Rivalry at Silver Spires by Ann Bryant

Author:Ann Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd
Published: 2016-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

A minute later I was racing downstairs to the drying room in the basement. My whole body was shaking, and I couldn’t help thinking about the time when my sweatshirt had gone missing. And now here I was again, but this time it felt worse. I was so sure I was going to find that my swimming costume had disappeared. We all hang our costumes in the drying room when we don’t actually want to put them into the laundry, and when I got there I rushed to the far corner where I’d left mine earlier. I nearly cried with relief to see that it was still there. It wasn’t quite dry but I didn’t want to take any risks, so I grabbed it quickly and went up to the dorm.

Mia was reading on the bed. I was about to put my costume in the drawer where I always keep it when I realized I had to be more careful now, so when I was sure Mia was definitely absorbed in her book, I stuffed the costume in one of my big dressing-gown pockets. I was quite pleased with that hiding place. No one could ever think of looking for it there. Then I wondered whether it might be easier to just keep it in my school bag and walk round with it all through the day, but that wouldn’t work because we have to leave our bags outside the dining hall when we go for meals.

The next day I nipped back to Hazeldean whenever I could get away from the others without drawing attention to myself. I would stick my hand inside my dressing-gown pocket with a racing heart, and breathe a huge sigh of relief as my fingers touched the costume. Then on Sunday morning I decided to go swimming before breakfast. I chose that time because I was pretty sure there’d be hardly anyone there.

Jess was still half asleep in bed. “Do you want me to come with you?” she asked me in her sleep-mumble, as I call it.

“No, it’s okay,” I whispered. “See you at breakfast.”

One thumb appeared over the duvet, so I took that as a yes.

I was right about the swimming pool being practically empty. When I first got in, there were just four Year Nine girls swimming up and down. They’d spread right out and I felt like a bit of an intruder when I started swimming. They didn’t say anything, just all shifted up a bit to give me most of a lane to myself. I really wanted to practise backstroke but I didn’t dare in case I crashed into one of them, so I kept to front crawl and tried to breathe exactly how Mrs. Mellor had shown me. After a few lengths I felt myself get into a rhythm. There’s something brilliant about swimming before breakfast. My dad and I used to do it all the time, and I always remember him saying, “Sets you up for the day,

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