After one of the most embarrassing experiences of her life, Viola Hawkins is left feeling hopeless and demoralised. So when she's told that she's able to work as an undercover agent in a boarding school, she's given a new chance to change her life...
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"Are you sure you're okay?" Maddy asks the next morning, watching me through the mirror as I wash my face, her eyes heavy with anxiety. She's wearing her hair in two French braids that she did last night - resulting in little strands fuzzing around her head like a small halo, disrupted due to sleep.
My fingers fumble over my face, working monotonously. "I'm fine, Maddy. I wish people would quit asking me that."
"It's because we care. I know that something happened between you and Jake. Something that-"
"Please." I say, standing up to look at her, cutting off her line of speech. "If you do care, then don't bring that up. I don't want to talk about it."
She stays silent, before nodding slowly, mouth forming an 'o' shape. "Right. Yeah, of course. I'm sorry, Mia. I wasn't thinking."
"It's fine." Moving my feet, I grab my books, walking over to the door and pulling it open to leave.
Maddy follows shortly behind, remaining silent as we walk to class. Being my luck, I have psychology first, which is the one subject that I have with Will. The one subject that I actually sit next to him in.
Luckily, arriving earlier is an easier way of resolving this issue - therefore I can choose the seat that I sit in, and someone else will have to take my previous space.
When I arrive at our classroom, the only person standing in the room is the teacher, handing out sheets on the desks in preparation.
Maddy grabs my wrist before I head in, her green eyes analysing me as I turn around. "I'll meet you in the hall at break, yeah?"
"Uh - actually I'll probably just do some work at break." I reply, shrugging her off. More students begin pilling into the hallway, so I'm even more eager to get into the classroom.
But Maddy isn't any less vigilant. "No, you won't, Mia. You can't just shut us out too."
"Maybe tomorrow, okay?"
After a long hesitation, she eventually nods, sighing in exasperation. "Alright. Fine. See you in the dorm, then."
It feels as though time flies by me as I wait in anticipation for Will's arrival.
Usually he's the last person in class anyway, so I'm not expecting him to turn up in the first five minutes.
But he does.
I guess he has the same thoughts as me, because suddenly he's standing there in the doorway, eyes fixated on me as realisation dawns that we're both part of the few people in the room. He looks different - tired, almost.
Actually, tired is an understatement. He looks drained. Normally, his eyes are wide open, sparkling with energy, alert and awake. Now they're lifeless, a dark, dull raven colour - the bags underneath them stained and growing by the second.
