Night School

Feigning nonchalance, she shrugged. ‘Yeah. Sort of. It’s not off-limits or anything, is it?’


‘Allie, did you ever actually read the information you were given when you started here? Do you think rules are just optional for you?’ Sarcasm dripped from his voice, and now Allie could feel anger growing in the pit of her stomach.

What is wrong with everybody at this bloody school?

‘I read enough to know it was boring,’ she snapped. ‘Now will you just stop being a psycho and let me go?’

‘The second floor is for advanced students and Night School only,’ Carter said, as if he were talking to a child. ‘You could get into serious trouble if they catch you there. You must never go up there.’

She wrenched free from his grip. ‘Bloody hell,’ she said, rubbing her shoulder. ‘Overreact much? You’d think I killed someone.’

His expression did not change. ‘Seriously, Sheridan. I’m starting to think you like getting in trouble.’

Turning on her heel she stomped down the stairs, firing over her shoulder, ‘Well, from what I hear about you, West, that’s a bit pot, kettle.’

He didn’t reply.

Allie waited outside the dining room that evening, fidgeting as she watched the students stream in. Katie passed by, glowing ethereally. She whispered to the cluster of acolytes who always surrounded her and they all giggled. Allie saw Jules among them, unsmiling.

Unable to help herself, Allie crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at them, but they only laughed louder.

‘What an idiot,’ she heard Katie say, and she flushed.

A few minutes later Jo and Gabe appeared, bright stars in a constellation of friends. Jo was laughing at some unheard joke. Allie waited to be noticed, trying not to care whether or not they saw her. But a few seconds later Jo looked up and gave her an enormous smile. She bounded down the hallway and grabbed her hand, dragging her into the group.

‘Allie! There you are. Come with me – you need to meet everyone.’

At the table, Allie sat on Jo’s left, Gabe sat on her right. In the raucous rumble of pre-dinner conversation, Jo raised her voice enough to be heard.

‘Everybody, this is Allie. Allie, this is everybody.’

‘Come on, Jo, you could be more specific.’ The heckler was about Gabe’s age, and sat across the table from Allie. His glossy light brown hair was just long enough to fall fetchingly over his right eye. He smiled flirtatiously. ‘I’m not everybody. I’m Lucas.’

The others hooted derisively, but his smile was contagious and she couldn’t help but smile back.

One by one the others at the table laughingly gave their names. There was a slim girl named Lisa, with long, straight fair hair and a hesitant smile. Ruth was athletic and unsmiling with messy shoulder-length, dark blonde hair. She sat next to Phil, who was cool looking with very short dark hair and trendy glasses. Allie got the feeling Ruth and Phil liked each other.

There was an early excited buzz of conversation (‘been hearing all about you …’ ‘What do you think of Cimmeria?’ ‘Isn’t Zelazny a …’ ‘Shhh! Careful, he’s right over there …’ ‘Do you like it here?’) before everybody moved on to other subjects.

Distracted by the day’s events, Allie played disinterestedly with her food, which wasn’t, she thought, very good tonight. She could just make out the sound of rain against the windowpanes. The weather had gradually turned grey, and now it was pouring down. She was so deeply entangled in a complex net of her own thoughts that bits of the conversation floated by her like flotsam.

‘Twenty pages by Tuesday!’

‘Most amazing smile …’

‘What is this meat, anyway?’

‘Mystery meat.’

Laughter.

‘I heard a teacher say it’s supposed to rain for the next three days.’

A chorus of groans.

Allie looked up.

‘It’s so boring here when it rains,’ Jo explained. ‘The common room will be packed. We should get there early.’

As soon as they’d finished they hurried out and down the hall. Jo claimed a sofa in the middle of the room, kicking off her shoes and tucking her feet underneath her. Allie sank into a deep leather chair across from her. They were just settling down when Gabe walked up.

He, like Allie, had seemed distracted that evening. ‘I can’t stay,’ he said now, looking at Jo apologetically. ‘It’s this stupid project.’

He kissed her, whispered something in her ear that made her smile, then hurried out.

Finally, for the first time since the previous night, Allie and Jo were alone.

‘What should we do now?’ Jo asked. ‘Do you want to play Trivial Pursuit?’

‘Not right now.’ Allie scooted forward in her chair and leaned towards Jo, lowering her voice to a whisper. ‘Jo, what was that last night? What does Gabe think?’

‘Well, there was some sort of crazy fox or something … I don’t know,’ Jo said. ‘It all happened so fast.’

Disappointed, Allie leaned away from her. ‘That’s what Sylvain said, but it didn’t sound like a fox to me.’