This is the first thing i've ever posted here but i've been commanded to do by Ariel.
I wrote it a while ago when we were speculating about the triplets
joining the Swiss branch of the school. The text in italics is from Changes.The staff broke into peals of laughter. Miss Norman had once said of Jo that she was like a fresh breeze, blowing all the cobwebs away, and she had certainly contrived to do it on this occasion. They found seats while she perched on her table again and waited for what she had to tell them.
“Very well, you shall hear all! The San’s going to Switzerland this summer. The school’s following it – a good part of it, anyway. So are we!”
“What was that Biddy, my lamb? The age rule? Oh that isn’t a problem. As I said, children grow up so much faster in Canada,” she continued complacently. "Margot’s 16 now. She’s completely lost that look of delicacy she had for so long. She’s always been older in some ways than the other two but it’s still very much on the surface. Her extra year in Canada helped but I’m hoping she’’ll hoe in with her work in now and catch up with Len.”
Jo looked around the assembled staff, satisfied that they would join in her relief. Some of them had been her friends for years and they’d shared in her anxiety about the delicate triplet.
“Ma chère Joey,” began Mlle Lachenais uncertainly. “How you do like to tease us. Let me get you a cup of my special coffee”
“I hardly recognised her when I arrived in Canada,” Joey reminisced. “She’d left England as 8 year old and there she was a Bouncing Bet of a 13 year old. I was stunned, naturally, but Jem explained it all. That dry, crisp cold is so bracing that it can accelerate development. He says they’re something called ‘teenagers’. We don’t have them in this country but he thinks it only a matter of time.”
Calmly, Joey took the cup of coffee from Mlle’s shaking hand, seemingly unaware that Miss Slater was choking on a fourth form exercise book which Biddy had stuffed into her mouth.
“Now where was I?” asked Joey as she sipped the coffee. “Oh, yes. Len. Well, she’s 18. I can hardly believe it. I insisted she put her hair up before she came back to school. She’s sure to be a prefect next year; I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s in the running for Head Girl. So many of this year’s Sixth will be going to Welsen and they’ll need someone who knows all our traditions to get things off to a good start on the Gornetz Platz. She has such a sense of responsibility and she’s so experienced at helping out with the younger ones.”
Miss Lawrence and Miss Derwent, who had joined the school during Joey’s sojourn in Canada, were edging towards the door muttering something about private coaching.
“Even Con, who as you know has always been the moony one, woke up when she turned 14. Of course, Jack and I want to keep them children for as long as possible. They still like to play with La Maison des Poupées and I talk to them about their misdeeds before bedtime each evening. It hasn’t all been plain sailing. Something called hormones, Jem tells me. I’m sure we never had those when I was at school but times change. You’ll see for yourselves soon enough.”
Joey chuckled and turned brilliant black eyes on her audience. “I wish I could stay to see your faces when you do set eyes on my three big girls but I need to get back to my babies. I call them babies but Canada’s given them such a good start in life that they’re tri-lingual and Felicity’s already on her pointes in ballet lessons.”
She sighed, “It isn’t the same without a real baby around the place. Once we’ve settled down in Switzerland, I thought quads would be a good way to round off the family. I know what you’re thinking but if they’re a bit much for me, we can send them to Canada for 6 months and problem solved.”
And she whirled out of the room, leaving the staff in stunned silence.
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