Chapter 16

For the next few days, Lucy drifted in a haze, her thoughts scattered and untethered. The memory of the women’s hands, their mouths, the way her young body had responded ... it all felt like a fever dream. Had she wanted any of it? The experience seemed to have rewired something inside her. Her skin still hummed, and every now and then, a phantom aftershock pulsed between her legs.

She knew the word consent, but she couldn’t say for sure whether she’d given it. Some distant part of her knew Ms. Trunchbull, a headmistress in her fifties, shouldn’t have done those things to a fourteen year old girl. But on the rare occasions Lucy caught sight of her, Ms. Trunchbull’s gaze slid right past her, as if she were invisible. It made Lucy question whether any of it had been real, or if she’d imagined the whole, sordid thing. One thing was for sure, she was not going to tell anyone.

Thankfully, Ed Pembroke seemed to have disappeared for a few days. She began to hope that maybe, that nightmare was over.

But it did not last. On a Thursday night, in bed, her phone buzzed.

“I know you have hockey practice tomorrow morning. But you won’t be going. I don’t care—make an excuse. Meet me at my bench at 9:15 AM. You’ll be back in school by 11. Shower in the morning, but wear the same white knickers you’ve been wearing all night. I want them to smell of you.”

Lucy took about thirty seconds to comprehend what was going to happen. He was going to ... She put a hand between her legs. Soon it would be breached ... by a man. A disgusting, old pervert of a man.

Lucy thought about her options again. What would happen if everyone saw her videos, her photos? Would she get sympathy? What about in ten years time? Would men laugh at her, would she be single for ever? Would her parents kick her out? She pictured herself with kids, wishing that she had just ... complied with that monster.

She texted back.

“OK.”

She sighed, pulled on a pair of white knickers, and climbed into bed. Sleep wouldn’t come. She felt so alone, so utterly confused.

-------------- The next morning.

“Lucy, you nearly forgot your hockey stick!” Samantha stood in her dressing gown, face cream smeared on, while Lucy tried to slip out of the house, her movements furtive and guilty.

“Oh ... er, yeah. Thanks, Mummy.”

“I know you don’t like hockey, darling, but sports build character. Go out there and do your best, exercise keeps the body healthy. It’s important to stay active, to connect with others, to play with them.”

“I’ll try, Mummy,” Lucy said quietly. She knew the exercise she was headed for would be nothing like what her mother imagined.

----------- Lucy’s face burned as her eyes locked with Ed Pembroke’s. He stood there, clean-shaven but unkempt, his paunch straining against his tracksuit, his hair greasy and disheveled.

“Hello, Lucy,” he said, his smile oily. “Time for our first date.”

Her grip tightened around her hockey stick, and for a fleeting second, she imagined swinging it at him. But what was she thinking? A little girl like her, what could she possibly do to a man like him?

“What do you want, Ed?”

“Come on,” he urged, already turning away. “My house is just a minute away. Follow me.”

Lucy cast one last glance at the schoolyard, the distant cluster of girls laughing and joking. They seemed happy and safe. She felt so close but so divorced from them, stepping away from childhood and into this weird world.

------------ Ed Pembroke’s house sat right on the edge of the school grounds, its windows offering a clear view of the playing fields, the corridors, and even some of the classrooms.

“Great place to live,” Ed said, his hand slapping Lucy’s bottom as they crossed the threshold. He shut the front door behind them with a final click and locked it with a key before pocketing it. “I get to watch you little schoolgirls all day, in the classrooms, on the fields, in the yard. Walking in and out, laughing, playing...” His eyes glazed over slightly. “Drives me crazy.”