She shifts in her chair. ‘You know I didn’t mean it. It was a cover. I had to do it because you broke our deal. No loitering around the newsroom, remember?’
‘It was hurtful.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she says, her voice softer than before.
I peel the plastic off my turkey-and-Camembert wrap in pointed silence.
‘Come on,’ Will coaxes. ‘I’m really glad you came and found me. And hey, I’m not even mad about the emails you’ve been sending without telling me. I actually wanted to say, nice work. After that Assembly speech by Davids yesterday, I got nervous. You’re right. We’ve got to throw people off the scent. Speculation about your emails was rife in the common room at recess.’
This cheers me somewhat. ‘People are already talking about them?’
‘Yep. At first everyone was like, “It’s Millie! Millie Levine’s Amelia Westlake!”’ Will waves her hands around hysterically. ‘Then they’re like, “No, it’s Janine Richter!”’ She leans back in her chair and waves her feet around. It looks like she is trying to pedal a bike, but not particularly effectively, which is no surprise given Will Everhart is not exactly fitness-oriented. ‘Then they’re all, “It’s Nakita! It’s Nakita!”’ She has a strange full-body roll thing going now. ‘So I think we’re in the clear. For now, at least,’ Will says, ‘which is great. Because I have another idea, which is what I wanted to talk to you about. You know the wall behind the science block? I want to paint a mural on it. I want Amelia to. I’ll come up with the drawings again, and you can help with the concepts, just like we’ve done before. If they won’t let us publish cartoons in the school paper, this is what we can do instead. It’ll be like a cartoon on steroids. What do you think?’ She looks at me expectantly.
‘I don’t understand. Why a mural? What would it be for?’
‘To expose Hadley, of course. It’ll be the same theme as our first cartoon. I’m working on a two-by-two-metre stencil of his face.’
At the very thought of a giant Coach Hadley peering down from a wall, my stomach drops like a stone.
‘We need to keep pressing this Hadley issue, since the school isn’t doing anything about it,’ Will says. ‘We wouldn’t even have to buy the paint. Nat’s uncle owns a paint shop, and she keeps spare tins for me in the newsroom in case I need them for an Art project –’
‘Oh, great idea,’ I say, my heart beginning to pound. What an idiot I’ve been. If I’d known the situation between Will and Natasha, I would never have embarked upon Amelia Westlake in the first place. ‘And while you’re borrowing her paint, why don’t you just tell her that you and I are Amelia Westlake? Or have you done that already?’ I ask.
‘I would never tell Nat without checking with you first,’ Will says emphatically. ‘Yes, we’re friends, but that doesn’t mean –’
‘Friends, are you?’ I meet her gaze. ‘I know you don’t think much of me, but I’m not entirely stupid. I just wish you’d told me. I spent an entire evening sending emails to cover our tracks when the biggest potential leak is you.’
Will looks confused, before comprehension breaks across her face. ‘You thought you saw something through the newsroom window today.’
‘Didn’t I?’ I cry.
She bursts out laughing. ‘Yes. You saw Nat and me moving a filing cabinet.’
‘Oh! I thought you were …’ Relief sweeps through me like a cool breeze through a hot room.
‘No.’ Will looks uncomfortable. She clears her throat. ‘I mean, not that we haven’t … you know … before … or aren’t …’ She sighs. ‘To be honest, things between us are a little complicated right now. All I’m saying is that today we were moving a filing cabinet.’
So I was right all along. I feel a sharp heat in my throat. ‘Then my point remains,’ I say as coldly as possible, even though a sickly warmth has started spreading through my body.
If Will and Natasha are together, how can I trust Will to keep Amelia a secret? Suddenly my head feels so tight that my eyes begin to tear up. ‘And tell me, Will,’ I press on. ‘How on earth are you going to paint a mural without anyone seeing? We’ll be expelled on the spot.’ My voice is shrill. ‘Anyway, haven’t you got a major work to complete? Shouldn’t you be expending your creative energy on that?’
Will looks appalled. ‘You know what, Harriet? Sometimes you can be a really condescending bitch.’
I gasp.
Her lip lifts like a cat’s to show her teeth, and I have an extremely frightening vision of her leaping on top of me in attack.
There are moments in one’s life of sudden clarity, moments when you recognise you’ve been stumbling along, happily admiring the landscape, only to realise there are sharp rocks below your feet, the surrounding plants are heavy with poisonous berries, and the path you’re following is no ordinary path; it’s a sociopath called Will Everhart. Why am I spending so much time with an attention-seeking untrustworthy trouble-maker, plotting, planning and sneaking around, only so Coach Hadley can continue being celebrated as a role model and we can be threatened with suspension, or worse?
It might be fine for Will – she has nothing to lose. But for me? I’m putting in jeopardy a stunningly bright future, an amazing girlfriend, an incredibly fulfilling life!
I wrap up the remains of my lunch, my head pounding. ‘You know what, Will? This whole thing is getting entirely out of hand. Do what you like. I don’t care anymore. I quit.’
Chapter 15
WILL
I watch Harriet storm out the door. Okay, storming isn’t the word. Storming implies hunched shoulders, noisy limb movements, menacing bulk. No. What Harriet does is more like what a floating tissue might do to express its
