Dreams at Silver Spires

“Ouch!

What’s Bryony doing attacking me like this? She’s supposed to be my best friend. I stopped staring at the cloudy grey sky through the gap between the treetops, and raised my eyebrows at her in a vague kind of way.

“Ems, come back from whatever planet you’re on!” said Nicole, laughing. “We’ve been trying to attract your attention for ages!”

And when I looked round I saw that it wasn’t only Bryony and Nicole who were finding me amusing, but all of my little group of friends.

“What were you daydreaming about, anyway?” asked Sasha.

It was true I’d been miles away, thinking about my other best friend, my beautiful horse, Barney, who lives back home in Ireland. I was imagining myself galloping him across open fields on a beautiful summer evening when all the work on our farm had been done – well, all the work I had to do at least, because Mum and Dad and my big brother Will always work till really late in the summer.

But how could I explain all that to my friends? None of them have got much of a clue about horses, and they certainly don’t know the first thing about farming. I still love them dearly, though, because the six of us have been together in the same dormitory here at Silver Spires Boarding School for Girls for a term and a bit now, and the others don’t seem to mind that I’m always either daydreaming or, if you press my other button, rushing to get out in the fresh air. They’re not bothered that I don’t care about fashion or that I’m not the best in the world as far as lessons are concerned. They all just accept the way I am. Well, apart from a few times like right now, when I think I do get on their nerves.

But I always know how to bring them round. “I was daydreaming about winning the lottery and just wondering which friends I might take with me on my trip to see the wonders of the world!”

That had exactly the effect I expected. Izzy and Sasha stopped trying to keep warm by jogging on the spot and gave me big beaming smiles, while Antonia and Nicole both shuffled close to me and linked their arms through mine, and Bryony started batting her eyelashes about two centimetres away from my face in a totally over-the-top way, which looked so funny, knowing what a tomboy she is. We must have seemed like a really weird little group standing in the middle of the main lane that runs through the Silver Spires grounds.

“Okay, I’ll take you all!” I said, sighing a bit and pretending they were a lot of pestering children that I had to keep quiet somehow.

When they’d finished being amused by me for the second time in two minutes, Izzy started doing vigorous star jumps. “How come you don’t feel the cold, Emily?”

“I’m just used to it, I suppose,” I told her with a shrug. Then I looked at my watch. “Surely a few of the guests should have arrived by now, shouldn’t they?”

Well that sent Izzy and Sasha straight back into their big excitement zone. “I can’t wait to see them. I’ve got so many questions!” said Sasha.

“Me too!” squeaked Izzy. “And I bet they’ve got loads to ask each other, too. I mean, it’ll seem so strange meeting up for a grand reunion party after all these years.”