Night School: Legacy

This was not at all what Allie expected to hear. But Rachel had more to tell. As they climbed the stairs to the first floor of the classroom wing she reeled off the basic Zoe facts.

‘Her dad’s a lawyer; her mum’s a journalist, I think. She’s from London like you. Her parents are older. Like, maybe she was an accident. Anyway, until she came here she was homeschooled by her grandparents. So until then, she’d never spent time with kids her own age.’ They reached the landing and slowed their pace as Rachel continued. ‘She’s totally socially awkward. It’s like she was raised by wolves. I think she’s probably a bit Asperger’s … but the good bit, if you know what I mean.’

‘That’s a nice way of saying she’s psycho, right?’

Rachel shot her a disapproving look. ‘Don’t be mean.’

‘Sorry.’ Allie held up her hands.

By then, though, Rachel had already moved on. ‘She doesn’t accept new people easily – she doesn’t like change. So, good luck with that. But if she does accept you, she’s so loyal it might drive you crazy.’

They stopped on the landing.

‘If she accepts me,’ Allie muttered.

Rachel nodded. ‘There are people in this school she ignores completely, like they don’t exist. She’ll run into them if they stand in front of her. It’s like they’re invisible to her.’

Somehow this didn’t surprise Allie at all. ‘Does everyone just … accept her?’ she asked. ‘I mean, she’s really odd.’

Rachel’s brow creased. ‘Some don’t get why she is the way she is – they think she’s rude because … Well, she’s rude. But she doesn’t mean to be. I’m mean, she’s not, like … cruel. She seems rude because she’s honest. And people aren’t used to honesty.’

Allie felt a ping in her chest, as if Rachel’s words had physically touched her.

Glancing at her watch, she winced. ‘Look, I’d better run. My next class is with Zelazny. Tardiness is not an option.’

With a quick wave, Allie hurried down the hall to history class, where Jo had saved her a seat; she slid into it just before Zelazny walked into the room. He surveyed the students darkly.

‘I see you all made it on time.’ He marked a sheet of paper and put it back in a folder. ‘How kind of you. Welcome to ancient history. This term we’ll be focusing on the classical civilisations of Greece and Rome.’

As he spoke, he walked around the room putting a textbook on every desk with a deliberate thud.

‘Class participation counts towards your overall grade,’ he said, setting a book down on Jo’s desk. ‘So I expect you to be engaged and involved in classes. This is advanced history – there will be no slacking.’

As Zelazny moved across the room, Jo wrote diligently in her notebook. When he was well away from them she turned it sideways so Allie could read it.

‘THIS IS GOING TO SUCK DONKEY BALLS.’

A laugh burst out of Allie before she could stop it. She feigned a coughing fit to disguise it, but Zelazny turned to glare at her. She slid down in her seat, fighting to keep a straight face as Jo gazed around the room innocently and flipped to a clean page in her notebook.


By the time Allie made her way to Isabelle’s English class that afternoon, her bag was heavy with books and her to-do list filled a full page in her notebook. When she was going to find the time to do that work was a mystery to her. She had Night School at ten, so everything would have to be done before then. Somehow.

She was walking down the hall with her head down when she bumped into someone.

‘Sorry,’ she said automatically, before looking up into Carter’s dark eyes. ‘Hey!’ Her face lit up and she leaned in for a kiss but he took a quick step away from her.

Confusion and doubt roiled her. ‘What’s wrong?’

He looked furious.

‘Wait, are you still pissed off about me training with Sylvain?’ She couldn’t believe it. ‘You can’t be serious, Carter.’

‘Am I still pissed off?’ He stepped out of the hallway traffic flow and lowered his voice. ‘Of course I’m still pissed off, Allie. Wouldn’t you be? Put yourself in my shoes. You had a bad lesson and instead of coming to me you went straight to Sylvain for comfort. How would you feel if I did that with one of my ex-girlfriends?’

He had a point, but she wasn’t about to admit it.

‘That’s not fair, Carter. I didn’t go looking for him. He was just checking to make sure I was OK. Then he offered to help.’

‘Oh that’s so much better,’ he snapped. ‘And did you ask yourself why he went looking for someone else’s girlfriend?’

‘Carter, seriously.’ Anger fired inside her – hot and dangerous. She fought to stay calm. ‘First of all, I’m not just “someone’s girlfriend”. I’m Allie Sheridan, Person. Second of all: Nothing. Happened. You have to trust me.’

‘Do I?’ he said. ‘Would you trust me in the same situation? In all honesty, if you found me in the woods practising with Clair, would you trust me?’