Plan B

Chapter Five

After Brookie left on Saturday evening – nothing would have stopped him from making sure Bernard paid his end of the bet in drinks after losing at Mario Kart – Fran managed to closet herself away in her room until Sunday afternoon, when Rico and Arthur threatened to break the door down out of concern for her health if she didn’t get out for some fresh air, or at least socialise.  It was nice of them, but it still took Fran a while to stop feeling glum about it.  They weren’t even her age, and she was pretty sure they were only doing it  because of their positions of responsibility within the school.

“How d’you expect to integrate with your year group?” Arthur demanded in disbelief as they dragged her around the perimeter of the school grounds.  “You’re not even making the effort.”

“Give him some slack,” Rico groaned.  “Most of them are out on a paintballing trip.  Frankie arrived too late to sign on to that, and there’s nobody here for him to socialise with.”

“Joey’s here,” Arthur pointed out.  Rico threw the head boy a withering look over Fran’s hair.

“Were you dead to the world on Friday or something?”

“I heard Piers and Brookie had a big argument with some third years, but that was it.”

Fran suddenly perked up, curious.  Brookie had got involved in that?  Then again… she supposed Piers had asked him to because Brookie was her roommate.

I’ve already established he doesn’t like me.  And Joey told me Brookie thinks I’m weird.  Fran shrugged internally.  It didn’t do much to shake off the feeling of being pitied rather than actually liked.

“Joey’s been bullying Frankie,” Rico said flatly.

“Hey—” Fran butted in.  I wouldn’t classify it as bullying yet.

“Then Joey’s getting another lecture off me,” Arthur decided as they drew level with the security gates.  A group of girls was standing just outside, giggling.  One of them was holding a camera, poised to take a photo, but she lowered it with disappointment when she saw the three of them.

“Brookie’s fans,” Rico murmured in Fran’s ear.  “They make the poor guy paranoid.  They’re actually the reason we have proper security on the school now.  There’s even been talk of putting barbed wire fence up on the walls.”

“We should leave before they recognise us,” Arthur said uneasily.  “It won’t take them long to remember we’re Brookie’s friends.  Or to work out we’re boys who might have contact with him.”

He was a second too late.  The girl with the camera suddenly raised it again with a squeal and started taking rapid-fire photos.  Fran couldn’t resist jumping in front of one with something resembling a troll face, but then a security guard emerged from a cabin on the school grounds side of the iron gates.

“Excuse me, miss, but taking photos of the students isn’t allowed,” he said.

As they continued on, Fran heard the girl protesting that it wasn’t as if she was prying into the personal life of some celebrity like a media shark.

“Are we even allowed out of the school?” she asked with worry.  “The security guards don’t look that friendly.”

“Oh, sure,” Arthur answered.  “They’re lovely when you get to know them.  And you have a security pass with photo ID.  That’s for going in and out of the school.”  He hesitated.  “Although apparently we might not be allowed to go out alone now, because there’s been a lot of crime in town recently.  Safety precautions.”