Forbidden Lessons Read Free Page B

again. For a fleeting moment, she and the German teacher were the most important people in the world and everyone else in the room was a grey mush.
    "Snap out of it, you’re daydreaming again," Charlotte said. "I asked you if it was History or Latin first this afternoon." Charlotte was hopeless with timetables unless they concerned Games practice or matches.
    "Latin."
    "Good. I’ve decided to try and enjoy Latin this term," Charlotte said.
    This was startling coming from Charlotte. Even Margery raised her eyebrows.
    "We’re stuck with it, so I thought we should make the best of it. Maybe if we managed to get on top of it it wouldn’t seem so awful. Last year it was the utter drag and dread of the week to me, and it put me off my game," Charlotte explained.
    "So is this a resolution for all of us?" Laura asked.
    "If you like. It will probably be easier as a group effort."

    * * *

    True to her word, Charlotte displayed a new and disturbing diligence in Latin. She answered questions, concentrated throughout the entire class, and even suggested to old Mr Tyrrell that they do slightly more than the usual amount of translation so they could reach the end of a particular poem. He agreed in happy surprise, and everyone else groaned.
    "You’ll get death threats if you keep this up," Laura warned.
    "Oh they’ll all handle it," Charlotte said. "They’ll thank me once exam time comes."
    "Not from them - from us. I don’t mind paying a bit more attention to Latin homework, but I wasn’t bargaining on extra lines. If Margery doesn’t end up strangling you in your bed then I will." Laura was still slightly bewildered by Charlotte’s Latin resolution. Some secret lay at the bottom of it, she was quite certain, and she would find out in time what it was.
    "At least we’re through all the grammar this year. All the conjugation tables and so on." Last year had progressed through noun declensions, verb conjugations, tenses and voices. There was endless memorisation every homework, and tests at the start of every lesson.  
    Every few weeks had seemed to required them to double their knowledge. Re-learning everything in the passive had been bad enough. But when Mr Tyrrell introduced the subjunctive they had nearly collapsed in despair.
    "We’re not really through it all though, only the testing," Margery said. "I still struggle to remember them all." It was an honest admission as languages were Margery’s thing.

    * * *

    Happily they had the new female teacher for English, though she explained that classes would alternate with Mr Peters this year. Miss Wingrove was as pleasant and as interesting as she appeared and Laura mentally ticked English as a look-forward-to lesson.
    With the plays taken up by Miss Vine and Mr Peters, Miss Wingrove’s side project that year was going to be a poetry recital. "All kinds, not just Keats and Shakespeare. Your own works if you like."  
    Laura liked this idea. Margery detested it. Charlotte was indifferent. She had a good voice and plenty of confidence but no real interest in the arts. It was no issue to her whether she took part or not, though if Laura did, she’d probably give it a go. "Maybe you could write something for me, and I’ll recite it," she suggested to Margery.

    * * *

    Once again they scurried to finish in the bathroom so they could pick up their pens for the diary writing.
    "Should we read one another’s work every week or so?" Margery asked. Laura blanched.
    "God no," said Charlotte.
    "Why? Are you writing horrid things about me?" Margery asked.
    "No. I simply don’t want to read your entries, I suspect they’ll bore me to tears," Charlotte said. Laura silently thanked her. Right now her journal was her only confessional. She had craved writing it since the morning, even though she didn’t plan to write very much.  
    "Perhaps we can read our favourite excerpts aloud once a month," she suggested to mollify Margery. She also didn’t want Margery peeking. Laura wasn’t