Fracture: A BBC Sherlock Fanfiction

Chapter 4

Lessons in Normality

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All day, I tried to find Sadie in the halls. I knew she was at school today, since her bag and coat were in the locker, but she was nowhere to be found. By lunch time, I was so frustrated with her skills of avoidance that I skipped eating all together and just went to the library. Books. Books were what I needed to calm me down.

Sitting in the grimy armchair in the far back corner, I cracked open the novel I’d taken from Sadie’s locker a few days ago. The Blind Banker, it was called. Apparently, it was some sort of sequel to A Study in Pink, but I wasn’t certain, as she’d once again scribbled out every name in the book, including the author’s on the front cover.

Nevertheless, it was a good book.

Bing.

I grumbled as I fished my phone out of my jacket pocket. I just wanted to be left alone – why couldn’t people see that? Stabbing the buttons with my index finger, I opened the text.

We need to talk. –SH

Sighing, I replied scathingly:

No shit, Sadie. –Liam

As was her way, the next text came almost immediately after I’d sent that last one.

Meet me in the biology lab in five minutes. –SH

Whatever. –Liam

Though I knew, of course, I’d show up anyways.

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“Alright, what d’you need?” I said pushing through the lab doors. “And make it fast. I don’t want to get detention again for being in here.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got the teacher occupied for the next forty-five minutes at least,” Sadie said, waving away my concerns. She was perched on the edge of one of the lab stations, and a lit Bunsen burner was flickering away next to her – she was roasting a marshmallow over it.

“Do I want to know what you did to the teacher?” I asked wearily, casting aside my backpack and pulling out a chair at a nearby desk.

She shrugged, a diabolical little grin crossing her face. “I put Gorilla Glue in her hair.”

“You’re actually evil.”

“I’m aware.” She sighed. “That’s why I need your help. I need you to teach me how to be…” Face contorted into a grimace, she trailed off.

“Yeah?” I prompted.

“Nice,” she finally managed to spit out.

There was a brief pause of deathly silence, during which my jaw hit the floor. Her marshmallow caught on fire, but she didn’t seem to have noticed. “Nice?”

“Nice,” Sadie affirmed.

“No.”

“Please?”

“It’s impossible. Sadie Hooper, you are not capable of being nice. You can’t even manage remotely friendly.” Shaking my head, I stood to leave.

“Don’t leave!” she said. “Liam, my mom said that if I can’t learn to be nice, then I’ll have to go to boarding school. I can’t possibly go there.” She shuddered, as if boarding school was the earthly equivalence of Hell.

“First of all, boarding school might be good for you. Second, you have to want to be nice yourself. You can’t just be nice because someone else wants you to be.”