Night School

They skirted the foot of the hill and reached a long stone wall. ‘What’s this?’ Allie asked.

‘You’ll see.’

After a few minutes they came to an ancient wooden door sealed with an incongruously modern combination lock. With the speed that comes of practice, Jo spun the three numbered wheels and the lock clicked open.

She opened the door and walked through, ducking to avoid the low door frame. Allie followed, and Jo carefully closed the door behind them, pocketing the lock.

‘Oh wow.’ Allie breathed, taking in the huge, cultivated walled garden. Vegetables stood in rows of military precision, straight as a rifle barrel. Fruit trees crowded at the back, reaching up above the wall into the evening sun. Around the edges flowers spilled over in vivid pinks and whites and purples.

A stone path ran around the edge of the garden and Jo struck off down it. ‘Welcome to my favourite place at Cimmeria.’

‘It’s amazing! How did you find it? And how do you know the combination?’

‘Um … it’s just this random thing. I had to work here on detention my first year. At first I really hated it – getting up at six every day to come here – but by the end of the week I realised I was going to miss it. I don’t know why. I’m really good at the whole gardening thing, and this place is … peaceful.’

Allie wondered what she’d done to earn a week of detention, but since Jo didn’t volunteer the information she decided not to ask. Besides, it seemed pretty easy to get detention around here.

Jo turned left onto a path that cut across the middle of the gardens, past a classic fountain where a pretty young girl in flowing gowns, with a slightly damaged nose, tipped an urn of water eternally onto rocks, around a blueberry thicket, and then onto the granite path on the other side.

‘Now I help out after class and on weekends. I come here sometimes when I want privacy.’

Amid the lush purple wisteria enrobing the walls a wooden bench was tucked away, and Jo perched on it, gesturing for Allie to do the same. Allie pulled her feet up underneath her and wrapped her arms around her knees, breathing in the cool scent of the flowers.

‘We can talk here,’ Jo said. ‘In fact this might be the only place in Cimmeria where nobody is going to overhear us. As you’ve noticed, this is a really nosy school. How are you doing anyway? It must be totally weird for you to be here. I remember my first few days here – this place completely freaked me out.’

‘It’s going to sound crazy. But I hate it here. And I kind of love it too.’

Jo gave her an easy smile. ‘I actually completely understand.’

‘It’s very different from any school I’ve ever been to, you know? And it’s a lot of work. But it’s …’ Allie thought for a minute. ‘It’s not my life. And that’s what I like about it. It’s not my life the way it’s been for the last two years, and anything’s better than that.’

Jo considered her. ‘When I came here,’ she said, her words emerging hesitantly, ‘I’d been kicked out of my last school after they caught me and my ex passed out on the roof. We’d drunk some vodka and … Well. Anyway, my parents were unbelievably pissed off. But the thing is, it was supposed to be this great school, but it was just … stupid. The classes were too easy, there was nothing to do, and it was full of rich kids biding their time until Oxbridge.’

She dropped one leg and swung her foot back and forth.

‘My parents sent me here next. I think they thought I’d hate it, but after I got used to how weird it is, I was totally into it. I love how hard it is, and how odd it is. How bizarre some of the teachers are. It just kind of fits. Since then, I’ve been OK. Great, actually. It’s like I’m in the place I need to be.’

Allie rested her chin on her knees and thought for a moment. ‘My life has been … kind of crazy lately.’ She stopped, and then decided to go ahead. ‘I had, I think, the perfect life until a year and a half ago. I was the perfect daughter, got perfect grades, my parents loved me. Then one day … it all ended.’

She stopped and looked up at Jo. ‘You know, I haven’t told this story to anyone. Ever.’

Jo nodded and waited.

Allie took a deep breath; her next words came out in a rush. ‘So I came home from school one day and the police were there. My mum was crying, and my dad was shouting at the policemen although I could tell he wanted to cry, too. It was chaos.

‘My brother was missing. And they never found him.’

Jo reached for her arm. ‘Allie, Jesus! That’s horrible. What happened? Did he …’

‘Die? Who knows? We’ve never heard from him again.’