Isolated. M. A. Hunter

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СКАЧАТЬ painful than Natalie had anticipated. After the grilling from her mum and dad, she’d ended up leaving late and missing the early bus. She preferred catching the early bus as it was always quieter than the later one. By the time she reached the bus stop, the line was already ten-deep with students of varying ages. On any normal day, she would have had time to bypass the bus stop and walk to school before the morning bell sounded, but with every step such agony, her pace was much slower today.

      When the bus had arrived, it had already been packed with teenagers wearing the same dark green blazer and tie as herself. There were no seats available, but at least the bus driver allowed her to squeeze on, perched perilously just behind the yellow line. Three stops later, and she was practically bundled from the bus as the throng of students pushed forwards to get in through the gates to see friends and copy homework before the bell.

      Natalie had looked for, but failed to find, either Louise or Jane in their usual hangout at the far side of the playground near the enormous sports centre. When the bell had sounded, she’d hobbled as quickly as she could in through the main doors, up the stairs to the first floor, and along to class 9-E. No sign of Louise or Jane in their seats either, though the space at Sally’s desk was almost haunting. Natalie deliberately kept her eyes from looking over at the desk, as if Sally’s absence was news to her, as it would have been to most of her other classmates, who were shouting and cooing and gossiping about last night’s Hollyoaks.

      Mrs Engleberry – their registration tutor – arrived two minutes later, and was just wishing everyone a good morning when a knock at the door was followed by Louise and Jane scuttling in and taking their seats on the far side of the class. With heads bowed, they quickly apologised for being late, but neither looked at Sally’s desk and both avoided eye contact with Natalie.

      When the second bell sounded to announce assembly, Natalie did her best to cut through the flow of classmates to stand beside Louise and Jane, but both were too far ahead and showed no interest in waiting for her.

      Louise is probably just feeling guilty about slapping my cheek last night, Natalie tried to reassure herself, though in truth it should have been her avoiding them after what had happened, and she wasn’t enjoying this cold-shoulder treatment.

      What about the pact? They were supposed to be in this together, weren’t they? Didn’t that mean banding together and supporting one another through thick and thin?

      Assembly was as irrelevant as ever but a real strain for Natalie to remain standing for the entire fifteen minutes of sermons, school hymn and notices. The fact that the canteen was serving spaghetti carbonara was hardly newsworthy; besides, they’d all see the canteen menu when they went in for lunch anyway.

      Natalie finally managed to collar the pair of them at mid-morning break, having twice missed them before and after double-science. She didn’t want them to know she suspected they’d been avoiding her all morning, but she couldn’t keep from checking that they’d both stuck to the plan so far.

      ‘Sally’s mum was on the phone to mine first thing,’ Natalie bowled out with right away.

      Before she could check whether their mums had received similar calls, Louise grabbed Natalie’s arm hard, pinching the skin, and yanked her out of earshot of anyone else.

      ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ Louise snapped.

      Natalie rubbed her arm gingerly. ‘What? All I asked was—’

      The spiked glare fired by Louise was enough to stop Natalie repeating her mistake. ‘Jane and I were thinking that it’s probably best if the three of us just lay low today. Yeah? Don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves. Sally’s mum is bound to have phoned the school to say that… she won’t be coming in today, but it’s probably too early for her to phone the police.’

      Natalie’s eyes widened but she didn’t speak.

      The police? Natalie hadn’t even thought through the full repercussions of what they’d done last night. Would the police really get involved? Natalie had been so concerned with just getting home without her parents discovering she’d snuck out that she hadn’t dared to fast forward to possible ramifications.

      ‘So we’ve just got to stick to our story, yeah? We’re all agreed? Last night didn’t happen. None of us snuck out, none of us went to the woods and we don’t know what happened to… her.’

      But we did sneak out, Natalie wanted to roar, and we do know what happened to Sally.

      ‘What’s with the face, Nat?’ Louise challenged.

      Natalie met her gaze but had no idea what shapes her face was pulling.

      ‘Have you already told someone?’ Louise continued.

      ‘What? No,’ Natalie spat back. ‘I wouldn’t!’

      Louise was eyeing her suspiciously and then something silent passed between Louise and Jane, but Natalie had no idea what the exchange meant.

      ‘I swear to you! I didn’t tell anyone.’

      ‘What about your mum and dad?’

      ‘Nobody, I swear.’

      ‘What did they say about your leg?’

      Natalie looked down to where both girls were now staring, and saw evidence of the dark patch seeping through the large plaster beneath her dark tights. She’d known the walk to the bus would be too much, and clearly her efforts to clean and treat the wound had failed. She hadn’t been able to bring a spare plaster in case the first one failed, and now she’d have to try and snatch one from the medical bay. If she told the school nurse that she needed it for her leg, the nurse would insist on examining the wound, and then alarm bells would sound.

      ‘You’d better get that cleaned up,’ Louise said, her words delivered with no empathy.

      Louise and Jane began to move away, until Natalie reached out for Jane’s arm. It was clear Louise had appointed herself the new leader of the group, but Jane had said nothing to suggest she was in complete agreement with Louise’s suggested approach. Jane had always been a bit of a sheep so it was no surprise that she’d yet to speak out against Louise. If Natalie could exert some control of her own, then maybe Jane could be persuaded to her way of thinking instead.

      ‘Jane, would you be able to help me to the nurse’s office?’

      Jane’s eyes widened and she looked to Louise for an answer.

      ‘No,’ Louise confirmed. ‘We agreed it’s best if we all go our separate ways today. If the nurse sees two of you and that leg, she’s going to start asking questions – the kind of questions that neither of you are up to answering. Trust me; it’s better this way.’

      Jane didn’t look back, pulling her arm away and following Louise the shepherd.

      The day dragged to lunchtime. Natalie had tried to make up a story about a fellow student injuring a hand, but it had been a bad idea to lie to the nurse about the real reason she required a large plaster. She’d eventually relented and pointed at the stain beneath her tights, but had refused to remove her tights to allow the nurse to see the wound. With little other choice, the nurse had handed over the plaster, and Natalie had hurried off to the СКАЧАТЬ