Free The Daring Game by Kit Pearson Page B

disguise, all the things other people think is growing up. But that’s all on the outside. I think real growing up’s on the inside.” She flushed. “But listen to me, I sound as if I know all about it. I’m only sixteen, you know.”
    Eliza, thrilled by the words “you and I,” gazed at Madeline with uncritical admiration and pondered her words. She thought she understood the inside kind of growing up. It was like getting your period—something that was going to happen anyhow. The other kind, the outward disguise, was much more of a problem. She wished she had the confidence Madeline had to cope with it.
    Madeline was looking embarrassed. “Listen, Eliza, I don’t know what else to tell you. Being a teenager isn’t always that great, but everyone has to go through it. Just don’t worry about it! And one good thing about Ashdown is that it’s easier to be yourself here. Don’t you think so?”
    Eliza wondered. The only people who accepted her as she was were the older ones—Madeline, Miss Tavistock and the teachers and matrons. Helen didn’t. Carrie did sofar, but she sometimes had conflicting interests. Just the other day she had been puzzled when Eliza didn’t admire the new straight skirt her mother had sent.
    But Madeline was partly right: the fact that there weren’t any boys at Ashdown meant it was easier to change at your own rate. Eliza missed having boys in her classes. But it sometimes seemed, the older she got, that she wasn’t allowed to be just friends with them anymore.
    Madeline looked a bit desperate in the face of Eliza’s solemn silence. “Eliza, you probably only feel different because you’re younger than the others. But what about Helen? She just turned twelve too. Does she feel the same way?”
    â€œShe said she wanted to be seventeen!”
    Madeline laughed. “I can’t imagine Helen at seventeen. It’s hard to predict what she’ll turn out like. Are you two friends?”
    â€œNo … I’d like to be sometimes, but I don’t think she does.”
    â€œHow do you know unless you suggest it? I think you’d be good for Helen—she seems like a lonely kid.”
    This was something new to think about, along with everything else they’d discussed. Talking seriously with Madeline was like being with an older sister. Eliza ran back fast through the chilly darkness to the Old Residence, holding her cape open and pretending she was flying.

8
    â€œSee Amid the Winter’s Snow”
    M adeline’s suggestion appealed to Eliza, but she didn’t know what to do about it. She wasn’t like Carrie. She couldn’t just go up to someone and say, “Let’s be friends.” The rest of the term went by and Eliza and Helen remained on polite, but distant, terms.
    Waking up before the bell one morning, Eliza wondered lazily if she should get up and be the first in the bathroom. But it was so toasty warm just lying curled up in bed. And something was different. The room felt muffled, as if it were lined in cotton batting. It was a familiar feeling that filled her with nostalgia, but what was it? Christmas coming? All at once she knew. In one movement she snatched open the curtains and bounded out of bed.
    â€œSnow!” she yelled. There was a chorus of groans. “It snowed last night! Wake up, everyone, it snowed!” The lawn was a blanket of ghostly whiteness that shimmered in the dark. Eliza tore off her pyjamas and looked for her clothes. “Get up, Carrie. Come on, we’ve got to go out!”
    â€œIt’s still night,” murmured Pam. “Go back to bed.”
    â€œIt’s six-thirty,” said Eliza. “Only half an hour before the bell. Come on, we can have a snowball fight! I didn’t think it ever snowed in Vancouver!” Carrie and Jean got up sleepily, stumbled to the windows and admired the changed landscape. Pam