The day before (Monday again)

"I made the poster," Evelyn confessed.

My mind shook uncontrollably, it'd been broken by the day. Why the hell would Evelyn decide to paste herself, with no clothes, on a student of honour candidate poster? I knew that student of honour meant everything to her. 

What I forgot to mention about 'student of honour' was that along with great pride, you gain an awful lot of quid. You could live off of just that money for quite a few years, and that's why people were so obsessed. Evelyn had asked for my help as I had the grounds' social connections on my side. With the money, she planned to go to live with her dad who she hadn't seen since she was five. She was dedicated and became fluent at French (another reason why I love her).

"But why did you make it?" I asked in astonishment. My skull was throbbing, my brain was numb. Seeing Evelyn like this scared me, she was so innocent and cute and now she was printing porno posters?

I wanted it to be a lie of course but as much as it hurt, I did believe that she made them because no one else would have a photo of her like that.

I was becoming impatient in a despairing way, I needed answers, "please answer me!" I screamed at her. I couldn't control myself. She burst out into tears. And then I did too, probably because of the whole day, not just this.

Through heavy sobs she began to tell me, "I-I shouldn't tell y-", she stuttered and then sat down on her bed and wiped her eyes and blew her nose with a tissue. She handed me one too and took a few deep breaths. I sat next to her and I stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. She didn't stutter anymore, "They told me not to tell you," she said slowly, "but I can't keep it from you." She threw her arms around me, breathing heavily into my shoulder as I stroked her hair.

She suddenly pulled away. "They have something on me Harriet!" she raised her voice in dismay. "I had to!" she exclaimed. "I can't tell you what because if they f-find out-" she continued.

"It's fine," I began slowly even though I didn't believe what I was saying, "as long as you're okay," I comforted her. Although I was worried about what they might have on such a sweet girl like Evelyn to blackmail her into deep shit like this.

"It's nothing to do with Ivy, I promise," she confirmed and brought me into a hug again. How did she know? Were they actually close friends now? "The person, they just asked me to put Ivy's name on it." She finished into my shoulder. I couldn't comprehend anything right now and I was getting too distracted by Evelyn's gentle hug. All I wanted right now was my old Evelyn back.

"It's ok, I believe you," I said. "I will sort all of this, you don't have to worry at all, okay?" I said to her, how was I going to sort this out for her though? Where would I start?

She muttered a small noise into my shoulder. "Hey, let's talk about your birthday instead, yeah? What do you want?" I asked. Evelyn's birthday was a week today. I already knew the answer to what she wanted; it's the same thing every year.

She lay down on her bed and then I lay next to her, staring at the patternless ceiling. "I want," she paused to rub her eyes, they were as red as a tomato. I'm sure mine were bloodshot also. "A glasses chain charm," she let out a sort of sob giggle upon saying it and I did too. She always wanted one.

"You grandma," I called her. Evelyn wore reading glasses around her neck and had a countless collection of charms on the strings from previous birthdays. I knew them all. I fiddled with the string on the glasses as we laughed. "Do you want a party this year?" I asked her already knowing what she would say, but I had doubts this time because of Ivy.

"Of course not!" Evelyn replied jokily. Right, then why the fuck is Ivy throwing you one?

 Then as I was fiddling with the glasses chain, I felt a new one, it was unfamiliar. I pulled it to my face and inspected it, when Evelyn realised what I was doing, she spoke, "Oh... That was Ivy." Evelyn smiled warmly but I felt a gentle sadness burning away slowly at my love filled heart, this was our  tradition. I supposed that I had to just accept that they were close friends now.

"That's really nice," I said unconvincingly. Evelyn couldn't stand to hear any of my subtle jealousy and put her lips around mine suddenly. This time my smile wasn't so fake. Evelyn got off of the bed and led me to the dorm bathroom. It wasn't as shifty as it sounded; she just didn't want to be caught kissing a girl. Luckily, Ivy was a neat freak and so the bathroom was always immaculate and surprisingly pleasant.

We had been in the bathroom for ten minutes just sweet talking and making out when there was a knock on the door. No, not now. Evelyn's been through enough today. I looked at her and her eyes were wide. "Don't worry," I whispered in her ear.

"Hey, are you in there Harriet?" A voice asked from outside while banging on the door; it was Ivy.

"Yeah," I replied shakily after she banged a few more times.

"James told me to tell you to go to the bench at the front of school for that chat you agreed to," she informed me. I did, didn't I? Why did I have to screw everything up? James was the last person I'd want to talk to right now. Too bad.

I nodded in the direction of the shower for Evelyn. "One sec," I projected to Ivy and flushed the toilet so I could pull out the shower curtain to conceal Evelyn.

"Ivy, we should talk too, can you come with me on the way there? There's something I need to tell you." I said to Ivy. At least this way Evelyn wouldn't be found.

I unlocked the door, stepped out and swiftly closed it ajar behind me. Then Ivy led me out of the dorm. Thank god.

As we were walking to the bench, I just told her about how this guy called James approached us about her and said that he wants to 'take her down'. Ivy seemed unfazed at this, all she said was, "Kids these days eh?"

That would certainly not be my reaction if someone wanted to take me down, I thought. Ivy has thick skin. I told her that James brought up the Felix poster again and Ivy couldn't see why he would do that either. She also said that she hadn't seen him around before either and had never spoken to him; I wasn't surprised by that one.

When the bench was in sight and the conversation was over, Ivy left me to it. Everyone else was already there: James, Isaac and Felix.

"How did you all get here before me?" I asked. "I didn't know where to go," I finished.

"We all had history together last," Isaac replied.

"Neeks," I said back. I drew a smile out of everyone with that. Even James who gave me bad vibes. "So, what's all this about? What were you gonna say about Ivy?" I asked James.

"Ah, well I've decided to keep my mouth shut about that one. Instead, I thought we could tell each other what we said to the headmistress." He said. What changed about wanting to expose Ivy? Not that there was anything to leak, I kept reminding myself. It felt closer between Ivy and I on the walk here: less awkward and distant and that made me happier.

"You finally realise that there's nothing scandalous that Ivy's done," Isaac said to James, trying to make people laugh. Felix and I just grinned as James and Isaac chuckled away.

We informed each other about the conversations we had with the head; nothing interesting as we practically all said the same thing.

That was until James said, "I told her that Ivy made the poster."

Everyone was stunned at first so James felt the need to explain more. "I know she did it, I thought that as I couldn't tell you the original thing about Ivy, I'd tell you this instead."

I was so done with this James kid. I didn't believe a word of it and he had no evidence whatsoever. He looked around the group disappointed that he couldn't shock more people. We were all just sick of his nonesence.

"Ok, I guess it's just a theory guys, and the head couldn't do anything with no evidence" James confirmed.

"And one day, maybe we'll know if you were right or not," Isaac said to keep the peace. "For now lets just leave it. We don't know anything for sure, okay James?" Isaac sounded like a mother telling a five year old off for accusing his sister of stealing chocolate.

"Okay then," James said, hiding his sunken heart.

The grin then returned to everyone's faces as Felix said, "I guess that's it then!" I could tell he was relieved that nothing else was dug up from the dark pit of gossip.

"Sure is!" James said cheerily. Although his voice alluded to him not believing what he was saying.

"I'm going to go then I suppose," I said and Felix agreed. But then something else caught my mind. A question. "Wait, James. I wanted to ask why we haven't seen you around before?" 

I also wanted to ask him how everyone in the grounds already seemed to respect him, but I didn't.

James replied, "It's 'cause I haven't been around here before. I came for the summer school and worked my arse off to get enough money for a partial scholarship. It's bloody expensive but worth it. The education is great, and the people even better." He winked at Isaac.

"Right," I replied. Nothing that interesting then. "See you," I said.

"Okay, I'll catch you guys up in a minute. Just gonna talk to Isaac." James said.

Felix and I began to walk and then waited inside for them while exchanging small talk. After two excruciating minutes, Isaac came to join us and explained that James had to rush off to run an errand. Felix left shortly after and Isaac and I went to chill in the small lounge. We sat across the table from each other.

He finally spilt the tea, "Harriet! Guess what..." Isaac paused for a few seconds and then realised that my silence meant, no thanks. He continued, "James invited me to the annual bonfire tonight!"

"Oh wow!" I exclaimed. I was happy for him but not jealous as I knew that nothing could beat the bonfire that Isaac and I had two weeks ago.

"And... I kinda like James. I want to know if he likes me," Isaac confesses.

"Oh my god, he totally does!" I reassured him. And I did believe what I was saying. I could see it in James' everlasting smile around Isaac mirroring how Isaac looked at James.

"Ok, got to go," Isaac said in a rush. "I have to get beauty sleep, I have to look perfect."

"Speak to you tomorrow," I said after Isaac as he ran off in a happy skip. Tomorrow was Tuesday, it was a free day with no lessons and I couldn't wait to just chill out.

When I got back to my dorm, Evelyn was nowhere to be found. The only one in there was Alba, sitting on her top bunk, fiddling with a smuggled phone.

"Have you seen Evelyn?" I asked her.

"In the toilet." Alba replied.

The bathroom door was shut and so I knocked. There was no reply which worried me. I tried the handle, the door was unlocked. "I'm coming in!" I told her, trying to make sure I wouldn't catch her off guard, sitting on the toilet with her headphones in or something.

I didn't. The bathroom looked empty and I would've left again if I hadn't seen movement behind the shower curtain. She was still here where I had left her?

I drew back the curtain to see Evelyn sitting on the floor, head in hands. I instantly knelt down next to her, anxiety crowding my head.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" I asked her, not expectant of an answer.

She dropped her hands into her lap and shyly looked up at me with sunken and tired eyes. Her complexion was pale.

"It's... James." she said.