Night School

Smoothing her hair with her hands, she walked out. Jules was leaning against the wall.

‘Now you look like one of us,’ she said approvingly as they walked down the narrow hall.

Allie didn’t know what to think about that.

‘This area used to be the servants’ quarters,’ Jules explained, oblivious to Allie’s simmering resentment. ‘The building was expanded over the years, though, so it’s much larger than it used to be. The bathroom’s here …’ she gestured at the only door they’d passed that wasn’t numbered. ‘Everyone shares it so go early or late or expect to wait.’

They turned back towards the stairs. The building felt busier now, with uniformed students talking and laughing everywhere.

‘I take it Isabelle showed you the dining room?’ Jules said. ‘Did she take you to the common room?’

Allie shook her head.

‘It’s the most important room in the school,’ Jules said, leading them down the staircase. ‘Most of us are here after class whenever we’re not doing our prep.’

‘Prep?’ Allie asked.

Jules looked at her as if she couldn’t believe she had to ask.

‘Homework,’ she explained, opening a door at the foot of the stairs.

They stepped into a comfortable space with leather sofas, Oriental rugs scattered on the floor, a piano in one corner, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stacked with books and games. Several tables had chessboards painted on top. The room was empty save for one deep chair at the far side of the room where a boy sat watching them over the top of an ancient-looking book. He had straight black hair, a firm mouth and huge, dark eyes surrounded by thick lashes; his feet were propped casually on a chessboard. Their eyes met and Allie had the strangest feeling that he knew who she was. He didn’t smile at her, or say a word, but he kept looking. After a moment that seemed longer than a moment, she tore her eyes away and looked back at Jules, who was watching her expectantly.

Say something.

‘There’s, uh … no television? Or … stereo …’ She thought she heard a stifled chuckle from across the room but she refused to look back over at the boy.

Again she saw bafflement on Jules’ face, as if she’d asked her what the bright golden globe in the sky was.

‘No, definitely not.’ Jules’ voice was stern. ‘No TV, no iPod, no laptops, no mobiles … No twenty-first century, really. Surely your parents mentioned this to you?’

As Jules listed off the things the students couldn’t have, Allie’s heart sank with each forbidden device. In answer to Jules’ question, she shook her head mutely.

Jules seemed astonished but gathered herself enough to explain.

‘We’re expected to learn how to amuse ourselves in more traditional ways. Like conversation and reading. Trust me, they’ll keep you so busy with schoolwork you won’t have time for TV anyway.’ Jules turned to walk out of the room, ‘It’s all in the packet …’

That stupid packet. It will take me all bloody night to read it and learn more about how rubbish this place is.

Without looking back at the boy in the chair, she followed the prefect down the hall. Jules lightly touched a door as they passed it. ‘This is the library – you’ll get to know it very well.’

They crossed the main hall and she pushed open a heavy door, letting them into the east wing of the building.

‘This is where the classrooms are. It’s easiest to find your way around by number when you first start here. On your schedule, each of your classes has a room number. We all know them by teacher, but that won’t be much help to you at first, since they don’t put their names on the door. Rooms one to twenty are on the ground floor, one hundred to one-twenty are on the first floor, and anything higher than that is off limits to you.’

Allie shot her a surprised look but before she could ask why, Jules said, ‘So, you’ve got about twenty minutes before dinner, and I’d suggest you read through the packet while you’ve got the time. That stuff is really important. Otherwise I think you’ll be a bit lost tomorrow. Your teachers will give you your books in each class, by the way, so you only need to bring paper and pens; there should be plenty in your desk.’

They were climbing the stairs by that point, heading back towards the dormitory. ‘I’m in room 335 if you need me, but anybody will help you if you get lost, OK?’

She waved and turned away down the hall, as Allie returned to her room.

Setting the weird-looking Rules aside for later, she flipped through the stack of papers on the desk and tried to focus on class guides (‘Students must be in their seats before the instructor begins each class …’) but her thoughts returned to the boy in the leather chair. She searched her memory for any past encounters but could find none filed there. He definitely seemed to recognise her, or, if nothing else, to know who she was. She twirled her pencil between her fingers, remembering the way his dark eyes had studied her.

As she turned over another page she glanced down at her watch.