Darrell Rivers is the protagonist of the first six Malory Towers books. She is hot-headed and honest. Despite her hot temper, Darrell is very kind and empathetic.

I feel like Darrell didn't have enough focus on Last Term at Malory Towers. It would be interesting to see how she was like as Head Girl. But then, that idea was already explored in the fourth book. But since she temporarily lost her position, it doesn't really feel like enough.

Darrell is apparently quite physically strong as she could unintentionally hurt others when she was in a temper. She's also modest as in the third book, she didn't think of looking at the list of names in the main lacrosse team and only looked at the reserve list.

There are a few problems I have with her though. She was really mean to timid Mary Lou in the first book. I don't understand how shaming someone for their fears will make her stand up for herself. She laughs at Gwen for not liking sport. Did it ever occur to her that maybe not everyone likes sports?

I also feel like Darrell learning to conquer her hot temper was glossed over. Like when did Darrell manage to control herself? In the fifth form or the sixth?

If I could change Darrell's story, I could provide a bit of backstory to her. I know that she has a little sister called Felicity and her father is a surgeon. I know that she lost her temper a lot as a kid.

So here's my backstory for Darrell. She was very popular at her day school thanks to her kind nature. But one day, her best friend (I'll call her Maria) thought that Darrell copied her homework because they had turned in almost identical assignments and they had a huge fight.

Darrell lost her temper and pushed Maria down the stairs. Maria ended up badly injured, which horrified Darrell.

She wanted to apologize to Maria, but she was now too scared of her. Maria was so depressed that she didn't ever try walking again when her legs healed. In the end, Darrell fell apart from Maria. This was why she made up her mind to never lose her temper anymore. It would explain why she flew into a panic when she thought that she hurt Sally.

Now for the main story. Darrell would probably try to make friends with Sally, but she would just ignore her, so Darrell gave up.

In the second form, Darrell would confront Alicia about the way she was treating Sally and then she would send Alicia to Coventry when she just laughed at her. Darrell would be fiercely loyal towards Sally.

In the fourth form, Darrell would keep checking on Felicity, but then Felicity tells Darrell that she doesn't want to be babied and remind her that she didn't have an older sister checking on her. Darrell will realize that Felicity was right and promise to give her space.

In the fifth form, Moira would yell at Darrell for making changes to the script. Darrell would want to scream back, but she managed to keep her temper in check.

I think that Darrell would start writing short stories after the success of the pantomime. When asked about her future career in her last term, Darrell would still say that she's going to college, but she will mention that she would like being an author or a scriptwriter.