Chapter 5 – Bianca – And a New Girl
The girls had a wonderful time. They did swimming and diving, and Andrea amused the class by turning cartwheels while going down the slide. Ava swam the whole length underwater, and was cheered with surprise by the class. Esther, Evelyn, Alexis and Alice had a race, with Esther and Alice tying, and Evelyn and Alexis tying right behind them. They exhausted themselves, and then were relieved when they had a marvelous feast, with sausages sizzling in the pan, and lemonade being drunk. Then, when they had regained their usual restlessness, they played on the skating ring, and Bianca surprisingly did a cartwheel, starting from the ice and ending on solid ground! The girl was too delighted to speak for joy. Oh, dear, then there was a huge gong – and girls rushed and chattered from inside the school.
Bianca looked at her watch.
“Gosh, we better scurry! It’s the breakfast bell! Thank goodness it’s Sunday. Whew!”
The girls once more filled their bellies. Then Miss Kellie was astonished when she found the dormitory 9 girls all going back to bed! She looked disapprovingly at them.
“What’s all this?” she demanded in a grim tone.
“Oh, we had a midnight – no, moonlight swim, then a picnic, then a nice skate. We got permission from Miss Caty,” said Alice.
“I’ll go check if this is true or not. I warn you, girls, if it isn’t and you don’t own up now, you’ll get no end of a wigging from me, and tons of extra prep!” said Miss Kellie, marching out of the room.
When she found that the Fourth Graders did have permission, she was astonished. She went back to the dormitory, and announced, “Not only will you not get a wigging from me, but also you are to prepare a concert and present it at the end of term. I have brought you a new girl – Baixue. Be nice to her. Celine, pack your things and move to dormitory 8 tonight, to make room for Baixue. You can be head of the dormitory. Baixue, don’t worry. The girls will like you.”
The girls stared at the yellow-skinned Baixue in front of them. She had high cheekbones, dark brown eyes, thin eyebrows and pale red lips. She had a strong face, and was beautiful. The girls took a liking to her at once.
“Hi,” she said, and two merry little black eyes tinkled around the room. “I’m Baixue, from China. Do you play the Guzheng here?”
“What’s that?” asked Bianca, curiously.
“Instrument,” said Baixue. “I suppose you don’t? Shame, isn’t it? I sent mine to be shipped here, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I supposed you had a few here, that I could practice on temporarily. You’ll have to see it. It’s wood, with a box at the end. There is even a carving. How simply wizard it is. I’m not boasting, but I do play it well.”
The girls all liked the earnest Baixue – except for one single girl – Georgina. She was even haughtier than the past Alice.
The next morning, Miss Kellie took Math, as usual. It came to Georgina’s turn to answer Miss Kellie’s question. But Georgina kept saying idiotic answers, which annoyed the girls immensely. But no one dared to say anything in front of serious, grave Miss Kellie, so they more or less kept quiet. Then the explosion came.
“Georgina Jeanne Thomas, if you don’t shut up at once, I shall send you out of the room!” exclaimed someone.
The girls all turned to see who it was, expecting to see quiet, cool Esther, or hot-tempered Alice. But it was neither of the two sensible girls. It turned out to be Bianca! Bianca! The girls all gasped in utmost amazement at the feeble, weak Bianca, whose cheeks were red with anger, and there was determination written all over her face, as she narrowed her thin black eyebrows and frowned with disapproval at the glowering Georgina. Georgina was rather taken aback. But her pride made her haughtily fight back.
“You’re not head girl, nor head of the dorm or anything! Just a weak, feeble, cowardly idiot who’s showing off herself! Trying to push yourself forward. Well, stop sticking your big flat ugly nose, you interfering little busybody! You stupid, idiotic wretch!”
Esther stood up with Celine, who was the head of Georgina’s dormitory. Both girls were sensible and sturdy, and had power over the smug, smiling Georgina.
“Georgina!” ordered Celine. “Go out of the room at once or I will demote you down to the third grade. You cheeked both Bianca and Miss Kellie, and I have no doubt you will cheek me too! I’m tired of you, Georgina. You act in such a sickly manner you make me want to vomit. I’m ashamed of you. You have to realize that we are to go up to the Great Fifth, that, in fact is the top grade of the junior section, and that grade will be the spirit of the school, and a grade of great influence. You can’t act like silly babies anymore, or you can’t ever get up into the Fifth, for you can’t be trusted by the teachers or the head girls. So either you shut up and answer things correctly, or you go out of the room, and I will phone your parents, or Esther.”
Georgina appeared to open her mouth to speak, but she caught a downcast glance from hot-tempered Alice, so she said nothing, but didn’t move an inch.
“Georgina,” came Esther’s cool, deep voice. “Go out of the room at once. I will phone your parents tonight, and you will be sent away for two weeks or at least until your parents think you are capable of learning in a group. You will go tomorrow. Go to bed an hour earlier, as punishment. As for Bianca and Celine, you may go to bed an hour later than usual as a reward for trying so hard to put things right. And I believe you did most of it, Bianca. Celine, you made Georgina understand her bad behavior, and I just rounded it off, so I will go to bed the usual time with the rest of the grade.”
There was remarkable rebuke in Esther’s voice when she spoke harshly to Georgina, but there was a tenderness in her sweet voice when she spoke to Bianca and Celine, who were gleaming with joy. Georgina gave a curious explosive noise in anger, and, with her nose in the air, she walked hastily out of the classroom.
Miss Kellie smiled.
“Girls, I think Bianca, Celine, and Esther handled the situation well and quickly, didn’t they? Let us give them a round of applause! Now, Esther, you can do what you said you would do to Georgina, but nothing more. You may also go to bed an hour later. Oh, dear, the lesson is about to end. As a reward from me, all of you will have no prep for the rest of the week!”
“Good old Miss Kellie!” shouted Janet, Jennifer, Carlotta and Andrea, all stamping their feet with joy, and clapping hard. Miss Kellie blushed red.
At break, however, Bianca sat there gloomily. She didn’t want to talk to anybody but Evelyn. She liked Alexis too, but she was just a touch too outspoken for a quiet girl like Bianca.
“Oh, Evelyn! Ava’s leaving. She’s been my only friend. Not that I like her much though. It’s just that she … Well, when she’s here, at least I have someone to talk to, and that’s grand. Now I can’t even go out with her at half-term! She’s going tomorrow. She was chosen to be the chief character in an important movie, so she must go back to India for rehearsals and filming. And her parents thinks she’s to wonderful for words, and are going to send her to the local acting school, even though she’s way too young. Her parents are so proud! I don’t like them at all!”
“Bad luck, old thing!” said Evelyn. Then it struck her that something could be done. “I’ve got an idea. Alice is going with Esther, of course, but they don’t have room for us in their car. And I know Alexis has agreed to go with Celine – but they only have a six-person car, so with Celine’s parents, Alexis, Celine, Liliana and her friend Suzanne, there’s no space for me. Now Baixue hasn’t got anyone to go with, and you know it’s a rule that three girls who are over the age of seven may go to the nearby towns, and have some fun – so that’s what we could do! You, I and Baixue all can’t go out, so we can go to Orange City and bike from there sometimes to the other towns – simply wizard! I’ve got my dear old granny there, so we can stay there for half term week. I say, there’s Baixue. Hi, Baixue come join us.”
Baixue listened excitedly as she was invited to Evelyn and Bianca’s arrangement.
“Right,” she said. “I??
?ll go by my horse – Swift – that arrived today and talk to your granny. I’ll arrange it. I’ll give her four five-dollar notes, for her to prepare tea for us. And I can also charter out a taxi for us. I say, how great! Just wait till my dear mother in China hears about it!”
And off Baixue went. The girls soon arranged to meet with Evelyn’s granny. Half-term came and went. The girls all thought it went way too quickly. Evelyn, Baixue and Bianca had the best time of all. They decided to make a threesome.
Carlotta had gone out with Andrea, Janet and Jennifer went with Harriet, a girl who was always had everybody’s disapproval because of her coldness to others. Janet and Jennifer were always nice. Alicia went with Elsie. Carlotta came back with a secret. She had gotten something cool from her brother. It was a small doll. They asked what it was.
Carlotta giggled. “You put a piece of bubble wrap inside it. Then you wind it, and then it will go the other way, causing the bubble wrap to pop, and it will make a terrific noise. There’s a special kind of bubble wrap that will work best too. I’ve got some. I say, I know it’s a bit undignified for our age, but I just can’t resist playing it on Miss Emma.”
“Oh, rubbish!” said Andrea. “Don’t the First to Fourth formers play tricks too, and they’re all so grown up! Don’t become serious and solemn.”
Now that half-term had gone, the Fourth grade must start to prepare their show for the end of term. They had a meeting on a hot Wednesday afternoon.
“Now, we should make up our minds of what kind of show we’re going to give. But first, let’s choose producers. Vote for 12 girls,” said Esther.
“Now, I’ve got the girls with most votes. Bianca, Alexis, Evelyn, Janet, Esther, Carlotta, Jennifer, Alicia, Elsie, Alice, Felicia and I.” said Celine. “What kind of show should we do?”
“Ballet!”
“No – a play!”
Suggestions came, and finally a play got most approval.
“Oh, yes! Everybody can be in it. What should it be?”
“Why don’t we write a story ourselves? That would bring the house down. I believe no entertainment form has ever done something like that!”
“Sure!” agreed the girls.
Esther smiled. “Okay. Celine, you will draft out the whole thing. Work with good old Felicia from dormitory 1.”
“Oh, draft out a play!” exclaimed Celine, in her shy, quiet voice. “I know that the fourth form drafted out Cinderella, but now I have to come up with a whole plot!”
Felicia came up and smiled. “Come on, we can do it. Just we have to finish the exam before we start on it. What kind of play do we want?”
“Humor and conjuring!”
“Good idea,” said Felicia. “We’ll do that. It’ll bring the house down.”
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