St. Mallory's Forever!

45 HELEN: Close encounters of the third kind.

Xuan is missing!

Okay, unaccounted for. Same difference. The big question is, should we be panicking or just carrying on as usual?

Here's the thing. Sundays are quiet at St. Mall's. No formal lessons, and many of the kids here get the chance to go out with their parents. Abby, for example.

But seeing as Xuan's parents are back in China for some government shindig, that's hardly likely. Rather, that's all the more reason Xuan should have put in an appearance by now, and why my alarm bells, if not quite clanging, are certainly vibrating merrily.

I've been on the hunt for Xuan all day — seriously. I didn't see her at breakfast, and when she didn't turn up for the Chapel service, which is used by pretty much all the girls as a social focal point for Sunday mornings, regardless of any religious affiliation, I began to get worried.

After Chapel I checked the music block (locked) and the library. Words cannot describe the shudders I got going back in there again, even in daylight.

Abby came back late afternoon. I'd texted her to let her know Xuan was missing and Abby texted back to say what time she'd be arriving. Not thinking straight, I went down to meet Abby to let her know about Xuan — and was accosted by Mrs. Roe, Abby's mum. Oops!

"So, this is Helen is it?" Mrs. Roe — who, to me, was the spitting image of a younger version of my old headmistress: dark hair perfectly permed, wearing a bright green suit and skirt, gold cross on a chain around her neck and tottering from foot to foot on a pair of heels so high you could have impaled someone on them — inspected me like a scientist peering down a microscope. "The music girl you were telling me about?"

Abby nodded, shooting an agonised and apologetic look at me.

The music girl? I swallowed hard, wondering if Abby had told her mum about me back when we first met and were at each other's throats, or since we'd been friends. It didn't seem polite to ask.

"I'm Mrs. Roe." Abby's mum held out her hand to me, her face stuck somewhere between a smile and a grimace. Clearly my slouchy jeans and baggy hoodie (it's Sunday, remember – we get to slouch on Sunday afternoons) weren't her idea of proper attire for meeting a friend's mother. "Abby's told me so much about you. So sorry we couldn't be at the concert last night."

"You didn't miss much," I mumbled, breathing a sigh of relief. Mention of the concert turned my mind straight to thoughts of Mum playing the Nils piece. And Tim.

"Where's that other new friend of yours, Abby?" Mrs. Roe looked about, squinting short-sightedly. "That little Chinese girl you told us about. Zoo-Ann is it?"

Abby cringed with embarrassment. "Mum, it's spelled Zoo-Ann, sort of, with an X instead of a Z, but it's pronounced 'shin'."

Mrs. Roe waved a dismissive hand, evidently unconcerned by such trifles. "I'd so love to meet her before I go."

"Upstairs!" I blurted, sensing an opportunity for escape. "She... she's upstairs. I asked her to wait for me while I came down to meet Abby. We were planning a study session for this afternoon. Test next week, and... and all that."

"A study session?" Mrs. Roe's pencilled eyebrows shot upwards so fast I almost thought they should have left smudges on her face. "Really?" She cast a suspicious glance at her daughter. "On a Sunday afternoon, darling?"

"Middle Fifth now, Mum," Abby said with a painfully serious expression in hurriedly, gripping my arm and propelling me towards the doors. "Time to knuckle down and study. Exams looming. Uni' to think about. I wouldn't want to let you and Dad down after what you've sacrificed to keep me here."

Mrs. Roe beamed with pride. "Your father will be so pleased when I tell him! Is it really time to start thinking about universities already? My goodness, Abby, you have grown up so fast! Well, there are only two real possibilities, of course. But do you prefer Oxford or Cambridge?"

Abby pushed me ahead, whispering, "Give me time to freshen up and put some reducing powder on my nose. It's just grown an inch." She ran back to her mother, planted a kiss on the cheek and hastily withdrew. "See you in a couple of weeks!"

Mrs. Roe began gabbling something very fast — a long list of demands for letters, pictures and "all the goss", from the snatches I managed to pick up before I ran back to Xuan's cubie, hoping I'd find her sat there innocently brushing her hair or watching a video.

I didn't, of course, and I still had ten minutes or so before I could go knocking on Abby's door, so I decided to run across to the music block once more. Maybe Mum would be there now and she might have seen Xuan.

But I didn't see Mum or Xuan. Instead I saw... Well, give me a chance to get my breath back.