Zoe Markham - White Lies

“No. Well, not really…I was just…unpacking. Tyler was going to show me around.”

“Oh, you’ve met Tyler! Isn’t he beautiful ?”

The image of Beth pulling a thumbs-up and grinning flew into my head, and I smiled. “Yeah, he is sort of pretty.”

“Rae and Scar can’t be back yet; this place is way too tidy,” she said, stuffing clothes into drawers then kicking off her shoes and curling her feet under her on the bed. “Me and Rae are Year Ten. Scar’s Year Eleven though. You two are the only boarders in your year. You’ll love her. She’s great. The easiest person to talk to in the world, ever.”

Scar…Scarlett… Tyler popped into my head. ‘ About Scarlett. She’s…’

“It seems weird, doesn’t it?” Lilly went on, like a sort of small, determined terrier. “Mixed year groups sharing a dorm. But there’s not many of us left now. Did you hear the rumours? Everyone thinks this place is totally haunted. It freaks some people out. They mostly go over to the boarding school in Oxford instead now. St Jo’s. Did you look round it? It’s all sort of sleek and shiny, and new. Not the kind of place you’d find ghosts. They wouldn’t dare. It costs a fortune though.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t – I haven’t…” I got mixed up with her questions, she talked so fast. “I mean, it does look like a pretty old building, so I suppose…you know…it’d kind of be par for the course? The haunted thing?”

“Yeah, but this is supposed to be a really evil ghost. Totally out for revenge. One who seriously hates kids. You’re the first new boarder we’ve had here in for ever.”

Oh, good – that was encouraging! Maybe that explained why it was so easy for Mum and Dad to get me a place on short notice – it didn’t sound like there’d be much of a waiting list…

Lilly smiled across at me, her eyes clear and earnest, before they slowly flickered over to mortification.

“Sorry! Totally not what you want to hear on your first day. My mouth kind of runs away with me sometimes. Take no notice!”

“It’s fine,” I murmured, not entirely sure if it was or not.

“I’m not trying to freak you out or anything. That’d be really lame. I just thought you’d know about it. I thought everyone knew about it. Anyway, we’re all still here, and we’re fine. Except Lacey. She’s in Year Nine. She’s lovely, but sort of a bit mental. Last term she swore blind she’d seen this girl at the end of her bed, just standing there, in a sort of old-fashioned nightie, staring at her. So we all camped out in her dorm one night – Scar organised this whole sort of, vigil thing. But none of us saw anything. Only she kept on seeing her, and she ended up with the school nurse for a bit, then she got sent home to see her own GP, and now she’s up in some referral unit in Oxford. She’s kind of all confused, in the head. No one’s been able to talk to her over the holidays.” She picked up her phone from the end of her bed, and flicked her fingers over it. “She’s never online any more. I suppose they don’t let you, in there.” She shuddered. “Can you imagine? Have you ever seen a ghost?”

“Err, no…” I replied, still trying to catch up with everything she’d said and work out how I felt about it.

“Me neither.” She pouted. “Wouldn’t it be amazing though? I mean, apart from the going mental thing.”

I couldn’t really think of a way to answer that politely, so I just tried for a smile. My head was starting to pound.

“How come you’re here so early anyway?” she asked. “I thought I’d be the first one back. I was going to make up your bed for you and everything, you know, to make it nice.”

“Oh, that’s kind, but it’s fine. Mum had to get back—”

“Is it dead scary? It must be, your first day in a new school. When there’s no other new people, I mean. I’d hate it. I mean, not that it’s bad or anything, but, you know…” She let the sentence hang.

I tried to remember if I’d packed any paracetamol. Lilly seemed kind, and sweet, and brilliantly friendly, but I had the feeling that sharing a room with her was going to be a headachy kind of experience. I had to fight to remember what the question was.

“Um, no, it’s fine.” I gave a little shrug, like it really didn’t bother me. Like I hadn’t been worrying about this for weeks. Beth always said never to show your fear around dogs or teenage girls.

“At least you’ll have Scar – some year groups only have one boarder, which is harsh. I’ve got Rae so I’m lucky too. Mrs S put you guys in together so you’d have someone with you all the time while you settle in. Pretty cool, right?”

“Yeah, that’s nice,” I murmured, with Tyler’s weird almost-comment still bouncing around in my head. It wasn’t what he’d said that worried me, it was what he hadn’t.

Lilly had claimed the bed with the ancient Alsatian standing guard, and I looked over at the other two photos again with the sudden certainty that I knew who the beautiful redhead was going to be. I was just about to ask when the door flew open again and a taller, equally skinny dark-haired girl with enormous brown eyes, and a phone glued to her ear burst in.

“I didn’t … I did not … Why do you always… What…? I said NO! GOD !”

The phone flew across the room in an elegant arc before landing on the non-redhead-picture bed, then bouncing high into the air and coming down to the floor, sending the back and the battery flying. “OH FOR F—”

“Hi, Rae!” Lilly leapt in, heroically. “Abby, this is Rae; Rae, this is Abby.”

Rae looked up and gave me a murderous glare, before kicking all three bits of her phone across the room and flinging herself down onto the bed, face first.

“Oh-kay,” Lilly sing-songed. “So it seems Rae’s not having the best of days. Don’t take it personally. She’s like this with everyone when she gets in one of her moods.”

“I Am Not In A Mood.” The words were muffled through the pillow, but the capitals were clearly audible. Lilly rolled her eyes as she bent down, gathering and trying to reassemble the phone for her friend.

“You totally get to know each other inside out here. I’m going to say that was her older sister on the phone, wanting to know why half her wardrobe has somehow disappeared. And downstairs there’ll be this bulging suitcase that Rae hasn’t managed to con anyone into lugging up here for her yet. Am I right?”

Rae rolled over and sat up on the bed, huffing with each movement. “It’s not like she PAID for any of the clothes. I don’t know what her problem is. She’ll get a whole new set next week; she’s going on a shoot for Burberry .”

“Right. So, Rae’s sister is, like, the next big thing in supermodels,” Lilly explained. “And Rae really needs to hurry up and get her case up here so we can check out the goods.” She rubbed her hands together eagerly. “I need something gorgeous – something that would make even Tyler sit up and take notice. Hey, we’ll find something for you too, Abby!” She beamed at me, and it was sweet but I wondered what in the world she was thinking. I was least two Raes wide. Probably closer to three. I felt my cheeks burn. “Are you into fashion?”

“Er, no, not really,” I confessed, as all three of us looked down at my Matalan polo shirt and jeans at the same time. “I’m more sort of, all about the comfort.”

“Smart move,” Rae said. “Saves a lot of arguments, I’d imagine.” She nodded her head towards Lilly. “She’s always like this, by the way. Scarlett’s the same. Can talk for England. Doesn’t it just make you want to kill her? Have you got any food, Lils? I’m dying here.”