Part 14 (1/2)
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 pus.h.i.+ng 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.