Night School

She’d made it to the treeline when a figure stepped out of the bushes beside the path and into her way. Jumping back, she opened her mouth to scream, but a hand clamped over her lips and an arm wrapped around her as she struggled to free herself.

‘Allie,’ Carter whispered. ‘It’s me. Stop fighting.’

‘Jesus.’ She relaxed in his arms. ‘You scared the crap out of me, Carter.’

‘Did Gabe see you?’ he hissed.

She shook her head. ‘I hid.’

Obviously relieved, he pointed to their right. ‘This way.’

Sticking to the shadows at the edge of the lawn, they looped around to the back door. From there getting back in was easy. They crept through the door, but the stealth wasn’t necessary – the hallways were empty. They could hear raised voices from Isabelle’s office but didn’t linger to listen as they ran up the stairs.

‘What the hell is going on?’

Carter paced back and forth across Allie’s bedroom floor, raking his hands through his dark hair.

Perched on the edge of her desk, she didn’t have any answers for him.

‘Who is Nathaniel?’ Carter muttered to himself. ‘Why is he doing this?’

‘A dog!’ Allie said inanely.

Carter gave her a look and she explained. ‘It was a dog Jo and I heard that night in the walled garden. Nathaniel must have been there.’

‘Makes sense,’ Carter said. ‘But I still don’t understand what’s going on. Who is he?’

‘OK, let’s think about what he said. He talked about the board,’ Allie said. ‘He told Isabelle to go to the board.’

Carter glanced at her enquiringly.

‘Well, why doesn’t he go himself?’ she asked. ‘I mean, if he’s so powerful. And if he can’t go to the board, there has to be a reason.’

‘Yes.’ Recognition dawned on Carter’s face. ‘Because he’s either been in trouble with them or they don’t like him.’

‘Or they don’t know him.’ She twisted up her face in thought. ‘He could be a complete outsider. But I got the feeling he and Isabelle knew each other well. Like old friends gone wrong, or bad family or something.’

‘Yeah. Or ex-lovers,’ Carter said.

Their eyes met.

‘Totally,’ she said.

They thought that through for a minute – Allie swinging her foot, Carter pacing.

‘And Lucinda.’ Allie broke the silence. ‘She said “Lucinda will know”.’

‘I heard.’ He pivoted and paced.

‘Lucinda again …’ she murmured, watching him pace. ‘Did you believe him? Nathaniel, I mean. Do you think he didn’t kill Ruth?’

‘I don’t know.’ His tone betrayed his frustration.

‘I think Isabelle believed him.’

‘Brilliant,’ he muttered. ‘This is just brilliant.’

‘So that would mean …’ Her voice trailed off. She didn’t want to think about what that meant. Pulling her feet up onto the desk, she wrapped her arms around her knees.

‘God this is a nightmare … What do we do now?’

He stopped pacing. ‘I have no idea.’

*

For the rest of that week, Allie felt isolated. All the students were in their normal seats, and the teachers continued the lessons in the usual way, but to her nothing was the same. Something awful was going to happen – Nathaniel was going to do something – and out of all the students, only she and Carter knew about it.

Worse than that, she was still treated as if she were invisible by many students. She was ignored when she walked with them down hallways, passed them on the stairs, brushed her teeth next to them in the bathroom. And although she refused to admit it to anyone, it was getting to her. It was an oddly disembodying experience to be treated as if she weren’t actually there.

On Wednesday morning a girl she couldn’t remember seeing before dropped a pen near her in French class, and when Allie picked it up and held it out for her, the girl acted as if she couldn’t see it, even when Allie waved it back and forth in front of her. Eventually she let it fall back to the ground.

‘Whatever,’ Allie had muttered, turning back to her notebook.

On Thursday, Jules took her aside and told her she was doing all she could to get Katie to stop the campaign against her.

‘I’m trying, Allie, I really am,’ she said. ‘But she’s stubborn. I’ve tried talking to Isabelle about it but I’ve never known her to be so busy.’

Allie knew perfectly well why Isabelle was busy, but she couldn’t tell Jules that.

‘Jerry’s spoken to the boys and told them they could all face punishment if they don’t stop – so I think you’ll see the guys getting back to normal soon. Of course, some may be more scared of Katie than they are of Jerry.’ Jules looked uncomfortable. ‘But with time this will all work out. The term ends in a few weeks and next term will be better …’

Or, next term, Katie poisons even more kids against me. And then this whole thing becomes impossible, Allie thought.

Jo was still avoiding her old friends – at mealtimes she either sat with Gabe or with Katie and her legions of minions across the room from her former table.