Miss Mason had quickly sent her off to her first lesson, which was French with a blonde, heavily made up woman called Miss Haydock. The class was only small, which Evie had dreaded, as it meant she would be expected to forge relationships with the others and the teacher. Miss Haydock looked less than pleased to have an addition to the tiny class of four, who quickly made themselves known as Philip Ryan, Ros McCain, Danielle Harker and Aleesha Dillon.
'Well, Genevieve, you're going to have to work hard if you think you can start a new specification of A Level French midway through a term. What did you get at GCSE?' Miss Haydock said, after Evie had taken a seat.
'Oh... well, I, er, got an A*, Miss,' she said reluctantly, desperate to keep the attention away from herself. Ros had lifted her eyes at this, and looked a little put out.
'Right. Well that doesn't mean you'll find it easy to catch up you know. A Level is a different ball park.' she said snappily, flinging a textbook, which Evie only just caught.
Evie spent the rest of the lesson conjugating verbs, whilst Miss Haydock flicked through a magazine with her feet resting on her desk. She made small talk with the others, knowing it would look odd if she didn't. Aleesha and Danielle seemed friendly enough, Philip was rather over-friendly, and Ros barely lifted her head to look at her, sniffing every time she spoke. When the hour was over, she was utterly desperate to get to the toilet and have another swig of vodka. Aleesha's sharp eyes had picked up the slight tremble in her hands, and asked if she was okay.
Danielle had joined in.
'You do look a bit pale. Maybe you're coming down with something!'
Evie had tried to laugh it off, seem unconcerned. 'Oh,' she'd smiled. 'I suppose I'm more nervous about my first day then I'd realized!'
They'd smiled and made comments about how she seemed to be fitting in already.
'Oh, apart from an A* in French! That's not normal here. Apart from brain-box Ros over there!' Aleesha had laughed.
'Let me see your timetable,' Danielle had said, snatching it out of Evie's hands. 'Oh good, you've got Campbell for PSHE next, with us. Come on!'
The girls made their way down the corridor, Aleesha and Danielle filling Evie in on who was cool, who was not and who needed avoiding- and the same, with their teachers.
'Haydock's a pussy cat. She was only funny with you today because she wanted to pretend she had authority. She really is a crap teacher. She's helped us out of a few tight scrapes before though, and she's always cool with deadlines.' Aleesha had asserted, linking Evie's arm.
'Yeah. You've got Miss Koreshi for English- she's well nice,' said Danielle, peering at Evie's timetable. 'Oh and Clarkson for form! He's cool. Hey! You should join the footie team! Girls only, Clarkson and Koreshi do training!' she exclaimed.
Evie made a non-committal noise and followed the girls down the corridor. When they reached the door of Miss Campbell's classroom, she stopped. 'Oh hang on. I actually need the loo. I won't be a second. Could you tell Miss for me please?' she said, dashing away without waiting for a response. She made her way through the maze of corridors, before finding a door with a toilet sign on, rushing in, shakily unscrewing the lid of her vodka bottle and taking thirsty, quick gulps. She sat on the loo trying to get herself together, taking longer and longer swigs of the bottle.
She tilted it again, but this time only a few drops trickled on to her tongue. The bottle was completely empty.
She felt the cubicle spinning. She put hand on each side and leaned forwards, steadying herself, realizing that she'd had too much.
'Shit,' she muttered. 'Shit, Evie.'
Slowly standing, she staggered slightly to the sink, splashed her face, and even tried cupping her hands under the tap and drinking the cool water. When she felt steadier, she made her way to the door, pulling it open and heading down the corridor she thought she'd come up, desperately trying not to stagger. She turned a corner without looking, completely colliding with Miss Mason, who caught her as she stumbled.
'Hey- hey!' the teacher said, holding her by the shoulders. 'Evie? Evie are you alright?'
Evie tried to focus her eyes on her headmistress.
'Your eyes are glazed, sweetie. I think we should get you to my office. Come on.' Rachel said worriedly, placing an arm around the girl.
Evie tried to stop her. 'No. S'salright.'
Rachel caught the smell of her breath as she slurred the words. 'Have you been drinking?' she asked incredulously, looking more closely at Evie.
Evie's eyes filled up with tears. She tried to move away, and Rachel caught her by the wrist.
'Oh no you don't. Come on. My office. Now.' Rachel said, attempting to steer her through the doors.
Evie, suddenly and with no warning, doubled over. Unfortunately, she had chosen that moment to empty her stomach of the poison she'd filled it with. All over her new headmistress' shoes.
