Charlotte Evershed walks through the corridors of Kingshill Boarding School towards the Headmaster, Mr Abney's office. She's wearing most of the school uniform, shirt untucked, skirt hitched too high up her legs, top button undone, tie loose and the red blazer tucked under her arm. Charlotte's also sporting a white hoodie over her shirt, knowing it'll rattle Mr Abney.
She walks up to the office, adjusts the strap of her bag and knocks on the door.
"Come in." Mr Abney shouts.
Charlotte sighs, opens the door and walks in.
"Evershed." Mr Abney says, angrily.
"Sir." Charlotte shoots back cheerily.
"Sit down." He says sternly.
Charlotte does so and drops her bag onto the floor. She looks down at the desk and sees a piece of paper lying there. Charlotte looks up at Mr Abney and he looks down at the paper then back up to Charlotte.
Charlotte rolls her eyes and takes the paper.
"I'm expelling you, Evershed, with immediate effect." Mr Abney says, "You knew your last stunt was the last straw."
Charlotte shrugs and smiles a little as she looks at the floor. Mr Abney clears his throat, looking at Charlotte's hoodie and sighs.
"I'm calling your father to pick you up." The Headmaster explains.
At this, Charlotte's gaze meets Mr Abney's.
"My father?" Charlotte scoffs, "Why? Haven't seen him for years."
The Headmaster sighs and leans forward, clasping his hands together on the desk.
"Charlotte, there's no easy way to say this but your mother passed away a few days ago."
Charlotte looks at the floor, fiddling with the necklace her mother gave her a few months ago for her 15th birthday.
"She, um, she what-?" Charlotte asks, sniffling.
"I'm so sorry, Charlotte," The Headmaster says, "I wish there was something I could've done."
Charlotte sniffs and wipes her eyes. "Yeah, there would've been something," She retaliates, "You could've told me the day it happened."
The Headmaster sighs and picks up the phone, dialling Ackley Bridge College reception.
Charlotte vaguely hears what's being said, her mind's in a different place, thinking of the last time she saw her mother, Louise, remembering how happy she looked.
"Yes, hi Lorraine," The Headmaster says, slightly muffled, "Yes, that's right, put him through. Thank you."
The Headmaster doesn't notice Charlotte putting her hand into her skirt pocket, untangling
her earphones and pressing play on some music. The music is slightly too loud and can be heard through Charlotte's earphones in the room so Charlotte doesn't hear the conversation.
She doesn't want to anyway.
The line crackles and Martin Evershed's voice can be heard on the other end of the phone.
"Hello," Mr Evershed says in a grave voice, "It's Mr Abney from Kingshill, isn't it?"
Mr Abney smiles. "Yes, yes, that's right. Do you have a spare moment?" Mr Abney continues, "It's about your daughter."
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Martin Evershed is sitting at his desk at Ackley Bridge College, his head in his hands. He'd just got off the phone with Kingshill School, the boarding school he'd sent his daughter to when she was 5.
The idea was a mutual decision between Martin and his first wife, Louise. He hadn't been in touch with either Louise or Charlotte when Charlotte had been sent to Kingshill.
Once again, he didn't tell them when he left them both for another woman, Gaynor.
Charlotte was 8 when he did that.
Now, Martin's in a seemingly happy relationship with Jules Perry, who he found out was the mother of Kayla and Marina, who are students at the school. He found out through a dating app he signed up to a few months ago.
Martin had got in touch with Jules on the sight, only to realise it was Marina tricking him on the dating app but all was forgiven by Jules and they're together now.
Martin sighs as he swivels round in his chair to face reception. He watches the receptionist, Lorraine Bird, faff around with a few things before smiling to himself and standing up to close the blind over the window separating the two offices.
As he walks back, he catches sight of two photos he has on the filing cabinet. One of him and Jules that was taken recently and an old picture behind it of Louise and Charlotte on holiday when Charlotte was 4. That photo had always been there, going unnoticed by everyone else.
Mr Evershed returns to his desk to pick up his suit jacket off the back of the chair, grabs his car keys from the desk and walks out the office, making his way out the front entrance towards his car.
It would be the first time back at Kingshill since dropping off little 5 year old Charlotte.
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Back at Kingshill, Charlotte's resting her leg on her knee, still listening to music. Mr Abney is reading over Charlotte's file, ready to give it to Mr Evershed as soon as he arrives.
Mr Abney understands that the encounter between the father and daughter will be awkward but Charlotte's recent behaviour has left him with no choice.
Charlotte snaps back into reality when she hears Mr Abney talking and takes out an earphone to see what's going on.
"...Countless fights, multiple truancies, caught smoking and drinking in class on several occasions, I mean the list goes on." Charlotte hears Mr Abney say and rolls her eyes.
It's at this moment Charlotte realises that someone is sitting beside her and she cocks her head to the left to take a look.
At first, she doesn't recognise the man but as her eyes adjust, Charlotte realises it's her father, Martin.
'Blimey, he's got a few more grey hairs.' Charlotte thinks to herself, smiling a little.
"Oh, you think this is funny, do you?" Martin asks angrily, he'd been watching his daughter.
Charlotte turns to face Martin and bites her lip, not figuring he'd be so angry.
"No." She mutters quietly.
Martin sighs and Charlotte returns her gaze to the floor, blocking out the rest of their conversation.
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"Goodbye, Evershed," Mr Abney says as Charlotte walks towards the door - Martin's already left, "and dare I say, good riddance."
Charlotte cracks a smile, fixes her bag on her shoulder and mockingly salutes Mr Abney, who glares at her and snaps his fingers, pointing towards the door.
"Get out!" He says, chuckling.
Charlotte smiles as she closes the office door and walks down the corridor towards the entrance.
She's on her phone scrolling through social media when someone pushes past her, clearly in a rush. Charlotte turns around to scold the person, thinking it was a Year 7, however instead it's Mr Bell, who, to the students, is arguably the hottest and strictest teacher in the school.
"Sorry, sir." Charlotte smiles, quickly slipping her phone into her skirt pocket.
Mr Bell smiles. "You leaving us or something, Charlotte?"
"Why, sir?" Charlotte replies, sarcastically, "You going to miss me?"
Mr Bell looks at Charlotte and twirls his finger round his ear, disarming the situation and points towards the door.
"It's been a pleasure, Charlotte." Mr Bell says sarcastically, before turning away and walking off down the corridor.
Charlotte rolls her eyes and smiles, knowing he's taking the piss. She runs her fingers along the walls, feeling the cracks of chipped paint as she had done over the many hundreds of times Charlotte had walked down that corridor.
She goes out the door, seeing her father waiting by the car holding his phone up to his ear and takes one last look at the £20,000 a term school that she once called home.
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The two Evershed's are in the car, on the way to Martin's house. Charlotte once again has her earphones in, trying to avoid her father's glare.
"Charlotte." Martin says, but Charlotte only faintly hears this.
"Lottie." Martin says louder. Charlotte hears him loud and clear this time but decides not to answer him because of what he'd called her.
'He doesn't deserve to call me that. After everything, not that.' Charlotte thinks to herself.
"Charlotte," Martin says again, his tone getting impatient but this time, Charlotte answers him.
"What?" Charlotte says, innocently.
"I can't believe you," Martin says, causing Charlotte to take an earphone out, "I paid £40,000 a year for you to go to that school and this is how you repay me?" Mr Evershed shouts.
Charlotte rolls her eyes at her father's attitude, not understanding why he's so angry, he'd never bothered to take an interest until now.
"Why did you?" Charlotte asks.
Martin doesn't reply, he doesn't know how to. He doesn't know what to say. Only now, seeing his daughter 10 years later, seeing how much she'd changed and realising how much he'd missed of her life, Charlotte growing up, becoming a teenager - he could see she was going to be a handful - made him understand how stupid he'd been all those years ago.
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"Ground rules." Martin says as the pair sit down at the kitchen table in the Evershed household, causing Charlotte to roll her eyes.
"One," he continues, smiling a little which goes unnoticed by Charlotte, "No rolling your eyes."
"Fuck's sake." Charlotte mutters, unfortunately not quiet enough for her father not to hear.
"Two," Martin says slightly louder, sighing, "No swearing."
Charlotte fights every urge she has not to roll her eyes, instead biting her tongue and keeping quiet.
"Anything else?" Charlotte asks, sighing heavily.
"Three, curfew," Martin says and Charlotte gently places her palm on the table, her inner emotions doing the complete opposite, "9pm school nights and I'm being serious with that - you're 15. On weekends 10pm."
Charlotte doesn't reply and looks at the floor in shock.
"Oh, and.." Martin adds, "No parties."
"These are so stupid.." Charlotte moans but before she can finish the sentence, her father says something else. "...And if you break any of these rules Charlotte, I swear to God I will.."
"What?" Charlotte cuts in, "You going to send me away again? How about a boarding school in America this time." She jokes but Martin's face falls. He knows Charlotte's joking but he begins to understand just how much damage he'd caused Charlotte by doing that.
"Charlotte, I.." Martin falters.
"I don't care," Charlotte replies angrily, once again interrupting her father, "I was joking."
The two Evershed's sit in silence for a few minutes after that, trying to calm themselves down.
It's dark outside now and Charlotte looks at the clock. Seeing it's nearly 9pm, Charlotte sighs and fiddles with her jewellery.
'There's no way in hell I'm sticking to any of these rules.' She thinks to herself and smiles as she looks around the kitchen.
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"Your room's just in here." Mr Evershed says to his daughter as he opens a door to a medium sized room, with a bunk bed. Charlotte sees the bunk bed and turns away to roll her eyes, realising her father obviously hadn't refurnished since Gaynor left him.
"Take your pick." Martin grins, noticing the look of disgust on his daughter's face. Charlotte sarcastically smiles before slamming the door in Martin's face, causing him to jump slightly before walking down the corridor towards his own room.
Charlotte sighs as she sits down on the bottom bunk and drops her bag on the floor. She opens it up and takes out her phone charger, plugging it into the wall. Charlotte takes off her uniform and hunts around the room for something to wear as pyjamas, eventually finding a pair of Martin's old shorts in the bottom of a drawer.
'This is disgusting,' Charlotte thinks to herself, 'but it's not like I'm wearing them out anywhere.'
Charlotte picks up the shorts and shoves them under the pillow of the bottom bunk. She goes over to her bag, taking out a dress and chucks her bag onto the top bunk.
She's going out to a party. Charlotte had promised her friends the other day she would come, apparently there will be loads of people there and Charlotte's always happy to meet new people. She takes off her school uniform and chucks it on the floor into a pile and slips on the dress. It's far too short for her but she smiles as she checks herself out in the mirror before she leaves.
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Downstairs, Martin's cracking open a bottle of beer, thinking of his daughter upstairs. It was strange for him to see her after all these years, he had no idea she'd behave like this.
He always knew in the back of his mind that if he ever did see either Charlotte or Louise again, they'd react badly but Charlotte was not what he had expected.
He takes a swig of beer, in memory of 5 year old Charlotte, wondering if he'd ever get his little girl back again.
Martin's brought out of his thoughts by a thud from upstairs. He sighs and thinks nothing of it, thinking Charlotte had dropped her phone onto the floor and was going to bed.
However, upstairs in Charlotte's bedroom, she'd just opened the window, which clearly hadn't been opened in a while and it creaked loudly. Charlotte winces, hoping Martin hadn't heard it and lifts the window up as high as it can go. She looks out at the street below, measuring the distance between the window and grass.
A gust of wind blows through and Charlotte shivers. She grabs her hoodie and puts it on, gets her phone, shoving it in her hoodie pocket and stuffs a pillow from the bottom bunk under the duvet of the top bunk to make it look like she's sleeping there. She switches on the faint reading lamp beside the bed. The last thing she does before she leaves is drop her bag down onto the floor beside the plug socket, forgetting how heavy her bag was.
It once again made a loud thud on the floor and this time Martin decides to go upstairs to see what's going on. Charlotte hears the scrape of a chair on the kitchen floor and shudders at the noise before quickly and quietly shutting her bedroom door and carefully going out the window and jumping out onto the grass. She cuts her knee slightly when she lands but carries on running down the street until she's out of sight of the house.
Martin comes up the stairs and walks along the landing to Charlotte's room. He knocks on the door, quickly opening it slightly after he hears no response.
He looks over at the bed and sees what looks like a figure under the covers, also noticing the small bedside lamp is on. Martin smiles at the sight, remembering 5 year old Charlotte and a tear falls down his face.
Martin takes one last look around the room, thinking nothing of the open window, thinking Charlotte just wants fresh air and rolls his eyes at the sight of a clothes pile. He smiles, happy that Charlotte had seemed to have lost the rebellious façade he had seen earlier.
But oh boy, was he wrong.
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<end of chapter a/n>
hope you all enjoy the new take on this book!!
let the drama unfold !
a review/comment would be massively appreciated - along with a vote!!
love you all,
E <3