Free The Accident Season by Moïra Fowley-Doyle Page A

the wind whistles. Our extended Indian summer is finally coming to a close.
    While we wait, we are joined by Alice and Kim and some of Alice’s friends: Niamh; her boyfriend, Joe; his brother Martin, who is in our year; and Carl Gallagher, who is Toby Healy’s obnoxious best friend. Carl sits up on the top step, very obviously close to Bea, but she doesn’t seem to notice. I can’t help but think that nobody sits that close to me. I look over at Sam, who is on the other side of Bea. Then I look down at my hands.
    Everybody is talking about the Black Cat and Whiskey Moon Masquerade Ball. It’s the only reason Alice’s friends are sitting with us in the first place, I think, but I like that they’re sitting with us at all.
    “You got some Metallica on that playlist?” Carl is asking Bea. “You need some old-school stuff for a Halloween mix. Pink Floyd? Guns N’ Roses? Here, let me play a couple of songs I think you’ll like.”
    Joe, who doesn’t look particularly impressed at Carl’s sudden interest in Bea, is asking Alice about liquor. “Do you think Nick could do a beer run for us before the party? I mean, I have a fake ID, but it’d be cool if he could get it for us—you never know when you’ll run into a neighbor at the liquor store, you know?”
    Before Alice can answer, though, her phone rings.
    “Speak of the devil,” Joe says.
    While Alice walks away to talk with Nick on the phone, Niamh and Kim discuss costumes. “I heard Katie Donoghue’s going as a bunny. Like, in a headband with ears and a fluffy tail.”
    Kim snorts. “A bunny. To a masquerade. Does she not get that this
isn’t
just some stupid old Halloween party? That’s the whole point.”
    “I know, right?”
    Bea has taken out her ukulele and is singing softly. A train trundles by on the tracks at the far end of the school. Little by little the parking lot empties. Soon only the last fewstragglers, the janitors, the principal and her office staff, and the few pupils and teachers who stay around for detention or supervised study are left on the school grounds.
    “So, hey,” says Carl, standing up to leave, “we’re heading to this open mic thing in the bar at the university. Want to pretend to be college students for the evening?”
    “It’ll be great,” says Martin. “We’ll sit around and talk about philosophy lectures—”
    “It’s easy to do,” Joe cuts in. “Just make shit up and sound pretentious.”
    “And drink a few beers, play some songs. You guys in?”
    “Sounds great,” Sam says. He turns to us. “Melanie’s staying late at the studio, right? We can get a lift home with her.”
    I give Sam a look that tries to convey the sense of
Remember the plan?
but I can’t fault him for wanting to go hang out with the popular guys for the evening.
    “Bea and I have . . . some stuff to do,” I say vaguely. Bea nods and Carl looks slightly disappointed. “Definitely next time, though.”
    “More spells to cast?” says Martin, who is in our French class. He waves his arms as if brandishing a magic wand, but his smile is playful.
    “That’s right,” says Bea with a wicked grin. “Lots of dancing naked around bonfires and sacrificing virgins. Would you like to volunteer?”
    Martin’s expression flickers. “Next time, maybe,” hesays, only slightly frostily. I give Bea a kick. She spreads her hands to me as if to say
What?
    Alice tut-tuts. “Bea, play nice with the other children,” she says, and Martin and Joe laugh. Bea winks at Alice with a shake of her curls.
    “Okay,” Alice says, looking at her phone. “I’m meeting Nick in the city in an hour anyway, so I’ll get the bus with you.”
    “See you two later.” Sam gives me and Bea a one-armed hug good-bye and follows Alice and her friends to the bus stop.
    I stare after them until Bea pulls me up. I sigh. “We had better find what we’re looking for,” I say. “And it had better be worth missing
that
.”
    Bea and I sneak back into the