"What's that smell?" Pirouette Wrangly said as she chose a bed by the window.

"That's fresh air," another girl replied, a curly blonde with a healthy outdoor tan.

"And pinewood," added Meresinth.

With that the girl went to the window and promptly closed it. She then pulled from her hand luggage a bottle and sprayed the air around her.

"Bugs get everywhere," she said by way of explanation and then, having claimed her bed began unpacking. Everyone else soon became absorbed in their own arranging of personal items and Vetta placed a picture of her parents on a side table. She had chosen a bed nearest the door which no one else seemed to want, not realising it would be the noisiest. Meresinth chose the one next to her, both being on the opposite side of the room from Pirouette. She looked at the picture of Vetta's parents and smiled. Then she produced a picture of her own parents and placed it upon her own dresser top with a nod of mutual understanding to her dorm mate. The other bed next the window was claimed by the curly blonde, who disregarding what happened earlier went out of the window onto the balcony to look at the view. It quickly became apparent there would be a clash of personalities between the two girls which made Vetta sigh to witness.

"We are here to learn to adjust to sharing space with others," she said to Meresinth as the two girls sat opposite each other and admired their belongings scattered upon the floor.

"Some need more space than others," came the half-whispered reply.

Lunch in the great hall was followed by various speeches and introductions of mistresses and one or two masters who held classes, then the older girls sang a song and welcomed the new girls with a round of applause that made some of the first years blush.

There would be of course no lessons on the first two days at the school, merely orientation exercises and tours, both of the grounds and the surrounding area, with warnings about boundaries and local dangers.

"How thrilling! There is to be a midnight procession as part of the first night of the new academic year," Vetta said, scrolling through her school information feed when the girls had returned to their dorms for an afternoon nap. "Everybody has to wear purple robes with hoods so we all look alike. It symbolises the fact we are all the same and start from the same point."

"Well I shall wear a particular shade of purple," Pirouette said smugly, "to distinguish myself. After all, we do not actually all start from the same point."

"And we all get to carry identical candles," Vetta added, not being dampened in her enthusiasm for the ceremony by the other girl's opposing comments.

"No doubt Pirry's candle will be longer, or wavy or something to extinguish, I mean to distinguish her also," Meresinth could not help adding her own take on the matter. It was clearly becoming apparent she was fond of witticisms.

"Please refrain from calling me Pirry. My name as you know is Pirouette Wrangly," the girl sniffed.

"Sorry, don't get in a spin if I said it wrongly," came a smart retort. The puns were too good to miss and the other girls sniggered in their sleeves. All except Vetta, who blinked and smiled and seemed content with matters either way.

Dolly Bloomen yawned. She was the curly blonde who seemed very fit and sporting as if she spent a lot of time out of doors in the sunshine yet had said she actually came from a cold northern Winkel called Nordeyer.

"Well, I'm going to take advantage of nap time if we are all going to be traipsing around the school at midnight. And I'll take full advantage of the lie in we've been assigned next day too. I'm a sleepy soul." With that she fell down upon her bed fully dressed and it was as if she had been switched off like a robot or something for to Vetta's amazement she began snoring almost immediately.

This made the others girls quieten down also, except for Pirouette, who was lecturing a somewhat puzzled bespectacled girl on the bed next to hers.

"It's a shame you wear glasses," Pirouette said to the girl. "You are quite pretty. Why haven't your parents offered you laser correction?"

"There is nothing wrong with my eyes. These spectacles make them stronger," the girl said, gesturing as if she could see a long way off.

"If I lose anything," Pirouette replied without missing a beat, "I shall be sure to call you."

Meresinth gave Vetta a look but the Poldorama girl was already composing herself to sleep so she could dream of all the exciting days ahead at Miss Plazenby's. It was thus quite a startling moment indeed when she was woken by a scream elsewhere in the building.

Everyone crowded into the corridors and older girls were shushing the chattering voices and appealing for calm.

"Did someone step on a snail?" one of the twins was heard asking, making some girls cackle which lightened the alarmed mood somewhat.

"No," came the measured tones of a third year who had taken command of the corridors on the top floor. "It appears one of you silly newcomers saw a shadow on a balcony and thought it an intruder. I might remind you girls the rooftops are accessible from the balconies in your rooms but that until instructed otherwise no one is to venture up there. It was probably a second year fooling around, trying to give you lot a fright."

"Well, she failed," came a mutter from the girl Vetta remembered on the coach, a fierce looking character with dark eyes and a mass of black hair that seemed to swirl around in the slightest breeze. The Poldorama girl thought differently from this girl. She had been thoroughly frightened.

A tour of the building, including the rooftops, was conducted by several mistresses later that day and the evening meal was a riotious affair as school rules were not yet in force. When Dolly realised the boisterous twins were from Nordeyer like herself this seemed an excuse to start a bun fight that became general. Even Vetta ventured to throw a bread roll once in a moment of daring but it bounced off Pirouette's head when she was looking the other way so that the culprit hid under the table until the meal was over.

Finally the event Vetta had been most looking forward to that first day, the midnight procession, was set in motion. Robes were provided for everyone and Pirouette, when the mistress was not looking, sprayed hers with a fabric glitter that lightened its shade and made her stand out amid the row of first years. She kept herself discreetly hidden when the year head scanned over the girls to make sure they were ready, holding lighted candles as they lined up.

"Girls," she announced. "We are about to take part in a ritual that has been held at Miss Plazenby's for over a hundred years. It symbolises those early days of education for girls in Frangea, those pioneering days when there were those who opposed feminine education for all they were worth. Thus the first pupils dressed in robes similar to these, hiding girlish looks behind costumes that bespoke solemn dedication to the pursuit of knowledge above all things. We shall process along a fixed route, making a circuit of the school and when that is completed we shall throw off these garments and glory in our femininity with a loud cheer. Everyone ready? Then follow me."

With that the stately woman, dressed in her own concealing robes and holding an even bigger candle, marched down the stairs and along corridors through the confines of the building with the others in close and silent attendance. They were of course the only girls allowed out after midnight because of the ritual, the other years were all tucked up in bed, though no doubt watching from windows whenever the procession, sparkling with its candles, passed outside for part of the journey.

Vetta, in spite of the draped hood, glanced this way and that in excitement at the solemnity and profound quiet of the dim surroundings. It was because of this eagerness to see everything that she noticed a figure appear to sneak in at a window and tag along at the back of the group. Vetta shuddered, then sighed in relief when she saw they were dressed in similar robes. Then she shuddered again for the figure drifted to one side and picked up a silver statuette from a pedestal in the corridor they were marching along, concealing it in her robes. What astonished her even more was the fact the robes were shaded like those of Pirouette Wrangly.

"Thief!" someone suddenly shouted without warning and the procession broke up in chaos.