Lyneham Academy

~Chapter 9~

After lunch was over, Evie walked with Mae to the stables to help her get ready for her try-out. Mae almost had a heart attack as they walked around a corner and saw a mud-covered Bear standing in his stable, innocently eating his food.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! EVIE, what do I do?" Mae was having a meltdown as she started trying to loosen the dried mud from her horse.

"Let's take him to the washing area, I'll help and hopefully he'll be ready by 2.30." Mae grabbed Bear's headcollar and led him outside to wash him. Evie coated Bear with water as Mae went around giving him a good shampoo and condition; Evie hoped this would work. Once Evie had washed Bear off, the two could see a difference. There was still mud hanging from his belly and tail but otherwise, he was pretty clean. Mae started grooming Bear while Evie picked out his feet.

"Shoot. I'd better be tacking up. It's 2.25, could you help me please?"

"Sure matey." Evie walked with Mae and Bear back to his stable before grabbing his bridle – Mae grabbed the saddle. Quickly, they tacked Bear up and Mae mounted, "good luck Mae. I really hope this goes okay for you."

"Thank you, Evie," Mae mounted Bear and walked into the arena where Mr Chapman was waiting so Evie walked to her chemistry lesson.

"Ah, Miss Cooke. Decided to grace us with your presence at last, have you? Sit next to Mr Hunton-Cowles, he can help you catch up on what you've missed." Evie spotted Abraxas near the back of the class and sat down next to him, in Alfredo's empty seat.

"Where's Alfredo?" She turned and questioned Abraxas, Evie realised she had not seen him since this morning when he took her to breakfast.

"Currently indisposed."

"You haven't hurt him, have you? I thought you guys were friends. Jesus Abraxas." Evie was shocked at the boy's reply.

"I haven't hurt him per se, just caused him to need to stay in bed for the rest of the day. God knows how his try-out will go." Abraxas answered, "we'd better crack on with this work Evie, Francis will be giving you extra work anyway, you don't want more." Evie agreed and started listening to Abraxas tell her about the benzene and its chemical properties.

The bell soon rang, and everyone got out of their seats, rushing to the door. Evie almost left but Mr Francis called her back.

"Miss Cooke, if you are late to another lesson of mine there will be harsher consequences. However, since you are new to the school, I will let you off lightly. I would like you to write me a 2000-word essay on the uses of benzene and how to synthesise benzene products. I'm sure if you need help Mr Hunton-Cowles will be happy to help you." Evie apologised to the teacher and walked out of the door into chaos. Students had formed a circle around someone lying on the floor as they got beaten up. No-one was rushing to help.

"Stop it! Stop it! Can't you see he's hurt?" Evie shouted as she pushed through the crowd and into the middle. Finally, she could see who was in the middle, although she did not recognise the faces, "come on mate. What has he ever done to you?" The tall boy who had been beating the other boy up stared at Evie as the crowd dissipated.

"What's it to you princess?" The boy asked as he walked closer to Evie who held her ground.

"I just want to know what he's done to you. I hope it's something real bad for you to have beaten him to a pulp." Evie stared at the boy, her eyes challenging him.

"Alright, alright. Jesus woman," the boy held his bloodied hands up in mock surrender, "he's a disgusting little fag alright. He shouldn't belong in this world."

"Jordan." A low, authoritative voice boomed. Evie saw the boy tense up, "what are you doing to Hayes?" Evie turned around and saw Abraxas walking towards them, "come on. Just stop. If you walk away now, I won't find you later." The boy – Jordan – turned tail and ran for his life through the main school doors. The one Abraxas called Hayes was lying still on the floor covered in his own blood. Abraxas walked towards Hayes and knelt on the floor, shaking his body, "Hayes. Hayes. Come on."

"I can go and get the nurse if you want whilst you stay here." Evie piped up.

"That'd be great thanks, Evie." Abraxas turned back to Hayes, whispering to him in another language which sounded Russian to Evie. Evie ran off, easily finding the nurse as the infirmary was just down the hall.

"There's a boy in the hall, Hayes, he got beaten up pretty bad. Could you come and help him please?" Evie asked the nurse behind the desk.

"Show me." The nurse followed Evie to Hayes, who gasped as she saw the state he was in, "Mr Hunton-Cowles please move out of the way so I can help him." Abraxas moved aside, allowing the woman to see all of Hayes' injuries.

"You can go now Evie, thanks for getting the nurse but I think we'll be alright from here." Abraxas shot Evie a small smile as he turned back to Hayes. Evie ran back to the dormitories, crashing into Alfredo on the way. Evie was mortified.

"Heya Evie, have you seen Abraxas anywhere? He's not in his dorm or at the barn." Alfredo asked as he picked himself off the ground, dusting his school uniform.

"He's in the main hallway. Someone called Hayes was being beaten up and he saved him."

"Shit, thanks, Evie." Alfredo sprinted off in the direction Evie had just come from. Evie went into McCormick and found Mae and Brooke lying on one of the sofas, watching some other boys from the year playing FIFA. Evie joined them, grabbing a few biscuits on the way.

"Where've you been Evie? I and Mae thought you'd been kidnapped from how long you took to get here." Brooke asked, looking straight at Evie which she found a bit unnerving.

"Some kid called Jordan was beating someone called Hayes up, so I stopped him."

"Woah, you go girl! Jordan's a hard one to stop once he starts." Mae high-fived Evie. The group fell into a comfortable silence as they watched the boys play FIFA and more students joined them. Abraxas and Alfredo arrived back at McCormick just as Maisy was getting everyone to go to bed. Evie noticed they were both covered in blood as they conversed with one another, walking towards her.

"Hey, how is he?" Evie stopped Abraxas in his tracks.

"Better. He's gonna have to stay in the infirmary for a while though, Jordan broke two ribs and gave him a broken arm."

"Who even is he?" At this, Abraxas gave her a thunderous glare and walked away. Weirded out, Evie turned to Alfredo for an answer.

"Just some random 15-year-old kid who Abraxas felt sorry for, he's always helping little kids out when Jordan's around."

"Thanks. I guess Jordan is a bit of a loose cannon then."

"You can say that again. He enjoys beating people up, says he feels alive," Alfredo looked at the clock on the wall, "we'd better go up as well."