And here we are again, time flies when you're having fun. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I will see you at the end - J
Chapter 20: After all
A heavy sigh escaped her as she sat against the headboard. Kelly was reclined against her chest, both of them warm and comfortable beneath the covers. Idly, she combed her fingers through the woman's hair, undoing the tangles caused by their earlier activities.
"You have to go soon, don't you?" Her voice came out quiet, as if saying it too loudly would make it too real.
"Yeah..." Jones didn't sound any happier, Soph managed a sad smile as she dipped her head, pressing a kiss to her hair.
"Do you like your job?" She reached down and caught her hands, squeezing gently.
"Of course." Kelly sighed and Soph hugged her tighter to herself.
"Then go and enjoy it, I'll still be here." She muttered, leaning down to press her face into the back of her neck.
"We'll bitch and complain about it, but we're melodramatic that way." She grinned and felt Kelly's answering huff.
"As long as you always come back, we'll be fine." She forced a smile even though it would not be seen, hoping it was audible in her voice.
"They couldn't stop me." Kelly muttered back and Soph sighed her heart twisting painfully at the promise in her voice.
There were a few goodbyes to do before it was actually time for Kelly to leave, so Soph went on ahead to load the woman's stuff into her car. It was only then that she realised this was not Kelly's car; in place of her bright red MG sat a dark grey Tesla. At a guess, Soph would say it was a loan from work. The woman herself drew closer talking to Annabelle and Soph leaned against the driver side door to wait.
"...your aunt may be as mad as a bag of gerbils but she's a pretty smart judge of character." Kelly was using her 'big-sister voice' and Soph smirked to herself.
"Kelly... What do you do now?" Annabelle tipped her head, eyes slightly narrowed as she moved forward.
"Well, you've heard of MI5? MI6? Well that was MI7. Good luck." Jones patted the head girl on the shoulder before moving away, a smirk still on her lips as she reached her.
"Nice car." Soph cast her gaze to the vehicle in question but as Kelly stepped closer and arms came to rest on her shoulders she turned back with a smile.
"Thanks, they don't like us to use our own cars." She shrugged and Soph sighed as she let her hands settle on the woman's waist.
"Probably sensible. You got everything?" She tipped her head and Kelly nodded.
"I'll talk to you soon. Text me and let me know how this whole AD1 business goes down?" Her tone left no room for argument and Soph smirked.
"Will do. Take care of yourself, Agent Jones." She leaned up and couldn't help but smile against the older girl's lips as she met her in a painfully sweet, lingering kiss. Damn, she'd miss her. When they broke apart, Kelly didn't pull away, resting their heads together.
"See you soon, love." It was barely above a whisper, and Soph managed to force a smirk as she leaned back, though how convincing it was would be heavily debatable.
"You'd better." She arched a brow, giving the woman's waist a gentle squeeze before letting go completely. Kelly lingered half a beat longer before she stepped away and Soph had to force herself to move out of her path and let her get to the car.
She jammed her hands into her pockets as she watched the woman climb in, sharing one last smile before she sped off, away from her again. Swallowing hard, Soph stared after her for a long moment. Annabelle stepped up beside her, but wisely kept quiet until she was ready.
Letting out a long breath, Soph shook her emotions from her head and turned to her cousin with a crooked smirk.
"Let's get this done."
With essential players loaded up into the bus, they took off for London, the twins more than capable of navigating the busy traffic with disturbing, and only mildly life-threatening, ease. They wouldn't be arriving at their destination this way, the bus was too recognisable; they'd be catching the train. After that, Annabelle had formulated a plan for their smaller team to break away from the group, hopefully without being seen, so that they would have time to get to the theatre before Pomfrey could track them. It was all very well thought out, even if Sophie was dreading what they would have to do for this grand distraction.
She was still in a bit of a mood on the train, which Chelsea clearly picked up on as she dropped in to sit beside her, so the blonde, wisely, kept her attention on her totties as they travelled, leaving her to sulk. To cheer herself up a little, Sophie did watch Roxy and Annabelle for a while. They were sat side by side a few seats down, very pointedly not looking at each other and talking in sporadic bursts interspersed with a whole lot of blushing. Briefly, she worried that she'd pushed Roxy too hard and her cousin was now tragically uncomfortable around her, but as they pulled up to their station, she saw the head girl squeeze the blondes hand with a sickeningly sweet smile and that was enough to convince her she'd done the right thing. Oh, they were so cute it was painful.
Off of the train, she kept to one side. At the front of the pack, Annabelle strode with supposedly effortless confidence, Roxy and Bianca on her right, Patience (Lucy's second) and Zoe on her left. Everyone else was dispersed throughout the group behind them, and Soph couldn't help but smile at how badass her cousin looked.
"Just stay calm girls. Swimming pool rules. No running, no shoving, and no heavy petting." Annabelle kept her tone low as they moved through the train station, and Soph could have sworn Roxy blushed at that last comment, even though it was probably aimed at the totties. Their group slowed to a stop and her amusement left her as the dread of what was about to happen curled in her stomach. Oh god, how did she get dragged into this?
"One. Two. One, two, three, four." On cue the music started up and they all started dancing. Soph grit her teeth as the blood rushed to her face as she forced herself to keep in time. She would seriously be having words with Annabelle if she ever made her do something like this again. Fortunately for her sanity, she was soon tapped on the shoulder and she stopped immediately to follow the small group winding their way through the dancing crowd.
It was all very cartoonish, going up escalators as security were going down, ducking when told to avoid detection, but it worked, so Soph was far from complaining as they made their way slowly out of the area. Of course, the moment they were free, they took off sprinting, taking some mildly dangerous routes over rooftops and through multi-storey carparks to avoid being followed until they finally reached the globe. Almost seamlessly, they managed to find Camilla, Thwaites and Bursar by their bike and moved inside.
"Hey! You're not allowed back here." Of course, there were actors around, and just as they found a hidden door in the floor, they were interrupted by a man in tights. He was clearly a performer; either that or his fashion sense was a long way out of style. Rolling her eyes, Soph hopped up to sit on a crate of props while Annabelle moved forwards, hands on hips.
"Says who?" Her tone was icy, and Sophie grinned proudly until the single most annoying woman she'd ever encountered (and she'd attended Cheltenham) joined the conversation.
"Uh, well, don't you know who this is?"
There was a lot of conversation that she didn't care about, mostly centring around the not-particularly-famous man and how humbled they should all be to even be in his presence, and frankly it was taking up more time than they had.
Things went from mildly annoying to straight up odd as the man went to get security and Thwaites, of all people, stepped into his path.
"I would think twice about that if I were you." He pulled out a sword and Soph wasn't sure whether to be amused or impressed.
They all stood back as the two guys fought; things weren't looking good for Thwaites since he lost his sword and began going through props, from a watering can to a feather boa. Really, if they weren't here on a treasure hunt for long lost pirate gold, she might say it was the most ridiculous thing she'd been part of in a while. Still, eventually the actor had Thwaites cornered, but before Soph could even begin to feel any level of concern, Camilla started a round of applause, which apparently distracted the actor long enough for Thwaites to kick him over and knock him out. Camilla took care of the, now screeching, 'Juliette' with handbag to the back of the head and Sophie strongly considered presenting the woman with a medal for her public service.
"Great. Now what?"
With that ridiculousness over, they left Camilla and Thwaits to take care of the stage show while they dashed off underground, flashlights in hand. Impatient, and probably still a little grouchy, Soph strode on ahead, but paused at a faint nibbling sound. Aw, it was a rat… Wow, many rats. With a small smile, she tipped her head. Domestic rats were cute as all hell, and filthy pests these ones may be, they were still kind of sweet. Chelsea seemed to disagree and gave a whimper somewhere behind her, startling the tiny creature into running.
"Oh, my god! Are they rats?!" Fear edged her tone, fortunately, Lucy was on hand to answer.
"No, they're little furry elephants, what do you reckon?" She snarked, but even her words came out a little nervous. Soph rolled her eyes and straightened up as the rest of them chimed in with their own 'anti-rat' commentary. Annabelle, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.
"Oh well. Never mind. We'll just tell the girls back at school we didn't do the job because it's a bit dark, and a bit cold and someone saw a hamster. Chelsea, what about your Malibu beach house? What about the all-girl moon mission? Do we really want that pig Pomfrey and the AD1 lot to get the treasure? 'Cause I know I don't." She looked to each of them in turn, her expression hard as she delivered quite the little speech. It was actually pretty convincing for a while there, until she gave a tiny whimper as she passed by Soph.
After a lot of walking they found a dead end. Bloody fantastic.
Zoe started banging her head on the wall and honestly Soph shared in the sentiment. This whole thing was just one thing after another, and they'd left their power tools back on the bloody bus. Heaving a sigh, she slumped back against a wall, waiting to see what they'd do next. Strangely, one girl in particular seemed to be up to something.
"Chelsea, what are you doing?" Lucy drew their attention to the totty, who was prodding random bricks with apparent conviction. At the question, she turned back toward them.
"Looking for a secret door. Places like this always have a secret door." She rolled her eyes as it it were the most obvious thing in the world and Soph tipped her head. Honestly, with the way this was turning out, she wouldn't be surprised if they had to sneak past a three headed dog next. Of course, Lucy was far from convinced, an immediately lay into the blonde.
"Chelsea, you truly are-" She was cut off as Chelsea pressed a brick and it slid in slightly.
Honestly, Sophie wasn't even surprised anymore as the wall parted to reveal a secret entrance.
Smugness was all over Chelsea's face as she turned back toward them.
"I truly am what? Smarter than your average brainless slapper?" She smirked.
"Yeah, smarter than your average brainless slapper." Lucy agreed and the grin that found every face around them was one of excitement and victory.
"You'd better believe it." Chelsea's smugness wasn't going anywhere soon, but she'd earned it as Soph and Zoe moved forward to pry the door open the rest of the way so they could all fit through.
Inside was… A room. Zoe lit a very old style torch and started carrying it around with her, what was it with that girl and fire? With all the dusty costumes lining the walls, it was a little more of a hazard than she'd like right now. According to Lucy's co-ordinates, the treasure had to be in the adjacent room, and sure enough, in there they found a chest.
Of course, it was locked, and after using the ring as a key (how tomb raider were they going here?)... Fuck all.
Oh for the love of-
Her mental diatribe of profanity went on for some time as she scrubbed had fingers through her hair in frustration. All this and the fucking thing was empty?!
"You have got to be kidding me." Roxy groaned and stalked off to slump against a table and Soph was honestly tempted to punch something. This was so shit. Still, Annabelle was busily grasping at straws and started reading the little note in the bottom.
"Treasure hunter, come for nought. It seems your dreams have fallen short." Disappointment was as clear in her voice as anyone else's but Chelsea carried on reading for her.
"For pirate though I may have been, I ventured for a change of scene. Resolving too to change my ways, from sailing seas to… mounting plays." She frowned at the paper and Soph shared a look of confusion with Zoe before shifting closer to listen. Lucy took over as one of the few people still holding a torch.
"Writing many in this room, with Shakespeare as a 'nom de plume'." She gasped and Soph could feel the dumbfounded expression on her own face before she could even consider catching it. Hold on, what now?
"A nom de what?" Bianca got straight to the point, as always.
"I think it means... No it can't be..." Lucy looked back at the note, re-reading it over and over, but Annabelle clarified for those who didn't know.
"Pirate Fritton… was Shakespeare." She looked kind of stunned for a long minute as her mind caught up.
"Hang on… That means…" The penny finally dropped and a wide grin split across her face.
"That means I'm a Shakespeare. We're Shakespeares!" She turned and beamed over at Soph who laughed, sharing in her cousin's elation. She was definitely including that when she texted Kelly about this later.
Lucy interrupted their little moment with more of the note.
"Wait, wait... I lieu of gold I humbly pray, you'll kindly take my final play. Oh my god!" She shone the flashlight onto the leather envelope at the bottom of the chest and they hurried to open it.
'Queen Lear'
Soph could practically feel the pound signs in her eyes, an original Shakespeare manuscript was worth a goddamn fortune.
"And though indeed you find it hard, to credit though I was the bard. The timely truth may now unfurl, that all the while I was... A girl." Annabelle finished the note and Soph spun back to face her in astonishment.
"Hold on, what now? This was far too much information for one day. Shakespeare, the Shakespeare, was not only a Fritton, but a female Fritton. She slumped against a nearby table as she scrambled around in her head for a way to shut her mouth.
"A woman... A woman wrote the bible." Chelsea's intelligent streak had apparently exhausted itself for the day, but Soph could managed no more than a breathless chuckle at her daft comment as she raised a hand to her head. Fucking hell, what a day.
A phone rang out behind her and suddenly the air felt a lot colder. In all the dramatic revelations, they'd forgotten they were on a time crunch. Footsteps echoed behind her and she let here eyes drop shut for half a beat before she carefully straightened, moving away from the door and turning to face the man walking through it.
Peirce Promfrey, armed and sneering, strode into the room with the arrogance of a man facing down school girls with a firearm. Reflexively, Soph shifted to stand in front of as many of the girls as possible. Kelly would kill her if she got shot, but it was the lesser of many evils right now.
"Silvio, ciao. Hey, call me in five, just finishing something up. Ta-ta." The man's smug voice set her teeth on edge and she shoved her hands into her pockets to keep them from swinging without her permission as he tucked his phone away.
"Hello girls, remember me? Of course you do." He winked at Roxy and Soph could have sworn she saw a murderous glint in Annabelle's eyes for a split second.
"Congratulations on your find. Finally you Frittons catch up to what we Pomfreys have known for generations. That your celebrated sea-dog was a she-dog. May I?" He held out a hand to Annabelle who, to her credit, didn't bat an eyelash at having a gun in her face as she handed the note and the manuscript over to the bastard.
"Thanks awfully." He smirked and Soph took the opportunity to take a quick glance at where everyone was, trying desperately to think of a way to get rid of that gun without putting anyone in harm's way. Regardless of her efforts, she came up with nothing as the prick backed away.
"Of course we knew this, inconvenient, discovery would turn up sooner or later, we just had to make sure we got to it first. But, all's well that ends well." Soph didn't bother to listen to the rest of his taunting, she was too busy keeping her eyes on his gun. If he pointed it at anyone…
"It's too late Pomfrey. You can destroy the play but the secrets out. Shakespeare was a woman and we will tell the world." Annabelle cut his rambling off and Soph had to admire her bravery. For half a beat, Pomfrey feigned fear.
"You're going to tell on me? Please don't tell on me. Oh please don't tell on me. Look at you, who's going to believe a bunch of school girls over me? I play tennis with Sting for Christ's sake." With that he turned and walked off, waving his gun over his shoulder as he left.
Well, fuck.
Soph glared daggers into the darkness as everyone checked each other over, making sure no-one was hurt. They were going to get even with that man, play or no play, this was a matter of principle.
Coms reported that backup was on its way but a thick air of melancholy had already settled over the room. They'd lost. Annabelle moved to Roxy's side and the pair wrapped each other up in a very sweet embrace that Soph was in too foul a mood to be smug about, instead, her gut twisted as she thought of Kelly… If only she'd been able to stay another day, she'd probably have been able to handle that dickhead with her eyes closed. She growled and kicked a wall. It didn't really help, but at least the pain in her foot distracted her a little.
"Well girls, it's not over yet!" Camilla was still enthusiastic as they made it outside, but her mood could not be spread to the dejected group. Least of all after Pomfrey sailed past them, the manuscript in the air and bidding them goodbye in various languages. Soph had never wished for some low-level explosives more than she had in that moment. However, Ceilia's voice broke her from her homicidal thoughts.
"I think I have, like, an idea." She nodded toward her 'idea' and something in Sophie's mind just gave up. Sure, why not? Only at bloody St. Trinian's.
Safe to say, she'd never stolen a pirate ship before.
Minutes later they were sailing, Sophie wasn't sure how anyone had figured out how to get the thing going but it probably had something to do with Lucy's rapid google usage. Still, she gave up asking questions as she caught sight a group of first years that were clearly up to something. Annabelle had spotted them too as they reached the girls at the same time, looking down to see what they'd been messing with. Oh, of course. Sharing a grin, the pair of the bent to help, and moment later, the pirate flag of St. Trinian's was being hoisted up to fly in the wind. It was a design that had been made as soon as the whole business had began, and the girls had brought several flags with them to London to run with during stampedes and such, now it was being flown for all of the themes to see... A skull in a straw hat with cross hockey sticks. It was almost enough to make a girl proud.
They were rapidly approaching Pomfrey's boat, and the head girl caught her arm.
"Do me a favour and stop the twins from blowing his boat up before we get the manuscript?" She smirked and Soph offered a joking salute.
"Aye, cap'n." With a wink she headed off below deck, where the first years were busily loading the cannons.
"Oi, watch your aim girls, we need the play before you sink him." She grinned over to Tania and Tara, who were throwing out orders left right and centre, and waited for them to finish pouting and nod before she moved back to the stairs, she needed to be ready.
"Fire!" Annabelle called from the deck and Soph grinned to herself as she turned back to the first years.
"Fire!" She relayed and within moments their air was full of the loud crack of cannon fire. Smoke filled the air so thickly that Sophie almost missed the figure in the smog that swung out on a line, snatching the play from Pomfreys had with a victorious call that could only be one woman.
Camilla's sensible heels hit the deck once more and Sophie couldn't help but laugh as she turned back to shout below decks.
"All yours, girls!"
She might have regretted that order as they accidentally fired a shot into the streets of London.
Still, property damage be damned, they had a party to get to.
Soph issued a long text explaining the events to Kelly on the coach home. Honestly, if she hadn't just lived it, she'd be inclined to believe it was all completely made up; she still wasn't entirely sure she wasn't just dreaming at it was. Pirates, hidden rings, Shakespeare secretly being both a Fritton and a woman, Kelly helping them break into a vault, using an old sailing ship to chase down a man and steal back a never-before-seen manuscript. Really, she expected to wake up at any moment and find herself about to start the first day of term. However, as they pulled up to the school and everyone scrambled out to join the party that had begun in their absence, reality refused to intrude, so she supposed she was just going to have to accept that all that actually happened.
Grabbing a bottle of bourbon, she propped herself up at the bar to catch up with Anoushka. The girl had returned for the party to continue her role as guardian of alcohol, but apparently she was currently attending university to study business management, with plans to open a club in London once she was done. It was pretty impressive but Sophie was far from surprised, the woman's alcohol tolerance was far from her only talent.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she excused herself to check it, unable to keep a grin from her face as she read the ID.
After all that, how much do you want to ditch the party and go scowl at nothing on the roof?
She snorted and rolled her eyes, but it was a little hollow as she realised it was a little true.
Little bit, yeah
She almost put her phone back but it listed as seen almost immediately so she opted to wait.
Take it easy love, try to have some fun, and try not to have anyone else wave a gun in your face while I'm away?
She smiled and took a drink, shaking her head at the concern.
I'll do my best, for both of those
You'd better, talk to you soon x
Goodnight x
Tucking her phone away, she cast a glance around the room; there really was no party like a St. Trinian's celebration, even if they had six or seven of the damn things a term. Across the room, Annabelle and Roxy were dancing with Chelsea's minions, and going on the number of shy smiles and sheepish grins being exchanged between the pair, they were headed toward painfully adorable couple territory sooner rather than later. She needed to remember to collect her pay from Zoe on that one; it would go a long way to funding Christmas this year.
"Going to stand there all night?" Chelsea popped out of the woodwork and gave her a nudge, Soph shrugged and took a drink.
"Maybe." She smirked and they girl rolled her eyes, seizing her arm.
"Nope, come on."
With that she was dragged across the room to dance, and honestly, she might have had a good time. This whole thing had been a ridiculous start to the year, but now it was over, they'd be back to business as usual… Whatever that meant for St. Trinian's, at least.
Okay then, that's the end of the films. From here on out, we're relying my own imagination... It's a little melodramatic, but hopefully enjoyable for all. Thanks so much for reading this far and I hope you enjoy what is to come - J
