At the End of the Garden

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I tapped my foot impatiently. From time at the end of the day was pointless. Ten minutes of wasted time. We were registered in our last lesson so I wasn't sure why we needed to come back for ten minutes to do it again. And it made my nerves worse.
I watched the back of Angie's head, which was surrounded by those of her new friends. Every now and then, she would look up at them, smile, pretend she'd been listening, then go back to looking at the wall. I knew that's what she was doing because she used to do it to me. I didn't care then because it was just nice to have another girl to talk to, even if she didn't act much more invested than my mum did when I spoke to her. I read something somewhere about serial killers who seem normal, and did normal things, but would never be close enough with anyone to stand out. They would fade into the background.
I didn't think Angela was a serial killer. Though I did think she made herself disappear on purpose, which was a strange train of thought because she did stand out somewhat just for being herself. I'm pretty sure she wasn't as well-spoken as she put on because the more I thought about it the more I remembered times where she dropped the accent. She wore lipstick a couple shades darker than the rest of her peers and the school regulations, but never got in any trouble. She never joined any of the clubs, even though she played tennis at home and was quite good at it. Angie wasn't a serial killer, but there was certainly something being left unsaid.
As always, Eden didn't seem anywhere as tense as I was, which meant nothing. Though, he didn't have the same cause to be so nervous as I did, he had never been friends with Angela. Eden was sat a couple rows away from her reading a book and giving away nothing. This meant I was closest to the door, so I'd have to get out first so could I catch Angie before she left. If worse came to worse and Angie ignored me, which she probably would, Eden could corner her.
I clutched my bag to my chest and waited anxiously for the bell to ring. The boys who sat behind me, the ones I'd heard talking about Luka months ago, were drifting in and out of white noises. They spoke about some TV show, then their geography homework, then the female PE teacher. Gross. Gross, sexist and mundane. Really mundane.
The bell rung out and I shot out my seat so suddenly it drew attention. I was third out the door and once I was outside I positioned myself as close as I could to it, then waited to see Angela's unrealistically straight dirty blonde hair as it left the room. There! I grabbed her shoulder.
She flinched, and she even looked nervous until she saw it was me who touched her. Her face quickly switched to a dangerously sour expression.
"Again?" She mumbled.
I tried to smile, I knew I had no chance of her talking to me if she thought I was going to cause another scene. The way she looked at me made me feel like I was in the aftermath of a break up in a sitcom. I don't want trouble. I just want to pick up the rest of my stuff from the apartment. Those words ran through my head. Imagine if me and Eden had been like this? Friendship break ups were so much worse, I'd decided.
"I need to ask you something." I said.
"I can't hear you." She said, sliding out of my grip. "It's too loud."
It was a legitimate excuse that almost had me stumped. It sounded like most of the school was walking down this corridor to get to the exit, so many voices and stomping feet. Now that it had been pointed out to me, the amount of people suddenly became overwhelming. But I tried to recover quickly, and grabbed her wrist when she turned away.
"Then let's go somewhere else." I shouted over the crowd.
She shook of my hand, "I'd rather not."
"Then let us walk with you." A third voice from behind Angie said.
Eden hadn't been standing there long, but long enough to hear her say no. He wasn't much taller than her, me and Angie were about the same height, but I bet he seemed like he towered over her. She looked terrified.
That's right. I thought. You can't be rude to Eden.
I don't think Eden had ever gone running to his father to get someone punished in his life, but I suppose no-one could be sure he wouldn't. Maybe I was the only one who saw that Eden and Victor Quinn didn't have that kind of relationship. He made Eden take the scholarship test, so maybe the one good thing about Victor Quinn was that he wasn't into nepotism (if you ignore the fact the biological mother of his son was his lawyer). Still, Eden's privilege was helpful here, real or imagined.
Angie crossed her arms over her chest making her look like a crab retreating into it's shell. "Let's go then."
The three of us began walking slowly nearer the back of the crowd where it was a little quieter. Eden and I either side of Angie like she was a prisoner on her way to the electric chair.
"Go on then," she said, "what was it you wanted to ask?"
That meant she had heard me earlier. Hah.
Eden clearly didn't intend to mince words or sugar-coat it. "It's about Luka."
Angela stopped dead in the corridor. Her expression didn't change, she didn't look shocked or upset. She just let the last of the crowd pass her while they all complained that we were in the way. That was unlike her. It would have made more sense if she had magically turned herself invisible.
A glance was shared between Eden and I. He shrugged. He shrugged! I wanted my eyes to tell him that he should have perhaps gone about that more delicately, but I think I just looked annoyed.
But like I said, she only stopped moving. She didn't become afraid, she didn't start laughing manically like an evil villain. She just stopped.
"Why? What are you two trying to achieve?" She asked, normally, like she hadn't just frozen.
"We know there's something you're hiding." I replied, somewhat delicately.
"Is that right?" She randomly began walking again, passing us in the process. "Seriously, what makes you think that?"
"We know about the coat." I said as me and Eden began walking behind her.
"What coat?"
"Your coat." I picked up my pace to be next to her. "I don't get why you're lying."
She didn't deny it. Just kept her gaze forward and ignored my accusation.
Eden, still slightly behind, continued in an interrogation style manner. "We know the night she went missing you and Luka went back to the school to get the coat. That was the last time she was seen, but the media haven't reported it that way and neither have the police."
"Did Renée tell you that?" Angela said, finally looking at me. "She's a liar. She's my cousin, I would know."
We went silent as we reached the stairs. A group of other students passed us and three of us seemed to agree that this conversation wasn't to be had in front of people.
"I believe them." I said. It bothered me that she left Michael out. "Why would they lie like that?"
"Use your head, Marie." She said. "We're not exactly friends anymore, maybe she was trying to get back at me."
"For what?" I asked.
Angela paused, opened her mouth to say something but realised she had nothing.
"That's not all." Eden didn't give her a chance to make something up. As we reached the main door he held it open for the both of us. "We found that you and Renée were both listed as scholarship students without actually being so. Know anything about that?"
It was ridiculously cold today, the wind felt like ice and Angela visibly froze up.
"I don't." She responded.
Angela's mother usually parked around the corner, that meant we still had a while before she would make her escape. But there was still a crowd at the gate. Angela wouldn't want to talk with people around, neither did we.
Eden swore, again. But this time it had been because he'd spotted his driver at the gates waiting for him, rather than from the driver's seat of the car like he always did. Probably instructed to do so by Victor Quinn to make sure he went straight home.
He looked at me as if he were going to apologise again, he didn't (thank God), then walked slightly ahead.
"If she continues not to tell you anything, don't keep wasting your time with her." Eden told me, almost threateningly before meeting the driver at the gates and going to the car that was parked in the closest space possible to the school, as always.
I waved shortly at Eden and in the brief second I wasn't looking, Angela had started walking the other way down the street. I ran to catch up with her.
"It's cute. You two seem closer than you did when you were dating." She said, maybe speaking more freely now Eden couldn't hear. "People will start talking again, you know."
"We were friends before - that's not the point." I almost let myself get distracted.
"He was right, I've got nothing to tell you so you might as well stop wasting your time," She said.
We were approaching the corner her mother was usually parked around. I stopped. When she didn't stop with me, I grabbed her wrist.
"Please Angie."
She looked at me as if she could shoot poison out of her irises.
"I want to help. Whatever it is, you don't have to hide it from - "
"Help!" She snorted, pulling her arm out of my grip. She didn't try to run away. "Marie, if you're so bored, go play detective somewhere else!"
"I'm not playing!" I said, weakly.
"Of course." She spat. "If you're not playing, try understanding that there are somethings you do not need to know."
"Oh, you're so full of yourself!" I snapped. "You're accusing me of being childish but at least I don't think I'm so important that nobody could possibly understand me!"
"I do not think I'm important." She laughed sinisterly, a bit like my mother.
"Great. Then tell me why it's such a big secret!" I wondered if I would have snapped at her if Eden was still here.
"Did you not hear me!" She shouted, before realising people were still around us. "I won't say." And muttered, "even if I wanted to tell the likes of you."
I didn't have my brother's composure, but I still managed to stop myself from shouting at her more. Eden was right, they both were right. I was wasting my time.

Irritatingly, the bus had just turned onto the street when I saw Dad's car pull up on the other side of the road. Mum had been serious about picking me up after all. I crossed and got in the car.
"You must have had to leave work early today to pick me up." I said, "Sorry."
"I can leave when I like." He said, shaking his head. "And don't apologise, your mum was insistent."
"Don't worry. Every teacher in school seemed to be picking on me to stop me and Eden from talking to each other. At least you're doing me a favour."
"A favour?"
"I don't have to get the bus."
Dad laughed, I think he thought I was about to say something serious. His laughter eventually died down and he thought about the rest of what I'd said. "Victor is going that far?"
"I don't know why."
"Me neither. Grounding the both of you is more than enough. You don't have to be completely separated. What kind of plot does he think you're coming up with?"
More than you'd think. But didn't say it out loud.
"Wait. I'm grounded!"
"Well, yeah!" Dad said. "You think you would just get off scot-free?"
"No." I mumbled. "I just wanted to go out this Saturday."
"With who?"
"My friends." I said, the lack of specific detail made Dad laugh.
"Take it out with your mother, not me." He said. "Though, I still doubt she'd let you go."
That was great. I was going to have to cancel on Ren and Michael. Then they would ask why. Should I tell them that it was because I broke into the head teacher's office? I'm sure they'd find it funny.
Technically, I'd never been grounded before, I'd never done anything to deserve it. Neither had Eden. But I still had Victor Quinn's school office keys. I suppose that meant I would have to do something that landed me in even more trouble. If I wasn't trying so hard to forget about him, I'd have thought that Sidney would be proud.