First Term at Malory Towers Trivia Quiz

Answer: North Tower

Darrell's mother sees her off at the station and she gets into the train carriage for North Tower girls, as each tower has its own section on the train. Miss Potts, her housemistress, asks Alicia Johns to look after her, and she also meets Pamela, the head of the house.

There are two other new girls in the North Tower, Gwendoline Lacey and Sally Hope. Darrell's first impression of them is that Gwendoline is an annoying attention seeker who takes forever to say goodbye to her mother, and Sally is very shy.

She also finds out that Alicia has a very sharp tongue and is always snarking people.

Answer: Brushing her hair

Gwendoline immediately gets on the wrong foot with the other girls on the train when she cries and makes a big fuss about saying goodbye to her mother. As the girls are getting ready for bed, Gwendoline is brushing her long blonde hair and counting the strokes, as she was always told to brush it a hundred times before bed at home. Katherine, the dormitory prefect, orders her into bed and she complains that the other girls are making her lose count, and Alicia jokes about spanking her with a brush. Gwendoline later gets into trouble for wearing her hair loose and Darrell has to plait it for her.

Answer: Her bad temper

Malory Towers has an outdoor swimming pool made from rocks and Darrell and her form have swimming lessons there. Mary-Lou, the shyest girl in the form, is a very weak swimmer and Gwendoline, who isn't much better, pushes her underwater and holds her down. Darrell is disgusted at Gwendoline's behaviour and, after helping Mary-Lou out of the pool, slaps Gwendoline hard on the legs.

The other girls are horrified at Darrell's nasty temper and Katherine calls a form meeting, where the girls decide to make Darrell apologise to Gwendoline and send her to Coventry if she doesn't.

However, it turns out that Darrell has already apologised to Gwendoline for losing her temper, and she also apologises to Katherine for being rude to her. She explains that she gets her bad temper from her father but, unlike him, has trouble controlling it.

Answer: The boy who cried wolf

Alicia decides to play a prank on Mam'zelle Dupont, one of the French teachers, by pretending to be deaf and the other girls get in on it, loudly repeating things for Alicia's benefit. However, Miss Potts overhears the shouting and realises Alicia is faking it, and has words with her. Alicia's ears get blocked up with water during the swimming lesson and during a lesson with the other French teacher, Mam'zelle Rougier, she genuinely does have trouble hearing anything. Mam'zelle Rougier assumes Alicia is faking it again and gives her lines, and Miss Potts moves her to the front of the class. Alicia eventually does get her hearing back and Darrell compares her to the boy who cried wolf, much to Alicia's annoyance.

Answer: Spider

Gwendoline is angry with Alicia for making fun of her and Darrell for hitting her, so she plots to get back at them by playing pranks on Mary-Lou and making her think one of them did it. She also pretends to be friends with Mary-Lou after Alicia gets angry with her for breaking a photo frame, and Darrell gets fed up with Mary-Lou constantly following her around. Gwendoline finds out Mary-Lou is frightened of spiders and puts one in her desk, and it comes out during a French class and makes both Mary-Lou and Mam'zelle Dupont scream. Miss Potts comes in to investigate the noise and Gwendoline gets her just deserts when the spider runs up her leg and makes her scream, and Miss Potts kicks her out and sends the whole class to bed early as punishment.

Answer: "You don't know what you're talking about. What baby? We haven't a baby!"

Sally claims that her mother won't want to visit her because she lives too far away and Darrell asks her if it's because of her new baby sister, as Mrs Rivers is friendly with Mrs Hope and mentioned seeing Daphne, Sally's sister, in a recent letter. Sally reacts very badly, turning pale and insisting that she doesn't have a sister.

When Darrell writes to her mother to tell her she must have made a mistake, Sally gets even angrier and tells Darrell to stop interfering in her private life. She accuses Darrell of 'boasting' about her own mother coming to see her and sending letters and presents, and Darrell is confused.

Answer: Emily

Darrell originally invites Mary-Lou to spend the day with her, but Mary-Lou has already promised Gwendoline that she'll spend the day with her and is too afraid of making her angry to say no. Darrell scornfully calls her a coward, hoping it'll shame her into growing a spine, but Jean points out that it will only make Mary-Lou feel worse (and it does).

As Alicia already has Betty and Irene doesn't particularly need a special friend, Darrell asks Emily, a quiet girl who loves sewing, although she isn't particularly friendly with Emily. Mary-Lou is miserable when she sees them together and even more miserable when she has to spend the day with Gwendoline, her mother and her governess, and listen to her bragging and lying.

While Darrell is with her parents and Emily, who is having a great time, she asks her mother about Sally's sister and Mrs Rivers insists that Sally does have a sister. Darrell decides to find out the truth.

Answer: Appendicitis

Sally is doing some piano practice when Darrell confronts her. Sally refuses to stop playing, and Darrell gets angry and shoves her so hard she falls across the room and clutches her stomach. Sally is taken to the school sick bay and Darrell initially worries that she has severely injured Sally, and writes to Mrs Hope about the quarrel. Darrell has trouble sleeping, goes for a walk and sees a light on in the sick bay, and hides behind the curtains.

She falls asleep, but on waking, she hears her father's voice and discovers that Sally has appendicitis and Mr Rivers has operated on her, as he was staying nearby. Darrell confesses everything to her father, and Sally's parents come to see her. Mrs Hope reveals that Sally is jealous of her sister and thinks her mother doesn't care about her any more, but the truth is that Daphne is ill and needs a lot of care and attention. Darrell goes to visit Sally in the sick bay and the girls become friends.

Answer: She pretends to be drowning during a swimming lesson.

Darrell discovers that Sally is very good at reading people and has Mary-Lou's personality sussed out. Mary-Lou tells her that Gwendoline is always being rude about Darrell and claiming Alicia and Darrell are playing pranks on her, and Sally is angry and says Darrell would never do anything like that, and asks if Gwendoline really is Mary-Lou's friend.

The next morning, Sally comes up with a plan: Darrell is to pretend to drown, and the other girls will get Mary-Lou to throw her the lifebelt. When Darrell goes ahead with the plan and pretends to have cramp while swimming, Mary-Lou surprises everyone when she jumps into the water fully clothed and saves Darrell, as the lifebelt was being mended. All the girls except Gwendoline praise Mary-Lou for her courage and although Mary-Lou is still shy, the episode makes her more confident.

Answer: She smears ink on Darrell's shoe.

Gwendoline is angry when Darrell tells her that Mary-Lou told her about Gwendoline's lying, and pays both of them back by stamping on Mary-Lou's pen and smearing violet ink on Darrell's shoe, while hiding her own shoes to conceal the evidence. Gwendoline makes a big point of talking about it and suggests Darrell did it, and Katherine checks everyone's shoes.

When she sees ink on Darrell's shoe, Darrell insists that she didn't do it, but Alicia refuses to believe her and so do several others. Only Mary-Lou and Sally believe her. Mary-Lou realises that Gwendoline wasn't in the room when the girls talked about checking the shoes and decides to investigate at night.

She searches the shoe lockers and finds nothing, but then checks a games cupboard and finds Gwendoline's shoes, along with a bottle of ink.

She brings the shoes to the dormitory to prove Darrell's innocence and Gwendoline's facial expression gives her away. Darrell promises not to tell on her, but asks her to buy Mary-Lou a new pen to make up for what she did.

Although Alicia apologises, Darrell ultimately decides that she'd rather be friends with Sally and Mary-Lou, as they were the only two who stuck up for her.