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Chapter 2: Lucy Encounters A Matron and Some Boys
Lucy tightened her grip around her trunk and her satchel as Evangeline knocked on Matron’s door. She stared at the plain nameplate attached to the door and wondered what Matron would look like. In most of the boarding-school stories that she had read, Matron was a fierce woman who liked giving medicine to irresponsible girls.
“Come in!” said a woman’s voice. Evangeline was about to push the doorknob when Lucy instinctively grabbed her arms first. “She isn’t, you know, fierce, is she?”
The Head of Form laughed. “Matron, fierce? Batty, more like!”
Lucy didn’t know whether to laugh or not.
Matron’s office was a cluttered mess. However, the person in question did not seem to be, and was perfectly able of finding things even like pencils and pins even through all the heaps of files and piles of papers.
“Why, Evangeline!” exclaimed the rather dumpy woman. “What is it now? Torn sheets? Extra ties?”
“No, none of that, Matron. But I’ve got a new student here.”
“New student!” A smile spread on the kind-looking woman’s face. Lucy relaxed. “What’s your name, girl?”
“Lucy O’Connor, if you please,” she replied timidly.
“Ah, Lucy, beautiful name. I have a daughter named Lucy myself! Come, come, to my desk; never you mind, Evangeline, you’ve already got your sheets and blanket; come here, Lucy, let me have a good look at you! It’s not every day we get an Irish gel here!”
“She’s not Irish, Matron,” said Evangeline excitably, “She’s come from London!”
“London!” shouted Matron and she fell back onto her chair. This all gave Lucy quite a jolt. “London, indeed! Bombs and everything; oh dear gel, how did you survive?”
“I – ”
“Oh but of course it would be simply mean of me to force you to answer me! Heavens, thank goodness you’re still in one piece! London’s no place for a little gel like you, no, ’tisn’t! You’ll turn out all right in Reede Cove, indeed you will! Say now, have your parents come?”
“Mrs. Parvensey brought me here,” said Lucy.
“Why? Where are your parents? Usually they accompany the students, especially the new ones, and they all make such a terrible fuss here, as if Reede Cove won’t straighten their spoonfed children out all right, eh, Evangeline?”
“I missed Teddy’s Tragedy this year, Matron!”
“What a pity then! Well, Lucy?”
“Actually,” began Lucy nervously, “my father . . . well, he’s at war now, and my brother, David, he’s going to go to war too. So, I haven’t got anyone here to see me off except Mrs. Parvensey.”
“Why!” exclaimed Matron, stunned for a moment. “Why! Your mother?”
Lucy hesitated before saying, “She left us when I was a baby, mam.”
“Oh, oh, you poor thing!” said Matron. “Oh, you dear, poor little gel! I’ve always wondered – why is this gel extremely shy, not usual for Reede Cove gels you know – and now I know why! You haven’t got a mother all along! Why – how did you survive all this while, Lucy my dear gel?” She shook her head sadly and mumbled things like: “You’ll need all the sympathy you can get” and “Times are hard!” and “Poor little creat’re!” while she bumbled and bustled about, gathering clean, fresh sheets and a blanket and heaped them all on her desk and then she dug in her cabinet for a file and found Lucy’s name in the list of Form One students and discovered that she was on scholarship and asked to put down her signature next to her name and told her that she was placed in Room 6 in the Form One Quarters in the North Wing and her class was Form 1D and presently shooed her and Evangeline out of her room. Because Lucy had so many things to carry; what with her trunk and her satchel and the sheets and the blanket, Evangeline offered to help her with her trunk.
“So what do you think now of Matron?” asked Evangeline with a grin.
“I think that she’s an absolute dear,” proclaimed Lucy.
“Albeit a little cuckoo, though. Here, Lu, can I call you that? follow me. This place is huge and it’s too easy to get lost, especially when you’re new.”
Evangeline led her up the main stairs and at the landing, took the right staircase. Lucy soon discovered that almost everything in the school had a nickname for it. For example, the main stairs was called The Hangman’s Delight (Evangeline reported that many Form Five students liked to spend their recesses sitting on its steps just to get chased by dear old Matron, especially the boys).
“Boys?” said Lucy, almost dropping the sheets and blanket. “There are boys here?”
Evangeline gave her a curious look. “Well, yes, of course. If not, it wouldn’t be called an Institution now, would it?”
“But – but – ”
“Honestly, Lucy: I think you’ve read too many of those boarding-school stories.”
The right staircase led through a short corridor which opened out into a hall that was possibly larger than the foyer. This was the Dining Room, Diner for short. Six long tables stood right in the middle of the Diner and one slightly shorter one sat right at the head of it. The Diner was littered with girls . . . and boys, Lucy found out with dismay. She really didn’t mind the boys at all, but she was quite disappointed that her vision of the school was wrong.
“Hallo there, Evangeline,” said a black-haired boy with a mischievous grin as she walked past a table near the opposite side of the Diner. “How’s hols.?”
“It was much better, at least, without you doing any of your silly, nasty tricks every five minutes, Spangles,” replied Evangeline haughtily. Lucy was tempted to giggle. Did she actually call him Spangles?
“Ah, Evangeline, my sweet, mine wasn’t so good though, not with you halfway across the country like that.”
“Here’s a suggestion, Spangles: run along now to dear little Brynn; for I shan’t want anymore needles on my bed.”
“Aw, come on, Evangeline – ”
“And by the way, this is Lucy O’Connor. You’d do well to be nice to her because she’s new and her father’s a general at war.”
“Blimey, is that so?” Spangles turned his attention to Lucy. His keen, bright green eyes startled her. She attempted a polite smile. He held out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Missy O’Connor. And don’t listen to Evangeline, my name’s James, Jamie, for short.”
Lucy couldn’t help but giggle and say, “But James is shorter than Jamie.”
“But everybody calls me Jamie, and I’ve gotten really used to it, so I suggest you do the same too.”
“But if you’re a girl, Lu,” said Evangeline, “you’d call him Spangles, because all the girls in the form do.”
He laughed. “So what do you say, Missy O’Connor?”
“I think I should like to go to my dorm now,” Lucy replied instead.
“You heard her, Spangles!” said Evangeline, a note of triumph in her voice. “You go about messing with Lucy’s head with your beloved Brynn and you’ll have me to answer to. So long, Spangles.”
“See you around then, Missy O’Connor. And Brynn’s not my beloved!”
Evangeline led Lucy out of the Diner, not looking back even once. Once they were out of the Diner and they were walking down a rather empty corridor save for a group of girls, Lucy asked her, “What was that all about?”
“What was what?”
“Spangles, and – and tricks and a beloved Brynn?”
“Spangles is the serial Form One trickster. Every Form’s got one, trust me, there’s no shortage of these imps around here. And Brynn’s his girlfriend, at least she fancies she is. She’s just as bad as Teddy if she wasn’t so cunning and mean.”
“Who’s Teddy? And what is Brynn like?”
“Teddy’s really Theodora, but we don’t like her high-and-mighty name. Brynn’s a scallywag like Spangles. She reckons she can earn our respect if she keeps a hot temper and being the class prankster.”
Soon, they had arrived at the Form One Quarters, which was actually one whole floor devoted to six dormitories, each with ten double-decker beds in them, and a common room. Room 6 was the last dorm of them all and, including Lucy, there were only five girls inhabiting that dorm. Theodora Smart, or, rather Teddy, was one of her dorm-mates.
“Oh, goodness,” said Evangeline as they entered the empty dormitory. “Hiya there, Teddy! Your mum gave you a grand sending-off?”
“Don’t be mean, Evangeline,” said Teddy crossly. If she wasn’t so sulky, thought Lucy, she would have looked rather like an angel, with her beautiful blonde hair loose and hanging around her shoulders.
“I wasn’t being mean, but anyway, here’s Lucy O’Connor. She’ll be your new classmate and dorm-mate.”
“Classmate?” said Lucy.
“Teddy’s in 1E, too.”
“Oh,” said Lucy, then after a pause she said, “What about you, Evangeline?”
“She’s in 1A, of course,” said Teddy, standing up from her bed, which was the lower half of the bunker. “Head of Form, after all; you’re taking over Susan Leary, aren’t you, Evangeline?”
“Yes, I am, and when I’m H.F., dear little Teddy, I expect some co-operation from you, and help Lucy with schoolwork.”
“Why don’t you help her? You know that I’m no good at all in class,” said Teddy, folding her arms and frowning, “You’re the genius here.”
“I think I’ll be able to cope by myself, thanks,” said Lucy uncomfortably.
“Suit yourself, Lu, but it’s second term now. The best you can do to catch up is to do extra prep. with Miss Hoffman, this year’s 1E class teacher. Actually, you won’t even have to go to her. She’ll make sure you spend extra time with her.”
“Is she strict?”
“She’s all right, I suppose. She’ll be teaching us Maths. So choose a bed, Lu.”
“Is this one taken?” asked Lucy as she walked over to the third bed and looked at Teddy.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Great.” Evangeline put her trunk down beside the bed and Lucy removed her satchel and put it on the bed. As she and Evangeline put the sheets on the bed and arranged them neatly, Teddy Smart sighed vehemently, stamped her feet, and stormed out of the dorm. Lucy watched her leave in surprise.
“Don’t mind Teddy, Lu. She’s got as hot a temper as Brynn. They’ve never gotten along well. And don’t be upset about being in last class. Miss Hoffman’s an excellent teacher.”
“It’s not that I’m worried about,” said Lucy. She smoothened the sheets and sat on the bed. Evangeline sat beside her. “I wonder if I can fit in here. It’s bad enough that I’m one term behind, but all this is so new to me. My school was a world away from this place.”
“Not ‘this place’, Lu,” said Evangeline with a smile, “Reede Cove. Don’t worry about fitting in. Not everybody here is as stuck-up as Teddy. As for boys, Spangles is just about the worst you have to deal with. There are some boys like Peter Malley, who are really nice and sweet and don’t mind going neck-to-neck with Spangles and the like to get back your exercise books. Peter’s in 1A, anyway.”
Lucy grinned when she saw the faint blush creeping to Evangeline’s cheeks. “Evangeline! You like him!”
“Oh, oh, nonsense, Lucy! I’m just saying that he’s nice, that’s all.”
“You’re all red!”
“You’d better bathe and get ready for tonight’s dinner,” said Evangeline hastily, standing up. “You wouldn’t want Matron to catch you at your grubbiest. I’ll be at the common room if you need me.”
“Evangeline, you’re running away!”
Just before she left the dorm, the H.F. turned back and stuck her tongue out at her.
The bathroom was tiled and the floors deliciously cool to the touch. There were about ten sinks in all and ten shower stalls inside of which there were toilet bowls as well. Lucy, carefully juggling a new set of uniform, entered a stall and arranged them on a shelf provided. No sooner had she turned on the shower when she realised that she had forgotten to take a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo from the Cabinet in her dorm. She shut off the torrent of water and wrapped her towel around her body.
She tiptoed back to her dorm, wishing and hoping desperately that nobody would catch her. Thankfully, the dorm was empty. Shivering, she fumbled with the drawers until she found the soap and shampoo.
“Oh, thank you!” she whispered and made for the door. Just as she was about to open it, however . . .
She gave a scream as the door opened of its own accord and who should be looking in but a boy!
“Whoa! Whoa!” he yelled and slammed the door. A few seconds later, he reopened it and put his fair-haired head in. “I’m sorry, er, Miss . . .”
“Lucy!” she exclaimed, still pale and clutching at her towel.
“Right, er, Lucy. I didn’t mean it – truly I didn’t – if there’s any way I can make it up to you . . .”
“I don’t mean to be rude,” said Lucy shakily, “but I would really appreciate if you go and don’t – don’t go anywhere near the girls’ bathroom in the next few minutes.”
“Right, I won’t! I’m truly sorry – er, Lucy,” he said and disappeared, closing the door behind him. Lucy tried her best not to burst into tears.
