West arrived!” Seb hissed the words as Aiden stared wide-eyed.
“But … but I didn’t see a dog; all I saw was the lights.”
“When we got back on the coach and everything was so normal I started to think I imagined it, like when I thought I saw Alice at school. But then Mr Duir made Alice appear, and then you could see him too, so now I am sure the dog was real!”
“You saw Alice at school? Today?”
“No, no, last week, that day I fainted. He was in the sick room, the playground and the assembly too. I thought I was going mad, Aiden.”
The buffeting and bustling of the other students continued and suddenly Zach thrust his head into the recess where Aiden and Seb were seated. “C’mon you two – lunchtime. What have you been doing?”
Scarlet and Nat stopped on their way up the aisle. “There you are, Seb. You missed the hot chocolate!” Scarlet stopped as she saw the untouched cup Seb had placed on the seat-back tray in front of him. “Or maybe you didn’t!”
“Lunchtime. Come on!” Zach insisted, pulling Aiden into the aisle.
Seb stood to follow. As he did, Alice flitted into the space in front of Aiden’s seat.
“Am I invited?” His leafy voice was cold and challenging.
Seb ignored him. Taking a deep breath he stepped through him. As he did he felt a sharp kick like a static shock. He fell against Scarlet.
“Careful, Seb,” she tutted. “And bring your cup, dirty boy. Who do you think is going to clear up after you?”
Seb frowned. To get the cup would mean passing back through Alice, which he certainly wasn’t going to do. Scarlet tutted again and, leaning through Alice, who didn’t move but watched Seb angrily, she grabbed the cup and thrust it towards Seb.
“Your cup. Your responsibility.”
He took it and his packed lunch which Zach handed him and they made their way to the lower school sports hall. Still annoyed, Seb sat beside Aiden as the girls began chattering about the terrific storm.
A movement in the corner of Seb’s eye and he knew Alice had come along too, invited or not.
Aiden nudged him. “Aren’t you going to speak to him?” he whispered.
“No.” Seb took a half-hearted bite of his sandwich and didn’t look up.
“ … like night-time. Never seen a storm like it.” Zach agreed with the girls. He took a slurp from an orange carton. “Bet you boys were scared.” He looked eagerly at Seb.
“Yes, but not for the reasons you think,” Seb answered.
Aiden nudged him. “Seb, be careful. He’ll hear!”
“I am well aware that he’ll hear, Aiden. And he doesn’t scare me!” Seb shouted, turning to stare at Alice with a frown.
Zach, Scarlet and Nat stopped eating and gawped at Seb who seemed to be glaring into thin air. Realising he was making a spectacle Seb turned to them and lowered his voice. “I have to tell you something.”
Alice whizzed forward to stand between him and the other three. “Do you, Seb? And what would that be?”
Seb stood. As he did he realised his palm was tingling. He heard Nat gasp. Behind Zach, emerging through the double fire exit doors, he could see a black shape. Scarlet, seeing the look on his face, looked over her shoulder and stifled a scream just as, in a flash of green, the Dryad whizzed to stand in front of the ogre shape that was now completely through the door. Alice began flitting backwards and forwards in front of the ogre so fast he left a trail behind him. Seb’s eyes couldn’t follow him. In seconds the trail had formed a mesh in the air.
Aiden stood beside Seb. “What is he doing?”
“Who … what are you guys staring at?” Zach was confused and other students nearby had started to look over.
The ogre shape took a step forward and walked into the meshing Alice had made. It recoiled as if struck, stumbled backward and disappeared.
Scarlet spoke, “Seb did you …? I thought I saw … no, it’s gone.”
Alice rematerialised beside Seb, hands on his hips. Seb caught a glimpse of Mr Duir leaving the sports hall through the internal doors.
Alice sounded angry. “I am here to help. I did not cause you problems at the Bank and if I had not made you stand as you did, your friend here would be dead. There is so much you just don’t know and yet you have so much arrogance you wish to dismiss me and believe you can manage alone!”
Nat was staring at the spot occupied by Alice. Zach, demolishing a Kit Kat, laughed. “Scarlet, there’s nothing there. Don’t be such a girl!”
“I thought I heard something …” Nat said then shook her head.
And now Alice zoomed forward and bent towards her. “You did hear something, Nat, and you should trust your senses.” Her head darted up, her eyes searched the air. “You see, Seb? There is more to believing than seeing. Nat knows there is more, which is why she hears.” Staring down at Nat, Alice bowed. “Nat, I am Alice.”
As he completed his flourishing bow Seb watched Nat’s eyes open in amazement. She stood, dropping the sandwich she had been holding.
“Nat!” Zach was horrified. “Your lunch!”
Nat looked guiltily around as though she thought she was alone in seeing Alice. Then she made eye contact with Seb. He nodded to her as Aiden stepped forward. “Nat, do you see?” She smiled and nodded.
Scarlet had noticed their strange behaviour. “What are you three doing? Sit down. I’m sure they’ll call us back to the coach soon. You’d better finish your lunch.”
Zach looked at Nat’s sandwich. “I’ll have that if you don’t want it.” He reached over to retrieve it from the floor.
As he did Alice spoke, “Zach, Scarlet, I am Alice.” He completed his sentence as Zach’s fingers made contact with the sandwich. A look of horror crossed Zach’s face as Alice materialised around his outstretched hand. He snapped his arm back.
“What is that? What are you? OMG it’s a ghost!” His voice boomed around the sports hall and all eyes turned on him.
“Zach! Be quiet!” Aiden whispered.
Scarlet was staring open-mouthed at Alice.
“Sit down, Zach.” Seb tugged Zach’s arm, making him sit.
He looked back and forth between Alice and Seb. “Can you all see it? Tell me you all see this, or have I lost the plot?”
Sticks and Stones
A shrill whistle from the main doorway brought silence to the hall.
“Finish up, toilet breaks and then back to the coach,” Miss West said.
Bedlam followed as there was a mad scramble for the toilets. In the privacy of the noise and disturbance Zach was speechless for once.
Scarlet gazed at Alice. “Seb, it looks exactly like you … except the leaves and things.”
“That’s where you are wrong …” Alice hovered beside Seb. “He looks exactly like me, except the pasty skin and strange hair and things,” his voice rustled. “And Scarlet, I am a he not an it!”
Zach regained his composure and confidence and now leant forward to wave a hand underneath Alice’s feet. Then he lifted his arm up and through Alice’s legs. Alice leapt upward, blurring into a green flash, then reformed feet above where he had been. “Watch it, Zach. You don’t know me well enough!”
Zach pulled his arm back. “What did you say your name was?”
“You heard perfectly well, otherwise you would not see me.”
A smile crept across Zach’s lips, actually more of a sneer. “Mm. Alice, wasn’t it?”
“Zach, don’t make fun of his name. Mr Duir said we shouldn’t.” Aiden said.
“Mr Duir? What has he got to do with this hallucination?” Zach turned to Aiden.
“He can see him and I believe Mr White could too.”
“Oh, so we’re all going mad together then?”
“Seb, your friend is worse than you,” Alice complained as Scarlet and Nat stared in admiration at him. “Zach, if you see you should believe.” A flash of green haze and Alice disappeared.
From the sports hall entranc
e Miss West beckoned them and then placed her hands on her squat hips, frowning. They packed away and walked towards her.
“Toilets then onto the coach!” she snapped.
“What is that thing, then?” Zach whispered as they entered the boys’ toilets.
“He’s a Dryad,” Aiden said. “A tree spirit.”
“Oh, hence the leaves I suppose,” Zach said sarcastically, approaching a urinal. Alice reappeared in front of him. “You are not seriously going to follow us in here!” Zach almost shouted. The last boy in the toilets glanced at him then shuffled out of the door.
“Nothing I haven’t seen before.” Alice crossed his arms.
“Now you are just being creepy and I tell you what, nothing will stop me peeing.” With that, Zach approached the urinal and unzipped his trousers. Alice raised his eyes upward and zoomed off, disappearing through the solid door.
“Thank goodness for that!” Aiden relaxed. “I really don’t think I could have gone with him watching.” He went towards an empty cubicle.
Zach called out, “So why is he here, then? And why does he look like you, Seb?”
Neither Seb nor Aiden had an answer.
Miss West met them, with the girls, back in the corridor and escorted them to the coach. They found their original seats and Nat and Scarlet swapped with Jack, next to Aiden, who gladly relinquished his one seat for their two.
Standing at the front, Mr Duir announced that the weather had improved sufficiently for them to return to Waulud’s Bank. There was a collective groan as the coach driver pulled out of the playground.
Seb stared out of the window, wondering what had happened to Alice but glad to be free of him until Zach nudged him and pointed. Seb leant across to see what he