Heywood

Chapter One

                “Will I be attending my fifth period class?” Di asked and the Head nodded.

                “Oh yes! Once the bell rings to signal end of fourth period, bring her to my office. Go to your last lesson and then collect her from here and take her back to Grenville. Her classes don’t start until tomorrow.”

                “Okay. Thank you,” Di said as she stood up. She made to leave but the Headmistress held up a pudgy hand.

                “How are you coping with your new role as House Prefect?”

                “Oh, fine. Just fine,” Di smiled.

                “You’re blessed that everyone in Grenville is so sensible and mature,” the Head said. “Well, off you go to assembly. Mr. Mace will not take kindly to being interrupted any later than three minutes into the assembly.”

                Di frowned. Mr. Mace was the Deputy Head of Heywood and he was a monster. Well, not literally, but he was scary and ugly and merciless. The man was well over six feet tall and was as skinny as a rake. He was in a constant state of ill health. The man sniffled and sneezed and coughed more times in an hour that normal people did in a week. It was a bad idea to get in trouble with Mr. Mace for two reasons. The first was that he gave out the worst punishments out of all the teachers at Heywood. He was renowned for his liberal use of Saturday detentions and his old-school methods such as making the unfortunate student write lines or chip the chewing gum off of the underside of desks. The second reason was the fact that when he got angry, he shouted. Many other teachers at Heywood liked to shout, but it was worse with Mr. Mace. The man liked to get up close and personal with his victims. Not only did he humiliate that student, but he often made them ill. He shouted with force and passion and this often resulted in showering the student with little droplets of spittle.

                Di internally gagged at the thought of being shouted at by Mr. Mace as she picked up her bag and hooked it over her left shoulder. The strap stretched and dropped the bag another few centimetres. I really need a new bag, she thought as she walked to the door of the Headmistress’ office. She had a good few minutes to get to assembly.

                “Diana?” The Head called out. Di turned to face her and saw the woman had a puzzled look on her face. “Are you aware you have what looks like apricot jam on the back of your blazer?”

___

                “If this doesn’t come out, Jules, I swear to God I will make you pay every penny of the dry cleaning bill,” Di hissed to her friend as the rest of the students filed into the assembly hall. She was scrubbing angrily at the jam, her blazer resting in her lap.

                “Chillax, oh frantic one! It’ll be fine. By the way, I don’t, for one minute, believe that this little mishap should make your promise of Special Jam void!” Jules whispered back pulling her blond hair back off her face and shoving it into a messy bun at the crown of her head.

                “If you believe for even a second that you are having any of my Special Jam tomorrow then the rumours are true and you really are delusional,” Di said back and shot her friend a dirty look.

                Jules grabbed hold of Di’s arm, stopping her from finishing removing the jam from her blazer. Di turned in her seat to face Jules and gave her an exasperated look. Jules looked her dead in the eye, a serious look on her face.

                “What rumours?” She finally said.

                “There are no rumours. It was just a figure of speech,” Di said and tried to go back to scrubbing her blazer as Mr. Mace closed the doors of the assembly hall and the rest of the student body fell silent. The boys sat on the opposite side of the hall to the girls and Di frowned as she saw April Van Droste, a girl in Drake House, wave flirtatiously at Charles Wharton, Captain of the Cricket and Boys Lacrosse teams and, also, the resident delinquent of Raleigh House.