Jane Teal

Jane Teal is a student at St Clare's School. She is a first former who appears solely in Fifth Formers ofJane is noticed by Mirabel Unwin as being good at lacrosse, and she just needs to practice a bit more. When Mirabel says this, Gladys Hillman mentions that Angela Favorleigh has got Jane to do her mending for her. Mirabel orders Jane to stop doing Angela's mending, and when Jane tells her she offered to do it all term, Mirabel threatens to leave her out of all the school teams, leaving Jane in turmoil. Jane talks to her friend Sally about it, and tries to let Angela down gently, but Angela is furious at Jane and Mirabel and tells Jane to get out of her study, and that she doesn't want her doing her jobs for her anymore. She flees in tears, and Violet Hill is sent for to do the jobs instead. Angela tells Alison O'Sullivan of Jane's disgrace, letting Violet hear, which leads to a quarrel between Angela and Alison. Angela gives presents to Violet to make Jane jealous, which Violet shows off about. She also remarks that she does all her mending. Gladys notices that Jane does not look very happy. Mirabel shrugs it off, saying that Jane is the best catcher in the first form now she has put the extra practice in. Jane worries about the quarrel with Angela and longs to make up with her. As luck would have it, Violet goes to the sickbay ill, and asks Jane to bring her some things from her locker. Jane goes to get the things, and finds Angela's mending there. Jane does the mending and takes it back to Angela. Angela allows her to do all her jobs again, knowing it will get Mirabel's back up, so with absolutely no time, Jane has to resort to learning her lessons with a torch when she should be asleep. During Mirabel's meeting, Jane feels unwell, and her and Sally leave. Later the fire-bell rings, and Mirabel suspects that Jane rang it. She accuses Jane in front of the whole first form, upsetting her and angering the first form. Mirabel leaves Jane out of the matches, not satisfied that she didn't have anything to do with the fire bell. She also makes her life a misery by ignoring her. Jane is happy because Angela is kind to her, unhappy because Mirabel isn't and overtired because she is working in bed when she should be asleep. She keeps getting headaches and can't see properly. Jane is invited to the second form midnight feast along with the rest of the first form, but she has a row with Violet when she discovers that Jane has been doing all Angela's jobs. Jane becomes more miserable by the day and eventually decides, on the night of the feast, she would walk home instead, not realising she is beginning flu. On the night however, Mamzelle catches her and locks her in a cupboard, thinking she is a burglar. She is released by Miss Theobald and Mam'zelle, who find her passed out in the cupboard. They take her to Matron. The first form worry about Jane afterwards, as they know all about her recent worries. Isabel O'Sullivan remarks a week or do later that Jane is over the flu, but she's still worried about something, and when she was ill, she kept raving about Mirabel, Angela and the fire-bell. Claudine goes to see Jane, and decides to confess to ringing the fire-bell to save Jane's worry. Mirabel hears and goes to apologise to Jane, which goes a long way to her redemption. Jane becomes a lot happier again after she leaves the sick-bay.