The Case of the Circus Murder

IV

All of us - Kitty, Beanie, Lavinia, and I - quickly crowded around Daisy to read it. It was a telegram, to Daisy from her father.

DAISY STOP UNCLE FELIX HAS GOT FOUR TICKETS TO THE CIRCUS STOP WE DIDNT THINK YOU WOULD WANT TO BE AROUND FALLINGFORD MUCH AFTER YOUKNOWWHAT STOP HAZEL CAN COME AND BEANIE AND LAVINIAS PARENTS SAY THAT YOU CAN CHOOSE ONE OF THEM TOO STOP HAZEL YOUR FATHER SAYS NO MURDERS STOP GOODBYE STOP

Lavinia scoffed and Beanie shrieked. Daisy turned on both of them.

"What?" she asked.

"Who?" Lavinia and Beanie asked her at the same time.

"Both of you! Scoffing and squealing." Daisy said rudely.

I tried to give Beanie and a reassuring smile, but her eyes were fixed on the telegram.

"How do they know my parents?" whispered Beanie fearfully. "How does your father know my parents?"

Daisy tutted and rolled her eyes, and even I couldn't help but sigh a little bit.

"Beans." I said patiently. "We gave you our addresses before we had to leave. You know, after the Miss Griffin business."

I really didn't want to mention our old murderer headmistress in front of the easily-frightened Beanie, but she was so forgetful that I wasn't sure she would remember just from 'before we had to leave'.

Beanie's eyes went wide but then she seemed relieved. "Of course, how could I forget? I really am a chump."

Kitty shook her head at Beanie whilst Lavinia and I exchanged amused glances. Daisy, however, muttered, "Yes, you are." I nudged her.

"I was wondering how your father could possibly know where I live, Daisy!" sighed Beanie.

"It's no surprise that Daisy's father knows where you live, Lavinia." sneered a voice. We all looked around in surprise (Beanie in fear) and realised that we had left our dorm door open in the shock of seeing Beanie soaking wet. Clementine was poking her head around the doorway, a look of disgust on her face. "After all, everybody knows about Lavinia's home. It's a..."

"A broken home, we get it. I think we all understand by now. Now, go back to your dorm. We'll be leaving soon." I snapped.

Yes, I said it. I I'm still surprised that I said it, really. Daisy keeps thinking about it and reminding me how brave I was.

Daisy slapped me on the back. "Good job, Watson!"

"She's gone." I said, watching Clementine walk away.

"Of course she is!" exclaimed Kitty. "You scared her away."

Daisy sighed angrily. "I do hate the other dorm though. Clementine, Rose, Jose, and Sophie. Oh, I shall hate them for the rest of my time here. Even if somebody else joins them, I will forever hate that other dorm."

"Sophie isn't that bad." I said, considering it. 

"Only she doesn't know how to play the piano." Kitty pointed out.

"Neither do you." said Lavinia.

"I know, but lying about it!" Kitty exclaimed.

"Not everything in the Scandal Book was true though." I reminded her.

For this new casebook, in our last case, we learnt about a secret book that the now-dead Head Girl had kept. She had written lots of secrets in there (some were rumours or true, some were purely made up) to blackmail people. However, the secrets got leaked during the investigation by Kitty's little sister. This led to Binny (her sister) being kidnapped by Una Dichmann, a prefect, to protect her from the murderer.

"I bet the one about the girl who killed her twin was true." said Lavinia.

"Oh no!" wailed Beanie. "Why would she do that? The poor twin!"

"Lav! Why would you say that?" asked Kitty. "It's okay, Beanie, Lavinia was only joking."

"Come on, everyone!" Daisy exclaimed impatiently, tapping her foot. "We need to pack our things!"

"Okay!" I sighed, walking over to my bed where my trunk was lying at the foot of my bed. My clothes were dumped untidily on my bed, creased, whilst my books were thrown open on the bed.

Daisy's items were led out on her bed perfectly. Her clothes were folded up and put on her bed, whilst six different crime novels had been put down by Daisy, bookmarks sticking out of them.

I began to pack, stuffing my items in. If I was going home to my father, then I would have folded the clothes up carefully, putting all of my books on top of them. But I was going home to Daisy's lovely family - her father, and Uncle Felix, and Bertie. I did not include Daisy's mother because she is not a lovely person. She is nice enough, but after the Case of Mr. Curtis, I have felt rather uneasy around her.

I noticed Lavinia, who stayed talking to Kitty and Beanie. They were currently discussing the test that we had just endured. It really was awful, although Daisy is very clever and received full marks. I didn't get full marks, although I am quite proud of my fine score of 98%. I suppose what Daisy always says is actually true - that she is the smartest person in the class and I am the second. 

As for the rest of our dorm, Lavinia received 76%, Kitty got 73%, and Beanie studied very hard and managed to get 89%. The other dorm didn't get very good scores, however, except for Sophie, who is far cleverer than she looks. Clementine and Rose both got 60%, Jose got 69%, and Sophie got 81%. Lavinia is still fuming that a girl from her enemy's dorm had got a higher score than her and 

Then, we all packed our trunks and got into Uncle Felix's car. We went to the circus and then watched the show.

Sorry about that, that was from Daisy. She is desperate to get onto the case and thinks that I am wasting time with all this description, but personally, I believe that good detective work takes time.

"Come on, Lavinia!" groaned Daisy. "Oh, if we're late because of you, I- I'll- oh, I simply don't know what I'll do."

"Fine, fine." Lavinia rolled her eyes and went to pack her trunk. Her bed was nearest the door on the end, with Beanie next to her. Next to Beanie was Kitty, then Daisy, and then, on the other end, was me.

"Hazel, there is something in your pigeonhole!" called Kitty and passed me a letter.

My heart jumped. It was a letter for Alexander. Of course, my heart only jumped because we are very good friends and I was excited to hear from him. Daisy just scoffed when she saw me writing that.

"Oh, Hazel, do be quick!" she exclaimed impatiently. "Uncle Felix will be here in twenty-six minutes. We don't have time to waste on boys!"

"Alright, alright." I said, tearing open the letter. I felt my face going a shade of red. I read the letter - not out loud of course. I knew that if I read it loud, Daisy and Lavinia would scoff and Kitty would create gossip.

Hazel,

Hello Hazel! Sorry about not sending many letters recently, I've been busy with exams. Dreadful, aren't they? Exams, I mean. I've heard that you have been busy with exams too. I hope you did well, let me know your scores if you can. George has been going on about meeting up for a while, and I'm starting to think it might be quite a good idea. After all, it would be lovely to see Daisy a̶g̶a̶i̶n̶ and you again. Sorry for this short letter, I have another exam. :( eorgeGay ayssay ellohay.

Love,

Alexander

I stared at the letter in my hand. George seemed like a lovely person, suggesting meeting up even though he hadn't met us, but it was the sentence near the end that bothered me. He hadn't been going to say it would be lovely to see me. Only Daisy. Daisy, Daisy, Daisy.

I felt a familiar pang in my chest.