Scruff here. The journey from London to Norwich went well, Lucy and I chatted most of the way there, and the two hours seemed a lot shorter than that. Of course she joked about my appearance and said I ought to brush my hair - but everyone except Sis says that, and the only reason she doesn't is that she knows me too well.
At Norwich we piled off the train. With four younger girls and half a dozen younger boys in Pudding Norton College uniforms we waited outside the station to be picked up by a school bus. I was rather glad there hadn't been any sixth form boys on the train. That might have been a little complicated.
We didn't have long to wait, and the sun was shining anyhow. I left my hat off and sat down on a piece of stone that was either a bench or some sort of sculpture. Either way it was handy to sit on.
The bus was quite impressive. It looked band new and it had 'Pudding Norton College' painted on the side. We all dutifully lined up as it pulled up and the doors opened. A woman in a smart summer dress stepped out.
"Good morning, I an Miss Tully. Form an orderly line! Youngest first!"
Lucy and I got on last. A large man loaded our bags into the bus's luggage compartment.
"Aren't you glad your parents sent you to a private school?" Lucy sighed. I smiled.
"I'm an orphan. It was my sister who sent me."
I did not tell her why. After all, that would have been a bit silly.
The bus drove off. I've never been to Norwich before, and I thought it was a very pretty place. I wished we had time to stop there, but we were going straight to Pudding Norton.
That took another two hours. Some of the younger children became rather restless - those that didn't have ipods or PSPs. At last we reached the gates of the school. The bus drove through, and we looked through the windows.
I knew what to expect, having seen the pictures that Sir Richard Arcos had sent to sis. The others were expecting a gothic mansion. They were disappointed.
"Hey!" Lucy cried, "What's that?"
"The dormitory block," the woman who had greeted us answered, her voice cruel. "Welcome to Pudding Norton College, children." she looked me over. "And you, Miss Hill, fit in beautifully with your surroundings."
"Thanks," I smiled. "It's kind of different from the last school I was at."
We were herded off the bus and Jane and I were led through squalid corridors, corridors where the paint was peeling, windows were broken and grafitti adorned the walls. I could see what Miss Tully meant when she said I'd fit in beautifully - the buildings were even scruffier than I am!
The upper sixth girl who was leading us looked... well, she looked like she wasn't a good girl. She was wearing very heavy make-up, and smelled of cigarette smoke.
"Lower sixth girls' dorm," she threw open the door. We entered a squalid room lined with beds, on most of which hard-boiled looking girls lounged, mostly in their underwear. Some of them were smoking.
"Hi," a girl who looked like a call-girl greeted us. "I'm Rosie, head of lower sixth."
"I'm Scruff," I said. Rosie laughed.
"Of course you are! Jenny! Show Scruff to her bed!"
Jenny was a small redhead in pink lacy undies. She showed me to a bed.
"There you are. Well, so the Baron got a couple of girls from outside this year!"
"He... doesn't always?"
"Sister, Pudding Norton College is a life sentence!
I hoped not.
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