Miss Swan stood in front of the assembled school, which was gathered once again in the theatre. As always, she looked around the room before speaking.
She was pleased to see that Olivia was looking a little more cheerful and quite clearly had struck up a real friendship with Tom McCavity. She wondered what on earth the two of them talked about together, but she was delighted to see the bloom in her granddaughter’s cheeks.
Georgia looked more pale and wan than ever. Her marks in her schoolwork seemed to be suffering, too. Alicia was surprised. She had thought that getting a scholarship would have given Georgia confidence but it seemed to have had the opposite effect. She wondered if the child was ill.
Katie, on the other hand, was blooming. She looked glossier than ever and she had been as good as her word when it came to pulling her socks up academically. Her homework had been coming in on time and some of it had been very good indeed. Sometimes, thought Alicia, it was right to go against your instincts.
She cleared her throat.
“Good morning. And it is a good morning. As I’m sure you all know by now, the Swan is through to the final stages of the competition for a place in the Children’s Royal Spectacular. Our performance was the hit of last week’s televised show! Congratulations to everyone involved. We’re all very proud of you and we’re confident that we can make it to the show in front of the Queen, provided everyone keeps working hard over the next two weeks. There will be no let-up in rehearsals and, as I’m sure you have all remembered, mid-term tests start tomorrow. I know you will all do your best.
“Now to other news: I’m delighted to announce that one of our most talented and hard-working students, our very popular head girl, Abbie Cardew, has been cast as Liesl in The Sound of Music! I know that you will all join with me in congratulating her.”
The entire theatre broke into cheers. Abbie blushed, looking pleased.
“Right, everyone,” continued the headmistress. “There’s lots to be done, so back to work!”
Olivia was alone in her form room, using the computer. She shouldn’t have been there as it was out of bounds at lunchtime while the midterm tests were on, but she was desperate to try and find out some news of Jack. His silence was becoming increasingly ominous. He had sent them a postcard saying that he would be away for a little while, but three weeks had gone by since then, and she could see that even Alicia was worried by his lack of contact.
But Olivia had even more reason for anxiety; she was certain that Jack was about to undertake a major stunt, something so amazing, so dangerous, that it would grab the attention of the world’s media.
She had been putting “Jack Marvell” and “Great Marvello” into search engines for twenty minutes and, although they had thrown up thousands of results about past feats, there was no whisper about an up-coming stunt. It was something of a relief. She shut down the computer and was just about to leave when she heard a noise outside the door and the unmistakable sound of Katie Wilkes-Cox’s voice. Katie was the last person Olivia wanted to catch her in the room. She squeezed herself in the small space between the desk and the radiator just as the door opened.
“Katie, please don’t do this,” whispered Georgia urgently as they entered the room.
“Don’t be dumb, Georgia. I can’t risk failing the maths exam. I’ll get kicked off the Children’s Spectacular team. Old Swan made that quite clear. Which sucks, by the way. I’m clearly one of the stars, so what does it matter that I can’t do algebra?”
“You could do it if you only tried. You’re not stupid,” said Georgia seriously.
Katie spun round furiously. “No, Georgia Jones, I’m not stupid. In fact, I’m rather smart. Which is why I’m going to sneak a look at the questions and you’re going to tell me the answers.”
“But you won’t be able to show your workings out,” said Georgia.
“It doesn’t matter. Just as long as I pass,” said Katie impatiently. “Look, are you going to help me find the test or do I have to reveal your nasty little secret to the whole school?”
“Cheating is wrong,” said Georgia, sounding near to tears.
“Oh, and lying isn’t?” said Katie. She opened the cupboard. “Look, here are the test papers. We’ll take one. Nobody will notice it’s missing. They always have more copies than they need. And then you can work out the answers for me tonight, come in early, and I’ll learn them in time for the test after break. And make sure that when you do the test yourself you put in some stupid mistakes like you do on the homework so the answers aren’t the same.”
“I can’t do this, Katie, I won’t do it…” whimpered Georgia.
“Oh, but you will, little Miss Georgia Jones, you will. And by the way, you’d better bring in your mum’s famous ring. Next Wednesday, I think, the day we get the test results. I can’t imagine why, but it appears that some of the others are having serious doubts about whether it really exists.”
They left the room. Olivia waited for a moment, shocked by what she’d heard, and deep in thought. She didn’t know what to do. If she did nothing, Katie might get away with cheating and would also continue to bully poor Georgia. But if she went and told Miss Swan what she’d heard, she would be guilty of snitching and she wouldn’t just get Katie into deep trouble, but Georgia too.
She’d also have to explain what she’d been doing in the room in the first place and things wouldn’t look good for her. She wouldn’t put it past Katie to twist the truth and say that she and Georgia had discovered Olivia in the act of cheating. Olivia felt really anxious and she was more worried still when she tried to creep out of the room unseen only to find Katie lolling against the wall opposite, smiling.
“Well, well, well. I had a feeling there was someone else in the room so I thought I’d just hang around. Lucky I did.” She leaned forward and hissed, “You dare mention a word about this, Liver Marvell, and I’ll clip your wings forever.” Then with a toss of her hair she was gone.
Olivia stared after her. She had thought Georgia was weak for allowing herself to be manipulated by Katie, but she wondered if she was really any better. She felt a real wave of sympathy for Georgia.