‘Jasminecrying?’ Emily tilted her head.
‘I know. And then we talked aboutAnimal Farmonce; it was in our syllabus. How the animals overthrew the farmer and took over, to create a life more equal? But it simply meant a new hierarchy was created. Jasmine said school was like that. If she and her friends weren’t the populars, others would be. She saw school as the survival of the fittest. It doesn’t surprise me that she became a head teacher. Her favourite character inAnimal Farmwas dictator Napoleon.’
‘Jasmine White. Hugo Black. Their names don’t reflect the fact that most people are a shade of grey,’ said Paige. ‘No one’s an absolute villain or hero.’
Tiff hadn’t been able to resist the lure of being friends with someone like Jasmine. The oinking stopped and she began to see herself less like one of the downtrodden pigs inAnimal Farm.
‘It knew it was wrong,’ said Tiff, ‘but I told myself my friendship with her was justified because, in some small way, I was helping my parents financially. But’ – Tiff bit her lip – ‘at night, in bed, a voice would whisper in my ear that I was betraying the three amazing, funny, caring girls who made my school life more than bearable.’
No one spoke for a moment.
‘How long did you know about Tiff and Jasmine, Emily?’ asked Morgan, tone softer now.
‘During our very last exam, English GCSE, halfway through, I caught Tiff giving Jasmine a thumbs up. Afterwards, I asked her what was going on, threatened to tell the invigilator that I caught the two of them cheating, sending each other hand signals. After everything to do with Mum, I wasn’t so inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt. It was two days before the prom. I refused to speak to Tiff.’
Tiff had been so nervous, convinced her secret would come out at the dance. Morgan and Paige hadn’t noticed the tension between her and Emily, they were still on a high about exams finishing.
Morgan rubbed her head. ‘I predicted that us all getting together again would bring back difficult memories of Hugo, but I never expected other secrets to surface.’
‘Me neither,’ said Tiff and she looked around. ‘Are there any others between us from back then?’
26
MORGAN
Emily paused and then slid down from the armchair, onto the floor, to sit next to Tiff. ‘Don’t laugh but whilst I liked our PE teacher, I also had a massive girl crush on Mrs Davies.’
‘Our geography teacher, in Year Seven?’ asked Morgan. She slid down to the floor too, and crossed her legs like Tiff. ‘But she was so mean. She’d rap pupils on the hands with that roll of tracing paper. I wish I could go back and report her.’
‘I totally get it, Emily,’ said Tiff and unfolded her arms. ‘She was soon it– never took any crap from anyone and she oozed confidence. No other member of staff could have carried off that tangerine jumpsuit. If we’re talking crushes, I secretly fancied Tommy in our tutor set, until Year Ten, when he viewed girls as the trophies he and his rugby team collected.’
‘Tommy was sweet before his hormones kicked in,’ agreed Morgan. ‘He was always the first to offer a pen or ruler if another pupil had lost theirs.’
Paige was staring at the watercolour of a field of lavender. Morgan caught her eye. Paige smiled and moved from the sofa to the floor.
‘What about the secrets we kept together?’ Paige said. ‘Like on the trip to France in Year Ten. How the hostel had windows you could remove completely, in case of a fire.’
‘Christ, I’d forgotten that!’ said Tiff.
‘Me too,’ said Emily.
Morgan grinned. ‘What we were like, taking them out that night, so we could slide down the drainpipe and go into that little town?’
‘Then Mlle Vachon caught us on the way back,’ said Paige. ‘It’s the only time I ever saw her looking angry. She split us up for the rest of the trip and told us we were only to speak in French when together.’
‘As she anticipated, that stopped us making any other plans,’ said Tiff. ‘Fate must have been on my side when I scraped through my GCSE.’
The four talked about happier times at school, a large part of which was solving the cases. Morgan fetched the notebook and they turned its pages, marvelling at how they’d named bullies, called out cheating partners and brought thieves to justice.
‘We were fearless back then,’ said Tiff as she ran a hand over the notebook’s cover.
Emily took it and flicked through again. ‘The concept of right and wrong was very important to us.’
Morgan took the notebook from Tiff. ‘We were good kids, with well-meaning intentions, a strong team.’
Paige hugged her knees. She didn’t take the notebook when Morgan offered it to her. ‘This is nice,’ she said, simply.
Morgan wanted to hug her.
