Chapter 1
It took about 5 hours on the train, but we finally arrived. I couldn’t actually believe I was going. It took, what seemed like forever, to convince my mum and dad to let me go. But they did, and here I am. Perry Hall Boarding School for Girls. Of course I am going to miss my family and friends but I can go home at the holidays and the weekend of my birthday so all’s good. I definitely will not miss Dante and Lane. My brothers, they’re 6 and the most annoying people in the world. I will miss my mum and dad and my sisters Alishiara, Skylar and Jaydess. I know, they all have silly names. That’s just my parents, they’re a little bit weird, actually they’re really weird. I bet you’re wondering what my name is right? Well my full name is Miracle Eliana Liberty Lacey Roberts. Now I know you feel sorry for me! I’m called Miracle because I was premature, 4 months actually and the doctors said if I was to survive I would need a Miracle so they decided to make their own Miracle. And here I am today. A living breathing miracle as my dad says. If I wasn’t premature I would have been called Kiara, I really wish I wasn’t so impatient ,because then I would have a normal name. I just hope there are more people with weird names at Perry Hall.
When I arrived I had to check in and go and find my room. I was sharing with 3 other girls. I hoped they were nice or my time at Perry Hall would not be pleasant. 206 was my room number, 3rd floor. I went up to the 3rd floor and followed the signs to room 206. When I got there I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door and peered around it. No-one was there so I just sat on one of the chairs in the far end of the room and waited. I waited for about half an hour before I heard some noise outside my room. I heard the key being put into the door and the handle turned. The door opened and a small, thin girl with big brown eyes and short brown hair came through. She looked friendly enough. She said ‘oh hello, I didn’t realise anyone was in here.’
















‘It’s ok; I’m Miracle by the way.’ She shook my hand and said ‘I’m Liliana, but you can call me Lily, everyone else does’ I smiled at her a little disappointed because Lily is a normal name unlike mine. She started to bounce on all the beds seeing which one was the comfiest. ‘You going to pick a bed?’ she asked whilst bouncing on the bed closest to the window. ‘I’ll wait till the others get here first’ I replied. ‘Gosh you’re nice, I would just jump right in. first come first served I always say.’ I just laughed. After about 5 minutes of Lily jumping on every bed the door opened, it was a girl with brown hair and green eyes. Not too tall, not too small, just average height. Not too fat, not too thin, just normal, a pretty normal girl, probably with a pretty normal name. Great. Lily bounced off the bed nearly on top of the new girl. ‘I’m Lily’ she boasted ‘well actually it’s Liliana but no-one ever calls me that, what’s your name?’ she asked.


















‘Daniella Conner’ she replied ‘what’s your name?’ she asked me.









‘Miracle Roberts, I know, it’s weird.’ I replied


















‘it’s interesting; I’ve never heard it before.’ And she just looked at me. I didn’t reply, I was too busy watching Lily bounce along the beds. She was mad. We heard a key being put into the door and Lily raced up to it. A girl with long blonde hair came from beyond the door. She was amazingly pretty. She was stunning. Lily just stood there with her mouth drooped open ‘wow’ she said in ore. ‘I’m Liliana, but you can call me Lily.’ Lily shut the door and sat on the closest bed.






‘I’m Daniella and this is Miracle’ Daniella told her. We were all gobsmacked at how beautiful she was. ‘I’m Selena Freeman.’ She said. She said it so casually she obviously didn’t own a mirror.


It was about 10 to 3 and we had to go to a meeting in the main hall at 3, so we all set off, giggling and chatting along the corridors. They all seemed nice so I’m quite happy about that. When we arrived at the hall, there was a long queue to get in. When we finally got to the front of the queue a small chubby lady with a blonde bob said ‘Hello girlies!’ in a very high pitched voice ‘ my names Tessa and I’m a, well I’m, actually I don’t really know what I am, I just walk round the school and sort out problems. I have an office though!’ me and the girls just gave her a funny look. ‘now.’ said Tessa ‘what are your beautiful names?’





















‘Liliana Young’ Lily told her.






















‘Daniella Conner’ Daniella said in a chorus to Lily.

















‘Selena Freeman’ said Selena in a quite cheerful way. I didn’t say anything. I always find it embarrassing telling people my name. Tessa looked at me and said ‘your name dear?’



‘It’s, um, Miracle Roberts’ I whispered shyly. Tessa just looked at me again and said ‘you need to speak up dear, I can’t understand you.’ I looked around and then I said to her, in a louder voice ‘my name is Miracle Roberts.’ Tessa once again looked at me and raised her voice slightly and said ‘ listen to me dear, you really must speak up, I’m getting old now and I really have no clue what you are saying.’ Lily was getting impatient now, I could tell, so she shouted at Tessa ‘HER NAME IS MIRACLE ROBERTS!’ Tessa stared thoroughly at Lily and said ‘I’m may be old but I’m not completely deaf!’ Lily looked at her in horror, and went all red and shy. Tessa said to us all ‘Go in and find a seat now girls.’
When we passed her and went through the door we all burst into fits of laughter. We found a seat near the back as we were still giggling and waited for the talk to start. After about 10 minutes of waiting, a very thin woman with long black hair came onto the stage. She was kind of scary. Her voice was very high pitched and crackly. ‘Welcome to Perry Hall girls.’ She announced. ‘Today I am going to be putting you into groups. The group you are put in, that will be the class you stay with for the first month of you’re at Perry Hall.’ All I could think at that moment was I hope I was with one of the girls in my room. At least then I would know someone and I wouldn’t be on my own. ‘Right girls, these groups are not up for discussion. Its only for a month so we can assess how you are doing so we can sort you into sets to fit your ability.’ She proclaimed. We still didn’t know her name which I found weird. ‘I will call your name out and you are to go and stand at the back of the hall with the teacher you are assigned.’ She told us. She started to call names out. I can’t really remember that many, just a few. There was Samantha, Tara, Madeline and Elena. More normal names. Not one person in that whole group had a stupid name like mine. That was group one. She started to announce group two. ‘Liliana Young’ the woman announced. So Lily trotted off to her teacher. Great one person I won’t be with. She finished calling out group two and there were still no silly names. She got to group five and neither mine nor Daniella and Selena’s names had been called and still no-one had weird names like me. Selena was called up in group six and I was starting to get worried. I’m not good with meeting new people so I really hoped I would be with Daniella. The woman said ‘ok this is our final group’ I was relieved that I would be with Daniella, she seemed really nice and she also seemed to be a lot like me. I was a little bit nervous about my name being called out, because I was scared of what people would say. My name had to be the last on the list didn’t it? She called out my name and I stood up. I could hear people sniggering and laughing and pointing. It hurt my quite a lot but Daniella reassured me that it’s not a stupid name; it’s a lot better than a lot of names. I felt a little bit better then.

Once we were all stood at the back with our assigned teachers, we were all given a timetable and told we had to be at our first lesson at 9am sharp. Then we were allowed to go to our rooms for the rest of the day under strict instructions to find out all about our roommates, their families, and their lives. Once we all arrived back at our rooms, Lily suggested we all got to know each other like we were told and she boldly said she would go first. She started to tell us about her. ‘Well, I love to horse ride and I love playing the piano. I cannot dance to save my life and I snore really badly!’ that didn’t cheer me up. My bed was right opposite hers and she snores. Brilliant! Then she started telling us about her family ‘I have 2 younger brothers and an older sister. My brothers are called Cameron, 9, and Dylan, 3, my older sister is 28. She’s my step sister but I never say she is, because she doesn’t know her mum and my mum is all she has ever had so we class her as my real sister. Her names Justice.’ I yelled and jumped for joy ‘how amazing. Her names weird like mine, I’m so relieved!’ Lily looked at me and said ‘as I was saying, before I was interrupted, she has 2 children too, so they are my nieces! How exciting? They are 1 and 2 and they are called Alexis and Mya and I love them to bits! My dad’s called Max, well Maximus, and he was married before he married my mum but he was very young and my mums called Cassidy’ she rambled on a lot. I said to her ‘I think we know enough now Lily. Let Selena speak.’ Selena looked relieved and started to tell us ‘well I have a really big family my mum was the 3rd oldest of 12 children and my dad was the youngest of 9. So I have a really big family too. I have 4 brothers and 5 sisters. Yes I am the 5th oldest of 10 children.’ We all gasped. I thought my family was big. ‘ the oldest is Erica, then there’s Natasha, then Cody, then Charlie, then me, then the triplets Jess, Josh and Jamie, then the twins Cindy and Brooklyn. I can’t be bothered to tell you there ages so I’ll move on. My mums name is Kayla and my dad’s is Andy. I love dancing and hate reading. I suppose that’s it?’ I said ‘wow you’ve got a really big family!’
























‘I know I do!’ she told me.
























‘Can I speak now?’ Daniella asked.























‘Yeah’ we all replied in unison.























‘Well’ she began ‘I don’t have a big family. Just me, my mum, and my twin brother Reece. My dad died when me and Reece were 3 months old. He was called Chris. I didn’t know him at all, and I have only ever seen him on pictures. My mum doesn’t like to talk about him. My mums called Lindsey. I don’t like telling people this because they think ill of my mum, but she’s pregnant, she doesn’t have a boyfriend or a husband and she hasn’t been seeing someone for about 2 years now. She won’t tell us who the father is, but we don’t care, we still love her. She’s due in about 3 months so it should be exciting. I love Irish Dancing and Gymnastics. And I suppose that’s it.’ I quickly jumped in and said
‘no-one thinks ill of your mum Daniella. We promise!’ she smiled and looked a bit more reassured. ‘Your turn Miracle’ Lily said.
























‘Ok then’ I replied ‘well, I have 2 brothers called Dante and Lane and 3 sisters called Alishiara, Skylar and Jaydess, I know they all have weird names but my parents are weird. My mums called Eliza and my dad’s called Scott. They don’t have silly names so it’s just mean to give us all silly names. I have a dog called Steven. My brothers named him. Its horrid!’ all the girls just laughed. Lily asked ‘what are all your full names? Middle names and everything?’
















‘Selena Makenna Freeman. Nothing special really.’ Selena replied.










‘Daniella Jacqueline Victoria Conner. My middle names are my grandmother’s names. And Reece’s name is Reece Colin Dominic Conner after my granddads. Its kind of sweet but the names are all really old.’ Daniella told us.
























Lily said ‘My names Liliana Leila Erica Theresa Brianna Rose Young. It’s really long.’ Then it was my turn. My names weird already but then I had to go and add my middle names too.



‘Miracle Eliana Liberty Lacey Roberts’ I told them. ‘Really stupid I know.’ They all told me it wasn’t but I knew they were lying.