The Good-For-Nothing Society | Completed

Chapter Four

"This is the foyer." Grace says, we're only a little further into the entrance than where we saw Elijah. I roll my eyes, because obviously this is a foyer. Grace doesn't miss the eye-roll. "I know it's a school for geniuses or whatever, but I'm only doing this once and it's easy to get lost here."

She takes us bang into the middle, still carrying two of my bags for me. "This house is mostly for the sixth formers, except that massive hall there; that's the Entrance Hall. That's where we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's also where we have any social events and where our Counterintelligence and Covert Mission lessons begin."

Grace begins walking up the stairs, not waiting for me. I don't follow. I'm stood with my mouth hanging open, watching her walk off.

"I'm sorry," I shout up to her, jabbing a finger towards the Entrance Hall. "That's where the what begins?"

She doesn't answer; "The sixth former dorms are on the right-hand-side of these stairs. Boys are first floor, girls are the second. The left-hand-side is where we have our lessons. That mansion, out there-" she points through a large window, "- that's where the rest of the student body live. Trust me, it's good you've joined in sixth form, those dorms were archaic and freezing. The bathroom over there? Yikes."

I jog up the stairs to her, "yeah, that's all dandy. But can we circle back to the bit where you said Counterintelligence and Covert Missions?"

Grace gives me a funny look, "it's a school for spies, Amelia. Everyone knows that."

"Er, no." I say. "They definitely do not."

"Okay, well not technically for spies per se. Like, once you finish school you can go and do whatever you want. But most people end up in the Mi5, Mi6, Civil Servant, high-stakes-security jobs, all that stuff. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's just, it's not a very funny joke." I tell her.

Grace laughs, her eyes going wide, then her smile falls. "Oh my god. You really are Harry Potter, except instead of finding out you're a wizard, you're just finding out you've been made to go to a spy school. Does this make me your Hagrid?"

"There is no such thing as a spy school!"

"Oh, hunny." Grace says, giving me a pitying look. "There is, cos you're in one."

I know I'm new, I know that hazing is a part of some schools, but really? Pretending this is a spy school? It's not even a realistic haze. It's just absurd.

I shrug, "okay, sure. Just get on with the tour so this little joke can be over."

Grace goes to argue with me but then thinks better of it and says, "if you want. Let's take you to our dorm."

We head up the grand marble stairs, and then take a right, before heading up a smaller, narrower set of marble stairs and then take another right. Grace enters a pin into a tiny blue keypad, swings open an oak door and leads us down a long corridor.

"These are the girls dorms." She says, "There's fifteen rooms for us, the boys have twenty, cos there's more boys than girls here. Typically, there are four to a dorm, but sometimes you get lucky and there's only two of you in a four bed, which gives you more space. Not us though, we'll be sharing with Lucy and Tessa. Tessa is American."

Grace hisses the word American, letting me know this is Not A Good Thing. Then she opens a door with golden numerical '14' stamped on, and leads us inside a large room. It has little alcoves, big windows and high ceilings. There's four wooden beds, four desks and four shoulder height wardrobes. On the wall furthest a way from us, sits a massive window, shelves for books and a window seat with cushions, there's red velvet curtains draped over it. It's actually pretty nice.