Prepsworth Academy

Chapter 70 - "Would it do you any harm to slow down?"

Harry

I looked back at the teacher getting electrocuted. The gates around Prepsworth were almost always electrocuted, and the fences so impossibly high that most people didn't bother climbing them and even then it was no use. Often the way most people got out of Prepsworth was by saying they were going shopping or something and then going to a party, but the fire had changed that. Rules grew stricter, and were enforced harshly. I'd known there would be repercussions when we'd talked about a plan, but a punishment for electrocuting a teacher was not one of them.

"Jake – a teacher just rammed into the gate, The closed, electrocuted gate." I said. Jake cursed but kept his eyes on the road.

"The electrical current isn't enough to actually hurt someone, but it's like a massive electric spark and you can bet it'll be exaggerated when we get in trouble." I said, rubbing a hand over my face.

"Then we need to make this count." He answered coldly. There was a beat before he spoke again.

"Which teacher?" He asked. I thought hard, trying to remember

"Um, I think it was that Year Eight teacher? The one that solely teaches calculus to Year Eights? Why do we even have that teacher?" I mused. Jake started laughing.

"The jerk that tried to give us all detentions for talking while we walked past his classroom?" He asked. I started to smile a bit more.

"That's the one." I exclaimed.

"Well, at least we have the gratitude of the student body." He joked.

"We can use them as a shield when Principal Verne tried to murder us." I said but the joke had already worn off, as had the adrenaline. Now all I needed to do was get to the scene of the alleged crime and figure out what happened.

Tom

Natasha sped along the road, the wind blowing her hair back. I watched the rows of trees go by, thinking that if we weren't going to investigate then this could be a scene of an old road-trip movie. It was perfectly sunny, with only a few puffy clouds in the sky.

"What happened at the party?" Natasha asked eventually. Planning out the escape had eased a bit of the animostity between us and it was difficult to hate anyone when you'd just pulled of the greatest escape in Prepsworth history.

"I wouldn't know." I replied, glancing at her.

"What do you mean?" She exclaimed. I thought quickly. I couldn't let out that I knew anything.

"I had a date." I blurted out. Natasha laughed, the sound surprisingly lovely.

"A date? With who?"

"This girl called Rae." I answered, not wanting to talk about it further.

"So, that's your new girlfriend now?" Natasha said, half-asking a question.

"No." I said sharply. Natasha looked back towards the road and things were silent for a moment.

"I was at the party that night. I left early, but, I was still there. Guess that was my mistake." She said quietly. There was significance behind the words, but I couldn't decipher it.

"We all made mistakes that night. But we could've made worse ones." I said quietly. It was like we were talking to each other, but mainly to ourselves.

"What mistake did you make?" Natasha asked lightly. I grimaced at the road.

"Caring too much. You?" I answered, Natasha didn't answer for while.

"Caring too little." She finally replied softly. I looked over at her and noticed silent tears streaming down her cheeks. She must've felt my eyes on her because she flicked her sunglasses down from resting on the top of her head and onto her face.

"What are we doing? Crying and being miserable whilst we just escaped Prepsworth? It's a beautiful day, we've got an amazing car and awful company! Let's have some fun!" Natasha exclaimed.

"You don't seem like the type for fun." I joked. Natasha swatted at me blindly.

"Are you kidding? I live for fun." Her tone turning slightly mocking. I reached over and turned the radio on. One of the catchy yet forgettable pop songs came on.

"Let's see if you're as good as singing as you are at denouncing people in newspapers." I joked.

"Oh it's on." Replied Natasha.

Elle

I felt the wind ruffle my hair as we sped down the road. Rose was breaking the speed limit, or at least as close to breaking it as it gets.

"Would it do you any harm to slow down?" I said, the words being ripped out of my mouth by the wind. Rose looked towards me and drove a little slower.

"I can see Natasha and Tom in the distance." Rose commented. I craned my neck and was rewarded with a splotch of red far off. Our escape was meant to be staggered, so this was no problem. If anything, we were ahead of time

"What happened with Lukas?" I asked casually. Rose laughed coldly and stared at the road.

"He asked me what was going on, I got bored and punched him." Rose said. I breathed in sharply.

"That's assault and I know you've done it before, we all have, but we're almost adults and we can't afford to lose our temper anymore." I said softly.

"Oh my god Elle! You sound so stupid, preaching like that. I mean, you have a point, but what about what Lukas did to me?" Rose snapped. I stared at her in shock. Rose saw my face and laughed again.

"It wasn't like that Elle. He just grabbed my face." Rose admitted. I gazed at her in horror.

"Rose, why didn't you tell me. That's threatening behaviour. That's awful!" I exclaimed, struggling for words. I didn't want to sound like the preachy good girl that Rose constantly called me, but there was nothing else to say. Rose gripped the steering wheel tighter.

"What I did to him back was worse. But it's not like I'm condoning it. I'm just not talking about it." Rose muttered.

"But that's the problem, right? No one in this stupid school talks about anything! That's why the fire happened. There were too many secrets, too many tears, too many broken hearts and it all just boiled over!" I burst out. Rose stared at me.

"Maybe. We could look into it." Rose offered up. I sighed.

"You think I'm crazy." I muttered. Rose laughed again.

"It's like I told you. We're all crazy. Completely and utterly crazy. It's just whether you choose to embrace it or not." Rose said. I'd heard the words repeated before, told in a story, but I couldn't remember where.

"That doesn't make sense." I refuted. Rose stared at me sadly for a second.

"It will."

Emma

I was absentmindedly picking the last dirt out of my fingernails when Miller walked by.

"Miller!" I called out. Miller turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"What is it Winter?" He asked, sounding fairly exasperated.

"When were you going to tell me you were Rose's brother?" I asked casually, observing his reaction. Miller, unsurprisingly, didn't react.

"What are you talking about?" He asked unaffectedly. I vaulted off the bed and gripped the cell bars.

"I'm talking about your sister." I snapped. Miller backed away.

"I don't have a sister, and you should back away before I add harassment of an officer of the law to your charges." Miller retorted, walking away. I spat on the ground outside the cells.

"She's in trouble Miller." I called out, my voice ringing out across the corridor. Miller paused for a second, but kept walking.