Free Pep Squad by Eileen O'Hely Page A

gulped.
    â€˜Good luck, Ben Sykes,’ said Master Qing with a vague smile on his face.
    Ben was better prepared than Matt and kept eye contact with Svetlana as he approached her. They started circling each other. As soon as he was close enough Ben seized the opportunity to shoot his leg behind Svetlana’s, but she turned quickly and managed to kick his leg out from under him instead, toppling him over.
    And so it went. Svetlana exhausted all the cadets on one side of the hall, and then did the same with those originally queued up behind her. Only Emily managed to engage Svetlana in a lock for a few moments, right knees entwined, hopping around the mat like two boxing kangaroos, before she ended up on her back like the rest of the class.
    â€˜Wow, Svetlana,’ said Emily when the bell went. ‘You must be pretty happy.’
    â€˜Not really,’ said Svetlana, holding up her left hand to show Emily four perfectly manicured fingernails and one with a jagged tear. ‘I break nail.’

6
Drama

    The refectory was a very different place at lunchtime. While it had buzzed all over with excitement and expectation during breakfast, the lunching cadets, particularly those wearing yellow uniforms, were completely subdued.
    â€˜I’m surprised Lieutenant Parry wasn’t standing at the door with a big jug of Memory Wipe,’ said Emily.
    â€˜How on earth are we supposed to learn so much stuff in one year? It’s not just a double load, it’s a triple load of a double load,’ said Ben, massaging his temples.
    â€˜I don’t know about you, but my legs are killing me,’ said Jess, feeling her thighs seize up as she bent to sit in her chair. ‘I need to stretch, but I don’t have the energy.’
    â€˜At least this is an improvement on breakfast,’ said Matt, shovelling in forkful after forkful of his huge helping of spaghetti marinara. ‘I was beginning to think I’d never see decent food again.’
    Once the cadets had finished eating, they sat back in their chairs without speaking to each other. They were too exhausted and overwhelmed. The tolling of the bell in the abbey tower marking the start of afternoon classes sounded ominous.
    â€˜What have we got?’ asked Matt.
    Ben looked at his timetable.
    â€˜Drama,’ he groaned. ‘That was always my worst subject.’
    â€˜Yeah, the only time you ever got an A minus,’ grumbled Matt.
    They joined the other transition years waiting in the auditorium, scattered along the first row of seats.
    A pair of high heels clicked across the stage.
    â€˜What are you doing down there?’ chided Signora Enigmistica. ‘Drama takes place on the stage, not in the stalls. Come.’
    The cadets climbed up on the stage and gathered around Signora Enigmistica.
    â€˜Welcome to Drama. As with the majority of subjects at Theruse Abbey, we will be starting off studying material for the Leaving Certificate syllabus for Drama. But by far the most important aspect of the class is to teach you acting skills so that you can blend in flawlessly on any undercover mission anywhere in the world.
    â€˜Today we will be starting with one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, Hamlet . What I like most about this play is its title. The plot of Hamlet is not one of Shakespeare’s originals but is based on much older stories from other cultures. In fact, the word Hamlet is a very basic anagram of the name of the Danish Prince Amleth, from Saxo Grammaticus’s version of the story.’
    There was a snort from among the students. Jess turned to see that it was the moody-looking dark-haired boy. It was the first time she had been close to him. He had a sneer on his face and an attitude to match.
    â€˜Do you have something to add, Ivan?’ asked Signora Enigmistica.
    â€˜I was just thinking that, for someone as revered as Shakespeare, neither the play nor the attempt at disguising the title is particularly