Blake Something's About to Blow Up

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-0-7171-9717-0
Verlag: Gill Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 308 Seiten

When an explosion rips through the chemistry lab at Raven's Hill School and six girls are injured, the first thought is that it's an experiment gone wrong. Then the guards start investigating and suspect a bomb. But if so, who was it targeting - and why? Could toxic relationships have bubbled over into violence? The injured Frankie and Sorcha team up with Jess to try to find out what actually happened. But what they discover is far more sinister than even they could have imagined ...

Sam Blake is a bestselling writer, whose books have been shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year four times. Under her real name, Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin, she is the founder of Writing.ie, The Inkwell Group and Murder One. This is her second YA novel following the critically acclaimed Something Terrible Happened Last Night.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Blake, Sam

Leseproben

ST VALENTINE’S WARD
ST ANTHONY’S HOSPITAL
3.45 p.m.
19 hours 40 minutes remaining
Ella

Ella closed her eyes and concentrated on trying to breathe gently. Even with the drugs they’d given her, the pain was huge, rolling over her with each breath. She’d never realised how many muscles she used for just getting oxygen into her lungs.

Ella slipped her hand inside the sheets and pushed under her bum, trying to shift in the bed, to get a bit more comfortable. All it did was make the pain worse. She winced, gritting her teeth, her eyes filling with tears.

She needed more pillows. Her mum had helped her sit up and thankfully brought her short-sleeved pyjamas that buttoned up, so changing out of the awful gown hadn’t been a total nightmare, but it had worn her out. They were cute pink satin PJs with white piping and shorts, so she wasn’t totally baking either; it felt as if they had the heating on max here 24/7.

Aoife, the nurse who knew Frankie, had been lovely when she’d first been brought up to the ward. She’d said she’d let the others know Ella was awake, but without her phone Ella couldn’t message anyone or even look at Rave-fess to find out what the latest news was.

Part of her couldn’t deal with what had happened. Not yet. She was just so overwhelmingly grateful she hadn’t lost an eye or a limb, that her face was fine. Ribs would heal, but she couldn’t have coped with a life-changing injury.

She couldn’t think about what might have happened, about what could still happen if one of them had complications.

It was too awful.

She needed to think about something else. At least focusing on those naked photographs and that whole drama filled her head and stopped her thinking about this drama.

But without her phone, she didn’t know if anyone had more news on the identity of the girl whose photos were being shared. Ella cringed inside. It could so easily have been any of them – and how many had she sent? Ella couldn’t imagine that she’d be able to face school if her pictures had been seen by loads of people.

Ella would bet that the boy who had asked for them had been nice up to now, trying to get her into bed, probably. Maybe she’d said no and then he’d got nasty. The 24 hours thing everyone was talking about made it feel like a real threat, though. What on earth did she have to do in the next 24 hours to stop more pictures being shared?

Whoever had left the post on Rave-fess about confiding in a friend was right. Ella just hoped the girl wasn’t too embarrassed to reach out.

On a normal day that’s all they’d be talking about – and the post about Hailey de Búrca and whether she was actually coming to Raven’s Hill or not. Amber had been full of it this morning at breaktime. Before Ella had even got her locker open, Amber had waved her phone at her, the Rave-fess post on the screen, her eyes alight.

‘Have you seen this? I follow her brother on Instagram – he’s utterly gorgeous.’

Ella had laughed at Amber’s excited face. ‘If she comes here, maybe she’ll have a party and you can meet him.’

Amber had fallen back against the lockers theatrically, the back of her hand on her forehead. ‘This could be my actual future, Amber de Búrca sounds so good, doesn’t it? And I can manage the family jet – I mean Majorca could be slumming it a bit, I’m not sure the pool in their villa is quite big enough, but I could learn to cope.’

‘You’d have to brush up on your skiing. St Moritz, isn’t it, that they go to?’

‘Totally is. I could get lessons, before I meet him. When do you think she’s starting?’

Ella had been trying to find her lab coat, realising that she’d forgotten to bring it in again. She pushed the locker door closed and locked it.

‘I’m not sure Raven’s Hill will take her.’

Amber leaned on the locker, her face serious. ‘Why not? The de Búrcas are like the richest family in the country, according to, well, everything.’

Ella had grimaced. Maybe Hailey’s dad thought he could buy her a way into Raven’s Hill. Tiernan was always saying he never got into any trouble at Raven’s Park because his dad had bought the sports building. But from what Ella had heard, Hailey de Búrca might not be an ideal fit for their school. She didn’t exactly have a track record for getting on with people, and she had a vindictive streak.

‘Don’t breathe a word of this …’ Ella had sent Amber a warning look.

Amber quickly drew a cross on her chest with her finger. ‘Lips sealed, hope to die.’ She pinched her mouth closed, then put her hand on Ella’s arm. ‘Spill, before I die of anticipation.’

Ella had almost laughed. Amber could be more dramatic than Georgia sometimes.

‘One of my cousin’s friends was dating this girl from Ardmore Wood. Hailey got expelled for punching her, his girlfriend I mean – Hailey broke her nose.’

Amber’s hand shot straight to her own nose, as if she was protecting it. ‘Never – why?’

Ella kept her voice down. ‘She reported Hailey for smoking in the bathrooms. Apparently Hailey had been right under a smoke detector and deliberately blowing smoke up at it. If she’d set the fire alarm off, the sprinklers would have gone off too, like they did that time at Raven’s Park when the whole art room got wrecked.’

‘I thought that was an “accident” at Raven’s Park?’ Ella had raised her eyebrows knowingly in reply as Amber continued. ‘But that’s not a reason to punch someone – that’s terrible.’

‘Apparently Hailey got suspended for the smoking thing and on her way out of school went straight up to this girl in the lunchroom and whacked her.’

Amber had rolled her eyes. ‘Maybe I need to find another way to meet her delicious brother. I was already looking forward to us sipping Bellinis on the terrace of their place in Tuscany.’

‘You know I’d never turn down a Bellini, but maybe you need to revise your marriage plans, just until you’ve made sure anger issues don’t run in the family. You don’t want to land in some sort of abusive relationship.’

Suddenly the curtains surrounding Ella’s bed twitched open, interrupting her thoughts. A face peeped through the gap. It was Amber, with Georgia peering over her shoulder. It was like she’d conjured up her friend by thinking of her.

‘Are you awake? Can we come in?’

Ella felt herself grinning with relief. She’d been worried about how she was going to survive the boredom of the afternoon worrying about every breath and with no phone. At least now she could catch up on the gossip.

Ella looked at Amber, rolling her eyes. ‘Obviously.’ It came out as a whisper. Speaking used another set of muscles that lifted the pain over the dulling influence of the drugs. ‘That’s so spooky, I was just thinking about you.’

Like twins with their matching glossy brown hair, padded jackets with pastel hoodies underneath, leggings and hi-tops, Amber and Georgia swished the curtains apart one after the other as if they were coming on stage. Ella smiled but didn’t dare laugh. She put her hand around her ribs protectively. ‘Come and sit down, but you’re not allowed to be funny. Seriously, it hurts too much.’

Amber grinned and came and sat on the edge of the bed as Georgia went around to the visitor’s chair.

‘Sorry we’re so late – our mums said we should wait, that you wouldn’t be able for visitors until later. They’re a bit hysterical about the whole explosion thing so we had to sneak off and get the bus.’

That explained their exercise gear. They both looked like they were going to the gym.

Wincing, Ella shifted a fraction up on her pillow so she could see them both properly. ‘Have you heard anything about how it happened?’

Amber shook her head solemnly. ‘Nothing yet. The whole lab’s wrecked, though. Jess is sure it was a bomb.’

Amber left the word hanging there and Ella felt some of the brightness at their arrival evaporate. Who would bomb a school? It was more than she could cope with right now. It sounded nuts.

As if Georgia realised Ella needed to be distracted, she opened her backpack. ‘We bought you magazines, since we weren’t sure if you’re allowed to have your phone on. Look, Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and Psychologies.’ Georgia put the magazines on the bed beside Ella. ‘We’ll have to go in a minute, but we can come back tomorrow. Frankie has her phone – if you need anything, get a message to her and she can text us.’

‘Mum’s bringing in a phone for me later; I’ll message as soon as I get it. And I’d love to see you tomorrow. These are fantastic.’ Ella kept her voice low, fighting the pain as she smiled, emotion welling up inside her. Her friends were the best.

Georgia stood...