I don’t hear what Mr.Acevedo says to display-case boy, but I certainly see his eyes roll before he nods, and then our teacher sends him to join the lower-sixth table.
“Is he the newbie?”Tori asks, beside me, craning her neck.
“Don’t do that,” I hiss.
“What?”She doesn’t look at me.
“Stare at him like that.”
“Why not?It’s interesting.”
Sinclair glares at Tori.“He was out after wing time, and he’s not wearing uniform even though I specifically told him this morning that he had to.”
“No way, Charlie,” Tori teases, biting into her toast.
“It’s out of order,” he says.“God knows what he was up to last night.”
I hastily glance down at my plate as display-case boy’s eyes meet mine for a moment, even among all these people.
“Your mum will bring him up to speed on the rules later,” says Henry, who’s sitting next to Sinclair.He looks at me.“Mrs.Sinclair wants to see you too, Olive.”
I feel the others staring at me.“I know.”
“I’ll take you both over.”
“I know the way,” I reply, more snappily than I intended.
Henry isn’t fazed.However hard he tries to hide it, I can see sympathy in his face.But he just says “Course you do” and sips his tea.
An awkward silence is doing my head in, so I shut my eyes.“Sorry,” I whisper.“I didn’t mean to bite your head off.”
“It’s fine, Olive.”
They have to stop this.Looking at me like that.Like part of me died in that fire because, even if that might be true, I can’t admit it.I need my friends to give me the feeling that everything’s still the way it was before the summer.Even if it isn’t.
“You’ll join us in the old greenhouse this evening, won’t you?”Tori asks, because she’s my best friend and can tell how I’m feeling.I could cry.
“If you’ll let the lower sixth tag along...”
“Olive, please,” Tori retorts.
“Anyway, the real question is,” Henry points out, “will the lower sixth let us crash their space?”
“They’re fine with us sharing the greenhouse,” Gideon says.“Nobody can use the Dungeon right now anyway.”
“Such a shame,” remarks Tori.“I wassolooking forward to hanging out in that rathole.”Her sarcastic tone makes me smile.Or maybe it’s just the relief that we’ll still have evenings in the old greenhouse together.It’s faint comfort, but better than nothing.Even so, it feels wrong not to join Tori, Sinclair, Emma, and Henry on their way to class after breakfast, but to take the south-wing stairs up to the offices.
Mr.Harper’s face brightens as I knock on his door.He asks me about eight times if I’m OK, then tells me to take a seat outside Mrs.Sinclair’s offices.It’s clear what I’m waiting for—or, rather, who.He’s still wearing his hoodie and jeans, along with that unbearably arrogant grin.
“Mr.Fantino, has your uniform not arrived yet?”Mr.Harper asks when display-case boy walks in.
“Yeah, it has,” he replies.
“Then kindly go and change.”
I would have loved to hear his reply to that direct instruction, but at that moment, the door to Mrs.Sinclair’s office opens.Her eyes meet mine, but she doesn’t look at me like everyone else does—with deep concern, as if I’m suddenly a different person.She didn’t do that even when she came to visit me in hospital to see how I was.She looks at me as if I can do anything I set my mind to: as if this thing hasn’t broken me but has made me stronger.For a moment, I’m tempted to believe her.
“Olive.”She nods to me, then looks at display-case boy.Then she steps aside.“Colin.Please come in.”
