Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 53

“Is everything alright?” Was the first thing Samuel said after Vivian finished speaking.

“Everything’s fine,” she assured him as she turned away from Ms Gardener, who was listening intently. Taking a few steps away, the phone cord not long enough to allow her to get out of earshot, Vivian continued. “My phone died and I was hoping you could ask Gilbert to come pick me up at school?”

There was a lengthy pause before her father spoke again. “You want me to have Mr Morris pick you up because your phone died?”

The last thing Vivian wanted to do was explain what had happened; there was a chance Samuel would get on Laurent’s case to fix the situation, or even intervene himself. He’d already shown his protectiveness when she’d mentioned Miriam had been made fun of for her lack of wealth. Vivian could only imagine how he’d react to his own daughter being targeted.

“I also need to pick up a notebook from home,” she added, remembering how her current ones were beyond salvation.

Another pause. “Did something happen, Vivian?”

She let out a breath and rubbed the palm of her hand against her forehead. The line between truth and lie was a tricky one to balance. The guilt from not being open and honest with someone who gave her so much freedom was there, but it wasn’t enough to change her mind about not telling him everything. “My phone got wet and it’s basically toast. I’m… annoyed that I didn’t think to memorize anyone’s number and… yeah.”

“…alright. I’ll let Mr Morris know to pick you up at school. He shouldn’t be long.”

“Thank you.”

“And Vivian?”

“Yes?”

“We’ll talk later.”

It took effort not to groan at his words as Vivian hung up the phone and nodded to Ms Gardener before leaving the office. At least she had a few hours to figure out how to tell Samuel what had happened without telling him what had happened.

Gilbert arrived less than five minutes later. After he’d pulled up to the curb Vivian slid into the back seat with a sigh. “I need to go back home,” she told him.

Instead of pulling out into traffic, the driver turned around in his seat and held out a card for her. Unsure what was happening, she accepted the card and looked at it. Printed on it was a phone number, nothing else.

“If you ever need to reach me, call that number,” he explained before turning back to face forward.

“Thanks,” she nodded, stashing the card in her pocket for now. It would be better for her to memorize it instead of carrying around the business card, but for now she was glad to have it.

No one was home when they arrived, which wasn’t a surprise. “Can you give me half an hour?” She asked Gilbert before she exited the car.

“Of course, Miss Vivian. Take your time.”

While waiting for him to arrive she’d figured out what to do. First, throw her uniform in the dryer; she could wait for the housekeepers to do it for her tomorrow but Vivian still felt awkward letting others do her laundry. With the first step finished she moved on to the second, taking the stairs two at a time as she made her way to her bedroom.

There, she entered her bathroom and pulled out the textbooks from her school bag, setting them up in the tub so their pages fanned out as much as possible. With some awkward engineering, Vivian strapped her hairdryer to the edge of the tub, angling it so it would blow on the pages before turning it on medium heat and leaving it to, hopefully, dry them out until she had to leave.

The third step in her plan was the hardest of them all. Sitting at the desk in her room, Vivian carefully opened her ruined notebook to the first page of the homework due that afternoon. It was a mess, barely legible but she wouldn’t let that stop her from doing her best. With a new notebook acquired from her desk drawer, she began to painstakingly redo the homework, working more from memory than copying what she could make out from the wet pages.

She was halfway done when the thirty minutes she’d given herself was up and Vivian was forced to stop. What was left would have to be done during lunch she supposed as she gathered her mostly dry textbooks from the tub after dismantling her hair dryer rig and stuffed them back into her school bag. The extra uniform Samuel had gotten her was suddenly a godsend as she threw it on.

Before leaving, Vivian stopped in the laundry room and checked on the dryer situation, finding her clothes still damp. The shoes she hadn’t even bothered with and instead grabbed the second pair from the rack by the door. Other than missing first period and needing to redo her homework, Vivian felt she’d handled the situation rather well, considering.

It was obvious who’d masterminded the ‘prank’ — Abby and her cohorts most likely — but Vivian wasn’t sure who’d done the deed. Someone on the track team had to have done it, since no one else had been in the locker room that morning; at least as far as she was aware. And even if someone had snuck in during practice, none of the girls had commented on someone’s things taking a shower.

Aggravated, she buckled herself into the seat as Gilbert drove her back to school in silence.

Without a phone she couldn’t get in touch with Miriam between classes, which was a bit annoying when Vivian wanted the girl’s input on what had been done and why. It just didn’t make sense.

Why bother doing something so juvenile? There was no reason for it. No one was there to explain whatever it was that annoyed them enough to drench Vivian’s things. Did they expect her to simply know what it was all about?

She could only think of the confrontations with Abby and how the blond wanted Vivian to stay away from Theo.

According to Miriam, Abby had a thing for Theo; but according to Theo, Abby had a thing for Laurent. So which was it? Did it even matter? Vivian just wanted to be left alone anyway, but everyone seemed hell bent on crashing through her life.

“I will be back at the usual time, Miss,” Gilbert told her when he pulled up to the school. “If you need me beforehand, please don’t hesitate to call.”

“Thank you, Gilbert,” she replied with a nod. “I appreciate you going out of your way like this.”

“It’s nothing, Miss Vivian. I’m here whenever you need me. Have a good day.”

How was she supposed to have a good day when it’d already started so badly? Then again, it couldn’t get much worse, could it?