Grace

Chapter 65

Cold showers were on order for all of us that evening and I went as far as to hand wash my costume top even though it was only going to get all sweaty tomorrow. I was so very happy to then go straight to bed and sleep, but found Clara sat on my bed. She was in pyjamas as short as mine and had pulled her now very long hair into a plait leaving thick strands around her face. Before the attack she'd never liked having her hair like that. It was either all up, or all down. I didn't say anything thinking that she'd get annoyed.

"Hey," I smiled. Then I frowned. "Aren't those my pj's?"

"I... I haven't actually been in my room yet," she admitted, twisting her fingers around. "See there's – there's photos in there. Of my family."

I sat next to her. "Want me to take them out?"

She shook her head.

"Want me to come with you?"

She nodded at her hands which she was still twisting.

"Ok, just..." I covered her hands with mine. "Please stop doing that. You're not Super Hero Stretch Armstrong."

She smiled a little. "I don't do it here as much as at your house. It's not that I don't like it there. I do. It's beautiful and your parents are really great. So's your aunt. But it's..." She shrugged.

"Different?"

"Yeah. I guess that's the right word. Can we go?"

I nodded and got off the bed.

Her room was all the way down the hall by the bathrooms. The last time I'd been in there it had been when we'd put dust cloths on everything. No one had come to get her things – her clothes, her school books, her trinkets. The food had been shared out between me and Chi, though I hadn't actually eaten any of it. I'd always been in the frame of mind that it was her food and whilst she wasn't here, she wasn't dead so I had no right to eat it. Mostly it was sweets and Pringles.

"I don't have a key," she said when we got to the door.

I held up my key ring. "Dame Clarke asked me what I wanted to do with it after you were adopted by Mum and Dad. It's been some interesting places."

She rolled her eyes. "Where exactly did you lose it?"

"Errr... you sure you want to know?"

She made a face of disgust. "You can do the honours."

I laughed a little and turned the key in the lock. Then I stepped back from the door.

Clara stepped forwards and sucked a breath in. Her hand shook a little as she reached for the knob, but she grasped it firmly, decisively pushed it open and stepped in. She gasped a little.

"It's exactly the same," she murmured.

The dust cloths were gone and the bed had been made.

"Chi and I wouldn't let them move anything." My voice cracked a little. "Then Master Clarke called Ben up to talk some sense into us and Tarq and Simeon came up as well. Didn't actually help matters."

I wasn't sure that she was even listening to me. She was slowly walking through her room, running her fingertips along every surface and was softly smiling at some memory. Maybe lots of memories. She sat on her bed. On the side table there was a glass photo frame that had a few photos stuck to it as well as having one inside it. Once we'd all calmed down over everyone wanting to ship Clara's things away I'd sat on the bed for ages looking at all the photos. They were all of her family and friends from her old school.