Night School

‘OK,’ Jo said.

OK? Allie thought, betrayed. OK? You spoiled little …

Someone knocked on the door.

Allie leaned around to peek through the edge of the window. Jules stood in the doorway.

‘Katie, Ismay, can you come with me for a moment? I need to talk with you.’ Jules sounded stern, Allie thought, but Katie just rolled her eyes.

‘Seriously, Jules?’ She stood up and walked past the prefect, her every stride conveying irritation. ‘This is so boring.’

I wonder what that’s about? Allie thought, watching them go.

The acolyte, who Allie now knew must be Ismay, was right on her heels. Jo trailed behind them.

Though she was overwhelmed with the desire to throw herself into the room and demand an explanation from her ex-best friend, Allie waited right where she was. As soon as they were out of sight she shot past the window like a Fury. A few seconds later she was climbing across the roof to the main building and then skidding down the slope to Carter’s open window.

He was sitting at his desk working, and he didn’t notice her right away.

She studied his face – taking in his fair skin and slightly mussed straight dark hair. The way his long lashes cast feathery shadows against his cheeks. She liked his hands – his fingers were long but strong; his nails square and neat.

She felt an unexpected warmth spread through her as she watched him.

He really is lovely …

As if he’d heard her thoughts, Carter looked up and their eyes met.

With a startled cry he leaped from his chair so quickly it fell over. Allie tried not to giggle out loud as he slowly returned to his desk and peered out the window.

‘Allie?’ He looked embarrassed and cross, although she thought the latter was probably just to hide the former. ‘What the hell …?’

‘Hi,’ she whispered. ‘I can’t sleep. Want to come out and play?’

He opened the window. ‘You’re mad. Get inside before you kill yourself.’

‘Katie is such a bitch,’ she complained as she clambered across his desk.

Carter raised his eyebrows. ‘No argument.’

‘You don’t understand.’ Allie paced the floor. ‘I heard her talking through a window. She’s trying to “finish us” and she hates us both and she’s planting awful thoughts in Jo’s head about me – that I tried to kill her on the roof. I think she’s behind these horrible rumours about Ruth.’

As she ranted, he closed the window behind her, then picked the wooden chair up off the floor and propped it under the handle of his bedroom door, testing it for stability.

Finally he turned back to her. ‘What exactly did you hear?’

She told him what had happened that morning – with Katie and her friends, and how Rachel had known all about the gossip by seven in the morning. His eyes narrowed when she mentioned Sylvain’s intervention, but he said nothing. As she told him about what had transpired in Katie’s room his face darkened. She could see he was trying to stay calm.

‘OK, so there are two possibilities,’ he said. ‘Either she didn’t spread the first rumour and she’s just taking advantage of it to spread more rumours about you and Jo, or she did spread the first rumour and this new rumour is just part of her evil plan.’ He punched his right fist into his left palm. ‘That socialite bitch.’

‘What should we do?’ Allie asked. Then for the first time she paid attention to where she was. ‘And why is your room bigger than mine?’

He had two bookshelves to her one, and space for an extra chair in the corner. While the walls were whitewashed like hers, all the fabrics in the room were dark blue, giving it a more masculine feel. Allie noticed that all of his shelves were filled with well-thumbed books. And that a battered football rested on the seat of the spare chair. She pointed at the neatly made bed and he nodded. She sat down and stretched out her legs.

‘I’ve been here longer,’ Carter said absently.

He pulled out the desk chair and sat across from her. ‘These rumours are intended to cause the most damage possible, even to get you to leave the school. This feels like a campaign to me. To get rid of you.’

Allie slid forward on the bed until her knees nearly touched his.

‘OK, Carter. Enough with secrecy, and all that bollocks. It’s time. Tell me about this place.’

‘Allie …’

He leaned away from her, but she ignored the warning look he gave her.

‘Uh-uh. Not this time. Someone died. And somebody else is trying to ruin my life here. For all I know, whoever killed Ruth could go after me next. You know things. You are allegedly my friend. So tell me everything. Now.’

He walked across the room and stood against the wall, his previously relaxed posture now tight insecurity, his arms crossed.