Chapter 4

I had the Saturday morning before Mum would arrive. I tidied up the room, made sure I had everything in my case and what I was leaving was properly hung and folded. It was a cold day, and I was warmly dressed in jeans and a sweater. I had begun wearing slacks and jeans in the evening as the weather chilled.

It was now six months since I had collapsed in pain and I was in a totally different world where some of my old skills were being used in new ways, while my brain seemed to be working better. I wondered if not thinking about being out of synch had boosted its capacity. Although I wasn’t studying computer science, we were touching on computer usage in the Business course. Sometime down the track, so I was told, we would be developing our own business model. That was interesting me more than coding and software development now. I couldn’t see any of the girls at this school being a nerd.

My laptop was locked away in my locker, full of research, essays and notes. We all tended to work from the screens, but I could take it to the library and print anything through the Wi-Fi link there. The only pile of papers in my room were the lyric sheets. I expect that we’d have to learn some new material in the following year.

It was getting near noon, so I carried my case down to the front entrance, then went back to put a jacket on and close the room. I sat on my case to wait, still thinking about all the changes in my life. Today, there was going to be yet another. Mum had emailed me a picture of the new family home. It was a far cry from the house we used to live in. That had been ancient and cramped, with uneven floors and a lane outside barely wide enough for a normal car, which was why Dad would drop Mum off at her work instead of her taking the company car home.

The new home was inland from Deal itself, on the enigmatically named The Street in Sholden. It was a bungalow and fairly modern. They had sold the Sandwich house for seven hundred and ten, buying the new one for five seventy-five. The old place went furnished, because none of the old stuff would have sat square on a flat floor, so they had splurged on new.

Her last phone call had been while they were sitting in a pub, just a few minutes’ walk away, having fish and chips with a drink. She had said that there was a convenience store at the corner of the main road, off-street parking for two cars at the front, with access down a lane to a rear alley with a garage at the end of the garden. All in all, it sounded like heaven. My only problem would be to grow to like being there, seeing that Mill House was the only home that I’d known before. They do say that the only constant in life is change. For me, my life had been constant for sixteen years with just slight alterations.

I saw her car coming towards me, so stood and shook myself mentally to enjoy her company after such a long time. She popped the boot lid, and I loaded my case in, then got in the front seat, leaning over to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi Mum. Long time, no see.”

She patted my leg and smiled.

“Is this tomboy time or just the cold?”

“No tomboys in this place, Mum. We’re all dainty girls of high-class breeding.”

She giggled and started to drive back to the main gate.

“So, Alice, love. How has it been?”

I laughed and started to sing.

“Where do I begin, to tell you all that’s there to tell, the story of the term that’s gone, or else the joys that I befell.”

“That’s new, you have a lovely singing voice.”

“That has been remarked on, Mum. It wasn’t too bright after three hours singing with the band. We were the entertainment for the social in November. You have to love it. A posh girls school and they import a few hundred boys from a posh boys school for a dance. I do have a video of our dress rehearsal for you to see.”

“It sounds like there’s a lot more to tell us. Keep it until we get home, so you don’t have to tell it twice.”

She started to give me more details about the house move and the people that lived around them, mainly a younger set than before. She told me that there had been a short memorial service for the old me at the high school, according to her old hairdresser, who had been full of condolences for Mums’ loss.

We stopped for lunch at a lovely old pub outside of Ashford, called the Swan and Dog. All exposed beams and trimmed with holly. Repleted, we got on the M20 which took us to the coast at Folkstone with a jiggle through Dover then a lesser road directly to Deal. With all of her time in sales, she certainly knew Kent and Sussex like the back of her hand. On the way, I told her about the other girls that I shared with, as well as the ones in the band. I told her about my trip to London. She nodded when I spoke about Geraldines’ parents and his profession.

“Looks like you’re starting to make those connections, already.”

“I haven’t met Clementines’ family yet. He’s a baron and the family estate is in Bedfordshire. She went to high school with Geraldine. She’s a real pain in the butt, sometimes. Talking about the fifty rooms and the pheasants. She may have been talking about peasants, we do tend to zone out when she’s rambling. She may be well bred, but she needs a lot of help. She dashed off yesterday without saying cheerio. I wonder if she got the hard word at the interview.”

“Interview?”

“More like a review, really. I had mine yesterday. I was told that if my results continue as they are, I may graduate as one of their best girls. We’ll keep that from Dad, I wouldn’t want to raise his hopes early.”

“Quite so. How’s that Business course going?”

“That one is interesting. Where everything else is learning about known things, it takes us into a world where there are basics and then there are the things that you can take bits and control them. We’ll be creating a real-life business model and honing it. A lot of the girls have family businesses that they’ll be working in, so are discovering ways to improve them. A few are thinking about things that are totally at odds with their background. One girl has a family with a chain of dress shops but has her focus on starting a florists.”

“What about you?”

“Not sure, yet. There could be things in my future that will determine what my business will be, but I’ll keep that for when we’re home.”

When we arrived at our new home, I was happy to see that the street was wide and the gardens mainly well-tended. Three months in a manicured environment had skewed my appreciation of my surroundings. We parked behind Dad’s car, and he came out to welcome me home. I gave him a hug.

“Hello, Daddykins.”

“Hello, yourself, Poppet.”

We carried my things in, and I was shown my room. It was lovely, painted in a pinkish red with a new bed covered with a colourful throw. I put my handbag on the bed and hugged them both.

“Thank you, this is wonderful. I was worried about leaving the old life behind, and this room proves that it was a good thing.”

We went into the modern and bright kitchen and sat at the table while the new electric jug was heating up. Over the next couple of hours, I had to relate my experiences at school, tell Dad about the other girls and what I knew about their families. He was amazed by me singing with a band, so I went to my room and found the DVD of our dress rehearsal.

“We can watch this when we get a chance. We did play with more enthusiasm when we were in front of six or seven hundred kids. There’s something else that happened to me that is very strange.”

Dad looked worried and Mum just smiled.

“What’s that, love?”

“When you left me there, Mum, I was wandering around and there were a few of the early arrivals playing tennis. They asked me if I’d like to join them. Now, I already had the full kit, including a racquet. One of the guests at the hotel had taken me over to her shop and outfitted me for pictures. They will be in the sport shops in Spring, and she gave me the outfit. When I rejoined the girls, I found that it didn’t take me long to give as good as I got.”

Dad grinned.

“If they don’t do girls’ football, tennis will be a good sport.”

“It is a good sport, Dad, and I’m good playing it. My speed and agility help me get around the court, and I’m beginning to outthink my opponents. Geraldine took me to her home one weekend and we played at her club. We played a game and then the club pro got us playing doubles with their ladies champions. We won. The next day, we played singles against the two women, and I beat my older and more experienced opponent who had played at Wimbledon. In the half-term break, I stayed with Geraldine for a week and we both got extra coaching that her father paid for. We both improved and we played the two women in a doubles match where we beat them, hands down.”

Dad was taking this all in and thinking.

“There has to be a ‘but’ to this story, love. Something else happened, didn’t it?”

“We all have reviews of our term before we left. I was told that both Geraldine and I have been asked to enter the Eastbourne tournament next June. The school is prepared for us to sit the exams before the rest of the students, so that we can do that.”

They had gone very still. Dad was still turning it over in his mind.

“I seem to remember that Eastbourne is part of the womens’ tour.”

“It is, and a good placing at Eastbourne may give you a wild card for Wimbledon.”

Mum gasped and I nodded.

“Exactly. The club pro is sure that we can do well in the doubles, and also thinks that we could do well in the singles as well. There is something else that I was told.”

“What could be bigger than being asked to play top-line tennis?”

“The school has offered us a ten percent discount on the remaining fees if I qualify for Wimbledon, plus an extra ten percent for winning my first-round match. My maths tell me that it’s six thousand a win for each year. It appears that they’re very keen to see a British Benenden girl on the courts there.”

I sat back as they were thinking. Finally, Mum smiled.

“If you play Wimbledon, will you be able to get us tickets?”

“I really don’t know. There’s a lot that I have to find out before then. We have five months to put a plan together. I need to find out the fees to enter Eastbourne, and what any prize money there is. I’ll also have to see if I play as a junior or in the open class. Then there’s whether I need to register as a pro so that I can keep any money that I may earn, or what the tax man leaves me. Tony from the tennis club will be able to help, but there’s things that I can get off the web, if I look.”

Dad had eaten at the pub, so we had a light tea and watched me on the DVD. It was interesting and my folks thought that we were very good. I slept in what was now my own bed for the first time as a girl, in our new home. The parents had an ensuite, so I had the bathroom to myself. We had a heat-on-delivery water system, so there were no problems about running out of hot water. This place was ticking boxes on a regular basis.

Next day, we drove into Deal to stock up for Christmas and get cards for friends and relatives. All those that went to Sandwich were signed by my parents. The one to Brighton was from all three of us. Mum also took me to the doctor that they were now patients of and signed me up as their daughter. I expected that if questions did get asked, it was best to tell the truth. I doubted that anybody from Sandwich would link a tennis player going to Benenden called Alice McConnell with a football playing dead guy from the high school.

I had a lovely two weeks at home, reconnecting with my parents in a closer bond than ever before. Everything they did these days was designed to be easy. They both took holidays while I was there, and we explored Deal together. We did Walmer Castle and Dover Castle. We had a booking for three at the pub for Christmas dinner, so there was no extra cooking at home. We stayed up late to see the new year in watching the fireworks. I wondered whether Geraldine and her family were in the apartment with a front row seat.

All too soon, Dad was driving me back to the school, with me giving him directions. I was getting there a few days early to settle in again. I showed him my room and introduced him to Geraldine, who had arrived that morning. I gave him a quick tour of the school and he was dutifully amazed at its size and its beauty. After he left, Geraldine and I sat down to discuss the future.

She told me that Tony had nominated me for membership of the tennis club, seconded by June, the one that had helped coach me. There would be a meeting before I was admitted, but she said that after my good playing it was a certainty. Once I had that membership, I would be able to get an Advantage Account with the LTA. That would give me a world tennis number and other discounts on clothes and equipment. Club membership would be reasonable, and the LTA membership would be thirty-five pounds a year. I could get the LTA membership without being in the club, but future tournaments would be easier if I had a club base to train at.

There would be another competition that we would have to enter before we could have a go at Eastbourne. That was in Tunbridge Wells over Easter, during our holidays. Getting a good result there would set our rankings and also give us a background that would help us enter Eastbourne, which she told me has womens’ doubles with WTA ranking points.

She was excited about it all. I laid down some ground rules. If we had two evenings a week with the band, we would do two in the gym, to toughen her up a bit. Actual playing, for a while, wasn’t important, as long as we played a lot more before Easter.

On top of that I demanded that she work on the academic side as much as last term, so that the school doesn’t regret their generosity. We still had some of the afternoon, so we changed into gym clothes, and I introduced her to the evil machines. We worked out for a couple of days until the first day of term.

The odd thing was that Clementine didn’t appear. We checked the wardrobe by her bed, and it was empty. Two days later, Geraldine had a postcard. It was from Clementine. She was in the Seychelles on a photo shoot, wished us well and said that she would be in the Sports Weekly later in the year.

Lunch break gave us time to go to the housing office. We showed the lady the card and she pulled out the file.

“Clementine did not have her fees for the Spring Term paid before the deadline. For any more information, you’ll need to ask admin, although I doubt that they’ll tell you anything more. We will not need that bed until the first term of next year, when we’ll put someone else in with you. I’ll organise to have the bed removed, which will give you more room.”

We walked back to the dining area and sat down. I took Geraldines’ hand.

“When she left, she didn’t even wave back when I waved to her.”

“I was surprised at her leaving like that. I was so excited about the news that I wasn’t really thinking too much. I’ve known her for years. We were in high school together. She must have loaded her car while we were doing something else. I saw her with just a small bag that went in behind the seat.”

“Did she say anything about her review?”

“Just that she had improved with a couple of subjects. Probably the ones that you were helping her with. She only just scraped through the minimum to come here, and I expected that being the daughter of a peer would count for something. There’s one good thing to come out of all this.”

“What’s that?”

“We can be ourselves. I can play my CDs and we can sing along without getting yelled at.”

“She was a bit strident, at times.”

When we had the extra room, we spread out a bit and settled into the routine. Study more until the better weather, learn more material with the band, exercise to increase arm and leg strength. We had two exeats this term, the first came round quickly. In late January, we were in Godalming on the Friday night, with an appointment at the Golf Club on Saturday morning.

There, I paid my dues to be a member of the West Surrey Tennis Club and received a membership card. After that, both of us filled out the forms, on-line, on their computer, to apply for membership of the LTA and get our Advantage account. Geraldine hadn’t needed this to play club tennis, but the competitions that we were now aiming for were not for amateurs. We both transferred the thirty-five pounds for Play plus, which would give us a World Tennis Number, discounts, and entry into the ballot for Wimbledon tickets. There was also the services of a physio courtside, if we needed it.

Tony had contacted a friend in Tunbridge Wells. He said that he would hear the opening date for entries before anyone else and submit the two of us into the singles and doubles list. He would add a recommendation letter, which may help. There was a pecking order for places. It would cost us about thirty pounds for every round that we played in, so could get expensive if we kept winning. There was no prizemoney, just trophies and, more importantly, ranking points, which would help us for a chance to get into Eastbourne.

The one thing about all this that made my heart beat a little faster was that we could both enter as adults, being over fourteen. We could enter as under eighteens, with that being an easier way to win, but wouldn’t give us points. As Advantage players, we were classed as pro entrants. We both put the school as our place of residence.

That afternoon, Geraldines’ father said that he would attend with his account card, and pay for every round that we played, as we could pay him back out of what we may earn at Eastbourne, assuming that we were accepted.

Back at school, we kept up our routine. Neither of us left during the half-term break in February. We studied and revised, we ran the treadmill and worked the gym machines and, best of all, we had the hard floor tennis court to ourselves for the week. With the Tunbridge courts being tarmac or clay, and the fact that they had floodlights if they needed them, playing on a hard floor indoors was very helpful.

We had an exeat in the middle of March and went to the club for a final hit-out with our experienced friends. We had both been accepted as entrants, in both the singles and the doubles. This would mean a lot of playing on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, as long as we kept winning. Hotel accommodation had been booked for us, now six strong, with us, Geraldines’ parents, Tony and June, I was starting to wonder if it was all worth it, seeing the cost. Her father kept telling me that it was all right, but I still worried.

We finished school on the Friday and drove to Godalming, then went to our hotel on the Sunday. At the tennis club on an early Monday morning, we were given our first matches. We were both in the first group, seeing that we were unknowns, and our first doubles match was set for the early afternoon. If we got through the morning matches, we would be back tomorrow.

There were portable changing rooms and we changed into our Benenden outfits for the day, then had a hug for luck before going to be allocated to a court. I was truly alive, with the feeling that I had during that winning football match and breezed past my first opponent in straight sets. I was sitting with our team when Geraldine joined us, having won as well. We went and showered and changed to have an early lunch.

Changing into our second outfits for our doubles match, we found ourselves facing a pair of older players. They had the look of experience, but that also made them complacent. We took the match, two-one, with me hitting ten aces.

After that, the organisers told us that there weren’t many doubles teams, but a lot of singles, so could we play another doubles match after tea, under lights. They would rework our singles a bit later on Tuesday. That evening, we progressed to the womens’ doubles quarter final on Thursday morning.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we continued our progress through the lower rounds, two games each on Tuesday, and one each on Wednesday. Wednesday was my seventeenth birthday, but I didn’t mention it for fear of upsetting our flow. In the quarters on Thursday afternoon, we were playing each other. That wasn’t what we wanted, but it had to happen sometime. Whatever happened, one of us would get a quarter finalist medal to add to whatever we would get for the doubles.

On Wednesday evening, we had dinner at a restaurant. Tony and June were buoyant, telling us that we had done better than they had expected. Getting into the quarters would give us some healthy ranking points, and our next opponents will be harder to beat, seeing that we would be playing some regular LTA players. Geraldine said what we both thought.

“We have three matches between us and the doubles trophy. One of us has three matches to the singles trophy. Over our half-term break, we were playing ten matches a day. I think that we can go further.”

On Thursday morning, we arrived in good time for our doubles match, against players a good ten years older. June reminded us that we had beaten her and her partner, so age didn’t mean a guaranteed win. They were strong players, but I had the better serve. These games were on the best courts, so there was seating for spectators, with shouts of encouragement between plays. They took the first in a tiebreak, but we wore them down in the second with a six-four. They lifted in the third, and were four-two up, but we got our second wind and won the next four games to take it out at six-four. They were gracious in defeat and told us that they were pleased for us, being so good as unknowns.

In the afternoon, Geraldine and I had a ding-dong battle, taking close to three hours to finish. We played about ten advantage point sets, with all three games decided on a tiebreak. I ended up, using up the last of my energy with a cross-court ace to win. We hugged at the net, and she told me that it had been the best game of her life. Many told us that it had been the best game of the season, so far.

We both had early nights after a hot bath with salts to ease the muscles. In the morning, we had our semi-final in the doubles, and our opponents had seen what we could do. After our singles match, we were no longer unknowns, and Tony reported being spoken to by the organisers of other tournaments and even had cards from sponsors who were interested.

Friday was bright and shiny. I was down to my original outfit from Brighton, and Geraldines’ Mum was heading into Tunbridge to put our school outfits through the laundromat. Geraldine had her old club outfit, so we looked a bit more normal when we got to the club. Now we were into the serious part of the tournament, there were more spectators and several stalls. I stopped dead and June bumped into me when I saw Miss Foster standing by the store stall, with a life-sized picture of me, wearing the kit I was now in.

We went over and I said hello. She looked startled.

“Alice. How are you. More importantly, what are you doing here?”

“I’m playing, Miss Foster. When you took that picture, I’d never held a racquet. Since then, I’ve taken the sport up and my friend and I are in the womens’ doubles semi this morning. I’m playing the singles semi this afternoon.”

“That’s fantastic! Take this marker and sign your picture. Do you have a manager?”

“No, but Tony, here, is the pro at the West Surrey club where I’m now a member, and he’s been helping us get this far. The lady is June, who was eliminated in the first round at Wimbledon, last year. The elegant gentleman is my double partners’ father, who would be very happy to discuss business with you if you want. We need to go and sign in.”

“Pop along then. Now, sir, can we talk about business?”

Geraldines’ father was smiling.

“Run along, girls, leave this to me.”

Marianne Gregory © 2026