1404: Part 19

“Oi,” came a familiar voice. Sian turned around to face it.

“Oh, hey,” she said , with a smile. Jasmine didn’t return it, and neither did Nicola, who was standing next to her.

“We know what you’ve been up to,” said Jasmine. “We’ve seen you.”

Sian didn’t know what they were referring to.

“What?” she asked. “Um, what?”

“You’re going out with Edward, aren’t you?” said Jasmine, pointing an accusatory finger at Sian. “Don’t try to deny it.”

Sian raised her eyebrows in surprise. She didn’t quite know how to respond to that.

“We’ve seen you!” said Nicola, chiming in. “We saw you walking together with him and going back to his house. And we saw you coming out.”

Something broke in Sian’s mind.

“What is this, are you stalking me or something?” she snapped. “Why is it any of your business what I’m doing?”

“So you don’t deny it?” said Jasmine, a triumphant expression on her face, her finger still pointed at Sian.

“I won’t deny I’ve been talking to him,” said Sian. “But I’m not going out with him. Are you really that shallow?” She was getting angry now. She didn’t get angry often, but things she perceived as injustices pushed her buttons more than anything else, and Jasmine and Nicola were the last people in the world she expected to be the source of them.

“What’s it like?” said Nicola, a mocking tone in her voice. “How is he?”

Sian turned to her.

“What?” she said, wanting very much for this conversation to be over as soon as possible, but knowing there was nowhere it could go from here but an escalation into a full-on argument. She knew she should just walk away and be the bigger person here, but she also knew what Jasmine and Nicola could be like once they got started. She’d occasionally found it funny in the past, but then their ire had never been directed at her before. Now it was scary.

“How is he?” Nicola repeated. “Come on, tell us. What’s it like shagging a crazy person? You have done it, haven’t you? Bet that’s what you were doing in his house.”

“No!” screamed Sian. “What the fuck is wrong with you two? Why are you suddenly doing this to me? Do you hate him that much?”

“He’s a fucking psycho!” yelled Jasmine back at her. By now, people were stopping and staring, and Sian wished Jasmine hadn’t picked the middle of one of the busiest corridors in school at lunchtimes to have this particular confrontation. “He’s scum! The worst kind of scum! And you’re sticking up for him?”

“I…” began Sian, but she knew it was no use. They’d made their minds up based on circumstantial evidence, and there was no way she was going to convince them; no way that they were going to listen to her explain the situation. And besides, she’d promised Edward not to tell anyone anyway.

She’d told Kristina, of course, but that was a different situation. It was unlikely that Kristina would tell Edward that Sian had spilled his secrets. It was–

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted. Everything happened in a flash.

First, there was the shout; a dreadful, otherworldly yell of pure rage. Then, there was the blur of movement; it knocked Sian aside and toppled the two other girls to the floor. Dazed, Sian took a moment to come to her senses and realise what was going on.

It was Edward; he’d knocked Jasmine and Nicola to the ground  and was now sitting astride them on the floor. He looked furious; they looked terrified.

“Leave her alone!” he screamed in their faces, and raised his fist as if he was about to punch them.

Sian stepped forward and laid a hand lightly on his shoulder. He hesitated — just in time, Sian thought — and turned to look at her, red-faced, his eyes brimming over with tears.

“Leave her alone,” he said in a much weaker voice. “Leave her alone,” he said again, rolling to one side to release his captives. He slumped back against the lockers that adorned one side of the corridor walls and suddenly looked utterly defeated, all trace of the anger that had fuelled him a moment ago suddenly dissipating.

Jasmine and Nicola stumbled to their feet and ran away. Sian knew it wouldn’t be long before they were back with a teacher in tow.

 

*  *  *  *

 

Sian glanced around at the walls of the office. She’d been in here before a number of times, but never in the circumstances she was here right now. She knew that she’d done nothing wrong and felt that she was, at least to a certain degree, something of a victim here. But she couldn’t help herself worrying that she’d get into trouble for this — the first strike against her in eleven years of school.

The door opened behind her and Rhodes entered carrying several sheets of paper. He sat down behind his desk, stacked them carefully then took out an expensive-looking pen.

“Okay, Sian,” he said with that familiar kindly old uncle tone. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Sian proceeded to explain everything — how she had, against all odds, befriended Edward; how he had confided in her; how Jasmine and Nicola had seen her and apparently misinterpreted the situation, then attacked her for something that wasn’t true. She left out anything involving Kristina; she couldn’t help but feel that bringing that up would add a whole other layer of complication to the a situation that really didn’t need it.

When she finished, she looked at Rhodes’ face to try and determine what he thought of it all. He remained inscrutable.

“Okay,” he said, writing something on one of the sheets of paper. “Thank you. You can go.”

Was that it? She was expecting some sort of admonishment, but it sounded like he had either believed her story, or was waiting to hear from the others before there were any consequences. She blinked and stood up.

“Sorry,” she said as she walked away, opened the door and passed into the corridor. She felt she had let him down.

Out in the corridor, Jasmine and Nicola were sitting on the chairs outside Rhodes’ office. Edward was nowhere to be seen; he’d been taken down to the Unit after the incident. He was in no state to give a coherent account of what had happened, anyway, thought Sian.

Jasmine and Nicola glared and Sian, but she pointedly ignored looking at them and passed back out into the main corridor of the school, and headed for the music room. She knew that Kristina normally spent her lunchtimes in her room rather than the staffroom, and she really needed to talk to someone right now.

Sure enough, there she was, sitting at her desk, eating a sandwich. Although her desk had briefly been clear, there were already new stacks of paper starting to build up on top of it. Sian smiled despite the grim feelings bouncing around inside her head; some things could always be relied upon.

She walked in without knocking.

“Oh,” said Kristina, putting down her sandwich hastily. “Sian! Hello.” She paused. “Are you all right? You look upset.”

Sian was about to respond when she suddenly, without warning, found herself bursting into tears. She ran over to Kristina and hugged her — a completely inappropriate gesture, she knew, but right now she didn’t care. She just wanted comfort, and the only place she felt she could find it was here.

She felt Kristina’s hand on the top of her head; hesitantly at first, but then it started gently stroking her hair. The tender gesture made her want to cry even harder; she let out huge, gulping sobs and would have found the whole situation terribly embarrassing were it not for the swathe of other emotions that were bubbling up right now.

Eventually, Kristina gently but assertively pushed Sian away and held her at arm’s length. Sian felt utterly wretched and stood like a limp rag doll; she looked as if she might collapse the moment Kristina released her hand.

“What’s going on?” said Kristina. “This isn’t like you at all.”

“No,” said Sian, sniffing. “It’s been… a bad day. A really bad day. And I don’t think I can deal with it right now.”

“I know the feeling,” said Kristina. “I have days like that all the time. I won’t insult you by saying things will get better because they don’t always, but I want you to know you can talk to me any time you feel like you need to.”

“I…” began Sian, then stopped. “I’m sorry. I’m not quite sure where to begin right now.”

“Perhaps we should talk about it after school,” said Kristina.

 

*  *  *  *

 

Sian somehow made it through the afternoon classes without bursting into tears or anything else of note happening. Once the bell went, she headed straight for Kristina’s classroom. Kristina already had her coat on and was ready to leave.

“Come on,” said Kristina. “Let’s get out of here. I have work to do, but between you and me it’s the last thing I want to do right now. Coffee?”

The pair of them headed out of the school gates and to the nearby supermarket, and went straight to the café. Sian sat down and waited while Kristina ordered; a moment later, she came back with two tall lattes and two gigantic slabs of chocolate cake.

“You looked like you could do with it,” said Kristina with a smile. “Oh, you’re not allergic or anything, are you?”

“No,” said Sian with a weak chuckle. “Thanks.”

“Don’t get used to this,” said Kristina. “We teachers don’t earn all that much. At least not newbies like me.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” said Sian. “One day, anyway.”

“All right,” said Kristina, her face turning serious. “Now why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Sian reiterated the same story she’d told Rhodes earlier in the day. She could feel the tears welling up again as she recounted what had happened, but fought them back and pressed on. When she finished, Kristina reached out her hand and took Sian’s in her own.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Kids can be complete shits. Present company excepted, of course.”

Sian chuckled and sobbed at the same time.

“Yeah,” she said. “We can. I just thought I was doing something good, you know? I thought I was actually helping him out. But am I just making it worse?”

“Believe me,” said Kristina, sipping on her coffee, “I ask myself the same thing most days. My job is about helping people, and yet an awful lot of days I find myself wondering why I’m bothering.”

She suddenly looked very deflated, and Sian felt guilty at having brought it up.

“Don’t feel bad,” said Kristina. “I’ve been feeling this way for a while. It’s worse when I see one of the good ones like you suffering. It either makes me want to try harder, or just give up altogether.”

“I hope you don’t give up,” said Sian.

“Me neither,” said Kristina with a sigh.

The pair of them started eating their chocolate cake. Not a word passed between them for several minutes.