Chapter Four: The New Arrival (Jane and Mary-Kate)

The Fab Five continued to stare at Calipso. Jade, in particular, didn’t quite know what to make of the new girl’s wild, curly hair that framed her pixie-like face. There was also her hideous pink and red suitcase, nevermind the too familiar use of the word ‘dormie’!
“Um, I think you’re mistaken, there aren’t any empty beds in our dorm,” Jade smirked and flicked her ponytail as she attempted to push past Charlotte.
“Yes, there is one Jade,” whispered Charlotte, putting her arm out to stop her. “There’s the one next to yours.”
Jade nudged Charlotte with her elbow. “Charlotte, please!” she replied in a muffled voice.
“You can swap with me Jade, I’ll sleep next to the new girl,” mumbled Annie, glaring at Jade.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll just sleep on the floor. I spent a whole month sleeping on the floor when I went camping with my family once, so I’m used to it,” said Calipso nonchalantly, having overheard all the whispering.
“Oh, before I forget, I need to collect a copy of my timetable from the office, I’ll see you all in a little while.”
Calipso left her suitcase just inside the door and trotted off down the path with a bounce in her step.
“That was weird,” said Jade and everyone agreed. Annie was, however, quick to point out that they had only just met Calipso and that she seemed very sweet.
The girls hurried down to their dorm to collect their books for the next lesson. Jade still wasn’t sure about the curly-haired addition to their happy little dorm. She continued to moan about how things would change and what a pain it was to swap cubicles now that Annie had offered up her bed. She had far too many clothes stuffed into her ridiculously small cupboard, and now she was going to have to unpack and repack them all over again!
Just then they heard footsteps outside the dorm and Calipso skipped through the curtain. She beamed when she saw the colourful and cosy room.
“Home sweet home,” she sighed, looking around the dorm, “and now I know where I’m going,” she added, holding up her newly acquired timetable.
“Here,” waved Annie, “your bed is here, next to mine,” she said kindly.
“Thanks Annie,” grinned Calipso.
“So Calipso,” said Charlotte, “Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?”
“Oh, I’m from Lima.”
The girls all looked at each other drawing a blank at the word.
Calipso laughed. “It’s the capital of Peru. My full name is Calipso Rosa Díaz. I’m named after both my mother and my grandmother.”
“Oh, what a lovely name,” said Annie. “Don’t you agree Jade?”
Jade rolled her eyes. “Yeah right, it’s like…you know…nice.”
“My father, Renzo, wanted to send me to this school because he has heard very good things about it, and he wants me to improve my English. We also have family that used to live in your beautiful country so he looked no further!”

“Ding-a-ling-a-ling, ding-a-ling-a-ling”

“Ah, Maths!” sighed Chelsea, Roxy and Charlotte in unison.
Annie jumped off her bed, grabbed her books from her desk and shrieked, “I love Maths! Let’s go girls.”
“Me too,” said Calipso.
“Well come on then, let’s go so that we can sit in the front of the classroom. Mr Thornton is the best teacher ever, and so incredibly funny! He’ll make you love Maths even more Calipso, you’ll see,” promised Annie as they skipped out of the dorm arm in arm.
The other four followed them slowly, barely picking up their feet. They also loved having Mr Thornton as a teacher but he always gave them so much homework!

***

After another long and busy day at school, the girls ate their supper and then lay exhausted on their beds.
“Oh, I’m so full, I should never have had seconds!” complained Charlotte.
“Mrs Dothesplitz made us train so hard in that pool today. All that swimming this afternoon made me so hungry, I could have had thirds!” said Roxanne, patting her rumbling tummy.
“Supper was so delicious. The catering company seems to have given the menu a make-over,” commented a pleasantly surprised Jade.
Calipso listened to the chatter of her new ‘dormies’ and felt much happier at the end of her first day than she thought she would. She hoped she would become good friends with all of them, although she found Annie the friendliest and most welcoming. She was almost finished unpacking her things and was looking forward to a good night’s sleep. Jade had turned her nose up at some of the outfits she had seen coming out of Calipso’s pink and red suitcase, but it was the object hanging from the window above her bed that she found most intriguing.
“What is that, Calipso?” Jade asked as she moved over to take a closer look.
“Oh, that’s a dream catcher. My great-grandfather made this one. My ancestors were part of a South American Indian tribe who believed in the almost magical power of dreams and dream catchers. They believed that a dream catcher would catch all your bad dreams in the web in the middle and that they would then fade away with the first rays of the morning sun. The good dreams, on the other hand, were believed to be caught in the feather at the bottom which would slip down into the sleeper’s dreams. I never seem to remember any of my dreams, good or bad, but I do like the story.”
The twins had sat up to listen to the story of the dream catcher and then looked across at each other.
“Hmmm, a dream catcher. Seems like another strange coincidence!” whispered Chelsea.