Nightingale

Chapter 18

Fable spent the whole of Sunday indoors, reading books and listening to music. The weather was atrocious again and she felt like she needed some respite after all the drama of recent events. Sometimes magic was tiring. But before she knew it, Fable was back to school the next day, and was walking with her friends.

Christie was being grumpy that morning because Richie had cheated on her with some other girl, and Lucia was desperately trying to comfort her by giving her hugs, and advising her on how useless men are. Fable couldn't care less. It was to be expected. That's what happens when you date stupid teenage boys, she thought. She was interested in a true gentleman after all.

When they arrived at the school gates, Fable was shocked to see Mr Hudson was waiting there, and was signalling for her to come over. He was trying to be discreet. Immediately, her heart began to pound, and she wondered what it could be. She waited for her friends to go inside and then slowly walked towards him.

He was wearing a tan coloured, wool overcoat and smart black trousers. His auburn hair was neatly pushed back, but still a little wavy. Fable thought he looked lovely. She played with her braid coyly as she approached him, and smiled innocently. Mr Hudson smiled back but quickly beckoned her somewhere slightly more private. They headed towards the car park.

"Fable," he said, sounding serious, "Please don't tell your friends about Saturday night. I feel I can trust you. It would be embarrassing for both of us if you told everyone how we bumped into each other in a field because we were 'chasing the same bird'. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Yeah, no problem, Sir." said Fable with an affirmative nod of the head.

"I... it doesn't matter. Can we speak about this later, please?" asked Mr Hudson, realising lessons were due to commence in the space of three minutes.

Fable nodded her head again politely. She was a lot more shy without the help of the alcohol.

"Meet me after class, later." he asserted, before strolling off to start his lesson.

Fable went to rejoin her friends, as they had Physical Education first thing. She hated sports. Especially hockey. It was just an excuse for the jealous girls to smash at her ankles with their hockey sticks, and knock her down with their brutish shoulders. There was this one fat girl she really hated, and she also had it in for Fable. She didn't want to get in fat Jessie's way today, and so hid at the back of the changing rooms, where she giggled and gossiped with her two friends. Fable rolled the red sports socks up to her knees and then pulled on the matching school jersey. It almost looked fashionable. She tied her hair up in a high ponytail with a lace scrunchie, and borrowed some of Christie's lip-gloss. Fable would have normally joined her friends in adjusting their shorts to a mini-skirt level, but now she had a tattoo, that was a different matter. It was strictly against the school rules.

Thirty girls then trooped out of the changing rooms and down the corridor to the outside playing field. Fable and her friends were the last to leave as usual, and were trying to waste as much time as possible by taking their earrings out and trying to find a safe to store them in.

"Oh my god," whispered Lucia. "Did that teacher just check us out?"

Fable and Christie both turned their heads to see Mr Hudson, who was standing outside his classroom and was disciplining a student he had sent out for bad behaviour. Fable caught his eye for a split second, but he quickly averted his gaze.

"Ooh" said Christie, who was still bitter about Richie and was trying hard to compensate, "He is hot. I bet he was looking at my legs though."

"Yeah, right." said Fable, crossly.