Free The Time of Your Life by Isabella Cass Page B

.'
    'I'm really sorry,' Cat panted in a fragile voice.
    'Yes, well, luckily Gemma discovered it before it got
too bad,' Miss Candlemas said, her anger abating. 'We
don't need to start building an ark just yet . . .'
    'Cat! Cat! What's happened?' Belle was running
along the corridor towards her.
    Cat squared her shoulders and tried to arrange her
face into a chirpy smile. Panic over! she intended to say. What am I like? Can you believe I left the bath running?
    But it didn't work.
    Not even close!
    What actually came out of her mouth was a sob.
And then another.
    Then she felt Belle put her arm around her and lead
her gently back to their room.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
    Holly: Finding the Off-switch
    Meanwhile Holly was thinking about getting out of bed.
She was planning to meet Ethan at the sports centre for
fifty lengths of the pool before breakfast. Just five more
minutes, she told herself.
    She'd vaguely heard Gemma getting up to go for a
bath earlier and then coming back giggling about
someone leaving the taps running and flooding the
place . . .
    Holly stretched luxuriously. Her new room was
almost identical to the one she used to share with
Bianca, except the colour scheme was soft mauve and
lilac instead of yellow and orange and the atmosphere
was completely different. Gemma was trying to get
dressed quietly so she didn't disturb her. Bianca
would have been stamping around, blasting her
hairdryer and accusing Holly of stealing her make-up
by now. Poor Lettie, Holly thought. She'd seemed
delighted to share a room with Bianca – they'd
been friends since they'd played with their My Little
Ponies in reception class together – but even so, you
kind of lost the will to live after a few weeks of
Bianca . . .
    One more minute. Holly was looking forward to
seeing Ethan at the pool. And to going with him
to the big bonfire party in Kingsgrove Park on
Saturday. She was gradually getting used to the idea
that Ethan was her boyfriend. In fact, bizarrely, Bianca
and Mayu had done her a favour there: ever since
they'd spotted her and Ethan together at Café Roma
and broadcast the news to the entire school, their
relationship had become common knowledge; now
they were so totally last week's story, no one was very
interested any more – like Posh and Becks.
    CRASH! WAIL! SLAM!
    Holly's snooze was interrupted by a disturbance
outside her room. It sounded like a herd of mutant
wildebeest stampeding along the corridor. Not that she
knew what mutant wildebeest sounded like, but . . .
    Then she recognized Belle's voice: 'Cat! What's
happened?'
    Alarmed, Holly vaulted out of bed, long-jumped
across the corridor and skidded through the door into
Cat and Belle's room.
    Her friends were sitting on Cat's bed. Belle had her
arm around Cat, who was crying.
    'What's happened?' Holly asked anxiously, sinking
down on the bed next to them.
    'I think the bath tub running over was the last straw,'
Belle said gently.
    'That . . . and Lady Macbeth and Mr Sharpe . . .' Cat
sobbed. 'And Henry the Eighth and Mrs Salmon and
killer whales and Latin dance and Mum and Oliver! and Hamlet and . . .'
    'I know,' Holly murmured, rubbing Cat's back. 'It's
too much.'
    '. . . I just can't find the off-switch!' Cat wailed.
    Holly wasn't entirely sure what Cat was talking
about but she got the general idea. 'Maybe you can't do
it all. Perhaps there's something you can give up—'
    'I can't give anything up! That would be like . . .
like . . . giving up!'
    'Well, you could talk to one of the teachers,' Belle
suggested. 'Someone you trust, like Mr Grampian.
Maybe they can help—'
    'And let them think I can't take the pace? No way!' Cat protested.
    'But everyone needs a little help sometimes—'
Holly said.
    'Like who?' Cat snapped. 'You two don't have any
trouble. You never turn up late or get detention. Even
Bianca manages to keep it together, for goodness' sake
– she does loads as well, and she has time left over for
playing tricks on people and running after Jack.