First Term at Malory Towers Read online

  'Well, listen. What about you pretending to be in difficulties in the pool, when you get the chance, and yelling out to Mary- Lou to run and get the life-belt quickly and throw it to you?' said Sally. 'If she does that, and feels that she has saved you from going under, she'll be awfully bucked. We all know how to chuck the belt into the water. It would be quite easy for her to do.'

  'Yes. It's a good idea,' said Darrell. i might try it out tomorrow. I'll give the tip to the others not to throw it to me, but to let Mary-Lou. At least, I'll tell the people I can trust— not dear Gwendoline, for instance! Do you really think it will help Mary-Lou not to be so scared of things if she does that?'

  'Well, it seems to me that Mary-Lou will never be able to face up to things unless she thinks she's got a bit of good sense and courage in her to start with!' said Sally, seriously. 'You can't possibly do anything if you think you can't. But you can do impossible things sometimes if you think you can.'

  'How do you know things like that?' asked Darell, in admiration. 'I wish / did!'

  'Oh, it's not very difficult really,'said Sally. 'All you do is put yourself into the place of the other person, and feel like them, and then think how you could cure yourself if you were them. That sounds muddled—but I can't very well say exactly what 1 mean. 1 haven't the words.'

  'Oh, 1 know what you mean, all right!' said Darrell. 'You do what Mother is always telling me to do—get into somebody else's skin, and feel what they're feeling. But I'm too impatient to do that. I'm too tightly in my own skin! You're not. I think you're clever and kind, Sally.'

  Sally went red and looked pleased. She also looked rather shy. 'I'm not clever—and you know I'm not kind, by the way I behaved to Daphne,' she said. 'But it's nice that you think so, anyway! Do you think you can work the idea out all right, Darrell?'

  'Oh, yes, I think so,' said Darrell. 'I'll try it tomorrow, when we're in the pool. Mary-Lou has got a bit of a cold and isn't allowed to bathe this week, so she'll be watching by the side. She can easily go and get the life-belt and fling it to me. Won't she be bucked!'

  'I guess she's glad she's got a cold this week,' said Sally, with a chuckle. 'She does so hate the water! I bet she'll never learn to swim.'

  'It was funny when Matron said Mary-Lou had a cold and wasn't to go in the water,' said Darrell,'because dear Gwendoline immediately began to sniff like anything in class, hoping Miss Potts would report it to Matron, and she would be told too that she mustn't bathe. She's even worse than Mary-Lou at getting into the water !'

  'What happened?' asked Sally, with interest. 'Oh, I do wish I was back in school. I'd die of boredom if I hadn't got you to come and tell me things.'

  'Well, Miss Potts got angry with Gwendoline's sniffs and sat on her properly,'said Darrell. 'And then Gwendoline said she was sure she had caught Mary-Lou's cold, so Miss Potts sent her to Matron—and Matron gave her a large dose of awful medicine, and was most unsympathetic—and she didn't say Gwendoline wasn't to go into the water, she said the salt in it would probably do her good. And I heard her tell Miss Potts that the only way to take Gwendoline's tales was with a pinch of salt, so she might as well swallow some in the pool!'

  Sally laughed heartily. She could just picture Gwen-doline's anger at having medicine for no real reason, and not getting her way after all. Darrell got up.

  'There's the bell,' she said. 'I'll come back after lunch and tell you all the tit-bits. 1 haven't told you yet how Alicia and Betty tied thread to a pile of Mam'zelle's books on her desk, and Alicia pulled the thread and jerked off the books under Mam'zelle's very nose ! I thought Irene would die of laughing. You know how she explodes.'

  'Oh, yes, do come back and tell me everything,' said Sally, who looked forward to Darrell's visits more than to anything else. 'I do love hearing you talk.'

  It was strange how completely different Sally seemed now. When Darrell looked back and remembered the quiet, self-contained, serious person Sally Hope had always appeared, it seemed impossible that she had turned into the laughing, eager, twinkling-eyed girl in the bed—a sensible, kindly girl with a real sense of fun.

  'She's not such good fun as Alicia, of course,' said Darrell to herself, 'but she's more trustabQ, somehow. And she isn't as sharp-tongued, though she's just as clever in what she thinks about people.'

  Darrell carefully thought out the plan for tricking Mary- Lou into sudden good sense and a bit of pluck. It should be quite easy. She would tell Alicia and Betty to take the others to the other end of the pool, so that she, Darrell, would be alone in the deep end. Then she would struggle and yell and pretend she had cramp.

  '1' 11 yell out to Mary-Lou and shout, "Quick, quick, throw me the life-belt!'" ,' she thought. 'Then surely Mary-Lou will do that, and I'll clutch it and pant and puff, and call out, "Oh, Mary-Lou, you've saved my life!" And if after that Mary-Lou doesn't have a better opinion of herself, it'll be queer. Once she knows she can really do something like that, maybe she'll pull herself together and be able to face up to some of the silly things that scare her!'

  It really did seem a very good plan. Darrell let Alicia and Betty into the secret. 'It's really Sally's idea,' said Darrell. it's a very good one, don't you think so?'

  'Well—why ever should you want to bother yourselves with that silly little baby of a Mary-Lou?' said Alicia in surprise. 'You'll never make her any better. She's hopeless.'

  'But we might make her better,' argued Darrell, rather disappointed with the way that Alicia took the idea.

  'Not much chance,' said Alicia, i expect what will happen is that Mary-Lou will be too scared stiff to do a thing, and will simply stand blubbing by the pool and let somebody else run for the life-belt. And that will make her worse than ever, because everyone will despise her.'

  'Oh,' said Darrell, feeling damped. 'That would be sickening. Oh, Alicia, I didn't think of that.'

  Darrell told Sally what Alicia had said, i quite see what she means,' she said. 'And it might make Mary-Lou worse instead of better, because everyone would laugh at her. You see, Alicia is awfully smart, Sally—we never thought of that, did we?'

  'Yes. Alicia is very smart,' said Sally, slowly. 'But sometimes she's a bit too smart, Darrell. She's forgotten something important.'

  'What's that?' asked Darrell.

  'She's forgotten that Wsyou who are going to struggle and yell for help,' said Sally. 'Everyone knows that Mary- Lou thinks you're wonderful and would do anything in the world for you—if you'd let her. Well, here is something she can do—and will do! You see if I'm not right. Give Mary- Lou a chance, Darrell. Alicia sees her as a weak little cry¬baby. But she could be something more than that, for the sake of someone she loved.'

  'All right, I'll give her a chance,' said Darrell. 'But I can't help thinking Alicia is right. She really is smart, you know, and can always size people up. 1 wish she wasn't friends with Betty. I wish she was my friend!'

  Sally didn't say any more. She played dominoes with Darrell and was rather quiet. Matron came and shooed Darrell away soon after that, and she had to go off to her prep.

  i'm going to try out Sally's idea on Mary-Lou,' she told Alicia. 'So you and Betty will take the others off to the shallow end, won't you, when you see Mary-Lou standing by the deep end? Then I'll yell out, and we'll see if Mary- Lou has the nerve to throw me the belt. It's not much to do!'

  'It'll be too much for her," said Alicia, rather annoyed that Darrell should still think of going on with the idea after she had poured cold water on it. 'Still, we'll see.'

  So, the next afternoon the plan was carried out. The first- formers went chattering down to the pool in their bathing costumes and beach-gowns. Gwendoline went too, looking sulky because the form had teased her unmercifully about her pretended cold!

  Mary-Lou had not changed into her bathing-things, and was pleased. She did so hate the water! Darrell called to her. 'You can throw pennies in for me, Mary-Lou, and watch me dive for them in the deep end!'

  'All right.' said Mary-Lou, pleased,
and put some pennies into her pocket. Her cold was almost better. What a pity! She had so much enjoyed not having to bathe!

  Into the water plunged the girls. Some jumped in, some dived in. Only Gwendoline went cautiously down the steps. But even she went in quickly for once, because somebody gave her a push and down she went, spluttering and gasping. And when she arose, angry and indignant, not a single girl was near her. of course, so she had no idea at all who had pushed her. Darrell or Alicia she supposed. Beasts!

  Mary-Lou was at the deep end, watching the others. At least, she watched Darrell mostly, admiring the way she swam, cutting the water so cleanly with her strong brown arms, and thrusting through the waves like a small torpedo. Mary-Lou put her hands into her pocket and felt the pennies there. It was nice of Darrell to ask her to throw them in lor her. It was always nice to do anything for Darrell, even if it was only a little thing.

  'Come down to the other end and let's have a race!' cried Alicia suddenly. 'Come on, everyone.'

  'I'll just stay here for a bit and dive for pennies!' yelled Darrell. 'I'm puffed for racing. I'll get out of your way when you start. Hi, Mary-Lou, have you got the pennies?"

  Alicia and Betty, who were the only girls in the plan, watched what would happen. Both girls felt certain that Mary-Lou would weep and remain rooted to the rocks w hen Darrell called out. She wouldn't have the nerve to rush for the life-belt!

  The other girls were splashing about, getting into position for the race. Mary-Lou threw a penny into the water and Darrell dived for it.

  She brought it up in triumph. 'Throw another, Mary-Lou!' she cried. Splash! In went another penny. Darrell dived again, thinking that now was the time to pretend to be in difficulties. She came up, gasping.

  'Help! Help!' she cried. 'I've got cramp! Quick, Mary- Lou, the life-belt, the life belt! Help, help!'

  She threw her arms about and struggled, letting herself sink under a little. Mary-Lou stared, absolutely petrified. Alicia nudged Betty.

  'Just what I thought,' she said in a low voice. 'Too much of a ninny even to get the life-belt!'

  lHELPl' yelled Darrell, and two or three of the other girls, thinking she was really in trouble, swam strongly up the pool.

  But somebody else reached Darrell first! There was a resounding splash, and into the water, fully dressed, jumped the scared Mary-Lou, doing her best to remember the few swimming strokes she knew. She managed to reach Darrell, and put out her arms to her, to try and save her.

  Darrell, popping her head out of the water for the second time was filled with the utmost amazement to see Mary- Lou's wet head bobbing beside her! She stared as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

  'Hold on to me, Darrell, hold on to me!' panted Mary- Lou. 'I'll save you.'

  20 WELL DONE, MARY-LOU!

  THEN up came the other two or three swimmers and called out sharply. 'What's up, Darrell? Get out of the way, Mary- Lou.'

  But Mary-Lou couldn't. She had made her great effort, jumped into the water and swum a few strokes—but now her strength was gone and her clothes were weighing her down. One of the swimmers took her safely to the side, where she clutched a bar, panting, looking anxiously over her shoulder to see if Darrell was safe.

  She had apparently quite recovered from the cramp, for she was swimming over to Mary-Lou with strong, quick strokes, her eyes gleaming.

  'Mary-Lou! You jumped right in to the water, and you hardly knew how to swim! You're an idiot, but you're the pluckiest idiot ever I knew!' cried Darrell.

  Somebody helped the shivering, astonished Mary-Lou out of the pool. Miss Potts came down the cliff at that moment and was amazed to see a fully-dressed and soaking Mary- Lou scrambling out, with girls crowding round her, clapping her on the shoulder and praising her.

  'What's happened?' said Miss Potts, in wonder. 'Did Mary-Lou fall in?'

  Eager voices told her what had happened. 'She jumped in to save Darrell! Darrell had the cramp and yelled for the life-belt. But Mary-Lou jumped straight in to save her—and she can hardly swim!'

  Miss Potts was as astonished as everyone else. Mary- Loul But Mary-Lou screamed if she saw an earwig! What

  an amazing thing.

  'Why didn't she throw the life-belt?" asked Alicia.

  'It w-w-w-wasn't there,' answered Mary-Lou, her teeth chattering partly from cold and partly from excitement and shock. 'It's g-g-g-gone to be m-m-m-mended. Didn't you know?'

  No. Nobody had noticed that it w as gone from its place. So Mary-Lou had not been stupid. She had known the life¬belt was not there to save Darrell, and she had done the next best thing—jumped in herself. Well, who would have thought it ?

  Miss Potts hurried the shivering Mary-Lou up the cliff. Darrell turned to face Alicia, her eyes shining.

  'Well—who was right? Sally or you? Why, Mary-Lou was brave. It isn't as if she liked the water or even knew how to swim properly! She was as brave, no, braver than any of us, because she must have been so afraid !'

  Alicia could be generous even when she was proved to be in the wrong. She nodded. 'Yes. She was jolly brave. I never thought she had it in her. But I bet she wouldn't have done it for anyone else but wm!'

  Darrell could hardly wait to tell Sally. She rushed to her after tea, her face glowing. 'Sally! Your idea was w«rvellous! Simply wizard. Do you know, there wasn't a life-belt there this afternoon, so Mary-Lou jumped straight into the water with all her clothes on and everything, to try and save me!'

  'Gosh!' said Sally, and her face too began to glow. 'I never thought of that—did you? Darrell, that's marvellous. You'll be able to tackle Mary-Lou properly now.'

  'What do you mean?" asked Darrell.

  'Well—tell her how brave she is, and how no one ever guessed it, and now she knows it herself she'll be able to be brave about lots of other things,' said Sally. 'Easy! Once you can make anyone believe in themselves, they're all right."

  'You are a funny, wise person,' said Darrell, admiringly. '1 never think of things like that. All right. I'll do my best, and when Mary-Lou comes to see you. you tell her a few things, too !'

  So Mary-Lou, to her enormous surprise and delight, became the heroine of the hour, for soon it had gone all up and down the school how she had jumped into the pool, fully- dressed, to try and save Darrell.

  'It's no good you shrinking away into a corner any more, or screaming yourself blue in the face because you've seen a spider!'said Darrell. 'Now we know how brave you are, we shall expect to see a bit more of your bravery !'

  'Oh,yes,' said Mary-Lou, beaming. 'I'll try. Now I know I can be brave, it's different. It's when you know you can't be, that things are awful. 1 never, never in my life thought I would dare to jump into the deep end like that—and yet I did ! 1 never even thought about it. I just did it. It wasn't really brave, you know, because I didn't have to screw up my courage or anything'.

  The only person who had no word of praise for Mary- Lou was Gwendoline. For one thing she was really jealous of all the fuss made of Mary-Lou. Even the teachers made quite a to-do about it, for one and all realized that this was their one chance of making Mary-Lou realize that she could do things if she wanted to. Gwendoline hated all the fuss— especially as it was Darrell that Mary-Lou had jumped in to save.

  'Fancy anyone wanting to do her a good turn !' she thought, remembering the hard slaps she had once had from the angry girl. 'I'd have left her to struggle. Stupid Mary- Lou ! I suppose she will get all conceited now.'

  But Mary-Lou didn't. She remained her own rather shy, quiet self, but now she had more confidence, and stood up for herself better. She had been proved and had not been found wanting. She was pleased and proud, though she did not show it, as a girl like Gwendoline would have done.

  For one thing she stood up to Gwendoline better, and this annoyed and exasperated Gwendoline intensely. And when Sally came back into school again, as she did in two weeks' time, she too seemed changed, and would stand no nonsense from Gwendoline. She stood up for Mary-Lou, and ticked Gwendolin
e off in a way that irritated her and made her long to snap at Sally.

  The term went on, more and more quickly now. Only three more weeks till the holidays ! Darrell could hardly believe the time had flown by so quickly.

  She was working much better now, and twice she had been fifth from the top in her weekly marks. Gwendoline was the only one steadily at the bottom. Even Mary-Lou had crept up a place or two. Darrell wondered how Gwendoline was going to persuade her parents that she was top in everything at the end of the term, when she took home her report. Because her report would certainly show up Gwendoline's appalling work.

  Darrell spoke to her one day about it. 'Gwendoline, what will your mother and father say when they see on your report how badly you've done in your form work ?' she asked, curiously.

  Gwendoline looked very startled. 'What do you mean— my report ?' she asked.

  'Golly, don't you know what reports are ?' asked Darrell, in surprise. 'Look, I'll show you an old one of mine. I've got my last one here, from my old school. I had to bring it with me to show Miss Potts.'

  She showed the report to Gwendoline who stared at it in the utmost horror. What ! A list of all the subjects taken, with their marks, and position in form, and comments on the work done! Gwendoline could quite well imagine some of

  the comments that would be on hers!

  'French. Very backward and lazy.

  'Maths. Does not try in the least. Could do with some coaching in the holidays.

  'Games. Disgraceful. Has no sense of sportsmanship or team-work at all.'

  And so on. Poor Gwendoline. It really had never occurred to her for one single moment that her bad and lazy work would be reported in this fashion to her parents. She sank down in a chair and stared at Darrell.

  'But Gwendoline, did you never have a report on your work before ?' asked Darrell, in surprise.

  'No,' said the crest-fallen Gwendoline. 'Never. I told you I had never been to school before 1 came here. Only my governess, Miss Winter, taught me—and she never made out reports, of course. She just told Mother how well I was getting on, and Mother believed her. I didn't know I was so backward till I came here.'