A Simple Plan (1)
Wednesday, 29 May
The next morning, the sky was perfectly blue. It was as if it had been washed clean by the rain and then blow-dried by the wind of the previous night's storm. Small, ragged white clouds raced across the sky driven by a steady, mild southerly breeze.
In contrast with the rest of the school, the canteen was a bright, modern open-plan area. Its white walls framed large doors that opened on to a large decking area, the light-coloured wood bleached by the sun. As they sat at one of the tables eating lunch, Sadie explained her plan.
"It'll never work," Brianna said flatly, pausing between forkfuls of tuna salad.
"Don't be so negative! Of course it'll work. Listen, it's all perfectly logical. One: we're all struggling with biology, yes?" Sadie explained, holding up her hands and counting off the points on her slim fingers.
Emma and Brianna nodded warily as they forked salad into their mouths.
"Two: Emma can borrow one of those new mini-HD cameras from her film and photography club."
"I guess so," Emma replied suspiciously, shading her eyes as the sun suddenly burst through a gap in the clouds.
"Three: we can get the key to Miss Hunter's room from Michael."
"Hang on. I know you've got those pictures but are you sure Michael will play along?" Brianna interrupted.
Sadie paused as she delved into her rucksack before holding up the key ring with a flourish. Two silver keys glinted in the bright sunlight.
"I got them from him this morning," she said, smiling triumphantly. "Now we've got those pictures we can get him to do whatever we want."
"Okay, so let me get this straight: you want us to break in and plant a camera?" Brianna said, shaking her head. "What if we get caught?"
"It's not breaking in, silly! You have a key. And I checked: Miss Hunter is away at some kind of seminar this afternoon. And anyway, if anyone asks just tell them Miss
Hunter sent you to get something before she left."
"I don't know," Emma said. "Even if we manage to set up the camera what are you hoping to catch her doing? I mean, it would have to be something pretty embarrassing, something she'd really want to keep to herself."
"Don't worry about that," Sadie said confidently. "My older sister was at St Catherine's a couple of years ago and I've heard a few stories about Miss Hunter. You leave that to me."
---
They'd never been inside Miss Hunter's room before. The two girls looked nervously up and down the corridor before slipping inside and locking the door behind them. It felt strange and wrong to be there without Miss Hunter being present. It was a bright, airy room with colourful prints brightening the neutral magnolia walls. Emma recognised a Monet and a Degas; the teacher was obviously a fan of the French impressionists. A half-open door to the left of the sofa led to a tidy-looking bedroom with light magenta walls and beyond that, a small bathroom.
"So where do we put this?" Brianna said, holding up the video camera. It was a black Sony handheld camcorder, about the size of a small, thick paperback.
They stood just inside the door whilst they looked around. There was a large desk at the far end of the room, in front of the window. It was full of books and untidy stacks of papers. A closed laptop sat in the middle. On their left was a large, well-worn, olive green sofa. On their right, a series of large shelves filled with a jumble of boxes and books and framed photo's.
"How about up there?" Emma suggested, nodding towards the top shelf. "It should have a view of the whole room."
Brianna was slightly taller so she got on the chair to examine the shelf. On it were a number of large sturdy-looking, brown cardboard boxes with hand-sized oval slots cut in the sides to make carrying them easier. One of them was half-empty.
"Wait, I've got an idea," she said, heaving the box from the shelf. They put the camera into the box then took some more of the papers out, reducing the level until the lens was level with the hand-hole and pointing downwards at the sofa.
"Perfect!" Emma said, as she watched Brianna put the box back then checked her watch. "We'll start it now; it's got about eight hours recording time so we should be okay till about ten o'clock this evening."
---
Annabel Hunter sighed and picked up another assignment from the pile on her desk. She'd been marking papers since she got back from her seminar. It had been an hour-and-a-half and the pile didn't seem to be getting any smaller. She picked up her red pen and started reading-
"The phloem sieve tubes remove the products of photosynthesis." Tick.
"The xylem cells are long tracheary elements that transport water and some nutrients." Tick.