First Term at Malory Towers Read Free

came into view again, nearer still, round the next corner, and it wasn't very long before all the coaches roared up to the flight of steps that led to the great front door.
    “It's just like a castle entrance!” said Darrell.
    “Yes,” said Gwendoline, unexpectedly, from behind them. “I shall feel like a fairy princess, going up those steps!” She tossed her loose golden hair back over her shoulders.
    “You would!” said Alicia, scornfully. “But you'll soon get ideas like that out of your head when Potty gets going on you.”
    Darrell got down and was immediately lost in a crowd of girls, all swarming up the steps. She looked round for Alicia, but she seemed to have disappeared. So up the steps went Darrell, clutching her small bag and racket, feeling rather lost and lonely in the chattering crowd of girls. She felt in quite a panic without the friendly Alicia!

    After that things were rather a blur. Darrell didn't know where to go and she didn't know what to do. She looked vainly for Alicia, or Pamela, the head-girl. Was she supposed to go straight to North Tower? Everyone seemed to know exactly what to do and where to go, except poor Darrell!
    Then she saw Miss Potts, and felt a wave of relief. She went up to her, and Miss Potts looked down, smiling.
    “Hallo! Feeling lost? Where's that rascal of an Alicia? She ought to look after you. All North Tower girls are to go there and unpack their night-bags. Matron is waiting for you all.”
    Darrell had no idea which way to go for North Tower, so she stood by Miss Potts, waiting. Alicia soon appeared again, accompanied by a crowd of girls.
    “Hallo!” she said to Darrell.” I lost you. These are all girls in our form, but I won't tell you their names just now. You'll only get muddled. Some are North Tower girls, but some belong to the other houses. Come on, let's go to North Tower and see Matron. Where's darling Gwendoline?”
    “Alicia,” said Miss Potts, her voice stern, but her eyes twinkling. “Give Gwendoline a chance!”
    “And Sally Hope? Where's she?” said Alicia. “Come on, Sally. All right, Miss Potts, I'll take them along to North Tower, and nurse them a bit!”
    Sally, Gwendoline and Darrell followed Alicia. They were in a big hall, that had doors leading off on either side, and a wide staircase curving upwards.
    “The assembly hall, the gyms, the lab, the art-rooms, and the needlework room are all on this side,” said Alicia. “Come on, we'll cross the Court to get to our tower.”
    Darrell wondered what the Court was. She soon found out. Malory Towers was built round a large oblong space, called the Court. Alicia took her and the others out of a door opposite the entrance they had come in by, and there lay the Court surrounded on all sides by the buildings.
    “What a lovely place!” said Darrell. “What's that sunk piece in the middle?”
    She pointed to a great circle of green grass sunk a good way below the level of the Court. Round the sloping sides of the circle were stone seats. It looked like an open-air circus ring, the ring sunk low, and the stone seats rising upwards around it, Darrell thought.
    “That's where we act plays in the summer,” said Alicia. “The players perform in the ring, and the audience sit round on those stone seats. We have good fun.”
    Round the sunk circle, on the level, was a beautifully set out garden, with roses and all kinds of flowers planted there. Green lawns, not yet cut by the gardeners, were set between the beds.
    “It's warm and sheltered in the Court,” said Darrell.
    “It's too hot in the summer,” said Alicia, steering them all across the Court to the opposite side. “But you should see it in the Easter term! When we come back, in January, leaving our own homes in frost and maybe snow, we find snowdrops and aconites and primroses blooming in all the beds here, in the sheltered Court. It's gorgeous. Well, look at the tulips coming out here already, and it's only April!”
    At each end of