The Blue Horse by Marita Conlon-Mckenna Page B

collected in cars and othersmade their way to the bus stop about a quarter of a mile away. The rest walked. She recognised a few of them from her estate, and one of the girls even waved shyly at her. She blushed. It wasn’t that she was spying on them, she just wanted a chance to get a feel of the place.
    She turned for home finally and began to jog. Her heart was pounding, her breath jerky. It was just the running, she said to herself, yet she knew she couldn’t deny the excitement she felt inside. Secondary school! – she was going to talk to Mam about it.
    She’d be like the rest of them, provided they had a place and that they’d take her. Maybe it was too good to be true. Don’t get your hopes up, Mam was always telling her. But at that moment her hopes were flying high … as high as a seagull in the open sky.

Chapter 16
A NEW START
    ‘Well, Mrs Connors, are you happy with what you’ve seen?’ asked Mrs Quinlan, the Principal.
    Katie could tell that her mother was ill-at-ease. ‘It’s lovely, Mrs Quinlan,’ she interrupted.
    Mrs Quinlan was very different from the other teachers she’d met over the years. Her blond hair was cropped short and she wore huge red-framed glasses that made her look like a big round owl.
    ‘Now, I know you’ll be at a disadvantage starting late, Katie, but as they say, better late than never.’
    Mam was sitting very quietly. The huge corridors and classrooms and science labs and sports hall had taken her breath away, and they had only been shown a small part of the Community School.
    Katie herself felt a little bewildered and hoped she would be able to find her way around.
    ‘Here’s your booklist. There’s a second-hand bookshop in town, you’ll get most of them there. This is your daily timetable and an information sheet about classes and after-school activities. A lot goes on here after the bell rings, you know.’
    Katie glanced at it. Judo, dance, tennis, drama, hockey, computers – the kind of things you dream about doing but would never get thechance.
    ‘Now, I’ll show you the way out.’
    She led them down a long yellow-painted corridor with a polished tiled floor. The wall was covered with framed photographs of hockey teams, a group of students dressed up as Vikings, two boys in judo outfits and a smiling girl holding a shining silver trophy. Katie slowed down and trailed behind her mother and the teacher, trying to read the inscriptions and dates. An image of herself holding a tennis racquet and smiling into the camera made her giggle.
    They reached the main door and said their goodbyes.
    ‘I’ll see you here on Monday, Katie,’ said the Principal, ‘and remember to be on time.’
    They walked back down past a row of parked cars. Katie could tell Mam was worried.
    ‘Do you think you’ll manage it, pet?’
    ‘The rest of them do, so why shouldn’t I?’
    ‘But, Katie, we’re not the rest of them. Are you sure you’re not taking on too much?’
    ‘Mam, stop worrying, I’ll be fine.’
    ‘Well, do your best and your Da and I will be right proud of you, one way or the other. Did I ever think I’d see the day when one of my own went to the secondary!’
    * * *
    On her first morning, Katie walked up and down the girls’ locker room trying to find her locker.There were so many of them and every one of them grey! The key said number 102. Down at the bottom of the room there was a large mirror and a row of basins, and through a door beside these were the toilets. Crowds of girls hung around chatting and pushing and shoving, so that it was impossible to see which grey door was hers. A sharp bell rang and the crowd heaved towards the door and set off in the direction of the sports hall.
    Number 99, 100, 101, 102 – great! The key was tiny and hard to turn, but she managed it. She stared in. The locker was so small! How would she fit everything into it? She hung her jacket from the metal hook and dumped the bag on the shelf. She tried to open the stiff