Night School

‘You think Katie’s behind the rumours, then?’ Allie said.

‘I’ve known Katie all my life, Allie.’ Jules looked frustrated. ‘But I’ve told her we can’t be friends unless she fixes this. It is incredibly unfair to you. And it’s just not going to happen on my watch. She knows how I feel, and I expect her to sort this out.’

‘Thanks, Jules.’ The gratitude in Allie’s tone was genuine. ‘It feels weird to have people say things about you that aren’t true.’

‘If anybody harasses you or bullies you, come to Isabelle or me,’ Jules said. ‘We’ll deal with them. But, look, I know what happened between you and Katie yesterday and I’d rather this didn’t end up in a fist fight.’

Allie flushed guiltily. ‘OK, OK … I’ll try to control myself.’

When Jules had gone, Allie put on her running clothes and headed outside. It was another unusually warm afternoon – the sun felt hot on her shoulders as she jogged out to the chapel, and she decided to go the long way, taking in the summer-house as well. She enjoyed the run so much she was almost sorry when she arrived, but at the same time … there was Carter.

As she opened the gate, she saw him immediately, leaning against the ancient wooden door of the church, watching her.

‘Hey,’ she said, running down the stone path.

‘Hey back,’ he said. ‘Right on time. Look, before we go inside there’s something that we need to get out of the way.’

Reaching for her hand he pulled her to him, and in the shadows of the doorway he lowered his mouth to hers. She smiled against his lips and pulled him closer until she could feel the warmth of his body against her. Spurred on by her response he kissed her more urgently, holding her so tightly her lungs felt compressed. When he stopped a minute later, she was flushed and breathless.

‘I’m glad we got that over with,’ she said.

‘Me too.’ He held the door for her. ‘So now we can hopefully focus on all the bad, scary stuff without being distracted by the fun romantic stuff.’

His voice echoed off the cool stone walls as he stood aside to let her walk inside. As she passed him, Allie paused to run her fingers tantalisingly down his arm from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers. Goosebumps formed in their path.

‘Uh-huh,’ she said, laughing.

He tried to grab her but she danced just out of reach laughing. ‘Not in church, Carter. We’ll go to hell.’

‘Then lead me not into temptation,’ he said, following a few steps behind her.

‘Fair enough,’ she said, still just too far away from him. ‘As long as you deliver me from evil.’

‘Deal.’

She let him catch her near the pulpit and he pulled her down giggling onto a dark wooden pew beside him, his arm around her shoulders.

‘This place is amazing,’ she said, looking around, as his thumb pulled up the short sleeve of her T-shirt and stroked the warm skin underneath. ‘I’ve never seen anything like these paintings in my life.’

‘I think lots of churches used to look something like this.’ His lips were against her ear now, and she closed her eyes, feeling her body quiver. ‘But they changed.’

‘Sad for them,’ she whispered.

‘Isn’t it?’

Their kiss was more passionate this time, and after a moment he lifted Allie up onto his lap. Pulling the band from her ponytail, he ran his fingers through her hair until it fell around his face in soft waves as she leaned forward to kiss him. Turning his head, he ran his lips lightly between her ear and the corner of her mouth. Her breath came in soft gasps.

After a few minutes, though, she pushed herself away. With a regretful sigh he let her go and she slid off of his lap onto the pew beside him.

‘So much for getting that out of the way,’ she said with a wry smile.

‘I warned you about the leading and the tempting,’ he said.

She laughed. ‘How could I tempt you? I’m sweaty runner girl.’

He tugged a strand of her loose hair. ‘Tempting.’

But after a moment he sighed. ‘Right, so now we must destroy the lovely mood we’ve created and talk about what’s going on.’

All the warmth seemed to leave Allie’s body and she shivered. ‘Yes, let’s do it. You’re sure there’s nobody else here?’

‘We’re safe here,’ he said with confidence. ‘Let’s start with your file.’

She nodded. ‘It was strange. It had all the normal Allie-isn’t-very-good-at-English stuff and then a lot of weird papers that weren’t mine.’

He looked puzzled. ‘Like what?’

‘Like … my mum’s school records.’ She gave him a significant look. ‘From here.’

‘From here … as in, from Cimmeria?’ His voice rose incredulously.

‘Exactly. So, it turns out my mum wasn’t very good at science either when she was my age. Oh, and she attended Cimmeria, a school she pretended she’d never heard of until the week I came here. In fact, she knows the place so well she called Isabelle “Izzy” in a letter.’