Plan B

Chapter Forty-nine

As November wore on, the weather got colder, and it was common to wake up with frost on the ground.  By lunchtime, this was usually gone because it had been raining, but this didn't appear to deter the sports department from sending everybody on a run every games session.

"God, am I ever glad I don't do sports here," Fran remarked to Brookie as they passed by some boys in her year who were on their way back up from the rugby pitches, drenched and covered in mud.  She tucked her hands into the pocket of her hoodie.  "I think I'd die."

"You get used to it," Brookie said, but he didn't sound all that enthusiastic about it.  He'd already had his hour of rugby that day, and he wasn't happy about coming back out into the rain after having a shower, but Fran had been insistent on getting some fresh air and Rico had closeted himself away in the music school to work on a composition for his music A-level coursework.

Arthur trailed a few steps behind the pair of them, half in his own world.  He'd come out in just a t-shirt and jeans, but bizarrely wasn't feeling the cold.  Brookie said he was probably courting pneumonia.

"I'm not," Arthur snapped.  "I'm thinking."

"Really?  Wow.  Didn't think you were capable of it," Brookie said lightly.  "What were you thinking about?"

Arthur blushed and hastily looked away.  "None of your business."

Fran raised an eyebrow, wondering if it was worth preying on the hunch she was feeling.  "Who isn't our business?  Do we know her or not?"

For the first time since she'd met him, Arthur appeared flustered.  He opened his mouth as if to answer, then shut it again.

"Better to keep silent if you don't want to lie," Brookie told him.  He turned to Fran.  "Yes, it's somebody we know.  But we won't get any more out of him because he refuses to tell us which girls catch his eye."

Skipping back through a puddle with a huge splash, Fran clung to Arthur's arm and batted her eyelids at him.

"Arthur, dearest!" she cooed.  "Is it me?"

Arthur looked distinctly less self-conscious at her obviously overdone flirtations.  "Nope."

"Aw."  Fran pouted.  "Arthur, you're breaking my heart."

"Oh, do you have two?  I thought your heart was already given to Rico."

Fran's face darkened into a scowl and she let go of Arthur's arm to thump him in a shoulder.  "F*ck off."

He had the grace to chuckle in an embarrassed fashion.  Brookie stepped between them.

"Now, now, lovebirds.  Frankie, pick on somebody your own size."

Fran spluttered.  "What?  He's nearly double my height!"

Brookie winked at her.  "My point exactly."

"Frankie, I'm a foot and a half taller than you," Arthur corrected.  "That's not quite double your height.  I'd be about ten feet tall if I was."  He kicked a stone aside as they turned off the path down to the games pitches onto one of the campus roads and started heading back to the main school.  They continued on in silence for a few minutes before Fran felt it was getting awkward and spoke up.

"How's Stonehelm going?"

"Pretty well."  Brookie smiled.  "We've finished almost all the location filming and just have a few green-screen scenes to do.  Mathilda came down to the set last weekend and she seemed to think it was great."

"How did your co-stars react to that?" Arthur asked.  Brookie considered for a moment.

"They weren't happy," he admitted.  "Mathilda seemed to think that Leila was hitting on me rather aggressively.  She found it quite funny."