Once

Four

Russell finished his tea and slipped his cup into his satchel as they walked through the school gates. Farway High hadn't changed much since the fifties - a collection of ugly boxy buildings with a big half-dead playing field behind it. At the edge of the field were the first of the trees that began the huge, dense forest that ringed round Farway on all sides.

People in Farway loved those woods. They considered them a sort of unique selling point for houses there - a great place for birdwatching, bike riding, and all the general hearty outdoor stuff you were meant to enjoy when you lived in a tiny little town out in the country.

Elle did not love the woods round Farway. She always felt like they were boxing her in. She couldn't help but think they gave the whole place an atmosphere of claustrophobic stagnancy.

An atmosphere of claustrophobic stagnancy. Hell, maybe she was a writer after all.

They'd barely got through the gates before Jax bounded up to them.

"Go on," she said. "Ask me anything about Himmler."

Elle smiled. Only Jax could get away with starting a conversation with that command and still somehow make it endearing.

In truth it was hard not to be intimidated when Jax was around. Tall, slim, with that huge mass of gorgeous black curls and the skin that gleamed like the sheen on caramel. That effortless chic thing, the look of being both modelesque pretty and down-to-earth approachable. She was an anomaly of an enigma of a girl: nice but cool, funny but sincere, confident and creative but with that absolutely undefinable thing: people liked her. Everyone liked her. That's what was so intimidating to a reserved, drab girl like Elle. The concept of everyone instantly liking her the minute she met them was as remote an idea to her as being able to fly.

Russell said solemnly:

"Jacqueline Linwood, do please bestow upon us all the information you can about Himmler."

Jax flashed him a reproachful look - everyone knew her feelings on her full name, but knowing Russell only did it to wind her up she chose not to give him the satisfaction of arguing. Instead she blurted out at once:

"Heinrich Himmler, born 1900. Chief of German Police, Minister of the Interior. Died 1945 by cyanide pill."

She grinned, pleased with herself.

"That's all, is it?" Russell asked.

Jax shrugged.

"What else do you need to know? He was one of the most evil men in history. Everything else he did was just evil, so I'd rather not know it, even if it does mean I only end up with a C."

With anyone else Elle might have rolled her eyes. With Jax, all she did was smile. It sounded like such a happy, simple outlook on life. Very Jax.

And in more practical terms, it was just like Jax not to care about her History GCSE even one little bit. There was exactly one exam she cared about: their Art exam, and they'd already done that last week. As far as Jax was concerned school had already finished, and the rest of this was just filling time before prom.

"I've been revising, with Maggie and Sellan," Jax said, as if Russell and Elle hadn't worked out the explanation for her sudden interest in Heinrich Himmler.

"Where are they?"

"In the library still, I think. They're just gonna meet us in form."

For any other teenage couple, being left alone for a few moments before school started might have meant any number of things. A quick make-out session, for instance, or a chance to bunk off unnoticed. For Maggie and Sellan both these options were about as unlikely as them going off to hold up Farway Bank.