The following morning the four lacrosse players bounded out of bed early. Saturday was a day of luxury, there was no rising bell you just got up when you wanted to and went to breakfast which was laid out til 9.30. But junior lacrosse training started at 9 and, as they wanted to have time to digest breakfast, they got up at 7.45. Everyone else was still asleep apart from Charlotte who looked at them from under her duvet with a bemused expression and muttered something about crazy English girls.
After breakfast they got dressed in their brown Malory Towers tracksuits because it was a chilly morning. Sam was excited, their first game was only thirteen days away and that weekend would be half term. Her parents would be visiting and maybe her grandparents as well. Training began promptly at 9 with a tiring warm up of jogging, sprinting, stretching and press ups. The games mistress in charge of junior lacrosse was Miss Fox who was very good at all games but a hard taskmaster. She did give lots of praise though.
Once they'd warmed up they began to practise lacrosse skills, mostly throwing and catching. Miss Fox hung a paper plate from a tree and told them they all had to hit it with the ball from 10 metres away. None of the first formers could, and only two of the second formers. Miss Fox told them that it wasn't good enough, how could they win a match without being able to pass accurately? She herself had thrown ten balls at the plate, one after the other, and all of them had hit. She made them repeat the exercise and grudgingly admitted that at least they were closer to getting a hit.
Finally she let them play a match, with the first team against the second. Sam thought she would have done better if she hadn't been so tired! She was also very angry because the winger up against her was one of the largest of the second formers. The girl played very hard, she didn't seem to care how she took the ball as long as a foul wasn't called against her. Sam didn't think it was fair to play against anyone like that, especially somebody in your own school. But at least she was getting better at shielding the ball and spinning away from her tackler. By the time 11am came she was exhausted and quite happy to walk slowly back to the sports centre to shower and change.
On Monday morning they had their normal lessons. Grayling One had English first, which happened to be taught by their form mistress Miss Jones. After that was history with Mr Grey. After break they had science with Mrs Taylor and maths with Mr Duff. There was only one lesson in the afternoon, which was French taught by Monsieur Valon. Lessons finished at three and were followed by voluntary sports and hobbies. Dinner was at six and then there was prep until 8.30. The first form went to bed at 9.30 except on Fridays and Saturdays when they didn't have to go til 11.
This Monday was a bit special though. On Sunday evening the headmistress had made an announcement. "I'm afraid Mr Duff has been in a car accident. He will be quite alright soon but I'm afraid we have lost him for the rest of the term". She waited well mutterings spread round the dining hall, Mr Duff was one of the most popular teachers at Malory Towers. He was young, his lessons were fun, and he was very kind and fair. Everyone would miss him. After a minute or so the headmistress continued "now fortunately we have been able to secure a supply teacher for the rest of term. Mrs Bowing will be joining us tomorrow".
It so happened that the third years had maths first thing on Mondays, the lucky people. In the top group, which Mr Duff normally taught, was Sam's older sister Pippa. At break time she came across to talk to her sister who was chatting to a group of her friends in a North Tower corridor. "You guys will have some fun with Mrs Bowing, or Mrs Boring as we call her. She droned on and on for the entire lesson with no idea what was going on. In the end nobody was listening to her, we were passing notes or reading. Just as well actually, I hadn't got round to doing my geography prep".
The first years looked at each other. "Sounds like it won't be much fun" said Sam "I think I'll put Harry Potter in my bag so I have something to do". Charlotte scowled at her "lessons are for learning, even if the teachers are boring". Lauren shrugged "It's only for half a term, I doubt that doing no work will permanently cripple our mathematical careers". Izzy couldn't resist this opening "well maybe not yours Lauren, you're terrible at maths under every circumstance".
Lauren was about to say something very rude when Jenny interrupted her. "You guys have no imagination. What we need is some real fun. You leave everything to me". She was smirking all through science but refused to tell anyone about her plan. As they crossed South Court to go to maths she dragged back Lauren, Sam and Izzy by their sleeves "now listen you lot just do what I say and we'll be fine. By the end of this term we'll be known as Malory Towers finest set of pranksters ever. But keep it a secret for now, we can't trust the girls from the other towers to keep quiet".
They trooped into the maths classroom, which like all the classrooms in New School held four rows of five desks. The four North Tower girls always sat together at the back, along with Tess who was in South Tower and had been to the same prep school as Jenny. She recognized the glint in her friend's eyes. "What are you plotting Jennifer Hawley, I know that look". Jenny smiled at her. "Absolutely nothing. Just look as innocent as possible".
Mrs Bowing waited until everyone had taken her place and then began to read the register. Jenny handed a note over to Lauren and Sam, it read 'answer for each other's names'. Smiling broadly, Lauren answered when the teacher read Samantha Barrett off the register. The real Samantha Barrett concentrated on not giggling. The rest of the form guessed that something was up and sat as quiet and innocent as church mice, nobody wanted to give the game away – it would make them very unpopular.
After this there was no further excitement until Mrs Bowing reached Jennifer Hawley. There was no answer. Mrs Bowing repeated the name more loudly, looking around. If there were twenty girls in the class and twenty in the room Jennifer Hawley must be here. Suddenly Jenny jumped upright, as though awakened from a trance. "I'm sorry Miss, I completely didn't hear you. You see everyone calls me Kipper".
"Kipper?" repeated Mrs Bowing sceptically.
"Oh yes" said Jenny earnestly "It's because of a birthmark on my leg which looks really prominent. It's just a nickname but it's really stuck. Even the teachers use it. Well only in class, not when they walk to each other".
Mrs Bowing was not that stupid, she looked suspiciously at 'Kipper' and then at the girl next to her. "Is this true Samantha"? No answer, until Tess kicked Lauren on the ankle. "Oh yes" said Lauren earnestly "strange as it sounds".
After this there was no further excitement. Mrs Bowing completed the register and then began to question the girls about the topics they had covered. She seemed to be very conscientious about calling everyone by her name. Finally she turned to begin writing a series of problems on the board. Jenny whispered to Izzy and Tess "quick swop places, keep your own names though". The two silently exchanged seats, grateful for the soft floor covering which never made a scraping sound.
Finally Mrs Bowing turned round. "Now then, who can solve this equation? Perhaps you Tess"? She was looking at Izzy who stared back at her looking vaguely annoyed. There was a silence. Finally Tess spoke "I'm Tess". She then went to the board and solved the problem. Mrs Bowing smiled at her and then told her to sit down. Then she wrote another equation which she called on one of the East Tower girls to solve. Finally she turned to the board again, the East Tower girl had made lots of mistakes so she would be busy for a long time. Jenny indicated that Tess and Izzy should return to their original seats.
Mrs Bowing might have heard something because her attention was again on the back row. "I'm not sure you girls are concentrating properly at the back. We'll have you up to the board this time please Izzy". She was looking at Tess who indignantly protested that not only was she not called Izzy, she had also solved one problem already. "Of course" said Mrs Bowing, looking rather confused. "We'll have Kipper then". Fortunately Jenny was excellent at maths.