Free The Time of Your Life by Isabella Cass Page A

from his side!'
    Belle giggled and swatted her with a cushion. 'Come
on, start the film. My ice cream's melting!'
    Soon they were transported to a sunny Greek island
and singing along to Abba's I Have a Dream . . .
    Yes! Belle thought, a wave of confidence washing
over her. The three of us all have our dreams and our songs
to sing, and together we really can cope with anything . . .

CHAPTER FIFTEEN
    Cat: Honeysuckle and Avocado Heaven
    Cat was still singing I Have a Dream as she ran herself a
bath the next morning.
    Everything was going to be fine, she told herself.
The girls' night in had been just what she needed. Now
she was up bright and early, for a relaxing bath and a
spot of history homework before breakfast. In fact she
was so early she'd managed to nab the nicest of the
three bathrooms on their floor – the one with the
extra-deep tub.
    Cat poured in a generous glug of Honeysuckle and
Avocado Heaven and watched it bubble—
    'Cat! Are you in there?' Belle was knocking at the
door. 'Yoga time – come on!'
    Cat groaned, suddenly remembering she'd agreed to
join Belle at her yoga class, in search of
Inner Peace and Perfectly Toned Muscles. She gazed at
her beautiful bath. She could say no, but Belle was so
ultra-organized and she was easily offended if you
messed up her plans – and she was trying to help . . .
    'OK! Coming!' Cat sighed, tying her dressing gown
and taking a last longing look at the steaming, foaming
water.
    The yoga class was in one of the dance studios off the
courtyard. Cat rolled out her borrowed mat next to
Belle's. She'd had no idea so many people were up this
early in the morning . . . being peaceful! She followed
the instructor's directions through the warm-up of
stretches and sun salutations. ' And now . . . into the
child's pose . . .' he chanted. Cat copied Belle, kneeling
on the mat, leaning forward, head down. ' And
breathe . . . and relax . . .'
    OK, this isn't too bad, Cat thought. Quite calming
really. But Inner Peace was getting a bit boring now.
There was only so much breathing you could do. She
started to run though her Lady Macbeth lines in her
head – that difficult opening monologue: 'What thou
wouldst highly, that wouldst thou holily . . .' She really
needed to talk to Duncan about that line . . . but she
still had the Henry VIII essay to do . . . and Mrs
Salmon had given them another heap of food-chain
homework . . . at least her Hamlet review was only
slightly late . . . but she'd not done any practice on her
steps for the Latin dance class this afternoon . . . or
looked over her French vocabulary . . .
    'And calm . . . and breathe deep . . .' the instructor
went on.
    Calm? Cat thought. I haven't got time to be calm . . .
    She was back on that treadmill and now it was going
faster than ever!
    Suddenly she had the feeling that she'd forgotten
something. Was there some homework she'd not
handed in? Something was tugging at the edges of her
memory . . .
    Then it hit her: she'd left the bath running!
    Cat rocketed up off the mat. Head spinning, she
stumbled towards the door, ignoring Belle's call of
'Cat! What's wrong?'
    Everything's wrong! Cat screamed silently as she
bombed out of the studio, across the courtyard and into
the entrance hall. Water would be cascading down the
stairs like a Honeysuckle and Avocado-scented Niagara
Falls. She imagined the beautiful moulded ceiling of
the dining room beneath the bathroom collapsing under
the weight of water. Students having an early breakfast
would be buried under falling plasterwork . . .
    She rushed past the dining room. No despairing cries
from the rubble! Raced up the staircase. No torrential
waterfall! Sprinted along the corridor. No white-water
rapids!
    Only Miss Candlemas – standing outside the
bathroom door in her batik-print dressing gown,
with a mop in her hand and a thunderous look on
her face.
    'Aha! I was wondering who'd flooded the bathroom!'
she stormed. 'The guilty party returns to the scene of
the crime . .