CHAPTER 40

“Come on, Solo!”

My chest was burning, and we were nowhere near the top of the steps that led to the car park. I had counted three hundred and eighty-two slippery stone steps, and there were still more to come.

“I’m trying,” I said. My voice sounded weak and weird. I felt sick.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Morag. I’d been so sure she would be here. And if she was, we were going home without her. What if she was still here? What if we had checked just one more place?

We got to the final stone step and ran down the alleyway that would spit us out into the car park. The moment we reached the end, Chetna fell to her knees.

“No!” she screamed, her hands on her head. “They’re leaving without us!”

“Hello!” I ran across the car park, waving my arms. “Over here!”

The coach was moving off – there was no way they would see us. We watched silently as it slowly took the corner out of the car park and disappeared down the dark street. Nobody looked out of the windows. Nobody saw us.

“Miss Carmichael must have forgotten to do the headcount!” Chetna cried. “Surely she’ll notice soon. She has to notice. Our names are on the register! Tell me she’ll notice, Solo!”

Grimacing, I revealed the scrunched-up class register from my pocket and held it out in front of me. “I might have taken this earlier.”

“Solo,” Chetna said. “Is that what I think it is? Is that Mrs McDonald’s register?”

“I did it so we would have longer to find Morag! Otherwise someone would’ve realized we were gone.”

“But surely Miss Carmichael must have noticed we aren’t there?”

“I don’t think she noticed us… She was busy when we got on the coach. Mrs McDonald was the only grown-up who saw us, and she’s probably forgotten.”

All the colour had drained from Chetna’s face and her breathing had gone all fast. “I can’t believe you stole the register. What are we supposed to do now? How are we going to get home?”

“Calm down,” I said, thinking fast. “We can always get the train. Me and Morag always take the train when we come here.”

“I don’t have any money for the train, Solo! I gave you all my money so you could come on this trip!”

“It’s fine,” I said, starting to feel guilty. “We don’t necessarily need money to get the train. It’s easy – Morag does it all the time. I promise you, we can get the train back home; and, yes, we might be a bit in trouble, but we can blame it all on Miss Carmichael. She should have noticed we were gone!”

“But it’s not her fault we—”

“It’s all going to be OK, Chetna. I promise.”

“Doors closing.”

The train doors were already beeping and beginning to creep shut when Chetna and I sprinted on to the platform. We darted along to the very first open door and barrelled through it. We rolled on to the muddy train floor in a mess of limbs and wet clothes.

“Thank goodness,” Chetna panted, resting on her elbows. She had a chocolate-bar wrapper stuck to her sleeve. “That was much too close for my liking. Imagine if we had missed it!”

I nodded, but I couldn’t speak. My lungs were burning and my heart was hammering louder than I’d ever heard before. I was glad to finally be escaping Normley-on-Sea, even if we hadn’t found Morag. The whole place had been nothing but rain, clouds and weird people.

At least we had made it on to the train. Everything was going to be fine. The rain was thudding on the carriage, and the windows were so steamed up we couldn’t see outside. All the other passengers were huddled into their jackets or staring at their phones. Nobody even looked at us.

“I simply can’t wait to get home,” Chetna said, settling into a seat. “I’m going to have a nice hot bath and get into my nice warm bed.”

“Same,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure how warm it would be in the flat. Maybe I would put the heating on. Who cared what Morag would say? It wasn’t like she would ever find out. Not now.

A heavy glumness set in. With the palm of my hand, I cleared a circle in the condensation on the window and looked out at the sea. It was the exact same cloudy black as the sky. I could barely see the water, but I knew it was there somewhere, crashing into the rocks and slipping away again and again. A bit like Morag, actually.

A cheerful jingle rang out through the speakers above the carriage doors.

“This is a customer announcement,” the tinny voice whined. “Regrettably, this service has been cancelled due to the current inclement weather in the area. We are investigating alternative measures, but this may take some hours. The next train to London departs at 07:49 tomorrow morning. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

A collective groan spread through the carriage.

“No!” Chetna sat upright in her seat. “No! They can’t cancel it. We have to get back to London right now!”

I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes. Suddenly I was so tired that I almost didn’t care about the train. The doors started beeping again, then they slid open slowly, telling us to get off.

We weren’t going back to London that night. Not without a whole lot of trouble, anyway.

*

Outside the train station, Chetna took out her phone.

“We need to call someone, Solo.” She pressed the power button, and the screen came to life, emitting a pale light.

“What? No! We just need to find somewhere to sleep. Then we can make our way home first thing tomorrow!”

“And have my parents worrying about me all night? They’ll think I’ve gone missing or something!” Chetna looked like she was about to cry. “My mum won’t be able to sleep!”

“You have gone missing,” I said. “Only we’re going home. It’s all going to be OK!”

“No, it isn’t, Solo!” She was actually crying now; her breath was all jagged and tears were coming out. “We’ve gone too far this time. How could I be such an idiot, going along with this stupid, stupid plan of yours?”

“You’re not an idiot,” I said. “It was a good plan—”

“You know, I wouldn’t have minded learning about coastal erosion and maybe eating a horrible packed lunch on the beach. Too bad that’s probably the last school trip I’ll ever be allowed to go on.”

“I’m sorry, Chetna.” I didn’t like seeing her upset. I didn’t like seeing anyone upset. Why was I always the reason people were upset? “I’m really sorry.”

She ignored me and held the phone to her ear. “Dad? It’s me.”

My heart sank. I could hear multiple voices talking through the speaker.

“I need you to pick me up from Normley-on-Sea. The school bus left without me. I’m sorry, I’ll explain later. I know … I know. I’m really sorry. I’ll leave my location on so you can find me. OK…”

I walked over to a bus stop and rested my head against the dripping wet panels. So this was how it was all going to end.