Success at Silver Spires
Mrs. Truman smiled. “It’s important to think carefully before signing up for anything. You girls lead very busy lives here at Silver Spires, with all your extra-curricular activities on top of your lessons, so don’t overload yourselves.” She smiled again. “On the other hand, there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had out of sport, and you’re amazingly lucky to have so much on offer…”
“Is the sculling a beginner’s course?” asked Holly.
Mrs. Truman nodded. “Yes, it is.” And I saw Holly’s face drop.
I think Mrs. Truman must have noticed that too. “But there are seven sessions in all, so there’s lots of chance to progress. The first one takes place here at the school swimming pool, then the others are at a lake not far away. Have you done sculling before, Holly?”
“I went out loads on the river with my brother over the Easter holidays. He’s in a sculling eight but we went out together, just him and me, in a Virus double. It was great.”
I looked round my group of friends to see if any of them seemed at all confused, but none of them did. So maybe I was the only one who didn’t know the difference between sculling and rowing, and had no idea what a “Virus double” was, though it sounded like some kind of illness.
“He let me cox one time, too,” Holly went on enthusiastically.
“What’s that?” asked Bryony, and I felt relieved that at least one other person was in the dark. Bryony is Emily’s best friend and she never wastes words.
“The cox—” Mrs. Truman started to answer, but Holly interrupted.
“It’s the person who sits at the stern of the boat – that’s the back – facing the way the boat’s moving, so they can direct all the oarsmen to help them keep together and go as fast as possible.”
“Well explained, Holly!” said Mrs. Truman. I agreed it was well explained but I still didn’t understand what she’d said before about “viruses”. I’m not like Bryony though. I’d never dare ask.
Mrs. Truman was carrying on anyway, so I didn’t have a chance to ask, even if I’d wanted to. “All the info about the various activities is on the sport noticeboard, so go along and sign up for whatever you want when you’ve had a good think about it.
“And one more important thing,” she added. “General fitness. Up till now you’ve only used the main gym for PE lessons and dance, but if you want to use the equipment in the smaller gym to build up stamina – the treadmills, the bikes, the rowing machine, et cetera, that’s fine. But you can only use that gym once you’ve had an induction, which is an introductory session to show you how to use the various pieces of equipment safely. Even then,” she went on, “there has to be a member of staff with you at all times. And I’m afraid you’re absolutely not allowed to use the weights, under any circumstances. But if it’s raining outside, for example, and you want to work on your general fitness, that’s where the gym comes in.” Mrs. Truman smiled around at us, as if to see what we thought so far, but everyone was quiet and thoughtful. “The best time to use the gym is after school,” she carried on, “though one or two older students sometimes try to squash in a session before breakfast, as long as it’s after seven thirty. I’m afraid teachers get priority before that. But now –” she gave us another bright smile – “let’s get down to the athletics field!”
Izzy and I found ourselves practically at the back as everyone else broke into excited chatter and plunged after Mrs. Truman. It’s not that we don’t like PE, just that it’s not our favourite thing. Izzy’s favourite thing is ballet, definitely. She’s totally brilliant at it. And my favourite thing is…I don’t know. I haven’t got one. There’s nothing I’m specially good at, really. I wish there was. It must be fantastic to be talented at something you also enjoy doing, like Izzy is.