Leaping Hearts

Chapter 4

hi, i'm so sorry i have not updated for ages, but i have now. I didn't really know what to do with this chapter, it is kind of like a fill in, but it's alright. please comment, i like comments.!!!:-)

thanks, i hope you like it!:-)

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The first thing that hit me, when I walked into the dormitory was the pungent odour of cheap chocolate and the eye-watering amount of deodorant. Six perfectly groomed heads spun round from a hectic looking card game and stared at me, while I shifted uncomfortably. There was a brief moment of awkward silence before the girl closest to me put her card on the floor and smiled brightly at me.

“Hey, I'm Poppy, are you the replacement for Harriet?”

The girl looked at me inquisitively.

 I assumed I was so nodded and moved a bit further into the room.

Another girl, who looked extremely tiny, stood up and smiled at me.

“Are you Kathryn? I think Miss Dean said something about you last year.”

I nodded and smiled.

“I’m Penny; this is Jess, Lucy, Danielle, Elodie and Misbah.”

She nodded her head from side to side and pointed at each girl as she went along. They all looked the same, I noted, with their identical glossy plaits in varying shades of brown and their matching uniforms. They all beamed at me for a second and then returned to their game, leaving me to stand somewhat awkwardly in the doorway with my case.

“Uh, Poppy?” I ventured forwards, tapping the girl on the shoulder; she turned round and smiled at me.

“Do you know which one is my bed?”

“Yeah, it’s the one with nothing on, see, over there, you can just start putting away your things and then come and join us if you want.”

I looked over at the empty bed that obviously was mine. I felt kind of stupid, especially as some of the girl were raising their eyebrows at each other and one of the girls, with long dip-dyed blond  hair and buckets of make-up smothered on her face, snorted, forcing a false snigger.

“Oh; yeah.”

I looked at them a widened my eyes.

“Thanks.”

I bit my top lip and stood waiting there until they proceeded in their game.

I turned round and examined my section of the room.

It wasn't bad. Each of us had a bed, bed-side table and a chest at the end of our beds; also we had long wicker baskets under the beds and a shelf above them.

There was a door into the en- suit and a big window, with a window seat. The window had cream blinds and navy blue curtains hanging down to the floor, with a cream ribbon tied around each curtain. I peered through the window to see a garden with a huge pond, neatly cut hedges and an orchard. I looked back to my bed, disappointed that there were no views of horses to be seen, but then caught a glimpse of a barn. A black pony was poking its nose through a small gap in the stone.

I smiled and looked at the girls again; they were sitting on a big red rug that nearly covered the entire surface of room. Behind them was a big, dark wardrobe that had small mirrors drilled into each of the seven narrow doors.

I started laying out my things; I put a load of books neatly onto the shelf above the bed. I also put a few model horses, four breyers, a deformed clay horse that I modelled when I was about three, a set of small china horses all in the rainbow colours, and beany baby pony that I got when I visited America last year.

I placed an old winnie the pooh alarm clock on the bedside table along with picture of Heather and I in a cross- country competition we entered in when I first got her, a little globe and a weird knitted pony that my nan made for me when I was baby.

I put all my other stuff in my trunk, like toiletries, soft toys, photo albums and a sewing kit, and of course a 'tuck box' as my great granny said who packed it for me, because she went to boarding school said 'everybody will have one and I don't want to go without it'. It contained raisins and oranges, cracker, tinned sardines and lots of chocolate and sweets.

I still had a whole suitcase full of clothes left but didn't really know whether to put them in the wardrobe or not, I just left them in the case as one of the girls was leaning against the wardrobe and I didn't really want to interrupt them.

I stood, staring at the circle of girls, wondering if they were kind, Poppy seemed to

be, but I didn't know about the blonde girl. She seemed a bit snooty and moody.

The girls all turned round and looked at me suddenly.

Poppy frowned, and then I realised that my mouth was gaping open because I was day dreaming. All of the girls looked at me with bewilderment on their faces.

I think it was Lucy that said “Do you want to come and play, we've got a load of spare cards and the game works better with an odd number.”

I considered and then realised that I would probably make a complete fool of myself again. I couldn't take the risk, I didn't want them thinking I was a complete idiot.

I smiled weakly.

“I'd love to, but I've still got a load of un-packing to do. Oh, where shall I put my clothes?”

“In the wardrobe, duh!” The snooty girl said, bluntly, who I later found out was called Danielle.

I pursed my lips together, awkwardly and shuffled round to the wardrobe.

“Do you know which bit’s mine?” I asked quietly.

“It’s the one at the end, nearest to your bed.”

The girl said with a French accent, who I assumed was Elodie.

“Thank you.”

I opened the narrow door and shoved my clothes into the wardrobe.

Poppy asked if I wanted to play cards and this time I agreed. I sat down cross legged and started playing, I had no idea how to play, but I somehow managed to win two of the five games we played.

We were in the middle of a game, and I was winning so far, when a bell rang, a couple of times and then stopped. Everybody started getting up so I did too.

“It’s dinner time, let’s go.” Misbah said to me, and opened the door. I stepped through quickly and waited for the others to come, so I knew where to go.

They all started to walk down the stairs and into the main hallway, that lead into a year 7, 8, 9,10,11,12 and 13 dining room.

We walked into the yeah 8 dining room and all sat down at a round table, as the room started to fill up, five more girls joined us on the table. We waited until everybody had a table and then went up to the canteen. I had sausages and mashed potato and ice cream for pudding.

Once we had finished our food, it was about 7:30, we went up to our dormitories, washed and changed, and got into bed, we all read or browsed, and then at nine we had to go to sleep, I didn't get to sleep until about eleven, because loads of thoughts were darting through my mind, was Heather OK, would I be as good at riding as the other girls, would I be as clever as the others?  Would I make a total fool of myself in some way or another?

I finally drifted off after my mum texted me asking if I was OK, I them felt much more reassured, but got a sudden punch of home sickness. Somehow, thinking about my parent tricked me into thinking I was at home, instead of in a cold, creaky room, with a squeaky mattress and scratchy bed covers.