Alice was at school. She had to endure ten more minutes of History, with Miss Calisse talking non-stop. Although History was Alice's favourite subject, she couldn't wait for it to end today. She kept fidgeting with her stationeries and rocking her chair, which made Miss Calisse quite annoyed with her.
"Alice! Why can't you pay attention? You are usually the most attentive in class, but I can't understand you today!", Miss Callise said, red blotches appearing on her cheeks. "Stand up please". Alice stood up. "I'm really very sorry Miss Calisse", she apologised, " I only kept rocking my chair." "I didn't really do anything wrong, but I'll behave now". She made to sit down but Miss Calisse barked at her. "I'm not done with you, Alice!" "You rocked your chair, didn't pay attention in class and completely ignored me twice!"
The class looked shocked at how angry Miss Calisse was, especially at Alice, who normally behaved herself. They didn't think that the normally sweet-tempered teacher would scold her so.
"Alice, you have earned a mark for yourself", Miss Calisse continued, her temper slightly controlled now.
Alice groaned inwardly. Marks were how teachers punished students. Alice usually didn't receive any, unless she had done something really wrong, which had only happened twice. However, she didn't say anything, even though it wasn't fair for Miss Calisse to punish her. Keeping her voice as calm as possible, she said, "What do I have to do, Miss Calisse?"
"You will stay at home after-hours and do the story I have set as homework", Miss Calisse answered. "You cannot leave until you are finished, and you must see the Headmistress afterwards and hand in your work to her". "She will give it to me the following day". "Now pay attention to the lesson, before I award you two more marks", she finished coldly.
She returned to the lesson. Alice tried hard to concentrate. She wanted to go and read in her library. Alice had a library all to herself, one that nobody knew about. And now, visiting it after a week in her Aunt's house, had to be delayed further.
Alice came home feeling very angry, not to mention annoyed. She had done the story, which took her about 3 hours to finish. The only thing that made her tell herself 'Go on, go on', was the prospect of visiting her library later on.Then she had to talk to the Headmistress, who explained the reason that Miss Calisse was cold and irritable, was that she had a sleepless night, due to a toothache she had the previous day. Fuming, she walked up to her room and put her bag on the bed. She closed her room door and curtains. She was lifting a beautiful gold chain around her neck without removing it, when the door opened. Jenny, the housemaid, had entered the room. Quickly dropping the golden chain, Alice spun around.
"Miss", Jenny said to Alice. "Your mother told me to tell you to please take a shower and clean your room, as your father's friend and his family are coming to dinner today. "She says that you have to stay on the table until the meal is over, as she doesn't have time to come home and give you a separate meal, and I am too busy to do so, too". She also says that your Swimming Coach had to reschedule the class to today and you will have to join, as your school ends early and you have enough time to squeeze this in with everything else". "To make things easier for you, she told me to write a plan for the rest of the day for you, and sends her love".
Alice's face displayed nothing but shock as she took the paper from Jenny and watched her go. Now, she had to spend the entire day without entering her library. Then, a wonderful idea came into her head. She was going to enter her secret library. That was for certain.
