"Just a few more weeks. That's all - a few more weeks until we're done"
"Until September"
"Whatever"
"And, you know, aren't you forgetting something? Like exams, maybe?"
Everyone else groaned, despite Grey's grin. Nobody needed (or wanted) to be reminded about the exams. The Clerkenwell School took exam results very seriously indeed. Almost as seriously as their parents did.
The bell signalling the last of the afternoon's classes rang, and Izzy hauled herself up from the small grass square that passed for the Clerkenwells's courtyard, dusting down her school skirt and scooping her bag onto her shoulder. All around the courtyard, students started towards their respective classrooms, watched from the doorways by the the school prefects. Not that anyone was in much of a hurry - it was the last real day of term. When the bell rang at 3:30pm, that was it. Study leave - and then exams, yes, but Izzy wasn't going to think about that until she had to. Which was horribly soon.
If she was honest, she thought, hitching the strap of her bag further over her shirt, it was probably three weeks ago. Mia and Dom had had their revision timetables all drawn up and printed out by half term. "Tiger mother," they'd said in unison when Noah had sniggered at the neat charts marked up in the twins' diaries - everyone knew how pushy she is when it came to school. Not that Noah had much to worry about. He was probably the only one in the whole group who stood a chance of getting anywhere near a top grade. There was a reason he was at Clerkenwell, after all, and unlike most of them it wasn't his family's money.
Izzy slipped into her seat in the English classroom just ahead of Kara and Grey. Kara kept her head down - she was the one person who looked unhappy about the end of term. It didn't exactly take a genius to know why, either. Poor Kara. She was so afraid of being in the outside that she'd rather be the butt of Tig's jokes than risk being forgotten. You could see it in her face. Even after all the time she and Tigs had known each other. She was afraid of being shut out. All she wanted was to be part of this mythical 'inner circle' that had Tigs at its centre. Izzy had said as much to Grey, not all that long ago, as they'd wait for the lifts in the lobby of the Barbican's Lauderdale Tower where they both lived.
  Grey had shrugged and said, "You know what else has an inner circle? Hell"
Your telling me Antigone Price is the devil?" Izzy had laughed as the lift pinged and the doors opened,
Following Grey inside. She's jabbed the button for the thirteenth floor, followed by the eighteenth for him.
"Maybe not the Devil. But she comes pretty close..."

The afternoon dragged. Nobody bothered to hide the fact that they weren't working, and even their teacher didn't seem too concerned. Mrs Alderman went as far as to sit down, tell them all to read a book and to get out a magazine for herself. She flipped through it. Occasionally glancing up to make sure they were at least all still there.
A fly buzzed inside the dash window beside Izzy's desk, somehow trapped between the two panes of glass. On the other side of the window, she could just make out the top of Lauderdale Tower looming over the neighbourhood.
   When they first met, living in the Barbican had been her way in with Tigs - who had apparently decided that everyone living within the confines of the Barbican's estate's walls was (in her words) 'safe'. Everyone outside was not. It was a ridiculous idea given that an apartment across the road in Florin Court - where Kara lived - cost as much as just one cost just as much as one in Barbican's blocks and had and had its own residents' pool, but that was Tigs all over. It wasn't just about the money - although money was definitely a part of it. It was about something more. Of course, Tigs still didn't let Izzy forget that she was the new girl. She only moved in a year ago, hadn't she? Tigs had been born there.
With its locked residents' garden and it's lake with fountains and terraces, the Barbican was a maze of low-rise blocks punctuated by three towers. Sitting at the edge of the bustling City of London business district' just behind St Paul's Cathedral, it had been built on land flattened by the bombs of the blitz. The idea was that it would be the future of city life - thousands of flats and apartments in all shapes and sizes, raised up above the level of the roads and traffics below. It was intimidating from the outside, designed to look almost like a castle. Even it's name Barbican, meant a kind of fortress. I'm the middle was the garden and the lake, and the Barbican Centre itself - a complex of theatres and cinemas, art galleries, libraries and restaurants open to the public, provided they could find the entrance. The whole place was a labyrinth of different levels, walkways that led nowhere and doors that could only be opened with a residents key. It was 'exclusive'. And Tigs lived in the most exclusive part - a sprawling apartment on the thirty-fifth floor of Shakespeare Tower, one of the high-rise blocks right at the heart of it. Something she liked to remind everyone of at every possible opportunity.
A loud scraping sound, followed by a crash, snapped Izzy's attention from the window and back into the room. Two rows ahead of her a chair was lying on its side in the aisle and next to it Grey was flat on his back, crying with laughter. Mrs Alderman peered over the top of her magazine, scowled and shook her head. It wasn't the first time Grey managed to fall off his chair in class. He bowed to the room - obviously enjoying the applause he was getting - and picked up his seat, dropping it back down into it with a grin.
"Show off," Izzy muttered.
When the bell rang, finally, she hung back, sliding her folder carefully back into her bag. Mrs Alderman had moved on to the crossword, and as Izzy passed the teacher's desk, she glanced up. "Murder, Izzy?"
"How many letters, Mrs Alderman?"
"Eight."
"Homicide, Mrs Alderman. But you know that already."
"Just testing." Mrs Alderman tapped her pen on the magazine. "How's revision going?"
"It's going." Izzy made what she hoped was a noncommittal sound.
"You are taking it seriously, aren't you?" The teacher was suddenly stern. "I'm not trying to pass judgement but after your last school I know how important —"
I'm taking it seriously. I am. Honestly." Izzy stared at the floor. The classroom suddenly felt like it was shrinking, getting smaller and smaller. The walls were pressing in on her and all she could think about was getting out.
"I'm glad to hear it. These exams could effect your whole future. This isn't a dry run, this is the real thing." She blinked at Izzy, watching her reaction - then said more kindly, "Although that's not to say you shouldn't have a break now and then"
"No, Mrs Alderman."
The teacher looked her up and down. "Go on then, I imagine your friends are waiting for you. Tell Grey I look forward to seeing his exam script, by the way..."
"I will Mrs Alderman." Izzy smiled, and clutching her bag tightly she headed out of the classroom and into the bright sunlight of the courtyard.

Exactly as predicted, Grey was waiting, along with the others, on the grass. Izzy came out just in time to see him drop to his knees, shouting "Freedom!" At the top of his voice. His school tie was clutched in one of his raised fist and his dark hair flopped across on of his eyes.
"You're such a loser," she said stopping just in front of him.
"You love it," he grinned up at her, brushing his hair out of his face. "It makes you feel superior."
"I am superior. Obviously."
"You keep telling yourself that." Grey shook his head.
"So I was thinking," said another voice from somewhere behind Izzy's head, cutting through their conversation as though it wasn't happening. Her heart sank. Tigs. She didn't turn round, hoping that Tigs would take the hint. Some hope - Tigs carried on regardless.
"I was thinking - revision party? My place? Later?"
"Revision party? Yeah, right. Like my parents will go for that." Said Juliet, perched on the wall next to Dom. She peered over her sunglasses at Tigs.
"Fine. 'Study group', then." Tigs sighed theoretically. "Aren't they working anyway?"
"Mum's on rota, Dad's on call. Go figure."
"What they don't know while being super doctors won't hurt them, will it?" Tigs flicked her glossy bland hair back over her shoulder and beamed. "So it's sorted. Six o'clock."
"Shall we even bother bringing books?" Noah raised an eyebrow at Tigs, who pouted.
"Depends if you want to waste your time studying, doesn't it?" With another hair flick, Tigs shot them all a dazzling smile and flounced off in the direction of the main entrance, forcing Noah to step out of her way. If Grey noticed the sway of her skirt as she went, he didn't show it. But then, he never did. Dom,
On the other hand...
Juliet followed his gaze. "Ugh. You're all so predictable."
"Shh." Dom tried to put his hand over her mouth.
"No talk. Pretty girl walking."
"Oh come off it!" Juliet twisted underneath his arm and gave him a gentle shove. He slipped backwards. He slipped backwards on the on the wall and only saved himself from going over altogether with an undignified scramble.
"You know that was all for you, don't you?"
Izzy nudged Grey in the ribs as they fell into step. Their little group was the only one still in the courtyard. Ahead of them, the solid wooden door on to the street stood open. While behind them Dom tried to empty the dregs of his water bottle over Juliet, who screamed and raced past them with Dom and Noah in hot pursuit, laughing.
It was just the two of them left now. Grey watched the others for a moment as they ran off, then shook his head.
"Not interested"
"In Tigs?" Doesn't look like she feels that way about you..."
"Yeah, well. I'm taken aren't I"
"What? Oh, in your dreams, lover-boy"
It had become a running joke - ever since the day she's almost collided with him in their building's entrance lobby and seen the stack of terrible horror movie DVDs in his hands. Top of the pile was of warlock, of which she knew every single line. The bond had been been instant and since hen they'd had regular horror 'dates' (as Tigs liked to call them making little quote marks in the air with her fingers each time) watching endless schlocky films full of monsters, vampires and chainsaw-wielding maniacs. Grey liked the monsters - even if he got annoyed when Izzy pointed out that you could usually see the seams in the swamp-creatures latex suit. Izzy on the other hand, liked serial-killer Ines best, and it drove her crazy they Grey always guessed the bad guy. Any time Izzy shrieked or his behind her hands, he would laugh smugly. "You knew that was coming though, right? If they did die offscreen their not really dead" This was usually the point where she threw a cushion at him.
Grey and Izzy walked side by side on the narrow pavements, as they did every school day. In the mornings, the huge concrete bulk of the Barbican fell away behind them like a shadow. In the afternoons it rose up to meet them.
Today, it baked in the sun beating mercilessly down on the glittering skyscrapers of the City. To an outsider, looking at it from yr wrong side of the forbidding wall, surely you'd have to be crazy to want to live there. It was hot in the summer and miserably gloomy in the winter, when the rain streaked the endless grey with black. But when you got to the middle of it (if you got to the middle of it) the Barbican was another story altogether. The garden was full of spreading trees that cast shade on even the hottest afternoons, and from inside the fence that kept the general public out, you could sit on the side of the lake and dangle your feet into the water.
The porter in the entrance hall of Lauderdale Tower nodded in greeting as they walked in, then turned back to whatever he was watching on the little television under the security desk. Grey ducked ahead through the glass doors into the lift lobby, flickering at the 'call' button on the central console, which sad on top of a small column in the middle, and turning to watch the three lifts expectantly.
"Which one, then?" He asked
"I'm not playing." She tried to sound stern, but couldn't. They'd been playing this game ever since they started working to and from school together last autumn, betting on which lift would arrive at the entrance level first.
"Come one. I'm going with...number three." He pointed his finger at the nearest lift. Sure enough, there was a sudden whirring sound from behind the closed doors and the little red floor indicator set above them began to count down the floors from 25.
"Nah," she gave in. "It's almost four o'clock. You know what that means..." she held up her hands in triumph as the indicator lurched to a halt at seventeen.
"Mrs Johnson. Foiled again by the blue-rinse brigade."
Grey slumped dramatically over the centre console, dropping his bag on the floor. Everyday at 4pm, little Mrs Johnson emerged from her apartment on the seventeenth floor to walk her poodle around the garden not the actual apartments had never stopped her.
"Two it'll be list number two"
A moment later, lift number two pinged and the doors clattered open. Grey snatched his bag up from the floor and pouted at her.
"Next time, whedon."
"You just hate losing. Admit it." She laughed as she pressed the buttons for their respective floors, and was still shaking her head at him when the lift stopped to let her out at the thirteenth floor.
"You want me to wait for you later?"
Izzy pressed one hand against the side of the door to stop it closing. Grey shook his head. "Nah go over without me. My beloved mother's actually home so I'd better make nice"
"No party tonight? What's she going to do with herself?" Greys mother has an incredibly successful party-planning business, but it meant that she spent most of her time going up and down the country overseeing the lavish events she'd organised. Grey didn't exactly say it out loud, but Izzy always got the feeling he resented all the travelling and time she spent away from home.
"Probably trying to organise me." Grey sighed. "I'll see you over there."
"Tigs"ll sulk if she thinks you aren't coming..."
"Tigs will always find something to sulk about. I'm way down the list." He suddenly focused on a point just above Izzy's shoulder, and she turned round to follow his gaze. On a wall opposite, the floor indicator for the lift number three whizzed through thirteen and on down to the lobby. Grey shook his head sadly and but his lip. "Mrs Johnson..." he said sorrowfully as Izzy stood back, letting the doors slide shut.

"Where's Grey?" These were the very first words out of Tigs mouth when she opened the door and found Izzy standing on the other side. Alone. She blinked out at the landing, obviously expecting him to appear out of thin air.
"He said he'd come later." Izzy tried not to sound offended. "We're not joined at the hip."
"Whatever." Tigs quickly lost interest and flung the door wide open for Izzy to step through. "You're sure he's coming though. right?"
"Why don't you call him and ask him?" Izzy's really was trying. She was.
"God no I'm not calling him. Besides, you usually know where he is. What's with you two, anyway?"
"Exactly the same thing as last time you asked me, nothing."
"Like I said, whatever." Tigs held up a hand and kicked the door shut again.
In Izzy's apartment, the door would have slammed shaking the whole floor. I'm the price apartment however, things worked a little differently. Their front door swung quietly on its hinges, slowing down until the latch met the doorframe with a discreet, but solid, click. On the other side, the floor to ceiling windows of the living room took in the whole of the London skyline from thirty-something storeys up, the glass towers of the City glittering in the evening sun. On the vast red velvet sofa that dominated the room, Izzy could see Juliet and Mia, while Kara and Dom say in the floor in the other side of the glass coffee table. There were, somewhat surprisingly, folders and notebooks open on the table.
You actually meant 'study party', then?" Izzy jerked her head towards the revision notes.
Tigs looked blank, then laughed. "As if. It's in case the paternal puts in an appearance."
"Your mum's not home?"
"She's on a retreat."
"Is she OK?"
"The maternal? Please she treats that place like a hotel." Tigs breezed past Izzy and into the kitchen pulling open the door to a fridge that was taller than either of them. "She'll be fine as soon as they dry her out. No. Wait." She slammed the fridge shut again and leaned back against the door, thoughtfully tapping the top of the drink she'd just pulled out. "They don't dry you out when it's pills, do they? What do they do? Shake you?" She stared into the middle distance, then shrugged. "Anyway, speaking of pills..."
There was a series of rapid knocks on the door. Tigs rolled her eyes. "It's open!"
"It's so not..." Grey's voice was muffled by the heavy wood and Tigs almost fell over herself in her rush to get to the door. It was either incredibly sweet 94 really pathetic - Izzy couldn't quite decide which. However, Grey wasn't alone on the landing, which meant that's Noah was treated to full force of Tigs best smile, as Grey breezed past her and threw himself down on the enormous armchair covered with a shimmering silvery fabric. In his torn jeans and his beaten-up Converse, he should have looked totally out of place, but there was something about him that said he belonged. It was easy for him, for Tigs... for all of them. All of them except for Izzy, anyway - and maybe Noah - and she felt almost jealous. Even Kara seemed to fit in here - she and Tigs had started school on the same day as far as Izzy could tell, they'd been friends ever since. Well perhaps 'friends' was too strong a word for it, but there was definitely something there. Something that Izzy wasn't sure she ever had with Tigs, or with the others. Thinking about it like that, maybe Grey was the odd one out. 'Odd' being the operative word.
"Right. So. Schools out. Monster exams coming up... anyone else had 'the speech' yet?" Grey glanced around the room.
"Back in December." Chorused Dom and Mia.
Grey blinked at them. "Your mum doesn't muck about, does she?"
"I'm not worried about you disappointing me." Grey's impersonation of his mother was uncanny - even down to the way he moved his hands as he spoke, his fingers fluttering from side to side. "I'm worried about you disappointing yourself'. It's like there's a book they get this stuff from."
Exams, though." Squeezed into the middle of the sofa, Juliet looked a lot younger than everyone else, her eyes wide and earnest behind the thick frames of her glasses. "There not a big deal. I mean, if we don't do well in these..."
"Spare me." Grey's voice had an edge to it. "I got all this earlier."
"Maybe they're right. That's all I'm saying. We should take this stuff seriously." She was twirling her long pendant necklace around her finger, the way she always did when she was nervous . It was a red glass bead, stretched into a teardrop the size of her thumb. Juliet never took it off. At school she wore it over her collar and tucked underneath her tie, and no matter how many times the teachers had threatened to confiscate it, they never had.
"Fine. But does everyone have to keep going on about it? Like that's going to help! It's not like we've never sat exams before, is it? We're Clerkenwell students. That's what we do."
"Not like these though..."
"Juliet? Do me a favour? Stop talking, yeah?"
Their exchange had soured the mood in the room, taking it from celebratory to tense in less than a minute. Grey had said what the rest of them were already thinking, and Juliet had come a little too close to voicing everything that they were afraid of. They were Clerkenwell students, Grey'd been right about that. Their parents were successful. Their school was successful. They had no choice but to follow suit. Failure, at anything, was not an option.
It was Tigs who broke the silence. She was standing in the doorway. Holding a small white paper bag. "As I was saying I might be able to help with the whole... revision thing." She rummaged in the bag and pulled out a stack of white oblong packets, tossing them to each group in turn.
The box rattled slightly as it landed in Izzy's hands. It was made of thick, glossy cardboard, embossed with the words FokusPro in heavy bold lettering. Nothing else. Inside were three silver blister-strips of tablets, shining in the light. They'd felt cold to the touch as she took them in her hand, almost as though they were sucking the heat from her skin.
"You can thank me on results day," said Tigs smugly. "They're a new thing in the States. All the college kids are taking them for finals."
"A study drug?" Noah stared at the box resting on his palm. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Won't we get in trouble?"
"It's fine. I swear. Their just a bunch of vitamins and supplements or something. They're meant to help you work for longer, remember stuff better. All that. And it's not like anyone's going to know, is it?"
"Where'd you get them?" Izzy poked a whole in one of the blisters with her nail and popped out a tablet. It was bright yellow, stamped with a small circle. It smelled awful - like something rotten. She frowned at it, then glanced at the others. No one else seemed to be bothered.
"Internet. Obviously."
"The internet?"
"It's fine! I used the Maternals account. She gets all her stuff from this pharmacy. Noxapharm or something.
"Well, that fills me with confidence..." Izzy couldn't tear her eyes away from the pill in her palm. Something about it felt... off. Like that smell. Nothing good could smell that that, surely?
"Oh, come on. It's called 'FokusPro'. They wouldn't be allowed to call it that unless it had been tested and everything. It's literally just a bunch of algae and stuff. That's all it does. Helps you concentrate." Tigs scrunched up the paper bag and lobbed it across the room. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen, right?"