The Keeper

Chapter 32

The songs I listened to were Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin, Memory from Cats and Earth Passport by Liquid Blue.

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Huge apologies for my lack of activity recently. I was skiing and had no access to the internet for a week and before that, I simply didn't have the motivation to write. Thank you for sticking with The Keeper and I promise to update on schedule from now on.

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*

I was nervous as I walked into Astronomy; I wasn't sure if my project with Oliver was up to scratch considering the immense distraction that took place. I took a seat at the back of the class. Oliver and Gillian sat next to each other directly in front of me. I rolled my eyes.

Professor Sinistra was carrying a large stack of parchment when she marched in.

"Sit next to your partners!" she instructed, dramatically dropping the parchment on her desk. She crossed her arms and waited for us to shuffle around. Oliver refused to move away from Gillian so I had to go sit on his other side. When she saw that we were done, Professor Sinistra began to hand out our projects. I held my breath.

She smiled as she slipped our project onto the desk in front of me. "Well done."

A large O was written in a circle at the top of the sheet. Oustanding. I felt a smile make its way onto my face.

"Outstanding!" I exclaimed, clasping my hands together and instinctively turned towards Oliver. But he was talking with Gillian, so I put my head down. I bit my lip, embarrassed.

It was a few seconds before Professor Sinistra handed Gillian and her partner their project back. The professor's lips were curled down as she did so. I had a strong suspicion they didn't do too well. Which was excellent.

Sure enough, I peered over Oliver's shoulder to catch a glimpse of the grade. The letter P was scrawled at the top of the page. Poor. I suppressed a snigger.

Someone tapped me roughly on the shoulder. "What did she get?"

It was Sasha, eager to find out how Gillian scored. I could tell, like me, she was hoping she did badly. I smirked.

"Poor," I said.

Sasha snorted. "Wonderful!"

"Now, now," I tutted, "don't laugh. She obviously put so much effort into it. It's not like her to leave the entire bulk of the work to her partner. Only someone careless and lazy would do that."

The professor finished handing out the rest of the essays before returning to the front of the class.

"Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the results of this project. Some of you are on a wonderful track for your OWLs and, perhaps, beyond." Her expression suddenly changed. "Others, however... didn't do so well. If this applies to you, I want you to know that you will need to work a lot harder to pass your OWLs." I snuck a glance at Gillian, who was picking at her fingernails. "I've decided to set another project like this, except you must choose a different moon. If you scored above an A, then you will stay with your partner. If not, stay after class and we can move you around."

Numerous people groaned. They earned glares from Professor Sinistra. She didn't like to be complained to.

"Dismissed."

I lingered at Oliver's side as he begrudgingly packed his things away. I could tell he wanted to wait for Gillian, but Professor Sinistra waved her arm and told him to leave. Unlike him, I took the hint and waited just outside the door, out of sight.

"Wood! When I tell you to go, you go!" she snapped.

"But-"

"I won't repeat myself!" Professor Sinistra pointed at the doorway, finally causing Oliver to trudge out.

I caught him before he walked away. His shoulders dropped as he caught sight of me.

"Guess we'll be working again!" I said, trying to be positive. My smile hurt my cheeks. "Hopefully we'll do as well as we did with Io, don't you? I was thinking we choose one of the more obscure moons this time, maybe Amalthea. What do you think?" The only reason I was talking so much was to keep Oliver's attention. He was rapidly getting bored, though.

"Yeah, whatever," he replied, casting his eyes back to the door of the Astronomy classroom. "I wonder how much longer she'll be."

I gritted my teeth, placed a hand on either side of Oliver's head and turned his face to look at me. "Pay attention," I said. I dropped my hands - touching him made my skin tingle. "Meet me in the library after dinner. We need to work."

"Okay, sure," he mumbled, turning away again.

I gave up - I knew when the battle wasn't worth fighting.

*

I ate quickly before marching over to Oliver and dragging him by the elbow. I'd decided to well and truly forget about being passive. If I wanted Gillian's plan to be exposed, I needed to take more action.

Madam Pince's lips curled down as she saw us come into the library.

"I don't want to hear anything above a whisper from you, Wood," she said, pointing a finger at him. She had the opposite reaction with me: a smile. It seemed forced, almost as if her face wasn't used to it.

"Hello, Madam Pince," I said curtly, steering Oliver away from the door as he tried to shuffle away.

We found the same table we used last time and sat down. Never letting him completely out of my sight, I picked up a book on Amalthea and brought it to the table.

"No distractions, okay?" I said, verging on pleading. "I want to finish this project without any mention of Gillian. Or without Gillian actually turning up."

"Okay," Oliver replied with a shrug.

I blinked. "Okay?" For someone who was supposed to be infatuated with her, he didn't seem too bothered by the idea of forgetting about her for the evening. I narrowed my eyes.

"Let's get to work," he said.