Chapter Seven: Wild Ride (Rachael and Jameela)

“Help, help!”
Annie and the rest of the dorm woke up abruptly to the sound of Calipso screaming desperately. Within seconds the girls had jumped out of bed and were standing next to Calipso.
“What’s wrong Calipso? Are you okay?” asked a concerned Charlotte as she shook Calipso awake.
Calipso was completely out of breath and took a moment to work out exactly where she was.
“I just dreamt I was...drowning!”
The girls all exchanged worried looks with each other and knew that this meant trouble. The anxious moment was then interrupted by Josephine and the clanging of the bell for breakfast.
“Well, let’s quickly get dressed and hurry to breakfast, we’ll talk about it over a bowl of porridge,” suggested Roxanne.
The girls dressed quickly and made their beds before rushing up to the dining hall to join the breakfast queue. Once they had helped themselves to porridge and toast, they settled down to discuss their dreams.
“I dreamt that we were at Jade’s holiday house and we went jet-skiing, which isn’t such a coincidence since you did invite us all yesterday to stay with you for the long weekend. No big deal right?” said Annie, looking at the others for reassurance.
Jade frowned. “I dreamt that we were swimming in the sea. Suddenly a huge wave was about to break right on top of us.”
Next, it was Charlotte’s turn. “In my dream one of us went under a wave, I think it was Calipso but I couldn’t see clearly, and then...”
“It must have been me,” interrupted Calipso, “because I dreamt that I was drowning and fighting for air, so maybe the big wave from Jade’s dream forces me underwater.”
“Well, I don’t know who it was but I dreamt about a guy, and he was carrying someone along the seashore...how romantic!” said Chelsea dreamily, imagining that she was that someone and Kyle was that guy.
Roxanne cleared her throat and scratched her head. “I don’t really remember much of my dream, but I do remember a few people leaning over someone lying on a sandy shore doing what looked like CPR.”
“Huh,” they all sighed, thinking to themselves about what they’d just discussed.
All of a sudden the speakers screeched to life in the corner of the dining hall as Josephine turned the microphone on. A moment later Mrs Sheraton, now completely recovered from her nasty fall, walked through the doors. She was wearing a grey skirt and a white blouse and her grey-blond hair was in a neat little bun. She made her way to the podium and tapped the microphone.
“May I have your attention please girls,” she said in a raspy voice. The clattering of knives and forks and the hum of conversation died down and silence descended on the room.
“I would just like to say a few words before you all disappear,” continued Mrs. Sheraton. “I know you have all been looking forward to the half-term break after a busy start to our school year. I would like to wish you well; I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable trip to wherever it is that you will be spending the long weekend. Please remember that you are Fernwood High girls, so make us proud, no matter where you are.”
Once they had been dismissed, the girls raced back to the dorm to pack their bags. They were full of excitement and the talk of big waves, drowning and CPR was far from their minds. As they clambered down the stairs, Jade spotted her dad’s Land Rover driving through the top gate. Mr and Mrs Thompson had arrived to collect the Fab Five as they had done many times in the past. This time, however, there was a new addition to their daughter’s little group of friends. They were finally going to meet Calipso, the new girl who they had heard so much about. They weren’t quite sure what to expect as Jade had had plenty to say about her when Calipso had first arrived. But it hadn’t taken Jade long to let down her guard, and Jade’s mom had decided that her daughter and Calipso must share a common interest. That often seemed to be a good reason for two people to become friends. Little did she know what that interest was.
“Well, hello girls,” Mrs Thompson said as she gave them all a huge hug. “The boys are already at home and are looking forward to seeing you all again. Although I’m sure that with this hot weather, they’ve probably gone straight to the beach for a swim,” she said while fanning herself. The girls all giggled when she mentioned the boys and Chelsea let out a squeal of delight at the thought of Kyle in his board shorts. She hadn’t realised that the boys were also going to be spending the weekend with the Thompsons.

***

The drive to the Thompson’s little holiday cottage in Shelly Bay took just under an hour and they were all relieved to finally escape from the boiling hot car.
“Hey Pipsqueak!”
Jade turned around in horror at the sound of the nickname her brother had given her years ago. She was about to aim a fist at his shoulder when he picked her up in a big bear hug.
“Hi Adam,” she laughed, her anger quickly melting away.
Kyle and Stuart came around the corner and greeted everyone with hugs. Kyle hugged Chelsea after he had greeted everyone else and Chelsea blushed immediately.
“Hi Kyle, how are you?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye.
“I’m so much better now that we’ve had a swim in the sea. How are you?” he replied.
“Fine.” That was all she could manage as she seemed to have forgotten how to speak properly.
They walked into the house together, Kyle carrying Chelsea’s bags and pillow.
“Umm, I wanted to ask you something...” stuttered Kyle as they walked alone through the entrance hall.
“Hey dude!” shouted Stuart, “Are you coming jet-skiing or what?”
“Sure, I’ll be there now,” he said, a little disappointed that he didn’t have more time to talk to Chelsea. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later.”
“Sure,” mumbled Chelsea, wondering what it was that he wanted to ask her.
The girls dumped their bags in Jade’s room and changed into their bathing costumes, also eager to swim in the sea. They walked along the cobbled path down to the beach. The sand was hot so they ran straight into the water while watching the boys bounce off the waves on their jet-skis.
“Oh my word, check this huge wave coming!” yelled Stuart. Everyone looked towards the horizon and saw a huge wall of water heading straight for the shore. The boys flew over the top of it before it broke and the girls ran out of the water and up the beach. But Calipso just froze. All the talk of their dreams suddenly came flooding back and she couldn’t seem to lift her legs. She knew what was about to happen but she was helpless to stop it.
“Calipso, move!” shouted Kyle.
It was too late. The wave crashed down on top of Calipso and forced her under the water. It knocked the wind out of her and she couldn’t tell which way was up or down. The others watched anxiously, waiting for any sign that she was alright. Suddenly Kyle jumped off his jet-ski and swam through the water towards Calipso. If there was anyone who could save Calipso, it was Kyle. He was a first team swimmer, a waterpolo player and a life guard. He dived under the water where Calipso had been standing and everyone watched in awe. After what seemed like a terribly long time, his head burst through the surface of the water. He had Calipso in his arms pressed tightly against his chest. Chelsea watched the scene unfold before her and realised that the guy in her dream was Kyle, but the girl wasn’t her and it wasn’t quite the romantic picture she had imagined. She was a little disappointed about that but at the same time she was relieved that Calipso was safely in his arms. He was her hero.
Everyone gathered around Calipso after Kyle had laid her on the sand. After some basic CPR from Adam, Calipso spluttered and coughed up a whole lot of sea water and then managed to sit up. After a little more time she was able to stand. They all decided that they’d had enough excitement for one day and walked slowly back to the cottage. Calipso was carried into the spare room to lie down. Annie sat with her until she fell into a deep sleep while the others started a game of Monopoly to lighten the mood. Kyle made up an excuse and opted out of the game. He then went in search for Chelsea who had disappeared when they returned from the beach. He knocked lightly on her door and walked into the room.
“Calipso seems fine, doesn’t she? Luckily we managed to pull her out of the water so quickly,” he said while sitting down next to her on the bed.
“You, not we,” she said, remembering his heroic act on the beach.
“So, I never had a chance to ask you earlier...” he stopped mid-sentence and looked nervously into her beautiful blue eyes.
“Will you be my date for the Valentine’s Ball? It’s next weekend.”

Chapter Six: A Slippery Situation (Lauren)

After assembly, the twins and their three friends went to the front of the hall to talk to Calipso. The school had been dismissed and there were just a few stragglers left in the hall. Annie touched Calipso’s shoulder.
“Why were you sitting right in the front Calipso, and why are you still waiting here?” she asked.
“Well, last night I ….” she started to explain, but was interrupted by a stern voice behind her.
“What are you girls still hanging around for?” asked Mrs Sheraton as she walked down the stairs from the stage. “You’re going to be late for your first lessoooon...”
The principal went sailing through the air and landed at the bottom of the stairs, on her back, and seemed to be out cold.
In the meantime, Mary had been searching the school high and low for the Fab Five.
“Hey, there you guys are! Mrs. Glover is doing a spot uniform check and she’s on her way to your dorm. You’d better hurry!” panted Mary. She’d gotten over the nut debacle and was back to being enthusiastic Mary. Mrs Glover was their old, grumpy house matron and she was very strict. She loved to find any reason to have a spot check and she always managed to catch someone out.
“Whoa!” Mary suddenly froze when she saw Mrs Sheraton sprawled out on the floor. “What happened to her?”
“Quick, Mary, Calipso, go back to Oak House and tell Mrs Glover to ring Sister McKenzie. Tell her to come to the hall straight away, it’s an emergency!” ordered Roxanne as she bent down and tried to rouse some sort of response out of Mrs Sheraton.
Calipso ran around Mrs Sheraton, glad to have been asked to assist in the emergency, but without the bright yellow warning sign to remind her that the floor was still wet, she also slipped and fell down in a heap.
Mary raced back to Oak House and it wasn’t long before Sister McKenzie and Josephine arrived on the scene and everyone crowded around them. The nurse instructed the five Grade Tens to help their principal and their friend down to the Sanatorium.
“Make way, make way, wounded people coming through,” shouted Josephine above the noise. “Now, who is responsible for this?” she demanded. “Could this not have been avoided?”
No one said a word, but the girls were all feeling guilty and were wondering the same thing. Could they have prevented the accident by taking last night’s dreams more seriously? Did Calipso have the final piece to the puzzle?

***

Later that afternoon, the Fab Five weren’t feeling so fab. They had just been to visit Calipso in the Sanatorium and the news about Mrs Sheraton wasn’t good. Jade had been reluctant to go with them as she still hadn’t warmed to the new girl. Annie had gone ballistic when Jade had made a comment that Calipso just took up valuable Fab Five space. Seeing her kind and concerned friend so mad had convinced Jade to go with them in the end so as not to upset Annie any more than she already was. Calipso tried to convince her new friends that she was feeling fine but she certainly didn’t look fine. Sister McKenzie ordered her to rest and recommended that she not participate in any physical activities, gym classes, outings or nature walks with Miss Jiggleweed for the time being. Calipso had hurt both her legs when she fell and Sister MacKenzie assured her that she didn’t need to put any extra strain on them. Calipso was very worried about missing all her classes, but Annie offered to take notes for her and she promised to drop off her homework.
“Jade, why do you have such a problem with Calipso?” asked Charlotte once they had left the San, “she’s really very sweet.”
Jade’s friends were unable to understand her attitude towards the new girl.
“I don’t know, she’s just different, and I liked things the way they were,” answered Jade, feeling a little embarrassed about her silly reasoning.
Roxanne had been lost in her own thoughts but decided that it was time for her to let the other’s know what she had been thinking.
“I think Calipso’s lovely and I also think that she might be having mysterious dreams, just like the rest of us. Why else would she have been standing near the stairs in the hall when we dreamt that Mrs Sheraton was going to fall down them? She must have dreamt the missing piece to the puzzle.”
“I don’t know,” argued Chelsea, “she might just not have known where to go, it was her first assembly.”
“Well, if the stories about our dorm are true, then anyone who sleeps in the dorm will fall under its strange spell. Which means that what’s happening to us is probably happening to her too,” deduced Charlotte logically.
***

A couple of days later, Calipso was back in the dorm under the stairs and feeling like her cheerful self again. The very next night, after she was back, the girls’ sleep was interrupted by more puzzling dreams. Calipso woke early and disappeared through the curtain and down the passage. When the others woke up, they were relieved that it was the weekend and they all sat up to discuss their night visions.
“Okay, so who dreamt what?” asked Annie, finding strange dreams that were linked in some way rather exciting.
“I dreamt about some sort of commotion in the Grade Nine dormitory and someone was screaming,” began Roxanne.
“My dream was about Calipso and a Grade Nine. They had been sent to the principal’s office,” continued Charlotte.
“I dreamt that Calipso was called onto the stage during assembly for saving someone’s life by using the Heimlich maneuver,” added Chelsea.
Jade looked confused. “In my dream, Calipso was helping Sister McKenzie in the Sanatorium after proving herself as an accomplished ‘First Aider’. They were giving safety lessons to the matrics.”
Annie nodded while listening to her friends. “Well, I dreamt about Jemima in Grade Nine. She was lying in bed with the flu. She seemed to have a very high temperature and was sucking a Strepsil for her throat.”
All of a sudden the girls’ conversation was interrupted by a piercing scream and it was coming from down the passage. They all jumped out of bed and ran to see what had happened. They heard a commotion coming from the Grade Nine dorm and walked in to see Calipso standing behind Jemima with her arms wrapped tightly around her. Jemima was taking deep breaths and there was a cherry-flavoured Strepsil lying on the floor.
“Thank you for getting that lozenge out of my throat Calipso, that was a neat trick!” wheezed Jemima.
“How did you know what to do?” asked Jade, completely bewildered.
“Well, I wouldn’t normally have a clue, but I watched myself do that in my dream last night. It was like déjà vu!” replied Calipso.
So, it was true. Calipso was also under the spell of the dorm under the stairs. Her dreams were part of the puzzle of events that were going to happen and the girls needed that final piece if they were going to understand any more of their peculiar dreams. It was time to let her in on the secret.

Chapter Five: The Missing Link (Tori and Nicola)

Calipso had just finished unpacking her things into her cubicle when they heard the nine o’clock gong echoing down the passage.
“Lights out!” yelled Josephine as she stomped down the passage, flicking every switch along the way.
The nice thing about being in the dorm under the stairs was that, because it was slightly hidden from view, the prefects often forgot to check on the girls. As long as the lights were off and they weren’t too noisy, no one would bother them.
“Quick, turn off the lights!” whispered Jade, “and then we can play cards by torch light.”
“I don’t want to get into trouble, let’s just go bed. And I’m really tired anyway,” yawned Annie, always reluctant to break any house rules, no matter how small or petty.
So, with the light from Jade’s high-powered torch, they all brushed their teeth at the basin in the corner of the dorm then and climbed into their beds. Once their weary little heads hit their pillows, it didn’t take long before they were all fast asleep.
***

Seconds before hearing the rising bell, Roxanne woke up with a fright, thinking she had overslept.
“Chelsea, Charlotte, Jade, wake up,” she whispered. “I have to tell you what I dreamt about.”
“We’re awake,” replied Charlotte, rubbing her eyes.
A moment later, Calipso jumped out of bed, grabbed her toiletries and hurried to the bathroom. She had been warned about the shower rush hour in the mornings and didn’t want to have to wait long. Annie stretched and yawned loudly, and then went to sit on Roxanne’s bed.
“So, anymore strange dreams last night?” she asked curiously, hoping the others might be able to shed some light and give some meaning to her strange dream.
“Yes!” they all gasped.
Roxanne sat up and spoke first. “All I can remember dreaming about was the caretaker, Benjamin, and he was mopping the floor.”
Annie’s eyes widened. “I also dreamt about Benjamin. He was mopping the hall floor but he had forgotten to take the ‘Caution: Wet Floor’ sign with him. So he returned to the cleaning shed to fetch the bright yellow sign.”
“There was no Benjamin in my dream. I just remember seeing Mrs Sheraton climbing the stairs in the hall,” added Charlotte skeptically.
“I dreamt that Mrs Sheraton fell down a flight of stairs!” gasped Chelsea.
“What about you Jade? Jade, are you asleep? Get up!” yelled Roxanne as she stretched across and pulled Jade’s pink polka dot duvet off her lazy friend.
“Nooo, I’m so tired, just a few more minutes,” she whined.
“No, get up!” said Charlotte in a bossy tone. “We have a not-so-dreamy situation here that we need to discuss.”
“Fine, if it really helps. I did have a dream, it was about people crowding around something, or someone,” grumbled Jade.
“That someone must be Mrs Sheraton…on the floor…after slipping down the stairs…in the hall…because Benjamin didn’t put up the warning sign,” said Roxanne, putting the pieces together.
“But when is it going to happen? Today, tomorrow, next week? Considering what happened with Mary, and the surprise English test, it’s bound to happen soon. But when?” wondered Charlotte.
“Shush guys, someone’s coming. No one must know anything about what’s going on here,” said Jade in a firm voice.
“Good morning everyone!” Calipso had just walked back into the dorm, looking clean and fresh and smelling like cinnamon and spices. Annie stood up and opened the shutters. “Come on girls, time to get dressed and ready. It’s a beautiful day.”
They all rushed up to breakfast and ate a hearty meal of scrambled eggs and baked beans. They then made their way to the hall for assembly which they knew would be long and boring. Mrs Sheraton would surely be introducing the new teachers and all the new girls and formally welcoming them to Fernwood High School. They were headed for the back of the hall when Annie stopped.
“Where’s Calipso?” she asked.
The others shrugged their shoulders and presumed she must have gone back to the hostel for some reason or other.
The hall was soon filled with the whole school and the prefects were patrolling up and down trying to settle everyone. The Fab Five were sitting in the back row. When they looked up they were surprised to see Calipso sitting right in the front, next to the stairs, all by herself. She was scratching her head and looking around nervously. What was she doing there?

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.

Chapter Three: Surprise or No Surprise? (Hannah and Ammaarah)

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

The bell rang for the first lesson while Charlotte stood talking to Annie.
“I can’t believe what happened to Mary this morning. It was so scary!”
“Maybe the rumours about the dorm under the stairs are true after all,” added Jade.
“Let’s rather not think about it. I don’t want to be late for Science, you know it’s my second favourite subject. I wonder what we’re starting with?” said Annie enthusiastically.
“Oh come on Annie, why are you always so excited about school?” muttered Roxanne as she dragged her heels to the Science block for a double lesson with Miss Jiggleweed.

***

“Roxanne, are you awake?” whispered Chelsea.
“What do you want?” asked Roxanne as she leaned over to look at her alarm clock. “It’s only five o’clock in the morning. I’ve hardly slept and I was exhausted last night after trying to use my brain again!” moaned Roxanne while yawning. “I do remember another strange dream though,” she added.
“Me too!” exclaimed Chelsea. “Charlotte, Annie, Jade, are you guys awake?” she whispered.
The three of them had been listening to Chelsea and Roxanne and they had all sat up at once. “I also had another weird dream,” they said in unison.
“I dreamt about a teacher. He was tall and skinny with grey hair and a neat little grey beard. He was wearing a bright pink tie and for some reason we were calling him ‘The Nut’!” giggled Jade.
“A teacher was handing out a surprise test in my dream but I couldn’t see his face,” squeaked Annie, the thought of a surprise test enough to make her faint.
“Well, all I dreamt about were boring nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, similes and metaphors!” added Chelsea.
Roxanne sat up and frowned. “I dreamt about an English test paper full of difficult questions. The dream was so vivid that I actually wrote down the questions and answers when I woke up. Here they are.”
“Well, I also dreamt of test papers, but they had our names at the top and a big red 0% scribbled at the top of each one!” moaned Charlotte.
“Jade, your ‘Mr. Nut’ must be our new English teacher, Mr. Walnut. I saw that name on the staff list in the newsletter. He must be planning to give us a surprise test today. That’s why you were dreaming about all those parts of speech Chelsea,” Roxanne thought aloud.
“And we all fail the test because we don’t know about it!” gasped Charlotte.
“Well, imagine if what we dreamt about is actually going to happen! We need to do something to change it so let’s get studying! Roxy, where are those questions you wrote down?” demanded Annie, determined not to fail the test. Annie had never failed a test before and she was going to do everything she could to keep it that way!

***
“That test was so easy, I am so glad that we all got full marks. These dreams must really be true, a kind of sneak peek into the future!” said Charlotte excitedly as they rounded the corner back to Oak House. There, standing on the verandah in the front of the boarding house, was a stranger with a suitcase in her hand.
“Hello. Are you the Grade Tens?” the stranger asked in an even stranger accent. The Fab Five looked at each other and then at the foreigner and nodded.
“My name is Calipso. I have just been assigned to Dorm Six, with all of you I presume. I am your new ‘dormie’!” she said with a smile from ear to ear!