Night School: Legacy

‘Don’t be jealous.’ Allie offered her half the biscuit, which Rachel accepted grudgingly. ‘It doesn’t suit you. Besides, it won’t last, will it?’


‘I bloody hope not,’ Rachel replied with her mouth full. ‘Although this biscuit is delicious. I wonder if he could get us some more.’

‘Wow, you corrupt so quickly,’ Allie said. ‘You’re like, “Instant Tyrant: all it takes is one biscuit”.’

‘Two,’ Rachel corrected her. ‘I’d become a tyrant for two biscuits.’

But only Rachel and Zoe could make her laugh right now. Jo was still angry with her. And the rest of her life was tension and fear. And sadness.

There’d still been no word from Christopher, despite his promise to get in touch with her again. And she still hadn’t told Rachel or Zoe what was really going on. She couldn’t tell Rachel, and Zoe was just a kid. As the weeks passed, though, not telling them grew harder, if only because she had nobody left to discuss it with.

And still she couldn’t cry. She hadn’t been able to since that day in the library with Carter. It was as if all her tears had abandoned her right when she really needed them most.

‘Something must be wrong with me if I can’t cry,’ she told Rachel. ‘Maybe I’m actually ill. I could have some disease.’

‘Sj?gren’s syndrome.’ Unsurprised by this change of subject, Rachel, who hoped to be a doctor someday, didn’t look up from her advanced chemistry textbook.

Allie blinked. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘It’s a disease where you can’t make tears.’ Rachel studied her critically. ‘But you haven’t got it.’

‘How do you know?’

‘It’s excruciating.’ She flipped a page in her book and wrote something in her notebook. ‘You have to practically peel your eyeballs off your brain every morning.’

‘Gross.’ Allie returned to her own work. ‘I’m glad I haven’t got that. How would I look in a fancy frock with peeled eyeballs?’

Rachel’s brows arched. ‘Like an alien. Actually, an obsessed alien. You’re obsessed with the ball, Allie. Get help.’

Before the biscuit-bearing student had appeared, they’d been talking about the winter ball. Or rather, Allie had been. Because she was, in fact, obsessed. It was only two weeks away. Aside from Allie’s lineage, the buzz in the hallways, the dining hall and class was about nothing else. Everybody talked about the ball, the ball, the ball. What to wear. Who to go with. But all Allie thought was …

Lucinda will be there.

At the very thought of meeting her grandmother – of asking her the questions that had tormented her for months now – Allie’s heart sped up. She would do anything to make that meeting happen. Including putting on a posh gown and twirling on a sodding dance floor while a string bloody orchestra played.

But the awful night of the summer ball was very fresh in her memory. And with Lucinda, Allie and Isabelle all in the same place at the same time, why wouldn’t Nathaniel do something horrible?

Lucinda will be there, she thought again. And something bad will happen.


That night, Allie stretched out on the floor of Training Room One, extending her hamstrings until they ached. Beside her, Zoe bounced on the balls of her feet.

‘I hope we go running.’ Her voice vibrated as she hopped. ‘I feel like running.’

‘Me too,’ Allie said, lowering her head to her knees.

At that moment Zelazny’s sharp voice rose above the din. ‘Tonight we’ll start with a four-mile run.’

‘Yay,’ Zoe whispered and dashed for the door.

Allie hurried to follow but Zelazny called her name and, turning back, she saw him motioning for her to come over.

Zoe stopped by the door to wait for her.

‘Can I have a word?’ His voice was calm and unthreatening. ‘Zoe, you can go on ahead. Allie will only be a minute.’

As she left, Zoe raised her eyebrows; Allie responded with a helpless shrug.

Zelazny waited to speak until the students had all gone. As they stood in awkward silence she could see the perspiration glistening on his forehead. He tugged at the collar of his exercise shirt as if it constrained him.

Crossing her arms across her chest, she looked down at the floor.

‘I’ve been meaning to speak with you, Allie, for a week or so.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Just to clear the air between us.’

She glanced up at him suspiciously.

‘We’ve had our difficulties over the months you’ve been here, and I … Well, I feel I haven’t been entirely fair with you.’ He coughed. ‘So I wanted to … to apologise if I was too stern with you at times. And to say I hope you’ll work with me going forward. I believe we can have a good working relationship. You’ve got a great deal of promise and, at times, I think I haven’t made that clear.’

If he’d said he’d just seen a green Martian eating chocolate in the common room, she couldn’t have been more stunned.