I crouch outside the assembly hall in the bushes waiting for the Morning Prayers to finish. I can see my friends amongst the crownd now filing out from Morning Prayers and heading towards the great hall for breakfast. Stumbling at first, I slip out from my hiding place in the bushes and run up to them.
"Jeez!!" Cried Penny.
"Oh! Really Grace did you have to sneak up on us like that?!" Rose squealed, pulling a twig from my messy hair at the same time.
"Sorry Rose. I woke up late!"
"Now.." she said, a pondering look on her freckled face. "Where on earth have I heard that excuse before?"
I looked up at my two best friends and smiled my cheeky (and desperatley trying to get away with it) smile. Rose and Penny laughed at me and then after a while we all calmed down and started to walk towards the great hall for breakfast. We cross the threshold of the magnificent hall and scan around different points of the hall trying to find a free space to sit and eat. Suddenly I feel Rose and Penny freeze next to me both looking at the door leading into the main school building.
"Oh my life!" Rose whispers in a voice only just audible, so Pen and I can hear."Grace! Matrons just come into the hall, and by the shade of her face i think she wants you!" I turn and look in the same direction, instanly wishing I had stayed looking the other way. Matron was walking fast towards the three of us, her face crimson with rage, pushing all the other girls (and even some of the confused staff) out of her way, she was slowly making her way closer and closer to the place where Rose, Penny and I were standing, frozen to the spot.
"Grace Wiliams!"
The entire school stop what they are doing, spoons clatter onto china bowls and plates and all eyes turn to me. Usually my instincts would tell me to start running for the door, but somehow my feet stayed and didn't want to move. Matron stormed easily through the hall, pupils now darting out of her path. Within 20 seconds Matron was towering over the three of us. The silence of the hall was strangely deafening and I knew that I was for it.
"Come with me!" she shouted, her voice reaching a pitch that was probably designed in reaching the ears of bats.
She reached the place where the three of us stood glued to the spot,matron's face was now turning a dangerous shade of purple, grabbing the collar of my blazer, she marched me unceremoniously out of the hall...
