Never Evers Page 7

  ‘Room 10, back down the end of the corridor,’ said Max, who was shivering but still managing to gawp at Keira in a not-very-subtle way.

  Jack turned to me and said, ‘Sorry, we better go, but see you tomorrow maybe?’

  I nodded and couldn’t think of anything to say so nodded again. And then again. I almost looked like I was bowing or something.

  Jack climbed out of the window awkwardly, flashing his boxers that were covered in little goldfish. Then he was gone.

  ‘That. Was. Mental,’ Keira said, when she’d closed the window.

  ‘I’m really, really scared now,’ Connie whispered. ‘If we can make boys just randomly appear, what else can we do? What about global warming? Should we do something about that?’ Me and Keira sat back in a circle. ‘But it really happened,’ Connie went on. ‘Like, we made that happen. We summoned him.’

  Keira patted her hand. ‘Calm down, Connie. Maybe we did conjure him to our window, or maybe, just maybe, he fancies Mouse and he came to find her.’

  I shook my head. ‘No. I definitely don’t think so. No.’

  Keira groaned. ‘Oh, come on, Mouse. He only found out your room number and snuck out to come and see you. Face it, you are a boy-magnet. Or a Jack-magnet at least.’ She picked up a pen and wrote ‘Jack’ on the other side of the heart on her jeans in huge purple letters.

  ‘Keira, stop!’ I wailed.

  ‘Or maybe we accidentally summoned the powers of darkness and they just made them come here like zombies …’ Connie still sounded scared.

  ‘Maybe,’ said Keira. ‘Either way it’s good. We’re either true witches or Jack wants a piece of the Mousester.’

  I smiled and let myself think about it all for a second. The film, and how there had been that moment that definitely happened. I smiled.

  ‘Aaaaaah,’ said Connie. ‘You love him.’

  ‘I might not even see him again,’ I said, staring at Keira’s knee with his name now scribbled on it, and praying she didn’t wear those jeans again this week.

  ‘Well, he came to your balcony,’ Connie said, and then she dramatically put her hand to her forehead. ‘What light from Mouse’s window breaks?’

  Keira laughed. ‘What you need to do now is show him that you like him back.’

  I blushed. ‘No way. No. Definitely not. Whatever it is you’re thinking – no.’

  Jack

  ‘All right,’ whispered Max, ‘now let’s find room 22.’

  I stared at him in disbelief, watching his words dissolve in to thick, puffy clouds of smoke. We had started crunching back through the snow towards our own window. My fingers were so cold they were stinging, the freezing wind was making my eyes stream and my ankle was still throbbing from whatever it was that had savaged me in the wardrobe. Plus, my phone said it was now coming up to midnight.

  ‘You’re not serious?’ I hissed at him. ‘After what I’ve just been through?’

  I was still trying to figure out what had actually happened in that room. There was no way I was up for breaking into a whole other room full of girls now.

  Max was grinning and blowing on his hands. ‘Jack, obviously it was quite fun hearing you make a fool of yourself and get attacked by a hamster in a cupboard, but I would still quite like to do what we actually came out here to do, and get off with some fit girls.’

  ‘Firstly, it was a rat, not a hamster, and secondly, I thought Mouse and that lot were well fit, too.’ Despite all the madness that had happened in that room, the one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about was the way Mouse had smiled at me. She was so hot – but there was something more about her that separated her from the other girls I’d met … A weird kind of calm, maybe; a stillness that put you at ease straight away, even when you were rambling on about Ratatouille, or whatever.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, they were hot,’ Max conceded. ‘The one that was all in black is, like, properly fit, and so’s the one with ridiculously long hair. The curly-haired one’s a bit mental, though. And, yes, Jack, it was definitely a tiny baby hamster. I saw it. Anyway, let’s stop bloody whispering out here in the freezing cold, and go find the girls we were actually supposed to meet. Who actually invited us to their room.’

  ‘What if their teacher’s still prowling about? Do you realize how close I came to being caught back there?’

  ‘S’all right, we’ll just make less noise this time, won’t we? Anyway, once we get inside, the only sound I’m gonna be making is this …’ He started kissing his own hand dramatically, making horrible, soft smooching noises.

  ‘So, what, we’re all gonna sit and watch while you get off with your own hand?’

  ‘Shut up, Jack, you know what I mean. Anyway, if we don’t knock for them, then we’ve totally blown any chance we might have had with them for the rest of the trip. They’ll think we’re complete idiots.’

  I thought about it. He did have a point. Although, at that moment, all I really wanted to do was get back to my warm bed. And maybe think about Mouse’s smile some more.

  ‘OK, fine,’ I said. ‘But how are we even gonna find them? We thought that last room was room 22, so we clearly have no idea where we are.’

  Max raised his eyebrows and grinned. ‘Well, Jacky boy, that’s where you’re wrong. I saw their room key by the bed. It said 26, which means …’ He broke off, counted four windows down from Mouse’s room, and then jabbed his finger triumphantly. ‘That one must be room 22!’

  He started trudging back the way we had come, and I slouched after him. When we got to the window, Max stopped and looked up.

  ‘It has to be this one, right?’ he whispered. ‘I mean, I’m pretty sure it’s this one.’

  ‘“Pretty sure”,’ I muttered. ‘You’re not positive, though, are you? What if this is a teacher’s room, Max? It could even be Flynn’s room.’

  Max shrugged. ‘So? If he sees us, we’ll just say we were sleepwalking.’

  ‘Sleepwalking? What, outside? Together?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Bit of a coincidence, don’t you think, that we both happened to be sleepwalking at the exact same time, in the exact same place?’

  Max shrugged again. ‘Stranger things have happened. Probably.’

  ‘Great,’ I nodded. ‘That’s what you can tell Flynn, then. “Stranger things have happened, sir. Probably.”’

  ‘God, Jack, are you gonna be a total wimp all your life, like Toddy?’

  I sighed. ‘All right, this is what we’ll do. You knock on the window, and then we’ll both jump out of the way, just in case it’s not their room.’

  ‘Yeah, OK.’

  Max gulped and raised his fist up towards the window. He banged loudly, three times, and we both leapt flat against the wall.

  For a second, nothing happened.

  ‘No one screamed, at least,’ Max whispered.

  ‘They’re probably just calling the police instead,’ I said.

  Suddenly, the window was yanked up, and a head poked out. It was the blonde girl called Lauren. Max stepped away from the wall, out of the shadow.

  ‘Oh my god!’ Lauren squealed. ‘It’s you guys! We thought you would … y’know, knock at the door.’

  Max grinned. ‘Erm … Well, we thought it’d be more, like, Romeo and Juliet-y if we came through the window.’

  Lauren laughed and yanked the window right up. ‘Well, come in, then.’

  Max raised his eyebrows at me and piled straight through the window. There was nothing I could do but follow him.

  ‘I’ll only do it if we say the note is from all of us.’

  Keira rolled her eyes at me and groaned. ‘Mouse, don’t be ridiculous. It needs to be from you. We can’t send a group love letter. He’ll think we’re crazy.’

  ‘That ship might have already sailed, to be honest,’ said Connie, nodding at my bedsheet dress while stroking her own lion onesie.

  ‘I just, please …’ I stuttered. ‘I really don’t want to make it awkward. I’ll die of awkwardness.’

&n
bsp; Keira groaned even louder. ‘We’re only putting a note under his door, Mouse. It’s not like you’re proposing to him. I mean, he literally walked through the freezing cold to serenade you at your window. How much more proof do you need that he likes you? Do you want him to get your name tattooed on—’

  ‘His bum!’ Connie interrupted. ‘Imagine if he got “Mouse” tattooed on his bum!’

  ‘I was going to say his chest, but whatever,’ said Keira. ‘Mouse, I would totally be the same if there was any doubt about whether he liked you or not, but there isn’t.’

  It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. But Keira seemed so sure. Like there was no other explanation. Her certainty was growing this tiny, shiny new me that knew boys and had things with them.

  Connie rummaged in her bag and pulled out a pen. ‘Special occasion gel pen.’ She held it under my nose. ‘Candyfloss. The smell of luuurve.’

  Keira tore a page out of her notebook, and we all sat in the coven circle and stared at it.

  ‘You have to write it though,’ Connie said to me. ‘Otherwise the aura might get confused.’

  She handed me the pen. I stared down at the page. ‘I don’t know what to write. What do you write to someone you don’t know?’

  ‘Don’t overthink it,’ said Connie. ‘Speak from your heart. What about, “Dear Jack, it was lovely to meet you this evening. Thank you so much—”’

  ‘Connie, it’s not a letter to her bloody gran.’ Keira grabbed the piece of paper and stared at it. ‘What about, “Hey Jack, I like you too. Mouse.” Or “Mattie” if you wanna be hot. Do you wanna be cute or hot?’

  ‘Surely I’m not the person who decides that? Can’t someone be both? Can I change my mind?’ Everything was getting a bit complex.

  Keira shook her head. ‘You’re either one or the other. It’s a fact.’

  ‘What are you?’ I asked.

  Keira smelt the gel pen and wrinkled her nose. ‘I haven’t decided yet either. It’s a big decision. This smells like school ravioli.’

  ‘Can’t we do the note from all of us, instead of just me?’ I asked again.

  ‘But what would we all want to say to him?’ Keira sighed dramatically.

  ‘We could ask him a question,’ suggested Connie. ‘Like … who’s his favourite Moomin? Or what does he think happens to you when you die? Or …’ She scrunched her face up, thinking hard.

  I took the paper off Keira and stared at it and then put it on the floor and wrote, ‘Hey Jack, see you at breakfast tomorrow. Thanks for coming to see us.’ I held it up to them.

  ‘It’s not exactly I wanna smooch your face off, hot stuff, but it’ll do,’ said Keira. ‘Are you going to sign it?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why don’t you draw a little mouse and a kiss?’ Connie blew a kiss towards the note. ‘Do you need to address it? Room 10, The Brownest Hotel in the World. The Mountains. France.’

  I ignored her and folded the piece of paper up.

  We opened the door as quietly as we could, but as soon as we stepped in to the corridor the lights switched on automatically.

  ‘Just try and be as quiet as possible,’ Keira said.

  We half walked, half crawled to the end of the corridor, past some vending machines and a fire exit, then turned the corner. Everything was completely silent, except for an old-fashioned ticking clock on the wall.

  ‘It’s one minute to midnight,’ Connie said. ‘The witching hour. I’m scared.’

  ‘Sshhhh. We’re witches, aren’t we?’ I reached down and held her hand. We both grinned at each other. It felt like we were ten again, sneaking about in the night at a sleepover.

  ‘There it is. Room 10.’

  As she whispered it, my stomach jolted. When we were in the room writing the note I hadn’t really thought we would actually end up here. Now it felt too real.

  ‘I think we should go back,’ I mumbled. ‘I don’t want to do it any more.’

  ‘Come on, Mouse, you’ve got to make stuff happen. Otherwise you’ll just stay exactly the same for ever.’ Keira said it in an offhand way but it made me think. She was right: I didn’t want to stay like this.

  I looked at the note folded up in my hand and opened it.

  ‘Connie, I hate you.’ I hit her on the arm. ‘You drew a mouse.’

  Connie giggled and Keira smirked. ‘Well, it looks like a deformed lion if that makes you feel better.’

  ‘Are you are a lion or a mouse?’ Connie said, pointing at the room.

  ‘Be a lion-mouse,’ Keira whispered.

  ‘A louse,’ smiled Connie. ‘Or, actually, no … Not a louse. A mion.’

  We all looked at the door and I took a step forward. I looked back at them and Keira mouthed, ‘Go on’.

  I took another step forward. Room 10 was only a few doors away. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

  Then I looked back at them. ‘I can’t,’ I hissed.

  Connie tiptoe-ran at me and hurled herself in to me like a rugby player. She grabbed the note from my hand. I tried to catch her tail but she was at the door. She shoved the paper under the crack with a little yelp.

  We turned and ran and only stopped when Connie tripped over her onesie feet. My heart was beating like when the curtain goes up on opening night. This weird rush of adrenalin.

  As we were helping her up, we heard a laugh from the room we were stood outside. It’s weird how people laugh in really peculiar ways. I would know someone’s laugh anywhere. And I knew the one we could hear coming through the door was Lauren’s. Knowing she was there made me heavy suddenly. I didn’t want her to see us. Dressed up like stupid kids. She would laugh at us with Scarlett and Melody. Talk about how lame we were. How weird. All of the fun of it just disappeared because she was close by.

  Keira rolled her eyes. ‘I’m sorry, but she’s so annoying. Even her laugh is annoying. It reminds me of our burglar alarm.’

  And then, unmistakably, we heard a boy’s laugh. We all froze and looked at each other. Keira took a step forward and put her ear against the door. She needn’t have.

  ‘Jack, you’re such a loser!’ A boy’s voice guffawed. I felt my stomach turn to ice. Then Jack’s voice came through, muffled, but clear enough.

  ‘Yeah, whatever, Max, it was your idea in the first place.’

  There was a burst of laughter, and then we heard Lauren say, ‘You guys are so funny!’

  I took a step back. Connie and Keira glanced at each other and then both turned to look at me. It was like a balloon had popped.

  We tiptoed back to our room, and I went in to the bathroom and shut the door behind me.

  I had made an idiot of myself. Lauren had probably sent Jack to our room as a trick. They were probably all laughing at us now. About how I had believed that he would fancy me.

  This feeling of empty disappointment just seemed to follow me everywhere. It was there at White Lodge when they told me I hadn’t realized my potential, and I would never be a ballerina. It was there in the ferry toilets, listening to Lauren say I wasn’t good enough to be friends with them. And it was here now, stronger than ever, knowing that Jack had never really liked me at all.

  There was a faint knock on the bathroom door and Keira poked her head around it. ‘Mouse, I’m really sorry. I feel like it’s my fault. Like I bigged it all up.’

  She came and put her arms around me and then Connie did, too.

  ‘Group hug,’ Connie said sadly.

  ‘I don’t understand what they’re doing. I mean, are they just, like, randomly knocking on girls’ windows?’ Keira sounded almost impressed.

  ‘What horrid, awful people,’ Connie said. ‘We should write them another letter saying, “We take back our first letter”.’

  I looked up. All three of us were entangled in a cuddle. I met Keira’s eyes in the mirror and panic jolted us both.

  ‘We need to get the note back,’ I said, and she nodded.

  Going in to the corridor for the second time, I didn’t even think about M
iss Mardle. It would be worth getting sent home to get the note back.

  Connie was holding the coat hanger we had brought in front of her like a sword, swinging it from side to side, to deter attackers.

  We crept past Lauren’s room and stopped to listen.

  ‘They’re still in there,’ Keira whispered.

  We crept further down the corridor and stopped by room 10.

  ‘Right, Connie, you need to be quick cos they could come out at any time.’

  Connie crouched down on the floor. Her lion hood fell forward, covering her face. She slowly pushed the coat hanger under the door and moved it along the carpet.

  ‘I think I can feel the note.’ She ran the coat hanger along the floor again and stopped it. ‘It’s definitely there.’

  She closed her eyes in concentration and pressed her cheek firmly against the door. Which then opened, sending her tumbling on to the carpet face first.

  A boy with floppy blond hair and glasses was stood there, looking down at us, holding the note.

  Jack

  I was woken up by a sliver of hot, white sunlight that fell through the curtain and came to rest slowly on the tip of my nose. I blinked my eyes open, feeling woozy from lack of sleep and already like I was catching a cold. It’d be so typical if I managed to get ill before we’d even got up a mountain.

  All the madness of last night came rushing back to me. The crazy bit in Mouse’s room with the wardrobe rat-hamster. And then the crap, depressing bit in Lauren’s room afterwards.

  Lauren and those girls were the exact opposite of Mouse’s lot. Chatting to Mouse felt easy and natural and fun, and I wasn’t constantly worrying about sounding like an idiot. But with Lauren, Scarlett and Melody, I got the feeling that one misplaced word or one uncool reference could have sent us straight back out the window.

  They’d just mainly banged on about themselves, their school in London, bubble tea and Pretty Little Liars. At one point, I’d been sat so close to Lauren on her bed that our knees were almost touching, but I never felt like anything could happen. It almost seemed like they were just … humouring us. Keeping us in their back pocket until they met some legitimately cool boys.