VETTA FOUND AS she read from a supplied brochure that she had a one in four chance of making the acquaintance of a fellow dorm mate for there were only four first year dormitories in the extremely exclusive school.

As the great vehicle rumbled along winding coastal roads and began climbing past dark and curious woodlands, she found her attention was divided between two equally amazing things. Briefly she caught glimpses of the strange landscape out of a window which thrilled her by its strangeness, and then all around her too were fellow newcomers sat in the luxuriously comfortable seats. Some were even wandering up and down the carpeted aisle in search of others to engage with.

The view out the windows of the coach was a source of confusion to Vetta, though at first her eyes took in the ocean with some degree of equanimity for its flatness had a familiar look to it. She of course had not seen a canal that did not have an opposite bank before, nor such raggedness on its near side, yet there was still some comfort to gaze out at the distant horizon. The fact it seemed to climb up to the sky in a great blue dome was merely an illusion she concluded.

On her left however the world was very different. Dark, brooding shadows seemed to fill the view, not like the flitter window at night for here there were things to see. Land sloped oddly and shadows blotted the sky in a way she could not quite figure out. It was simply too strange and she looked away frequently to study the interior of the coach and those, her school companions, who occupied it with noise and colour.

There were twins on the coach and Vetta could not make up her mind if they might make pleasant dorm companions as they were big girls, loud and mischievous, often descending into slap fights or fits of giggles no one else could understand. A girl sat at the back positively terrified her, with her dark stormy hair and brooding looks. The redhead was not on the coach, she noted, but then that particular character seemed to have such a commandingly independent demeanour that she might be making her own way to the school. She saw before getting on the coach that some pupils had their own vehicles to travel privately in, including the Greenvale girl, who seemed surrounded by relatives before she disappeared. Vetta wished a little her father had come with her all the way to the steps of Miss Plazenby's but then she wanted the adventure of independence to begin as soon as possible. Besides it would have cost a lot more for him to travel too she presumed.

Then the view out the window opened out a little more on the land side and this made her forget her companions again for this land of Frangea seemed made of the most incredible mountains she had ever seen. She had seen images and on-grid films of course before she travelled and when viewed thus they looked jagged and bumpy but small and tolerable. Seeing them now towering over the tiny ribbon of road the coach was rumbling along, there was a massive and sinister look about them. Everything seemed to flow past the vehicle, scattering this way and that. Even the trees looked like they were running away from them as if fleeing some threat. The great masses of rock which towered over the roadway did not move however, only grow larger, more menacing.

Vetta felt a presence near her as some strands of hair drifted into her field of vision and she looked up. It was the girl with the abundance of pencils.

"You were making such whimpering noises I'd thought I would investigate," she said.

"Do you want your pencil back? It is such a nice lemon colour, I understand why you would."

"That's okay," and the girl laughed as she sat down in the seat next to Vetta. "Enjoying the view?"

"It's terrifying!" Vetta replied, eyes wide. "I never realised just how big mountains are. Where does all the rocks and stuff come from to make them so big?"

"Mountains? Those are foothills. Look, we're just going through some settlement with houses and shops and things, all built on these gigantic mountains that are so terrifying. How do you think the people living there cope with such a menace on their doorstep?"

"I can't imagine," came the honest answer. "We are going to Mount Syzywyg. Is that just as big?"

"Well, it's higher up so I suppose it is even bigger. Frangea is very hilly inland and covered in forests. You'll get used to it. I remember you said you were from Poldorama. That's a very flat place so this will take some adjustment."

"How do you know so much, if you've never been here before?"

"Well, I'm from Arbornica. We have a lot of trees and hills just like this, but no coast line or large settlements. Just rivers and waterfalls and lots of wood cabins."

"It must be very nice," and Vetta sighed, trying to imagine such a place.

"My name is Meresinth Woodbine and I've been assigned the Wonder Dormitory," the girl said, showing her papers in a helpful way.

"Me too!" Vetta enthused. Suddenly she realised she had met and made friends with one of her dorm mates even before they had reached the school. "Do you know of any others?" and she looked around at the passengers with renewed interest.

"There was a girl with pink hair I spoke to earlier because she admired my braid. Can't see her at the moment but I'm certain she is not in our dorm. Shame really, would have had a bit of fun with that one I'm sure." Meresinth came across as somewhat mischievous as she said this. "As for the scowling girl at the back, definitely not."

Vetta sighed with relief.

"And the twins? Do they count as one or two?" she asked. As she spoke they noticed her looking in their direction and as one returned a stare of curiosity very much doubled in intensity.

"Not sure, I mean about them being Wonder girls. I'm pretty sure they would count as two though." Meresinth turned to face the Poldorama girl. "Listen, I do know of one other, but she had her own chauffeured vehicle. Seemed a little stuck up when I spoke to her so I'm not sure how friendly she will be. We were the last two called you see. Her name's Pirouette Wrangely, though she pronounces her name Ranjelly or something like that but I saw how it was spelt. She said I kept saying it wrongly and I just laughed you see. She couldn't or wouldn't understand the joke, so I suppose her sense of humour may have failed to cross the storm barriers."

"I hope her humour returns by the time we are settled in our beds tonight."

"There's heaps to go through before that which might frizz her ringlets even more so I'm not too sure."

Meresinth's assessment turned out to be quite true as the great vehicle climbed up the last incline through patches of woodland and into open grassy fields, at the centre of which on a spur of the hillside stood a grand building with a multitude of windows.

"Why, it's just like one of our warehouses at home but with many more windows," Vetta declared. "Warehouses have few windows as there is little need to look out of them."

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"Or into them either I should imagine," Meresinth added.

As soon as the coach halted the mistress in grey jumped up and began giving instructions. The girls marched out and down onto the gravel sweep where other smaller vehicles had also drawn up, their occupants milling around. There was a small boy running about shouting "Piggypants!" every now and then for some reason and the girls watched him merrily until he was gathered up by the girl Vetta remembered came from Greenvale.

"You are all to gather in the great hall so the other mistresses and Miss Plazenby herself will informally greet you," the lady in charge of the first years instructed, and everyone, with or without family members made their way as a crowd up the wide steps, through a splendid foyer and to their left into the most sumptuously decorated hall the Poldorama girl had ever seen.

Vetta remembered very little of the presentation, her eyes too full of colour and light and texture so unfamiliar to her so that she was grateful it was soon over and she was allowed to climb the stairs with Meresinth to seek out the Wonder Dorm. All the first year dorms were on the top floor, split into two sets of two so that when they had finally reached the final steps, some girls went to the left and others to the right. The twins, who had raced ahead as their long legs easily vaulted three steps at a time, darted noisily off to the right, answering Vetta's query by this action, for she knew her dormitory was on the left.

When she got to the door with its gilded lettering another girl was standing in front of it reading her own sheet. She looked up, appraised the smiling Vetta with a look of utter disdain and then entered the room without a word. Meresinth came up behind Vetta just then.

"Like I said, wrongly," she whispered in her ear.

"Perhaps she's just missing her family," Vetta replied in a faint voice.

***

THE FIRST YEAR dormitories were on the very top floor of the large main building just below the roof space to keep them well away from everyone else. Each of the four of them could accommodate six girls to a room.

Dorm Sensation and Dorm Flare were at one side of the building and Dorm Amaze and Dorm Wonder at the other. Thus when Vetta entered the room after Pirouette Wrangely she found a large central space crowded with beds in niches and corners. Beyond was a flood of light from a large window overlooking a forested hill slope and she could see what appeared to be a balcony. She turned to Meresinth.

"This is amazing," she said with genuine awe.

"No, that's next door," the Arbornica girl said wittily, knowing their neighbours were known as Dorm Amaze for some reason. Why the dorms had such funny names she could not guess but accepted the fact for a year at least, if she failed to get expelled, she would be a Wonder girl, for what that was worth.

"Our luggage is already here," Vetta then cried happily, noting piles of suitcases and bags laid in the centre upon the plush patterned carpet. "I was wondering how I was to carry all my belongings up those many steps. We are so high up I feel almost dizzy."

"We are part of an extremely exclusive seminary I might remind you. The privileged do not carry luggage," Pirouette said. She had glanced around the room briefly. "That bed is mine." With that she grabbed the most sparkly suitcase Vetta had ever seen, pressed a button on it and the thing almost seemed to hover over to where she had placed her straw hat with its Plazenby ribbon of blue and yellow stripes. Then she stood by the bed and waited.

Vetta waited also. She was in a terrible dilemma as soon as she realised beds were not allocated but chosen. Another girl had come in carrying three bags which she tossed into a corner. Without saying anything to anyone, she threw herself onto a bed near the window, settled herself and then looked around.

"Hello," she said, big blue eyes scanning the others. "This is fun. I'm Dolly Bloomen, from Nordeyer somewhere over that way," and she waved a hand at a cabinet next her bed.

"I am intensely pleased to meet you," Vetta Mindal said before anyone else opened their mouths. "My name is Vetta Mindal from the Blessed Hub in Poldorama." She paused, thinking. "My father makes cheese," she added uncertainly. Dolly lay back on hearing this and smiled.

"I've no idea what my father makes," she said and laughed. "I tend to make a mess though," and she indicated the bags she had brought with her, the contents of which were half tumbled on the floor.

Four beds were left now, but when Vetta turned she saw a quiet girl with large glasses sitting on the edge of the bed opposite the one Pirouette had claimed. Meresinth had by this time turned down the covers of the other bed near the window as if searching for things and a most curious looking girl with strange purple eyes had wheeled a suitcase from the centre of the room to one of the two beds near the door, the one at an angle from the quiet bespectacled girl. She had opened her case and was removing its contents.

Vetta breathed a sigh of relief and went over to the remaining bed where she stood next to it hesitantly. Then she turned and faced the busy scene as nearly everyone else had begun unpacking.

"I hope," she said, barely audible above the noisy sounds of the others, "no one minds if I choose this bed. It seems nice and close to the door with a shady darkness to it in this corner."

"You're welcome to it," Pirouette snorted as she lay out a rainbow collection of packages and shop parcels that suggested high fashion. This was not surprising for she was a Perfectine, hailing from a land where design and style were the lifeblood of the society she grew up in. Anywhere else beyond the barriers that surrounded Perfecta seemed barbaric by comparison. Yet here she was among the aesthetically challenged with a mission to bring quality to the benighted peoples of Frangea, and most particularly her vaguely acknowledged associates of Dorm Wonder.

"A brilliant choice Vetta," Meresinth said. "It was almost as if you waited until everyone else was settled where they wanted to be and then the most ideal spot was the one left," and she cackled gleefully as she put things in a cabinet next to her bed.

"It was indeed the best choice," the curious girl with purple eyes said from the bed opposite to that of the Poldorama girl. "One of generosity and kindness which we could all learn from."

Vetta gaped at this speech. It seemed so very right.

"I am Sentimentalia Placidia Rosala," the girl said. "From Granite," and she held out a hand.

"Creepy," Meresinth sniggered.

"As if we are going to remember that mouthful," Pirouette said over her shoulder as she examined empty cupboards and shelves and bemoaned the absence of special decorated sheeting to add brightness to her bedside cabinet's interior.

"That is why I often ask my friends to call me Esper for short," the girl said placidly.

"Creepier," Meresinth chortled.

Vetta shook Esper's hand and introduced herself in a set speech that made the mischievous girl from Arbornica jump in before she had finished all of it to remind everyone helpfully that Vetta's father also made cheese.

"A very worthy occupation," came a voice from another bed and Vetta turned to see the bespectacled girl walking towards her. The lenses she wore made her eyes seem enormous as she approached and Vetta took a step back. Before reaching where Vetta stood, pressed up against her bed, the girl knelt down and retrieved something from the floor.

"Could not help noticing you dropped this," she said and held up a yellow pencil.

Vetta glanced at Meresinth, recognising the original owner when Esper's soft, calming voice interceded.

"It is yours Vetta, truly so, and you must claim it accordingly. We are here to learn all about sharing."

"Thank you," Vetta said with a stutter, taking the pencil. "I am Vetta," she began again.

"I know," the bespectacled girl interrupted with a smile. "And I am Anthera Malabona from Meditia. Like you I have left my homeland far away across the storm barriers to come here and learn things I could not possibly learn back home."

"What sort of things?" Vetta whimpered for the magnified gaze of the girl was intense.

"The true meaning of friendship."

That had been three of the five wellsprings of joy these girls had mentioned without Vetta uttering a word on the matter. She was astounded, astonished and delighted all at once.

"I hope," she said faintly, "we have all come to the right place."

"I have my doubts," Pirouette countered with a huff, surveying her untouched belongings. "When is the maid going to appear to unpack my things?"

"Just before the world is due to end," Esper whispered.