and Matt's door.

‘Uh, just a second,' said Matt.

Emily grinned wickedly as she pulled out a hair grip and undid the lock. Then she and Jess burst through the door.

Matt and Ben were hurriedly tipping the contents of Ben's rucksack into his desk drawer.

‘You brought sweets?' exclaimed Jess, grabbing a fizzy cola bottle from the collection and chewing on it. ‘Isn't that against the rules?'

‘Sometimes I just need a sugar boost,' admitted Matt.

‘So do we,' smiled Emily, popping a rhubarb and custard into her mouth and immediately screwing up her face. ‘What the …?'

‘I actually like the tang with the creaminess,' said Jess, swallowing down her cola bottle and sucking on a rhubarb and custard. ‘How about one of these to take the taste away?' she said, passing Emily a sour apple.

‘You call these sweets?' said Emily, pulling a face and spitting it out again.

‘We split this fifty–fifty,' said Jess, eyeing Ben and Matt.

‘Yeah, like
that's
going to happen,' said Matt.

‘Leave me out of it,' said Emily.

‘OK, let me rephrase that. We split this fifty–fifty or we
tell
,' said Jess.

‘Fine,' said Matt.

‘That's not fair,' said Ben. ‘Emily doesn't want any.'

‘Those are my terms,' said Jess, opening a packet of Rolos.

‘Ooh, chocolate!' said Emily, grabbing one. ‘Fifty-fifty,' she continued, the chocolatey caramel sticking to her teeth.

‘Take it,' said Ben, passing the girls his rucksack.

Jess and Emily scraped half of the sweets from the drawer back into the rucksack, taking more than their fair share of the Rolos.

‘Hey, I came across some interesting news over the holidays,' said Jess as she zipped up the rucksack.

‘This sounds juicy,' said Emily, sitting on the end of Matt's bed with some milk teeth wedged between her upper lip and gum.

‘Dad let it slip that a patient of his – my dad's a dentist – called Krivlyakaev first told him about Theruse Abbey.'

‘Your dad's a dentist called Krivlyakaev?' said Matt.

‘No, my dad's a dentist who has a patient called Krivlyakaev.'

‘
The
Krivlyakaev?' asked Ben.

‘Well, his dad at any rate,' said Jess. ‘He said he had a son starting at the school.'

‘So your dad does Krivan's dad's teeth. That makes you almost related,' said Emily.

‘It's not just that,' said Jess. ‘The first time Lieutenant Parry told me about P.E.P. Squad he said they'd arranged for a new patient to tell Dad about Theruse Abbey.'

‘So Krivan's dad is a P.E.P. Squad recruiter,' said Ben.

‘Which makes Krivan a second-generation spy,' said Emily. ‘It's all starting to make sense,' she continued, frowning seriously, which looked anything but serious with the candy teeth poking out of her mouth. ‘If his dad's a spy, then Krivan's parents know the truth about this place. They probably have big expectations of him.'

‘Which would explain why he doesn't like being outsmarted or outrun by people like us,' said Matt.

‘I still don't like him,' said Ben.

‘I only said it
explains
his behaviour. It doesn't excuse it,' said Emily.

‘But if all his dad does is recruit cadets, then he can't be that great a spy,' said Ben.

‘I wouldn't say that around Krivan,' said Emily. ‘He's just waiting for an excuse to clock you.'

‘Anyway, Lieutenant Parry's a great spy and he recruits cadets,' said Jess.

‘Oh, here we go,' said Emily. ‘The Lieutenant Parry fan club again.'

‘Hey, I'm not his fan club – I just said he's a good spy.'

‘Who's a good spy?' said Lieutenant Parry, poking his head around the door.

Jess felt her face flush. ‘Uh … Daniel Craig.'

‘Controlling involuntary physiological responses is a study unit in Espionage 201. You'll learn all about it next year.' His eyes fell on the still-open drawer. ‘What's this? Is that contraband I spy?'

‘Uh, well …' Ben trailed off.

‘Mmm. Sour apples, my favourite,' said Lieutenant Parry, grabbing a handful and popping them in his mouth. ‘I'll make you a deal. You give me a supply of those and I'll pretend I didn't see any of this. So how was Christmas?'

‘Good.'

‘Warm.'

‘Relaxing.'

‘Great. By the way, Jess, Miss Ball would like to see you in the auditorium.'

‘Me?' said Jess. ‘Now?'

‘Now.'

‘OK. I guess I'll see you later,' said Jess.

She dumped the rucksack full of sweets in her dorm on the way to the auditorium, wondering why Miss Ball wanted to see her there rather than in her office. When she got to the auditorium, the stage was full of freshman- and sophister-year cadets doing a rehearsal of
The Wizard of Oz
. A small group of transition years was sitting on the ground in front of the stage limbering up, including Lauren and Aidan.

Miss Ball looked up as Jess walked in.

‘Take five everybody,' she said, walking off-stage towards Jess. ‘I don't know how this got overlooked, but I believe you're a very competent gymnast.'

Jess nodded.

‘I also hear you do a bit of free running,' said Miss Ball. ‘How long have you been doing it?'

‘About three years,' said Jess, wondering how Miss Ball knew about it and why she cared.

‘You must be pretty good at it. How did you get into it?'

‘It allows for a bit more spontaneity than skateboarding.'

‘Hmm,' said Miss Ball. ‘What sort of tricks can you do?'

‘Tricks?' said Jess. ‘Um, I can run up a wall and do a somersault, dive off a two-storey building and land safely.'

Miss Ball nodded.

‘Ever dangled off anything?'

‘What do you mean?' asked Jess.

‘Sliding down poles or doing Tarzan swings off–'

‘Jungle vines? No,' said Jess.

‘Would you like to give it a try?'

‘I guess.'

‘I'm not guaranteeing anything,' said Miss Ball. ‘But if you can keep up with the dance routine then I think your gymnastic talents would really add to the production. As I've already explained to the others, for this production of
The Wizard of Oz
we'll be using the traditional score, but the performance will be more like
The Wiz
meets Cirque du Soleil. There will be lots of dancing and lots of aerials. By the end we want the audience to feel like they've been to Oz and back.

‘We'll start dance and acrobatic rehearsals once we've finished blocking this scene, so use the time to warm up.'

Jess sat down with the other transition years and started stretching out her muscles.

‘Did you volunteer for this?' she asked Aidan.

‘No,' he said, looking just as surprised as Jess felt. ‘Miss Ball asked me to try out because I was on the gymnastics team at my last school. How was your holiday?'

‘Too much food, not enough exercise.'

‘I think we're going to pay for that this afternoon.'

While Jess was warming up she saw Signora Enigmistica in the wings, dressed in a black leotard and leggings, holding onto a ballet barre and swinging her leg from left to right, her toes pointing directly at the ceiling at the end of each arc.

‘Signora Enigmistica, the stage is yours,' called Miss Ball a few minutes later.

‘OK, monkeys,' said Signora Enigmistica, clapping her hands.

A dozen freshmen and sophisters assembled themselves into neat rows towards the front of the stage. Miss Ball gestured to the transition years to get up on stage and join them, so Jess and her friends took up places behind them.

‘We'll start with some simple choreography. Just the first sixteen counts. Señor Carreras?' said Signora Enigmistica.

Señor Carreras, the Spanish teacher, played a short introduction on the piano, then Signora Enigmistica launched into the shortest and most complicated dance routine Jess had ever seen, including two spins, a leap and a forward roll, finishing with a split.

‘Got it?' she asked when she'd finished.

The older cadets nodded.

Jess and Aidan looked at each other with blank expressions on their faces.

‘This time do it with me. Señor Carreras?'

The music began again and Jess tried to keep up with the girl in front of her, failing dismally.

‘One more time with me then you're on your own. Señor Carreras?'

Jess had the first eight counts down pat but spun the wrong way on count nine and ended up colliding with Aidan.

‘Sorry,' she said.

‘Give me some warning next time, OK?' he said, rubbing his shoulder and faking a wince.

‘Now, let me see it,' said Signora Enigmistica. ‘Señor Carreras?'

This time Jess managed to spin the right way and sort of complete the routine.

‘Good work. Front line to the back. And music!'

Jess felt a little more nervous with people dancing behind her but managed to get through the routine with no mistakes. By the time it was her turn at the front, she was quite confident.

‘Thank you,' said Signora Enigmistica. ‘Now, let's test your acrobatics. Would the eight people on the right of the room please sit down. You'll get your turn in a minute. Now you eight. Who can show me a handstand?'

Jess and Lauren watched the eight cadets, including Aidan, as they did perfect handstands. Aidan turned his head and winked at Jess before pressing up onto his fingertips.

‘Step down into a forward walkover,' said Signora Enigmistica.

The cadets did so in unison.

‘Now a backward walkover.'

The cadets flipped over backwards.

‘Can anyone do it without touching the ground?'

Four of them, including Aidan, did backwards aerial somersaults.

‘Excellent.'

Jess was starting to feel intimidated.

‘Now,' said Signora Enigmistica, moving towards the rear wall of the stage, ‘who can run up the wall and do a sideways aerial somersault?'

The same four cadets tried, but only Aidan managed it without falling.

‘Group two. I want to see the same thing from you.'

Jess was able to do the handstand and walkovers no problem. She usually did aerial somersaults after a run-up on a sprung floor, but she managed OK – not the perfect gymnastic landing but Signora Enigmistica didn't seem to notice.

‘Let's try the wall,' said Signora Enigmistica.

Jess volunteered to go first and did a perfect sideways somersault.

‘Did you see the height she got?' she heard a freshman girl whisper to the boy sitting next to her.

Signora Enigmistica set tougher and tougher challenges: walking on hands along a three-metre metal bar, doing a springing cartwheel to land on another cadet's shoulders. Lots of acrobatic stuff Jess had never tried before but found she could do relatively easily.

By the end of the afternoon she had worked up quite a sweat and she was absolutely beaming, realising how much she'd missed doing gymnastics.

‘OK, everyone,' said Signora Enigmistica. ‘Come and sit down.'

‘Congratulations everyone,' said Miss Ball. ‘That was great work today. Based on what we have seen we'll be taking Caoimhe, Sarah, Emma, Lauren, Jack, Cian, Daniel and Aidan, and our lead monkey will be Jess.'

Jess jerked her head up in surprise.

‘Now,' continued Miss Ball, ‘there are only fifteen weeks until our performance. Rehearsals will be two to five each Sunday, with a few extras in the fortnight leading up to Presentation Night. Thank you again for your work today, and I'll see you next week at two if I don't see you in class first.'

Jess, Lauren and Aidan staggered together up the stairs to their dorms. Jess was relieved to see that Emily wasn't around, so she drew herself a nice hot bath and actually fell asleep in the tub. An hour later she woke up wrinkly and cold and had a quick shower to warm up before wrapping herself in a thick bathrobe.