Chapter Twelve

Tragic Accidents

My legs are aching from standing at my desk for so long.

At the head of the class, Principal Quick watches over us with an expression on her face that I can only really describe as regal. It’s like she’s a queen surveying her subjects, watching for any sign of weakness, or of dissent. Her eyes fixate on each of us in turn. When it gets to be my turn, I dare not look away or even blink. She holds my gaze, her face an expressionless mask. The silence in the classroom is so excruciatingly tense that it’s becoming almost tempting to make a noise just to shatter it, no matter the consequences.

I watch Principal Quick as she takes a sharp, quiet breath.

“You may sit,” she commands.

(At last.)

Our chair legs scrape against the floor noisily and the sound grates against the already unbearable atmosphere. I hear Lena groan as she sits down. Her legs must be aching too. I glance at Jess’s desk, then at Saffy’s. They are notably unoccupied. I wonder if the others are feeling that too – the absence of those two girls. Our fellow inmates.

Principal Quick catches me looking and the dark glimmer of a frown contorts her face. I remember Saffy’s face in the pool, the water lit red, and then Jess’s face in the bathroom stall amidst so much blood. I try with all my might to blink the unwelcome images away. But it’s hard to, especially when their empty desks accentuate their absence. I stare at the weathered wooden surface of my own desk.

Principal Quick waits for us to settle, and then clears her throat.

“Terrible tragedy has hit this noble institution. We must remember our fallen inmates and promise to do our very best in their honor. Only through self-discipline can we avoid such tragic accidents from happening again.”

Victoria is at the desk next to mine and I see her bite her lip. It’s as though she’s fighting to keep something from escaping her mouth.

“You are here to better yourselves,” Principal Quick goes on. “To honor the rules and regulations put in place for you so that you may be rehabilitated.”

The principal clasps her hands tightly together, as if praying to some higher source.

“As of tonight, lights out will be an hour earlier.”

At that, I hear sounds of protest from Lena and Annie. Principal Quick just watches them, coldly, her icicle-sharp eyes daring them to comment further.

“Understood?”

There’s an uneasy silence in the room. I can sense the others holding back, each waiting for another to say something first. Victoria appears to be losing the fight to keep her lips sealed.

“Do I make myself clear?” the principal prompts us.

“Yes, Principal Quick,” I reply, in unison with the others.

Victoria leans in closer to me. “Tragic accidents…” she whispers, just loud enough for all of us to hear.

Principal Quick glares at Victoria. “Something to share, Victoria?”

Victoria’s cheeks burn beet red.

“If you do indeed have something to say,” Quick adds, “then by all means share it with the rest of the group.”

I can see tears forming in Victoria’s eyes. Her hands are clasped together on top of the desk and she’s trembling.

“Very well,” Principal Quick says impatiently, “in future, do not interrupt me, young lady.”

Victoria unclasps her hands. Making fists, she slams them down onto her desk.

Annie yelps in surprise at the sudden outburst.

Lena chuckles.

Then, Victoria pushes herself up from her desk with a scrape of her chair against the floor and glares angrily around at each of us, Principal Quick included.

“Jess’s throat didn’t cut itself, did it? Ask her what she’s got hidden in her basement,” Victoria announces, pointing her finger at the principal, who looks as though someone just pulled a rug from under her feet.

I glance at the others. Their eyes are wide in disbelief, or confusion, or both. A collective ‘WTF’ hangs in the room.

“I saw Jess’s dead body down there,” Victoria says, “behind her closet.”

Principal Quick looks quite at a loss for words.

So am I, to be honest. After we went on the smoke run, what happened with Saffy put anything else from my mind. I never thought to ask again what spooked Victoria so much in the basement beneath Principal Quick’s closet. Never would have had the opportunity anyway. As soon as the principal had confiscated the vodka bottle—

(Luckily we held on to some cigarettes we’d hidden in our clothing.)

—it was lights out and lockdown for all of us. Victoria has been keeping this revelation of hers all bottled up, and now it’s exploding out of her.

“Take a look if you don’t believe me,” Victoria says.

Then Victoria does the exact thing I was hoping she wouldn’t do. She looks straight at me. Like I know what she’s talking about. Like we’re co-conspirators. Principal Quick catches the glance, of course. She never misses a trick, that one.

“Emily?”

Great. They are all staring at me now, and I wish I could be away from this room.

Pretty soon, I get my wish.

* * *

Principal Quick’s office looks bigger in the muted daylight from the exercise yard window than it did during the smoke run. Victoria stands next to me, and directly opposite Principal Quick, who is flanked by Lena and Annie.

“I don’t imagine I need to show you where the key to my closet is?” Principal Quick says, her voice dripping sarcasm.

She takes the closet key from her desk drawer and hands it to Victoria.

“Show me, Victoria.”

Victoria winces and carries the key over to the closet door.

“We will address the matter of why you girls were here at all, in due course,” Principal Quick reminds us.

With a trembling hand, Victoria inserts the key and unlocks the door.

“Be so kind as to open it up for us,” Quick says. “Come along, girls, let’s take a peek, shall we?”

As Victoria opens the closet door, the principal walks around the desk to join us. Lena and Annie follow. Victoria throws me a meaningful look, then takes a deep breath. Dropping to her knees, she looks under the bookshelves.

“Well?” Quick says. “We are waiting.”

Victoria starts pulling the books away, then stops abruptly. She looks up at me, panic in her eyes.

“It’s…it’s not there anymore…I can’t even….”

“What isn’t there anymore?” Principal Quick says. “Stop babbling, girl.”

“The opening! It’s gone…just completely gone!” Victoria sounds tearful.

I enter the closet and kneel down next to Victoria. The opening we discovered last night is no longer there, just a neat row of books and papers. And behind them, a solid bookcase.

“I swear it was here, I crawled through! So did you,” she says to me. “Tell them, Emily.”

It is truly strange. But before I can say anything—

(And I’m not even sure what to say.)

—Principal Quick cuts in.

“You came here to steal from me,” she says, her voice rising in pitch, “to break my trust. And now you concoct a wildly unbelievable story to cover your guilt.”

Victoria gets to her feet, and I do the same. It’s intimidating, to face the principal’s stern expression. I flinch, but Victoria isn’t done yet.

“We came here for some cigarettes…”

(Now Principal Quick is the one who flinches.)

“…that’s true. But I dropped your lighter and, you have to believe me, I crawled through and fell down the steps. That’s when I found her lying there…poor Jess….”

Victoria begins to sob.

I remember what her frightened face looked like last night after I helped her wriggle through that dark, cramped crawlspace. She looked too terrified for words. Like someone had turned the lights off behind her eyes.

But the solid wall beneath the bookcase now contradicts all of that. I’m beginning to wonder if we didn’t somehow collectively dream the whole escapade. But that doesn’t make sense either. Principal Quick confiscated the vodka bottle after all. And we still had the cigarettes on us. Still do. When we returned to the dormitory after…Saffy…we hid them behind our bedside cabinets.

“I’m not quite sure that I follow what you are saying,” Principal Quick replies, and the patience in her voice is stretched to its maximum. “You say that there’s a basement, and you climbed down there and saw…. Well, what exactly?”

“Jess!” Victoria shrieks, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone sounding so scared.

I look at Principal Quick’s reaction and beneath the icy exterior see a momentary flicker of emotion in her sharp eyes.

“She’s still rotting down there. All bloody!” Victoria cries.

She’s really losing it now.

And she’s not the only one. Principal Quick puts herself between Victoria and the closet. She raises her hand and slaps Victoria hard across the face.

(Whoah.)

Lena and Annie gasp in shock.

Victoria puts a hand to her stinging face. Fresh tears well up in her eyes.

“How dare you try to scare the others?” Principal Quick stares Victoria down with glassy eyes. “You selfish, attention-seeking girl.”

Then she glares at me, as though daring me to contradict her. I swallow dryly and lower my head as Principal Quick speaks on, the control in her voice making her even more frightening.

“Upsetting the others with these fantasies. It is heartless, thoughtless, and cruel. Always blaming others for your weakness. For your failings.”

Principal Quick turns to Lena and Annie. “You may go. You are all confined to your dormitory.”

That’s done it. Lena and Annie both file out of the room quickly, but not before looking absolute daggers at Victoria. And Victoria just looks destroyed, really. I guess I should be feeling sorry for her. But I don’t know what to say or do to make it any better for her. Either our imaginations got the better of us, or Principal Quick managed to board up the crawlspace in her closet overnight to make fools out of the both of us. Trying to figure out the solution is sending my poor, sleep-deprived brain into a downward spiral.

“Victoria, Emily, you will both accompany me,” the principal says.