Of Illnesses And Antidotes

Chapter Twenty-One

The pencil dances across the page, like a leaf tossed around by the wind. Ripples of silvery lines saturate the parchment, fabricating an image, a vision. A masterpiece. My eyes narrow and my brow furrows in concentration. Every etch, every detail, every single tiny mark imprinted by the pencil is meticulous added. There is no room for error. Any mistake could ruin this gem of a drawing. And I lost my eraser; that doesn't help, either.

"Ahem."

Startled by the sound, the pencil falls from my grasp and lands on the bed linen beside me. Breathing a sigh of relief, I glance up and smile as Jas and Lana emerge into my view. "Hey."

"Hey, Naomi."

"You okay?"

I nod my head. "Yeah, I'm alright. Is everything okay?"

They both nod concurrently. Then Renée climbs down from the top bunk and perches herself on the end of my mattress.

"Anything interesting happen today?" she asks. Her voice is fringed with interest.

"You know?"

"I know everything," Renée says frankly. "Everyone," She gestures the rest of the dormitory, "knows what happened."

I smile glumly. "Great. Another week of staring and whispering. Just what I wanted," I add wryly.

"It won't be that bad," Lana reassures me. "They'll forget about it in a day or two."

"We'll see about that," I grumble cynically.

Then I remember something.

"Oh, I've got something for you."

They instantly perk up. Eyebrows raise, eyes light up with curiosity and intrigue fills the air. Slipping my hand under the duvet, I covertly withdraw Val's notebook. I slide it across the bed towards them as they crowd around it, concealing it from any wandering eyes.

"It's Val's," Jas points out.

"Well done, genius," Renée mutters with a small smile. "What's in it?"

"I don't know. I didn't look."

"Where did you get it?" Lana questions.

"Carrie gave it to me," I explain quietly. "She was tidying Val's area and she found it hidden at the back of a cabinet."

"She didn't look inside it, did she?" Renée queries, her eyes narrowing slightly.

I shake my head firmly. "She assured me she didn't dare open it," I insist confidently. "I trust Carrie. I know she wouldn't look inside Val's notebook, especially after what happened..."

My words turn to dust and our thoughts become ice, freezing up and melting away. The only sounds that oust our silence are those made by the other girls, but even they're strangely subdued. It's as if they're beginning to realise that something is not right here as well.

I glance around. Everything seems to have slowed down: their movements, their reactions, the energy that hit you like a tidal wave the second you entered the dormitory. Something had changed.

"So are we gonna look inside it or what?" Renée cuts in keenly, drawing my attention back to the notebook. She stabs a finger into the centre of the cover. "I want to know exactly what she's been thinking. What she hasn't told us."

"But surely she'd tell us everything?" Jas says, frowning.

"I'm pretty sure she wouldn't," I dissent. "This is Val we're talking about. She is always going to know more about anything than any of us, and she is always going to use that knowledge to protect us from things we don't like." My eyes steal across and catch Renée's gaze. She looks away, her cheeks tinged pink. Looking down at the book, I open it onto the first page, then look up at the girls. "Ready?"