The following day was Saturday, Kipper 'escaped' from the San in the last part of the morning and hastened to North Tower. She found Lauren and Sam sitting in the dormitory chatting, the rest of the girls were absent. "Have you two patched things up then?" she asked.
Sam nodded, "just about thank you".
Kipper grinned "good. I hoped you had when I didn't hear you killing each other but it's nice to be sure. I got so bored in the san, you wouldn't believe how dull it is in there".
Sam smirked at her "well you probably don't notice that if you're actually ill".
The three of them laughed loudly. Lauren told Kipper about the situation with her foot and then the three of them settled down to discuss Lauren's plan for catching the sneak. Kipper thought it was an excellent plan and asked if there were any suspects.
"Lucia" said Lauren, "I heard her say me hurting my foot was poetic justice so she might be trying to draw attention away from herself".
Sam nodded, "yes she said something to me about you taking my place in the team. Could be she's trying to divide us".
"She'd have a motive too" pointed out Kipper, "jealousy – she isn't in our form and I don't think hers has as much fun".
That was a reasonable body of evidence but as none of them were very close to Lucia they didn't know of any occasion on which she might have gone to tell on them. Nor, in truth, could they point to any suspicious behaviour or proof of jealousy. Before they could mention any other suspects the bell went for lunch. The three of them went off together, Kipper walking slightly ahead so as to clear a path through the crowded corridors for her wounded comrades.
Everyone was very jolly at lunch because some people had seen boxes of Christmas decorations being brought out of storage! It seemed that in the afternoon everyone would be able to help decorate the school if she wanted to. Apart from all the excitement it also meant that the end of term was drawing nearer, as was Christmas itself. Even lunch had a vaguely Christmassy feel with big bowls of thick soup made of left over food from the past few days which, as Izzy said, was just like the week after Christmas when one seemed to find oneself living off the remains of Christmas dinner.
The afternoon was great fun. Every girl in North Tower, from the smallest first year to the largest and most solemn sixth former, seemed to be charging around carrying tinsel or baubles or some other decoration. The TV room, dormitories and even the clock room were heftily garlanded. Tinsel wound round banisters and decorations were pinned to every notice board. In each of the common rooms a magnificent tree had been placed.
Because of Lauren's foot she Kipper and Sam had decided to keep to the common room where there would be less walking and being trampled on. Sam moaned that her wrist wouldn't be up to all the work but Kipper told her it would be excellent physical therapy and to shut up and get on with it. They started off by pinning tinsel along the edges of the shelves which took quite some time. By the time the got round to decorating the tree Natasha had joined them.
"Hello you three" she said enthusiastically, "can I help you with the tree? Everyone else seems to have gone rampaging round the classrooms".
"Of course" said Sam, "shall we start at the top? Angel or star"?
They decided on the star which they carefully placed at the top of the tree. Then there were silvery chains which they wrapped carefully round it. Finally they began to add red and green baubles. As they worked they chatted in a desultory manner about lessons and prep and what they were doing in the holidays. After a while Natasha said rather curiously "so you two have patched things up then?"
"Oh yes" said Sam "turns out you were totally wrong about Lauren being the sneak".
"Was I?" said Natasha sounding rather troubled "Golly! Well in that case I really am very sorry for doubting you Lauren. Will you shake hands and make it peace between us?"
Lauren glared at her but nodded "I suppose so. But you could have saved a lot of trouble by coming to me with your suspicions rather than sending Sam after me".
"Yes I suppose so" said Natasha apologetically. "But coming to you wouldn't have helped me much with my investigations. I mean if you had been the sneak you would have denied everything".
"True" admitted Lauren, and held out her hand to Natasha who shook it firmly.
"That's it" said Kipper encouragingly, "tis the season of peace and good will". The four of them laughed loudly.
A few moments later the rest of the North Tower first formers began to troop in exhausted from their school decorating labours. They admired the tree before collapsing onto sofas and into armchairs. "I hope there's a good tea" said Izzy, "I'm starving after all this work and I want to do some of my prep before dinner and I can't work on an empty stomach".
They all sat around chatting and reading until the tea bell went at which point everyone except Lauren trooped off to the kitchen. Clearly it was going to be tricky for her to carry hers whilst using crutches and so Izzy and Charlotte had volunteered to bring it back for her. It turned out to be an excellent tea. Hot chocolate for a change (normally there was only tea, coffee or squash) and, in honour of the season, mince pies were on offer although chocolate brownies were provided as an alternative.
They sat around the common room eating and drinking and then most of them decided they had no energy to do anything before supper except sit and play board games. Some people went off to do their prep and a few hardy souls went for a walk but most of the North Tower first years arranged themselves around the huge Snakes and Ladders board. Snakes and Ladders gets rather complicated with eight people playing and is very time consuming as rather loud and competitive. Finally though, just as the bell began to ring for dinner, Poppy (who was in dorm 2 and Wilshire form) reached the finish square.