4th Grade of Excitement Read online

Fourth Grade of Excitement

  Copyright 2012 Elena Vermeer

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – Back at School

  Chapter 2 – Alice Is Surprising

  Chapter 3 – Arrival of the Twins

  Chapter 4 – A Great Idea

  Chapter 5 – Bianca – And a New Girl

  Chapter 6 – Good Progress, and a Match

  Chapter 7 – The Trick

  Chapter 8 – Not so Smooth!

  Chapter 9 – Repentance

  Chapter 10 – Who Will Be Head?

  Chapter 11 – A Wonderful Show

  Chapter 12 – End of Term

  A Final Word

  Chapter 1 – Back at School

  Today was the end of summer vacation. The sun shone brightly.

  “What a beautiful day to start school! Especially to be head girl too,” cried Esther. She set off as an early morning bird. When she got to the now still-empty school grounds, she searched for new girls. Excited was she to go to her boarding school again – McJone’s Foundry School.

  A few minutes later, a new girl with a mass of red curly hair and freckles with almond eyes walked in the school gates, with another girl who was obviously her sister. She seemed quite lost.

  Esther went up to her at once.

  “Hallo, new girl!” she said amiably. “What’s your name, and which grade are you in? You have to find your teacher so she can help you out.”

  “My name’s Celine Tebbits. This is my sister, Liliana Tebbits. I’m in the 4th, and Liliana’s in the 2nd.” said Celine, shyly.

  “Okay, Celine. I’m head girl, so I’ll help you find Miss Kellie, your teacher. Liliana can go to Miss Linda; you know, the teacher with short brown hair over there, with glasses. It’s your first day, so after reporting your names to your teachers, you’ll have to come with me to see the headmistress, Miss Caty.” said Esther.

  Miss Kellie was delighted to see Celine. The teacher had a strict, solemn face, and Celine was a bit scared of her. Then Miss Kellie smiled, and Celine immediately liked her. She couldn’t be scared of someone who smiled like that!

  Soon Miss Kellie dismissed the girls, and let Esther and Celine go to Miss Caty.

  Miss Caty studied Celine. Then she looked up, and asked Celine, “Don’t you have a twin? Miss Nellie said you did.”

  Celine laughed. “She’s my sister, Liliana, who’s in the second grade. I’m in the fourth. We were both transferred here from St Louisa’s. The reason we came was because there were too many girls in St Louisa’s, so we had to come here, to make room for the overflow girls.”

  Miss Caty laughed too. She said, “Very well, Celine. You look like you’ve got good brains. I’ll see that you can use them! Esther, take care of them. There’s another new girl that I don’t know much about. I have only seen her once, and she looks beautiful. If you see a girl looking just like an angel, you’ve found the right girl. She’s Alice.”

  The first day of school was always fun. Esther loved it, every year, but even more this year because she was head girl. She went through the school, inquiring of those who had seen Alice lately.

  Esther was surprised to hear the girls whispering when she rushed to Alice.

  “Why does Esther want to help that snob Alice?” gushed a girl. “Alice is worse than caramel candy. What with her golden hair and blue eyes! Ugh!”

  “I tried to help out Alice,” gossiped another. “And do you know what she said? She said, ‘What in the world are you doing? You with your shaggy hair and ugly clothes! Stay away from me! It sickens me even to look at your face.’ What a haughty attitude! It doesn’t surprise me that no one is helping her out. I’ve a good mind to tell Esther about Alice. I can’t stand the thought of Alice talking to Esther. Bah!”

  Esther went up to Alice. “Alice! Hi, I’m Esther. Come to the common room with me. We will do all our activities there today since it’s the first day of term. Do you need anything? Is there anything I can help with? Would you like a cookie? I’ve a whole box up in the dorm. Do you know which dorm you’re in? You’re in dorm 7! Do you know how to get there? Come with me after the meeting in the common room. Do you want me to help you unpack? It would be my honor to do so! This school is fab! Want to play a game of tennis with me during recess?”

  All the time Alice was growing angrier.

  “No, thank you! I’m no idiot! Alice come with me, Alice do you know this, Alice do you know that. Now let me ask you a simple question. Do you know who I am? You may be head girl, but you have no right to rule over me! I, the cousin of a princess and a prince. I, a niece to the queen and king! I, the daughter of a duke! I, sister to the wife of the prince, the future queen! Do you know who I am? Do I need your help? My servants have all interviewed Miss Caty to find out all the school customs. I expect all your savings don’t even come up to half of one of my dresses! Why should I need you?”

  Soon, the girls were all gathered in the common room.

  “We shall begin by calling the roll,” said Esther, looking down the list.

  “Alice Brigham-Jones? Celine Tebbits?” The two girls said yes. “Alicia?”

  “Yes,” answered Alicia. Alicia was a nice little girl who was quite smart and a lot of fun, most of the time.

  “Carlotta?” “Yes.” Carlotta was sharp-tongued, with a deep, cool voice.

  “Ava?” Ava was a quiet little girl, from India. She could, however, fly into a temper. As Esther and Carlotta said, she could sometimes be a nasty piece of work. But no one could help wondering what would happen if Alice and Ava got into a row!

  “Bianca Helicon?” asked Esther. Bianca was colorless. She was so quiet. No one took any notice of her. But she was a well-known girl because she had a German shepherd in the stables. She and Ava were friends.

  “Andrea?” Andrea and Carlotta were a pair. They both were up to tricks and jokes.

  “Elsie?” Elsie and Alicia were a pair, the earnest little girls. They were serious children, who were good at nearly everything, especially swimming.

  “Janet? Jennifer?” Janet and Jennifer were twins. They were both honest and had good brains.

  That made up the 11 girls in Esther’s dormitory. Of course, there were other girls in other dormitories, but most of Esther’s good friends were in this dormitory. She liked Celine, but rather despised Alice.

  The next day, lessons started. Miss Kellie came in. After taking the attendance, she wrote out a list of things each girl must have on the chalkboard.

  “We shall begin,” she said, after ten minutes of grade-work. She gave out a lot of prep.

  After a week, Miss Kellie told the grade the girls who were top and who were bottom.

  “Alice, work harder! Another week being bottom and you’ll be for it! Ava and Bianca, you should be more enthusiastic, silly-billies! Carlotta, you’re doing well, working steadily, but closer to the bottom than to the top, I’m sorry to say. Andrea, you’re right in the middle, luckily. I say, do you remember last year when you were bottom simply every week? Janet and Jennifer, you’re both 13th! Very well done for the first week! Elsie, you’re 10th. Alicia, you’ve moved from the 12th, as you were last year, to the 5th! Simply marvelous! Celine, you must have been top in St Louisa’s because you’re 2nd, not far below our honorable and dignified Esther! Esther, you’re top, as you should be! By the way, see me after class today, Esther. There’s going to be a 4th grade meeting between me, Miss Emma, the English and Science and Geography mistress, Miss Tina, the Politics and Drama mistress, and of course, it involves you. Now, girls, if you have any complaints or suggestions that you want to make to the teachers, go to Esther, and Esther, tell me about it.”

  “What a chatter-box Miss Kellie is!” cried Carlotta. “
All the same, I can’t help liking her!”

  “I need to go to the meeting,” said Esther, coolly. “So long, girls!”

  At the meeting, Miss Kellie, Miss Emma, Miss Tina and Esther discussed Alice.

  “Alice seems to think studies aren’t important at all!” said Miss Emma. “How I want to get her to work!”

  “She deserves to have her ears boxed,” said Miss Tina, grimly. “Last Monday, when I asked her why she made so many mistakes in her Gaddafi and Libya project, and why she had not memorized her lines of Shakespeare, she said, ‘What good does that do if I’ve already got a Princess as a cousin and heaps and heaps of nice cars and maids and servants to do work for me? I don’t see what I have to learn excluding fashion shows and how to pick nice things!’”

  “It seems she needs some hard special coaching at night,” said Miss Kellie, glancing at Esther, who, despite her enthusiasm, was quite quiet at the meeting.

  “I will help her do special coaching, no matter how late I have to go. We students have much less to do in coming days. Teachers are quite busy,” Esther said at last.

  The teachers looked at one another.

  “It’s very kind of you to do that,” said Miss Emma, who didn’t give a compliment unless something really impressed her, even though she had a great sense of humor.

  So that night, Esther started to do special coaching with Alice.

  “Show me your prep,” said Esther.

  “Why should I?” sneered Alice. “I have my own choice to show the prep to some snotty head girl or not.”

  “I’m doing this on behalf of Miss Tina, Miss Kellie, and Miss Emma.”

  “Hmmph! Who cares about them?”

  “Very well! Don’t show me your prep,” said Esther, coolly. “Except you’ll get reported to the teachers. I’m not a snitch. You’re asking for it. Well, I’m doing this all for your good, so even if you don’t show me your prep, you’ll learn something tonight, even if you don’t do these worksheets. But you’ll just learn that something the hard way, that’s all.”

  Alice was frightened, but she didn’t show it. She mumbled and grumbled, as she did her work meekly. Esther looked through her and knew Alice, deep down, was terrified.

  Alice did her work slowly, without one single mistake. It was because the worksheets she gave Alice were for grade 1, and even then it took Alice quite a long time.

  Esther had planned to do five grade 1 worksheets with Alice that night, for she was quite tired and needed some rest.

  “That’s the end of tonight’s coaching, Alice. Come again tomorrow night at the same time. No excuses. Complain to the mistresses, ask them to give you permission to go to the town, but they will tell Miss Kellie first. So you won’t get away anyhow!” said Esther. She didn’t say it in a grim way; she added a few chuckles.

  I shall write and tell Mother what a beastly school this is! thought Alice. I’ll tell her to take me away! I see why mother didn’t want me to come. How mad Daddy was, to make me come to this ‘sensible’ school. After all, I don’t see why a beautiful girl with titled and grand relations should come to this small league school. How beastly! And no one likes me. Well, if they’re so spiteful to me, I’ll be spiteful to them! Aha! I’ll play a trick on that beast of an Esther. I’ll try my best to do the special coaching, and she’ll be so pleased with me! Then I’ll tear up her prep, and make it look like that stupid, cowardly, feeble Bianca’s dog did it!

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