Mount Asteria

Chapter Twenty Seven

Knightsbridge College was a half hour drive away from Mount Asteria. The girls left school in a coach with the school crest emblazoned on the side and were brought out of the mountains to the coast. As Alexandra dismounted, a cold sea wind hit her face sharply, making her eyes water. She pulled her coat on quickly and looked around her. In front loomed a tall grey mansion, a description that also fit Mount Asteria, but this building quite different. It was just as large and as impressive, but instead of being a large and stately house, it was a castle. Complete with turrets, battlements and gothic look.

Alexandra turned around, taking in the grounds. She could see a rugby and a football pitch and... was that a polo field? To her left the ground cut off. She walked towards the edge slowly and found herself looking down at fierce foaming waves crashing over jagged rocks several metres below. The sea was wild. There was a tiny sandy beach a little way up and a path leading down to it. She smiled as she realised it had been over a month since she had been by the sea.

"Admiring the view?" The voice was muted, the wind blowing the sound away. She glanced behind her and saw Damien Dempsey approaching her from the castle. He grinned at her and pointed out at the grey-blue of the sea and sky, saying, "Over here is Redding Lighthouse and to your right if you squint you can see wind turbines in the distance. Can you see them?"

Alexandra looked out at the clouded and foggy mix of the ocean and the sky. She could scarcely tell where one began and the other ended. She frowned at Damien. He laughed and she realised it was a joke.

"It's lovely on a fine day if you're here," he said. "Unfortunately we live in Ireland so better not get your hopes up."

"True," she replied, following him back to the entrance of the school. To her surprise, she saw the area was empty now. "Oh, where did everyone go?"

"Into the theatre hall. I was sent to get you... Are you looking forward to this?" he asked her with a sly smile as they entered the building.

She blushed and nodded. "I suppose. Are you?" She barely had time to register the interior of the entrance hall before Damien guided her into a room directly off the hall.

"Algernon's a funny guy."

"I suppose I should say it suits you then," she said, a little relieved to see the other girls in here, milling around with the Knightsbridge boys.

Damien placed a hand on his heart. "You flatter me, Lexa."

Lexa? Had Damien just given her a new nickname?

"Don't get used to it," she replied, trying to keep casual.

"You're right. Cecily doesn't flatter Algernon, so we'd better not get into the habit."

"But Algernon flatters Cecily."

Damien let out a low whistle. "Alright, I see how it is. You want me to fawn over you?"

Alexandra laughed. "You wish."

"Oh, I do," he sighed.

She bit her lip and tried not to snort.

"Hey, Damien," Thea said, winding her way over.

"Well if it isn't dear Gwendolyn! Have you abandoned poor Ernest?"

Alexandra looked around to see the boy who had sat next to Bláth at dinner left alone at the other side of the room, perusing the script.

Thea shrugged. "I think he can manage alone. So how's Algie?"

Certain Damien and Thea could amuse each other, Alexandra wandered off to sit by herself and look through her script. She was sitting far enough away from Louis not to have to engage in conversation, but he approached her anyway.

"Hi, Alexandra."

At this point, she was well accustomed to everyone knowing her name - as well as a lot of other information about her - so she took it in her stride that he was being so familiar and replied, "Hi, Louis... Starting to learn your lines already?" She pointed down at the script in his hand.

"Kind of more like looking at just how many lines I have to learn."

"Yeah... I hadn't really thought about that. Better get started soon. And all that on top of schoolwork."

"You major in communications, right?"

"I want to, but this year I'm halving it with science."

"Nice."

"And you?"

"Mainly science for me. Mechanical engineering, specifically."

"Ooh... Very interesting."

Louis raised his eyebrows.

"Okay. Not really. I'd rather die a slow and painful death," she admitted. "But if you enjoy it..."

He laughed.

Ms Lyng appeared at the door and a hush fell over the room.

"Good luck," Louis whispered to her as he was called out for rehearsal.

***

Author's Note

Apologies for the 'bittiness' of this one. I still have a few gaps here and there in my draft of the story (they get bigger and more frequent the further on I go), but I always forget about them or don't want to write them until the last minute, and I do want to keep up with updates, so here it is. The story isn't quite going how I expected it too - but that's normal for me, so no panic. Hopefully it's still reasonably interesting?!:)