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  Mrs Snippiton was a tall blonde woman (Isabel told one of her friends she couldn’t work out why because she had auburn hair and her father’s hair was as black as night). June had an absolute passion for cats and her three very beautiful Siamese had won many prizes at the Royal Melbourne Show. Isabel detested the cats and always believed Mummy gave them more time and love than she gave her.

  It was easy for Mrs Snippiton to see that her only child despised her treasures. She thought that if she got her daughter to understand the cats then she too would connect with them. One day she told Isabel that if she wanted her allowance she needed to earn it by looking after her cats on the weekends when she was home from boarding. This would include grooming, walking and feeding them. She would also have to pay for them to have a spa bath once a month out of her own allowance and if she couldn’t ensure this was done properly, she would lose her pocket money for two weeks.

  We would often overhear Isabel say to anyone that would listen, “How dare she even contemplate taking away my allowance. It just won’t do! Can you imagine me having to shop at a regular clothing store? I bloody well don’t think so!”

  Isabel detested the cats but she still needed the money so she would often pay one of the younger students to walk them for her. Of course her mother didn’t know this: Isabel would tell her she was on her way to walk the little treasures but as soon as she was out of the house and around the corner she would hand them over to her employee while declaring, “Take these disgusting rodents before I get fleas!”

  And then she’d take a stroll down the street and do some window shopping.

  Both Isabel and Mr Gowdy had a lot in common; in fact much more than either of them knew. Isabel’s passion for finding out what was going on at Benworden was even more obsessive than Mr Gowdy’s, and both would stop at nothing to discover its secrets. It became so compulsive with Isabel that we had to put two of our club members on her case.

  8

  CROSSING A HEART CAN HAVE CONSEQUENCES

  Kate “Cross” and Sophie “Heart” Jones were our year 9 club members. What was different this time, however, was that they were identical twin sisters, and apart from a heart-shaped birthmark on Sophie’s ankle and a small crossed scar in the palm of Kate’s hand where she had fallen when she was young, it was impossible to tell them apart.

  Only the club and their parents knew of these differences and there was good reason for us keeping them secret. Both girls were champagne blondes and had very light blue eyes and we all felt that either one could easily become a model when she grew older – perhaps that explains why they were so into the latest fashions. Their mother Sandra and father William lived in England. Sandra and William met at a university in London while studying for their teaching degrees. It seemed that destiny had brought them together and there were far too many coincidences to believe otherwise.

  When Kate and Sophie began telling me the story of their parents the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand on end. Kate would say, “It’s absolutely amazing, Mummy shares the same birthday as Daddy.” And then Sophie would chip in to continue the sentence, “And they were even born in the same hospital.”

  Although Kate and Sophie had never lived in England they travelled there with their parents two or three times a year, and both of them had picked up their family’s English accent.

  It was really strange to have a conversation with the two of them. It always felt as if you were talking to only one person. When one stopped for a breath the other took over and their voices were as identical as their looks.

  Kate and Sophie told me that both their mother’s and father’s parents had lived within a block of each other yet neither family had formally met, and that their mother had a sister who was four years older than her and their father had a brother who was four years older than him. Sandra and William enjoyed tennis and hiking before they became acquainted and both had always dreamed of visiting Australia as soon as they completed university, so when they eventually met it was like they had known each other forever. They both found it almost impossible to be away from each other for more than a day.

  Once they were awarded their teaching degrees they decided they would fulfil their dream and go to Australia on a working holiday. Benworden has always been happy to employ young teachers fresh from university and when William and Sandra applied for positions there was no hesitation in appointing them.

  Time flew by quickly for them and a year later they married. Not long after Sandra fell pregnant with the twins. William and Sandra loved their work at Ballarat so much that they became Australian citizens and whenever they missed home they would visit Britain with the girls.

  Fifteen years passed and the girls were about to enter into year 7 when the family received the news that Sandra’s mother had fallen seriously ill. With all the strange connections between these two families it was no surprise that William’s father had also fallen seriously ill from the same complaint, so they made a very difficult decision to take a year off without pay and return to England. Despite their concern for their grandparents Sophie and Kate begged their parents to allow them to remain; they had so many friends in Ballarat and loved Benworden so much that even the thought of leaving was unbearable to them.

  After long discussions with the girls it was decided that they would remain, and they were signed up for boarding.

  We had no doubt that these girls would be perfect for our club because no one could tell them apart, even sometimes their parents! Our decision proved to be a good one as time went by. Whenever one was required to sneak out to get supplies or needed in the club rooms for monitoring, the other covered for her by swapping and changing characters. However, I do remember one occasion when for one of them being an identical twin was more of a negative than a positive.

  Sophie was having trouble with her maths and Kate spent hours helping her with it. She had done such a good job that Sophie got an A on her next maths exam. Sophie emailed her mother and father to tell them about her achievement and they transferred $100 into her account as a reward. She was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to share the news with her sister.

  “Kate, Mum and Dad have given me a hundred dollars for getting an A on my maths exam. Isn’t that great!”

  Kate was happy for her but she felt she deserved some of the credit and Sophie was yet to thank her, so she replied, “That’s fantastic, Sophie. Are you going to share some of it with me?”

  Sophie looked puzzled and said, “No! Why would I do that? This is my reward for achieving an A. You didn’t share your one hundred dollars when you achieved an A plus!”

  Kate frowned and said, “That’s right, I didn’t, and you didn’t give hours of your time to help me get it. I did it on my own!”

  Sophie’s emotions began to boil over and she said, “There have been several times when I’ve helped you with other things without reward and you certainly weren’t in the room when I sat the exam. So as far as I’m concerned you can go and jump!”

  Kate threw her hands onto her hips and spouted, “Fine!”

  Sophie did the same and then turned and stormed off.

  Sophie decided to take the day off school and go shopping in Melbourne with her one hundred dollars. Sophie’s parents had a lot of trust in their daughters and had given them five undated absentee notes each in case of times like these. It made it easier for everyone if for some reason their parents were out of contact. It was mid-year and neither girl had used any of the notes so Sophie saw this as the perfect opportunity to have some “me time.”

  Sophie knocked on Isabel’s door and asked her if she would drop her absentee letter off to Miss Fickle.

  Isabel knew how close Sophie and Kate were and found it peculiar that she would ask her rather than her sister. She said, “Why don’t you get Kate to drop it in for you?”

  Sophie was still upset from the argument and snapped back at Isabel, “I don’t want to talk about it. Will you do this for me or not?”

  I
sabel took a step back and replied, “Ok! Ok! You don’t have to bite my head off!”

  Sophie tightened her lips and said, “Sorry! But can you stop prying for one moment and drop the letter in for me, or is that too much to ask?”

  Isabel turned ruby-red, snatched the note from Sophie’s hand and slammed the door in her face.

  Sophie sarcastically whispered at the door, “Thank you!”

  Isabel waited awhile and then poked her head out. Once she knew the coast was clear she headed straight to Kate’s room and knocked on her door and called out, “Kate, have you got a moment? I have something for you.”

  Kate opened her door with a jolt because she was still angry from her tiff with Sophie. She said, “What do you want?”

  Isabel, shocked by Kate’s aggressiveness, replied, “Well excuse me!”

  Kate said angrily, “You’re excused. Now what do you want?”

  Neither of the girls had spoken to Isabel in this tone before and for once in her life she was almost lost for words. She regained her composure and said, “What I want is for both you and your sister to stop speaking to me in this manner! I would also like you to take your sister’s letter to Miss Fickle because I refuse to help people who speak to me with contempt.”

  Kate snatched the letter from her hand and said, “Is that all?”

  After that remark Isabel made the sound of a snorting bull, turned and stormed off.

  Kate was still angry with Sophie and thought the letter would give her the perfect opportunity to get back at her sister. She placed the note under her pillow and then headed off to school with one of her own absentee letters.

  On arrival, she handed it to Miss Fickle and said, “Kate will be absent from school today and has asked me to give you this letter. Oh, by the way Miss Fickle, I must tell you that dress is simply dreadful, I don’t like it at all.”

  Miss Fickle stood there in shock as Kate swung around like a ballet dancer and marched off toward Sophie’s class. Meanwhile the real Sophie was on the train heading to Melbourne, thinking about the things she had said that morning and how much her sister had helped her. She thought to herself the only way to make it up to Kate would be to buy her a gift with a nice card, but back at the school Kate was doing quite the opposite. She was using Sophie’s name to totally run amok and when Miss James, the music teacher, approached to congratulate who she thought was Sophie on her A, Kate replied, “Yes, I deserved it. Maybe the teachers here could learn a trick or two from me. They’re not exactly all that bright, you know.”

  Miss James glared at her scornfully, something she rarely did to any of the students, and said, “Sophie! That is so unlike you. There isn’t any need for that type of contempt and I can’t believe it came from you!”

  Kate shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Oh well.”

  She continued to be rude to people throughout the morning knowing that on her sister’s return the following day there would be many angry people with scores to settle.

  That afternoon when Sophie arrived back at the boarding house she knocked on her sister’s door thinking to herself how surprised Kate would be to get a present from her.

  Kate opened the door and gave Sophie the same daggered look she had given Isabel earlier that morning and said, “I don’t feel like talking to you right now, so go away!”

  Sophie replied, “I understand, but will you please take this?”

  Sophie pulled a small gift-wrapped box from behind her and gave it to Kate, then headed off to her room.

  Kate stood there for several moments staring into space as though she was under some sort of hypnotic spell and then shut her door. She sat on her bed and with hands shaking she opened the card. It had a gold medal embossed on the cover and in large print read, “AWARDED TO THE WORLD’S BEST SISTER.”

  Tears began to run down her cheeks when she opened up the card and read what Sophie had written.

  To my dearest sister,

  I am so sorry for the way I spoke to you this morning. There is no way I would have got an A without your help.

  Thank you so much, Sophie.

  Kate opened the small gift box and found a bracelet with a heart on it and engraved on the back was, “Love you Sis.”

  This was too much for Kate and she began to sob uncontrollably. She placed the bracelet on her wrist and raced to her sister’s room and hugged her the moment she answered the door.

  Kate, still crying, said, “I am so sorry.”

  Sophie began sobbing too and replied, “So am I.”

  Kate asked Sophie what she had bought for herself and she replied, “Nothing really. I couldn’t see anything I liked and as long as I have you for a sister I don’t need anything else.”

  Kate was now overwhelmed with guilt and asked, “How much of the hundred dollars do you have left?”

  Sophie smiled and hugged her sister again and replied, “Oh, heaps and heaps.”

  Kate put her hands on her sister’s shoulders and pushed back so they were face to face. She said, “Do we have to fight again? Now tell me, how much?”

  Sophie replied, “Well, I did have a coffee and a nice sandwich.”

  Kate looked straight into her eyes and repeated her question, “How much?”

  Sophie could see Kate wasn’t going to give up until she got an answer so she replied, “Two dollars.”

  Kate’s suspicions were right: Sophie had spent most of her money on her. She looked at Sophie with saddened eyes and said, “Why, why did you spend so much on me?”

  Sophie’s eyes began to well up with tears again and she replied, “Because I hurt you and I needed to show you that money doesn’t mean as much to me as you do.”

  Kate was absolutely overwhelmed, especially knowing what she had done to her sister, and with tears freely flowing down her face she said to Sophie, “I don’t deserve a sister like you and I’m telling you something now and I won’t take no for an answer. Tomorrow you’re having a day off on one of my passes and I’ll take your place at school. Not only that, you can have a sleep in while I sneak breakfast up for you.”

  Sophie said, “You don’t have to do that.”

  Kate was quick to reply, “Oh yes I do!”

  The following day Kate kept her promise and brought Sophie her breakfast in bed and then left for school pretending, again, that she was Sophie.

  The first thing she did was hand an absentee note to Miss Fickle once more and said, “I am so sorry about what I said yesterday, Miss Fickle. I was having such a terrible morning and my hair wouldn’t do anything I wanted it to, so when I saw you looking so radiant with that beautiful dress on I felt even worse and had that absolute ghastly outburst. Please forgive me – it’ll never happen again!”

  There was no way Miss Fickle could be angry after an apology like that. She had gone from thinking there was something wrong with her dress to believing it was very special and she replied, “It’s all right, dear. I didn’t take it to heart. It is a lovely dress though, isn’t it Sophie?”

  Kate replied, “It really is magnificent. Where did you get it?”

  Miss Fickle told Kate all about the dress and Kate knew she had mended the first bridge for the day. She then headed out to the school garden and picked a small bunch of flowers for Miss James.

  Kate worked tirelessly throughout the day, not only apologising to those she had hurt and insulted but leaving them liking Sophie more than they had before. By the time Kate got back to the boarding house she was absolutely exhausted but she knew she had one more thing to do. She headed straight to Sophie’s room to tell her what she had done the day before and how sorry she was.

  At first Sophie was furious and hurt and Kate told her she would understand if she never spoke to her again. She went on to tell her that she had spent her whole day fixing the damage she had done.

  As Kate turned to walk out Sophie told her to wait and said, “This should be a good lesson to the both of us. Come here and give me a hug.”

  Kate turned around. �
��Does this mean you forgive me?”

  Sophie walked over and hugged her and said jokingly,” Of course it does, sweetie, but are you some sort of a nut coming up here and telling me what you’d done? I would have kept it to myself!”

  Kate began to laugh through her tears and Sophie said to her sister, “Come on, we really need to get Isabel back on side before she does some damage.”

  It was that English charm they inherited from their parents that got them out of trouble and invited into places that other club members couldn’t enter. Sophie and Kate were our perfect spies outside of school and even Isabel would invite them as special guests to her parties and functions. Isabel once asked them about the club rings they wore and they told her that they had been given to them by Bungles and Roo, two year 8 boys who the girls said had a crush on them. The girls went on to say that they told the boys how much they liked the rings they were wearing and the boys went out and bought two more for them.

  “Silly boys,” said Sophie.

  “Yes, silly boys,” repeated Kate, and they both began to giggle.

  Isabel asked them what the rings meant; she had seen others wearing them and Kate replied, “Who knows?”

  Sophie continued with, “Just a trend I guess.”

  Then the both of them continued in unison, “As long as we got them for free, who cares?”

  Isabel joined in the giggling but thought to herself, “There’s got to be something more to those rings than meets the eye, but I guess I’m asking the wrong people. They wouldn’t have a clue what they represented.”

  What Isabel didn’t know was that the girls were keeping the club informed of what she was up to and this helped us to stay one step ahead of her. Although their little made-up story about the rings had thrown the suspicion off them as far as Isabel was concerned, poor Bungles and Roo couldn’t work out why Isabel would walk past them and say: “I know who you have a crush on.” They would look at each other curiously and Roo would say to Bungles, “What was that about?”