Night School

She knew she was being cowardly, but she didn’t care.

As the evening wore on, though, the flaws in her plan became clear. She hadn’t spoken to one person since eight o’clock that morning. She had no television, computer or video games. She’d been reading all day and she’d slept for hours. By eleven-thirty she was sitting on her desk staring out the open window, wide awake and very bored.

Lights had been coming on in dorm rooms around her for the last hour as students returned from the games she’d heard them play on the lawns. Half an hour ago, she’d heard Zelazny’s gruff bellow of ‘Curfew!’ followed by the low rumble of voices and footsteps in the corridor outside her room.

Now, sliding across the desktop to the windowsill, Allie climbed out onto the ledge, less timidly than the last time. Her skirt fluttered against her thighs in the cool evening breeze. Following the path Carter had showed her the previous weekend, she had to pass a few windows to make her way along the ledge to the spot where the roof sloped at a gentle angle, and she could pull herself up. From there, she would make her way safely across the rooftop to the main building. There a similar sloping spot made a natural exit onto a ledge that led past the boys’ windows.

But some students were still up – light poured from the two windows she had to pass before she could make it to the relative safety of the roof.

When she reached the first window she peered cautiously through a corner of the glass. The lights were on, but the room appeared empty and she scuttled past it, exhaling only when she was well beyond it.

The next window was wide open. As she neared it she could hear voices and laughter. Peeking inside she saw three girls talking. One – a pretty girl with olive skin and straight, dark hair that swung just above her shoulders – sat on the bed facing the window. Allie recognised her as one of Katie’s acolytes.

The other two sat on the floor, their backs to her. Even from behind, the familiar short blonde hair made Jo impossible to miss. The girl next to her had a distinctive, vivid auburn ponytail.

Katie.

What is Jo doing hanging out with her? I thought she was still in the infirmary.

Astonished, Allie hung on to the bricks and tried to decide what to do. The girls looked relaxed and they could be planning to talk for hours. There was no way she could pass the window without the girl on the bed seeing her. But she couldn’t pull herself up onto the roof from here. She was trapped.

Her fingers were sore from holding on to the bricks and she was trying to find a way to shift her position on the narrow ledge to get more comfortable, so she wasn’t really paying attention when Katie’s words floated out the open window and it took her a moment for her to realise who she was talking about.

‘… and I think something needs to be done.’ Katie was saying. ‘Isabelle has no right to let somebody like her loose among us. We don’t know anything about her. First Ruth and then … well. She could have killed you up on that roof, Jo. It’s a miracle you survived.’

Wait. What is she saying?

She waited for Jo to tell Katie she was crazy.

‘I used to think she was my friend,’ Jo said. ‘But now I don’t trust her at all. That scene up on the roof was so scary. I could have died.’

I saved your life! Allie glared at the wall in front of her as if she could cut through it with her eyes.

‘Of course you could have,’ Katie said. ‘Just look at what happened to Ruth. It’s no coincidence that Allie didn’t go to get help first. She came up there so she could be alone with you when you were vulnerable. God knows how you survived.’

‘Carter was up there too,’ the acolyte said, sounding surprisingly reasonable.

‘Yes, Carter did help me …’ Jo said uncertainly.

‘But why didn’t he stop her from pushing you off?’ the acolyte asked.

Pushing who off? Nobody was pushed!

‘Because he’s in love with her.’ Katie’s voice rang with contempt but Allie felt her heart skip a beat.

He’s in love with me? She smiled stupidly at the old brickwork in front of her. Really?

‘He’s done here, too,’ Katie finished.

Allie stopped smiling.

‘We should never have accepted him in the first place,’ Katie continued. ‘I’ve never understood Isabelle’s obsession with him. He doesn’t belong here. He’s not legacy any more than she is. Standards are really slipping here. I’m going to tell my father – he needs to intercede.’

Her caustic tone seemed to amuse the acolyte. ‘That should scare Isabelle,’ she giggled.

‘It better. He’s on the board,’ Katie said. ‘And Jo, you need to write to your father too. He’s incredibly influential. Tell him what happened on the roof, how some crazy new girl tried to kill you and Isabelle won’t lift a hand to protect you.’

Allie held her breath, waiting for Jo to tell her this was a stupid idea. That she wouldn’t have anything to do with it. That she knew Allie and she deserved to be here.