“Oh, nice.”
Henry smiles. “What do your parents do?”
“My mum’s a lawyer,” I reply. Henry doesn’t ask about my dad. In the silence, I’m thanking him for that. He eyes me briefly, like he’s understood something that nobody ever gets.
“Didn’t you want her to come with you?” he asks instead.
“To the school? ...Yeah,” I admit. “But she couldn’t. She’s in Nice for work, and the French ground crew are on strike.”
“Bummer,” he says.
“Not a problem.” I grin, but Henry’s watching me like he doesn’t believe me. “Well, maybe it’s a bit of a problem, but it can’t be helped.”
“It might be better that way—then you don’t have to say goodbye to anyone.” He leans his shoulders on the wall beside us.
“True.” I’ve never had to say that kind of goodbye to anyone. Not even to Isi, who didn’t offer to come to the airport with me, which feels kind of weird because if she, my best friend, was going away for a year, I’d have done that for her. But I didn’t want to get into an argument, and itwasa very early flight.
“That was always the worst part for me,” Henry says. “When Mum and Dad used to drop us off at school and drive away again. The half-hour after that... not great. Till you move into your room and catch up with your friends and forget that you’re sad.”
I nod, even if I don’t have any friends there to meet up with. There’ll be nobody at Dunbridge Academy to meet me, and suddenly, the idea chokes me up. Maybe Henry reads my thoughts, because he goes on speaking.
“I’ll show you around when we get there. There are times when I wish I could be starting at the school all over again. Everything’s so exciting. It’s like coming home, even if you don’t know it yet.”
I have my doubts about that, and even if he’s right, I’m only staying a year. Maybe I ought to tell him so, but something inside me holds me back. Maybe I’m scared that he’d stop talking like we’re on the same team.
“I’ll show you everything,” Henry repeats.
I don’t have time to reply because one of the cabin crew comes toward us.
“Please take your seats. We’ll be coming in to land shortly.”
Henry nods. His gaze flits over me, and I follow him down the aisle back to our seats.
As the airplane descends, I start—slowly but surely—to feel the nerves. Once we touch down at the airport, I’ll be in a strange city. Then it’ll really be true. My new reality.
All the passengers are on their feet as soon as the plane parks. People standing in the aisle cut off my view of Henry, and whenI eventually get up and pull my rucksack out of the overhead locker, he’s gone. Of course he is. What was I expecting? That he’d play babysitter and wait for me? But then again, we’re going to the same school, and he did say he’d show me around, so it’s not unreasonable to expect him to hang about—or is it?
I walk through the plane to the front, making a mental to-do list. It’s super easy. Walk to the luggage carousel, then through passport control and out. Find the shuttle bus that meets Dunbridge pupils at the airport to take us to school.
Will Henry be on the bus? He’s sure to know where—
“Hey.” I jump as I spot him out in the passageway leading to the terminal building. He waited. “There you are.”
I feel my cheeks flush. “You waited! Thanks.”
“Of course.” He smiles, and my racing heart calms slightly.
As we walk through the airport, I learn that Henry’s been at the academy since he was twelve but started a year behind because of his messed-up education before that, and this year, he’s school captain. I don’t know much about him, but it seems to fit.
Chatting with him, I don’t feel as if we’ve only known each other two hours. Most of which we spent apart. He’s very easy to like, and something about that makes me uneasy. This could get dangerous if I don’t watch out. Henry’s nice, sure, but that’s probably exactly why he’s school captain. Don’t go reading too much into it. He’s probably just as friendly to everyone.
As we wait for our bags, I quickly message Mum to tell her I’ve landed. I hesitate when I see my chat thread with Isi under hers. But then I open it and send her the exact same words. Mybest friend and I don’t message much, so it can sometimes feel like we’ve grown apart over the holidays. Things are different when we see each other every day at school. So I’d better not think about what that’ll mean for the year ahead.
Henry’s and my suitcases are some of the first off, probably because they were the last to be loaded into the hold. Henry seems almost surprised that his has made it after such a short transit time.
Once we’re through passport control, I realize I haven’t asked how he’s getting to the school. I’m about to do that when we reach the arrivals hall. Henry’s eyes scan the people waiting there, and a figure steps out of the crowd. Then it all just happens.
The girl is our age. There’s something fairylike and seriously elegant about her as she runs toward Henry. He drops his suitcase. A few seconds later, she’s in his arms.
