The Mam'zelles of Malory Towers

PROLOGUE

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT! AND IF YOU LIKE, YOU CAN SKIP THIS CHAPTER AND MOVE ON TO OUR ORIGINAL NOVEL, AS THIS IS JUST A LITTLE GLIMPSE INTO THE MAM'ZELLES' CHILDHOODS BEFORE THEY BECAME TEACHERS :)

In an old French convent school, a dictée was taking place in Mam'zelle Jean-Paule's class. The little French girls with their neat pigtails sat demurely at their desks, listening attentively to their teacher. The particularly smarmy girl in the front row was Amélie Dupont - she was despised by all her classmates because of her perfect records on every dictée. Amélie was a plump little thing with chubby cheeks, fat pigtails, and a tendency to stuff too many croissants into her mouth at the breakfast table.

All the way in the back row sat a quiet, dark girl with a furtive expression. Her name was Agathe Rougier. She was bony and pale, with jet-black hair and small eyes. Everyone was a little scared of her, and generally tried to steer clear of her. There were rumours that Agathe had a pet snake in the attic, and that she prowled around the school at midnight to catch little mice to feed her snake with. These rumours were true - her snake, a deadly cobra - was a gift from her mother for her ninth birthday.

Unlike Amélie, Agathe was not paying attention to the dictée. She figured she could bully some girl into letting her copy off her later. Instead, she was using this time to poke a thin rod into the desk of the girl next to her. The girl, a studious little thing, was too absorbed in the dictée to notice. And so in the rod went, and when Agathe pulled it out, there was a golden necklace wrapped around the end of it. Grimly smiling, Agathe pocketed the necklace. It was her third find of the day - not a bad day's work! She could sell it to the local jeweller for a tidy sum...