Chapter 1

A Trip To Remember

 

A pale half moon watched the commotion on the parking lot at the inn in Carter Valley. It was cool this morning, but the weather could change rapidly in spring. The place was packed with impatient school children. Many of them only half-listened to Dr. Broadbent’s speech and some even yawned. Why didn’t they start already?

“Ladies and gentlemen, I hope we understand each other. Please keep in mind that under no circumstances is anyone to go near the escarpment. I fully expect to see everyone safe and sound on top of the hill by lunchtime.”

The principal of the ‘Pemberton Academy for Advanced Learning’, a well-known school for gifted kids, made sure that his instructions were carried out properly.

“Stay on the footpath - yes, you too over there!” The culprit quickly stepped back onto the rocky footpath. “Remember poor Tom Fraser —”

General murmur arose. They all knew that Tom Fraser had tripped and fallen off the cliff three years ago. Luckily, he had been okay. Sort of.

“There we go,” Dr. Broadbent said with satisfaction. “The junior grades follow Dr. Naidoo and Mr. Van Straten. The senior grades line up to my left, right here. You will walk with Mrs. Meyer and Dr. Wilkins.”

Dr. Naidoo was so short that she almost disappeared between the students in the ensuing chaos. She tried to make herself heard in a shrill voice, “Victor and Brandon, come back here this minute!”

Dr. Broadbent pushed sparse strands of hair back from his shiny forehead and began to assign the students to groups. Soon orderly columns started to move uphill. Only three of the seven-graders hung back right from the start.

Chryseis Cromwell seemed to have hurt her ankle and sat down on a wooden bench. Her best friends Katherine and Trevor sat down next to her and they watched the others file past.

“Hey, lazy buggers. What are you still doing here?” they teased the three friends.

Chryseis pulled a face in faked pain as she rubbed her ankle and moaned, “Oh that really hurts.”

Chryseis Cromwell was eleven, had lots of freckles on her cute nose and blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail. Her usually bold blue eyes took on a suffering expression as soon as somebody looked her way.

Katherine MacDougal was twelve and rather pretty with her long, auburn hair. She came from England and was as shy as a dormouse. According to the self-confident Chryseis, who had an opinion on absolutely everything.

The third conspirator was quiet Trevor Huxley from Chicago. He was twelve like Katherine and attended Pemberton on a scholarship.

It wasn’t easy to get into an exclusive school like that and it helped that Trevor was very smart. His parents had never really understood their gifted son, but a scholarship meant that they didn’t have to pay for their son’s education. Since the divorce, it was just better for everyone, if he went to boarding school.

Trevor loved to daydream. In his thoughts he could do as he pleased. Fly on sunrays beyond the grey Chicago clouds to the African jungle or work on an alternative to washing machines, or cruise the blue Mediterranean Sea. And when he felt like it, he would even travel back in time to ancient Rome.

The three of them had never done anything like this before, but today they had good reason. Today was the day for THE experiment.

So they sat on the wooden bench and waited.

It didn’t take long for one of the teachers to approach them with a stern face to see what was going on. Of course they were prepared.

Katherine grew nervous all the same and started to fidget so badly that Trevor had to shove her a couple of times.

Would Dr. Wilkins buy the sore ankle or would he notice that they were up to something?

“And what’s that?” the educator asked.

“My foot rolled off that stone over there,” Chryseis complained. “It hurts.”

She pointed to a random stone on the ground. The teacher’s expression softened and he stared at the spot. There was nothing unusual on the ground.

“I see,” Dr. Wilkins said and scratched his long nose.

Thankfully, he liked Chryseis. Excellent student, and her mother, Professor Cromwell, wrote such interesting articles in the scientific magazine he enjoyed as a bit of light reading at bedtime.

 He decided to give Chryseis the benefit of the doubt, and gave her an encouraging look. Chryseis was to stay at the little inn and wait for the other students to come back in the afternoon.

“The two of you —” he waved toward Katherine and Trevor, “you come with me.”

Oh no. They had to stay together!

According to plan, they also needed to avoid cars, buildings and especially people. Electromagnetic interference was just about the last thing they needed for the experiment.

“Emm, Dr. Wilkins,” Chryseis said in a brave voice. ”I’d really like to go to our picnic on the hill. Maybe we should just take it slowly. I’m sure my friends will help me. It doesn’t hurt so bad anymore, see.”

She stood up on wobbly legs and smiled.

It worked. Dr. Wilkins agreed. He told them to look after Chryseis and quickly caught up with his group to help a Mrs. Meyer herd some of the students back onto the path. Dr. Wilkins turned around briefly and saw Chryseis limping as expected, leaning on Trevor’s arm. Then he went to the front of his group and they soon disappeared behind a rockface.

“Phew, at last.” Katherine said relieved.

Chryseis bent down and rubbed her ankle. She recovered in record time.

“I’m going to get lame for real, if I keep this up much longer... okay, so what now?”

Trevor stopped and scanned the hill. He pointed with his chin to some larger rocks.

“See, how the path kind of forks to the right over there?”

“Yes - and?!”

Trevor had already mapped out the site that was just right for their purposes. Also rather close to the escarpment, but that couldn’t be helped.

“We aren’t supposed to go so near to the edge!” Katherine felt a pain in her stomach. “What if we get caught? And what about Tom Fraser?”

“What about him? He’d fall over his own feet when he had half a chance,” Chryseis said.

“Yes, but…”

“Give us a break, Katie. If we don’t do it today, we can forget about the whole thing.”

“We’ll be careful.” Trevor started walking.

“The others won’t see us for a while. At least not until they get to the top of the hill. By then, we’re back on the path.” Chryseis was never short of an answer.

“I knew that.” Katherine caught up with them. “And what if we can’t find a portal up there?”

She was still skeptical, despite weeks of careful preparations.

“Oh stop it already.” Trevor was eager to get going. Today! There had to be a time warp around here somewhere. He could feel it in his bones.

“I guess,” Katherine mumbled and trudged after them. They climbed over sticks and stones now.

“I found a time warp in the school garden last week, didn’t I? And it wasn’t that difficult, remember?”

Sure, they remembered. Trevor had told them all about it. over and over. It had been his job to test the time-portal-finder... and what a test it had turned out to be!

First a shimmering, holographic spot had appeared that was growing larger all the time. That was the closest description Trevor could think of for the warp in the space-time continuum. Then behind that ‘curtain’ a vortex had opened up. Churning like a washing machine during the spinning cycle - and Trevor had jumped in. Just like that!

On the other side he’d seen a large ‘thing’ with shiny scales and steaming breath, stretched out right there before him. Creepy! The ‘thing’ had moved in waves and gave Trevor the grandmother of all shocks.

He’d lost no time and pressed the ‘Return’ button. As expected, he had found himself back in the school garden at exactly the same point in time when he had left.

The possible monster couldn’t scare them off. It had been a real trip through time, no matter how short. Back at the lab, they’d thought up better safety features and now it was time for the first experiment together. THE experiment.

“Okay, here we are.”

In front of them lay a platform, shielded by rocks on three sides and virtually invisible from the footpath. The fourth side was open toward the valley. Ideal.

“Then let’s get going!” Chryseis took a deep breath and jumped effortlessly onto the platform.

Trevor and Katherine jumped up behind her. Trevor plunked his daypack on the ground and took out a plain-looking object.

It looked a bit like a flat metal-pear and fitted snuggly in the palm of his hand. The time-portal-finder. Chryseis had dubbed the time-portal-finder TPF, and the name had stuck.

The three friends were proud of their handiwork. It had taken loads of time and effort to get the TPF looking like that.

The whole thing had started with Katherine’s physics project - quantum physics. With the vacuum battery to be exact. At first it hadn’t even crossed her mind to use this ‘endless energy source’ for time travel. Trevor had come up with it and the idea had kind of taken off by itself. This year’s physics project would be a rip-roaring success. Time travel was perfect proof that the endless energy source really worked and wasn’t just some sort of legend. Of course the project was unusual... but they had come this far, right?

The TPF was fitted with a row of black buttons on the right side of the flat top. They were there to dial the target epoch.

Three bigger red buttons on the left were for memorizing reference points in time. One of the new safety features, the first model did not have. A kind of shortcut in time, mostly there to get out of something quickly.

Then there was an even bigger white button right in the middle. It was programmed to find a time warp and, when pressed again, to activate a time portal.

After a successful trip, a small display above the buttons indicated the number of years traveled. At the moment it was set to ‘0’.

Small stickers next to the black buttons had numbers on them. Those next to the two red buttons were still blank. The top one showed today’s date. The date of departure.

“Here are the two copies with their own integrated vacuum batteries. A TPF for each one of us. Here and... here.”

Trevor handed each of the girls their own TPF. The devices looked identical and were wrapped in see-through plastic.

“I put them into sandwich bags, so they won’t get wet.”

“Good thinking, Trev. In case we land in the ocean or so,” Chryseis quipped and let the TPF slide into her jacket pocket.

“So that’s what you’ve been up to all day yesterday.” Katherine was impressed.

“No prob. Just better when we all have one.”

“Right. If we lose one or this one here gets damaged, we still have the others as a reserve,” said Katherine.

Trevor carried on talking with a serious expression.

“The top red button is for today’s time reference. We discussed that. We all have to press it at the same time, later.”

“Sure thing. Now, the VICs. One virtual invisibility cape for each of us.” Chryseis opened the front pocket of her daypack and pulled out thin, black plastic hair bands. They had a tiny box on top and a deep-set button on the side. The VIC was probably the best thing.

Katherine and Chryseis had come up with the idea after Trevor’s strange time travel experience. One never knew what lay in wait. In principle it had something to do with the bending of light waves. In case of an emergency, one pressed the button - and simply disappeared.

Trevor wanted to put his aliceband on this morning, but that would have been just weird. Imagine, a boy wearing an aliceband!

They had also decided to keep them switched off inside the time portal. One never knew what might interfere with the frequency. The risk was too great.

“Oh flip.”

The u-shaped plastic bands were entangled and Chryseis struggled to get them out of the pocket. Katherine looked worried.

“Hurry up, Chris! This is taking forever.”

“Okay, okay.”

In the end, Katherine helped her untangle the alicebands.

“All right then,” Chryseis said with triumph in her voice.

They put on their VICs, careful not to touch the flat button on the side.

“Can we go now?” Chryseis asked all excited.

‘Time travel’ - the words echoed in Katherine’s mind. Her mouth felt so dry. She swallowed hard, but the fear didn’t want to go away. Now of all times she had to panic! Then, a completely useless question shot through her mind: Can you breathe prehistoric air just like that or is it dangerous?’

This whole experiment was insane. Dangerous even! Katherine swallowed again and fought the urge to run.

There was still time to cop out…no, it was too late. She couldn’t let her friends down now...

Trevor didn’t notice Katherine’s terror. He activated the big white button on the TPF and tried to find a good spot, pointing the TPF here and there. And sure enough, something began to shimmer by one of the grey rocks. A portal to the space-time continuum!

“I knew it!” Trevor cried.

Chryseis stared mesmerized at the shimmering spot. A time warp, this had to be a time warp! For the first time in her life she didn’t know what to say.

“All together. Now!” Trevor said.

On his signal, they pressed the red button through the plastic cover, locking in today’s time reference. Done. Step one completed.

“I’m going to activate the time span now. Get ready.”

The girls grabbed each other’s hand and Trevor pushed the big white button a second time.

 

 

Chapter 2

A New School Year

 

It had all begun like any other school year after the winter holidays and the experiment in Carter Valley was still a pie in the sky.

As so often, Walt the janitor had fetched Katherine and other students from the Etheridgeville airport. Time travel was pretty much the last thing on Katherine’s mind as she sat comfortably in the back of the old-fashioned, black Volvo. She gazed dreamily at the passing landscape, while trying not to pay attention to Privesh and Hendrik, who were having a boring discussion about sport.

Looks almost like England, she thought, if one ignored the long bearded moss swaying from the branches of Eucalyptus tree. She had never seen that in England. And the sky was never such a bright blue.

A tiny cloud between the trees shifted to the left as the road swerved through the broad school gate. Ah, there was another cloud not far from the first. That’s more like it.

Katherine sighed and settled back into the snug leather seat.

As always, the holidays had been way too short. She missed her gentle French mother and Dad and aunt Trudie and their comfortable home in Oxfordshire. Aunt Trudie, mom’s younger sister, was always so nice and funny.

She didn’t really miss her two younger brothers Graham and Frederick, though. They were naughty and bothered her endlessly.

Dad was often away on business. The lingering smell of leather and cigars always reminded Katherine of him. When her dad was home, she loved to sit on his lap and listen to his deep, sonorous voice. He’d tell her fascinating stories, like the one about a wedding in Pakistan he had been invited to.

“The bride wore a red and gold sari dress and the groom’s eyes were hidden behind a veil of golden lametta,” he had reported. ”Women were dancing around balancing metal water jugs on their heads.”

They made Dad ride on a painted elephant! Katherine could see the scene right in front of her as she smelled the leather of the car seat. This time, Dad had been home for only three brief days before flying back to Hong Kong.

 Would things be better, if her parents weren’t wealthy? Sometimes, all Katherine wanted was the luxury of growing up without being shipped off to boarding school. It seemed so unfair. Why couldn’t she just grow up like everybody else? Well, almost everybody else. There were many kids with rich parents at Pemberton.

The rambling school building painted in rust and white, with its impossible spires and towers, appeared behind the sweeping green lawns at the end of the driveway. Katherine asked herself for the umpteenth time, who had thought that up.

Loads of shrubs and trees dotted the Pemberton school grounds. All that exuberant vegetation kept two gardeners quite busy throughout the year. Murmuring water features sparkled between masses of flowers as the car purred past a nine-hole golf course.

The sports facilities at Pemberton also weren’t to be scoffed at. Too bad that Katherine wasn’t interested in sports.

They left the tennis courts behind as the car began to wind its way up the alley between high bluegum trees. Walt steered the black Volvo deftly up the broad driveway. A familiar bump in the road jolted Katherine from her dreamy mood. A red squirrel with feathery tail darted up and down the trunk of a large tree as they reached the graveled parking lot. Directly in front of the entrance with its broad stairs.

Children walked around everywhere between the parked cars, while chatting adults in smart clothes stood next to piles of luggage.

A familiar sight.

The school magazine proudly declared that Pemberton-students came from all over the States, Europe and from far-flung countries like Korea, South Africa and New Zealand. The academy enjoyed an excellent reputation all over the world.

A sobbing boy of perhaps eight years was obviously new to the school and clung to his increasingly impatient mother.

“Mom, I don’t want to stay here. Mom, please...”

She scolded him under her breath and pulled his clawing hands from her expensive pink designer suit.

"Lester..., stop it this minute. No, don’t do that... please... stop it!”

At the same time, she tried to make a good impression on Woody Kranich’s mother, who was a fashion editor from California. Defeated, Lester sat down on his designer suitcase with a sad expression.

For Katherine there had been a few tears in the privacy of her first class seat on the Boeing that had carried her from London to New York. By the time her connecting flight had reached Etheridgeville, Katherine’s tears had dried up. After all, her parents tried to give her the best education they could afford. Nothing one could do about it.

The Volvo came to a solid halt. On top of the broad steps, the great doors were flung invitingly open.

‘Pemberton Academy for Advanced Learning’, announced a polished brass sign next to the dark wooden entrance.

“Right, here we are,” said Walt. His voice was raspy like a vegetable grater. “Out with you guys. I’ll get your things from the trunk in a jiffy and take them up to the entrance hall.”

Walt was an amicable fellow with grey, wiry hair. He had been the janitor, chauffeur and supervisor of staff forever – even longer than the fat cook Mrs. Hadley and was proud to be an employee of importance. Walt war proud of his important position. He admired Dr. Broadbent and was fond of the students. Well, most of them.

He appreciated it, if they didn’t trample on his flowers or played fountain with the water hoses. Water was expensive these days. Too clever for their own good some of those kids were, he thought and opened the trunk of the car. Just too clever for their own good

Katherine and the two boys jumped onto the crunching gravel. She felt hot in her woolen skirt and twin set. They were more suitable for the cool British weather than the much warmer Georgia. Then it didn’t matter anymore. Katherine had detected Chryseis and Trevor.

Trevor stood in a group of boys close by. They were telling stories about their holidays. Chryseis held the hand of her colorfully-clad mom. Most of the kids wouldn’t be seen dead holding their mom’s hand, but Chryseis couldn’t be bothered with other people’s opinions. Prof. Cromwell was a bit eccentric, but other than that really nice. Not like many of the other rather square parents.

The three friends shared an interest in quantum physics and global warming and were in the top ten of their grade. This year, they would be in the seventh grade. Seventh grade sounded so grown-up!

Trevor was glad to be back at school after a never-ending holiday. The total opposite to Katherine.

He had spent the first two weeks cooped up in his dad’s small flat in Chicago, ’The Windy City’, with his new computer. His dad never spoke much and it had been too cold to go outside. The few friends he still had there were on vacation.

Trevor knew that his dad meant well, but they were just light years apart. His parents had been divorced by the time Trevor was three and he began to spend much time with his beloved grandmother. Granny had nursed him when he had broken his arm as a little boy, they went for walks in the park and she had made up the most amazing stories.

But then Granny had died two years ago of pneumonia in the cold of winter and Trevor felt so lonely as if he had lost his entire family right then.

Dad’s new girlfriend Peggy-Sue had also been there in Chicago. She always wore this puzzled look on her heavily made-up face. She was a waitress at the diner around the corner. Dad had obviously not looked very far to find a girlfriend. Trevor couldn’t talk at all to the giggling Peggy-Sue and had avoided her most of the time.

By the end of his stay in Chicago, Trevor was sick of greasy burgers and peach cobbler. He was sure that his dad and Peggy-Sue were just as relieved to see him leave on the bus bound for Iowa.

Trevor listened to music on his headphones for most of the trip and braced himself for his stay in Iowa. His mother was now Mrs. Hadwen and seemed happier in the country than she had ever been in the city.

Trevor found it difficult to call her mom or even kiss her cheek. He didn’t know her very well. All she did was talk to him about stuff like eating a nourishing meal and wearing a clean shirt and had given him three boring shirts for Christmas.

Her new husband was a big, homey fellow of a farmer, who talked just as little as his dad. Trevor’s younger half-brother, Gerry Junior, was a real pain in the neck. Gerry was just two and a half and threw temper tantrums at least a dozen times a day.

It became Trevor’s favorite pastime to walk along the fallow cornfields or in the hills. At least he could get away from the house. He had discovered a gurgling spring between two vertical rock faces last summer. There he liked to sit on a flat rock and played with the pebbles in the water or he just read a book. But in winter it was just too cold for that.

Trevor much preferred the mild southern climate. The fragrant rose garden at Pemberton was his favorite spot. Here he would sit on a bench under the softly swaying birch trees and study. Even in winter.

When he became friends with the confident Chryseis Cromwell and Katherine MacDougal last year, they often sat together under the birch trees. The two girls never ragged him like some of the other girls. They were different. Sometimes, they just chatted while watching the colorful birds, flowers, dragonflies.

Oh yes, Trevor was glad to be back at Pemberton. He had arrived by bus in the morning and his short brown hair was still neatly combed.

Trevor had already spotted the two of them, but it would have been uncool to run and greet them now in front of all the boys.

“Yeah, sure, I also can’t wait for the baseball season to start again,” he said instead. John LeGrange was going on about last season’s highlights and he just couldn’t shut up about baseball.

“I’d rather play cricket,” said Ben.

Ben Harper from Rockingham, Australia was one of the wealthiest kids at the school. He carried on telling them every boring detail about some sailing trip, while Trevor watched the girls from the corner of his eye.

They waved wildly to each other. Katherine looked like a lady, Chryseis thought. She, on the other hand, had blonde pigtails and wore simple jeans and a pink T-shirt and. Pink was her favorite color.

The Cromwells had named their first child after an obscure character from one of the Greek legends. The ‘Tale of Troy’. The historical Chryseis had been a lucky maiden. Captured by the Greeks during the Trojan War and then given back her freedom. This was unusual in Greek mythology, to say the least. The parents of the modern Chryseis had studied Greek and had been inspired by the story. Her younger siblings were named Jason and Cassiopeia, or Cassie for short. Also classical names.

Katherine and Trevor spent many a weekend in the townhouse of the Cromwell family. It was half hidden by an overgrown garden, in an area of town, where manicured lawns and straight flowerbeds were the order of the day. Trevor had loved it there from the start. The family was so uncomplicated, and he loved Mrs. Cromwell’s cornbread and gumbo.

They seemed to have so much time for each other and always talked during dinner. Inside, the house was bright and cheerful with loads of wooden furniture smelling of beeswax polish. There were framed pictures on the walls and all sorts of fascinating stuff was scattered around.

“Hi there, Katie!” Chryseis called and let go of her mother’s hand.

Katherine started to run across the parking lot. But not without pinching an unsuspecting Trevor in passing. That was unusually bold for Katherine and Trevor tried to playfully slap her arm. She was too fast for him, despite her stiff skirt and woolen twinset. The white gravel crunched under their soles as Trevor chased her to the other side of the lawn. The two of them came to a halt in front of Chryseis, breathless and laughing.

“Hi there guys, good to see you’ll again,” Chryseis greeted them in her southern drawl.

“Hi there, girlfriend,” Katherine laughed, still out of breath. “Hello Mrs. Cromwell!”

Chryseis’s mom greeted them, then continued to chat to other parents.

“Hey Chris, did you get my last e-mail? I sent it off in Oxford yesterday, before I left.”

“Which e-mail, the one about Fred’s tummy bug?”

Katherine nodded.

“Yeah, got it. Bummer.”

Chryseis thought Katherine’s two brothers of hers were spoilt brats. Her younger brother Jason on the other hand was easy-going and played outside with his friends all day long.

“We couldn’t do anything, when we were in Marseilles. It was sooo boring.” Katherine sighed at the memory. “Fred’s such a nuisance. He always catches something when we travel.”

Sure, his mom’s attention, Chryseis thought to herself.

Katherine still spoke in a pronounced British accent. According to some of the American kids, it sounded as if she had just arrived with the pilgrim ships in the New World.

“Read any interesting books during the holidays?” Chryseis turned to Trevor.

“What?” he was distracted.

Holly Benson, the class bully, stood nearby. Trevor hoped that she wouldn’t notice him. He didn’t like her much and it was unlikely that she had changed for the better during the holidays.

She had a pretty face under a mop of curly brown locks. It could have fooled somebody who didn’t know her well. For some mysterious reason Holly Benson didn’t like kids on a scholarship. She kept throwing back her dark curls and inspected seemingly disinterested the newcomers in the parking lot.

Holly would have liked to be friends with Chryseis. Mr. Cromwell came from an old family in the area and chaired the Etheridgeville’s Chamber of Commerce. Good family, Holly’s dad said.

The class bully stood just behind Mrs. Cromwell, who was now talking to her parents. She had discovered the three friends laughing and sharing their holiday stories.

Why did Chryseis have to be friends with this Trevor Huxley character from Chicago? He was so common. How he had made the cut at Pemberton, she couldn’t fathom!

Mr. Benson’s company donated a proud sum of money to the school funds every year and he certainly expected his daughter to be right up there with the best. And as for Katherine - well what was so special about her that Chryseis chose this English girl as her best friend?

“I asked, if you’ve read any interesting book.”

“Oh okay, actually I surfed more on the Internet,” Trevor confessed.

“As always.”

“This new website on astronomy is amazing. They have a screensaver with pictures of planets and galaxies and some info about black matter.”

He was right at home, exploring the virtual world of the internet. Not to mention computer games.

“And what else?” Katherine asked.

Before he could answer, Chryseis said excitedly, “You’ve just got to read ‘Distant Resonance’. It’s a new book by Prof. Herbert Shelton. It’s all about something that happens on one side of the planet and then somebody has the exact same idea on the other side and…”

Holly Benson had moved quietly next to her father, Harold J. Benson III. She now faced the three friends directly.

“Herbert Shelton? Read it ages ago. Good book!” She cut in with an air of self-importance. “Probably too expensive for you, Trevor.”

Trevor rolled his eyes and Katherine jumped.

“Whoa, where did you come from?”

Chryseis was annoyed. “Oh whatever, Holly. Nobody asked you anyway!”

Holly never seemed to get it when she wasn’t welcome.

Prof. Cromwell noticed the icy atmosphere and came to the rescue.

“Hi Holly, nice to see you, darling. We’d better go now. Good day, Mr. Benson. Mrs. Benson.”

She knew her daughter’s quick temper and ushered the kids towards the stairs and the entrance hall. Before Mr. Benson had a chance to lecture her about more pros and cons of holidaying in the Caribbean.

“Look, they prepared everything inside,” she said.

Chryseis lugged a small, blue suitcase up the stairs with Trevor’s help.

“Read Herbert Shelton ages ago… blahblah. Who did she try to impress?” she mumbled to herself. Chryseis had already enough of Holly, and school hadn’t even started yet.

Shortly after, Dr. Broadbent held his speech.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon parents and other adults present...” Dr. Broadbent always addressed the students as ‘ladies and gentlemen’.

He was a quick-tongued man in his fifties. With a receding hairline and a kind pink face, he was the picture of a school principal. Dr. Broadbent loved to spike his assembly speeches with little wordplays to keep his young audience on their toes. Today his speech was comparatively tame.

Eighth-grader Bradley Benson, a distant cousin of Holly’s, pushed one of the smaller boys out of the way and Dr. Broadbent paused until order had been restored. At the beginning of the school year, he was still in a good mood. The entrance hall filled with more and more people.

“... and we find ourselves back in the hallowed halls of learning. An extended welcome to our teachers, who are no doubt in hiding somewhere in the building and - of course to our parents and the new students. May your stay at Pemberton be as fruitful —” He spoke for another ten minutes.

Afterwards there were finger foods, mostly handfuls of sausage rolls before the parents left.

Then Pemberton was back to business as usual. The relatively small private school had only two classes per grade. Katherine, Trevor and Chryseis were in the same class this year. So were Holly and her best friend Natasha Manning.

“Oh joy,” Chryseis moaned.

“Yeah well, nothing we can do,” Trevor whispered.

“We’ll see about that.”

At least, Dr. Wilkins was their homeroom teacher. A dedicated if slightly boring teacher, but he had a kind heart. Unfortunately, he was easily thrown off balance. The grade-eights still giggled about a prank they had played on Dr. Wilkins last October. Apparently it had something to do with a whoopee cushion.

After a rushed dinner, rooms were assigned in the dormitories. Garments, books and personal items were sorted noisily from bulging suitcases into yawning closets.

The boys were in the east wing, the girls in the west wing. Soon the common rooms were buzzing with excited chatter.

“Did you see Vanessa, that new haircut!”

“I heard that Bobby’s parents are getting a divorce…” “No!”

“I’m taking Japanese this year...”

Chryseis shared a corner room on the second floor with Katherine and Sally Holfield, a new girl from Missouri. Being no early bird, Chryseis didn’t like bright morning light and was pleased that their windows faced west. Thank goodness, Holly’s room was on the floor below.

Trevor had put his things away earlier and sat reading on a bench outside. Leaning over the windowsill, Chryseis called out to him.

“Hi there Trevor!”

It wasn’t very cool to call out to girls in their dorms. He waved back quickly and carried on with his book. ‘The Dragonfly’ by H.A. Humphries was a novel about a Chinese boy, who lived during the Ming dynasty. Only 74 pages left. He wanted to finish the book today.

Katherine gave Sally advice while putting away her socks in the bottom drawer. Sally Holfield was nervous about going to such a famous school. She thought that she wouldn’t keep up with the other talented students.

 “New kids are sometimes targeted by the snobs here. So expect some hazing.” She knew what she was talking about.

“Sounds scary.”

“Only if you let them get to you. And we’ll also be around.”

“Trevor gave Holly Benson the cold shoulder last year until she gave up on him. He was hopeless as a victim.” Chryseis grinned.

“Who’s Holly Benson?”

“She’s one of the popular girls in our grade. Stinking rich.”

“Trust me, you don’t want anything to do with her,” Katherine said.

They wore their pajamas, because it was lights out at nine. It was 8:37 p.m. according to the LCD clock on Katherine’s bedside table. ‘Lights out’ was at nine sharp. They still had some time left.

Sally brushed her teeth and then sat in front of the dressing table the girls shared, to brush out her hair.

“Why did Holly do that? I mean, why is she so nasty?” she asked the mirror. She wanted to be everybody’s friend and who was this Trevor?

Sally combed her light brown hair into a ponytail only to brush bangs back in her face to achieve a sultry starlet look.

Katherine hung up a poster of her favorite girlie band ‘Bliss Five’ over her bed.

“Sally, do you mind handing me the sticky tape over there…?” She pointed to the table while holding the poster up against the wall.

“Holly’s a spoilt brat, that’s what!” Chryseis stated bluntly.

She usually just said whatever popped into her head and wasn’t always diplomatic.

Sally gave Katherine the tape in silence and sat down in front of the mirror to put away her brush and hairclips. Chryseis moved into another yoga position on the carpet, putting her legs straight up into the air.

When Katherine had started at Pemberton, Chryseis had saved her from Holly Benson. That’s how they had become best friends. If Holly respected anybody, it was Chryseis. Somehow she found it hard to stand up to her and avoided fights with the quick-witted Chryseis.

Soon normality returned to the ‘Pemberton Academy for Advanced Learning’ and everything went its usual way. Or almost everything.