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Title: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 19th, 2003, 11:59pm Hi all I'm planning on writing more later on today, if I get the chance. In the meantime, I'll re-post what was up. Any new bits won't be very long, since we've had two enormous late nights and tonight will be late as well. My daughter is in the Carols in the Domain tonight and the whole week has been taken up with rehearsals and etceteras. -- There was a flurry of snow and ice as four children came hurtling out of a wardrobe and landed with a thump on the floor outside it. “Do you think we’ll ever …” began Lucy, but was interrupted by Peter with a raised hand. “There’s something funny going on here,” he said quietly. “This isn’t the same wardrobe we went into.” Edmund took a hand at this point. “I don’t recognise this room either,” he said. “I thought we went through the whole house a few weeks ago.” The others agreed with him, looking around in puzzlement. The wardrobe they had fallen out of was much smaller than the one they had gone into and obviously contained girls’ clothing. In fact, Susan and Lucy thought it was a very pretty room, with its buttercup-yellow walls and white paint finishings. The curtains, rugs, bedspread and other hangings were also white, sprinkled with jonquils, daffodils and buttercups. “What I don’t understand is who this room belongs to,” said Peter. “Can you imagine the Macready with a room like this? Or any of the maids, for that matter? There isn’t anyone else in the house besides ourselves and the Professor.” “I don’t believe we’re in the Professor’s house at all,” said Lucy suddenly. “I think Aslan sent us to another world, instead of back to our own.” The others looked doubtful at this, but before anyone had time to comment there came the sound of someone whistling and they found themselves face to face with a girl none of them recognised. “Christopher Columbus!” gasped Jo Bettany. “What are you four doing in my bedroom?” | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 19th, 2003, 11:59pm There was an awkward silence. None of the Pevensies knew quite what to say for the moment and they all (even the self-possessed and usually quite courteous Peter) stood still and gaped at Jo quite stupidly. “Well?” demanded Jo, a little impatiently, for she had only come rushing upstairs for a handkerchief, and was due back down to supervise the midday meal. The Middles seemed to be rather giggly at the moment and she really didn’t want to leave her friends to cope alone with their latest outbreak. Peter cleared his throat nervously. “Er well, I think we’re a bit lost actually,” he managed. Lucy bit her lip in an effort not to laugh. As confused as she was about where they had ended up, she thought that was a bit of an understatement! Edmund attempted to help Peter out. “Actually we’ve just come out of the wardrobe and we found … .” He didn’t get to finish his sentence. “You’ve been in my wardrobe?” Jo’s eyes were flashing now and an icy tone had crept into her voice. "Uh oh," muttered Lucy. This was not going well at all. While both Edmund and Peter now shuffled their feet nervously and gazed intently at the rug, Lucy was busy looking around at the room and at the girl confronting them from the doorway. Her eyes rested on the mirror on the wall and she bit back an exclamation. Instead of the very young schoolgirl she’d expected to find staring back at her, Lucy saw that she was a few years older, in fact, about the same age as this Jo. She chanced a quick glance at the others and saw that both Peter and Edmund were also older than they had been before, although they were younger than when they had been kings in Narnia. To her bewilderment though, Susan now appeared younger than Lucy. For the first time in her life, Lucy was taller than her sister. From the scowl on Susan’s face it appeared that Susan had noticed the changes as well. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:00am Susan decided to take charge of the situation. “Look here it’s quite simple,” she said, trying to sound brisk and efficient. “We came out of Narnia and we’ve somehow gotten out of the wrong wardrobe.” Unfortunately for Susan, now being younger, her voice was a little shriller than it had been before. This, coupled with the fact that what she had said made no sense at all to Jo, had the effect of making her sound very cheeky indeed. Jo pulled herself up to her full height and glared down at Susan, with a look that Corney and co had privately dubbed her “squashed bug expression”. “Indeed,” she said icily. Lucy was just wondering whether it would be safe to say anything when another interruption occurred, in the form of a young woman wearing a Matron’s uniform. Her face would have been rather pretty, were it not for the peevish expression she wore. Lucy wondered if she always looked like that. The woman spoke sharply to Jo. “Josephine, why are you not supervising the midday meal? You may think your position as Head Girl allows to shirk your responsibilities, but I expect you to be on time for duties. I do not wish to hear your excuses, thank you,” as Jo began to speak. The Matron now noticed the four Pevensies in Jo’s room. “Josephine!” she exclaimed shrilly, “how dare you entertain young men in your bedroom. Report to Miss Wilson immediately and take your friends with you!” “Yes Matron Besley,” said Jo stiffly and she swept from the room, followed rather uncertainly by Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan. As they made their way along the corridor, Jo swung around on them furiously. She was in a rage now. “What were you lot doing in my bedroom anyway? Don’t give me that tripe about wardrobes either. Now I’m in trouble with that fluffly little idiot Matron Besley and I have to report to Bill!” The others stared at her in surprise. Who was Bill? Lucy cleared her throat nervously. “We’re sorry, we didn’t mean to get you into trouble. I know it sounds silly, but we really did come out of the wardrobe.” She ended with a friendly grin and Jo found her temper slipping away, in spite of herself. “Look, I don’t understand, but I have to go and report to Bill, so I think you’d better come too and we’ll let her sort it all out.” Lucy looked at the others questioningly. Peter nodded, so they followed Jo along the corridor until they came to another room. Jo knocked on the door and they waited. “Enter,” called a woman’s voice. Jo opened the door and they followed her inside. They found themselves in another bedroom, furnished similarly to the one they had been in, but considerably larger. (I can’t remember a description of Bill’s room in New House, so I’m going to take a little licence here.) A tall woman with a pleasant face sat in a comfortable chair by the window. Lucy liked the look of her, but noted the rather firm mouth. This was not someone she wanted to be in trouble with! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:01am “Please, Miss Wilson,” said Jo, very properly, “Matron Besley has sent me to report to you for entertaining young men in my bedroom.” “What on earth!” exclaimed Miss Wilson, thorougly startled. “What young men?” She jumped to her feet and caught sight of the four Pevensies, who were standing behind Jo. Miss Wilson took in the sight of Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan and her eyes widened in astonishment. “Where did they come from, Jo?” “They say they came out of my wardrobe,” answered Jo promptly. “We came out of Narnia,” put in Susan, who was determined not to be overlooked and thought it was high time Jo and this Miss Wilson took some notice of her. Miss Wilson looked her up and down with an expression that any Middle could have told her boded no good and said simply “I see”. Susan subsided, feeling rather squashed, for the second time that day. “Well,” said Miss Wilson briskly, when she had recovered her breath, “I think you should tell me your names and then perhaps you would like to explain what you are all doing here.” She looked at Peter, noting that he seemed to be the oldest of the four. Peter swallowed nervously, this lady seemed a bit stern and, like Lucy, he didn’t think she was someone to cross. “I’m sorry Miss Wilson,” he began politely, “My name is Peter Pevensie and this is my younger brother Edmund.” “Not that much younger,” muttered Edmund, but subsided upon receiving a glare from Miss Wilson. Peter continued, “these are my two sisters, Susan and Lucy,” he turned to introduce them to Miss Wilson, and then noticed for the first time, that Susan and Lucy had gotten younger and older respectively! Lucy bit back another giggle, it was seldom that her handsome brother lost his composure. “Er, anyway, my sisters Susan,” here he indicated Susan “and Lucy,” he laid an affectionate hand on Lucy’s shoulder. “I’ll try and explain, Miss Wilson. I know it sounds a bit strange, but in fact, we did come out of the wardrobe. We have been in a place called Narnia and we thought we were returning to our own world. You see, we originally got into Narnia through a different wardrobe, in a different part of our world. I’m not actually sure where we are now, but we were expecting to come back into a room in England, which is the last place we were, before we got into Narnia.” He wound down, feeling a bit foolish, knowing how odd it sounded and hoping this woman wouldn’t think he was quite mad. Lucy slipped her hand into his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:02am Miss Wilson frowned. The whole story sounded preposterous and yet it was too fanciful for anyone to make up. She studied the young man who now stood in front of her and noted the firm chin and the kindliness of his expression. She rather liked the look of him and his brother and sisters, although the younger girl looked as though she needed a firm hand. Judging from her sulky expression she was a handful when she was roused. Miss Wilson suspected that she was in need of some discipline. “Well,” said Miss Wilson, “the whole thing sounds wildly unbelievable, but for the moment I am going to assume that you are telling the truth. What we need to decide now, is what the School is going to do with you all.” “Excuse me, Miss Wilson,” said Lucy politely. “Yes, Lucy, is it?” Miss Wilson smiled at the girl, who seemed to be about Jo’s age. “Yes Miss Wilson, did you say this was a school?” “It’s not just any school,” interrupted Jo, who had recovered from the shocks of the morning and was now her usual insouscient self. “It’s the Chalet School.” “Oh,” said Lucy, rather flatly, not knowing what to say to this. Peter spoke up again. “Miss Wilson, we feel sure that Aslan is responsible for sending us here. We can’t leave until he sends us home again. Perhaps we should look for somewhere to stay until we find out why we are here.” Miss Wilson dropped limply back into her chair. “Aslan?” she said weakly, wondering if she had fallen asleep over her book. “Yes,” said Lucy eagerly. “Aslan is the king of Narnia. He was the one who called us there in the first place and he sent us home again, at least we thought we were going home. He must be here somewhere.” “And you think this man, Aslan, is living up here somewhere?” asked Miss Wilson confusedly, endeavouring to understand what these unusual young people were telling her. “Oh Aslan isn’t a man Miss Wilson,” replied Lucy. “He’s a lion.” | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:02am There came a muffled choke from behind them and Lucy and Miss Wilson turned to see a red-faced Jo, who seemed to be struggling to maintain her composure. “That will be all, Josephine,” said Miss Wilson briskly. “You may go and take up your duties again. I imagine the meal is now over, so you may go and take the Middles over to their afternoon lessons now. And Josephine, you are not to speak of this to anyone.” Jo nodded (speech being beyond her at the present time) and vanished down the corridor. The Pevensies heard her footsteps dying away and they turned to face Miss Wilson again, wondering what was to happen next. Miss Wilson took pity on their worried faces and smiled at them. “I think the first thing we should do is get you four a meal,” she said “and then we’ll all go over to the main house and have a quiet chat with Mademoiselle, our headmistress.” Lucy and Edmund heartily approved of this plan, both of them being famished by this time. Peter was too worried about what they would do next to be hungry and Susan was still sulking at suddenly finding herself the youngest member of the family, but they all followed Miss Wilson out of the room and down the stairs. She led them into a small room which was obviously used as a private sitting room, since it had comfortable chairs, as well as a table and chairs to one side. Miss Wilson rang a bell and a maid appeared. Miss Wilson requested that sandwiches and drinks be brought and shortly afterwards the four siblings were sitting around the table enjoying a hearty lunch. When all of them had eaten enough and the maid had cleared away the remains of their meal, Miss Wilson took them out of the house and through the gardens to another building, which she explained was the main house of the school. There was no-one about, all the girls being at lessons, and they made their way through to Mademoiselle’s study where that lady was waiting for them, a puzzled expression on her plain but kindly face. Miss Wilson had rung ahead to explain the situation to her and Mademoiselle had been thinking of a plan to help the Pevensies. “So, mes enfants, you find yourselves in some difficulties?” twinkled kindly Mademoiselle. “Yes,” admitted Peter. We’re not really sure what to do next, Mademoiselle. “Never fear, my child,” said Mademoiselle, “we at the Chalet School are used to the unusual.” (“Although not quite this unusual,” thought Miss Wilson, with an inward smile.) “We can help you all until your friend, Aslan comes to your aid. The two girls, they must enter the school, yes? And the young men …” here Mademoiselle was interrupted by a very indignant Susan. “What me, go to school! I’ll have you know that I’m almost grown up now and Mother said I needn’t go back next term. Why, I’ll be coming out soon!” Miss Wilson and Mademoiselle stared at her.They wondered what the poor child was talking about. Her face was red with anger and screwed up from her outburst and her hands were clenched into fists. She looked no older than Joyce Linton and a more unlikely person to be coming out was never seen. Even Lucy, glancing over at her sister, thought she had never looked less like the old Susan, always so composed and attractive, and maddeningly grown up in her mannerisms. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:03am “Look Su,” began Peter, but Susan turned on him “don’t you come the older brother over me,” she cried. “You’re barely a year older than I am!” Peter gave up the idea of placating his sister and fell silent again. At this point Miss Wilson took a hand. “Stop that vulgar display this instant,” she commanded sternly. Susan, who had been about to stamp her foot and go into another tirade, gupled and thought better of it. “That’s better,” commented Miss Wilson, “now you girls can’t go wandering about on your own up here. If you enter the school we can look after you and you can continue your education in the meantime.” She fixed Susan with a steely glare and that young lady did not dare to protest. “But Mademoiselle, what about our brothers?” asked Lucy, who to tell the truth, was entranced by the idea of being at the Chalet School. She knew that she would be going to school soon anyway and it might as well be somewhere pleasant like the Chalet School as anywhere else. Added to that, suddenly not being the baby of the family anymore, she felt more confident in herself and decided that this was turning out to be a most enjoyable adventure! Mademoiselle looked kindly at the girl. “Have no fear, petite, there is an empty chalet not too far from the school. The brothers may stay there and visit you whenever it is possible. It is well stocked with all supplies, as our dear Madame has leased it for her family to stay in when she brings them down to visit the school. I will ring Madame tonight and explain. I know she will wish Peter and Edmund to stay there.” “I say, that’s very decent of you,” exclaimed Edmund. Mademoiselle looked kindly at him. This young man was clearly the younger of the two men, his face lacked the gentle strength of his brother and his his eyes had a haunted expression, but his bearing was distinguished by a kind of nobility. ‘Refined by the fire’, for some reason this phrase flashed through Mademoiselle’s head. This young man had either seen or done something terrible and had suffered anguish because of it. She wondered what had happened to him. However, she had no time to reflect on this, although much later she would reflect on her initial impressions and realise the truth of them. It was now quite late in the afternoon, so Mademoiselle suggested that the young men go and settle themselves into the chalet before nightfall and visit their sisters in the morning. Accepting the wisdom of this, Peter and Edmund left said their goodbyes to Lucy and Susan and left with Miss Wilson (who was still wondering if it was all a dream, everything was happening so quickly). | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:03am Left alone in the study with Mademoiselle both girls looked down at the floor and did not speak. Both were dealing with their own thoughts. Lucy found it difficult to meet Susan’s eyes. She kne w that it now appeared to everyone they met that she, Lucy, was the elder of the two. However, in many ways Lucy still felt like the little sister and she knew that Susan was not going to let her forget it Lucy wondered how the two of them were going to cope with the school work. After all, Lucy thought to herself with amusement, I’m only a Middle, or I was going to be. I’m sure I’m not going to be up to the standard of someone like Jo. I think that Matron person said she was Head Girl, so she must be a Senior. At least Susan will find it easy to keep up with Middle School lessons! Lucy had gotten this far in her thoughts when she heard Mademoiselle saying “and now my dears, let us settle you into your school life. We do not know how long you will be here, but we must assume that it may be for some time, and so I must separate you and send you to different forms, so that you may be with girls of your own age.” Susan opened her mouth to protest at this, but Mademoiselle quelled her with a look and then turned to her desk and rang a bell. To the maid that appeared she requested that Anne Seymour and Stacie Benson be summoned to the study. While they waited for these two girls to appear Mademoiselle spoke to Lucy and Susan again. “One more thing petites, it may be better if what you have told myself and Miss Wilson remain in confidence for the moment. I would prefer that neither of you discuss the matter with your form mates, until I give you permission. Truly, this is best,” she assured them, her eyes twinkling once more, as she surveyed the doubtful expressions on the two faces turned towards her. “You would not be the first girls at the school to have their circumstances kept a secret from the rest of the students. Now I hear your escorts arriving, so I will bid you goodbye for the present and hope to see you for the evening meal.” As she spoke these words the door opened once more and two girls entered, one a tall girl, pretty and brown-haired, with a quiet, clever face. The other, shorter, and moving slowly, as though she was in pain, wore her fair hair pulled loosely back from her face. It was a pretty, intelligent face, but a little drawn, as though she had not had enough sleep. She was followed by another girl of about the same age, slightly stocky, with bright hair and a slightly protuding chin. This last girl bounded into the room rather clumsily and tripped as she came, only saving herself from falling over by grabbing Lucy’s arm. “Cornelia!” Mademoiselle spoke again. “What are you doing here?” “Sorry Mademoiselle,” replied the girl “I was with Stacie when your message came and her back is hurting her rather, so I gave her an arm as she came along here.” Cornelia was balancing on one leg as she spoke and rubbing the other rather self-consciously up and down it. She looked rather like a stork with curly blonde hair, Lucy thought. Just then, Cornelia overbalanced with a squawk and again grabbing Lucy by the arm to steady herself, who in turn grabbed at Susan, the three of them crashed to the floor bringing half the contents of Mademoiselle’s desk with them! There was a stunned silence for a few minutes, broken at length by Cornelia. “Ouch, I guess I came quite a cropper there, I’ll tell the world. Sorry. Did I hurt you?” Lucy and Susan shook their heads. Lucy was shaking with silent laughter and Susan was consumed with rage at the undignified position this girl had placed her in. Mademoiselle spoke again, and Lucy thought her voice quivered somewhat. “Cornelia my dear, if you are not hurt perhaps you will look after Susan for us, as I am placing her in your form. She is new this term and has come to join us for a time. Please take her to Matron and see that she has everything she needs for tonight. The two of you can also help Stacie to Matron. Stacie my dear I am sure that your back is hurting and that you would like to lie down for a short while.” The fair-haired girl smiled wearily at Mademoiselle. “Thank you Mademoiselle, it is aching a lot this morning.” “Go with Cornelia and Susan then, my child, and please remember that you must tell us when you are in pain. We do not wish to strain the muscles further.” Taking this as a dismissal, Cornelia, Susan and Stacie left the study, Cornelia and Stacie pausing to curtsey before they left. Susan’s eyes widened in shock (what kind of place had she come to) but she was wise enough not to make any further remarks and followed her new school mates out of the room. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:04am Lucy and Anne were left in the study, staring at eachother curiously. Anne saw a tall, fair girl, with a bright and merry face and eyes that hinted at a wicked sense of humour. It was also a very determined face, hinting at a strong character who would not be easily led. Anne liked the look of her at once. She held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Anne Seymour.” “Lucy Pevensie,” replied Lucy, taking the hand. “Come on Lucy, I’ll show you around and then take you to our form room so you can meet the rest of us.” Lucy wondered who the rest of “us” were, but followed her new friend out of the room, pausing long enough to copy Anne’s curtsey to Mademoiselle, which nearly caused her to trip over the rug! Recovering herself Lucy followed Anne along a passageway until they came to a large room with several beds in it. Anne waved an airy hand. “This is our dormitory. There’s a spare bed at the end, so I suppose that’s yours. I’ll take you to see Matey, so she can organise when you are to unpack.” Lucy swallowed nervously; she hadn’t thought of that. It was going to be very awkward having to explain to Matey, whoever that might be, that she had no trunk and that none would be arriving, since she’d tumbled out of a wardrobe in the Head Girl’s bedroom! However, Anne was staring at her curiously, obviously expecting some kind of response, so Lucy smiled weakly and said “ok, that sounds like a good idea”. To herself she thought, “I may as well get it over with.” Anne led her out of the room and upstairs to a large sunny room, where a small wiry woman, attired in a matron’s uniform, was busily sorting through a large pile of sheets and pillowcases. “Excuse me Matron,” said Anne politely, “this is Lucy Pevensie, a new girl for our form. I’ve brought her to you so that she can find out when to unpack her trunk.” Matron eyed them sharply and then took a long list from her pocket. “Lucy,” she said, “ah yes, I see your trunk arrived yesterday, along with your sister’s. I think it would be best if you came back after Abendessen and unpacked then. Anne, see that she is here promptly, I don’t have time to waste on dawdlers this early in the term.” Lucy eyed her dazedly, but mumbled a “thank you,” before Anne pulled her from the room again. “Come on,” she said, “I’ll take you down to the common room and you can meet everybody.” They made their way down another passageway and downstairs again. Lucy’s mind was in a whirl as she tried to keep up with Anne. How could her trunk have arrived yesterday? She didn’t even have a trunk. It didn’t make sense, but then nothing much had made sense since she fell out of the wardrobe that morning, so Lucy supposed that one more thing really didn’t make much difference. Lucy and Anne came to another, largish room, which Lucy assumed was the Senior common room. Inside, a number of girls stopped what they were doing to stare at the new arrival. Lucy felt rather uncomfortable being the object of so much scrutiny. “Everybody,” said Anne, “this is Lucy Pevensie, a new girl for our form.Lucy, this is Vanna di Ricci, Gillian Linton, Carla von Flugen, Eva von Heiling and Luigia Meracini. The rest are probably at music lessons or the like, so you’ll meet them later.” Lucy was relieved to hear this. She was already having keeping the names straight of the people she had met, without having to worry about the rest of the Seniors. Gillian came over to Lucy, “welcome Lucy,” she said “we’re a friendly bunch here. Just ask me if you need anything and I’ll be glad to help. My sister Joyce and I were new girls at the school only two terms ago, so I know what it’s like. Oh she’s not a Senior,” as Lucy looked around the room for Joyce. “She’s a Middle, so she’s over at St Clare’s house with the other Middles.” “I think that must be where my sister Susan has gone,” said Lucy, warming to the friendliness of this girl. “Mademoiselle sent her off with someone called Cornelia.” “Is your sister a Middle then?” inquired Gillian. “Yes, Mademoiselle said so,” replied Lucy, wondering just how Susan was faring with a group of girls much younger than she was used to. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:05am Susan was not enjoying herself. She was used to being treated as though she were grown up, indeed, she saw herself as being practically grown up. Added to that, she knew that she was regarded as the beauty of the family and she couldn’t help noticing that her looks weren’t nearly as outstanding now that she was suddenly several years younger. Why, she looked quite plain. And she could feel a spot coming out on her nose. Actually, Susan didn’t look plain at all. She merely looked like your average girl in any Middle school, neither outstandingly pretty, nor particularly homely. But Susan was missing the admiration her looks generally attracted (the attention she’d received as a beautiful queen in Narnia had been particularly bad for her) and she wanted to stand out from the crowd. Her mood was not improved when she and Cornelia reached St Clare’s, which Cornelia explained was the house where the Middles ate and slept. There, Susan was introduced to one Joyce Linton, who was extremely pretty with an enviable mane of golden hair and perfect complexion (not a spot in sight). Susan scowled heavily and wished she’d stayed in Narnia. Cornelia, who was finding Susan pretty hard work, neverthless persevered with trying to make this new girl feel welcome. Susan was shown all around the new house (St Clare’s had only just been completed prior to the beginning of the current term), seen the dormitory where she was to sleep and now was standing in the Middle’s common room with Cornelia, where that young person was making sundry introductions, so fast that Susan was feeling bewildered. “Hi Cornelia, stop,” called a slight fair girl, whom Susan vaguely remembered as being called Evadne someone. “You’re confusing the new girl with all our names. Don’t worry Susan, you’ll soon get the hang of us all. Here, come and share a lounge with us and we’ll fill you in on the latest. Shove up, you people,” this to the other four people squashed up next to her. “There,” she patted a tiny space next to her. “Room for a little one.” Susan’s face flamed with anger at being thought “a little one” but she squeezed herself into the space indicated silently and sat there fuming. Evadne and Cornelia looked at eachother, eyebrows raised, but made no comment. Joyce took up the conversation which had been interrupted by Cornelia and Susans’ entry to the common room. “We were discussing what to do about Matron Besley,” she explained to them. “What do you think Corney, she ticked Jo off in front of all of us!” Joyce sounded particularly indignant and Susan couldn’t see why she was so upset about the Head Girl being in trouble. Susan hadn’t liked what she’d seen of Jo Bettany very much and she didn’t care how much Matron Besley ticked her off. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:06am “Why of all the cheek!” exclaimed Cornelia. “Who does she think she is, criticising our Head Girl like that?” Joyce nodded her golden head. “That’s not all, either,” she declared. Matron has been round to all our dormies and confiscated our books, so we can’t read in the mornings.” “She can’t do that!” the chorus came from all around the room. “When did you find that out, Joyce?” asked Evadne. “Just now, when Bill sent me up to the dormy to get a clean hanky for Stacie. She’s in sick bay lying down, poor thing, her back is really sore today.” “Well, I vote we revive the SSM and teach Matron a lesson,” cried Evadne, springing to her feet. Several faces looked blank. Evadne deigned to explain. “SSM stands for the Society for the Suppression of Matron. When Jo Bettany was a Middle, like us, we had another matron who was the very limit. So we formed the society to make things hot for her and force her to leave.” “Why?” asked Susan, breaking her silence in sheer surprise that anyone would do such a thing. “Because she was doing the school harm,” explained Evadne. “She was rude to Madame then she did something horrible to the Robin and then Madame sent her away.” (Evadne was rather vague on the details of the day Matron had locked up the Robin. Very few of the girls knew what had actually happened that day, and those girls had been forbidden to discuss the matter further.) Cornelia and some of the others who had not been at school for the first SSM looked interested and pressed Evadne for further details. Susan, who considered herself above such things, listened scornfully, becoming interested in spite of herself. “I say we start straight away,” declared Joyce, with enthusiasm. “Can’t anyone think of something we can do to her?” Susan suddenly remembered a prank that some of the Middles at her own school had once played. It had struck even her as being decidedly funny. The problem was, she wasn’t exactly sure how it had been done. She spoke up somewhat diffidently, “I remember a prank the Middles at my last school played once, on one of the mistresses. I’m just not sure how they did it.” Cornelia turned to smile at the new girl, thinking this was a great improvement on all the sulking she had been doing. “What was it?” | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:06am “Well they somehow managed to tamper with her shampoo bottle and inject a colourless dye into it. Apparently the shampoo looked no different to normal, but when the mixture was lathered up in water and shampooed into her hair, it turned it green!” The Middles shouted with laughter. “But Miss Wilson will check the shampoo if we do something like that, and she’ll find out there’s something else in it,” objected Evadne. Susan shook her head, “no she won’t, not if it’s done properly. There are chemicals that you can use apparently, which just aren’t detectable without analysis in a big lab somewhere. One of the girls in the prank had a brother who was a chemist and he got the stuff for her. That’s how they did it.” “Well it’s a great idea, but how are we going to get something like that up here?” asked Cornelia. Susan suddenly remembered something else. “My brothers, Peter and Edmund are staying in a chalet nearby and they’re both very good with chemistry. Peter is going to be a doctor. I’m sure they’d be able to help us come up with something.” The other girls stared at her. When she wasn’t sulking she had quite an animated face and when she spoke of her brothers her eyes lit up. She must be quite fond of them, mused Cornelia. “Ok then,” she said, “all those in favour of trying Susan’s idea and asking her brothers for help to bring it off.” A forest of hands waved wildly in the air and Susan beamed. All at once she felt part of a friendly group and she liked the new feeling. Previously, at school, she had tended to put on rather superior airs and found that she had few friends. Although pretty and outstandingly good at lessons, she had mostly been on her own, as her fellow students had not taken kindly to being corrected when they made mistakes. Susan had almost always assumed a grown-up air when dealing with her peers, which often made many of them long to slap her. Consequently, most of them had avoided being in her company. Had Susan but known it, this was the reason her parents had decided to remove her from school in a term’s time. They had decided that she was getting no benefit from it and would be better off in the company of grown ups, where they hoped she would learn the interpersonal skills she lacked and that her way was not always the right one. Then had come the unexpected adventure in Narnia, culminating in Susan’s time as a queen, when her great beauty had caused many foreign kings to ask for her hand in marriage. All this attention had been very bad for Susan, who already had a very good opinion of herself. Added to this, she felt a little superior to the others, especially Edmund, who although he had reformed in Narnia, had nonetheless been a traitor to Aslan. This had blinded Susan to her own faults and in fact, she was well on the way to becoming a thoroughly obnoxious prig, well on a par with their cousin Eustace Scrub. (For more about Eustace, you should read Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which is a fabulous book.) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:08am That's it for now. I plan to lock myself in the office and do some more writing later on this afternoon. The plot bilby has been whispering suggestions to me, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to get the next bit down. Have to let my littlest one check her email now ... | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Abi on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:12am Yay! Glad to see this back, Cathy, now I've newly discovered the Narnia books. Hope the plot bilby gives you lots of inspiration! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 20th, 2003, 12:13am Yippee, yippee, hurrah and hurray - thank you Cathy ;D :-* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 20th, 2003, 1:29am Oooh! Thank you Cathy! Looking forward to more! :-* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Lisa on Dec 20th, 2003, 1:58am Sort of glad (cowers from rage of CBBers) that TEM came, I have been discovering new things I missed before - like this! Great, thanks! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Susan on Dec 20th, 2003, 2:15am I have just discovered this it's really good. Looking forward to more. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Kathy_S on Dec 20th, 2003, 4:29am I’m still picketing Lewis with UNFAIR TO SUSAN signs, but your Susan may actually deserve what she gets :). Looking forward to more, especially on how Lucy & Susan fit in- | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 20th, 2003, 7:32am Hooray! I can't wait to read more of this story! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by LulieCat on Dec 20th, 2003, 9:12am I'm so glad this has been reposted, I was really enjoying it. Kathy_S, why are you picketing Lewis? *confused :-/* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Chloe on Dec 20th, 2003, 9:53am Yay thank you Cathy for re-posting :) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Esmeralda on Dec 20th, 2003, 3:26pm Yes, thank you for reposting Cathy, especially as I hadn't seen the last post before. A reallly enjoyable story. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Kathy_S on Dec 20th, 2003, 10:49pm Sorry- The picketing is leftover from my rant in the Narnia thread over in Book Recommendations. My view is that Lewis decided he needed to make an example of someone in The Last Battle and picked on Susan for no good reason -- maybe just because she was the least interesting. I never saw any of the characteristics attributed to her in The Last Battle in the earlier books, just a few older sister attitudes in The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe and a temporary fall for the wrong man in The Horse and His Boy. (Overall, I still like the Narnia books.) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by LulieCat on Dec 20th, 2003, 11:13pm Thank you Kathy. I understand now. I always felt sorry for Susan, as she seems to be the least favourite of the books. Even Eustace managed to redeem himself and he was truly awful! I personally found Peter to be the most overbearing brother and if he had been mine I'd have put itching powder in his underwear ;D Still, somebody had to be High King and you need to be bossy to do that job. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Abi on Dec 20th, 2003, 11:27pm I rather liked Peter. But then I liked Susan as well. I liked them all! *is surprised that chanting has not yet started and begins immediately* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by LulieCat on Dec 20th, 2003, 11:33pm Actually, I've been getting confused again ::) He was more overbearing in the TV adaptation. Almost priggish at times. He was less so in the books, just elder-brother-ish. *reminds self to think properly before putting fingers to keyboard* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 21st, 2003, 3:30am *joins in chanting* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 21st, 2003, 4:04am *joins the chanters!!* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 21st, 2003, 5:46am One small new bit and I'm trying to write some more now. I'm getting interested in Susan, so I'll stay with her for a bit. I only got up at 2:30 this afternoon, after collecting daughter no. 1 off the bus from the Domain carols at 12:30 and then getting home to discover that daughter no 2 had developed severe ear ache and needed to go up to the hospital. Waited 2 and a half hours to see a doctor and eventually came home and fell into bed around 4am! Not an outstanding effort from our public hospital system ... -- “There’s just one problem that I can see,” put in Evadne, who rather liked the idea of Matron Besley with green hair. “How are you going to get your brothers to help us, without letting them know what we’re up to?” Susan considered this, it certainly could be a problem, but she rather thought Edmund might see reason. “I don’t think Peter would approve; he’s the oldest, but I should think we we’ll be able to persuade Edmund for some help. He’s always up for a bit of fun anyhow.” Susan still felt a bit resentful that Peter had not sprung to her defence earlier, when Jo and Miss Wilson had treated her as though she were a Junior Middle (forgetting that she seemed to have regressed in age to one!). She was remembering that Edmund had been known as a troublemaker at school, the term before they had found themselves in Narnia. She didn’t stop to think that Edmund had changed a lot because of his experiences in Narnia. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 21st, 2003, 5:54am *huggles Cathy* *sends hug for daughter no2's poorly ear!!* Thank you for posting more Cathy! This one is really great! :-* :-* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 21st, 2003, 6:02am Ooh! Edmund's reaction could be interesting! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 21st, 2003, 6:19am Daughter no 2 seems ok now. Hubby has taken them all outside to attack shrubs with pruning shears, so I can have some time to myself. Multitudinous brownie points for him ... -- Cornelia (knowing nothing of these undercurrents) grinned. “Ok then, so it sounds like we’ve got a plan. Now, it will probably take a few days to get going, so I vote that we all lay low for a bit and avoid the woman as much as possible until then. That way, we should stay out of trouble with her and Bill and the others are less likely to suspect it’s anything to do with us.” The others agreed and they settled down to planning further ways and means of reforming Matron Besley. Some of these were wildly impractical, ranging from Kitty Burnett’s suggestion that they kidnap her in the middle of the night and lock her in the school boatshed, to Joyce’s suggestion that they put glue all around the inside of her hat so that it stuck fast to her head! It was perhaps fortunate for Matron Besley, if not for the Middles, that Jo Bettany chose this moment to erupt into the common room. “What do you lot think you are doing? Didn’t you hear the bell for Abendessen? We’ve been waiting for you all for 5 minutes. Bill is furious. Get into your lines AT ONCE and you can all take an order mark!” The Middles grumbled and some of them, including Susan, scowled blackly, but they formed themselves into one line and marched off to Abendessen, where they had to endure a lecture from Bill on the importance of punctuality. However, as most of them, especially Cornelia, Evadne and Joyce, were more or less used to being lectured, it left no lasting impression, and they settled down to devour their tea, all of them being ravenous by this time. Susan was especially hungry. She hadn’t had much to eat at the meal Miss Wilson had ordered for the four of them and she rather thought that the last time she had eaten much of anything had been back in Narnia, the early breakfast she and the others had had before they set off to pursue the white stag. Usually very picky about her food, she thought nothing of the unusual continental food and attacked her servings with great vigour. None of the others seemed to notice anything unusual – they were all eating the same way! Susan decided that being younger wasn’t so bad after all. She remembered enough about the behaviour of some of the Middles at her old school that this was the age where most of the pranks were played. Some of the girls she was sitting with looked like they were ripe for that kind of mischief. She decided that she was going to take life easy at this new school. After all, lessons should be easy for her, she had already covered it all when she was a Middle, several years ago. So, seeing as she was condemned to being a Middle again, she determined to coast along in lessons and get as much fun out of it as she could. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 21st, 2003, 6:24am I'm glad Susan is more resigned to it. I'm sure things will be easier for her because of it! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 21st, 2003, 6:32am This decision having been made, Susan was shocked to discover that she could not understand a word that anyone was saying to her. Everyone was speaking french, but to Susan’s horror (it had been her best subject at school) she could not follow any of it. Joyce, who was sitting next to her, and seeing the new girl’s bewildered expression, took pity on her and explained. “We’re trilingual here at the Chalet School. We have to speak different languages on different days. Today is french day, tomorrow will be german. We can speak any language we like on Sundays. Don’t worry if you can’t follow at first, it happened to all of us. You’ll soon pick it up and Mademoiselle will organise extra coaching for you if you need it.” Joyce followed up this explanation with a quiet word with Miss Stewart, who was sitting at the end of their table. Miss Stewart listened to what Joyce had to say and then nodded. Joyce returned to her place and announced “you others, we’re to speak English for the rest of the meal, so that Susan can follow what’s happening. Tomorrow though,” this to Susan “you’ll have to try and follow the language for the day. Miss Stewart is jolly decent though.” Susan thought so too and gratefully joined in the conversation that now continued around her. (Note, Miss Stewart’s indulgence was more for my benefit than for Susan’s. I’m too tired to try and put some french sentences together.) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 21st, 2003, 6:41am How very kind of her! *suggests Cathy try using Babel Fish (http://world.altavista.com/)* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 21st, 2003, 6:57am Lucy’s experience over at the main house was somewhat different. Nervous about fitting in with a group of girls so much older than herself, she was surprised to find that the Seniors accepted her without question as a contemporary and made her feel very welcome. Lucy felt herself drawn most particularly to Anne and to Gillian, both of whom went out of their way to make the new girl feel at home. Both, without understanding why, sensed Lucy’s nervousness and tried to help her settle in and feel comfortable. Lucy was grateful for this, and when it came time to go and unpack her truck, after Abendessen, both Anne and Gillian offered to accompany her. Lucy accepted the offers thankfully, as she was more than a little nervous of Matey. She had yet to discover that Matey’s bark was worse than her bite and that her rather stern exterior hid a truly compassionate person. The three girls entered Matey’s room, to discover that the trunk was already unlocked and the lid thrown open ready for unpacking. “Come along girls,” said Matey briskly. “Your trunk seems to have been packed sensibly and I’m pleased to see that all the items have been labelled correctly Lucy. Just make sure that you take everything out neatly and use the baskets. Hurry up girls, Gaudenz is waiting to take the trunks up to the attic.” Obediently, the girls knelt down by the trunk to begin the task of unpacking. Curiously, Lucy began to remove garments from inside and handed them to Gillian to place on the first tray. Everything had been neatly labelled with her name and everything seemed to be the correct size for her new age. Nothing was missing, even the Chalet School uniform had been packed. Lucy continued to unpack and discovered some of her personal items at the bottom of the trunk. Photographs of her parents and some personal trinkets from her bedroom had been included. Lucy choked back the tears and laid them in the last basket, on top of the rest of her clothing. Matey checked the trunk to see that nothing had been left out and nodded. “Well done girls. You can go now and take the baskets with you. Anne, see that you show her the correct way to put those things in her drawers please.” Anne nodded and the girls left the room and headed for the dormitory to put the things away. They were silent as they walked. Lucy was overcome with emotion at seeing her things from home and Gillian and Anne, sensing her feelings, were tactfully silent. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 21st, 2003, 7:08am Oh, hooray for Aslan! I wonder if Susan has the same situation.... | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 21st, 2003, 7:22am Thanks KB for reminding me about babelfish. I may make use of that later ... -- When all three had returned to the Senior common room, Lucy was jolted out of her reverie by Gillian’s cry of “Jo!”. Lucy saw that Jo Bettany, was standing in a group of others in the middle of the room. “Me,” said Jo laconically. “We’ve come over for a prefects’ meeting and I thought I’d come in and bring you all up to date on the latest. Gillian, I’ve a parcel for you from my sister and she says you and Joyce are to come up and stay next weekend. Gillian exclaimed in delight. Jo had just been up the Sonnalpe to visit her family, but Joyce and Gillian had not accompanied her, as their mother had not been well enough for a visit. Lucy, knowing nothing of this, looked curiously at Gillian, but just then Anne broke in the conversation. “We’ve got a new girl for our form this term Jo. This is Lucy Pevensie. Lucy, this is our head girl, Jo Bettany.” There was a slight pause, then Jo (remembering her recent encounter with Matron Besley) stuck out her hand coldly. “Nice to meet you Lucy. I hope you’ll like it here.” The other Seniors glanced at one another, unable to understand Jo’s attitude. They all thought the new Senior very nice and felt sorry for Lucy’s embarassment in the face of Jo’s obvious dislike. Another girl, pretty and fair-haired stepped forward, as the silence threatened to become awkward. “It is nice to meet you Lucy,” she said in prettily accented french, which Lucy found to her surprise she had no trouble following. “I am Frieda Mensch, the Second Prefect and these are Marie Von Eschenau, Games Captain and Simone Lecoutier, one of the other prefects. We take our meals and sleep over at St Clares, which is the Middle House of the Chalet School. We are only over here for lessons. That is why Gillian was surprised to see us.” Lucy smiled at Frieda and replied (in fluent french, much to her own surprise) “thank you Frieda, I like it here very much.” “Come on Frieda,” broke in Jo, rather abruptly. “It’s time for our meeting. See you later, you others,” and she turned away from the group and left the room, followed by Simone and Marie. Frieda smiled apologetically at Lucy and left to follow, along with some of the other prefects. Anne and Gillian raised their eyebrows at eachother, but made no comment. Anne had experienced Jo’s outbursts before and Gillian, while surprised at the Head Girl’s attitude, was a little too much in awe of her to criticise her behaviour to another girl, especially a new one. Lucy was hurt. Why did Jo dislike her so much? Edited to add: that's it for today, we're all off to church carols service and have to go and referee the fight that has just broken out among all the kids. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 21st, 2003, 7:24am on 12/21/03 at 07:08:31, KB wrote:
Yes she does, but I'm not going to write about it. It will just be assumed that she unpacks a trunk that has magically appeared for her as well ... | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 21st, 2003, 7:30am Well, it might have been mildly amusing if she had been missing mildly vital pieces and Matron Besley had had a go at her... And I love the way you're drawing Jo in this! It's interesting to see her disliking someone! I suppose she resents the Pevensies for the ticking off she received. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 21st, 2003, 11:23am *does funny little happy-skipping thing* Thank you Cathy ;D | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Chloe on Dec 21st, 2003, 1:00pm Thank you Cathy :) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 21st, 2003, 8:02pm Thank you Cathy!! :-* *beams happily!* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Rachael on Dec 21st, 2003, 10:01pm Wey hey! Loads more of this and completely gripping! Looking forward to more and chuckling at the prospect of babelfish *thinking Love Actually ..... just seen it tonight (and gone all mushy and Christmassy* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Abi on Dec 21st, 2003, 11:28pm Yay! More of this! Does the fact that Lucy can speak French and Susan can't mean they have exchanged academic ability/knowledge too? *chants* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 22nd, 2003, 3:21am *joins in chant, rather disappointed there wasn't more* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 22nd, 2003, 8:30am on 12/21/03 at 23:28:22, Abi wrote:
Yes they have, well spotted. Another small bit. I'm stuck for the moment, so this is all I've got for now. -- Anne, seeing her discomfort, was quick to begin a discussion on some of the district’s landmarks, and in asking questions of Anne and Gillian about the unfamiliar place names, Lucy was soon laughing and chattering with the rest. The conversation was soon running along more general lines and the other girls discovered that Lucy was good company, with a quick mind and an emormous stock of witty repartee. When they finally scattered to their respective dormitories that night, Lucy felt relieved that she seemed to be fitting in all right with the other girls. She still didn’t understand why Jo had taken a disliking to her, but sensibly decided not to let it worry her too much. Perhaps she would not have too much to do with Jo aside from lessons. After all, everything else seemed to be relatively normal; she had everything she needed for school and no-one knew of her rather irregular arrival. Lucy snuggled down under her fluffy plumeau and fell asleep, tired out by the day’s adventures, only to dream vaguely of the lovely trees of Narnia, the talking Beasts who had befriended them in their early days there, and of Aslan, the great lion. In her dream, Aslan was calling her by name. Lucy began to run towards him, just as she had that glad morning when she and Susan realised that he was not dead. She awoke with a start to find a hand shaking her shoulder and stared up at a rather exasperated Anne. “Goodness, you were sleeping like the dead. Get up sleepyhead, I’ve been calling you for ages. You’re second bath, after me, so get yourself ready, so you can fly when I come out. See to her Gill, won’t you?” and she was gone, flying from the room towards the bathrooms. Lucy stared after her in bewilderment, but she was not left long to ponder what Anne had meant, as Gillian now entered Lucy’s cubicle kindly, but briskly. She wasted no time on words, as she hustled Lucy out of bed, stripped back the covers, humped up the mattress and flung the cubicle curtains up over the railings. She then bundled up Lucy’s bath things, thrusting the hairbrush into her hand and propelled her towards the correct bathroom, just as Anne came hurtling out of it, twisting up her brown locks as she went. “Cold water, or lukewarm,” gasped Anne as she passed Lucy (whose head was spinning with the speed of it all) “and for goodness sake, don’t be more than three minutes, for Gill is after you.” She flashed Lucy a matey grin as she sped back towards the dormitory and Lucy found herself in the bathroom. Without stopping to ponder Lucy flung off her things and plunged into the icy mountain water (Anne had kindly left the tap running for her), with a muffled “ow”. However, she had heard both Peter and Edmund on the subject of “blighters who funked their cold plunge in the morning,” so she washed herself speedily, dried herself and flung her things on again. She was as quick as she could be, but Gillian was already banging on the door. With a quick “sorry,” Lucy fled back to the dormitory, with all her bath things flung around her neck, willy nilly. Anne was waiting for her, dressed and ready, and she helped Lucy to finish donning her new uniform and fasten the flame-coloured tie neatly. Lucy grabbed her brush and tore through her curls, while Anne looked around the cubicle to ensure that all was tidy. “Matron is so strict about it,” she explained. All was well, and Anne, Lucy and Gillian (who had returned and dressed by this time) left the dormitory for downstairs. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 22nd, 2003, 9:53am Thank you Cathy ;D *feeling slightly breathless at the thought of having to move that quickly of a morning* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 22nd, 2003, 11:20am Oooh! Thank you Cathy! *also feels breathless at thought of getting up so quickly!* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Chloe on Dec 22nd, 2003, 1:03pm Thanks Cathy *knows she couldn't get up that quickly every morning* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by NickiL on Dec 22nd, 2003, 4:04pm Thank you Cathy! Love the way Lucy and Susan seem to have swapped round. Whoever said they were grateful to the TEM... well so am I! 'Cos after 3 weeks away I was expecting never to catch up, but here are all the drabbles nicely reposted for me!! ;D *knows that not only could she not get up that fast, but also she could never have a cold bath!* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Jennie on Dec 22nd, 2003, 4:37pm I was away for the TEM too, so I'm glad to be able to catch up on this. I'd forgotten just how good it is, sorry, Catherine. Please may we have lots more? I've just had the awful thought that the TEM might be my cat who seems to have a voracious appetite at the moment, always pestering for food. Silly of me really, but it's so hard to get to the keyboard whan it has a cat lying on it. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 22nd, 2003, 5:01pm *giggles at the image of Jennie trying to type around her moggy!* 8oo | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 22nd, 2003, 9:44pm Unfortunately, Susan had not fared quite so well that morning. She had slept soundly and was awoken by Cornelia’s none too gentle hand shaking her shoulder. “Susan, stehen auf! Sie sind erstes Bad heute morgen. Beeilen Sie sich oben oder alle wir sind spät!” [With much thanks to KB and babelfish.] “Whaaat,” gasped Susan in bewilderment. “What are you talking about?” “Sprechen Sie auf Deutsch bitte,” ordered Cornelia, who was taking her sheepdog duties very seriously. “Es ist der Tag für sprechenden Deutschen.” “I don’t understand,” said Susan blankly. “Are you speaking German at me?” To herself, she thought “why can’t I understand what she’s saying. I was quite good at German at my last school.” “You should say ‘Ich verstehe nicht’: that means ‘I don’t understand’,” said Cornelia sternly. The other girls in the dormitory began to giggle. It was funny to hear the harum scarum Corney being so strict with anyone. Cornelia repeated her earlier statements in English, as Susan obviously still didn’t understand. “Susan, get up. You’re first bather this morning and if you don’t hurry up we’ll all be late.” Susan remained where she was, staring owlishly at Cornelia. She was not good at waking up in the mornings. Cornelia flung back the covers and tipped Susan unceremoniously onto the floor. “Owww!” yelled Susan. The floor was hard and very cold. “Come on,” cried Cornelia, now becoming quite annoyed. “Look, here are your things, come now. You’re holding everyone up!” She bustled Susan out of the room before her, Susan still not quite awake and wondering where they were going. They stopped at a row of three doors a little way down the corridor. Cornelia opened the door of the first one and pushed Susan inside. “There you are. You can have the water cold or just with the chill off. Don’t be more than three minutes and for goodness sake, make sure you clean up after yourself or Matron will have things to say to you. Hurry!” as Susan just stood there stubbornly. “Don’t you know how much time you are wasting?” She did not wait for Susan’s reply, but turned and fled back to the dormitory, to scurry through her tasks and get ready for her own bath. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 22nd, 2003, 10:01pm Susan began to slowly take off her things, preparatory for climbing into the bath. She did not take kindly to the idea of a cold plunge and decided to run a warm bath for herself. It took some time to get the water to the temperature she preferred and she relaxed into it, oblivious to the banging that was now coming from the outside of the door. Reluctantly, she climbed out, toweled herself off and got dressed, ignoring the tide of water that she had slopped all over the floor from overfilling the bath. She opened the door and was almost bowled over by a furious Evadne, who was bristling with rage on the other side of it. “Nicht hörten Sie mich, auf der Tür zu schlagen? Sie sind im Badezimmer für 10 Minuten gewesen! Lassen Sie mich innen, für Gütegrund!" Susan didn’t understand what Evadne had said, but she got the gist of it and scurried back to her dormitory. She was so fast, she missed Evadne’s shriek as she slipped over in the water Susan had left all over the floor. Evadne was furious. Just wait until she got back to the dormitory. She would let the new girl know what she thought of her selfish behaviour. But there was no time to waste on that now. Evadne flew through her own bath and grumbling under her breath swiftly used towels to clean up Susan’s mess. She was only halfway through when Joyce arrived for her bath, having waited impatiently for her turn. She snapped at Evadne for her tardiness, who snapped back with a will. Joyce stomped inside the bathroom and slammed the door. Evadne made her way back to the dormitory, every curl on her head bristling with rage. She entered the dormitory and made straight for Susan, who was sitting on her bed, dreamily brushing her hair and thinking back to the happy times in Narnia, where she had been (in her mind) the most beautiful queen Narnia had ever seen. Evadne grabbed the brush and threw it to the other side of the room. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 22nd, 2003, 10:22pm “Sie Idiot! Sie halten mich, zu warten, daß 10 Minuten für das Badezimmer und dann Sie bilden, das sehr große Verwirrung ganz über dem Fußboden. Unser vollständiger Schlafsaal wird spät sein jetzt und es ist Ihre ganze Störung!” Susan just sat there and gaped at Evadne. She did not understand a word she was saying. This enraged Evadne even more and she poured out a torrent of angry German, while the rest of the dormitory stood and stared. Cornelia, who had returned from her own bath, took a hand, forgetting to speak in German, in her surprise. “I say Evadne, there’ll be a fearful row if you keep on like that. Stop yelling at Susan, we’ve lost heaps of time already.” “Well, whose fault is that?” yelled Evadne, who had completely lost her head by this time and who was also speaking in English. “She languishes in the bathroom for 10 minutes and leaves the most awful mess in there for me to clean up. Then she comes back here and sits on her bed brushing her hair while the rest of us are trying to get ready.” Susan was also in a rage by this time. How dared Evadne speak about her like that? She jumped to her feet and was just about to do some yelling of her own, when the door opened again, and there stood the Head Girl, regarding them all sternly. “Was ist die Bedeutung von diesem? Vor Sie Kinder sollten bereiten mindestens 10 Minuten gewesen sein. Seien Sie schnell und beenden Sie und gehen Sie dann unten zum speisenden Raum. Sie können alles Nehmen eine Auftrag Markierung für Sein spät und Evadne und Cornelia, eine andere Auftrag Markierung zu nehmen für das Sprechen auf englisch.” In stony silence, the girls did as they were told. Cornelia came swiftly to Susan’s cubicle and stripped back the bedclothes, humping the mattress correctly and flinging the curtains over the railing. She spoke not a word to Susan, not even looking at her as she did this. Susan stood by uncomfortably, fidgeting with her tie. When every girl was ready, Jo marshalled them into a line and marched them down to breakfast. Susan found herself ignored by the others. Evadne and Cornelia were too angry to speak, and the whole dormitory was annoyed with her for getting them into trouble. Breakfast was not a happy affair. Word had spread of the row in the dormitory and Susan found herself the target of much whispering and pointing. After the meal, Jo led them off to the spasheries and supervised while they washed their hands and faces. The Middles simmered with rage. This had never been done before and they correctly surmised that it was because of the morning’s events. Many black looks were cast at Susan. When all were clean and tidy, Jo marched them over to the Chalet to begin the morning’s lessons. Susan cheered up a little. At least now things should improve. She would show them all, when she shone at lessons. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 22nd, 2003, 10:49pm Oh dear! Not a good beginning for Susan!! :-/ | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Abi on Dec 22nd, 2003, 11:52pm Hmm, not too good for Susan! (like her I didn't understand the German but got the gist ;D ). *chants melodically* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Esmeralda on Dec 23rd, 2003, 12:02am Like Abi, I didn't understand a word of the German, but can get the idea from the rest of the story. *Thinks the only way it would be possible to bath, dry and clear up the mess in three minutes would be to omit the bath. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 23rd, 2003, 12:14am *agrees with Esmeralda!!* (Although, I think they dressed in their cubies, not the bathroom!) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 23rd, 2003, 4:12am I kind of left where they dressed ambiguous. In true EBD style I'm also inconsistent. Talk about being true to the books!!! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 23rd, 2003, 4:57am That's one of the joys of writing it! It's a perfect excuse! And that was an excellent two parts, Cathy! I'm really loving this (even more so, as I understood the German). For those who had problems with the language, open Babel Fish, copy the German in and translate it. It will be a little weird, but you'll be able to get the gist. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 23rd, 2003, 5:01am on 12/23/03 at 04:57:04, KB wrote:
Especially since the German came courtesy of Babelfish. It's been a while since I did German and French!!! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 23rd, 2003, 5:02am But it was great to have it in the story, as it had a very authentic feel! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 23rd, 2003, 5:10am 'nother small bit. Still trying to get Susan into lessons, but I keep getting interrupted. -- Alas for Susan, the day was going to get a lot worse before it got better. To begin with, Jo had woken up with a raging toothache. Rather than go to Matron and get something for the pain, she chose to say nothing, having an unreasonable fear of the dentist. On the way over to the main house, Susan tripped and fell against Jo, sending them both crashing to the ground. The offending tooth throbbed and Jo felt worse than ever. She turned on Susan furiously. “Warum Sie nicht aufpassen können, wo Sie gehen. Wirklich sind Sie Middles manchmal so childish!” The other Middles exchanged meaning glances. Clearly, Jo was on the warpath and they all watched their steps the rest of the way over to lessons. Susan was in a rage, for even though she had not understood the German, the meaning of Jo’s scornful tones had been plain enough. After the morning she had already had, this ticking-off from Jo was the last straw. She marched off to her first lesson ready to fight with a feather. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 23rd, 2003, 5:18am Ah, but that's the joy of writing! The character take over! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Kathy_S on Dec 23rd, 2003, 5:21am Feeling very sorry for Susan :'( ... but too amused to bring back the picket signs. (Yet.) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 23rd, 2003, 5:39am Mademoiselle had decided to place Susan in the same form as Joyce and her contemporaries. Clearly the girl was young for her age in many ways (Mademoiselle had not forgotten the scene in her study) and would be unlikely to be able to cope with work from a higher form. This being the case, Susan discovered that her first lesson was to be mathematics. Susan smiled to herself rather smugly, remembering the words of praise she had received from her teachers last term in this subject. She expected she would have no trouble at all. Unfortunately, Susan had not understood that the lessons were always conducted in the language of the day. When Miss Nalder swept in and greeted the class in German, Susan felt her heart sink. Following some words of instruction from the mistress, the rest of the class got out their books and began to turn to the page she had instructed. Susan was not sure what to do. She whispered to Stacie “what did she say: I can’t understand German.” Stacie, feeling sorry for the new girl, opened her lips to answer, but Miss Nalder was already moving towards them. “Susan, sprechen bitte auf Deutsch. Wenn Sie eine Frage haben, bitte fragen Sie mich. Sie sollten nicht während der Lektion sprechen.” Stacie spoke up. “Fräulein Nalder, Susan spricht nicht irgendwie deutsch. Sie bat mich, zu erklären, was Sie gesagt hatten.” Miss Nalder nodded and then spoke to Susan. “Susan, I instructed you to open your book at page 234. Please do this now and then we may begin our lesson.” She repeated this in German and encouraged Susan to repeat the German after her. Susan did so reluctantly, but Miss Nalder was not happy with her pronunciation. She had to say the phrase through four times before Miss Nalder was happy with it and then the lesson commenced. Susan was raging at being treated like an ignorant child. She gazed down at the page in front of her and was dismayed to see that the mathematics problems there were very difficult. She felt that she should have been able to understand them, but somehow, she could not quite grasp the mathematics behind them. She chanced a quick look around the room and saw that all her classmates were working quietly at the problems. She wondered if she should ask Miss Nalder for help, but that would probably mean more tedious repetition of the correct German for “I don’t understand,” or the like. Susan set her lips in a stubborn line and set to work to try and make something of the problems before her. As she had no idea what she was doing, the end result would make Miss Nalder tear her hair out in frustration when it came time to mark the work. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 23rd, 2003, 6:29am *giggle* As I never much liked Susan's attitude, I'm quite glad to see her treated like this. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Carolyn P on Dec 23rd, 2003, 9:32am Enjoying this immensly. Love the change around between Lucy and Susan. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by NickiL on Dec 23rd, 2003, 10:08am Oh, I love this one! It's so good! And funny! ;D *starts the chant quietly* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 23rd, 2003, 11:01am Thank you Cathy ;D *feeling a little sorry for Susan* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Chloe on Dec 23rd, 2003, 12:43pm Thank you Cathy! :) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 23rd, 2003, 8:26pm Another little bit following. This will probably be the last until after Christmas. Today is Christmas Eve morning and we have people coming over tonight so I have to buckle down and get the house tidy. I wish I had the faithful Anna to help me. All I have are three children who mess it up even more!!! -- Just as Susan came to the end of the last problem the bell rang and the girls put their things away as little Mademoiselle Lachenais entered the room. Susan eyed her doubtfully. She had had trouble with her French the day before, would today be any better? She was left in no doubt as Mademoiselle began to address the girls in French and the lesson commenced. Once again, Susan sat there dumbly, unable to understand a word of what was being said and too proud to admit it. Mademoiselle addressed her directly. “Susan ma petite, pourquoi ne prenez-vous pas en bas du dictat comme les autres filles ? Faites-vous pour ne pas comprendre ce que je dis?” Susan went bright red as all the other girls turned to stare at her. Kind-hearted Stacie, remembering her early days at the school, swiftly translated Mademoiselle’s words for Susan, under her breath. Susan went even redder and addressed Mademoiselle in English. “I don’t understand what anyone is saying today. I don’t know any french or german either!” By this time, Susan was very upset. She felt like an idiot in front of the rest of the Middles, and the bad start to the day hadn’t helped either. So although she didn’t mean to be rude, her tone sounded extremely insolent to Mademoiselle. Mademoiselle set her lips in a thin line and addressed Susan again, this time in English. “I am afraid at this school you are expected to learn both french and german. Now I will repeat my instructions from the beginning of the lesson and you will repeat them after me.” She rattled off the french sentences, explaining their meaning, and bade Susan repeat them. The over-excited girl tried, but could not follow the french. Five times did Mademoiselle repeat the phrases and five times Susan attempted to copy her and failed. In fact, each time it was worse, as Susan became more and more upset. Finally, Mademoiselle Lachenais decided Susan was deliberately defying her and flew into a thorough rage. “You are a rude, disobedient little girl. Go from the room at once and stand in the corridor for the rest of the lesson. You will have to catch up the work during your free time this afternoon. You will borrow Stacie’s book and copy the work and learn it. Go!,” as Susan tried to protest. Susan burst into tears and ran from the room, slamming the door behind her. The rest of the class sat aghast, no-one daring to say a word. Never had they seen jolly little Mademoiselle in such a temper. All of them felt sorry for Susan, unlike Mademoiselle, they had seen that she had been struggling with the french. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 23rd, 2003, 8:48pm Oh, poor Susan... Thank you Cathy, this is brilliant, I'm really enjoying it... *hopes the tidying isn't too arduous* "My second favourite household chore is ironing, my first being hitting my head on the top bunk-bed until I faint." (Erma Bombeck) ;) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 23rd, 2003, 9:05pm Goodness! I never imagined Mlle de Lachenais had a temper either!! :o | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 23rd, 2003, 9:21pm on 12/23/03 at 21:05:19, KB wrote:
Yes, it's a little known fact. I have an authentic copy of all EBD's letters to the milkman, and in them she divulged this secret, amongst others ... | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 23rd, 2003, 9:24pm *thinks Cathy should post some of these letters for us all to enjoy* ;) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 23rd, 2003, 9:25pm *agrees wholeheartedly and waits eagerly* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Rachael on Dec 23rd, 2003, 10:59pm Wow! This drabble is steaming along at some pace - had to catch up on loads! It's great, Cathy - very clever swapping of Lucy and Susan whilst they retain their characteristics and an interesting angle on the CS because of it .... I wonder what's in store next? | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Rosalie on Dec 24th, 2003, 12:35am Poor Susan! I thought the idea was people were nice to new girls?! Or did that bit come later in the series and in Tyrol they just left the poor sods to their own devices and shouted at them lots? Personally, I'm suprised more didn't shout back at the mistresses who insisted on speaking French/German when it was blatently obvious that none of it made any sense! Go Susan! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:15am on 12/23/03 at 21:25:24, KB wrote:
Well you never know ... | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:17am Oh no! I've just realised that Miss Nalder taught gymnastics. I think it was Miss Leslie who would have been maths when Jo was Head Girl. Does anyone remember? | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Esmeralda on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:21am That seems to ring a bell, but the book is upstairs, and so is my husband, sleeping, so I don't want to disturb him - he's got to go and get my pressie tomorrow! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:22am You're right. Miss Leslie taught Maths. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:35am on 12/24/03 at 01:22:00, KB wrote:
Hmmmmm, will have to do some fancy footwork to get myself out of this one. -- The lesson continued, but no-one enjoyed it much. Mademoiselle snapped at all of them and when Joyce accidentally dropped her pencil case on the floor, scattering the pencils in every direction, Mademoiselle read her such a lecture that even Miss Wilson had never bettered. Joyce flushed red with anger, but knew better than to answer back. Some of the others flashed sympathetic glances at her and everyone was relieved when the bell went for morning break. “Phew,” said Joyce, when Mademoiselle had departed for the staffroom. “What an awful lesson. And does anyone know why Miss Nalder was taking maths this morning? Is Miss Leslie sick?” “Bilious attack,” said Stacie laconically. “She came into San yesterday when Matey was seeing to me. She must still be sick.” -- Hopefully that gets me out of trouble. Of course, no-one was aware that Miss Nalder also majored in maths at Oxford. Another of the facts that I got from EBD's letters to the milkman ;) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Kathy_S on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:37am Excellent save! Perfectly reasonable explanation. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:40am on 12/24/03 at 00:35:00, Rosalie wrote:
They generally are of course, but Susan's being a right little pain in the you-know-what and so they're running out of patience with her. (Actually I'm surprised Cornelia and Evadne haven't let fly with some of their beautiful americanisms.) Plus she made them all late this morning and Jo ticked them off and called them children. They didn't like that and it was Susan's fault so they're angry with her. Quote:
So am I. I think I would have found it intensely frustrating. I remember being taught French that way at university. I was sitting there in my French tutorial in first year and the tutor, whom I loathed with all my being asked me to tell the class what I was thinking about. I replied in French that it was no-one's business but my own. She poured out a torrent of angry French that none of us understood, which was probably just as well. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Esmeralda on Dec 24th, 2003, 1:41am Very neat! Perfectly feasible. ;D | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 24th, 2003, 5:15am Wonderful Cathy!! Can't help feeling sorry for Susan though!! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 24th, 2003, 8:41am on 12/24/03 at 01:35:24, Cathy wrote:
*becoming very eager to see these letters* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Rachael on Dec 24th, 2003, 9:50am Yes, indeed - there's clearly a wealth of information in them that I fee should be shared with all the CBBers, Cathy ;D | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 24th, 2003, 10:02am *does hope Cathy takes the (very broad) hint* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Chloe on Dec 24th, 2003, 10:46am Aww poor Susan i don't understand french however much people may try! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by NickiL on Dec 24th, 2003, 11:25am I do so like this story! And I'm even feeling a bit (but just a bit) sorry for Susan now!! And a very good save with Miss Nalder there too Cathy! More as soon as you possibly can please. ;D *hoping to see some of the milkman letters soon too....* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 24th, 2003, 5:40pm *Waits eagerly for the 'Letters to the milkman'!!* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 24th, 2003, 8:24pm on 12/24/03 at 17:40:44, Vikki wrote:
Me and my big mouth. Maybe after Christmas. And I take this moment to wish everyone Merry Christmas, since for we Aussies the big day is already here. The kids woke us up at a quarter to five. There are cds playing from three separate locations and excited children running around high on chocolate (because they stuffed their faces at 5am on the stuff in the stockings). | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 24th, 2003, 8:31pm *huggles Cathy and sends her calming vibes* happy Christmas :-* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Dec 24th, 2003, 8:41pm Merry Christmas to all the Aussies and New Zealanders, and anyone else who is already on Christmas Day!! :-* :-* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 24th, 2003, 9:12pm *thanks Vikki* And Cathy, you have no one to blame but yourself. ;) | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Susan on Dec 28th, 2003, 3:51pm Have just caught up with this it's really good. It's so long since I read the Narnia books but am enjoying it all the same. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Dec 28th, 2003, 10:59pm Here is the next bit, it's only a little bit though. We actually went to see the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe yesterday. It's a production that has been touring Australia and has the animals, including Aslan as puppets. It was absolutely fabulous. Amanda Muggleton, who played the White Witch, absolutely captured her voice as I've always imagined it, and Lucy was perfect too, as was Edmund. Isn't it nice when someone brings one of your favourite books to life and they do it the way you imagined it? Someone once lent me a BBC video of LWW and it was awful. Lucy had buck teeth and mousy coloured hair and a cardigan that didn't fit properly. I couldn't watch the whole video and handed it back with polite thanks. Anyway, onto the next bit ... -- Stacie thought back over the scene. She remembered her own frustrations when she first came to the Chalet School. She had believed herself to be superior to the other girls, academically, and it had been a great source of frustration when the mistresses had not seemed to share her belief. Now, because of her accident a few terms ago and the resulting weakness in her back, even though she had now been able to return to school, she had been moved down a form, so that she should not strain herself. Stacie sometimes still felt frustrated, although she knew that she largely only had herself to blame. She knew that she was way ahead of all the other girls in her form. She wondered if perhaps she should offer to help the new girl out with her german and french. Stacie had gotten this far in her thinking, when Joyce grabbed her by the arm. “Hi Stacie, we need to go to Kaffee und Kuchen, or Mademoiselle will really begin to say things. Come on!” They all filed out of the room, many of them casting sympathetic glances at Susan, who was standing against the wall, sniffing. Her eyes were red, although she was no longer crying. Stacie went up to her. “Come on old thing,” she said in forbidden english. “Come and have Kaffee und Kuchen with us. You’ll feel better.” Susan looked up at the friendly tones to meet Stacie’s eyes. She was heartily ashamed of her behaviour that morning, having had ample time to think about it as she stood outside the classroom. She allowed Stacie to lead her along to Kaffee und Kuchen, where a large mug of creamy coffee and a bread twist, soon restored her. She sat quietly in a chair, sipping her coffee and listening to the chatter of the others. Now that she had calmed down she felt so tired and actually would have asked nothing better than to go back to bed. She had rather a headache from all the crying. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Dec 28th, 2003, 11:03pm Good for Stacie! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Abi on Dec 28th, 2003, 11:05pm Oh thank you Cathy, I'd been hoping there would be more of this. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Dec 28th, 2003, 11:51pm Yay yay yay thank you Cathy ;D | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Today at 12:21am Thank you Cathy! *Chants for more!!* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Today at 12:22am *joins in chant* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Carolyn P on Today at 12:25am *joins in chanting, slightly off key, but with enthusiasm* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Today at 12:28am *glad to see Carolyn's enthusiasm* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Today at 4:16am Stacie was watching Susan. She seemed to have dark shadows under her eyes and was rather pale. “Rather like I look when I have a headache,” thought Stacie. She leaned forward and in a low tone asked “have you got a headache Susan?” Susan looked up at Stacie’s concerned face and nodded wordlessly. “Come on,” said Stacie kindly, “I’ll take you to Matey and she’ll look after you.” With a quick word to Carla, the prefect on duty, Stacie led Susan out of the room and upstairs to Matey’s domain where that lady, eyeing Susan sharply, soon had her bundled on a sofa with a light rug thrown over her. She bent over Susan and handed her a glass of warm milk. “Here child,” she said gently. “Drink this and then you go to sleep for a while.” The tired child obediently drank the milk and lay down again. She closed her eyes and was soon asleep, thanks to the draught that Matey had slipped into the milk. After a quick word to Matey, assuring her that she was feeling fine, Stacie left to join her companions. Lucy had also had a rather bewildering morning. She followed Anne and Gillian into the Sixth’s formroom, dreading the beginning of lessons. She had not yet been to school, only having done lessons at home, under a governess. She had not learned any languages at all as yet and supposed that she would just have to ask for a lot of help as she went along. She had been able to follow the morning’s conversations all right; she supposed that her fellow students had been making it easy for her by speaking slowly. Lucy kept close to Gillian and Anne and was relieved to be assigned a desk in between the two of them. She looked up as Jo, Frieda, Marie and Simone entered the room. These last three smiled at her, but Jo looked away. Lucy noticed that Jo was very pale and holding herself stiffly, as though in pain. Lucy noticed that she was holding her hand to her cheek. “Toothache,” thought Lucy sympathetically. “I know what that feels like.” | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by KB on Today at 4:32am *sigh* I love it when the author is on my side of the world. Another excellent part, Cathy. I'm glad Lucy can be forgiving, and it will be interesting to see how she goes in class. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Today at 4:36am Just then Miss Stewart entered the room and all the girls rose politely, Lucy following their lead. The lesson began, Miss Stewart directing the girls to open their textbooks. Lucy had already been supplied with all she needed in the way of books and she quite happily did as she was told. Miss Stewart began to talk to them and Lucy listened attentively and began to take notes, having observed Gillian and Anne doing this. About halfway through the lesson she suddenly realised that Miss Stewart was addressing them in german and she was taking her history notes in what she could only assume was german! She stopped writing and shook her head in astonishment. What in the world was going on? How could she possibly understand german, let alone be writing in it? “This must be Aslan’s doing,” thought Lucy. “But why?” She realised that Miss Stewart had stopped addressing the class and was glaring at her. “Lucy,” she said sharply. “Gibt es interessanteres etwas Sie möchte mit uns teilen?” Lucy blushed dark red and hastened to apologise for her inattention. “Ich entschuldige mich, Fräulein Stewart. Ich beachte den Rest der Lektion.” Miss Stewart relented at the new girl’s obvious embarassment and continued with the lesson. Lucy kept her eyes fixed on Miss Stewart and struggled to keep her mind on history for the rest of the lesson. The last ten minutes of the lesson were given over to free discussion. Jo generally loved this part of history lessons. She was knowlegable about history, having read extensively and enjoyed the opportunity to argue with her fellow students about various events in history. Miss Stewart generally encouraged these discussions, believing that it helped the girls to reason from cause to effect. Today Jo remained silent. Her tooth was throbbing and she knew that it would end in a vist to Her Von Francius. Her dislike of Lucy had not subsided and she was furious when the new girl joined in the discussion with vim, showing herself to be just as knowlegable as Jo herself. Lucy herself was surprised at how much she was enjoying the lesson. She had always liked history, but Miss Stewart had opened her eyes to a new side of history and the free discussion was helping her to look around all sides of an issue. She was disappointed when the bell rang, signalling the end of the lesson. Miss Stewart gathered up her things and departed, after giving out the homework to be prepared for the next lesson. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Today at 4:58am Gillian nudged Lucy. “angegangen,” she said. “Jetzt haben wir das Singen, mit Plato.” Lucy stared at her. Who in the world was Plato? However she followed the rest of the Sixth out of their formroom and along to a music room, where a most peculiar looking gentleman was awaiting them. He had wild brown hair and a velvet topcoat. “Good morning young maidens,” he addressed them courteously. “This morning we shall learn a new song.” Some of the girls giggled at his greeting, although by now they were all used to Mr Denny’s ways. Anne nudged Lucy and hissed “that’s Mr Denny, he takes us for singing.” Lucy nodded and turned her attention to Mr Denny. His gentle courteous ways reminded her of dear Mr Tumnus, from the Narnian days. Lucy was overcome by a sudden wave of homesickness. She could almost hear the wind in the trees, see the sun glinting over the sea surrounding Cair Paravel and see the faces of her dear Narnian friends. How she missed them all. “Wachen Sie Träumer auf,” whispered Gillian and Lucy became aware that the rest of the class were staring at her. However, Mr Denny had not noticed. He was now handing around a sheaf of paper, music for the new song. Lucy took hers when her turn came and gazed eagerly at the new song. Both she and Susan had learned music at home and had been considered quite good at playing the piano and singing. Mr Denny went to the piano and played the song through. It was an english folk song, reminding Lucy of the songs of the Dryads. The girls sang the song through together, but all of them stumbled over a troublesome phrase in the music. Mr Denny took them through it patiently, but his patience deserted him as the class continued to stumble through the song, the girls getting more and more nervous as his calm began to desert him. Finally Mr Denny, his eyes sparking, bade each girl stand out in turn to sing the offending phrase though. Lucy waited for her turn, quaking. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Today at 5:24am The “first victim,” as Gillian whispered, was Simone. She had a pleasant voice and was a clever girl. She was one of the few who had not struggled over the phrase and she sang it through correctly, slightly appeasing Mr Denny. The next girl was Jo. Normally, singing lessons were a delight to her and Mr Denny. Her voice was being carefully trained and showed great promise. However, Jo’s tooth was now hurting her badly and she was still in a black mood. When she attempted to sing the phrase her tooth gave a nasty twinge. However, she said nothing, preferring to sing badly, rather than risk someone in authority discovering she had a toothache. She had to sing the phrase though six times before Mr Denny was satisfied. The rest of the class were grateful – most of them knew the phrase by the time Jo had finished. Jo returned to her seat, glowering, and it was Lucy’s turn. Mr Denny, thoroughly cross by now, crossed to the piano and instructed her to sing the entire song. The rest of the class gasped and then prepared to stare at the floor, to show their sympathy for Lucy. To their amazement and that of Mr Denny, she opened her mouth and sang the song through perfectly. Her voice was sweet and true. As Lucy sang she seemed to find herself back in Narnia. She remembered how the Dryads had stood beneath the castle windows on fine summer evenings and had sung such songs, many times. Lucy was singing, not to Mr Denny and the Sixth, but to the Dryads, and her voice showed such feeling that there was a kind of stunned silence after she had finished. Lucy took her seat uncertainly, wondering if she had sung badly. She jumped, as the entire class began to clap. Lucy flushed and smiled gratefully. Mr Denny addressed the class. “You see, young maidens, this is how I wish you to sing the song. Well done, Miss Pevensie. I see we shall have a new soloist in our Christmas play.” He beamed benignly at Lucy, who was now scarlet with embarassment. Jo huddled down in her seat, glowering. This new girl was starting to become a nusiance. First she arrived unannounced in Jo’s bedroom, together with her sister and brothers, causing Jo to get into a row with Matron. Then she showed her up in the history lesson and now she seemed to be a rival for the solos in the Christmas play, solos which had always been handed over to Jo. Jo was relieved when the bell rang and the Sixth streamed off to Kaffee und Kuchen. She sat apart with her four friends and sipped her coffee in silence. She shook her head when Frieda offered her a bread twist and spoke to none of them. The other three looked at eachother in silence, but knew better than to comment on her mood. Marie spoke up. “Das neue Mädchen hat eine schöne Stimme. Sie schien so traurig, als sie sang. Sie war, wie sie vorstellend sie war irgendwo sonst war.” Simone nodded. She had been struck by Lucy’s lovely voice, but she too had noticed the sadness in Lucy’s eyes when she had sung. She wondered what Lucy had been thinking of. “Well, I think she’s a rotten show-off,” grumbled Jo, not bothering to use the correct german. “Did you hear the way she went on in Miss Stewart’s lesson?” “Sie müssen auf Deutsch, Jo sprechen, sagten Frieda. Das Middles hört, daß Sie und Sie das Hauptmädchen sind.” “Oh raspberries to that!” retorted Jo rudely, and Nemesis overtook her in the form of Miss Wilson. “Sprachen Sie englisches Jo? Sie hatten besser zu gehen, Mademoiselle in ihrer Studie zu sehen. Das Hauptmädchen darf nicht die Richtlinien so schamlos brechen.” Jo rose from her chair to go to Mademoiselle’s study but Miss Wilson stopped her, noting her pallor and the dark shadows under her eyes. “Wait Jo,” she said quietly. “Perhaps you had better go to Matron first.” | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Today at 5:49am Jo departed for Matron’s domain silently, knowing that she could not avoid a visit to the dentist now. Most unjustly, she blamed Lucy for this, forgetting that Matey would probably have discovered her toothache by the end of the day in any case. Meanwhile at the other end of the room, Lucy was being congratulated on her performance in the singing lesson. “You’ll be Plato’s blue-eyed boy now, my child,” said Gillian, risking a remark in english, and getting away with it. “He was positively gaga over your singing this morning.” “Why do you call him Plato?” enquired Lucy. “Oh he always talks a lot about Plato and those chaps, so Jo thought of the name when he first came,” answered Margia succintly. She had been rather silent up until now, but Lucy had noticed her during the morning’s lessons. She had been absent the previous evening, having had a long music lesson, so Lucy had not met her before. She flashed a matey grin at Lucy and asked “do you play the piano as well Lucy? If so, maybe we can work up some duets some time.” “I do,” answered Lucy “and I would love to.” “Great,” began Margia, when Anne interrupted. “Girls, we’ve all been talking in english and the Middles are listening. We’d better switch over to german pretty sharply. Miss Wilson is looking this way too!” The others saw the sense of her words and they hurriedly began to make remarks to one another in german, as Miss Wilson approached. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Cathy on Today at 6:25am Lucy paid no attention to what the others were saying. She had just caught sight of Susan, sitting with a group of Middles in the middle of the room. She looked miserable. Her eyes were red, as though she had been crying and she was very pale. Lucy was about to go over to her and ask her if she was all right, when another Middle (Lucy remembered her from the previous day) led Susan from the room. Lucy rose to follow, but Gillian caught her arm. “Wohin gehen Sie,” she asked. “Uns werden nicht erlaubt, den Raum ohne Erlaubnis zu verlassen.” Lucy explained that she wanted to go and see if her sister was all right. Gillian thought a moment and then asked Miss Wilson for Lucy to go and look for Susan. Miss Wilson gave it and told Gillian to help Lucy find her. She was probably with Matron. Lucy and Gillian left the room together, bound for Matey’s room. They reached it, to find Susan being tucked up under a rug, her eyes already closing and Stacie just leaving the room. Stacie explained to Lucy about Susan’s headache. She did not reveal what else had gone on that morning, but Lucy had already guessed from Susan’s eyes that there had been storms of some kind. She was just going to ask what had happened when Jo arrived, in no sweet temper. She had been waylaid by Matron Besley, who had come over to the main house to bid Jo come and fix the mess in her drawers, Matron having gone through them that morning, even though the Head Girl was supposed to be exempt from such inspections. Jo finally arrived at Matey’s room and was none to pleased to find Lucy, Gillian and Stacie standing outside it. “What are you all doing here?” she asked. “Are you following me, or something?” Gilllian knitted her brows at Jo’s tone, but answered in german “wir waren gerecht, nach Susan, Lucy’s Schwester suchend. Stacie hatte sie der Matrone geholt. Wir sind im Begriff, zum Kaffee und Kuchen zurückzugehen.” “Well you’d better get off then,” replied the Head Girl abruptly. Stacie, Gillian and Lucy left at once and did not speak at all on the way back. Gillian was puzzled by Jo’s tone. Both Lucy and Stacie had been on the receiving end of Jo’s bad temper before. Stacie had learned the hard way that to take offence at Jo and lose one’s temper, could only lead to hardship. Lucy was not one to bear a grudge, but it really was starting to seem that the Head Girl was determined to be nasty to her. She decided that she would try and keep out of Jo’s way as much as possible. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Jennie on Today at 8:41am This is great, I'm really enjoying the sight of Jo being beaten at her lessons and her singing. It's good to see that she's not such a paragon of a Head girl after all. This X-over is terrific, Cathy, so I'm hoping for lots more very soon. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by xanthe on Today at 12:20pm Thank you Cathy, this is brilliant... *feeling a little sorry for Jo, I must admit* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by LulieCat on Today at 12:51pm Thank you for this Cathy, I'm really enjoying it. I feel sorry for Jo in that she is jealous, but seem to have missed out the reason for her jealousy. This makes me think she is merely behaving like a spoilt child! *wonders when Aslan will make an appearance* | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Sarah_G-G on Today at 2:13pm I've just caught up on this after a week away and it's really good. I'm so glad Lucy gets a chance to shine for once, although I am feeling quite sorry for Susan. She did behave badly for some of it but was she told what would happen in the morning the night before because it didn't seem to suggest so. I think if I was woken up and had instructions flung at me in a language I didn't understand I wouldn't make the best of starts either! | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Esmeralda on Today at 2:46pm Ooh, lots of story. Thanks Cathy, I'm enjoying this. I have to say that I like seeing this side of Jo for a change, I know she did have her moments in the books, but they were fairly few and far between. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Susan on Today at 2:52pm Love the wat you are developing this Cathy. It's lovely. | ||||
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Title: Re: Out of a wardrobe (Reposted) Post by Vikki on Today at 4:24pm This is great Cathy! I can't decide if I feel sorrier for Jo or for Susan, but I'm glad Lucy is getting on well! | ||||
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