through the floorboards. There was a jagged gap surrounding the lead pipes, just large enough to fit my fingers through.
I touched something. Paper.
“Oh my goodness!” I whispered, drawing it out. My hands were shaking. The pages were crumpled and covered with dust, but Scarlet’s flowing handwriting was clearly visible on them.
It was then that I heard the noise again, even closer than before. I had to get back to my room as soon as possible. I walked out of the bathroom and pulled the door to behind me, as quietly as I could. And then I turned to go back into the lavatories.
Only someone was in my way.
“Hello, Scarlet,” Penny said, grinning and showing her pointy teeth. “What do you think you’re doing in here at this hour?”
I was right about there being a mouse. I was the mouse.
And Penny was the cat about to eat me alive.
I scrunched the diary pages tightly in my fist behind my back. “I’m … it’s … nothing. I just needed to go to the lavatory, that’s all.”
“You’re up to something,” she said, leaning towards me. “It’s after lights out and you’ve been creeping around in the bathrooms. I’ve a good mind to tell the matron. Or how about Miss Fox?”
She stood there, arms folded, eyes narrowed.
“But,” I said, my mind racing to keep up with my mouth, “won’t you get into trouble as well? You’re not supposed to be up either.” There was a flicker of doubt in her expression. “Why don’t we just go back to our rooms?”
Suddenly, she grabbed my arm and pulled it out in front of me. “Listen, you little worm,” she hissed. “This is my school, and you can’t sweet talk your way out of everything, understand?”
I could barely breathe. I was praying that she didn’t grab my other arm as well.
Thankfully, Penny didn’t seem to notice. “You think you can just walk back in here and get away with everything again, don’t you?” she said.
“D-do I?” I stuttered.
“What was that?” she said, her grip tightening.
It was taking all my strength not to panic and cry. Scarlet would be tugging out a lock of Penny’s copper hair or kicking her hard in the shins. I thought that wouldn’t exactly be the smartest thing to do, though. Penny had the look of someone who would scream like a banshee, and I didn’t want the teachers to come running.
Instead, I decided to try reason. “Penny, let’s just … forget about it, all right? Whatever I did, I—”
“You know what you did,” she interrupted, digging her nails into my wrist.
I gritted my teeth. “Well … I’m sorry about it. Now, can you please let me go, before we both get a caning?”
Her glaring eyes bore into me. “Sorry? That’s all you can say?”
I blinked at her.
“Fine,” she said, her voice turning strangely calm. “But you’re not forgiven. And when I find out what you’re up to this time, it won’t be a secret for long.”
I watched Penny stalk out of the room. A full minute later, I allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief, and brought my fist holding the diary pages shakily in front of me again.
What a nightmare.
I went back down the dark corridor as silently as I could, and prised open door number thirteen. Ariadne was asleep with her pillow over her head. Good.
I folded the thin cotton sheets and the blankets back over myself and flattened out the new pages against the wall.
You’re going to meet a girl named Penny Winchester. She’s got a whole swarm of bees in her bonnet when it comes to me, so you should STAY AWAY FROM HER.
That was Scarlet – always late.
Penny thinks she’s the queen, and will try and order you about so you have to put her in her place. She actually has more in common with a poisonous toad.
I smiled for the first time in what felt like days.
The other person you have to watch out for is Nadia Sayani. She’s shaping up to be Penny’s new sidekick. She looks pretty and simple but don’t be fooled; she’s super rich and super clever, so you’ll have to brush up on your acting skills. She might spot that something’s afoot.
I wasn’t sure if I was capable of acting anything but suspicious.
Now, you need to find the rest of my diary. You CANNOT let anyone else see it. But someone needs to know the truth about
About what?
I looked around frantically. Had I dropped the next page somewhere?
No, I couldn’t have. They were scrunched up so tightly in my hand that I had almost lost the feeling in it.
So what was the next clue? Scarlet was probably up there laughing at me, calling me a dunce for not knowing the obvious place she had hidden the other pages.
The truth about what?
I gently tucked the pages inside the leather cover of the diary, and got down on all fours to hide it back inside the mattress, and then I climbed into bed.
A delicate snore came from Ariadne’s side, and reminded me that it was getting late. Tomorrow was another day. Another day of doing a bad impersonation of my twin. Another day spent fearing that someone would catch me out at any moment.
Another day without Scarlet.
I pulled my pillow over my head, and tried my hardest to go to sleep, as Scarlet’s final words danced across my mind.
On Monday we were woken at seven by a shrill bell. I sat there at breakfast, feeling uncomfortable in Scarlet’s uniform, as Mrs Knight babbled away about something to do with her rhododendrons. Penny wasn’t looking at me. I hoped that she was keeping quiet about last night.
We had an assembly, where we sang hymns and listened to Miss Fox drone on about the school rules. She obviously liked rules much more than she liked people. There seemed to be hundreds, and I wondered how I was ever going to remember them all.
Our first lesson was history and luckily Ariadne had spent yesterday memorising our timetable and the classroom map, so I was able to follow her to class.
“Are you good at history, Scarlet?” she asked me as we walked. “It’s my favourite.”
Scarlet was useless at history. I, on the other hand, had a great memory for names and dates. “It’s all right, I suppose,” I said feebly.
“My great-great-granddaddy fought against Napoleon, you know,” replied Ariadne.
I feigned polite interest, but as we walked through the echoing corridors all I could think about was how to keep up this act in front of Scarlet’s teachers. Surely they would notice that I wasn’t my sister?
We joined a line of girls outside the classroom and filed in silently. I suddenly realised, too late, that I had no idea which desk belonged to Scarlet.
I felt like a bird in a flock that had just flown the wrong way. Which seat should I choose?
“What’s