Immaculate

Group texting

Sang's POV

I was glad of my coat now. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and although it would never, ever be like Illinois, it was still too nippy for just sweaters.

The rooms in the school had very little heating, the trailers were worse and I felt sorry for the teachers who had to stay in them all day. Mrs Johnson had a heater plugged in which was aimed at her desk, but it made such a noise that unless you were listening carefully, it was also impossible to hear what she was saying half the time.

Mr Morris had a heater as well, but at least his was noise free and World History could be heard. As the week wore on it got colder and coats were kept on in the trailers.

Decorations started to appear around the school and it was pretty random. I think most of them were put up by the students who were fed up with the starkness of the halls. There was a very sad Christmas tree that stood in the corner of the canteen, it had started life with an angel on top, but that disappeared the first day along with most of the baubles. The attempts actually made the whole place seem even worse, more sad somehow. But it didn't affect the mood of the students. Mike had taken to wearing a piece of mistletoe on a band on his head and he kept trying to kiss all the girls under it. So far he had kept his distance from me and I was fairly sure that was because Silas glared at him if he even so much as stepped towards our bench. To be honest, Mike was not an idiot, and I don't think he'd even think about it, let alone try it with seven guys around me.

On the first day of December Gabriel had produced Advent calendars for everyone. I had put mine in my bedroom, the picture behind all the number boxes was of a cute teddy bear holding some flowers. I opened a new window each morning and savoured the chocolate behind it. Until I had come back one day from school with Kota and found that days 5 to 25 had been ripped open and the chocolate had gone. I knew it was Marie and while Kota had been furious and wanted to confront her, I had persuaded him to just leave it because she would just deny it and I didn't have the energy to fight it. Gabriel had produced a second one identical to the first one and it stayed at Nathan's now. I was counting off the days to when Marie turned eighteen and could leave for Tanners Court.

That was also something that played on my mind a lot. I had no idea how it was all going to work out. Marie would know the house had sold, and I had a feeling that once she knew there was somewhere else she could go, she was not going to want to stay here till she was eighteen. I had mentioned it to Mr Blackbourne once and he had told me to leave it up to him and I would, but it didn't stop me from worrying about it.

---ghg---

I was alone when she confronted me. She had seen removers come and empty the garage and then close it down again. Kota was home with his mom and sister, Nathan was out with Gabriel somewhere. I knew that all I had to do was call Kota and he'd come down, but I knew that I had to handle this alone, having them with me would only make it worse.

"What do you mean we're not leaving here?" she spat out when I told her that yes, we were moving the furniture out but that we were staying here. She was on the computer, claiming to be doing homework, it didn't look like it but I didn't call her on it.

"The house has been bought by someone I know, we can stay here and still go to Ashley Waters easily."

"I can get to Ashley Waters from Tanner's Court, it's not that far. I'm getting a lift from a friend of Danielle's each day, he lives close to there."

"Who?" I asked and she sneered at him.

"I'm not telling you," she said and folded her arms. "I'm not staying here with you a minute longer than I have to."