7 Darrell and Gwen
Darrell hoped that her last term would go very very slowly. So did Sally.
“I want to hold on to every moment, this last term,” said Darrell. “I know quite well we’ll have a wonderful time at St. Andrews, when we leave here—but I do so love Malory Towers, and I want the time to go as slowly as possible. I want to go away remembering every detail of it. I never want to forget.”
“Well, we shall remember all the things we want to remember,” said Sally. “We shall remember all the tricks we’ve ever played on Mam’zelle, for instance—every single one! We shall remember how the pool looks on a sunny day—and how the sea looks from the classroom windows—and what it sounds like when the girls pour out of school at the end of the morning.”
“And you’ll remember dear Gwen and her ways,” said Alicia, who was nearby. “You’ll never forget those!”
“Oh, Gwen!” said Darrell, exasperated¹ at the thought of her. “I wouldn’t mind forgetting every single thing about her. She’s spoiling our last term with her silly behaviour!”
Gwen really was being very trying. She had never liked Malory Towers, because she had never fitted in with its ideas and ideals. She was spoilt, selfish and silly, and yet thought herself a most attractive and desirable person. The only other girl in the form at all like her, Maureen, she detested². She could see that Maureen was like her in many many ways, and she didn’t like seeing herself so often in a girl she disliked.
Gwen never stopped talking about her next and last school. “It’s in Switzerland, you know,” she said a hundred times. “The best school there. It’s called a finishing school, and is very very select.”
“Well, I hope it will finish you off properly,” said Alicia. “It’s time something put an end to you!”
“That’s not funny, Alicia,” said Gwen, looking dignified³. “Very first-formish.”
“You always make me feel first-formish,” said Alicia. “I think of silly things like putting out my tongue and saying ‘Yah!’ when you start talking about your idiotic⁴ school. Why you couldn’t have gone this term, and left us to enjoy our last term in peace, I simply can’t imagine.”

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