TE19 Iberian Adventure

Three Stories

school we had to go to differed a little from the other boxy buildings: it was yellow, with big windows. Inside, it felt enormous. Therewere rows and rows of hooks all along the corridors. That’s where we were supposed to hang up our coats. I put mine on one of the empty hooks, then set off to find the classroom allotted to us. Most of the doors had no numbers on them, and when I did come upon a number it was no help at all: 71, 14, 26, one after the other, then nothing again. Despite this, the other uniformed children appeared to be heading somewhere with great purpose. I stopped one of them and asked where number 41 was, but she just shook her head and hurried on. I tried once or twice more, but it was no good. As time went on, there were fewer and fewer people in the corridor, then, as I turned a corner I realised that the only footsteps I could still hear were my own. I started to run, just in case I managed to find the room at the last minute. A teacher came out of one of the rooms, but, before I could say anything, he told me the competition had started long ago and instructed me to leave the school immediately. It was a fewminutes before I realised that leaving the place wasn’t going to be so easy. There were coats hanging all down both sides of the corridor, and almost every one of themwas the same colour as mine. It was the only coat you could get in the department store, mauve or dark blue, but Mum had said dark blue wasn’t for girls. I tried to remember where I had put mine, but the only thing I could remember was that, after I had hung it up 229