Maddox Academy: Grievous Beginnings - Wattys 2022 Shortlister

Chapter Eight - A Watery Lesson

The weather cleared a few days after the storm.

When the clouds broke and the sun reappeared, the school became a quieter place. Students retreated outside for their study periods or received passes and headed down to the local village on the weekend. Katie and Jo had decided to join them the next weekend as they had some pocket money from their parents to spend. I stayed behind and worked on my project since I had no money of my own to spend. They had offered to buy something for me, but I refused.

It wasn't as though I didn't appreciate the offer, I did. I just didn't want to be reliant on others on trips to the village. If I went, I wanted to be able to spend my own money and not someone else's. Katie and Jo seemed to understand, although they appeared a little disappointed that I wasn't going with them. With any luck, I'd get some money for my birthday from Uncle Luke and be able to join them, but that was three months away.

Monday rolled around again, and I had written almost ten pages of notes, but none of them were all that helpful. My project had become a mesh of facts that served no purpose. There was no real direction in what I wanted to say, and my topic had twisted into a fact file on Ancient Rome rather than a focus on one specific event. I had far too much information for a ten-minute presentation.

After our English lesson on Monday, I stopped to talk to Mrs Clarington. I might have wanted to do the project myself, but I needed help on what to do with my notes.

"You need to zero in on a specific aspect of that period, one event that is interesting enough and has enough information to create an engagement project. There is plenty to choose from, but it is all about the in-depth research about one element."

"One event? Got it."

"It seems you have done the research; it is just about consolidating it down into a ten-minute presentation. You're a smart little thing, I'm sure you can manage it and any other problems come and see me." She looked at her watch. "Off you go or you'll be late for your next class."

"Thank you, Mrs Clarington."

She smiled at me and I pulled my bag further up my shoulder and headed down the stairs and out to the pool. I didn't know how I would narrow it down to one event, but at least I knew what I had to do to rectify the mess of facts I had accumulated over several weeks.

I walked across the grass to the pool so I could sign in with Mrs Leverton. Even though I would not be partaking in the swimming lessons, I still had to go down to the pool at the start of each lesson so I could be marked in. An unauthorised absence would lead to detention and I had yet to have one of those. I had no intention of starting now. Usually, I would only spend a few minutes in the building until Mrs Leverton showed up, marked me in and sent me on my way.

The other girls were just coming out of the changing room when I arrived. All had changed into their swimming costumes and were wearing swimming caps to protect their hair from the water. Victoria looked at me from in between Dorothy and Louise and smiled, sending a chill down my spine. There was something unnerving about the way she smiled and nothing good usually followed.

Mrs Leverton arrived a little while later and gestured the other girls into the pool. She told me to wait in the entranceway for a second, something she had never asked me to do before.

"I have been informed that you are to spend the lesson here with us. Whilst you cannot go into the pool, you may sit on the sidelines and complete your work," she said.

"But Mrs Maddox said it was okay for me to work in the Common Room. My work could get wet," I said.

"Someone just told me otherwise. I'm sorry, Felicity, but those are the instructions I have been given."