Becky's Terrible Term Read online

  “Yeah, we’ve got to do some sort of project-work, and we’ve got to be in different groups. Actually, Saima, maybe we could be in a group together?” Annabel suggested.

  Saima looked pleased. “OK – yes, that would be cool.”

  Fiona, who was a noticing kind of person, looked carefully at Becky as she asked, “And that’s OK with all of you? You don’t mind being separated?”

  Becky spotted that look, though the others didn’t seem to have done, and gave Fiona a quick smile. No way was she going to make a fuss about this if the other two weren’t bothered. “It’ll be different,” she said, shrugging. “That’s all.”

  Luckily for Becky, something rather strange happened then, which distracted everybody. One of the girls in their class, who’d come from a different school, wandered past the little group by the tree in a casual-but-obviously-on-purpose way. She was very pretty, as distinctive-looking as the triplets, really, with wavy strawberry-blonde hair worn loose like Annabel’s, and nearly long enough to sit on. Following her were two other girls, obviously worshipping the ground she walked on. As they went past, all three of them quite clearly sneered.

  “Well!” said Saima. “What was all that about? Do you know them?”

  “Nope,” said Annabel, confused. “She’s in our class, isn’t she? And the other two, I think.” She shrugged. “Weird. Never mind. Anyone know what’s happening after break?”

  Just then the bell went, and they found out – assembly, which was basically a lecture on the school rules. There seemed to be millions of them, and by lunchtime everyone was worried about doing anything in case a teacher swooped out of nowhere to give them a detention for it. Becky’s sick feeling was still there, in fact it seemed to be getting worse, and she couldn’t even tell anyone about it.

  After lunch in the dining hall (where the triplets had to swap their sandwiches round as usual – why was it that Mum just couldn’t get her head round which of them liked what?) they went off to look at the playing fields, which Katie was still longing to try out! Luckily, Year Seven’s first PE lesson was that afternoon, so she didn’t have long to wait.

  Manor Hill had several staff to teach PE, and it was Mrs Ross who came to fetch the girls in their class that afternoon to take them to the changing rooms. She seemed fun, and even Becky was feeling chirpier by the time they’d got out to the playing fields. Katie was positively jumping up and down with enthusiasm, especially as Mrs Ross had told them that they’d be doing ball skills today. She and Saima were lugging a big net full of brand-new-looking footballs, and various other members of the class were carrying traffic cones. The boys, who were heading out to the field as well, mostly seemed to be wearing the traffic cones on their heads. This seemed to involve weird whooargh noises as well, but none of the girls could see why.

  “Right,” called Mrs Ross. “Put the cones over here, in a line, that’s right. Lovely. Now, an orderly queue, please, and we’re going to practise dribbling through the cones. Who wants to go first?”

  Everyone shuffled their feet a bit, and avoided looking at Mrs Ross, so she picked a girl that the triplets didn’t know. She looked terribly embarrassed, and unfortunately managed to trip over her feet and knock two of the cones over halfway round. Almost everyone pretended not to notice – they were too busy being glad they hadn’t had to go first to laugh. The girl with the strawberry-blonde hair and her two little mates had their sneering faces on again, though. When it got to Katie’s turn, Mrs Ross got very excited. Katie had been to a soccer summer school, and done lots of this sort of thing. She moved round the cones amazingly fast, expertly dribbling the ball from foot to foot as the rest of the class watched open-mouthed. From the other side of the field, the dark-haired boy who’d been so horrible that morning looked very sulky indeed as Mrs Ross enthused about Katie’s flying feet.

  After that they practised kicking the ball backwards and forwards in pairs, trying to keep it under control. Katie’s partner was called Megan. She wasn’t bad at football herself, but she explained she preferred being a goalie. She was very impressed with Katie’s ball skills and Katie showed her a clever trick she’d learned at the summer school, using the side of her foot to get the ball going exactly where she wanted it.

  Annabel and Becky were paired together, and had a good time – quite a lot of it spent chasing the ball when it went wide, but they still had fun. The running about seemed to blow away the stuffy feeling of the classroom, and by the end of the lesson practically everyone was feeling ready for a sit-down; even if it had to be sitting down doing maths.

  Their new maths teacher, Mr Jones (definitely not one to mess with – not yet, anyway – the triplets decided) made no allowances for it being the first day. It was straight into revision of long multiplication and division, strictly no calculators allowed. Katie was galloping through the problems on the board (Becky and Annabel chewed their pencils and sighed – Katie was unfairly good at maths, and Mr Jones would be bound to think they could do it, too) when the loud shrill of the bell interrupted – it was the end of their first day!

  Chapter Five

  The cloakroom was a mad scrimmage as everyone fought to be first out of the school gates. Eventually, though, the triplets got their stuff together and headed off home. They were just turning into the high street when they spotted a familiar figure.

  “Mum!” said Katie in surprise. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to wait for us at home.”

  “Oh, I know,” agreed Mrs Ryan, “but I just couldn’t – I was sitting there worrying, not getting any work done. I wanted to know how your first day had gone, so I thought I’d meet you halfway.” She noted Katie’s scowl. “I’m sorry, Katie – you really wanted to walk home on your own, didn’t you?”

  “Don’t be such a grump!” Annabel told her sister.

  Becky put her arm through Mum’s. She couldn’t believe how much better it made her feel to see her. Mum was great at making you feel loved, and Becky felt like she needed that just now.

  “Sorry, Mum,” said Katie, not sounding particularly sorry. “But you did say we could go home on our own – we’re not little any more! We’re at secondary school now, it’s different.”

  Annabel nodded, serious for once. “She’s right, Mum.”

  Both Katie and Annabel sounded almost eager for things to change, thought Becky, squeezing Mum’s arm and feeling the hole that had been growing in the middle of her stomach all day get a bit bigger.

  “It’s so good to see you!” she burst out, and Mum looked down at her, slightly worried. “But Katie’s right,” Becky added quickly, not wanting Mum and the others to know what she was really feeling. “We can definitely walk home on our own now.”

  “Well, I promise it was just this once,” said Mum apologetically. “Now, please, put me out of my misery – tell me what it was like! Becky, how did it go?”

  Becky summoned a bright smile from somewhere, a kind of emergency back-up smile, and said determinedly, “It was fine. Different, but fine. Really.”

  Katie gave up looking cross and started to tell Mum about the PE lesson as they walked home. “Manor Hill’s got a girls’ football team, Mum!” she chattered excitedly. “Well, two, really, but this is the junior one. And Mrs Ross – that’s our PE teacher, she’s really nice – said that she was looking for people to be on it, and she’d be keeping an eye on me! They play lots of games against other school teams. It would be so excellent to be on a proper football team!”

  “Katie, that’s wonderful. Well done,” said Mum in a delighted voice. “Does that mean I’m going to be standing on a freezing football pitch all winter watching you?”

  “Definitely!” Katie grinned. “And you two’ll come and watch as well, won’t you, if I really get on the team?”

  “Course we will, silly!” said Becky.

  Annabel looked thoughtful. “We could be your cheerleaders! I’m sure
we could make some pompoms easily!”

  “No, thank you! You don’t get cheerleaders at football, Bel! You’ll just have to come and yell at the ref like everyone else. And can you imagine how cold you’d be on that football pitch in a cheerleader’s outfit in December?”

  “They’re ever so pretty, though, those little skirts. I’ve seen them on TV. I’d look nice in one of those, I think,” called Annabel, as she went twirling off down the pavement, making up a cheerleader-ish dance and waving her schoolbag in a vaguely pompom-like way. She stopped outside the window of Silver, and beckoned to her sisters. “Look! That’s the dress I was talking about this morning. Isn’t it gorgeous? I love those glittery beads.”

  Katie and Becky caught up with her. “Oooh, yes!” agreed Becky. “That’s really pretty. Fab colour.” It was a short dress in a satiny, pale-blue fabric, with twinkly silver beads round the neck and the hemline.

  Mum gazed into the window thoughtfully. “Oh yes, that is nice. Well, I don’t think I can quite run to buying dresses today, but why don’t we go in and have a look? Maybe you should each have a little something – to celebrate your first day at Manor Hill!”

  “Oh, Mum! Thanks!” “Excellent!” “Come on, let’s go in!” came the excited chorus from the triplets, and Annabel pushed the door open.

  Silver was a treasure-trove of gorgeous stuff, and the girls rushed here and there, darting back to show the best things to their mum. After a little while, Katie decided on a little ring with a purple stone in it. Being a definite jeans person, she didn’t wear jewellery very often – but it was nice to have it so you could really dress up sometimes. Becky had found a perfect present for herself – a pendant like a silvery cat’s face, with tiny green jewels for the eyes. She was convinced it looked just like Pixie. Only Annabel was left, wavering between some nail polish that somehow – no one was quite sure how – had two colours in the same bottle, so that you got a marbled effect when you put it on your nails, or a pair of hairgrips shaped like pink butterflies. In the end she went for the hairgrips – but she knew she’d be back for that nail polish pretty soon.

  Mum paid for their presents, and then they headed on home. She had just managed to find time to fit in the shopping, but once the triplets were home, they got the impression she might have been worrying about how they were doing at school while she was wandering around the supermarket as well.

  “Mum, where did you put the cat food?” asked Becky, ransacking the cupboard.

  “Oh! Cat food!” squeaked Mrs Ryan in horror. “I knew there was something. Oh, Becky, I’m sorry!”

  Annabel and Katie, who were sitting on the kitchen counter examining the slightly random stuff that their mother had bought, rolled their eyes at each other. Becky grinned and went back to the cupboard, which was a bit of a black hole. At last she discovered a tin of the cats’ least favourite brand lurking behind the orange squash. Orlando and Pixie’s whiskers drooped in disbelief.

  Mum still had some work to finish off – she really had been worrying about them, and it felt nice. She promised tea soon, if they’d just let her have half an hour. The triplets changed out of their uniform into comfy clothes and curled up on the sofa to watch TV – with the packet of minty biscuits that Mum had luckily remembered to buy! They didn’t have any homework to do – none of the teachers had been that cruel. So they looked forward to an evening of just recovering from school. Although, looking at Katie and Annabel, Becky wondered why she felt like she had to do so much more recovering than they did. School had been an ordeal, and she was hugely relieved it was over. The only problem was, she had to go back tomorrow, and keep on pretending that she liked it. Or at least that it wasn’t making her feel hollow inside. Katie and Annabel didn’t look hollow at all – they were practically bouncy.

  The triplets had half an eye on the TV, and most of their attention on the horoscopes in Annabel’s Girl Talk magazine when the phone rang. Katie jumped, and considered making a dash for it, but then remembered that Mum was in the kitchen working, practically next to the phone. They all listened carefully, though, to see if it was one of their mum’s friends, or something to do with them. Their mum sounded pleased to hear from whoever it was. “Oh, hello! Well remembered. Yes, I’m sure they’d love to talk to you, Dan.”

  Dan! It was their dad!

  The triplets looked at each other in delight, and then there was an undignified scramble off the sofa to get to the kitchen and speak to him.

  Mum laughed. “Can you hear the approaching herd of elephants, Dan?” She handed the phone to the triplets, who huddled round it excitedly, all desperate to hear him. “Here,” Mum said, reaching over to press a button. “Put it on speakerphone – then at least you can all hear, and you’ll just have to take it in turns to talk!”

  “Hello, loves!” came their dad’s voice down the line – everybody jumped. Dad was shouting, as it wasn’t a very clear line, and that made him very loud on the speakerphone. “How was your first day? I’m really sorry, I can’t be too long as I’m supposed to be going to a meeting, but I just wanted to let you know I was thinking about you! What was it like?”

  “It was great, Dad!” gabbled Katie in excitement. “I might get to be on the football team!”

  “Fantastic! That’s my girl. All that practice in the park paid off, then! How about you, Becky? All the animals OK? Meet any nice animal-mad friends today?”

  “The pets are all fine, Dad. We didn’t meet that many new people today, but we saw Saima and Fiona – you remember them?”

  “Yes, of course. How about you, Annabel, sweetheart? Keeping out of trouble?”

  “Yep, so far. I really want to try and put one over on our class teacher, though. But the other two won’t let me.”

  “Totally unfair of them, Bel. Give it time, though, I’m sure you’ll win them over.”

  Katie and Becky exchanged looks. It was just like Dad to agree with Bel. They were very alike in some ways, both with a kind of daredevil streak in them. Dad kept his hidden most of the time, though.

  “How’s your work going, Dad?” asked Becky.

  “Urrgh.” Mr Ryan heaved a huge sigh. “Slowly, I’m afraid. We really are behind schedule on this one. But we’re catching up. Anyway, I’m sorry, I’m going to have to go into that meeting now. Love you loads, and speak soon! Don’t forget to send me lots of emails, and some more photos of you all. Say bye to your mum for me!”

  “Bye, Dad!” chorused the triplets.

  Everyone felt a bit flat after Dad had gone. Speaking to him on the phone or on Skype was a real treat, but it made them realize just how far away he was – and how long it would be before they saw him again.

  “Come on,” said Mum, briskly. “You lot volunteered to help me with the tea this morning. It’s fish fingers, I did manage to remember those, even though I was thinking about you three instead of my list – can you get them out of the freezer for me, Katie? Top shelf. And there are some frozen peas in there too.”

  The girls bustled around, Katie arranging fish fingers on an oven tray – and then taking them off again when Mum pointed out that she needed to grease it first.

  “Katie!” said her sisters disapprovingly.

  “Oh, as if you haven’t done exactly the same thing!” protested Katie indignantly. “Remember those pizzas, Bel? It took us ages to pick charred pizza off those baking trays.” She wiped some vegetable oil round the tray, and replaced the fish fingers. “There! Shall I put the oven on, Mum?”

  When everything was ready, Mrs Ryan sat down to chat with the triplets as they munched away. Teatimes were one of the things she wasn’t laid-back about. They always ate round the table, and only as a special treat could they take their plates into the living room to watch TV.

  “So, tell me some more about school. Did you have lots of different teachers today?”

  “A few,” said Annabel. “Oooh, we forgot t
o tell you. Our class teacher’s not going to let us sit with each other!”

  Becky jumped in. “That’s not true, Bel, thank goodness!”

  “Yeah, she’s exaggerating, Mum,” added Katie. “Miss Fraser just said she’d split us up for history projects. We can still sit together in most of our lessons.”

  “Well, that sounds very sensible of Miss Fraser.” Mum nodded. “Yes, I think if I were one of your teachers, I might well do the same thing. And it’ll be good for you three to make new friends.” Mum eyed Becky thoughtfully as she said this. She’d been quiet all evening, and her mum hoped it was just first-day nerves, and not anything more serious. Becky was definitely a little shy – it would be good for her to find new friends to work with. As long as she didn’t just decide to hide away like a little mouse. . .

  Chapter Six

  By the time it got to Wednesday, the triplets felt like they’d been back at school for weeks. It was as if the summer holidays had never happened. Becky still wasn’t enjoying it much, but at least nothing disastrous had happened, so far. . .

  On Wednesday afternoon, they had their first proper history lesson, a double period. Miss Fraser explained that they were going to start a special project that would go on for the next few weeks. It was going to be about their town and its history. The triplets looked worriedly at each other. It sounded like this would be where Miss Fraser got them to work separately. While everyone was muttering about projects being boring and just an excuse for extra homework, Miss Fraser leant over the triplets’ table. “OK, you three. We’re going to work in groups of four for this project – I’d like you to be in different groups, please.” Then she explained to everyone that they could choose their own groups of four, but that if their groups weren’t well-balanced, she’d swap them around. No one was entirely sure what well-balanced meant – but they guessed they’d find out.