Chapter Eleven
She tried not to
think about Gabriel all of Monday at school, but by lunchtime,
April had to admit defeat. She’d spent the morning mentally
dissecting every last detail of every conversation and look from
the night before, worrying over whether she had done the right
thing asking Gabriel out, fretting that she had put him off by
being too pushy, wondering why he hadn’t kissed her, remembering
how Milo had. Of course, she hadn’t heard from either boy, but that
hadn’t stopped her checking her phone for a message or missed call
every five minutes since she had woken up and she kept catching
herself smiling like a lunatic when images from the party popped
into her mind. To be accurate, it was mainly images of Gabriel in
the moonlight, although April was also enjoying reliving the kiss
with Milo; she got shivers just thinking about it. After all, what
girl wouldn’t enjoy having two boys chasing her when usually there
were somewhere around zero? There’s no reason
he would call me so soon, is there? she had to remind
herself. I mean, it was only a casual
arrangement. And it’s not like it’s a date or anything - or is it?
Did I even really ask him out?
By the time the
midday bell sounded, April was desperate to talk to someone about
it. She’d coasted through her History lesson, surreptitiously
checking her phone under the desk. She’d had about six texts from
Fiona, all variations on ‘Must talk!’, ‘Urgent!’ and ‘Where are
you?’, but she wanted to talk to Caro about Gabriel first. Caro had
been at Ravenwood for years - surely she must know something about
him. She was sure Caro would be waiting for her in the dining hall,
equally keen to talk about the party, so she was quick to gather up
her books, grab her bag and head for the door. She almost made
it.
‘April? Can I have a
word?’
Miss Holden was
calling her back. Oh Christ, not another
lecture, surely?
The teacher closed
the door and took out a file. ‘I want to talk to you about your
homework,’ she said, putting the folder on her desk. ‘How would you
say you are getting on in History?’
‘Well, I’m trying to
keep up, but it’s been hard. I’m enjoying it though, I
think.’
‘You think?’ said
Miss Holden, pulling out an essay April recognised as her own. It
was covered with red ink and April’s heart sank. ‘I’ll be frank,
April, this isn’t good enough. It would be enough, perhaps even
good, in a regular school, but Ravenwood isn’t a normal school, is
it?’
‘You can say that
again,’ muttered April.
‘And that sort of
attitude is doing you no favours either, young lady,’ said the
teacher. ‘I appreciate that you may not have chosen to come here,
but you’re here now and there’s no point in wishing it otherwise.
If today’s lesson is anything to go by, you’ve had your head in the
clouds all day. Again. Do you want to stay here,
April?’
April couldn’t think
of anything to say, so she looked at the floor.
‘I’ll take your
silence as a yes.’ The teacher sighed. ‘Now, I’ll tell you what
we’re going to do.’ She picked up April’s essay and, in one brisk
movement, tore it in half.
April looked up, her
eyes wide. ‘But I spent hours on that,’ she gasped.
‘Not enough of them,
apparently,’ said Miss Holden, dropping it in the waste-bin. She
pulled another sheet from her folder and handed it to April. ‘This
is your new assignment, regarding the church’s role in social
engineering in the Middle Ages. I’ve included a reading list, most
of which can be found in the school library. It would do you a
power of good if you actually read some books, rather than
paraphrasing whatever you find on the Internet. I expect much, much
better, April, so show me what you can do.’
April looked from the
sheet to Miss Holden and back again. There were seven or eight
books on the list - did she expect April to read them
all?
‘That’s it for now,’
said Miss Holden, turning away. ‘You may go.’
‘But …’
‘Yes?’
April shook her head.
‘Nothing. Well, actually there is something. What is the Circle of
Lebanon?’
Miss Holden looked at
April with a frown. ‘Local interest, eh? Well, it’s a start, I
suppose.’ She took the assignment sheet from her and scribbled
another line on it. ‘Oh, and April?’
‘Yes?’ She
sighed.
‘The library’s that
way,’ she said, pointing to the right. ‘Turn left at the end. Can’t
miss it.’
April was boiling
with anger as she strode down the corridor. That witch! How dare she? Aren’t teachers supposed to help
you with problems, not take the mickey? I should report that smarmy
cow.
‘Hi, April.’ She
turned to see Sara Gold, a minor member of the Faces, the one
Davina had supposedly seen enter a bathroom with Gabriel. She was
standing with Layla and they both seemed to be highly amused about
something.
‘Oh, uh, hi,’ said
April distractedly as she hurried on.
‘Have a good time at
the party?’ called Sara to sounds of laughter.
April stopped and
turned to face them. ‘Yes, it was fun,’ she said.
‘That’s what we
heard,’ said Sara, a touch of spite in her voice. ‘A lot of fun.’
‘I’m sorry? What are
you saying?’ said April with a creeping sense of
dread.
‘Oh, nothing. We just
heard how you like to spread the love around.’
Sara cracked up
laughing at this and April was disturbed to see that a crowd was
gathering around them.
‘I could say the same
about you, Sara,’ said April. ‘I heard you spent a lot of time in
the bathroom.’
The smile faded from
Sara’s face. ‘Who told you that?’
The double doors to
the refectory sprang open and Caro came bowling through. She
grabbed April’s arm and dragged her back the way she had come. ‘We
need to talk,’ she said from the side of her mouth.
‘What? What’s going
on?’
‘No big deal,’ said
Caro. She hurried April down the corridor and out into the grounds.
When they were a decent distance from the building, Caro stopped.
‘Someone is spreading a rumour about you and a whole bunch of boys
at the party.’
‘WHAT?’ cried April,
horrified. ‘You’re joking! Tell me you’re joking?’
Caro shook her head.
‘No, I’m not. I wouldn’t make something like that up.’
April could feel her
heart hammering. God, I’ve only been at this
horrible school a week and already everyone thinks I’m a
slut, she thought in despair. I only
wanted to fit in.
‘But why? Why would
someone do that?’
‘Well, you obviously
pissed someone off last night and now they’re trying to drag you
through the mud.’
‘But
who?’
Caro led April over
to a bench and sat her down. ‘Okay, talk me through the whole
thing. And leave nothing out - the tiniest detail could give us the
clue.’
‘For God’s sake,
Caro,’ snapped April, ‘this isn’t one of your stupid conspiracies,
this is serious. This is about me! What if people believe it? What
if I become known as some kind of sleep-around slut?’
Caro looked as if she
was about to object, but instead she nodded. ‘Yes, you’re right,
but let’s go through it all anyway. We need to find out who is
behind the rumour, then torture them until they retract it. So what
happened?’
Taking a deep breath,
April slowly told Caro the story of her night, from meeting Milo at
the door, flirting with Ben, through the incident with Marcus, then
making out with Milo, the fight and the romantic walk home with
Gabriel.
When she had
finished, Caro whistled. ‘Wow. You did have a busy
night.’
‘So what do you
think? Maybe someone saw me talking to all those boys and decided I
was doing more than talking?’
Caro pulled a face.
‘That’s not the rumour. The rumour is that you were throwing
yourself at anything in trousers. In fact, none of those names were
mentioned.’
‘Oh God,’ said April.
‘But why? Who would do that?’
Caro thought for a
moment. ‘Did anyone see you kissing Milo?’
‘Only
Gabriel.’
‘Definitely?’
‘Definitely.’
‘Hmm. Well then, the
prime suspect has to be Marcus Brent, doesn’t it? You obviously
caught him out and he’s trying to cover himself with this story
about how you threw yourself at him and his chums.’
‘Eww, don’t …’ said
April, screwing her face up. ‘But why? I mean, I know Marcus hates
me for some reason, but I assumed that was because he didn’t like
Benjamin talking to me.’
‘It’s obvious - you
were about to blow his cover.’
‘What cover? Cover
for what?’
‘Think about it: what
were you doing just before Marcus grabbed you?’
‘I was taking photos
of the party.’
‘Exactly! And then he
deleted all the photos, right? So now we can’t see what they were
trying to hide.’ Caro was looking at April as if the answer was
blindingly obvious.
‘What? What’s all
that supposed to mean?’ she asked impatiently.
‘I knew it all
along!’
‘Knew what? What have
you known all along?’
‘That they’re
vampires!’
April gaped at Caro.
She began to speak but then found she didn’t have the words. She
shook her head and stood up.
‘Okay, fine,’ said
April. ‘You have your little joke too. Actually I came to you to
ask your advice about Gabriel because I thought you were my friend
and that you might be able to help, but it seems that you can’t
stop your silly little games for one minute. Thanks, Caro. I’ll
deal with it myself.’ She picked up her bag and started to stalk
back towards the school buildings.
‘Hey, hey!’ said
Caro, running ahead of her and putting her hands up. ‘I know it
sounds mad, but hear me out, okay?’
‘Caro, please,’ said
April, trying to get past her. ‘This is ridiculous.’
‘Okay, so explain it
to me - why did Marcus go so crazy when he saw the
camera?’
April threw her arms
up in frustration. ‘I don’t know! Maybe they were doing drugs? They
were all standing around a table, maybe they had some coke or they
were rolling a joint or something. Maybe they were arm-wrestling
for all I know. Whatever it was, it was definitely dodgy and they
didn’t want me having evidence of it.’
‘Or maybe there’s a
simpler explanation.’
‘What? Them all being
vampires is a simpler explanation? Jesus!’
She pushed past Caro,
shaking with anger and disappointment. True, she hardly knew Caro,
but she had thought they had really connected, that Caro was the
one person she could count on. Didn’t she understand how serious
this was? Getting a reputation for something like that - more to
the point, for something she hadn’t done - it was unthinkable.
She’d never live it down. Never.
‘Dammit, dammit,
dammit.’ April sat in the kitchen staring down at her phone and its
unblinking display. No bars at all, no reception in this stupid
house. Why did they have to move here? April had tried to call
Fiona, but her best friend’s phone had gone straight to voicemail
three times before she got home.
‘Think, April,’ she
muttered to herself. ‘What would Dad do?’ Scotland’s top
investigative reporter wouldn’t give up after a few failed phone
calls. She only had half an hour left if she was going to get back
to school before the lunch break ended - if she could even bear to
go - but … Then it clicked. Of course! Fiona would be on her lunch
break too. She sprinted up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
April flew across her bed and rattled at the keyboard, bringing the
computer out of sleep mode. At lunchtime, April and Fiona had
usually gone to their form room in St Geoffrey’s to use the
computers under the guise of ‘extra study’. They generally messed
about on Facebook and looked up celebrity gossip, but she knew that
Fiona would check her email accounts as a matter of course,
especially as she had been trying to get in touch to gossip about
the party. She quickly signed in to her account.
Fee, need to speak urgently, can you call? she
wrote, stabbing at the ‘send’ button.
Almost immediately, a
box popped up on the screen.
Been trying, you daft cow. Your mobile doesn’t work and
the landline’s constantly engaged! Fx
April cursed and ran
across to the phone extension she’s had installed in her room. Fee
was right - the handset was out of its cradle. It began to ring the
moment she clicked it into place.
‘Thank God, Fee …’
she began, but her friend was already talking.
‘What’s the matter
with you, April?’ said Fiona with irritation. ‘I’ve been trying and
trying to get in touch since about ten o’clock last night! Where
have you been? I’ve been up all night worrying myself to
death.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said
April, a little taken aback, ‘but the big story all happened this
morning.’
Fiona paused, hearing
the distress in her friend’s voice. ‘Okay, sorry, but I was
imagining all sorts of things after those photos. So what
happened?’
April quickly told
her all about the party, then the rumours at school. She left out
the fact that she’d fought with Caro, too - they had enough to
discuss as it was.
‘Listen, Fee, I’m
sorry I didn’t call you this morning, but I thought I’d see Gabriel
at school and then all this stuff about the … well, the lies
they’re spreading about me, it distracted me. So what did you want
to talk about?’
There was a pause at
the other end of the line. ‘Nothing bad, but … well, it’s just a
bit weird. Look, get back on the Internet, I’m going to send you
something, okay?’
April frowned. What
was Fee on about? Was she worried April had fallen in with a bad
lot or something? Surely Fiona knew her better than
that?
When she opened her
inbox, there was already a message from Fiona waiting for her, with
the subject ‘Open!’ There was no other text, just four jpegs
attached.
April clicked on each
in turn and waited as her computer downloaded them.
‘Are you looking at
them?’ asked Fiona impatiently.
‘They’re opening now.
Hang on, the first one’s … oh. Oh God.’
The picture was
grainy, as mobile phone snaps always were, but it was clear enough.
It was the picture April had taken in the bar area at the party,
with all the decadent teens lounging on the sofas. It was exactly
as she remembered it, apart from one detail. Right in the middle of
the shot, there was an armchair. On either side, perched on the
arms and leaning inwards, were two girls, both laughing.
Only at the party they weren’t sitting on the
chair.
‘Where’s he
gone?’
‘Who?’ asked
Fiona.
‘Those girls in the
first picture, they weren’t sitting on the chair. They were sitting
on this gorgeous guy’s lap. He had a red shirt on, and it was
sickening how they were throwing themselves at him.’
‘And …?’ prompted
Fiona.
‘And he’s not in the
photo! It can’t be, it can’t …’ said April, almost to herself. The
other pictures had downloaded now and she clicked on them quickly,
looking for the one that was making her stomach turn over. Not that
one: a shot of the crowded corridor; not the next one either: a
shot of the entrance hall. And then, there it was.
‘Oh no, no, no …’
moaned April.
‘What’s up? Are you
looking at the one you sent me of Milo?’
‘But this is stupid!’
snapped April. ‘Have you been messing about with them? You
Photoshopped them or something?’
‘No, April, I
didn’t.’ Fiona sounded annoyed. ‘I thought you had.’
April looked back at
the screen. Her heart was beating too fast, too hard, it felt like
it was wedged in her throat. The picture in front of her was of the
ballroom. April had sneaked off to the side with her camera because
she had wanted to send Fiona a picture of Milo. She had snapped it
off, and sent it with the message: ‘This is Milo dancing - sexy
huh?’ But Milo didn’t look sexy in this picture. He didn’t look
like anything, because he wasn’t there. Just like the guy in the
armchair wasn’t there. April tried to swallow, but she couldn’t.
Maybe she had made a mistake with that first shot - maybe the girls
were sitting on the arms of the chair. But
they weren’t, they weren’t, her mind insisted. But she
hadn’t made any mistake with the picture of Milo. He had been in
the centre of the photo, dancing, a huge cute grin on his face
because he was twirling a girl around in the air. And now, here,
that girl was in the photograph alone. Whirling through space, no
partner, no Milo. Just a weird black smudge where he should have
been.
‘Where has he
gone?’
‘That’s what I wanted
to ask you,’ said Fiona. ‘At first, I thought it was a joke, but I
couldn’t figure out why you’d bother airbrushing someone out of a
photo right in the middle of a party. And then I started to worry.
I don’t know what’s going on down there, but I do know it’s pretty
strange. And now you’re telling me about this Marcus guy spreading
rumours - it does sound a bit wrong.’
Wrong. That’s exactly what she had been thinking.
All wrong.
‘So what do I do now,
Fee?’ said April desperately.
‘I don’t know,
sweetie. Get a new phone?’
She couldn’t explain
it to Fiona, she hadn’t been at the party. To other people it just
looked as if she had a faulty camera, or like some weird light
effect, but April had been there. She
had seen those boys. She had touched them. Oh
God, I kissed a boy who isn’t there, she
thought.
‘April? Are you still
there?’
‘Sorry, Fee, I’ve got
to go,’ said April suddenly.
‘But what are you
going to do?’
‘I’m going back to
school. First I’ve got to make a grovelling apology, and then
…’
‘Then
what?’
‘Then I think I’m
going to visit the library.’