Rivalry at Silver Spires by Ann Bryant Page A

honestly!” said Felissia in a sugary voice, her face all innocence and shock.
    I could have kicked myself for ever imagining that this whole plan was any good. It was utterly stupid, because I hadn’t thought it through properly. My eyes met Felissia’s and the coldness I saw there shocked me, but then a second later she turned to Miss Walton with her innocent expression back in place. “And Grace and her friends have been writing really horrid things.”
    Miss Walton fixed me with her icy glare, and I didn’t dare defend myself. I wished I could sit down, my body felt so weak. Her tone was brisk. “Which house are you in?”
    â€œHazeldean.”
    â€œRight, you’d better get back there straight away. I’ll phone Miss Carol to tell her you’re on your way.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œBut nothing. I’m fed up with this silly chat room nonsense. I’ve said right from the word go that it would lead to trouble and, now it has done, perhaps the school might come to its senses and shut it down!”
    I didn’t look at Felissia again, just crept out of the room and out of Beech House. Then I jogged back to Hazeldean with leaden legs, working out what on earth I was going to say to Miss Carol. If Jess was in trouble too, I’d never be able to forgive myself for concocting such a terrible plan. Not only had it not worked, but it had made things ten times worse now Miss Walton was talking about shutting down the chat room.
    Miss Carol was waiting for me at the front door. “Grace!” she said, looking horrified. “Whatever are you doing out so late? I couldn’t believe it when Miss Walton phoned just now.”
    I took a deep breath. I could only repeat what I’d just said to Miss Walton, but I desperately hoped that Miss Carol might be more understanding. “Someone’s been sending nasty messages about me in the chat room, and I didn’t know who it was, but I had a strong idea and I just needed to prove it to myself. I couldn’t think of any other way of doing it. I had to actually catch the person out, you see. And…now I have done.”
    Miss Carol looked very serious. “And who was it?”
    â€œFelissia Streeter.”
    â€œI see.” She looked down and I could tell she wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, we’ll talk about it tomorrow, and, in the meantime, off you go to bed.” She didn’t exactly smile, but she didn’t look quite so cross either.
    The moment I went into the dorm, Jess grabbed me. “Are you okay? What happened?”
    The others were all looking at me with big curiosity and I wasn’t sure how much they knew about what had been going on.
    â€œWhere have you been?” asked Georgie.
    I sighed as I grabbed my washbag. “It’s a long story.”
    Jess came with me to the bathroom and I explained in a gabble all that had happened. Then I remembered that I wasn’t the only one in this horrible drama. “And what about you? Did you get discovered?”
    She shook her head. “Felissia wrote some pretty horrible things, though,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œCarrying on about obsession and stuff…”
    â€œAnd what did you write back?”
    â€œI just said she was talking rubbish, basically.”
    â€œThanks, Jess,” I said, giving her a hug. “Goodness knows what’s going to happen now,” I added quietly. “I know I’ve made everything a hundred times worse, but at least I’ve proved to myself that it’s definitely Felissia.” I was drying my face when I suddenly remembered the thing that Felissia had said earlier that had hurt me the most. “Jess?”
    She waited.
    â€œDo you think everyone thinks I’m a show-off?”
    In a flash, her arm was round my shoulders. “Of course they don’t! No one thinks you’re a show-off, apart from