Night School

She didn’t sound at all worried, and Allie felt her nerves tingle. Warning signs flashed in her mind. Stopping in her tracks, she turned.

‘Why are you worried about her? What’s happened?’

Katie blew on her nails with deliberate languor. ‘Nothing’s happened. I just saw her this morning looking upset. You know, I’m no expert, but I thought she looked like she was on something.’

Allie’s stomach tightened. ‘What do you mean “on something”? Jo doesn’t do drugs.’

‘And I thought you two were friends,’ Katie said. ‘Well, if she hasn’t told you, then I guess she doesn’t trust you. So I better not say any more.’

Curling her hands into tight fists at her side, Allie turned back towards Jo’s room. ‘Whatever, Katie. Go peddle your evil gossip to Jules or your other stupid friends. Just leave me out of it.’

‘With pleasure,’ Katie replied, walking in the other direction. ‘But you are going in the wrong direction. The last time I saw Jo she was going into your room. Not hers.’

Allie refused to react and continued on to Jo’s room, but she moved in a quick staccato rhythm as Katie’s words rang in her ears. Why would Jo be in her room? She knocked twice on the door before opening it without waiting for an answer.

The room was empty.

The shutter was open but all the lights were out, and the bed was rumpled but didn’t look slept in. Clothes were piled on the floor in an uncharacteristically messy fashion. Her desk drawers were half open, as if Jo had been in a hurry and looking for something.

Determined not to listen to anything Katie said ever, Allie sat at the desk and waited for a moment in case Jo was nearby and might soon return, but after a while she was forced to concede Jo wasn’t coming back.

Heading back down the hall to her own room, she moved more slowly. As she opened her own bedroom door she felt a vague sense of dread.

Nothing was as she’d left it. The light was on, and the room was a wreck. Her desk drawers had been thrown open and ransacked – pens, books and papers littered the floor.

Allie looked around cautiously before taking a step inside, but the room was empty. As she walked across the room she picked up her scattered belongings numbly, stacking papers and gathering books in a neat pile. By the time she reached her desk she realised that what she was holding was her copy of The Rules, which had been torn apart.

Someone had scratched a thick line across the front page and scrawled on it:



THIS IS BOLLOCKS!!

Flipping it over, she saw a note on the back. The angry scrawl was hard to read, but she knew it was from Jo even before she read the message.

A

Everything’s ruined. Everyone’s lying. You need to know the truth but nobody will tell you. Come talk to me: I’m on the roof. DON’T TELL GABE where I am.

J



‘Shit.’ Even as Allie breathed the word she noticed the window above her desk was wide open.

She ran back across the room and closed the door. Her mind was whirling. What should I do? What should I do?

Climbing up onto her desk, she looked out the window. The dormitory rooms were just below the attic. She leaned over and looked down to the ground below.

It was a long way down.

But Carter had done it and he said it was easy. If he could, then she could. Taking a deep breath, she cautiously eased herself out until she was sitting on the ledge where he’d perched the other day, resting her feet on the old Victorian gutter beneath it.

‘Jo?’ she whispered tentatively.

There was no response.

Far below her she could hear voices and the crunching sound of people walking on the gravel drive.

Holding tightly to the window frame, she tested the strength of the gutter she was standing on. It was solid. She turned around so that she was facing the wall and, clinging first to the window, and then to slate roofing tiles, she slid along the edge of the gutter for about two yards until she reached another ledge and hoisted herself up onto it, finding finger holds in the brickwork. Once there she stopped and breathed heavily, looking around.

‘Jo?’

A rustling sound above her head made her look up, but she could see nothing. Then she heard a bitter giggle.

‘Finders keepers.’ Jo’s voice sounded angry.

Grunting with the effort, Allie pulled herself up onto the next ledge; from there she could see the roof. Jo was sitting on the very top, leaning against a chimney stack. Her hair was a tangled mess and Allie could tell she’d been crying.

‘Jesus, Jo. How’d you get up there? And how will we ever get down?’

Jo waved her hand dismissively. ‘Don’t be such a coward, Allie, for God’s sake. Take a chance now and then, why don’t you?’ Then she leapt to her feet and stood up fearlessly, balancing on the very tip of the peaked roof.