I dimly heard the sounds of girls making a lot of noise. Covering my head and burrowing deeper under the duvet, I hoped to shut out the intrusive noise being made by what seemed to me like thousands of shrill, laughing girls.

Teddy had the right idea, I could feel her half way down the bed; she was obviously hiding from the racket.

Suddenly my cover was torn away and there stood Rachel and Tracy, grinning like mad women. I shivered as the cold air wafted up my all too brief nylon nightie. I tried covering up but no, it wasn’t allowed.

‘Up you get, lazy, you are going with us today,’ said Rachel with I think somewhat misplaced and unnecessary relish.

‘Yea, come on lazybones, up and at em.’

Tracy’s loud voice was rather grating at this time of the morning. I just groaned, grabbed Teddy and once more tried to find salvation under the warm dark covers.

Once again, the duvet was thrown off and this time it landed on the floor.

‘Come on Steph, you mustn’t be late on your first day, if you are, the head mistress will do things to you that no mortal should be allowed to do; you have to hurry!’

I peered up at Tracy, my eyes still sticky with sleep; she wasn’t smiling and Rachel looked a bit worried too. What was the headmistress like; some sort of monster?

I reluctantly got up, put Teddy back on my pillow, lucky thing, she didn’t have to go through this. If I came back, I would either be a teddy or a pussycat, they spend hours asleep and get all the fuss when they want it.

I slipped on my dressing gown and yawning hugely, followed the others into the bathroom. I closed the door behind my cubicle and had a wash. I scrubbed behind my ears and under my fingernails. I had no idea if I was going to have some sort of inspection — you can’t be too careful.

My tummy started doing flip-flops at the thought of meeting this dragon lady called The Head Mistress. I knew that Matron was going to come with me to see her and the head mistress was her sister, but still, I was so worried that I would be found out and exposed as a boy, I was nearly weeing myself with anxiety. Then I remembered, I had gone to the loo yet, no wonder I was bursting to go.

I quickly finished drying my bits and pieces with my towel, and after putting my nightie and dressing gown back on; I hurried into the toilet, sat down and said ‘aahhh,’ as I let go.

A few minutes later, I was back in the dorm, shutting the curtains around my bed space and deciding what I should wear for my momentous meeting. I didn’t have the dreadful uniform yet, thank goodness, but I had to look reasonably good so that I didn’t disgrace myself.

I opened my closet and scratched my head. What to wear? I wasn’t very experienced at this.

‘Stephanie, are you decent?’

It was Tracy from the other side of the curtain.

‘Yes, I suppose so.’

She pulled the curtain aside a bit and then came through, closing it behind her.

‘Not dressed yet, God you’re gonna be late. The Head Mistress is very strict on lateness; so what’s up?’

‘I don’t know what to wear.’

‘Clothes.’

‘I know that, but what clothes?’

‘Come on, let the rabbit see the hole.’

She sort of shoved me out of the way and grabbed a pale blue dress, slightly darker blue cardigan, white socks, panties and black low-heeled shoes. She put them on the bed, smiled at me in that ‘I am superior at this than you,’ way and then said.’ There you are, easy when you know how.’

‘I’m not as experienced at this yet. Being a girl is very hard.’

‘I know, give it time, oh lotus blossom and I will teach you all I know.’

‘Was that an Irish accent?’

‘No, idiot, inscrutable Chinese.’

‘Oh.’

‘Now get dressed quickly or you’ll miss out on the Sugar Puffs.’

She left me to it and in no time, I was dressed and following the other girls down to breakfast. How they could walk without falling over those ridiculously long school skirts, I didn’t know. The thoughts of me wearing such outlandish stuff made me think that it might be better if I failed the dreaded interview and perhaps transported out to another school.

We sat at our usual table; all the girls were talking at once. It was nice to see that Rachel had cheered up and everyone was being nice to her.

Paula looked at me and shouted over the din, ‘you look nice, but do something with your hair, be quick you haven’t much time and the Head Mistress…’

‘I know, I know,’ I said with exasperation.

I tentatively felt my hair and with horror remembered that I hadn’t brushed it yet.

Gulping down the last of my snap-crackle and pop (Wendy had finished the Sugar Puffs, blast her!) I quickly rushed upstairs, grabbed my brush and ran it through my hair in a desperate attempt to untangle the knots. Eventually, I had straitened out the kinks and I pushed into some sort of girlie shape.

‘I need to go back to the hairdressers,’ I thought as I looked at the clock, noticed that I was running very late and ran back downstairs.

Suddenly I hit a barrier and went ‘OOOF,’ as I collided with the large soft body.

‘Stephanie, what’s’ your hurry?’

‘Erm, sorry Matron, I was running late and forget to brush my hair.’

‘Didn’t Tracy give you my message?’

‘What message?’

‘I told her last night to tell you that we are seeing the head mistress at ten o’clock.’

‘Does that mean that I didn’t need to rush?’

‘No dear, we are going in my car after the others have left.’

‘And I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn?’

‘No, there’s no rush. Didn’t Tracy tell you?’

‘I could murder that Tracy, getting me up all early and and and…’

Matron was laughing for some reason, I didn’t see the joke as I was thinking of the best way I could get back at Tracy and Rachel for that matter, as she was her accomplice and what about . Then there was Paula…’

‘I’ll come up for you a bit later, about half past nine, OK?’

‘Yes Matron,’ I said through gritted teeth.

She went back into her office. Apparently something was amusing her, I’m not sure what.

Just then things got louder as the door opened from the breakfast room and a posse of girls came out.

There was a rush as the girls streamed by me on the way out to the coach; which was standing outside with its engine running.

As she went past me, Tracy smiled and said, ‘got you!’

‘Just you wait, I’ll…I’ll…’

With that she was gone, closely followed by Rachel who sort of smiled apologetically and shrugged her shoulders.

‘Sorry, Steph, Tracy didn’t tell us that you wasn’t due in until later.’

‘That’s OK,.’ I said grinding my teeth,, ‘that means that I only have one person to get back at.’

She saw my face, grimaced a bit and followed the others out and onto the coach.

As I watched the coach go out of the drive, Tracy was waving at me out of the back window and blowing kisses. I swore that I would get even somehow.

Then I remembered. I was going to school today to meet the Evil One. To say that I was beginning to panic a bit would be a bit of an understatement. The day wasn’t starting very well and I was wondering if things could get any worse.

I sat on my bed, reading one of Enid Blyton’s, Mallory Towers books. It was First Term at Mallory Towers. Rachel had lent it to me and somehow, though it was a bit old fashioned, it was quite a good read, about a boarding school and the girls who live there. It was bit posh, jockey, I mean hockey sticks, ginger beer, jam and bread, midnight feasts and all that, but I liked the characters in it, especially the awful Gwedoline Mary Lacey, spoilt thing that she was and Bill, which was I think short for Wilhelmina who was boyish and I suppose a bit like Tracy.

I thought of myself as Darrell but quite why, I don’t know. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should get a copy from the library as it was ever so spiffing!

I started suddenly as I heard a cough from the door.

‘Are you ready, Stephanie?’

I looked up and saw Matron with her coat, hat and driving gloves on. She looked like she was ready for business!

‘Yes Matron,’ I said with a sigh as I reluctantly put my book down, glanced at Teddy, who appeared sympathetic and followed her out.

As I sat in her car watching the traffic go by, I started feeling more than a little worried. Matron was trying to make me feel better, but to be honest, what she was saying was going over my head as I worried myself to a frazzle over my upcoming ordeal.

Soon, we were out into the country on a road that I had never been on before. We passed through a few pretty villages and fields that were growing corn wheat or something serially, anyway and stopped for a few minutes while some sheep and a sheep person crossed in front of us. I didn’t mind as it put off the awful moment when I had to come face to face with Her. Then, at a distance, coming up slowly, I could see at the end of long road that we had just turned into, a large Victorian building with several floors and in built in red brick. It looked a bit churchiefied or even castleyfied and had towers turrets and things. We went through the rather ornate iron gates and up the long gravel drive leading to the impressively large double front doors. I wondered if this was the type of place that Count Dracula lived and would the blood be sucked out by Her.

There were several people milling about, some of them school girls in that strange uniform, others, somewhat older, I took to be teachers or school workers.

As I got out of the car, I had to hold the skirt of my dress down, as it was a bit windy. We walked through the doors into the slightly gloomy interior of the school.

It was fairly quiet and I heard the sound of many girls singing in the distance and the tinkling of a piano.

Matron held my hand and that comforted me a bit. Looking up, I could see a very high roof with exposed beams, perhaps the place was older than Victorian, I wasn’t very good at history, great at most subjects but not that. I could feel my mind wondering but I was brought back to the present by Matron.

‘Lets go and wait outside the headmistresses office. It’s assembly at the moment; it should be finished soon.’

We went up some rather grand marble stairs and down a long corridor. The sound of our heels tapping on the floor, echoed in the space above. At the end was a door with a shiny brass plate and on the plate it said:

‘Milicent Hargreaves MA,BA(Hons),LRCM. Head Mistress

There were several wooden chairs along the wall and we sat on two of them.

‘Don’t be worried, Stephanie, Millie won’t bite your head off.’

I was strangely, not comforted by this rather graphic thought and could feel myself go a little faint at the thought of Her biting my head off!

We waited a few more minutes. It was strange how loud my heart sounded, I was surprised that Matron didn’t mention it.

A bell sounded in the distance and I could suddenly hear the sound girls laughing and talking and the tread of many clomping feet; assembly had evidently finished.

After about five minutes of this racket, it gradually got quieter. In the distance I could hear some heavy measured footsteps coming toward us. I looked up and I could see in the distance a rather imposing and large woman wearing a teacher’s gown bearing down on us like some sort of female express train.

I gulped took a deep breath and stood up with Matron. My hand sought out Matrons’ and I grabbed it for dear life as The Head Mistress came up to us. She looked grim and as she looked me up and down, I felt that her keen eyes were boring into mine and I knew, just knew that she was aware that I was not a normal girl but something quite different.

To be continued…

Please leave comments as Teddy reads all correspondence.