Page 189 of Save You

Kieran just mumbles “hi” and sits hastily down.Am I seeing things, or is he even paler than normal today?He won’t look at me, just digs furiously around in his bag.

I see Lin look at me, and then at him, and then back at me, but I don’t know what I can do to make this moment any less weird.

Fortunately, Camille and Doug now join us, and there’s more surprise about the rearranged seating.The last person to stroll into the room is James.He lifts an eyebrow and looks around, then walks right through the ring of chairs to drop into the one opposite mine with a wry smile.

Next to me, Lin clears her throat.“Ruby and I have planned a little surprise for today,” she says.“I don’t know if you’re the same as me, but there’s always a rough patch at some point in the school year, when everything seems really hard.”There are murmurs of agreement around our little circle.“I get the feeling we might be in for one of those after all the mayhem of the last few weeks.But we don’t really have time for a break, because there’s the Spring Ball coming up soon too.”

“So,” I add, “we thought that we’d do things a bit differently for today’s meeting.You all worked so hard and the charity gala was a total success.So, I think we all deserve to take things a bit easy today.”

Lin bends down and pulls a large bag out from under her chair.She opens it and pulls out two large thermos flasks and a handful of mugs.“We thought we’d liven the meeting up with tea, coffee, and cake.”

“Ohhh,” says Camille, and Jessalyn cheers beside her.“How cool are you?”

Lin hands out drinks and I stand up to get the paper boxes I hid under our coats on the other side of the room.“I brought muffins from my mum’s bakery,” I announce.

I put the boxes down in the center of our circle and lift the lids; Jessa leans in right away.

“Mmm.They smell delicious.”

“Help yourselves.”

As the others dig in, James leans over to me.“You didn’t have these this morning.”

“Mum dropped them off at lunchtime,” I explain with a smile.“They’re really fresh.”

“They’re the best muffins I’ve had in ages,” says Camille, andDoug nods his head.“Where’s this bakery?”she asks then.“Mum’s spent weeks trying to find someone to make her a birthday cake.Maybe she should try there.”

“In Gormsey,” I reply.“It’s small, but everything they do is delicious and made with love.I can give you a card.”

“That would be amazing,” says Camille, and I’m surprised by the sincerity of her words.I’ve noticed something different about her lately.She’s been putting more effort in, and for the last few meetings, she’s stopped looking like she loathes everyone and everything in this room.I wonder what’s up.

“This is such a nice idea,” says Jessa.“Last week was so stressful.I had an English essay to do on top of all the work for the gala.”

“How did it go?”Lin asks.

“I screwed up.I totally lost the thread and it made no sense at all.”

“Sounds familiar,” says Kieran.“I had a test last week too and my mind was totally blank.I couldn’t remember a thing.”

“What was it on?”

“The Cold War.”Kieran pulls a face.“How about yours?”

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“Poor you,” says Camille.“I hate Shakespeare.”

Jessa shrugs.“The play itself is fine.We watched a film of it too, and it made me think that it would be an amazing theme for the ball.”

I pause with my muffin halfway to my lips.“Yeah, that could really work,” I say slowly, turning my head to Lin.

“Yep…” She’s looking thoughtful.“When we got all those quotes for the Halloween party, one of the firms had a kind ofmagic forest set you could rent.With fake trees, fairy lights, a fog machine, the whole works.”

“Were they the ones who had the wooden swing you could use for photographs?”

“Yes, that’s them.”

“Yeah, I can really see it,” says Jessa, and Camille sighs.