Party at Silver Spires by Ann Bryant Page A

want to see what you look like in that dress. Or you could try something else on.”
    â€œOr maybe we go into the bookshop now?” said Antonia.
    â€œBut Nicole wasn’t sure about the dress,” said Sasha. “And Izzy and I want to see you in it,” she added.
    â€œNo, I theenk the dress was…no good…” Antonia said.
    Sasha and Izzy looked a bit surprised.
    â€œOh,” said Izzy.
    Maybe Italian people were used to saying whatever they thought without considering other people’s feelings. But in my heart I thought it was nothing to do with Italians. It was just Antonia. She really didn’t seem to like me.
    And that hurt.

Chapter Five

    I will always remember that first Saturday at Silver Spires as a horrible time. After the shopping trip, I just seemed to sink into a big depression. There wouldn’t be another opportunity before the party to go shopping, so I’d just have to wear my black trousers and my boring top. They were the best clothes I had, but they were still nowhere near good enough.
    In the evening we went to the common room and watched a DVD with the rest of the Year Sevens, and made ourselves hot drinks in the kitchen. It was a really good film, but my concentration kept disappearing as my mind filled up with worry over and over again. I also felt cross and sad when I thought about our return journey to school. The back seat was taken by the time we four got on, so Sasha and Izzy sat together and Antonia sat down just behind them. There was a spare seat right next to her, but I deliberately didn’t take it. I was just too full of emotions to sit beside Antonia, and anyway, I wouldn’t have had a clue what to say to her. I sat in front of Izzy and Sasha instead, and stared out of the window at the rainy greyness.
    When we went to bed that night, I read for ages, and then I was the last to wake up on Sunday morning. We had breakfast late, and I sat as far away from Antonia as possible. I couldn’t tell how she felt about the way I was so obviously avoiding her, because her face is always impossible to read. I wondered if the others had noticed that Antonia and I weren’t all that friendly towards each other. None of them had ever said anything to me, but I think I might have caught a look passing between Sasha and Izzy when we were on the minibus.
    By Sunday afternoon I’d got myself into a real state about the party, and I was still feeling hurt about Antonia’s comment, so it was a relief when we all went swimming and I managed to get rid of some of my hurt feelings by thrashing up and down the pool doing front crawl as fast as I could.
    Then Sunday turned to Monday and one really nice thing that happened was that clubs started. There were so many clubs going on every day of the week after school that I didn’t know what to choose, but I thought I might try debating club and maybe chess. Emily said she was going to drama, and Bryony was interested in rock climbing in the sports hall and running club down on the athletics track. In the end she persuaded Emily to go with her to running club too. Antonia was excited to find there was a fashion club, so she settled on that and cookery, which was starting that afternoon. Sasha and Izzy opted for gym club and cookery.
    At supper time the dining hall seemed to be buzzing with chatter about clubs, and even Antonia smiled a bit and talked about the ragout she’d made in cookery. I didn’t know how you made it, but of course Sasha and Izzy did because they’d been in the session too, and even Bryony and Emily seemed to know what she was talking about, so I just kept quiet and let the conversation go on around me. I felt a stab of loneliness at that moment, but told myself not to be silly.
    After prep we six went to the common room and sat at the table, because Bryony wanted to play the card game Uno from the Forest Ash games store. She spent ages explaining the rules and I