Life Swap

Connections

"She won't cope with year eight, will she?" Louise suggested, in the playground, just before the bell was due to sound for the start of our fourth term at Deepdene. We were standing near the main door to Miss Cooper's classroom, our year seven classroom, after saying goodbye to Caroline and Auntie Jenny. Next to us, we could see the year eight girls congregating outside the entrance to their own classroom, and mum was there, fussing over Kelly/Olivia. She was in the full Deepdene uniform, hat, chinstrap and all, of course, like everyone else, but unlike everyone else, she seemed to be getting a right old telling off. "I mean, if I had to drop down two years, just to be able to keep up, she is never going to cope, one year down?"

"I think our parents wanted us to be together, and with the twins?" I replied, offering her my best rueful smile. "I think you would have been fine dropping one year...but I wouldn't have coped, so you got stuffed down with me?"

"Maybe...I'd rather be with you, anyway." Louise admitted, returning my smile. Both of us were perfect Deepdene girls, I suppose. Maybe not quite as indoctrinated as the girls who had been at Deepdene since they were three, like the twins, but getting closer. The little rules I had found so irritating when I first became Olivia had become second nature. I would no more step outside with my chinstrap not in place than I would step outside without a skirt on, or shoes. It was the norm at Deepdene, the rule, and girls like us did not break rules. Partly because we would face the wrath of our parents once they found out, and they would find out, but because the idea of letting down Miss Cooper, or Auntie Sheila, was appalling to us. At Redstone, most people got a detention once in a while, with some, like the infamous Danny Brown, of rampage fame, spending half their time locked up, either at lunchtime or after school. So, it was no big deal, and no one took much notice. But at Deepdene, every reprimand or punishment was put in our diaries for our parents to see, and for girls like us, that meant a spanking at home. So, it was unusual for anyone to misbehave. "Your Mum is not happy with Kelly/Olivia, is she?"

"Not from the look of things..."

"Did she ever spank you?"

"No...I think she smacked me when I was little...but not all the time?" I sighed, biting on my bottom lip, deep in thought. "So...if she is spanking now, it must be him making her...or encouraging her?"

"Victorians used to smack a lot...I think?"

"Boys were beaten...you know, canes and everything...I am not sure about girls...but if she is playing up, the Professor doesn't seem like the patient type, does he?"

"Come on, you two...time to get your learning heads on?" Miss Cooper said, grinning as she appeared at our side. "Olivia...you need to make yourself comfortable?"

"Yes, Miss...are we having a quiz?" I replied, beaming up at her.

"Yes...in Latin?"

"Oh, Miss?" I moaned, and she laughed, putting an arm around my shoulders.

"Only joking my dear...but we are doing Latin before lunch," Miss Cooper laughed, teasing me about my weakest subject, although, to be fair, no one was too concerned about my inability to pick it up, because I was literally years behind everyone else. But I liked Deepdene. Even in my earliest moments as Olivia, over twelve months before, I had quite liked the idea of going to a school where learning was not only possible but positively encouraged. And when I had started there properly, exactly a year ago, throwing myself into my lessons was the best way to put the horrors of the life swap behind me. I knew I was stuck by then, and studying stopped me dwelling on what had happened and worrying about the future. So, sitting at our usual table with Louise and the darling twins, I was in my element, more or less. New Olivia, or me, in other words, had got into the habit of working hard, and making the most of the opportunities the Dream Stone had forced on me. And I was not going to let Professor Hoyte, or Kelly/Olivia ruin things for me again, but I was worried about my mum, and Martin.