Plot summary
Pearl and Jodie Wells are sisters. Jodie, 14, is boisterous, mischievous and very protective of her younger sister. She dyes her hair, pierces her ears and dresses in an outlandish way, constantly irritating her mother. Pearl, 10, is a shy bookworm, who thinks the world of Jodie. Their mother and father, Sharon and Joe, decide to move to Melchester College, a boarding school in the countryside, where they have both been offered new jobs as a cook and caretaker, respectively. They would like to give the girls an opportunity to receive a quality education. Jodie does not want to move, because she is settled at her current school, where she is friends with the popular girls. She is even more horrified when her mother says that she will have to retake Year 8. Pearl, however, is glad because she is constantly bullied at her school. She sees the move as an opportunity to have a fresh start, in a different place with a different life. Even though she refuses at first, Jodie finally says that she will move, when Pearl asks her to.
When the family arrive at Melchester, they meet Miss French, the school secretary. On their first night at the school, they are invited to dinner at the residence of Mr. Wilberforce, the Headmaster, and his wife.
As it is the summer holidays only four children, who have not gone home for the holidays, are living in the school. The sisters meet tall, badger-watching Harley, who gets along very well with Pearl, and three little children: Zeph, Dan and Sakura. They also meet other members of the staff: the under matron, Miss Ponsonby (nicknamed "Undie") and the gardener, Jed. Jodie and Jed are attracted to each other, almost immediately, even though he is five years older than she is.
On Pearl's eleventh birthday, her mother insists that she have a small party with all the children. Among her presents are a rainbow bracelet from Jodie, a manuscript book from Mrs. Wilberforce and a torch from Harley. Mrs. Wilberforce invites her to write her own story in the notebook, and Harley asks her to use the torch to sneak out and watch badgers with him at night. Even though at first Pearl is scared, she begins to enjoy her nightly escapades with Harley and savours the fact that she can keep a secret from Jodie. Eventually, Jodie finds out and confronts Pearl about it, thinking that her and Harley are meeting romantically. Pearl reassures her that they are only watching badgers and that they have not invited her because she can't stay still or silent for more than a few minutes.
When the school reopens, Pearl makes quite a few friends in her class and enjoys her lessons. Jodie, on the other hand, does not have such an easy time. The students in her class constantly mock her and she does not take lessons seriously. After being referred to as 'Ginger Minger' for some time, she dyes her hair black. Soon after, Jed runs over a baby badger that Harley and Pearl have been watching, and Jodie is disgusted at his indifference. She immediately declares that she does not want to see him anymore. However, Pearl is worried when she discovers a used and positive pregnancy test in the girls' bathroom, even though Jodie denies that it is hers.
A few weeks after the school has reopened, Mr. Wilberforce asks Jodie to tell all the little children a bed-time story each night. Jodie, having fallen out with Jed and not fit in with her class, happily agrees.
At the school's Halloween party, Jodie and Pearl dress up and play with the younger children. At the end of the night, Jodie takes the little boys back to their dormitory, where she tells them a ghost story; while Pearl takes the little girls to their dormitory, where she tells them a story about pumpkin patch fairies. Many of the boys fall ill and have terrible nightmares. Mr. Wilberforce decides to punish Jodie by asking her to stand in front of the whole school and tell them that ghosts are not real. She is then asked to stop telling the children bed-time stories, a job which Pearl is offered instead. She reluctantly accepts, even though she feels that she is betraying Jodie. To make matters worse, all of Jodie's classmates seem to find her even more of a laughing stock.
On Guy Fawkes Night, Jodie climbs up to the tower of the gothic building, looking like a ghost. While the window is open, she trips in her heels and falls out of the tower, causing her neck to break, killing her.
Pearl and her parents are devastated, especially when the newspapers speculate about whether or not Jodie intended to commit suicide. They leave Melchester College and move into a block of flats in London, where Joe is the handyman. However, before they move, Sharon reveals that she is pregnant and Pearl realises that the pregnancy test was her mother’s. While Pearl is not very keen when she first finds out about the baby, she soon grows to love her new sister, May. She uses the book Mrs. Wilberforce gave her to write the story of her and Jodie, so that May can read it when she is older. Pearl promises to be a good big sister to May, but says that she will never be one as good as Jodie was to her.
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