Angel in Slippers!
Chapter 1:
It had been a perfectly normal day for Svetlana Malinkov. School had been a mixture of boring and not so boring. She'd walked home with her best friend Leila, and had promised to call her as soon as her homework was done. A very ordinary day.
The weather was ordinary, a heavy grey afternoon. The fine drizzle of rain, so often apart of the English summer, settled on Svetlana's hair like jewels. The world seemed to made up of different shades of grey. Svetlana's school uniform was grey too, and she hated it. She was not the sort of person who liked being told what to do, and she especially hated wearing a uniform. The school was strict about it too, no coloured hair ornaments, no coloured shoes. It's a wonder they don't dye our hair grey to match. Svetlana thought as she twisted a black curl around her finger. Thank goodness for that. Svetlana loved her beautiful loose curled hair. She pushed a loose curl back behind her ear and shifted her school bag from one shoulder to the other, as she turned for home.
Svetlana let herself in with her key, and paused in the wide hallway to take off her damp school raincoat and shoes. The house seemed quiet. A bit late for tea. She thought sadly. Her parents would have finished, and only some dry slices of cake and a lukewarm pot of tea would be left. Svetlana was just about to go in to greet them, when she heard her name mentioned. She stopped short in the hallway and listened.
"It would do her the world of good." her mother's pert Russian voice came from the sitting room. "She's already becoming much too set in her ways."
Her father's voice joined the conversation. "That's right"
"Of course, I must admit, it's been partly our fault, Mark," her mother's voice came again "We have tended to make things easy for her. We've probably protected her too much and spoiled her too, but she is an only child --"
"So, she can go tomorrow?" her father interrupted.
"I think that would be fine," said a drawling, American accented voice. That was Miss Newhart. She was one of her father's old friends'. Svetlana's curiosity was got the better of her. She walked into the room, trying to look as if she hadn't been listening in on the conversation.
"Oh, hello mummy, hello daddy, any tea left for me? I'm positively starving," she said brightly. "Hello, Miss Newhart."
Her parents were still sitting at the table; her mother, a petite woman, who often reminded Svetlana as a chirpy sparrow, and her serious looking father, who politely ignored his wife's excited chatter. Miss Newhart was curled up in the arm chair by the fire.
"Hello darling, we were just talking about you," her mother said.
"It's not nice to talk about people behind their backs," Svetlana quipped and helped herself to a piece of cake.
"That's what you always tell me."
"Well, this is rather special," her mother went on, "We have been making some splendid plans for you."
"Plans for me? You mean for the summer holidays?"
"Yes darling, and for the next three years."
"You mean I have to leave, and I don't get a say?"
"No hon, but a wonderful opportunity has come up for you," her mother said breathlessly, and flushing a little.
"Svetlana, I have just suggested to your parents that you come to Camp Coliane, with me tomorrow. How does that sound?" miss Newhart asked. Svetlana opened her mouth but no sound came out. She was desperately trying to remember where Camp Coliane was.
"It will be wonderful for you dear," her mother added.
Svetlana forced her jaw to move "Let me get this right," she said, "You want to send me to Camp Coliane for a whole three years?"
"That's right," her mother replied, nodding her head in encouragement.
Svetlana looked from her mother to her father then to Miss Newhart. Then she shook her head. Thoughts of Leila and all of her friends were flying around inside her head. "Oh No!" she said, "Not for a whole three years. I have ballet exams to pass. No!" she rushed out of the room.
Upstairs in her room Svetlana lay on her bed and stared at the violet pattern of the wallpaper. On one wall hung a large oval, gilt framed mirror. It had been her grandmother's, as had the dressing table and the chest of drawers. In fact almost every item in the room had a history. She tried to imagine a whole three years without seeing them, but she couldn't. they were just too much apart of her life. All the future she had taken for granted - her next three years of school, the ballet exams, Leila's just living right around the corner - how could she live a whole three years without these things?
Camp Coliane! Svetlana lay thought about it: she tried to think unemotionally. She knew that Miss Newhart ran Camp Coliane, but she'd never bothered to find out much about it, and now it seemed as remote as the moon.
She was still staring at the wallpaper when her mother crept into the room and sat down on the end of her bed. Svetlana grunted a "hello" to her.
"I know this is a big deal hon," her mother began, "perhaps we broke the news a little too late,"
"Perhaps you should have thought to ask me, before you arranged it all," Svetlana said still looking at the violets. "After all, it is my life you're messing with."
"Don't put it like that, sweetheart," her mother said sounding hurt. "You make it sound like a punishment, not a wonderful chance for you."
"For you, more like." Svetlana said still, not looking in her mother's direction.
"Svetlana don't be so silly," her mother snapped angrily. "You better get your stuff together, you'll be leaving at six in the morning." Svetlana watched as her mother left the room.
"Just where is Camp Coliane?" Leila asked. She had arrived at Svetlana's after her desperate phone call.
"Wherever it is, I'm not going! They want me to go for a whole three years!" Svetlana fumed. She curled up in the armchair like a little ball, her head resting on her arms. Leila looked at her best friend and smiled.
"Your parents seem to think you are," she said. She was a thin, dark girl with large brown eyes. When she smiled or laughed, her whole face lit up as if someone had turned on a switch.
"They're forcing me to go! Can you go and get Miss Newhart? I want to talk to her about Camp Coliane," Svetlana asked Leila.
"Sure, I'll be back in a moment." Svetlana watched a Leila as she walked out of the room, closing the door slightly after her.
Miss Newhart came up five minutes later following Leila through the bedroom door.. Svetlana patted the armchair that she had just vacated, for Miss Newhart to sit down.
"I know this may be a shock to you, but Cam Coliane is a nice place," Svetlana nodded. "So, what do you want to know about Camp Coliane? Before you ask, it's in the middle of nowhere."
"Oh great, anything else you want to tell me?" Svetlana asked.
"Well, don't tell your parents this, but Camp Coliane has ballet classes!" Miss Newhart smiled as Svetlana's face brightened at the thought of being able to carry on with her ballet. that's one thing to look forward to, I guess. She thought.
"Ok, help me pack! I'm going, and it's not like I have a say anyway," Svetlana jumped up off her bed and started pulling clothes out of her chest of drawers and her wardrobe. She stuffed all of her clothes into a rucksack and decided to take her handbag with her, just in case she needed it.