Zannah had a good idea of what was going on, but she pretended not to. It had been quite hard, over the last couple of weeks, to ignore the whispering and giggling and hiding of things behind backs whenever she came into a room. Today was her last day of teaching her classes. She’d been met at the school entrance by Claire and Louise who had taken her to the staff-room and told her to stay there till she was called. She sat down and looked at her wedding notebook, which was now so full of bits of paper Sellotaped to the pages that it no longer closed properly. Bills and letters were forever slipping into it and getting lost among the wedding stuff.
The head had been super-kind and given her tomorrow off to do things like going to the church to see the flowers were in order. Like talking to Genevieve the caterer about last-minute things. Like transporting the dresses and the rest of the paraphernalia to Clapham. Like reminding Cal to pick up his wedding suit. Zannah hoped very much she wouldn’t burst out laughing as she walked down the aisle towards him. When she’d gone with him to try it on, she didn’t quite recognize the man who stood in front of her, and she’d gasped to see him so respectable. He’d even arranged to have a haircut without being nagged. They’d fixed up accommodation for Cal’s mum and her cousin from St Ives and Cal’s childhood friends. Now they’d arrived, she had to check they were okay with where they were staying. Finding them beds had been a major operation. Cal had arranged it, rung up friends, booked b-and-bs, sorted them all out brilliantly. Still, however well organized you were, there was always the possibility of something going wrong.
Something was up already. Pa had decided to stay the night with Cal and Mattie at their hotel instead of at Charlotte’s. Why was that? Had he and Ma quarrelled? What about? She wanted to know but dreaded the answer, so she hadn’t mentioned it when she’d spoken to him. He’d sounded okay, but he was good at hiding things. I must speak to Ma tonight, she thought. She’d been at Charlotte’s since the weekend, but things had been so frantic that they hadn’t had more than a couple of hurried conversations and Ma was always hard to make out on the phone. You could never tell what sort of mood she was in.
Someone was knocking at the staff-room door.
‘Come in,’ Zannah said. Marcella and Colm from Year Six were standing there. Marcella said, ‘Please, Miss, can you come with us?’
They made their way to the hall and the children held open the doors for her. Zannah stepped in and there was the whole school, clapping and whooping. Everyone was dressed up in party clothes. The head said, ‘Ready, children?’ and then came the sound of the piano plinking out a few notes. Suddenly, they were all singing: ‘Happy Wedding to you!’ to the tune of Happy Birthday. … ‘Happy wedding, Mrs Ford, happy wedding to you!’
Everyone, Zannah could see instantly, had worked tremendously hard. All round the hall paper flowers in shades of pink, mauve and fuchsia were taped to the walls and to every bit of furniture. There were thousands and Zannah wondered, how long ago they had started to make them. The girls had pink bows in their hair and the boys had mauve ribbons worn as ties. Someone had been doing things with the office shredder and confetti in large quantities was being thrown at her, and when the singing was over, some of the little ones came running towards her and hugged her legs.
‘Thank you!’ she started to say.
‘We’ve got a present for you, Miss,’ That was Finn, one of Isis’s friends, almost hidden behind a bunch of pink and white roses. Marcella gave her an envelope, curtsying as she did so. Zannah’s eyes were full of tears. ‘I had no idea,’ she said. ‘This’ll be my best present, I know. You’re all … Well, it’s lovely of you to do this for me and I’m very grateful.’
‘You have to open it, Miss,’ Colm said. ‘You have to see what it is.’
She tore open the envelope. Inside, there was a voucher for four people to go on the London Eye and a music token for twenty-five pounds.
‘That is fantastic! I’ve been longing to go on the Eye … and I don’t know what I’ll buy with the token, but I bet you’ll all have your suggestions. Thank you so much. I’m … I’m so surprised by this!’
The head clapped her hands. ‘Now, children, line up please. The dinner ladies have made us a special wedding lunch. Mrs Ford? Will you lead the way, as you’re the bride?’
Zannah handed her flowers to Claire, who bore them off to the cloakroom, and set off for the school canteen, with Isis, Gemma, Finn, Marcella and Colm following close behind her. The confetti, it seemed, was never-ending. Pieces of coloured paper were still falling into her hair and all over her clothes.