Night School

‘Let’s wait,’ Rachel replied, watching Carter. ‘I kind of only want to tell this once.’


Allie saw that he was walking back towards them now. The rush of colour that had flooded his face as he listened to her story had receded and he seemed calmer.

‘I believe him,’ he said. ‘He’s an arse, but if anybody would know, he would. He should have told me. Not you.’ He looked angry. ‘But he has this thing for you so he decided to do it this way. Fine. Now we know.’

Allie looked over at Rachel, who winced before leaning towards Carter. ‘You’re not going to like what I have to say.’

‘What?’ he growled. ‘Are you telling me this day gets better?’

‘I told my father what’s going on.’

‘Oh good. It does get better!’ Carter ran his hands through his hair. ‘I had no idea that was possible. You know, between the two of you everybody’s going to know everything about us before the term ends on Friday. Should we just take out a billboard and put all our secrets on it? Maybe we could set up a website – AllOurSecrets dot com.’

‘There are no computers here,’ Allie reminded him.

‘I am fully aware of the lack of internet technology at Cimmeria,’ he snapped. ‘But thanks for reminding me.’

She ducked behind Rachel.

‘I am truly sorry,’ Rachel said. ‘I realise you don’t know that you can trust my father, but believe me, you can. And I’m scared for Allie. So I borrowed Isabelle’s phone and I told him everything. He knows who Nathaniel is.’

The last sentence seemed to hang in the air.

Allie was the first to gather her wits. ‘Who is he?’ she asked eagerly.

‘Here’s the thing,’ Rachel said, shooting Carter a worried look. ‘He won’t tell me.’

‘Of course not,’ he said sarcastically. ‘But he’s completely trustworthy.’

‘He really is.’ Rachel was fighting to stay calm. ‘He said he couldn’t tell me that. But he did tell me some things about him. He said Nathaniel is for real. That he and Isabelle used to be very close – those are the precise words he used – but they had some sort of falling out and now he is determined to take over Cimmeria and Night School – to sort of be the new her. If that happened, my dad said, it would be a disaster. He loathes Nathaniel. Says he’s ruthless. Possibly insane. And that he’ll stop at nothing to have what he wants.’

‘Oh good,’ Allie said.

‘It gets worse,’ Rachel continued. ‘Some members of the board are on his side. There’s something Isabelle’s doing that they don’t like. It has something to do with the larger organisation. Anyway, some people would like to see Isabelle gone, and they think they could use Nathaniel to do it. Just let him get rid of her, and then they think they’ll get rid of him. But Dad says it won’t work and that it could ruin everything.

‘He’s going to talk to Isabelle about it on Friday when he comes to get me. But he said something else.’

She looked at Allie, her brow furrowed. ‘He said for you to watch your back.’

Images of the night before flashed in Allie’s mind and she shuddered. Then she stood up, her eyes resolute. ‘Let’s go and talk to Isabelle.’

‘What …’ Rachel said. ‘Now?’

‘Now.’

‘She’s right.’ Carter stood and walked to Allie’s side. ‘I’m out of ideas. And somebody was in Allie’s room last night. It’s time.’

‘Well,’ Rachel stood up and joined them, ‘maybe she won’t expel all of us.’

‘And you’re certain you weren’t dreaming?’ Isabelle’s eyes were piercing but Allie didn’t falter under her gaze.

‘Positive,’ Allie said, her voice more confident than she felt.

After they’d approached her with their story, Isabelle had invited Matthew and Sylvain to join them, and they were all now crowded into her office. Allie and Carter perched on the top of the cabinets they’d rifled through two weeks before. Rachel sat cross-legged on the floor beneath them. Sylvain, Isabelle and Matthew all sat in the headmistress’ leather chairs.

When Sylvain and Matthew had joined them, Isabelle introduced Matthew as a ‘security expert’, then asked Allie, Rachel and Carter to tell their story again.

Now as they processed the information, the room was quiet.

‘It will be one of Nathaniel’s people,’ Sylvain said, breaking the silence.

Isabelle looked at him incredulously but he didn’t back down.

‘They know already, don’t you Allie?’ he said, looking at her steadily.

Flushing, Allie nodded.

‘How do you know about Nathaniel?’ Isabelle said, her voice taut with anger.

Allie glanced quickly at Carter, then looked back at Isabelle. Her jaw worked as she thought about what to say. ‘Does it really matter?’

Isabelle held her gaze for a long moment and Allie couldn’t read her expression.

‘No. I suppose it doesn’t.’ She took in Carter and Rachel. ‘Do you all know?’

They nodded mutely.

‘Fine then. Matthew?’ She turned to her advisor.