The weather cleared a few days after the storm.

When the clouds broke and the sun reappeared, the school became a quieter place. Students retreated outside for their study periods or received passes and headed down to the local village on the weekend. Katie and Jo had decided to join them the next weekend as they had some pocket money from their parents to spend. I stayed behind and worked on my project since I had no money of my own to spend. They had offered to buy something for me, but I refused.

It wasn't as though I didn't appreciate the offer, I did. I just didn't want to be reliant on others on trips to the village. If I went, I wanted to be able to spend my own money and not someone else's. Katie and Jo seemed to understand, although they appeared a little disappointed that I wasn't going with them. With any luck, I'd get some money for my birthday from Uncle Luke and be able to join them, but that was three months away.

Monday rolled around again, and I had written almost ten pages of notes, but none of them were all that helpful. My project had become a mesh of facts that served no purpose. There was no real direction in what I wanted to say, and my topic had twisted into a fact file on Ancient Rome rather than a focus on one specific event. I had far too much information for a ten-minute presentation.

After our English lesson on Monday, I stopped to talk to Mrs Clarington. I might have wanted to do the project myself, but I needed help on what to do with my notes.

"You need to zero in on a specific aspect of that period, one event that is interesting enough and has enough information to create an engagement project. There is plenty to choose from, but it is all about the in-depth research about one element."

"One event? Got it."

"It seems you have done the research; it is just about consolidating it down into a ten-minute presentation. You're a smart little thing, I'm sure you can manage it and any other problems come and see me." She looked at her watch. "Off you go or you'll be late for your next class."

"Thank you, Mrs Clarington."

She smiled at me and I pulled my bag further up my shoulder and headed down the stairs and out to the pool. I didn't know how I would narrow it down to one event, but at least I knew what I had to do to rectify the mess of facts I had accumulated over several weeks.

I walked across the grass to the pool so I could sign in with Mrs Leverton. Even though I would not be partaking in the swimming lessons, I still had to go down to the pool at the start of each lesson so I could be marked in. An unauthorised absence would lead to detention and I had yet to have one of those. I had no intention of starting now. Usually, I would only spend a few minutes in the building until Mrs Leverton showed up, marked me in and sent me on my way.

The other girls were just coming out of the changing room when I arrived. All had changed into their swimming costumes and were wearing swimming caps to protect their hair from the water. Victoria looked at me from in between Dorothy and Louise and smiled, sending a chill down my spine. There was something unnerving about the way she smiled and nothing good usually followed.

Mrs Leverton arrived a little while later and gestured the other girls into the pool. She told me to wait in the entranceway for a second, something she had never asked me to do before.

"I have been informed that you are to spend the lesson here with us. Whilst you cannot go into the pool, you may sit on the sidelines and complete your work," she said.

"But Mrs Maddox said it was okay for me to work in the Common Room. My work could get wet," I said.

"Someone just told me otherwise. I'm sorry, Felicity, but those are the instructions I have been given."

She turned and walked through the double doors, into the main pool area. I dumped my bag in the entranceway and followed her through the doors and to the edge of the pool. The memories from the failed initiation flashed through my mind but I shook them down and tried to ignore it. It had been almost two weeks since the incident but every time I stepped foot in the pool building, I was reminded of that night and I couldn't shake the feeling that something was brewing.

"Can I not go and talk to Mrs Maddox? She said the other week it was fine," I said.

"It seems she has changed her mind. I have to get on with my lesson. Please just take a seat on the bench and get on with some work. You can speak to Mrs Maddox after the lesson."

"Why can't I go now? I'm not doing anything by being here."

"Girls! Line up at the far edge of the pool, please!" Mrs Leverton ignored me completely.

The other girls walked past, and I took a small step forward to get out of their way as they headed up towards the top end of the pool for whatever their lesson would entire. I didn't know what happened in a swimming lesson, but it couldn't have been that interesting or eventful. All I knew was that I really didn't want to spend any longer in the room than I had to. I was too close to the pool and too close to Victoria.

Dorothy and Louise walked by me, the two of them exchanging looks as I tried to get Mrs Leverton's attention. She continued to ignore me in favour of telling the girls where they needed to line up, I wanted to know just where this new information had come from. Mrs Maddox had said nothing to me, and I had spoken to three days before, although that had been about my project rather than my sport lessons. If there had been a problem, she would have mentioned it.

I followed Mrs Leverton up the length of the pool, walking a little too close to the edge for comfort but the other girls were still making their way to the end of the pool. My plan had been to annoy her into allowing me to talk to Mrs Maddox. It had worked with Mum and Michael in the past so I was feeling a little more optimistic then I should have been. She continued to ignore me.

"Victoria, hurry up please," Mrs Leverton said, turning around.

Victoria was the last one to walk up the length of the pool. She approached me, the trace of a small smile on her lips. When she reached me, she suddenly veered to the right and bumped into me.

There hadn't been much force to the bump. It was an almost unnoticeable nudge that did nothing more than jolt my shoulder slightly. That nudge to my shoulder caused me to lose my balance, slipping on the surface of the tiles that were still wet from whoever last used the pool. There was little I could do to regain my balance and my body tipped sideways into the water.

My back hit the water first, my clothing weighing me down and forcing me deeper into the pool. Before my head sunk beneath the water, I took a breath. Water passed over me and I was in nothing but the murky darkness of the swimming pool, panic rising in my chest. I kicked my legs to try and propel myself upwards, to break the surface of the water, but I couldn't do it.

I just sunk further into the water.

The harder I kicked, the harder I tried to fight it, the further the water dragged me down. I grew weaker, my limbs becoming stiff and unable to fight the pull of the water. My chest ached from holding my breath and instinctively, I took a breath.

Water rushed in through my notes and mouth, choking me. My lungs constricted. My heart hammered against my chest; fear gripped me like a vice. I couldn't string a coherent thought together. My limbs grew tired.

I stopped fighting the pull of the water.

My lungs burned, my mind grew foggy, my eyes started to close.

Beside me, there was a splash. Water knocked into me. Someone grabbed my arm, their fingers wrapping around my upper arm and forcing me to the surface of the pool. I broke through the water and took a deep breath, my lungs burning.

The person who pulled me from the water dragged me to the side of the pool where a different pair of hands grabbed me and pulled me out of the water and onto the tiles. I coughed and spluttered. The water I swallowed burned my throat and splashed onto the tiles every time I coughed.

"That's a good girl, get it all up," Mrs Leverton said behind me. "Can someone get a couple of towels for me?"

Someone walked in front of me and a little while later I felt something soft being draped over my shoulders. The coughing stopped but my lungs and throat still burned, and my hands trembled from the cold and the shock of the experience. Water dripped down the side of my face, my hair soaking wet but still being held by the ribbon.

"Are you alright?" a soft voice said from beside me. I turned my head slightly and saw Katie kneeling beside me, a towel over her shoulders. She pushed her hair off her face, water dripping from the end of her curls.

I shook my head at her.

"You two need to go up to the infirmary. Josephine, you may accompany them. I shall talk to Mrs Maddox once the others are changed, they cannot be left here unsupervised."

Someone placed a light hand on my shoulder and helped me to a standing position. My legs shook slightly, my whole-body trembling to the point that taking a step reminded me of a baby animal learning to walk for the first time. I pulled the towel tighter around my shoulder to try and stop the trembling, but it was more from fear than cold. My heart hammered away in my chest, showing no sign of stopping.

Jo and Katie both placed a hand on my shoulder and steered me out of the room and into the entranceway. One of them grabbed my bag from against the wall and swung it up onto their shoulder before they led me outside and across the grounds. Strands of hair fell in front of my face like a wet curtain and even my socks were clinging to my feet. The trembling got worse when we stepped foot outside.

We walked across the grounds and stepped into the school, heading through the door that led to the sewing room. The infirmary sat at the very end of the corridor. Katie opened the door into a large room with several beds lined up against the walls. The beds were empty, but Miss Jones stood beside one, straightening the bedclothes with her back to us. Katie pushed the door open a little more and the hinges squealed, catching Miss Jones' attention.

"What happened to you two?" she asked upon seeing us.

"Flick?" Katie said.

"M-Mrs Leverton said I h-had to stay in the pool rather than the c-common room. Victoria bumped i-into me," I said, my throat scratchy and sore. My teeth chattered together, making it harder to talk.

"Josephine, can you go up to Felicity's room and grab something dry for her? Oh, and something for Katie?"

"Yes, Miss."

Jo released my arm and left through the door, disappearing back into the darkened corridor. Miss Jones crossed the short gap from the bed to the doorway and took Jo's spot at my side, walking me over to one of the beds and forcing me to sit down. She then walked towards a large cupboard and pulled out several towels, handing a new one to Katie and swaddling me in the rest. I buried my head into the towels and tried to hide the tears that threatened to fall. The last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of someone.

Katie perched on the edge of the bed beside me. She wiped the edge of her face with her towel. I wrapped my hands into the towel and used it to push small tendrils of hair off my face and behind my ear. Miss Jones turned away from us and towards a sink in the corner of the room. She started to run the taps on the sink and walked back to the cupboard where she grabbed two hot water bottles and took them over to the sink.

My hands still chook but I tucked them into the mass of towel to hide them. After almost two weeks, Victoria had succeeded in forcing me into the pool. I had hoped she had forgotten about it as it hadn't been mentioned since that Friday night, but Victoria had other ideas. If Mrs Leverton had just allowed me to go to the common room, it wouldn't have happened. Something told me that it hadn't been a coincidence.

I pushed the thought from my mind just as Jo returned with a bundle of clothes, including my pyjamas. She handed a spare dress to Katie and the pyjamas to me, before Miss Jones ushered me into a small bathroom to change. I peeled off my school dress and blazer, kicked off my shoes and pulled my pyjamas on. From the end of my hair, I pulled the blue ribbon out and stuffed it into the front pocket of my pyjama top before returning to the main room.

"In the bed. You're still freezing," Miss Jones said. She steered me towards a bed in the corner of the room and forced me under the blankets. She then handed me a hot water bottle and walked across the room to speak to Jo.

"Do you think Victoria did this on purpose?" Katie asked, she still held onto her dry school dress. She perched on the edge of the bed beside me.

"I don't know." I hugged the hot water bottle against my chest.

"Maybe it's time we spoke to Mrs Maddox, especially if this was deliberate. I gave her a look. "I'm not saying we have to, Flick, but this is serious. I understand that you promised your dad, but I doubt he will think telling Mrs Maddox the truth about Victoria will count against that."

She took my hand from the hot water bottle and held it tightly, her thumb gently moving across my knuckles. My heart beat a little faster in my chest. There was something comforting in her touch and I didn't want it to stop.

"Katie, you need to get changed. You'll catch your death if you stay in that," Miss Jones said from the other side of the room.

"Think about it Flick. There is no need to drag this out any longer than it has been." She let go of my hand.

"Maybe you're right."

"I know I am." Katie winked and stood up, disappearing into the bathroom I had been in only moments before.

Despite her previous threats, I never thought Victoria would actually go through with it. She seemed so keen on sticking to the rules but appeared to break them whenever it suited her. There was a smugness about her attitude, and I realised she would stop at nothing to get rid of me from the school. She scared me.

Katie was right. Mrs Maddox needed to know.

~~~

First Published - June 22nd, 2020