Maddox Academy: Grievous Beginnings - Wattys 2022 Shortlister

Chapter Seven - Promises and Trust

We spent ten minutes rounding up the rest of the fifth years.

Katie took me from room to room until she had successfully gathered all the fifth years and instructed them to meet us in their dormitory. A few of them exchanged glances with one another, but none of them said anything. They all agreed to meet us in the dormitory within five minutes to discuss something, although Katie didn't tell them it was to do with Victoria.

The fifth-year dormitory was on the other side of the school to my own, but up a similar flight of twisting stairs and laid out the exact same way. Eight beds lined the walls with a large window that looked out onto the grounds at the far end of the room. Dressers marked the corners and each bed had its own table beside it covered in small trinkets like photographs or hairbrushes.

Unlike my dormitory, theirs was a mess. Drawers lay open with clothes dangling out of them and screwed up uniforms and towels had been dumped on top of their trunks. They didn't appear as bothered by the state of their room as Victoria did about ours. She made sure our beds were made, everything had been put away and that nothing stayed out of place for too long. I preferred the mess of the fifth-year dormitory over my own.

"What's all this about Katie? I was studying," Grace said. She threw herself down on one of the beds.

"You were trying to see how many pencils you could throw into a pot," one of the other girls said.

"Same thing."

"This is important," Katie said. "It seems that Victoria Havisham is trying to bring back the old initiation tasks."

"The girl who knows every rule in the rule book, breaking one of the rules? If that's not the definition of hypocrisy I don't know what is," Grace said.

"How do you know?" someone asked.

"She tried to get Flick to jump into the pool last night, knowing full well she can't swim."

I felt fifteen pairs of eyes turn to look at me and quickly directed my attention to the floor. Katie gave my hand a light squeeze, she had refused to let go of it since we left to collect the fifth years. All I wanted to do was forget the events of the previous night, to put them behind me and pretend they hadn't happened. Now, two separate year groups knew what Victoria had tried to do and that made it harder to ignore.

Katie was only trying to help, I knew that, and I would forever grateful that she was trying, but I didn't want to make it such a big deal. Somehow, having more people know about it only made the threat of Victoria that much larger. She had acted the previous night under the belief that I wouldn't tell anyone; no one would believe me either. If she were to find out that the entire fifth year knew, I would be in trouble.

"I knew she was a witch, but that is something else entirely."

"I'm with Betty. Evil takes many forms, but little Vicky is something else. Why haven't you told Mrs Maddox?" Grace directed the question that me.

"She won't believe me. The whole of the year was with her and they're hardly going to turn around and agree with me. No one else was there," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Then what do we do? If she thinks she got away with it, she'll try again. Vicky is nothing if not persistent."

"I'll talk to Mrs Leverton, see if I can convince her to lock the pool at night. It might not help, though. As you said, she's persistent."

"Give me a few days, I can write to Emily. She might have some idea on how to deal with her darling sister. You should tell Mrs Maddox, though. Even if she doesn't believe you, at least she'll know if Vicky tries again."