Night School: Legacy

All the next week, Allie worked so hard she barely had time to think about Gabe or her argument with Carter, although a nagging worry about the argument never really left her. Avoiding Sylvain wasn’t difficult – she was too busy for anything except work and sleep. The whole time, though, the idea that one of her teachers, or one of her friends, could be working with Nathaniel plagued her thoughts. One of them was spying on her. Watching her.

But which one?

Every time she talked to Eloise, she would think, It can’t be her. She’s too nice. Nobody could be that great an actress.

She hated Zelazny of course, but it was impossible to imagine that he’d work for Nathaniel. He was dedicated to Cimmeria beyond any sense of proportion. Isabelle was of course out of the question, and then there was Jerry Cole, the science teacher. A nice, geeky man who got excited about atoms and genuinely loved his students – impossible.

It couldn’t be Raj Patel, or Sylvain, Carter or …

Her thoughts always ended in the same place: it was impossible to imagine anyone she knew in Night School betraying Isabelle and the students like that.

But somebody was.


When she wasn’t running on the school grounds, studying or learning defensive techniques, she was trying to convince Zoe to like her. But all her efforts backfired. The harder she tried, the more suspicious the younger girl was of her motives.

Zoe’s strange, emotionless way of talking and her almost mechanical approach to work and problem-solving made her hard to like. It had taken Allie a while to truly accept that behind the wireless robot facade and almost scary intelligence was a thirteen-year-old girl.

Zoe hated small talk. Allie’s attempts to engage her in chitchat always ended with Zoe staring at her with blank fierceness, as if she were trying to figure out what it was about Allie that was so annoying.

One day when Allie was talking about their science assignment, Zoe interrupted her mid-sentence.

‘You talk too much,’ she said. Then she got up and walked away, leaving Allie staring after her, open-mouthed.

But when they were training, Zoe was a good partner. Whenever Allie quickly learned a move, Zoe would try to compliment her, although it usually came out as, ‘You learned that quicker than usual. What’s wrong?’

But there was something vulnerable about Zoe that made Allie keep trying.

‘She’s kind of like a pet … person,’ she’d told Rachel.

Rachel smirked. ‘I wouldn’t let her hear you say that.’

‘Like a cobra-kitten hybrid,’ Allie continued, undaunted. ‘Cute and vicious at the same time.’

‘Or a python-puppy,’ Rachel offered. ‘But if you tell her I said that I’ll call you liar to your face.’

‘I wouldn’t dare.’ Allie shivered. ‘She’d hurt me.’

By the time Jerry Cole assigned them to practise surveillance techniques on an unseasonably warm afternoon in October, Allie had begun to believe she’d never win Zoe over. As the two struck out after their surveillance subject, Allie kept saying in dramatic tones, ‘It’s Night School by day … day … day’, adding an echo effect to the last word as Zoe glowered at her threateningly.

Their assignment was to follow a Night School student named Philip for three hours without being discovered. They had to track his every movement and record them on a form.

When they got their assignment, they both thought it sounded kind of cool.

It was unbelievably boring.

First Philip spent an hour in the library studying alone. Then he went into the boys’ toilets. For ages.

They were in the hallway arguing about whether or not to go in and check on him when he emerged so suddenly he almost ran into them. Luckily, he seemed distracted and hurried outside without noticing them. Upon following, they watched as he joined a group of friends playing football.

While he played, Zoe and Allie hid in the woods, spying on him through the trees.

‘He’s intercepting the ball!’ Zoe announced, watching Philip through a shield of bracken. ‘Oh no. He’s missed again.’ Turning to face Allie, she sat with her back to the game. ‘He’s rubbish.’

Holding a thick leaf of grass between her thumbs, Allie blew on it until it made a squawky trumpet sound. When she tired of the noise, she let the grass float from her hand.

‘God, this is dull. Why couldn’t he do something interesting? Like get in a fight or … anything that isn’t this?’

Eventually, they decided to play games to pass the time. First I Spy then, when that grew dull, Cloud Animals.

‘I see a minotaur,’ Zoe said, as they lay on their backs staring up at the sunlit blue sky.

‘No you don’t.’ Allie, who saw nothing but shapeless blobs, leaned over to squint at the cloud Zoe pointed at. ‘That’s nothing.’