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“She does know how to pick her times, and her places,” Laura admits with what might be a grudging admiration. “She must have studied my movements to know where I would be earlier today.”
“That’s… concerning.”
“That’s reconnaissance,” Laura says.
Outside, a very expensive, very solid, very reliable sort of vehicle is rolling up the driveway. It purrs with a low thrumming sound of quality toward a parking spot outside the headmistress’ office.
Jane notices it, but only in passing.
“I want to find her today,” Laura says. “And when I get my hands on her, I will not be giving her another chance to get away. I am going to whip her ass.”
“Bring her to me first,” Jane replies. “It will be easier for all concerned if I spank her into the right frame of mind first.”
“Fine,” Laura says. “But if she fights, or bites, or does any of her feral little tricks, I will be handling her.”
This is turning into a mess. Laura has every right to want to spank Storm, but Storm has made it very clear that she’s not going to go down easy.
Jane is realizing she should have dealt with the entire matter herself, probably when Laura first brought it to her attention. Then again, how was she to know the girl would stage a full ambush in revenge? It is difficult enough to predict the myriad of misbehavior of the girls who are late to class and do not study and are caught fraternizing with boys down in Zermatt. Storm’s actions are consistently and continuously outlandish.
They walk the entirety of the lower floor and find no sign of Storm. The few girls who are still here have not seen her either. She’s not in anybody’s room, and she’s certainly not in her own.
On their way back to look at the second floor, Frau Lotte emerges from her office, spotting Jane.
“Miss Strict, could I have a word with you, please?”
“Of course,” Jane says.
“Don’t worry,” Laura says. “I’ll find her.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Jane murmurs before taking herself to the headmistress’ office. It is not customary for Frau Lotte to be at work on a weekend, but it is a strange sort of weekend. There is something in the air, an unsettled energy that Storm seems to be reveling in but gives Jane some concern.
* * *
By this time, Storm has accepted the fact that she probably cannot live in the roof forever. She has made the old chair more comfortable by finding an old footstool and pulling it into place, so that she can lounge in the pleasant glow of the single bulb nearby, with darkness gathering around her in a comforting, cloaking sort of way.
It’s not that bad up here, after all. Not as nice as it is down in her room, but certainly not bad. There are worse places to live. Wetter places to live, certainly. If she can sneak some books up here, maybe Hazel’s copy of Interview with the Vampire, which is one of the few books that does not unfortunately fall into the category of being supposed to be improving.
“But then I’ll be a missing person,” Storm mumbles, giving into anAlice in Wonderlandstyle monologue. “Where did she go, they’ll say. That nice Australian girl? Because they still can’t tell the difference, not one of them. And then I’ll grow old up here and perhaps technically end up owning the entire school because of occupation rights. Do they have those here? I should look that up. I wonder where I’d look that up? A library, maybe? Or a municipal building. Municipal. What a word.”
“I might get hungry,” she continues to muse. “But the kitchen always has plenty to eat. I could go down in the night. Maybe make friends with a mouse up here. Maybe make friends with several mice. I miss Kravik. He was a good boy. I bet they’re not walking him.”
“I’ll live up here,” she says to herself. “I’ll live up here and I’ll sneak out at night and I’ll be pale because of a lack of sun, so they’ll think I’m a ghost and then they really won’t be able to get rid of me because all old places worth anything have ghosts.”
Storm could conceivably entertain herself in such musings for hours. There is a peace to this roof space she has missed. There are always people around downstairs in the proper parts of the school. People who want to talk or at least be listened to. Even late at night, her head is so full of things she’s supposed to do and things she must do, it’s all felt very full and busy all the time. But it doesn’t feel that way now. It feels peaceful.
For a while, Storm forgets why she’s in the roof.
Creak…
The sound of a foot fall outside makes her freeze. There’s no fucking way she’s been found. There’s no…
Creeeeakkk…
That’s the sound of the door opening. Storm scoots around a partition, heart hammering in her chest.
“I know you are here.” Laura’s voice rings out across the roof space. “Come out now.”
There’s no fucking way that’s happening. Storm’s panicked brain has already made a plan. Let Laura come in. Let her get all the way around, and hopefully move up and past where Storm is currently hiding. Then, when there’s a chance, run for the door, shut it, and bar it with everything she can.
