Trust Chapter 4

1

I woke hot and clammy. I' been up most of the night thinking about Clare. Was she the same Clare?2

I got dressed quickly and splashed some water on my face. I ran to her room and burst through the door. She was sitting on her bed, wearing her uniform, picking at the sided of it that hung off her.3

“Hi,” she beamed.4

“Hi Clare, listen I need to ask you something.5

“Yeah, as long as I can follow you around today.”6

“Of course. Clare, what's your surname?”7

“You mean my last name?” I nodded. “Wright, Clare Amina Wright.”8

“Look, I know you don't to say but, will you tell me what happened to your parents?”9

“They, they died, In a train crash.”10

Her eyes started to water and I wrapped my arms around her, trying to comfort her. I'd know it, somewhere inside me. I don't know how but I'd knew. Clare parents couldn't be dead, the article would have said that, or there would have been a headline on the train crash. We had to get out.11

“Wait here for two minutes, hide under your bed, okay?”12

“Sure...” she clambered under pushing her trunk in front of her.13

I left her room into the narrow corridor, I could see El at the end.14

“El!” I shouted.15

She turned round and I signalled to her, she came running up the corridor towards me.16

“Come with me,” I whispered.17

I took her to Clare's room and tried to explain. El isn't for understanding, but she knows when to believe someone.18

“So what do you suppose we do about it all?” She asked.19

“Well, considering that our own parents might be alive...”20

“NO. I was at my parents funeral.”21

“Me too but...I don't know. I say we should run away, try to find Clare's parent and they could help us.22

“Your insane, but I trust you. I'll go put some of our clothes in a bag, not that fit us very well any more.”23

El left and I could soon hear her moving a bag around.24

I signalled Clare to come out and took her tiny backpack an packed two sets of clothes, some underwear, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a towel, body wash and shampoos, her teddy bear and a book.25

El came back in and handed me my bag, everything we'd talked about when I first came here, when we had 'planned' to escape. Now it was the real thing, I felt sick.26

“How will we get out?” I asked picking Clare up.27

“Mrs K is always in her office, we could practically walk out the front door, but its risky, someone would probably tell on us.”28

“Hmm, what about the fire escape?”29

“Lets go!” She grinned.30

We ran to the end of the corridor and El picked the lock on the door with her hair pin. We squeezed inside the tiny pantry and packed some food, it felt bad to be stealing, but I certainly wasn't going to die of hunger. I grabbed some biscuits and juice, I saw El packing some sandwiches and cereal and Clare just couldn't help but cram as many chocolate bars as possible into the front pocket of her bag. 31

I opened the fire escape window and looked down at the 40ft ladder that led to the small room, over Mrs K's office, we'd then have a small jump to the ground. 32

“Right,” said El, “I'll go down first, make sure everything's clear, then I'll give you the signal.” 33

She hopped onto the ladder fearlessly and started to climb down. When she got to the ledge she immediately ducked and pulled out her pocket mirror, she aimed it at what I thought was a wall, but must have been a window. El looked up at me and mouthed, “Window, watch out”. She then crawled to the side of the roof and looked over, she gave me a thumbs up, and leaped off.34

It was my turn, I put Clare on my back making sure we had everything and followed El's course carefully. When I reached the ground I ran straight to the nearby trees. El appeared out the darkness and signalled me to be quiet. In sign language she told me, 35

“Lets go to the cliffs, no one can see us, then we can walk along the beach to the town.”36

I set Clare down and took her hand, we ran as fast as our lungs would let us to the cliffs. Through the meadows and cows, past Brooke the horse.37

When we got there I was exhausted, “Give me a minute,” I said.38

“When we get down onto the beach we need to hide somewhere and put our normal clothes on,”39

“I'm hungry,” groaned Clare.40

“Yeah, I think we should eat something, for breakfast.”41

“I got a packet of honey loops,” El said, opening the cardboard box and taking a handful.42

After we'd all had some cereal we slid down the muddy path to the beach and hid inside a small cave. We put on our casual clothes, I had some black jeans with a vest top and a red hoodie. El had denim shorts and a purple top. Clare wore a pink skirt with white tights, a pink cardigan and a French bonnet, and she had the cutest little boots ever!43

“Why exactly are we running away?” asked Clare.44

“To find your...um,” I didn't want to say it, doubt was creeping in. This was insane, what were we doing?45

“We don't think your parent are really dead,” said El, “We think that they MIGHT be alive, our parents too,” she looked at me.46

“But they put them in the ground, in a box.”47

“I went to my parents funeral aswell, but what if it was fake?”48

“I suppose, but I'm scared.”49

“I'm scared too,” I said, “Were all scared, but we have each other.”50

“C'mon,” said El, “We need to get a move on, I brought a map,” she pulled out a map and laid it on the ground, “If we take a bus from Wethery to...” she turned to Clare.51

“I live in Elinsworth,” she said.52

El circled her finger around for a minute or two before pinpointing Elinsworth.53

“We need to get a train to Port Fall, then its about 10miles to Elinsworth from there.”54

“We don't have any money!” I fumed, angry with myself for thinking of it.55

“I have my savings, and If its not enough, we could always hide in the bathroom of the train, I hear its a good tactic.”56

El put away the map and we shared a chocolate bar between us, we then got up and headed along the beach.57