2 More Arrivals
The first day of term and the last day were always exciting. Nobody bothered about rules and regulations, everyone talked at the tops of their voices, and as for walking down the corridors or up the stairs, well it just wasn’t done, except by the staid sixth-formers and the mistresses.
It was fun to go and see what bed you had in the dormy, and whose bed was next to yours. It was fun to go and peep into your classroom and see if it looked any different. It was fun to say how-do-you-do to all the mistresses, and especially to tease Mam’zelle Dupont. Not Mam’zelle Rougier, though, the other French mistress. She was as sharp as Mam’zelle Dupont was simple, and as irritable¹ as the other was good-tempered. Nobody ever teased Mam’zelle Rougier.
Darrell went to look for the rest of her friends in the fifth form. Fifth form! How grand it sounded! She was actually in the fifth now, with only one more form to go into. Oh dear—she was certainly getting very grown-up.
Alicia and Sally came up, with Irene and Belinda. “Let’s go and see our new classroom,” said Darrell. “The fifth! My goodness!”
They all went along together. The new classroom was an extremely nice one, high up and overlooking the cliff. Down below was the blue Cornish sea, as blue as cornflowers today, the waves tipped with snowy white.
“I say—this is a wizard room, isn’t it?” said Alicia, looking round. “Lovely windows and view—nice pictures—and all done up in cream and green.”
“Any new girls, does anyone know?” asked Darrell, leaning out of the window and sniffing² the salty sea air.
“There’s someone called Maureen coming,” said Irene. “I heard about her. The school she was at shut down suddenly, when the Head died—and she’s coming here. I don’t know anything about her, though.”
“I suppose you’re coming into the fifth, Alicia?” said Sally. “I mean—I know Connie’s been left down in the fourth because she didn’t pass her School Cert.—and you didn’t either, because you had the measles³. But surely you won’t be left down?”
“Oh no. I’m up all right!” said Alicia. “Gosh, I wouldn’t have come back if I hadn’t been put up with the rest of you. Miss Grayling wrote to Mother and said I could pass School Cert. on my head any time I liked and I could go up into the fifth with you, and work for School Cert. on the side, so to speak.”

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