Five

156 10 0
                                    

Unsurprisingly, after the police had taken statement from all the students, and Leon and I had shown them to the crime scene, Mr Monmouth called all our parents to ask them to come get us to take us home. Elyan chose that moment to finally come talk to me.
"You scared me half to death, Gwen. Please don't ever do that to me again," he told me as he gave me a hug.
"Sorry, Elyan," I mumbled into his shoulder.
"But you saved Arthur's life, so I'm gunna let you off today," he said in a light tone, kissing my head. "Well done, sis."
"Thanks."
"Come on, go pack. Father'll be here soon. Oh! and tell Morgana she can have a lift with us to the hospital."
"Yeah, sure thing," I smiled, walking over to Morgana and I's tent. "You okay?"
"I'll be fine," she mumbled quietly, stuffing her sleeping bag in her stuff sack. "Thank you for saving Arthur."
"No worries," I replied. I'm gunna get that a lot in the next few weeks, I can tell.
"Sucks to be in the Pendragon family recently, doesn't it?" She snorted, giving me a faint grin.
"You guys haven't had the best of luck lately, I'll grant you that. Father says you can get a lift with us if you want. We can drop you at the hospital," I told her as I got started on my packing.
"Oh, that's alright, Gwen, Leon already offered me one," Morgana replied as she wiggles out the tent with a handful of her stuff, "thanks though!"
"No problem," I called back, starting my own packing. When I picked up my Sherlock Holmes book, I had to stifle a laugh; seems like all my reads of this came in useful, I solved the crime and caught the perpetrator. Of course, if the reads of a book count for anything, I'll be setting up a revolution on my barricade soon! I do know the words to the musical off by heart, AND Merlin and I frequently break into song at any random moment for the hell of it! We make a pretty good Valjean and Javert, if I do say so myself.
Father arrived just after I got my stuff out the tent, and we quickly dismantled the tent for Morgana to take home. She promised that she would let me know how Arthur was doing, and assured me that I could visit without letting them know. I nodded my thanks as I hugged and bade her goodbye, knowing that I wouldn't visit; the Pendragon's hadn't had much time recently together as a family, Uther holed himself up with work, Arthur was either out playing rugby with the lads or running on his own and Morgana usually stayed in her room reading. They needed time together more than I needed to be with Arthur.
"Guinevere, Mr Monmouth said on the phone about breaking the rules," Father started once Morgana had left. "Would you care to explain what that is about?"
"I ran off to find Arthur when he wasn't present at dinner," I replied, mid yawn. It was near 9:30 now, once all the parents had been rang and started arriving, and I was pretty exhausted from the day. "I could sense something was wrong."
"So you saved Arthur from his attacker?"
"Not quite, but I saved him from bleeding to death."
"You did? Well done, Guinevere," Father smiled at me, looking as though he could burst with pride.
"Seriously, Dad, you don't need to look so chuffed," I pointed out, "I found him and brought him back to camp with Leon. It's not like I knocked the knife out of Mordred's hand and tackled him to the ground to restrain him!"
"Mordred did this?" Father looked shocked. I nodded my head as I climbed into the car, waving goodbye to Merlin. "You know, I never did like the kid, he was always a strange boy."
"People deal with things different ways," I shrugged.
"Why are you defending him?" Elyan questioned, looking at me in surprise from the front seat.
"He was really nice when we were all younger. Everyone loved him in junior school," I replied, getting myself comfortable in my seat, "something obviously happened during the transition to Camelot High and he has been a nasty bugger since."
Eylan started to argue back, but Father stopped him. They soon started up a conversation about the Rugby match that we'd missed while being away, but I zoned out completely, catching some well needed 40 winks. I was really tired after all the Police business, having run out of adrenaline once Arthur was taken away in the ambulance. Father woke me up when we arrived home and within five minutes I was asleep on my own bed.

*/*/*

The school was a hive of rumours and whisperings when we all got back after the trip, which is not a great surprise. As we hadn't completed our whole week away, and the teachers who would be teaching us were not expecting us back early, Mr Pendragon gave us the remainder of the week off, partly as a treat and also to recover from the shock of what happened. So when the Year 10's returned the following Monday morning, we got bombarded with questions about Arthur, about Mordred, about what had happened, all the usual questions you'd expect from excitable high school students. Leon and I got the brunt of the questions, and so will Morgana, but she hasn't come back to school yet and for her sake I hope it all dies down when she does. The poor girl has gone through hell in the past few months and was in a fragile state of mind as it was. Leon would protect her, bless him, he really has it bad for that girl, but wouldn't own up to it for fear of hurting her or getting hurt; we have frequently told him to grow a pair and tell her, but understand why he is refraining.
It was now Wednesday, and the hype still hasn't died down, despite an assembly by Mr Pendragon's deputy, explaining it all to the whole school to stop the questions. You know how high school kids are, we are the biggest bunch of gossipers on the planet. I was getting attacked in the corridors on the way to lessons, at break times, if I was running an errand and someone happened upon me, the same was happening for Leon, and also Lancelot and Percival as they caught Mordred but not as bad as Leon and I. It was getting so bad that I was nearly always late for lesson.
"Sorry, I'm late, Mr Monmouth," I gasped out.
"Sit down, Guinevere," he said sternly, not looking in my direction. "Please try and be on time in the future."
I rolled my eyes as I took my place next to Gwaine, "I'll try, but the mob won't let me," I muttered to him as I dug my stuff out my bag. Gwaine stifled a laugh at my comment, getting himself into trouble for not paying attention.
I was positively exhausted by the time I got home. Three days of constant hounding really took its toll on you. I collapsed onto my bed when I got in from school, lazily kicking my shoes off and deciding to get changed into something vastly more comfortable than my blazer and skirt that I had to wear for school. Five minutes later, I was in a vest and sweats with my hair in a messy haphazard ponytail, feeling much more comfortable but ten times less attractive. With a book in hand, and my dressing gown on, I trudged to our kitchen/dining room/living room to lay on the sofa with the TV playing in the background for Elyan as I carried on reading Sherlock Holmes. As I was feeling so comfortable on the sofa, the combination of that and my exhaustion meant that within half an hour I was asleep.

Camelot HighWhere stories live. Discover now