Page 149 of Good Girl, Bad Blood

‘Guys . . .’ Connor said, but the word was lost as soon as he uttered it.

‘So whereisJamie?’ Ant said. ‘Holed up in some Premier Inn somewhere?’

And Pip knew that he was just prodding her, but she couldn’t control it, she couldn’t –

The double doors swung inwards at the end of the corridor, and the headteacher, Mrs Morgan stepped through. Her eyes narrowed, and then lit up.

‘Ah, Pip!’ she shouted down the hall. ‘I need to speak to you, urgently, before you go home!’

‘Busted,’ Ant whispered, making Lauren snort. ‘Go on, it’s over now. Might as well tell us the truth.’

But everything had turned to fire behind Pip’s eyes.

Her feet twisted.

Her arms swung out.

Hands against Ant’s chest, she shoved him, pushing him with all her strength across the width of the hall.

He crashed into a bank of lockers.

‘What the –’

Pip’s elbow drew up, her forearm against Ant’s neck, holding him in place. She stared him in the eyes, though hers had burned to ash, and she finally let it out.

She screamed into his face. It ripped at her throat and tore at her eyes, feeding itself from that never-ending pit in her stomach.

Pip screamed and they were all that existed. Just her and the scream.

Thirty-One

‘Suspended?’

Pip sank into the stool in the kitchen, avoiding her dad’s eyes.

‘Yes.’ Her mum was standing on the other side of the room,

Pip in the middle. Talking around her, over her head. ‘For three days. What about Cambridge, Pippa?’

‘Who was the other student?’ Dad asked, voice softening where her mum’s had grown harder, sharper.

‘Anthony Lowe.’

Pip glanced up, catching the face her dad pulled: bottom lip rolled up over the top, eyes crinkling like he wasn’t surprised.

‘What’s that look for?’ her mum said.

‘Nothing.’ Her dad rearranged his face, untucking his lip. ‘Just never really liked the kid that much.’

‘How is that helpful right now, Victor?’ her mum snapped.

‘Sorry, it’s not,’ he said, exchanging a look with Pip. It was quick, but it was enough, and she felt a little less alone out there in the middle of the room. ‘Why did you do it, Pip?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know?’ her mum said. ‘You shoved him against a locker with your arm on his throat. How do you not know how that happens? You’re lucky Cara, Zach and Connor were there and defended you to Mrs Morgan, told her Ant provoked you, otherwise you would have been expelled.’

‘How did he provoke you, pickle?’ her dad asked.