5 miss james has good news

the fifth went to their classroom just before nine o’clock. they rejoiced in the glorious view. darrell flung the windows wide and let in the golden september air.

“heavenly!” she said. “i hope we shall be allowed to bathe still. i bet the pool down in the rocks is just perfect now.”

maureen looked alarmed. “surely you’re not allowed to bathe in the winter term!” she said. “why, at mazeley manor we . . .”

“it must have been a wonderful place,” said alicia, in her smooth voice.

“oh yes—we used to . . .” went on maureen.

“so sad it had to shut down,” interrupted irene.

“yes, very sad,” agreed maureen, delighted at this sudden interest and sympathy. “you see, all of us were very . . .”

“you must find malory towers very second-rate after such a marvellous place,” put in belinda, also sounding very sympathetic.

“still, we’ll do our best,” sally assured her. maureen began to feel doubtful about all these interruptions, kind as they seemed. perhaps she had better say no more till she had found her feet a little? these girls seemed so different from the ones at dear mazeley manor.

“what’s our new form-mistress, miss james, like?” said darrell to catherine and moira. “you’ve been taught by her for some terms—is she all right?”

“easy-going to a point,” said moira. “then look out! she changes from sweet to sour in the twinkling of an eye—and it’s bad for you if you don’t notice the change-over immediately. still, jimmy’s not a bad sort.”

“she’s james when she’s sour, and jimmy when she’s sweet,” explained catherine, with her beaming smile. “actually she’s rather a dear.”

“oh, catherine thinks heaps of people are ‘rather-dears’, and ‘dear-old-souls’ and even ‘pet-lambs’,” said moira. “she never speaks evil of anyone, do you, catherine? and if ever you want anything done, catherine will do it for you—she just loves to run around for other people.”

catherine blushed. “don’t be silly, moira,” she said, but a look of anxiety came into her eyes. was moira pulling her leg—sneering at her just a little? the others didn’t wonder about it—they knew! moira was not praising catherine—she was sneering. moira would probably never praise anyone whole-heartedly.

the girls had chosen their desks. the favoured ones at the back of the room went to the two old fifth-formers, of course, moira and catherine, and to darrell and sally, who had each been head-girl for a time the term before. irene and belinda also had back desks.

there were other girls in the room now, girls also in the fifth but from other towers—tessa and janet and penelope, katie and dora and gladys—girls the north tower fifth-formers knew by name and sight, but not nearly as well as they knew their own tower girls, of course. the girls of all the towers mixed for lessons and games, but were quite separate afterwards, each going to their own tower for meals, leisure and sleeping.

“sssssst!” said someone. “jimmy’s coming!”

and in came jimmy, or miss james—a tall, spare woman of about fifty, whose curly grey hair framed a scholarly face with kind but shrewd hazel eyes.

“sit,” she said, and the class sat, shuffling their feet, moving their chairs a little, drifting books and papers. miss james waited until there was complete silence.

“well, once more i have a new class,” she began, her shrewd eyes resting first on one girl and then on another. “only three of you, i think, were in my form last term, and they, for various good reasons, have not gone up into the sixth, but are still with me. they will, of course, be a great help in getting the form into my ways.”

the girls looked to see who the third old fifth-former was. oh—it was little janet. well, she was miles too young to go up into the sixth, of course! she had only been put into the fifth a year ago because she had passed her school certificate so absurdly early. she still looked like a fourth-former, thought darrell, not even like a fifth-former!

janet looked pleased to be left down. she was scared of the sixth form. moira scowled. she hated being left behind. catherine beamed. yes—yes, she would help all she could. miss james could depend on her, of course she could. she tried to catch the mistress’s eye, but for some reason miss james steadfastly looked in the other direction.

catherine kept her beaming smile on for some time, hopefully gazing at miss james. but the mistress left the subject and began on something else. catherine had to switch off the smile. her cheek muscles were beginning to ache!

“darrell is to be head of fifth-form games,” said miss james. “sally is to help her. you realize, darrell, don’t you, that head of fifth-form games means taking on the training of some of the younger players for the lower teams of the school? that will take up some time, but you will have sally to help you.”

darrell glowed. how lovely to be able to pick out some of the young first and second-formers and lick them into shape for the third and fourth games teams of malory towers. suppose she and sally made the teams so good that they won all their matches, home and away! what a record that would be! darrell went off into a day-dream in which she saw some well-turned out, smart lower-school teams winning match after match.

“i’ll train felicity, of course,” she thought. “she’s quite good already. i can make her first class. and susan’s good as well. and i’ll lick that young june into shape, too. my word, she’ll have to toe the line now. i shan’t stand any nonsense from her! and there’s harriet in the second form and lucy in the second, too . . .”

she missed the next few things that miss james said, she was so lost in her dream of first-class lacrosse teams.

“you all worked very hard last term,” said miss james. “practically all of you in this form passed, and passed well, in the school cert. exam. those who didn’t failed because of some understandable reason, and will have another chance later on. they will be specially coached for it, and will have to leave the usual lessons of this class for a time until the exam is over.”

alicia sighed. it wouldn’t be this term of course—but she hated the idea of having to leave the others and have special coaching. blow! why did she have to have measles right in exam week last term?

“now, as you all had a hard term last term, i don’t intend to work you hard this term,” said miss james, and a sigh of relief went all round the room like a small breeze. “i mean—i shall not set you lengthy preps to do, nor push you hard—but there will be other things to take up your time. i want the fifth to produce the christmas entertainment this year, for instance.”

that made everyone sit up. produce the christmas entertainment! my word! that would be fun. what about a play? or a pantomime? or a ballet? all kinds of thoughts ran through the girls’ minds, and they glanced at one another in delight.

“you will do it all on your own, except for any advice you may need from mr. young, the music-master, or miss greening, the elocution coach,” went on miss james, pleased at the pleasure shown by the girls. ah, when they got up into the fifth, how they liked to do things on their own, with no interference from anyone! quite right, too—if they didn’t learn to handle affairs and stand on their own feet now, they never would!

“you will choose your own producers,” said miss james. “i should have at least two, for the work will be too much for one. the more you do on your own the better i and miss grayling, the head, will be pleased—but we shall, of course, be glad to give you any advice or help if you need to ask for it.”

every girl in the class at once fiercely determined not to ask one single piece of advice. the christmas show, whatever it was, should be theirs and nobody else’s.

“it shall be the best one ever done at malory towers!” vowed darrell.

“we’ll get the parents to come and what a surprise they’ll have!” thought sally.

“what a chance!” thought alicia, and her agile mind began to run over all kinds of ideas at once. she longed for the first meeting. if only they would make her one of the producers! she could organize well. she could plan and she could be more resourceful than anyone. she knew she could!

they all longed for break, so that they could discuss the ideas put into their heads by miss james. irene was in the seventh heaven of delight—if they did a pantomime, would they let her write the music? the music for a whole pantomime—why, that would give her more scope than she had ever had before!

mavis was also dreaming delightfully. would she be able to do some of the singing, if they did a play or a pantomime? she was allowed to practise her singing properly this term, and had a special singing-master of her own, who came to the school to teach her. oh, if only she could sing the principal songs!

break came at last. the fifth-formers rushed off in a crowd, gathering in a corner of the grounds, all talking at once.

“we’ll have to have a proper meeting,” said darrell. “oh gosh—i do feel thrilled—to be told we can do the christmas entertainment all on our own—and to be told i’m games captain and responsible for the picking and training of the lower-school kids for their teams! why—i shan’t have time for any work at all!”

“well, we’ve learnt how to work by now,” said sally. “if we haven’t we never will! we’ve got other things to learn now, i suppose—how to plan things on our own, and carry them out—and how to work together in them properly—things like that.”

“oh! do you suppose jimmy’s planned all this just to make us learn a whole lot of other things then?” said daphne.

“quite likely,” said alicia. “but what does it matter? if we’re learning something by producing a pantomime, well, let’s learn it by all means! i’m all for it!”

“we have to choose a committee,” said moira, taking charge. sally, darrell and alicia felt a momentary annoyance. they had been so used to leading everything in the fourth form that they found it difficult to recognize moira’s authority. still, she was head-girl. she had the right to take charge, and she was perfectly capable of it—there was no doubt about that at all.

the girls could all feel the impact of a hard and dominating personality in moira—much the same as they felt in alicia, who was also hard and strong in character. but alicia had a sense of humour, which was quite lacking in moira—that made all the difference in the world!

alicia could say something biting—and yet it would produce a laugh because of the way she said it. she was gay and lively, too, which moira was not. well, it took all sorts to make a world, and there was a place for the moiras and gwens and maureens, thought darrell, and for the sallies and irenes and belindas as well.

“only they’re so much nicer to know!” darrell said to herself.

“we’d better choose a committee of seven or eight,” went on moira. “and we’ll choose it in the usual way—each of us writes the names of the girls they’d like to have on the committee and we’ll put them all into a box. then we take them out, open them, count them, and see who’s got the most votes. we’ll do that tonight.”

“oh, i hope i’m on the committee!” thought darrell. and alicia hoped the same. alicia badly wanted to have a finger in this pie. she felt perfectly sure she could run the whole show, if only she was allowed to!