Tunnels 05 - Spiral

calling?” Will said, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.
    “I’m trying to pick up texts from my friends, but the signal’s so weak. There’s this, like, massive party in London tonight — they’ll all be there, and I’m, like, stuck here in this . . .” She trailed off, as if it was unnecessary to say what she thought of the estate.
    “A party?” Chester said.
    “Yes. Some cool guys we know from Eton are coming. And also some from Harrow. Can’t believe I’m totally not going.” The despair in her voice had pushed it up an octave. “Where do you both go?” she asked quickly.
    “School?” Chester said. He was starry-eyed as he spoke to her, finding it very difficult to string more than a few words together.
    “Highfield,” Will told her.
    She frowned, moving her hand as if describing an area on a map. “That’s sort of north . . . north of London, isn’t it?” She bit her lower lip as if she pitied the two boys.
    “No, not there.” Will laughed. “It’s really pronounced High
feld
. It’s in Switzerland.”
    She looked confused. “In Switzerland? I haven’t heard of —”
    “No, you probably haven’t,” Will interrupted, puffing his chest out. “It’s a bit, like, exclusive. And sort of, like, expensive. It’s a totally cool place — we have skiing every morning before lessons.”
    “Really? My parents have never taken me skiing,” she admitted with a glum expression. “I really want to go.”
    Unseen by Stephanie, Chester was frantically shaking his head and mouthing “No!” at Will. But Will wasn’t to be stopped.
    “And my friend here is, like, a megastar on the slopes. Our ski teacher thinks he’s so awesome at the downhill slalom jumps, it’s a dead cert he’ll be on the next Olympic team.” Will made a swooshing sound and moved his arms in the way he’d seen skiers do on television.
    “Really?” she squeaked, spinning around to Chester so quickly she almost caught him gesticulating at Will. “Downhill slalom jumps! That’s, like, awesome!” She fluttered her eyelashes at the bemused boy. “Now I can say I’ve met an Olympic skier.”
    “Um, I’m not really that good,” Chester mumbled. “And we’ve really got to go now.” He grabbed hold of Will’s arm and yanked his friend down the hill with him. “What’d you say all that for?” Chester asked. “Why did you lie to her?”
    “She’s so stuck-up. Eton. Harrow. She thinks we’re useless just because we don’t go to those places. Actually, the truth is we don’t go to school
at all
, because an army of homicidal crazies that, like, live in the ground want to tear our heads off. Would you rather I’d told her that?” Will argued. “Do you think that would, like, be better?”
    “Stop saying ‘like’ all the time, will you?” Chester said in a long-suffering voice. “I think she’s nice.”
    Will looked over his shoulder to find that Stephanie was still watching them. He waved, and she waved back enthusiastically. Will bent his knees and swayed from side to side as if he was on skis, making more swooshing sounds. Stephanie laughed shrilly, but not unpleasantly.
    “And bloody stop that, too!” Chester huffed, stomping off down the hill.

    Once Elliott had reviewed the last of the films for Drake, she’d made her way back to her room. As she sat at the glass-topped dressing table, she ran her eyes over the items Mrs. Burrows had badgered Parry into buying for her. There was something so gratifying about the little bottles of nail polish, which she now began to arrange beside her eyeliner, foundation, and lipsticks. And there was the bottle of Mrs. Burrows’s own perfume that she’d given to Elliott.
    Elliott held the molded glass bottle so it caught the light, then sniffed at it. Of all the items on the dressing table, the perfume meant the most to her. It evoked memories of her mother, who always made such an effort with the rather unsophisticated scents sold at the perfumier’s shop in the South Cavern. Elliott smiled, remembering how she’d had mixed feelings about the Colony perfumes after being told by the perfumier’s son, a boy her age, that they were prepared by blending fermented fungal juice with Hunters’ urine. To this day she didn’t know if he’d been telling the truth.
    Putting the perfume bottle down, she yawned and stretched. Her time in the Deeps seemed like an age ago, and after this recent sojourn at Parry’s house, she felt like a completely different