Night School: Legacy

With a groan, she climbed out of bed and draped a towel over her shoulder before trudging down the silent hallway. The bathroom was mostly empty, although she could hear water running in one of the showers.

The last cubicle in the row was her favourite – it seemed bigger than the others, and lighter. Setting her slippers on the teak bench, she hung her robe on a polished brass hook set into a wall tiled in cream-coloured stone. The long, hot shower loosened her knotted muscles, and by the time she padded out of the cubicle she felt like herself again, but she was no longer alone. Another girl, swathed in a white Cimmeria robe identical to Allie’s, stood at a sink.

To give them both privacy, Allie chose a sink well away from her. But as she studied herself in the mirror and scrubbed up a toothy foam the girl spoke.

‘Excuse me. Are you Allie?’ The accent was French. The voice light, musical.

‘Yes?’

The girl moved closer. She was tiny, Allie saw now. Barely five feet tall, and delicate, with enormous brown eyes and ludicrously lush lashes. She looked strangely familiar but Allie couldn’t place her.

‘I thought so.’ The girl seemed pleased. ‘I’ve heard so much about you from Sylvain. I am Nicole.’

Allie had never heard of her – Sylvain had never mentioned her.

‘Oh yeah … I mean …’ she said through the toothpaste. ‘Of course. It’s nice to meet you.’

Nicole blinked up at her. ‘He talked about you so much over the summer term in his letters – I feel that I know you.’

She even blinks prettily, Allie thought.

She wasn’t sure what was happening here. Was Nicole Sylvain’s girlfriend? One he forgot to mention? And even if she was, what did that matter?

She really needed to rinse her mouth.

‘Last night, he told me was going to check on you after training.’ Nicole seemed completely unaware the Allie was drooling foam. ‘He could see you were upset. Did he find you?’

Colour crept into Allie’s cheeks. Night School. That’s where I saw her. And that means she saw me totally fail.

‘Yes. He did find me.’

‘And he helped you.’ Nicole said it as if there was no question anything else could have happened.

‘He was very helpful,’ Allie said stiffly. Then she turned around and spat out the toothpaste.

After rinsing her mouth, she turned to gather her things, but when she looked up Nicole was still watching her.

Her giggle was musical, like water trickling in a stream. ‘I am sorry to bother you without … warning.’ She wrinkled her pert nose. ‘It is just nice to know who you are.’

‘And it’s great to meet you at last,’ Allie said with false enthusiasm as she hurried out the door. ‘After hearing so much about you from Sylvain.’


‘Who is Nicole and why is she so pretty and French?’ Allie cast a sideways glance at Rachel.

‘Ooh. Sylvain’s off-and-on girlfriend. Very sophisticated, annoyingly gorgeous,’ Rachel said. ‘Why?’

‘Are they off now?’ Allie asked. ‘Or on?’

Rachel arched one questioning eyebrow. ‘Off … I think. But who knows with those two? Why?’

They were walking down the hall between classes. Allie longed to tell her everything that had happened last night, but she knew full well that, not only could she not mention it, but Rachel really wouldn’t want to hear about it anyway. She hated that suddenly she couldn’t tell her best friend everything. It felt uncomfortable – like an unspoken lie.

‘Oh it’s nothing, really.’ Allie shrugged. ‘She just talked to me in the bathroom this morning. Freaked me out.’

‘I hate being talked to in the bathroom,’ Rachel commiserated as she dodged a crowd of giggling girls. ‘What did she say?’

‘Just that Sylvain told her all about me. It wasn’t weird or anything. It was just … weird.’

‘I understand completely,’ Rachel said, shaking her head and staring at Allie as if she were mad.

‘I know,’ Allie sighed. ‘It doesn’t make sense. It’s nothing. I have a more important question.’

‘Hit me.’

‘What’s the story with this Zoe creature?’

‘What?’ Rachel looked confused. ‘You mean Zoe Glass? When did you two meet?’

Allie shrugged non-committally and Rachel shot her a knowing look. When she spoke again her tone was brisk. ‘Right. What do you want to know?’

‘What’s her story?’ Allie asked. ‘She’s strange. Like … I don’t know … a really violent robot.’

Rachel didn’t laugh – she didn’t find anything related to Night School funny.

‘Zoe is your basic prodigy. She’s thirteen but she’s studying at our level – actually above our level – she takes college courses with a tutor—’

‘Wait. Seriously?’ Allie interrupted her, stopping so abruptly the person behind her ran into her. ‘Sorry,’ she said, glancing over her shoulder as the nervous first-year boy shuffled by without meeting her eyes. ‘She’s thirteen? I knew she was younger than us but …’

‘Seriously. She’s like a genius.’