Forbidden Lessons Part 14

22. Fooling around.

Grace Grant had noticed the endless detentions that the newest pupil was getting. All of them, it would seem, ordered by Mrs Ayers. She was used to the Geography teacher handing out unfair punishment to Michaelmas girls and had argued on their behalf many times, but this was unprecedented. She also noticed that despite doing well in other subjects, Susie's record showed a slew of Cs and Ds for Geography.

She called Susie into her office.

"I notice you seem to be in detention rather frequently for Geography."

"That's right," said Susie.

The housemistress was rather taken aback by her tone. "Is there something the matter?"

"Not that I can think of," Susie said.

Grace Grant could tell there was, but she also recognised that Susie was the type of child who couldn't be prised open by any means. "Perhaps you would let me see your Geography book," she asked.

Susie fetched it, and when Grace Grant opened it she was disturbed. Expecting a messy scrawl of poorly completed work, such as might justify the low grades and repeat punishments, she saw quite the opposite.

Rarely had she seen such carefully done work: neat handwriting, beautifully drawn diagrams, essays that were clearly above and beyond the usual length of an a.s.signment. Geography wasn't her subject, but even a brief read of Susie's work showed it to be quite exceptional. Most worryingly there was a distinct lack of red ink, just a large C, C-, or D scrawled at the end of each entry.

Mrs Ayers was clearly acting towards Susie with sheer vindictiveness, but Grace Grant had no idea why. For the first time in her tenure at the school she felt fear. As she looked at Susie's face, with its polite, impa.s.sive expression, she knew that her misgivings were not for Susie.

I shall have to elevate this, she thought. Whatever is going on cannot endure. She had long thought that Mrs Ayers was unhinged, but not to the point of sabotaging a pupil's record.

"Are you concerned about the marks you are getting? Do you feel they are unfair?" she asked her.

"I can only do my best," Susie said.

Whatever game the girl was playing would not end well, for Mrs Ayers and possibly the school as well. It was time to consult Miss Grayson.

They had vowed to avoid risking further contact outside cla.s.s but it was Mr Rydell's turn to sit at the head of their table at lunch. It was a more than welcome change from fussy Miss Quayle the previous week.

The others contrived to make sure Laura sat next to him, taking all four places at the top end of the table much to the fury of Teresa Hubert who still fancied her own chances.

Concentrating on normal conversation with his leg pressed against hers under the table was not easy. But she was near him, as near as she could be to him in public, and he could talk directly to her without it drawing undue attention.

"So what are all your plans for the final exeat?" he asked them, knowing full well what Laura's were.

Charlotte had been toying with the idea of "doing a Susie" and spending the exeat hidden in Julian's dorm at St Duncan's. On balance she had decided it was too risky. Susie's birthday escapade would be dangerous enough. Charlotte had just got into the First Eleven hockey team and didn't want anything to jeopardise it. She would instead turn the dullness and constriction of home to her advantage and spend most of the weekend training.

"I'll just be going home. Revising probably." They had exams between the exeat and the Christmas holidays: the last few weeks of term were usually pretty gruelling.

"I'll make sure I prepare you all something sufficiently rigorous in German then," he told Charlotte.

"Please don't. We were hoping you might set us something easy, Sir."

"Harder things are often more interesting." He was pushing his leg more firmly against Laura's as he said this. She reddened but fortunately it seemed to go over everyone else's heads. Those that didn't know what was going on with her and Mr Rydell at least.

"Where are you going for the exeat Sir?" someone asked.

"Staying here, marking your work," he told them. His hand was on Laura's thigh. She was freaking out that someone would see but didn't dare move away lest it made it more obvious.

"Doesn't sound like much fun. You should get out more Sir," Teresa Hubert said, trying to sound flirtatious. Charlotte and Susie caught one another's eye and were trying not to dissolve into laughter.

"Staying in has pleasures of its own." His fingers caressed the inside of Laura's thigh and she jumped, nearly knocking over a gla.s.s of water. He looked at her, a gleam in his eye.

"Maybe you should lighten your load and let us off German homework next week," Charlotte said. There was a volley of voices in support of this. "Oh please Sir!" "Go on Sir!"

He smiled. "I'm only happy to sacrifice my holiday to ensure you all excel at German in your end of term exams. Any more requests and I'll set you double."

Susie was currently absorbed with the midnight feast plans. Her campaign against Mrs Ayers was no longer her primary concern. She had devised her strategy and let it tick along without a great deal of conscious thought.

It was all arranged that Darius and Julian would come over around midnight and meet them by the pavilion. If the gate to the playing fields was padlocked they would scale the railings further along where a tree provided convenient branches. "Don't smash the bottles," she had warned Julian over the phone.

Susie had been in two minds about the guest list. They were taking such a huge risk already that publicising it beyond their dorm would likely be fatal. Someone was bound to let it slip. On the other hand the larger the crowd, surely the lower the chance of a ma.s.s expulsion? They might expel her as the ringleader but that didn't worry Susie unduly so long as the others got off with a warning or a few detentions. But she didn't want to drag them all the way down with her.

In the end she decided it would just be the four of them - or the three of them if she couldn't persuade Margery. It might be useful to have Margery snoring in her bed if Matron did make a late round.

"Matron normally sleeps like the biggest log of all. When someone's ill in the night you really have to hammer on her door to get her up," Charlotte said.

Laura desperately wanted Margery to come as otherwise if Darius and Julian brought Jonathan she would end up getting paired up with him. Even if they brought a fourth boy that might help. Would Robert come? That might even persuade Margery to attend. Though if she managed to get off with him Laura was back to her original problem of being one-on-one with Jonathan.

But Margery outright refused.

"I don't care if you all think I'm square. I don't want to mess my entire life up by getting expelled. I wouldn't enjoy it at all, sitting there and stressing over a teacher showing up."

She had a point. Laura wasn't looking forward to it either for much the same reasons.

His initial attempts to coach Susie privately for the poetry recital rebuffed, Mr Peters had decided to attend the general rehearsals under the guise of lending his a.s.sistance to Miss Wingrove. She was forced to tolerate his presence since he was the Head of Department but paid him as little attention as possible.

To Mr Peters' surprise and delight Susie had chosen John Donne's The Flea, replete with its s.e.xual innuendo and imagery. Hearing her recite "loss of maidenhead" nearly pushed him over the edge.

"It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee, "And in this flea our two bloods mingled be."

Susie's recital was quite brilliant and she was only too aware of the ulterior meaning of the lines. Noticing Mr Peters' reaction, Miss Wingrove regretted not having encouraged her to pick a slightly less controversial poem.

"Thank you Susie, that's coming on nicely." She called the next girl up for her practice.

Mr Peters sidled up to Susie.

"That was quite a stunning performance, Susanna. I really felt that you understood Donne's verse, his pa.s.sion, his sensuality."

Susie had her own plans for Mr Peters though she didn't intend to put them into action just yet. But keeping him on the boil for now - or a light simmer at least - suited her needs.

"I was wondering if I should reference the typographical pun in some way?" she asked him.

The "s" of "suck'd" was printed as " " in Donne's era resulting in a deliberate visual obscenity.

Mr Peters wet his lips at the thought of Susie uttering such profane words. "If you would like any extra help with your performance I would be only too happy to oblige," he said.

He really was a disgustingly creepy old goat, but she treated him to a suggestive smile.

"I'll let you know Sir."

23. In the night.

Grace Grant went to see Mrs Grayson about the situation with Susie and the geography teacher. To her frustration Mrs Grayson was rather dismissive.

"The problem is, Eleanor, that Susie's work is really exemplary. She's also ostensibly very well behaved. The reasons given for all the demerit points and detentions are just absurd."

"You know as well as I do that there are many ways for a pupil to show insolence," the headmistress said.

"I do. I don't disagree that Susie is likely deliberately infuriating Pat Ayers. But these endless detentions aren't fair, and they're not wise."

Mrs Grayson had long known that Mrs Ayers was a problem. She was extremely unpopular with the girls but on the other hand she tended to get excellent results. Two girls had even won places at Cambridge last year following her personal tuition.

While the headmistress thought it was wiser to get results through respect rather than fear, she couldn't deny that Mrs Ayers got them. Personality clashes may have been common but the girls did at least have the option of changing to German if they truly couldn't bear her.

If only Susie had chosen German: but as a new girl she obviously hadn't been forewarned of the Geography teacher's bad temper.

Then of course there were the pranks. Since the foul-smelling curtains rumours of other ones had reached Mrs Grayson's ears. Did the Geography teacher suspect Susie Clarke was behind them?

"I'll keep an eye on things. And have a quiet word with Pat at the right moment," she promised Grace Grant.

Friday, the eve of Susie's birthday, was bitterly cold. November frost had frozen the grounds and there were biting winds all day with rain setting in after supper. The thought of creeping out of a warm dorm in the middle of such a night to the unheated pavilion had minimal appeal.

"The cold will keep us alert. Besides we can hardly not show up with a carload of Dunks boys arriving," Susie said.

"A carload?"

"I don't know, Darius said they'd bring some people over. He didn't say the number, just as many would fit."

"He'd better be driving a mini then," Charlotte said.

They had already scoped out the pavilion and stashed some provisions there. It was padlocked but there was a window with a faulty latch around the back. There was also no light and no heating.

"We can't use light anyway, it'll have to be something dim like torches or candles. And not many. We don't want to light the place up like a beacon."

"What would someone do if they saw?" Laura asked. "Would they come and investigate or just call the police?"

"Investigate I should think. They wouldn't want the scandal if the police showed up." Charlotte said.

Susie allowed herself a moment's fantasy of Mrs Ayers showing up in a nightgown and overcoat, screeching loud enough to wake the entire school. The instant expulsion would be worth it just to experience that sight. But she had the others to think of. Besides, Whitsun House had no view to the pavilion so unless the Axe was out taking a midnight stroll she would be among the least likely teachers to discover them.

They had gone to bed in jeans and warm clothing but it was still an ordeal leaving warm blankets for the freezing night air as they crept down the fire escape.

The night had cleared and there was a bright moon. It made the grounds look vast and it raised their spirits. Having successfully escaped Michaelmas House it seemed like the worst hurdle was over. The remoteness of the pavilion was rea.s.suring: they certainly wouldn't be overheard.

Breathless from the cold they clambered through the window into the dark building. Charlotte lit a candle.

"Make sure you put it in a jar, we don't want to burn the place down. Oh I can see them coming," Susie said.

"How many?"

"Five it seems. I don't recognise the others."

To Laura's relief the other three boys didn't include Jonathan. They were three more St Duncan's rugby players, very much in the mould of Julian and Darius, and had hauled an impressive amount of beer with them. They already seemed fairly drunk.

The discussion soon got onto gambling as Susie's win over the previous exeat had become the stuff of legend. There were jibes over whether it was luck or cheating and demands for the chance to win it back.

The noise level was increasing with the alcohol. Susie was the only one of the three girls really enjoying herself. Laura and Charlotte were still too on edge. Laura constantly thought she heard footsteps outside.

"It's just an owl or something," Julian said.

Darius had brought playing cards with him and by the dim candlelight the five St Duncan's boys started a game with Susie. As the other two didn't know how to play they sat and watched.

It was the poker game that saved all their skins.

Conversation lulled to near silence as the players focused on the hands, both Darius and Julian determined to win back their pride and Susie resolute in repeating her success.

"Anybody in there?"

There was a loud rattle at the door. In the stillness of the night it was like gunshot.

It was Jenkins, the school handyman.

Oh G.o.d.