Page 33 of What Did I Miss?

‘Mak? Mr S?’

Worse. A student.

Ebony speaks. ‘What the f—’

‘Found them!’ Makayla rummages through her discarded clothes for her keys. ‘Phew!’ She sets a new world record for getting dressed. ‘Mr Shepherd was helping me look … in the tree … and then there were wasps …’

No one’s buying it. Beau’s pants were around his ankles, for Pete’s sake. Ebony’s old enough to know what they were doing. That’s why she’s making gagging noises. Talk about an anticlimax.

Agnes finding them would’ve been a better option.

This will be all over the school before they get back; there’ll be parents wielding pitchforks waiting for the bus.

Makayla and Beau will get fired. Why didn’t she have the common sense to say that, or at least think it, instead of acting like a horny teenager?

‘What are you doing out here?’ Beau asks, oddly cool.

He’s so much better under pressure. Also, great question. Why isn’t Ebony in bed?

‘Us?’ someone else squeaks.

Paisley! Makayla was so distracted by her scheme and Beau’s camouflaged ensemble, she forgot to do her job. The annoying part is, she can hardly lecture Ebony about sneaking out for a late-night rendezvous when she’s done the same.

‘How about we call it even?’ Ebony picks up the whisky bottle and smirks like she’s got them by the balls.

Makayla and Beau exchange a look and she’s certain he’s thinking the same thing she is – this could all go away. No one would ever know. No students. No parents. No Jeffrey.

‘No deal, Ebony,’ Makayla says with Beau standing tall beside her.

They’re not the kind of teachers who would let a student drink. Even if that means come Monday, they’ll be unemployed. They’ve made their bed.

‘Gotcha!’ Agnes calls, blinding them with a headlamp. ‘Sneaking out to meet a girl and drinking. Tsk, tsk, Ebony.’ She turns to Makayla and Beau. ‘Good work catching this naughty thief.’

‘No, Agnes. We—’ Makayla starts.

‘That’s right. They caught me.’ Ebony puts her hands up in surrender and walks over to Agnes, accepting she’s now her prisoner. ‘Call my mum and send me home. This camp is boring anyway.’

‘It’s too late to be waking anyone. I’ll call Jeffrey tomorrow and we’ll deal with it then, missy. And you’ – she pokes Paisley’s puffer jacket – ‘I’ll be speaking to your parents, too. Now, go on. Get!’

Paisley scurries away and Agnes frog-marches Ebony back to her cabin.

‘Why would Ebony take the fall?’ Beau asks.

‘I don’t know. I’ll find out in the morning.’

‘That was close.’ His body relaxes beside her.

‘Too close,’ Makayla responds, only she’s not referring to the bullet they just dodged.

The birds chirp incessantly, catching up on last night’s gossip as Makayla legs it over to Agnes’s cabin.

No one else is up except for the sun bursting through the trees.

Despite the low-hanging fog, Makayla can see clearly – literally and figuratively.

She can’t let Ebony take the blame, and she can’t let Beau, either.

If Makayla had handled Agnes’s taunting better at the zip-lining course, last night’s events wouldn’t have transpired.

Beau would have gone to bed and Makayla would have spent the night being tortured by Britney Spears’ greatest hits. This falls on her.

Makayla knocks, and the door creaks open. Beau’s inside.

‘What’s going on?’ Makayla steps into the cabin, confused.

‘I’m here to confess,’ Beau says. ‘I broke in and stole the bottle. Makayla tried to talk me out of it and chased me down to return it. Ebony wasn’t involved, and frankly, I’m not sure why she said she was. I’ll call Jeffrey and let him know what I did.’

‘No! It was me. I take full responsibility.’ He can’t take the blame for her.

Agnes rolls her eyes. ‘Calm down, you two. No one’s calling the principal.’

‘You’re letting us off? Why?’ Makayla asks. Has she been wrong about Agnes? Is there a good person beneath that wickedness?

‘Technically, teachers aren’t allowed to bring refreshments to camps anymore. Stupid rule if you ask me. If I report you, I’ll only be shooting myself in the foot, won’t I?’

Nope. Agnes is still evil. All is right in the world.

While that may solve one problem, it doesn’t cancel out the other. It’s only a matter of time before the students wake and Ebony tells them what she stumbled across. The news will spread through the camp like a wildfire.

‘Before you go,’ Agnes says, ‘next time pick a more discreet location for your trysts.’

Makayla laughs nervously. ‘What? We weren’t …’ She can’t even bring herself to say it.

‘Please, Makayla. I’m no fool. You forget, I was once a young teacher. Let me tell you, you’ve got nothing on what used to happen in the eighties.’ A grin creeps across her face, which bears the lines of someone who has lived a rich life.

Makayla’s heard whispers about The Whiny Bunch and their ‘keys in the bowl’ end-of-term parties. Until now, she thought they were just rumours. She can only imagine what Agnes got up to – not that she wants to, because ewww.

Makayla and Beau part ways on the porch. It’s too early to drag Ebony out of bed to continue their apology tour.

Standing in the shower, cocooned by steam, Makayla’s fingertips roam freely, in search of the happy ending she was denied last night.

It’s something she never did while married.

That side of her was dormant for so long, she told herself she wasn’t as sexual as most people.

Wrong. Since Beau came into the picture, her hand has seen so much action, she’s at risk of an injury.

Today, however, the release is so-so, and fails to take the edge off, or help her forget about impending unemployment.

Makayla makes her way to the mess hall to check if Ebony is having breakfast. Cece is still asleep. The early risers circle the buffet like zombies. They bypass the basket brimming with locally grown fruit and fill up their bowls with sugary cereals instead.

‘Morning, Miss,’ they mumble, plodding along the line.

No smirks. No raised eyebrows. No ‘Heard you had a good night, wink-wink’. Is Makayla’s personal life irrelevant compared to what’s going on in their teenage world, or is Ebony keeping this up her sleeve for later?

Ebony sits in a corner alone with a hoodie pulled over her head, a clear warning for others not to approach.

Ignoring the signal, Makayla slides into the seat opposite her.

Students slurp their milk and clink their spoons, fishing for soggy Coco Pops.

They’re all wearing headphones instead of interacting with their fellow schoolmates.

It’s like a silent disco, minus the dancing.

‘Can we talk?’ Makayla taps the table in front of Ebony, then points to the imitation AirPods dangling from her ears.

Ebony obliges her by removing one. It’ll have to do.

‘You’re not in trouble or being sent home. Mr Shepherd and I told Agnes the truth.’

Ebony frowns so hard her forehead creases more than a pair of linen pants.

‘I’d like to speak to you about what you saw.’ Worry whirs inside Makayla’s chest. How does she explain to a sixteen-year-old that she was sexually starved for eleven years and the English teacher skilfully unlocked the next level?

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Ebony?’ Why is she protecting her? Most students would have a field day with this.

‘I’m not ratting you out. You’ve always had my back, and Mr S gets on my nerves, but if you like him, he must be all right. So, like I said, I didn’t see a thing.’ Ebony pops her earbud back in and gets up to leave. Before she goes, she adds, ‘It’s good to see you happy again. Welcome back.’

It’s not until Ebony’s halfway across the room that Makayla understands what she meant.

Her marriage imploding was hell. Getting out of bed and pretending all day was draining.

She thought she’d done a good job of hiding it.

Obviously not. Even though Ebony doesn’t know what happened, it’s comforting to have someone acknowledge it. More comforting than she’d expected.

Beau enters and crosses paths with Ebony. She holds up her knuckles and he cautiously fist bumps her. They part ways and he wanders over to Makayla.

‘Did you see that? I wonder what brought that on,’ he says.

‘You’re cool by association.’ Makayla brushes pretend dirt off her shoulder.

‘Did you talk to her? Does everybody know?’ Beau glances around.

‘She said she won’t tell anyone, and I believe her.’

‘How can you be sure?’ he asks.

‘Sometimes you’ve just got to trust people.’

Beau exhales, clutching his chest. He leans forward like he has something important to say and actually thinks the students care enough to eavesdrop.

‘Now isn’t a good time, but when camp is over, can we sit down and talk about us ?’

Makayla’s breath catches in her throat. Even if she hadn’t opened Pandora’s box last night, did she really think he wouldn’t notice her feelings have deepened? That her attraction is so strong, she’d risk her job to be with him?

‘Okay,’ she says, wondering how she can delay ‘the talk’ for at least another five weeks, when it will be safe to do so.