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“It was not funny at all, young lady, you were an absolute…” Jane searches for a word, finding it very difficult to come up with one. None of the obvious nouns seem to cover the breadth of that particular little performance.
“How stupid are they, actually, though?”
Jane refrains from comment.
Storm grins. She might be happiest with the dog, but she is second happiest when pushing her luck with Jane.
“I walked right past them on my way out,” she says. “The big dude yelled at me about the Birchbane grounds being private property. I didn’t so much actually run away as get thrown out.”
That is a piece of information Hannes had not elected to share with the headmistress, Jane notes privately.
“They're not very polite down there,” Storm continues. “Everyone in Basel is way nicer. The Swiss-Germans have a sense of humor about things. Down there they’re so serious. They make you look relaxed.”
Jane smiles and thinks about the array of implements she will use on this impertinent girl.
“Don’t look like that,” Storm says immediately. “That’s your plotting face.”
“Don’t give me a reason to plot, Storm,” Jane says smoothly.
“Bit late for that, probably,” Storm says.
“Very much so,” Jane agrees.
“There you are!” A booming male voice cuts into their conversation. Jane and Storm look up at the same time, their expressions echoing similar kinds of displeasure at the striding appearance of the Birchbane guard, Hannes, and the woman who appears to have self-relegated herself to the role of silent sidekick.
“We have found you,” he declares, as if they’ve done something more impressive than wander around the exterior of a train station and hope for the best.
Storm shoots Jane acan you fucking believe this guylook.
Jane cannot fucking believe this guy, but she is too professional to return the look. Storm is already far too out of her place as it is.
“I found Storm, and I will be returning her to school on the next train.”
“You have found the student, and we have found you,” Hannes reframes her statement. “Both of you will come with us in our car. We cannot risk public transport, she is a flight risk.”
“She’s not a flight risk, she’s a teenage girl,” Jane says. “The train will be faster.”
“I must insist, Frau Strict.”
It is at this point, Storm speaks up. “Who the fuck are you to insist? You let me walk away from you in the first place, twice, actually! And you missed me here in Basel. You couldn’t find your own ass with both hands. We’re taking the train.”
Hannes’ usually stony expression becomes pure granite. He does not respond to the petulant student, but rather directs his comments to Jane.
“It is late, and the characters on the train become unsavory after midnight.”
Jane relents. “Very well, we will travel by car.”
* * *
The journey back is at least four hours. Storm curls up in the corner of the backseat and proceeds to fall asleep, having thoroughly exhausted herself. Jane remains alert, but the company is not what one might call pleasant or stimulating. It is only a slightly longer drive than it would be train journey, but it feels like an infinite amount of time longer.
The headmistress is awake when they arrive well past one in the morning. Jane sends Storm off to bed, knowing full well that she is not in any state to deal with any authority figures for the moment. She will keep until tomorrow. Laura posts up outside the front of the school while Jane and Hannes report to the headmistress’ office.
There was not much in the way of getting-to-know-you conversation in the car. In fact, Jane has felt rather more like a recalcitrant student being dragged back to school than Storm seemed to. That feeling only intensifies when she arrives in the headmistress’ presence.
“I trust we have all our students accounted for, Hannes?”
“Yes, Headmeisterin,” he nods, as if he had anything to do with any of it.
