Pretty on the Outside by Kate Kingsley

Author:Kate Kingsley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 2008-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I’ve got a surprise for you lot.” Mr. Logan’s voice wafted down from the low stone wall he was crouching on. This morning, he’d had the bright idea of bringing his students out from their stuffy classroom and into St. Cecilia’s sunken garden, which was famous for being one of the most beautiful in England (at least, if you believed the virtual tour on the school website). Rare plants burst from every square centimeter of its soil, their leaves and petals flashing like colored glass in the late-September sun. Even Mr. Logan’s wall had blossoms sprouting out of it. He’d taken a flying leap up there as soon as the students had reached the garden, sending pebbles and bits of chalk showering into the front row of the class and, more specifically, into Alice’s face. Alice glared at his tatty loafers. She was certain she’d seen him purposely scuffing them on the paving stones outside the staff room. No doubt he’d bought them last week and messed them up so he’d look more like a bona fide intellectual. Pathetic.

“Get ready, everyone,” Mr. Logan ranted on. “Today, we’re going to read some of Othello aloud. I’ll cast the roles and we’ll act out the scenes. See? English really can be fun!”

Alice scoffed to herself. No, English really couldn’t be fun. Especially not today, when her entire life felt like it was going to shit. If high marks hadn’t been so important to her father—and to her, naturally—she’d have skipped this class and gone sunbathing. Her tan from the South of France could do with a little topping up. During the Summer Terms, she, Tally, Sonia, and Mimah had always lain out on the grass in this area of the grounds, hiking up their skirts and unbuttoning their blouses, under which they wore tiny push-up bras to titillate the gardeners. There was one gardener in particular over whom Mimah and Tally fought—but that was only because they were so fucking man-starved at school. In the real world the guy wouldn’t have stood a chance with either of them. He was about nineteen and looked identical to the string beans that he cultivated in the vegetable patch: long, skinny, and slouched. He was a good person to know, though; he never minded picking up a few bottles of gin or vodka for their posse on his way into school in the mornings, and occasionally, he was up for letting them into his shed to share a spliff. Their seminaked sunbathing was sort of his payment.

If you wanted to put it vulgarly, that is.

“Alice!” Mr. Logan’s voice seemed to break over her head. “You’ve been grinning at me like an automaton for ten minutes now. May I help you?”

Alice snapped open her pen and scribbled down automaton to look up later. You got extra points in exams for using long words. “Oh. No, sir,” she said. “I was just interested in what you were saying.”

“I’m so glad. In that case, why don’t you be the first to answer my question?”

“Your question.

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