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Chapter fourteen - The dread of 'endeavours'

Kathleen stood in corridor and completed her usual pre-Nolan ritual; she smoothed her skirt, ran her fingers through her hair and re-tied the ruby red ribbon which was keeping it up. Once she was satisfied that she wouldn't receive a lecture about looking presentable, she knocked.

"Enter."

She opened the door and stepped into the lavish room. Her grandfather was stood by the window gazing out at the grounds which were covered in a kaleidoscope of deep red, orange and light brown leaves.

"Good morning" Kathleen greeted tearing her gaze away from the outdoors and moving to stand beside her usual seat.

"Ah, Kathleen. You received my message" he turned away from the breath-taking view of the lake in favour of taking a seat at his desk, he waved his hand towards the empty chair for her to sit also. She obliged. "I wanted to speak to you about the arrangements for dinner at the Noel household. To my understanding, one of your friends from school is their niece. I assume it is girl you told me about a few weeks ago?"

"Yes, Nancy Turner."

"I am very happy to hear that you have kept in touch, you won't be here forever after all. Now, I called you here because they have extended an invitation not just to you, but rather graciously to a guest of your own choosing. Is there anybody that you have in mind?"

Kathleen pulled at the loose thread on the sleeve of her sweater, "I was thinking of bringing Knox Overstreet."

"Mr Overstreet?" Nolan repeated, analysing his granddaughter.

"Yes, if that's okay" she replied.

"He will do perfectly" the old man said, "only, I had the impression that you had grown rather fond of Mr Anderson."

"Oh," Kathleen felt her cheeks flush "Todd is a very good friend. He reminds me of Neville a little bit" she explained, thinking about her youngest brother. Neville had always been the quiet one in the family. Content to sit indoors with his books and board games, disinterested by the war games or pirate games played by the village children. Much like Todd, he found it difficult to read aloud in class or perform plays, yet had no trouble speaking animatedly with the people he loved.

"Ah" Mr Nolan nodded, "that clears things up considerably. I'm glad to hear it."

"You are?" Kathleen's brows shot up.

"Speak properly Kathleen, it is 'are you?' and remember to control your tone" he reprimanded, "and yes. I am. Mr Overstreet and yourself are to meet Dr Hager at the foot of the main staircase at precisely 5:35pm on Sunday evening. You will both be dressed appropriately and will use the manners that I know you both been brought up with. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Grandfather."

"Very well. I wish you luck in your endeavours with Mr Overstreet, a very suitable choice. You are dismissed."

Kathleen rose from her seat obediently and was half-way out of the office when the weight of his words hit her. She spun around, forgetting her manners for a second time this morning.

"What do you mean by my endeavours?"

Mr Nolan looked up from his papers "Kathleen. Once again, I must remind you to check your tone" he frowned, "you have been dismissed. I have important work to do and a highly-regarded school to manage. We will resume this after you get back on Sunday." He promptly went back to his papers, ignoring his gaping granddaughter completely. Kathleen forced herself to take the remaining steps out of his office and closed the door quietly. Standing in the empty corridor, she took a deep breath and tried to regain her composure and dispel the irritation which was quickly beginning to overwhelm her. She glanced at her watch. It was 10:30am, so there was still half an hour of her free period left. She went back to her dorm room to swap her chemistry work for her copy of 'The Great Gatsby', before making her way down to the common room.

xxxx

The common room was a jungle - that much was clear the second that Kathleen opened the door and almost got smacked in the face by a football - which did nothing to improve her mood. Upon entering she had to navigate through the mess of abandoned textbooks, randomly placed chairs and teenage boys in an attempt to find both a free seat and her boys. The only people in the noisy chaos who she currently did not feel like killing for the mere crime of existing. It was the second time that she almost tripped over a random object that she gave up, and sat on the windowsill. She pushed herself into the corner where she was half-bathed in sunlight and opened her book.

"He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about...like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees."

"What are you reading" a voice broke through her bubble, bringing Kathleen back to the present. The wave of noise which she had blocked out hit her and she blinked, trying to adjust to the real world again. She lazily lifted the cover and showed the curious interrupter.

"Isn't that the depressing one, narrated by a loner obsessed with horrible people?" asked Fraser.

"I guess you could interpret it that way" Kathleen responded carefully. It had been weeks since Fraser had spoken to her, and only the second time that he had conversed with her like she was a fellow human being.

"You like it?"

"I like Gatsby. Jordan Baker isn't to bad and neither is Nick Carraway, the loner narrater."

"We read that in English a couple of years ago" Fraser sat beside her with his back against the window, "and if I remeber correctly, Gatsby was the fake obsessed with the rich girl who didn't like him."

"Daisy liked him, loved him actually but she didn't love him enough" Kathleen shrugged "Gatsby may be flawed character but he's my favourite. His biggest fault was his love for Daisy, who didn't really deserve it. And getting caught up in a dream. Anyway, he represents success and the American dream, aren't you Americans supposed to love that?"

"We sure are" he laughed, "but not all of us do. Aren't you Scots supposed to love haggis and swearing?"

She pulled a face, "haggis is disgusting."

"Glad we agree on something" Fraser smirked, letting the pair fall into silence.

Kathleen felt his eyes on her as she began to read once again, she got through another two pages before she couldn't take it anymore. "Not to sound rude" she began "but why are you here?"

"You're alone" he replied, but backtracked once he caught the expression on her face, "that sounded creepy, I didn't mean it like that. I meant that you are usually surrounded by your guard dogs. There's no chance of anyone else talking to you then. Plus, you're letting me."

"Those 'guard dogs' are called friends. They look out for me which is only necessary when gross comments are made" she turned another page, "and I'm letting you because you haven't made any comments of that kind yet. You usually open with one."

He went quiet again. Kathleen had just begun to relax when he broke the silence yet again.

"Nolan called my Father about a dinner" he said, staring resolutely ahead.

Kathleen closed her book.

"My Father is on the school board and apparently, Nolan wants to discuss some business with him" he continued.

"Let me guess, he suggested that it would be nice for us to join them."

Fraser nodded.

"There is no way out of this, otherwise you wouldn't be making sure that I don't hate you enough to mention anything unpleasent to Nolan and your Father" sighed Kathleen.

"Yeah, sorry about that" he said standing up, "looks like your lot are back. See ya around, sweetheart."

"Don't call me that!" she called after him as she caught sight of the gang pushing their way through the crowded room.

"Sorry, Kat!" Neil called "we did a kitchen run. But we brought back a jam tart for you."

Todd handed her the pastry with a concerned look, "was that Fraser who I saw talking to you."

"Thank you" she ate the tart and nodded before murmuring "later" to the pair before the rest of the group joined them.

Neil and Todd exchanged a look but stayed silent as the other boys came within hearing range.

"Latin starts soon" Cameron warned "we should get going."

Kathleen slipped off the windowsill and grabbed her satchel "I'm ready when you are, Cameron."

The red-haired student nodded as the bell rang. At the shrill noise, the common room sprang into action as the rest of the boys shoved their belongings into their own satchels and stampeded out into the rest of the school. The group followed and joined the mad rush of kids on the stairwells and in the hallways. Timothy waved at Kat on his way up the stairs and she waved back with a smile, causing Cameron to scoff. She sent him a questioning look which he refused to acknowledge, making Charlie snigger and Neil swat at the latter playfully. Kat just rolled her eyes at the familiar routine but was silently thankful for their antics, it was a distraction from the thoughts swirling around in her head and the fear that she knew exactly what her Grandfather had meant.