She gave him a grateful look and he held her gaze – the light from the window illuminated his eyes like cobalt glass. It was hard to look away.
The others were still arguing about Katie.
‘She’s vile,’ Nicole said.
‘She’s insulting,’ Rachel said.
‘Crazy,’ Zoe muttered.
‘But we should invite her to join.’ Carter looked around the group. ‘Right?’
With clear reluctance they all nodded. There was no getting around it.
‘Great,’ Allie said, not thinking it was great. ‘I’ll tell her.’
‘She shouldn’t come to all the meetings,’ Sylvain said. ‘I believe we can trust her but we can’t be certain yet. So we cannot have her there when we’re talking to Isabelle, or…’ His gaze glanced off Allie’s. ‘Like yesterday.’
‘Good point,’ Carter said. ‘She’s very connected to things, but she’s not Night School and she’s not Rachel so we’ll only invite her to certain meetings.’
‘God help us,’ Rachel said.
After dinner that night, they gathered again in a corner of the crowded common room to wait for Raj Patel.
Rachel, who had talked to the guards that afternoon, was adamant he would come but, as time ticked by, she grew antsy – looking up from her chemistry homework every time anyone walked through the door.
‘Worst case scenario,’ she said as ten o’clock passed with no sign of him, ‘he just shows up in my room and I have to tell him everything myself.’
‘If he does, just knock on the wall,’ Allie suggested. ‘Then I can come over and back you up. And also stop you from saying all the things.’
‘He’ll come soon.’ Rachel looked around hopefully. But the spacious room with its leather sofas, bookcases stacked with board games and books, and tables topped with chessboards, was populated only by chattering students. Someone was playing Clair de Lune on the piano in the corner as others gathered around urging him to play something more lively.
Allie turned a page in her unread history book. The music – like everything else going on – was distracting. She was falling behind on her work. It was impossible to focus with so much happening. Lessons just seemed to be a tiresome interruption in her otherwise interesting day, and yet she’d promised Lucinda she’d make good grades.
From beneath lowered lashes, she glanced over to where Sylvain sat across from her in a deep leather chair, his chin resting on his hand. He looked lost in thought; she wondered what was consuming him – she had a feeling it was Zelazny.
Nearby, Carter was writing a geography essay – his neat handwriting slowly filling the page. Ever since their talk in the garden, he’d acted with extreme normality towards her, including her in conversations and even smiling sometimes. Things still felt formal with him but at least he wasn’t ignoring her.
Something Katie said popped into her mind and she sat up straight, looking around the group brightly. ‘Maybe we should have a name.’
The instant the words left her mouth she regretted it.
The others stared at her blankly.
‘Excuse me?’ Rachel said. Nicole stifled a musical giggle.
‘Like, for our group.’ Allie squirmed in their collective incredulous gaze. ‘It’s just… Katie… called us a gang.’
‘I don’t think we need a name.’ Carter was trying not to laugh. ‘Most of the good ones are taken anyway.’
The others tittered. Allie could feel heat rising up her neck. She wondered if there was some way to dissolve into the floor. She glanced desperately at Sylvain, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention. There was no one to save her from this.
‘Besides, if we’re secret we don’t need a name because we can’t talk about us,’ Zoe pointed out. ‘Night School isn’t really a name – it’s, more like… a description. It’s at school and it meets at night.’
‘God. Just drop it. All right?’ Allie tried not to look at anyone. ‘Forget I said anything.’
‘So,’ Rachel said, deflecting the attention so Allie could recover, ‘we should be keeping an eye out for my dad. He has this way of sneaking up on you.’
‘He does! It is incredible.’ Nicole sounded admiring. ‘I don’t know how he does it. He just’ – she waved a graceful hand – ‘appears. He is very talented in that way. Very graceful.’
‘Yeah.’ Clearly nonplussed by Nicole’s enthusiasm for her father, Rachel glanced at her askance. ‘Anyway. We need to be careful what we talk about. We don’t want him to overhear anything.’
‘Totally. It would be bad to be talking about penises when he walked up,’ Zoe said.
‘Zoe!’ Allie and Nicole said at once.
The younger girl blinked at them. ‘Well, it would, wouldn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ Allie said primly. ‘And you’re too young to talk about penises to anyone.’
‘Why?’ Zoe seemed puzzled. ‘How old do I need to be to talk about penises?’
‘Sixteen,’ Allie said. At the same moment, Nicole said, ‘Fourteen,’ and Rachel said, ‘Fifteen.’
Exchanging a look the three of them burst into giggles.
‘Older.’ Allie felt breathless and hysterical. ‘Just… older than now.’
Zoe glared at them. ‘I can talk about penises if I want to.’
‘No one can stop you,’ Rachel said. ‘But it will be kind of weird in your German lessons if you just sit there talking about penises.’
That set them off again. This time it took them a while to recover.
‘I think you are all losing it.’ Sylvain had noticed the hilarity at last and looked around in bafflement.
‘Sorry,’ Nicole said, wiping her eyes. ‘It’s the lack of sleep.’
‘And threat of death,’ Rachel added.
‘It gets to you,’ Allie said, trying to calm down. ‘At least we’re being careful what we’re talking about so your dad doesn’t hear anything.’
‘Why?’ Raj’s voice seemed to come from nowhere. They spun round to find him standing behind Rachel. ‘What do you not want me to hear?’
TWENTY-FIVE
‘Dad!’ Rachel threw herself at her father. Caught off guard, he wrapped her in a reflexive hug as he tried to keep his balance. ‘Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’
In the face of her relief, his expression softened. ‘I’m sorry, honey. There’s a lot going on.’
Allie’s chest felt hollow; she looked away. There’d been a time when she’d been that close to her father. When he’d been glad to see her. She was surprised by how much it hurt to think about that now, when it had been weeks since she’d last spoken to him.
But Rachel’s voice brought her back to what mattered right now.
‘We know there’s a lot going on. That’s why we need to talk to you.’ Extricating herself from her father’s hug, Rachel moved back to stand among the others. ‘Can we go somewhere?’
He looked around the group doubtfully. ‘I don’t have much time…’ he began.
‘Please, Dad,’ Rachel pleaded. ‘It’s important.’
Seeing the determination on their faces, he gave in.
‘Very well,’ he said with a resigned sigh. ‘Come with me.’
He led them out of the common room to the empty classroom wing at a brisk pace. Flipping on the light in one of the science classrooms, Raj waited as they all filed in.
The faint tang of formaldehyde in the air was unpleasant – Allie breathed through her mouth.
The heat was turned down in the classroom wing out of hours – it was so chilly the hairs on her arm stood on end as she tried to avoid looking at the model of a human skeleton in the corner. She didn’t like the way it grinned at them, as if being dead were just the best thing ever.
At the front of the room, Raj leaned against the teacher’s desk, crossing his arms over his chest. The harsh fluorescent lighting cast his pallor in sharp relief. Allie couldn’t remember ever seeing him look so tired. The circles under his eyes were deep and dark, and new lines had carved themselves on to his forehead at some point in the last few days.