The Magpie Society One for Sorrow

by Amy McCulloch

  ‘Hmm,’ I say, the wind stealing the words from my mouth. ‘First Araminta, now Teddy …’

  ‘It’s not that I suspect him or anything,’ Ivy adds. ‘Like I said, he barely knew Lola. I just find it weird that I didn’t know where he was …’ Suddenly she stops and turns to face the ocean. ‘Oh God. I hadn’t realized we’d walked this far.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I ask.

  ‘This is where …’ She trails off.

  I look down at the chalky ground beneath my white sneakers. Even from here, well back from the edge, in the full light of day, it barely looks knitted together by the patches of grass. I wouldn’t dare walk any closer to the edge than this. The cliff looks like it’s perpetually about to crumble into the water, the jagged edge a testament to the places it’s done just that.

  But my body seems paradoxically drawn to the edge, as if wondering what it might be like to take a leap and jump. I don’t, of course. In fact, I lean back, away from the edge. That’s why my heart almost stops when Ivy takes a dangerous step forward.

  ‘Ivy!’ I shout.

  ‘We used to take selfies here. Dare each other to get closer. There are a couple of false edges too, so you could look as if you were in danger, but really there was a little ledge beneath you. Like trick photography.’ She balances on one leg and puts a foot out over the edge, so that her shoe is hovering over nothing but thin air and water.

  I reach forward and grab her sleeve, pulling her back. ‘Don’t joke around like that. It’s not funny,’ I say.

  But Ivy’s not laughing. A tear rolls down her cheek, which she hastily brushes away. Still, she grips my arm, and we stumble further away from the edge, then slump down on to the grass.

  ‘I try not to let it affect me, but it’s really hard,’ she whispers.

  ‘I know,’ I say.

  ‘But the more I think about it … if something really did happen to her, and it wasn’t an accident, I’d want justice.’

  ‘Oh, Ivy. I’d feel the same.’

  We sit for a few moments in silence. Ivy tears up tufts of grass and tosses them into the wind, watching the blades get swept away into the sea.

  ‘Did you know you can see Illumen Hall from the next bend?’ she says.

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah, come on. I’ll show you.’

  We walk a bit further, huddling into each other against the wind. ‘Look. There,’ she says.

  I shield my eyes from the sun. The school looks so little from here, and you can only see a small corner of it – most of its little peninsula is hidden by cliffs. You could scan the horizon and not realize it was there at all.

  ‘I think Lord Brathebone built it there on purpose. He chose that spot because it’s so secluded. I think that’s why I like it so much – it makes me feel safe.’

  I try and look at the school through Ivy’s eyes – as a warm, safe sanctuary, as opposed to the medieval stronghold it appears to me. It’s not easy.

  Once we get closer, the path becomes more clearly trodden, and there are more trees and wildflower bushes around us. My phone vibrates in my pocket – I’ve got a signal for the first time since we reached the clifftop. It’s from Patrick.

  Any leads on her room or the

  diary? Please let me know. I’d

  really like it if we could meet

  again.

  ‘Teddy?’ Ivy asks me.

  I shake my head. ‘No …’ I hesitate. I haven’t told anyone about my encounter with the enigmatic Patrick Radcliffe. But maybe it’s time to open up a bit. ‘It’s another guy.’

  Ivy raises an eyebrow. ‘Go on …’

  ‘OK … so you know when I went into Winferne Bay’

  ‘And got caught and locked in our room?’

  I wrinkle my nose. ‘Yeah, that time. My God, do you remember everything?’

  ‘I collect those shiny nuggets like a magpie.’

  ‘I bet you do,’ I mutter. ‘OK, well, when I was in the coffee shop in town, I bumped into this guy. This really hot guy. He said his name was Patrick Radcliffe.’

  Ivy’s jaw drops. ‘What, like … Lola’s brother, Patrick?’

  ‘That’s the one.’

  ‘What did he say to you?’

  ‘He seemed normal at first, but then he got really worked up – I mean, he’s obviously still grieving – and basically asked if I’d help him investigate. He kept talking about that podcast.’

  ‘Holy shit.’

  ‘Right? I mean, I said no, of course. But then I saw him again at school after we found out about Clover and I found myself wishing I could help. That was the night Teddy texted us both.’

  ‘Oh.’ Ivy’s mouth is round with surprise, and it stays like that for a second as she connects the dots. ‘I’d actually been thinking about going to the library to research the Magpie Society. Because of something Clover said to me.’

  We pass through the school gates, and the meandering path towards the school feels like it lasts a lifetime. I haven’t walked this far in a long time; every muscle is aching. Still, I don’t really want it to end. Having this time with Ivy has been … exactly what I’ve been missing since coming here.

  A real friend.

  I don’t want the spell to break.

  ‘I’ve got to do my piano practice, but see you at dinner?’ Ivy says, already walking away.

  ‘See you,’ I say. Because of course she doesn’t feel the same way. She already has her friends – and her music, her studies and her running. She doesn’t need me.

  28

  Audrey

  Here are those old chemistry IB tests you asked for, milady. Anything else I can help with?

  I stare at the email a few times, then nudge Ivy, who’s sitting next to me. ‘Man, having a guy like Teddy at your beck and call is pretty sweet.’

  ‘You two still won’t tell me what you did to our poor, sweet Theodore to have him running all over school on errands for you,’ says Harriet.

  ‘Afraid that’s between me and Audrey,’ Ivy says with a wink to me. It feels strange to have our own little secret. Good strange. Harriet looks a bit more put out though, and she exaggerates her pout.

  ‘He’s like our own grown-up fledgling – except far more useful,’ Ivy continues.

  ‘I still don’t get this whole fledgling thing. Clover is yours, right?’ I ask her.

  ‘Fledglings are often students who’ll eventually become prefects. It’s a mentorship thing. Although I think Clover’s blown her chances of that now …’

  ‘A bit like how you were supposed to be next in line for head girl by being the only prefect in our year?’

  ‘What do you mean “supposed to be”?’ Ivy shoots me a dark look.

  ‘Well …’ I glance over at the table where Araminta, Katie and Xander are sitting, giving me and Ivy the cold shoulder. Bonnie’s there too. She might not be a prefect, but she sure is getting a lot more mentoring than Ivy right now.

  ‘Bonnie will never get the spot,’ Ivy says brusquely, flicking over the page of her textbook.

  ‘Hey, you’d know better than me.’ I’m slowly learning the intricacies of the school, but I’ll always be an outsider. At least now I have a friend who’s really on the inside. Things have been so much better between me and Ivy since the boatyard incident last week. We literally caught Teddy at his most ridiculous, and he’s been treating us both like queens ever since.

  It’s pretty easy to ignore the flutter of butterflies I get every time I see a message or email from him. Most of the time.

  ‘Incoming,’ Ivy mutters. At first, I don’t get it. But then I see Araminta approaching our table and I sit up a little straighter.

  ‘Hi, all.’

  ‘Minty,’ I say, smiling with all my teeth.

  ‘Just wanted to remind you about our Samhain party on the last Saturday of half-term. It’s going to be a big one.’

  ‘Oh great,’ I say. ‘I’ll be there.’

  ‘You’ll need to dress in appropriate colours
– but I’m sure Ivy can help fill you in. You still good to help with the decorations, Ivy?’

  ‘Of course,’ she says, without looking up from her textbook.

  ‘Great. I mean, you’ll be here all half-term anyway as usual? So I’ll expect you to have made a head start.’

  Ivy’s shoulders tighten. ‘Your expectation is my command.’

  ‘And Harriet, are you still OK to put together a playlist?’

  ‘As long as we have a better sound system than last year. It was so tinny, it completely threw off my jams.’ Harriet mimes scratching at a disc on a turntable.

  Araminta rolls her eyes. ‘Well, if you want to check it out before half-term, you’d better come with me now.’

  ‘Do I have to?’ Harriet says with a sigh. But she gets up from the table anyway. ‘Catch you later.’ She waves to Ivy and me, before sauntering off with Araminta.

  It takes a good few moments after Araminta leaves before Ivy’s shoulders finally relax. I lean across. ‘So you’re gonna be staying at school over half-term?’

  ‘Yeah. I always do. It’s hectic enough for my mum at home with my sister, without me piling in there too. Plus, they feed me here so Mum doesn’t have to worry about that, and I like my alone time so …’ Ivy bites the end of her pen and shrugs.

  ‘Oh.’ I shift uncomfortably. I’ve never had to think about whether or not my family could feed me. Hell, I thought nothing of ordering takeout if I didn’t like whatever our chef, Reyna, was cooking. I don’t think my mom ever set foot in the kitchen – except to grab her favourite smoothie out of the fridge.

  I wince.

  ‘What is it?’ she asks.

  ‘Well. It looks like I’m gonna be staying here over half-term too.’

  Ivy arches an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah. My mom booked this trip for Dad and my brother to some yoga retreat in Ibiza or something.’

  ‘And you don’t want to join them? Sounds like heaven to me.’

  ‘Uh, a week listening to my mom recite mantras and force-feeding me kombucha? Sounds like hell to me. Honestly, she goes through these cycles all the time where she decides she needs a “detox” and then she drags the whole family into it. At least this year I have a legitimate excuse to stay somewhere else for a while. They won’t let me stay by myself in their brand-new house.’

  My eyes search Ivy’s face for a reaction, but she isn’t giving much away. She taps at her temple with the end of her pen, then – thankfully – she smiles. ‘That’s OK – there’s plenty of places to hide away in this school when no one’s here. I’m sure we won’t get in each other’s way.’

  I let out a long breath. ‘Cool.’

  We pause for a moment. But the moment doesn’t last very long. There’s a huge commotion and Clover rushes in. Her glasses are askew, her school tie unravelling around her neck.

  Ivy immediately sits up in her chair. ‘Clover?’

  ‘Who did it?’ Clover’s voice is several octaves higher than normal, and her fists are balled up at her sides.

  Ivy is the first one to rush over to her, but Clover takes several steps back so that she can radiate her rage throughout the entire common room.

  ‘One of you did it! One of you’s trying to stop me! Well, let me tell you, you won’t. You won’t stop me at all!’

  Ivy manages to grab her arm and pull her in. Once she’s enclosed in Ivy’s arms, Clover bursts into tears. Ivy manages to steer her over to our table and sits her down. Clover’s sobs slowly begin to subside, but the girl looks absolutely distraught. I exchange a confused look with Ivy. What could have caused this?

  ‘They … they messed up everything in my bedroom. Like ripped up all my research notes, burned my SD cards, broke my microphone, everything.’

  ‘What? You’re kidding!’ I exclaim.

  ‘That is messed up,’ says Ivy as she strokes Clover’s hand.

  ‘I don’t know what they thought they’d find. Did they really think I was stupid enough to leave any evidence in my room? Like, honestly. When things started hotting up around here, I shipped all that stuff back home asap. I’m going there anyway for half-term and that’s where I’ll record my next podcast. And, trust me, that next one?’ Clover’s eyes flash. ‘If people think I’ve lit a fire now, things are really going to go up in flames next week. But, Ivy … I have to show you something else.’

  ‘What could be worse than that?’

  Clover doesn’t answer. Instead, she gratefully takes the tissue that Ivy has dug out of her schoolbag and wipes her face. Then she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a crumpled piece of paper.

  On it are the words:

  STOP LOOKING OR YOU’LL BE NEXT

  29

  Audrey

  Now that it’s half-term, the halls echo as I wander around the school. I never realized how much of a buzz several hundred students could make until most of them have left. I have to pull my cardigan even tighter around my body, warding off a distinct chill. I don’t think the school enjoys it when the students aren’t there. It seems to be holding its breath. Suspended.

  I’ve started to feel I can recognize its moods. Illumen Hall is no longer a stranger to me, and I finally know my way around. It was a tad depressing listening to other people discuss their exciting plans for the break, but I’d much rather stay here and get to know the school than be on some holiday with a family I really dislike.

  My phone pings. My real phone – which I get to have for the whole week, free from the prying eyes of that witch Mrs Parsons. It feels redundant now, cracked screen and all.

  Be there asap.

  On my way

  Thank God for Ivy. Another phrase I couldn’t have envisaged thinking at the start of the semester! But, since the Clover reveal and our walk along the cliffs, the energy between me and Ivy has definitely shifted. Everything that was tense is now so much looser, as if the elastic band has snapped, but no one got hurt. The way she handled the Teddy situation was hilarious, but somehow she’s even managed to preserve their friendship.

  Teddy’s cute, but I don’t wanna get involved with a guy like that. He seems to be a little too comfortable with having girls over to his boat. I’m starting to think even Ivy was way too good for him – and he probably knows it.

  For the first time in my five weeks at the school, I feel at home and I’m able to enjoy my surroundings. Like the library. I’d never really appreciated it before, but it looks as if it’s been plucked from a Victorian novel. There’s an air of abandonment about it, but at the same time this feeling that, if you knew the special password, you could discover a million mysteries buried within. There are ladders that give access to some of the higher shelves, which are forbidden to everyone except sixth-formers (like us) or the librarian and teachers.

  When Ivy arrives, she looks flushed from her afternoon jog. She’d tried to convince me to join her, but I swiftly declined. I might be in school, but it’s still my vacation.

  ‘So, where should we start?’ I ask.

  When Clover showed us the threatening note, I’d never seen Ivy look so angry. As soon as Clover was safely off school grounds and back home, Ivy told me she wanted to do some investigating of her own. And I agreed. Despite all my intentions, I was invested now.

  ‘Let’s go to the Upper Wing,’ she says.

  I frown. ‘The what?’

  ‘Think of it a bit like the rare books bit in the British Library … or maybe the restricted section in Hogwarts.’ She grins.

  I fake a look of alarm. ‘Nothing’s gonna bite me or set me on fire, is it?’

  ‘Shouldn’t do. This is just for books they don’t want the younger students to get their sticky fingers on. Some of these editions should probably be locked up in a museum or something. Or at least they might go for a few quid on eBay. Sometimes, not gonna lie, I’ve been tempted when times have been tough.’

  I laugh, but stop when I see the expression on Ivy’s face. ‘Wait, seriously?’

  ‘I could
get a hundred quid for some of the first editions in here!’ Then she shrugs. ‘I am joking. But only because I love this place so much. And Mum would go bonkers if she found out.’

  ‘Is it just your mom and sister at home?’

  ‘Yeah.’ She lowers her head so that her hair falls across her face. I’m about to say that she doesn’t have to tell me anything if she doesn’t want to, but she continues. ‘Dad left us when I was three years old, and we lived in a tiny bedsit until I was nine. He came back into the picture sometimes, but was never a permanent feature.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I mumble. I’m not sure what a bedsit is, but I can guess.

  ‘My mum worked three jobs to keep a roof over our heads, make sure we could eat and fund all my activities – until I got to Illumen Hall, of course. I barely saw her. I learned how to use the rice cooker when I was five.’

  ‘What about your grandparents?’

  She shakes her head. ‘I never knew my mum’s parents. They moved here from China when my mum was small, but unfortunately they died before I was born. My dad’s side kept their distance too. Then my sister Violet came along a few years after me – and it got even worse. Honestly, it sounds stupid, but I feel like school saved me.’

  She looks up, her expression distant. ‘Even at primary school, I realized, once I walked through those doors, that despite my hand-me-down clothes and charity-shop books, I could be whoever I wanted … and what I wanted was to be the best. I put all I had into being good at everything. Maths. English. Sports. Science. And Mum poured the little money she had into helping me.

  ‘That’s how I landed a full scholarship here. Full term and board – not only easing the pressure on my mum, but giving me the leg-up that I needed. Honestly, I want to earn enough money to buy Mum a proper house one day. She deserves to live comfortably. If I work hard enough, I can be as good as the other leaders and politicians and medics that have graduated from Illumen.’