Bad Dreams (15 page)

So I knew what they all thought. And it was comforting. But not the same, even if everyone was cheering and stamping and giving me the thumbs up all the way back to the changing rooms. Because it was the Cup I wanted. And Mr Hooper can joke about digging up Mrs Harries all he likes, but it's over now. Finished. No prize is the same if the people who organize it have to change the rules so you can win it. Who wants that?

But it was worth it, I suppose – not that you'd think it from the way Imogen turned on me in the changing rooms.

First, she was just a bit panicked.

‘My necklace! Where's it
gone
?'

‘Isn't it there?'

‘No!' She rooted through her clothes pile in a frenzy, tossing and shaking everything. ‘It's
vanished
.'

She looked up wildly. All around us, people were gathering up their piles of clothes and making for the cubicles.

‘Please!' she called. ‘Everyone look for my necklace. It's disappeared.'

Maria was in there like a flash, of course. ‘Miss Rorty said we weren't to—'

‘I know what Miss Rorty said!' Imogen snapped. ‘I
know
. I have
ears
. But
Melly
said—'

She broke off and turned to look at me. You could see the first glimmer of suspicion. ‘Mel said she was quite sure it would be safe . . .'

I had to try and pretend I cared. ‘What's
that
supposed to mean?'

‘You know.'

‘No,' I said. ‘I'm afraid I don't.' I turned my back on her. I think I was really rather hoping she'd back off and leave me alone after my disappointment. But I was wrong.

‘You
must
know, Melly.'

I tried to sound outraged. ‘Me? Why
me
?'

‘Be
cause
,' she hissed, ‘you were the only one who knew my necklace was wrapped up in there.' Her eyes narrowed. ‘In fact,' she added, ‘now I come to think, you were the one who suggested I left it there in the first place.'

That's when I panicked a little. ‘What would I want with your stupid necklace?'

Her eyes flashed. Her voice rose. ‘You tell me, Mel! All I know is, you've taken an interest in it from the start. Practically the first thing you ever said to me was how much you liked it.
And
you asked if it was precious, and said you didn't think you'd ever be given anything that valuable yourself.'

Mirrors run all the way along the wall above the benches. Even the people with their backs to us could see I was blushing. The whole, huge, echoing changing room had fallen quiet.

Except for us.

‘You really think I took it?'

She stared deep in my eyes. ‘Yes,' she said. ‘Yes, I do. In fact, I'm sure you did. I think you've hidden it somewhere and you'll sneak back for it later. And I think that's why you lost your stupid,
stupid
race, Mel. Because you were too busy planning to steal my necklace – or too guilty after doing it – to swim your fastest.'

And wasn't I tempted, then, to spoil everything I'd done to save her from her horrible necklace! ‘I haven't got it!' I could have said to her. ‘But I will tell you that while I was swimming in my stupid,
stupid
race, I did see something glittery lying at the bottom of the pool, right by the drain.'

That would have fixed her. They'd have found it and given it back to her in no time.

And I was tempted. Very, very tempted. But I just gritted my teeth and thought of what Professor Blackstaffe would have said if he had overheard me. And at least I was sure now that I hadn't thrown away the Cup for nothing. She'd
never
find the necklace. She just doesn't read enough. If she read books, she'd understand that people live their
own
lives – lives completely special to them. They have their own things that matter, their own ways of going about them, and their own words to talk about them if they want. They don't go through their lives like plastic counters moving round a board game, each one a bit different on the surface so you can tell them apart, but all the same inside. I wanted to shake her. ‘Look at me!' I wanted to shout. ‘Look at me! Hello! It's
Mel
here, speaking.
Mel!
You know! This person you've sat next to for five whole weeks, and call a friend. This person who's spent
three whole years
wanting to win a race. Do you really think I'd toss the whole lot over just to take the chance to snatch a stupid necklace I wouldn't even be able to wear?
Do
you?
Do
you?'

But what was the point in setting Imogen off thinking? Pushed, she might just work out why someone like me might
really
want to take her necklace.

Then she'd be one step nearer to working out where it was.

No. At least till the pool had been drained, it was best to say nothing.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

B
ut everyone else talked. Toby Harrison set it all off by accident, mentioning we'd wished one another good luck coming out of the footbaths.

‘So maybe Imogen's right,' someone as gossipy as Maria must have said. ‘After all, what was she doing back there again ten minutes later?'

And tongues began to wag. People remembered that I'd disappeared till almost the end of the relay. And then the little girl whose towel I'd borrowed without asking popped up to mention she'd found it hidden under the hot water pipes. Had Imogen looked for her necklace there?

And that's when Mr Hooper got involved.

‘So, Mel,' he said, coming up behind me after next morning's Assembly. ‘Time for a little chat?'

‘I suppose so.'

He didn't take me to the classroom. Instead, he dropped a hand on my shoulder and steered me down to the quiet end of the corridor. Then he leaned back against the door.

‘About this necklace that Imogen shouldn't even have been wearing in the first place . . .' was how he began.

At least that made it easier for me to lift my head.

‘I know how it looks,' I said. ‘And I know what she's been saying. But, honestly, I never wanted it and I haven't got it.'

No lies in that, so it came out sounding the truth, and he believed it.

‘So what were you doing back in the changing rooms?'

‘I was so nervous that I . . . I needed to . . .' Again, I stopped, and he assumed I was too embarrassed to finish the sentence.

‘And what about little Fay Tucker's towel?'

‘That was me,' I confessed. ‘I was frozen. I was shivering all over. I saw it lying there, and I know it was wrong, but, with the big race coming up, I thought . . .'

‘You thought it was important and, if she knew, she wouldn't mind?'

He hadn't said
what
I thought was important. So what he'd said was true, in its own way.

‘That sort of thing.'

He eyed me steadily. ‘Well, Mel,' he said. ‘I've known you ever since you were in first year and, as far as I know, you've never snitched so much as a Snoopy rubber from anyone – except from under their nose to start a fight. So I'm going to choose to believe you.'

‘I expect you'll be the only one,' I couldn't help saying.

He shrugged. ‘I'm not so sure about that.' And then he grinned. ‘Now if it had been a
book
she'd accused you of pinching . . . But a
necklace
. Oh, I'm not so sure about that.'

And I did suddenly feel a little hope. That's true, I thought. I've been here years and years, and they all know me. But Imogen has only been here for a matter of weeks, and they're so used to thinking she's a little strange, it might turn out quite easy for them to just assume she's wrong as well.

And that's exactly how it all worked out. Maria told me, after. ‘As soon as Mr Hooper had made that excuse to send you off to the staffroom with those keys, he started on at us about how very unlikely it was that someone who'd never even bothered to wear rings or bracelets or anything, would care two hoots about a silly necklace.'

‘Did he say “silly”? Did he really?'

‘Well, no. But you could sort of hear it in his voice. And Imogen was furious, you could tell, as if, just because she and her mother think you stole her precious necklace, we all have to think that too. She sat there with a stony look. And, after, she said that she was going to ask her mum if she could go back to her old school.'

‘Really?'

‘That's right. She says that after the gala she bumped into several of her old classmates, and they were really nice to her. And
they
believe her.'

‘So she's going back next term?'

‘No. Sooner than that. Next week, she hopes. She doesn't even want to come back to us tomorrow.'

‘Leaving so soon!'

It just popped out, because there was one last thing I had to do. Edging past Maria, I pelted off to the book corner. On the top shelf, crammed in between
The Bumper Book of Ghost Stories
and
Weird Tales II
, was
Lucy Fainlight
.