Everything We Keep by Di Walker (good story books to read txt) 📗

She didn’t want to cry. She didn’t want to show how much it hurt to leave here, to leave Katherine.

Katherine stood and stepped around the table. ‘Agatha, please sit down. We can’t fix this together if you leave. Please.’ Katherine’s voice was not pleading, but gentle and firm. Reluctantly Agatha sat.

‘Okay, let me start again,’ Nell said. ‘Agatha, I’m . . . wait . . . sorry . . . no not sorry . . . ’ Nell’s confusion made her smile. ‘Okay, got it this time. Agatha, would you like to stay here with Katherine for three more months and go to school?’

Agatha looked at Nell with suspicion. ‘What? What did you say?’

‘Stay here and go to school.’

‘I understood that part but why did you say sorry?’

‘Oh, I was going to say I was sorry for making you wait the whole weekend for an answer. It must have been difficult for you, for both of you.’

Agatha laughed. ‘You surprised me Nell. That’s the first time someone has said sorry to me for making me wait.’ She looked at Katherine who leaned across the table and put her hand on her arm, something Agatha had grown accustom to and welcomed.

‘Now you’re making me wait,’ Katherine said. ‘Do you want to stay?’

‘Yes.’

‘Great!’ Nell said, picking up her cup and taking a sip of warm coffee. ‘Now all we have to do if find a school.’

‘We already have,’ said Katherine, ‘that’s if it’s alright with you, Nell.’

An hour later the three arrived at Sandy Vale College. Even though the summer had been hot, the grass and gardens looked green and well care for. There were several long grey buildings that seemed to span out from the central one, all with large windows. Agatha could see classes already underway.

When she had been to primary school, the one in Greensward, it had been a mixture of old and modern buildings. There wasn’t a large gym or oval, or a science lab or a large library with study desks. She used to go all the time when she was younger. Her mother would walk her there every morning and be waiting at the gate at the afternoon bell. After everything began to change, she stopped walking her, making her lunch, cleaning her clothes. And as the teasing got worse and no one was able to stop it, Agatha stopped it herself by not going.

Sandy Vale College was much larger than her old school. The uniform was different, the subjects were different, yet Agatha knew the teasing would probably be the same. Despite what Nell and Katherine had said, she knew she could never escape that.

Katherine thought otherwise, ‘No one knows you here. So, what they find out is what you tell them.’

Agatha wasn’t convinced.

Having arrived without making an appointment, it was the Director of Students, Mrs Sloane, who showed them around. Mrs Sloane, she informed them, had been at Sandy Vale for over fifteen years, and thought Agatha would enjoy it, ‘Such a friendly place, and I know lots of school say that, but we really are.’

Everything was exactly how Agatha had pictured it after she and Katherine had seen it online. Whilst the buildings were grey on the outside, inside it was different. The hallways were wide and clean. Each classroom had a sliding door with a large window at the top, so they could see in.

‘Everyone looks like they are hard at work,’ Katherine whispered to Agatha. She didn’t reply, having missed so much school she was worrying how she would be able to catch up.

‘Out through those doors is the canteen, a very popular place, but we’ll go this way down to the Science wing, so you can see our labs.’

The tour ended when they returned to the reception area. ‘Follow me into the meeting room,’ Mrs Sloane said. As she walked past the office desk, the secretary handed her a manila folder. ‘Thank you, Stella.’

The meeting room had a long table and too many chairs for Agatha to count quickly. They all sat around the end with Katherine and Nell on each side of Agatha.

On the tour, Katherine had called herself Agatha’s aunty and Nell’s presence was left unexplained. This was the plan they had made to reassure Agatha that no one would find out anything until she had made her final decision about which school she wanted to go to. ‘But even then, I don’t want you to say anything, Nell,’ she had pleaded.

‘Not possible Agatha. I’m sorry. There are forms to fill out and they must know. But I will do my best to make sure they don’t tell everyone.’

Mrs Sloane was handing some of the papers from the manila folder to Agatha and some to Katherine. ‘As you can see, Agatha, Year 8 is about experiencing a wide range of subjects. We do French here and all our students do it until they finish Year 9. What did you do at your primary school?’

‘Italian.’

Nell threw her hands into the air and smiled at Agatha, ‘Bene.’

Agatha didn’t smile back.

‘And the papers I’ve given you, Katherine, are the enrolment forms and the fees, and other bits and bobs like uniform. We have a place in our Year 8 group for Agatha if you choose to send her here. She can start tomorrow if you want.’

Katherine shuffled through the papers and then placed them neatly on the table in front of her. ‘Would you mind giving us a moment?’ she asked Mrs Sloane.

‘Of course. My office is right next door, let me know when you’re ready.’ She stood up, pushed her chair in and left, closing the door behind her.

‘Well?’ Katherine said, shuffling her chair around so the she was facing Agatha. ‘What do you think?’

‘Can I take a week or two to think about it.’

Katherine shook her head. ‘We can go and look at another school today, it that’s what you want, but I think we need to decide by the end of today.’ Katherine put her hand onto Agatha’s