'Allie.'

She turned around to see a girl studying her expressionlessly as the sunlight highlighted her long red hair and illuminated her milky white skin.

'Oh,' Allie put her hands in her pockets and tried to look casual. 'Hi, Katie.'

Katie seemed uncomfortable she fidgeted with the hem of a dark blue jumper that Allie was certain must have been tailored to fit her so annoyingly perfectly. 'Can I talk to you for a minute?'

Allie and Rachel exchanged an intrigued look. 'I'll hold your place.' Rachel nudged her.

Allie followed Katie to a quiet corner.

'You know what happened last term, with you saving everybody and everything?' Katie said.

Thinking of a thousand sarcastic responses, Allie nodded and kept her face blank.

'And we worked together and it was all good?'

Another nod, this one suspicious.

'Well, it was important, and I'm really glad we did it, but I don't think we should be friends, OK? I mean ... despite that stuff. It was great, and you weren't as big a moron as you usually are but I can't really hang out with you. I don't really like you, to be completely honest. Well, most of the time, anyway. So what I wanted to say was, please don't expect us to be best mates or anything.'

Speechless, Allie tried to decide how to respond. An unwelcome thought crossed her mind that it seemed wrong that someone could be so pretty and so ... awful.

A long uncomfortable silence passed. Then finally, shaking her head, Allie turned and walked away. 'Whatever.'

When she returned to her place in the queue, Rachel's eyebrows shot skyward, but Allie shook her head in disgust.

'Anyway,' Rachel said, 'where were we?'

'I think we were talking about what amazing workers we are,' Allie said, but then the absurdity of her conversation with Katie overwhelmed her and she burst into a sudden bout of uncontrollable giggles.

Rachel looked puzzled but soon was laughing along with her. 'I don't know why I'm laughing exactly but I have a pretty good idea.'

'She's just,' Allie gasped, crying with laughter, 'such a bitch.'

That sent them off again. They were still giggling as they walked up to the registration table a minute later, but Allie's smile faded when she saw Zelazny sitting rifle straight, flipping through papers on the table in front of her.

'Sheridan. Patel,' he barked, glowering at them. 'Keep it down. Patel, here's your course schedule and reading list.'

'Thanks, Mr Zelazny.' As she took the papers from him, Rachel's tone was just a little too polite to be believable.

'Sheridan,' he snapped before Rachel had finished thanking him. 'Your schedule.' Allie started to thank him but he fixed her with an icy glare. He continued, 'You have been assigned extra-curricular classes this term. You are expected at twenty-one hundred hours tonight. The location is on your sheet. Tardiness is not acceptable.'

Glancing at the paper, Allie saw the words 'Training Room One' scrawled across the top. A cold finger of fear brushed her spine. She wasn't taking PE, and she'd signed up for no extra activities. There was only one reason they would want her in a training room.

It's all starting, she thought. It's really going to happen.

Just after noon, Allie raced into the dining hall, stopping suddenly as a wall of noise hit her. The room was packed. The tables were all evenly spaced, filling it from one end to the other. Each surrounded by eight heavily carved chairs. The noise made by the mass of exuberant students was daunting.

Jo was waving at her enthusiastically from a table near the massive stone fireplace.

'Over here!'

Allie made her way across the room to the table where Jo sat ignoring the students around her, none of whom Allie recognised.

She patted the empty seat next to her. 'I saved you a place so you wouldn't starve. It's mad in here.'

Feeling a bit stunned, Allie swung her arm to take in the room.

'Where did they all come from?'

Jo laughed. 'I know! How different is this from summer term? The place is packed. The cheeky buggers even took our table.' She pointed at the spot in the middle of the room where they usually sat, now occupied by fresh-faced fourteen-year-olds eating in awkward silence. 'I didn't have the heart to move them.' Jo's smile was beatific. 'They're just babies. I'll get Lucas to break the news to them later. Gently.'

'You mean you'll have Lucas threaten them,' Allie said, sliding into her chair.

'Of course.'

Mindful of Rachel's belief that Jo was faking normality, Allie had been watching her closely for days, but she seemed completely herself bubbly, chatty, silly just as she always was.

Maybe Rachel's overreacting.

Jo dipped her spoon into a china bowl filled with soup of an oddly deep red colour. 'As long as they're out of there by tomorrow they get to live. How's it going with you anyway?'

'What is that? Tomato?' Allie was still trying to figure out Jo's soup.

'Yes, but I think it has beetroot in it.' Jo wrinkled her pert nose. 'It's the colour of carnage. And it tastes of dirt. Or maybe poison.'

Cimmeria's kitchen staff were usually good but sometimes their experiments didn't work out. Nonetheless, after taking half a sandwich off the tray in the middle of the table curiosity won out and Allie ladled some of the soup into a bowl. Dipping a spoon in it, she sniffed its contents suspiciously before taking a careful sip.

'I don't think it's poisoned,' she said.

'Oh good. Still,' Jo nibbled her sandwich, 'I'm not taking any chances. Hey, what's your course schedule like? Are you in my classes?' She held her hand out, palm up. 'Hand it over.'

Allie shoved the last quarter of the sandwich into her mouth and dug around her bag until she found the white slip of paper.

'Here,' she mumbled through her food.

'You're such a lady,' Jo said, then she squealed with excitement. 'We're in three classes together this term! History, biology and French. This is awesome.' She blinked at Allie over the top of the paper. 'I wonder if I could convince Isabelle to move us together for everything. I could promise to be good. For the first time ever.'

'You'd get sick of me,' Allie said. 'I snore.'

'That is so not a surprise.' Jo handed her schedule back.

'Hang on,' Allie said looking up from her soup, 'how can we have French together? I thought you were in advanced French?'

Jo leaned over to pick up her bag. 'I think you'll find that you, too, are in advanced French, ma petite chou.'

'No way.' Allie looked at Jo with suspicion.

'And in advanced history, biology and English.'

'No. Way.'

Jo rolled her eyes. 'Allie, haven't you looked at your own timetable?'

'Advanced my arse,' Allie muttered scanning the page, but Jo was right almost all her classes were advanced.

She grinned triumphantly for two years her marks had been sliding down a steep slope towards failure, but all her hard work over the summer term had paid off.

'Unfortunately, you're still in normal baby maths,' Jo said, with a smug smile. 'Which is lame.' She stood up. 'Well? Are you coming?'

'Maybe,' Allie said. 'Depends where you're going.'

Jo was already walking away so her reply floated back over her shoulder. 'Common room. To pee around my favourite sofa so the little ones don't try to steal it too.'

Grabbing another half-sandwich to eat on the way, Allie followed her out.

After the clamour of the dining room the hallway was a peaceful oasis. Everything was back in its place. Sunlight glimmered off the oak-panelled walls, and the old oil paintings had all been returned to the spots where they'd hung for centuries. Her rubber-soled shoes stuck a little to the recently varnished wood floor.

To Allie it all felt right again. Like the fire never happened. And Cimmeria was safe.

The common room, reached through a door virtually underneath the grand staircase, was filled with bookcases and deep leather sofas and chairs. A glossy, baby grand piano dominated one corner.

After making her way to the middle of the room, Jo plopped on to a sofa with a satisfied sigh. 'None of those pesky ankle biters are getting my spot.' She stretched languorously. 'I can't believe classes start tomorrow. We just never stopped working this summer.'

'Oh, stop complaining.'

They glanced up to see Rachel walk in, smiling, with a tall, slim boy whose light brown hair fell forward across his brow.

'Hey, Rach. Hi, Lucas,' Allie said.

'Did you fight your way through the crowds of newbies?' Jo asked, reaching out to take a magazine from the low coffee table.

'There were too many.' Lucas dropped into the chair across from them without ceremony. 'We retreated.'

'With honour.' Rachel sat on the ottoman beside him. 'They are legion.'

'It shouldn't be allowed,' Jo said, flipping through the magazine without really looking at it.

'Allie,' Lucas said, 'we saw Carter in the hallway outside. He was looking for you.'

Allie climbed to her feet with a yawn, and headed for the door.

On the way out, she passed a group of new students who stood in the common room doorway looking lost.

'No TVs,' one of them said. 'I might die.'

'No computers,' another replied in tones of quiet desperation. 'Seriously. What the hell will we do?'

Allie was nearly out of earshot when she heard the third one sigh. 'I hate my parents so much right now.'

SEVEN.

Carter stood leaning against the door to the great hall reading, one foot propped behind him. Lost in his book, he didn't notice Allie standing in front of him. His straight dark hair swung forward as he read. When he pushed it back absently with a characteristic gesture she loved, she sighed.

His head shot up and his dark eyes met hers.

'Hey,' she said.

His eyes traced the outlines of her face. 'Hey back.'

He had this way of studying her that made her almost nervous as if nothing could escape his gaze.

'What are you reading?' she asked, to get him to stop.

As he reached out his hand and pulled her closer, he held up the book and she saw the name on the spine. 'Vonnegut? Who's he?' She frowned. 'Are we assigned that this term?'

His crooked smile made her insides melt; when he shook his head his hair had this way of flopping ...

'No, I just like it. I'm reading everything he ever wrote. He was awesome.' Tucking the book under his arm, he reached back and turned the doorknob, leaning hard against the door at the same time so that they both tumbled laughing into the great hall.

As they regained their balance, she saw that most of the furniture that had been stored in the vast space had been cleared out. It was just a ballroom again, with tables and stacks of chairs scattered at the back, awaiting the next party.

'What are we doing here?'

He cast a sideways smile so sexy it made her shiver. 'I thought we could just, you know ... hang out for a while. And I know this room is always empty, so ...' As he spoke he set the book down and then walked backwards, pulling her gently across the room. She followed without resistance, her gaze locked on his. 'Last night turned into something completely unromantic,' he continued. 'And we can't have that.'

When they'd nearly reached the back wall he stopped, pulling her into his arms, one hand behind her back, the other holding her hand. Instinctively, she placed her free hand against his shoulder. Through the crisp cotton of his button-down shirt, she could feel his muscles move when he spun her in a circle.

'What ... Are we dancing?' She laughed up into his eyes.

'Can't you hear the music?'

She cocked her head to one side. 'No.'

Pulling her closer, he swirled her in a circle, making her giggle.

'I don't think you're really trying,' he whispered very quietly in her ear. His teeth brushed her earlobe her whole body tingled. 'Try harder.'

She tilted her head to one side to give him free access to her neck, as his lips travelled down as far as the collar of her prim cotton uniform blouse, and then up behind her ear to the downy hair at her temple, then back along the sharp edge of her jaw. It was a long, exquisite torture, and by the end, she was leaning into him; willing him not to stop.