Silverstone: Perfection is Not Enough

Chapter 5

"Year Eight?" Miss Knight's voice reaches my ears, and I turn to see her standing at the podium. "As you file out, please give your name to the people standing by the doors, and they'll give you your maps, forms and such. Please group together in forms once outside, and you'll be taken to your dorm building by your form tutors."

We all walk as fast as we can down the isle, and I stand in front of Bertie. As I reach the door, a tall man with brown hair raises his eyebrows at me. Oh yeah, name.

"Jessica Brooke."

He nods, and hands me a see-through plastic folder, with a popper and a label reading 'Jessica Brooke' on the front. I walk through, and pause outside to read the first sheet.

Name: Jessica Brooke

Year: Eight

Class: 81a

Form: Valegro

Dorm- Year Eight Valegro dorm house, corridor 2, Room 3

"Hey, Jess!" I look up from the sheet to see Bertie heading towards me. "What form are you?"

"Valegro," I reply. 

Her face lights up, and a smile stretches across her face. "Same!"

As we stand and wait for the rest of Year Eight Valegro, I decide to try and find out more about the forms. "So, how are the forms arranged?"

She takes a deep breath. "Right. There are obviously four forms, and so each form is in one building. There are four dorm buildings for each form, one for year eight, one for year nine, one for year ten and one for year eleven. Each form has its own colour, but I can't remember which is which. And each form, although unofficially, has its own discipline."

"Which discipline is Valegro?" I ask. "Dressage?"

She pulls a face. "Thankfully, no. The names don't really have much to do with it. Valegro is show jumping."

"Yes!" I cry. I then look around to check if anyone is watching me. Luckily, my cheer has gone unnoticed.

"Secretariat is dressage, Seabiscuit is cross country and Frankel is eventing. Apparently, there's traditionally a rivalry between Valegro and Secretariat."

As the remains of Valegro gather, a short woman with auburn hair approaches. I know I've seen her before, but as I study her sharp-but-attractive features, I can't place her.

She stand in front of our group, and we all immediately shut up. "Hello, Year Eight, and congratulations on getting into the best house ever, Valegro. I'm Lucy, and I'll be your form tutor this year. That means I'm in charge of you."

Bertie exchanges glances with me, and I grin. Lucy's going to have a hard time keeping her in check.

"So, I'm going to get to know each of you over time. The only one I've met before is Jessica, at the scholarship trials."

That's it! She presented me with my trophy and rosette. 

"So come on, follow me to your dorms."

She leads us around the stone building, but in the opposite direction to the car park. We follow a gravel path around the back, and my eyes widen at the sight.

Behind the stone building lie a scattering of buildings, arranged around a large courtyard with a huge white marble fountain in the middle. A large bust of a rearing horse stands proudly amidst the flowing water of the fountain, and ivy creeps around one side. There are about seven buildings, and each must be for a different school subject, as I can see a plaque reading 'Literature' above one door, and 'Arts' for the building next door.

Lucy gathers us to the fountain, and gestures around. "What you can see here is your school. As there are about a hundred and fifty of you, you won't obviously all be in one class, but we easily fit all of you and Year Nine into morning classes. Years Ten and Eleven have their school subjects after mid-afternoon break."

She leads us through a gap in the centre of the buildings across from us, and down another gravel path. We reach a large circular area, where there are four paths leading off from the one we're currently on.

"This is where the years split," Lucy explains. "These lead to the different stables and form buildings of each year."

We go down the closest one on the left, through a little bit of woodland, and then we reach what resembles a small street. 

There are two buildings on each side of a wide, cobbled space, with a street lamp by each one. There are a few trees dotted around; silver birches and one huge oak tree at the end.

Each building resembles a large house, double fronted with four windows on each side of the front door. They are made of brick, and each front door is painted a different colour: red, lemon yellow, forest green and royal blue. 

Lucy leads us towards the house with the blue door. It's on the right at the end, opposite the house with the green door. A polished bronze plaque over the door reads 'Year Eight Valegro'. 

"This is the Year Eight Valegro dorm building," explains Lucy. "This is where you will be living during this year."

Now we're standing in one place, I use the opportunity to look at my fellow Valegro people. There are about thirty people, including me, and about half are boys. I look back at Lucy.

"You're all in dorms of four people. You should know what room you're in by your sheets, and I will check to make sure you don't switch. Come on then," she says, and leads us in. 

The door opens into a wide hallway, and I can see through a door to a room with hooks on the walls and shoe racks. Through another door, which we go through, is a large room, with a large television on one wall, with four sofas scattered around it, and several more armchairs clustered in circles around round coffee tables. Another wall is a huge bookcase, holding possibly hundreds of paper and hardbacks. 

We don't stay here though, and go on through another door. This room has a big white board on one wall, a paper chart of something on another, and rows of chairs facing the white board.

"This is where we will discuss competitions placing and such," Lucy says. Through the final door is another roomy hall with a wide staircase going upwards, and curving out of view.

"You have half an hour to unpack your things in your rooms, and I'll be back." Lucy smiles and disappears through the door.

a/n: So, if you read the previous Silverstone, you'll have realised this book is similar to that one in a few ways. Thanks for reading, and please drop a comment so I know you exist. :)