Week 4

It’s the fourth week of term at Eggleston hall and this week the Ladettes face their first ever public end of week task. They and the eligible bachelors have been invited by Lady Amber Leighton to attend a luncheon at an international polo match. One of them will also be required to present a prize and make a speech. If recent behaviour is anything to go by it could be an unmitigated disaster. After a tense start to the week, a lesson with bohemian art teacher Susan Wilson should be a perfect tonic but today they have to paint portraits of the School Principal. Unbeknown to the girls the one who shows the most potential will be sent on a date with a bachelor of her choice. Simone refuses to apply herself and gives Mrs Harboard a green face. Nicole wins and chooses to dine with the rakish Jonathan Saxby. Being the penultimate week competition between the girls is growing. A simple dressing down from Mrs Shrarger about their messy dorms results in a screaming match between rivals Louise and Nicole. Nicole’s date is a romantic triumph and Jonathan Saxby is genuinely impressed, “She oozed confidence tonight” and Nicole delighted in the glamour of the evening “It’s like being treated like a little princess you always dream of things like this”. The other ladettes who have been allowed down the pub are in a decidedly less sophisticated frame of mind. Binge drinking is the order of the night but 27 year old Simone Webber refuses to join in. “ I have been here 4 weeks now and during that 4 weeks I have realised a lot of things about myself and it’s beginning to frighten me a little bit because I have realised what a prick I have been over the years”. Cockney rebel Holly Clements is far from impressed with the new sober Simone and instead instigates drunken East End style knee’s up with the locals. On the girl’s late return, relations between drunken Holly and abstemious Simone flare up resulting in Mrs Harboard having to step in to stop a fight. The day of the polo match arrives and it’s Simone who has been chosen to make the speech. The girls are on best behaviour and Holly manages not to drink and has a revelation “ I don’t need drink to have a laugh I can have a laugh without having a few” Simones pre-speech nerves result in a few social misdemeanours but she redeems herself by delivering a flawless speech. The whole day is a resounding success. The following morning the girls face the ordeal of the weekly assessments – and this week the price of failure is especially harsh. The girl who is expelled today will lose the chance to attend the final week’s graduation ceremony.