malory towers fic | complex | chapter 3
Title: Complex, Chapter 3 (Chapter 1 here)
Fandom: Malory Towers
Pairing: Darrell/Sally, I think.
Rating: None
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Enid Blyton, or her estate or publishers or whatever, not me.
Words: 2400 approx.
Spoilers: The whole Malory Towers series.
Notes: Malory Towers post-fic, with Darrell, Sally, Alicia and Betty at St Andrews university.
Chapter 3, concerning small spaces.
The next week flew by for Darrell, much of it taken up with extra study sessions for her forthcoming December exams. She and Sally saw each other only in the evenings, when they would sit down in the common room together with a book each, or a chess board or jigsaw between them.
Sally seemed to be her usual self, despite the events of the previous weekend. She was a little quiet, perhaps, but then, she seemed to be studying very hard.
Darrell was strangely distracted these days. Her mind was drifting back to that uncomfortable night in the Tudor more often than she'd like, and she'd yet to figure out what exactly it was that was bothering her.
She had seen nothing of Alicia, although Sally said that Betty had attended all of her British History lessons that week, obviously knuckling under and getting to work in time for the exam period. That Friday night she and Sally missed their evening in the Tudor - as they occasionally did anyway - since they would be there the next night.
When they arrived at the Inn on Saturday, though, Stuart and his other academic children were waiting outside. They recognised him from some yards away, as his carrot red hair stood out a mile, but as they neared the party they realised that he was not the only familiar face.
"Why didn't you say Tom would be here?" Sally demanded in a fierce whisper.
"I didn't know!" Darrell protested. "I didn't even know he was one of Stuart's children. Imagine that, our long-lost academic half-brother," she joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"That's not funny, Darrell, what if he wants to talk to me?"
"Then talk back, Sally!" Darrell said, amused, pinching her friend gently on the arm. "He's only a boy."
Sally scowled, but did not seem too disheartened, as she smiled cheerfully at Stuart in greeting as they arrived at his side.
"Waiting outside for us, 'Father'?" she joked.
Stuart shook his head. "We're not actually staying," he explained. "This was just a good place to meet. Follow me."
He led them back along the way they had just come for a little bit, making Darrell and Sally wonder why they'd come out this way at all, but soon their path turned up through town towards, they disovered a few minutes walk later, the Botanic Gardens towards the outskirts of town. Stuart led them up to one of the larger, older cut-stone houses on Kinessburn Road, near the Gardens.
"My parents' house," he explained. "My elder brother held raisin parties here before me, and last year and this year, I've hosted my own. The front door was unlocked, and he led them into a large porch, followed by a wide, wood-floored hallway. The students were exclaiming over their surroundings when they heard a call from one of the rooms off the hall.
"Well, you lot certainly took your time!" Darrell and Sally looked at each other. They knew that voice.
"Alicia!" They greeted her in unison as she opened the door of the room, standing in the doorway. The party was going on in the main room of the house: its large, airy drawing room. Around a dozen other students were there already, chattering away to each other animatedly.
"Well Alicia, whatever are you doing here?" Darrell asked, smiling in greeting. She hadn't forgotten Alicia's harsh words when last they met, but well, if Alicia was pleased to them, then she was pleased to see Alicia, and hang things said in the heat of the moment.
Alicia grinned and pointed at one of the other fourth year boys. "Henry's my 'father'. This party's for Stuart and his flatmates, and Henry's one of them."
"And Betty?" Sally asked, scanning the room but not seeing her face.
"Not here. Different dads. We weren't as lucky as you two - we're in different degree subjects anyhow, so there was little chance we'd have the same parents. So, I'm jolly glad you're here," she added, linking an arm through Darrell's and smiling at them both. "Let's get some punch."
The punch bowl was on the long table at the back of the room, which also housed tumblers and assorted 'party' food on plates. It was large, and deep, and had large amounts of fruit soaking in it. It smelled rather good: tangy and sweet at the same time. The girls helped themsevles to glasses, Alicia topping up the one she already had. "Do make sure you get a piece of fruit in it," she said. "It tastes marvellous - soaked up all the flavour, you know."
There seemed to be three academic fathers including Stuart there, each of them with five children. All of Alicia's siblings were boys ("Just like at home!" she joked), but otherwise it was more or less balanced. Everyone appeared to be having a nice time, mingling and talking and laughing as they shared stories from their first term.
Sally was worried that Alicia was going to hang around her and Darrell - or rather, Darrell - all night, but she seemed to be flitting quite happily from group to group, talking to everyone in turn. Sally was interested to note, though, that she seemed to keep coming back to Tom, and she wondered idly if this was simply because they often spent time together in the Tudor, or if there was some other reason for her attentions.
It was about ten in the evening and half a punch bowl later that somebody suggested party games.
"Cards?" one boy suggested.
"Boring!" chorused the girls.
"Blind Man's Buff?"
Stuart shook his head. "My parents would flay me alive if anything was broken while we careered around with blindfolds on."
"Truth or dare?" This came from Alicia, who glanced at Darrell out of the corner of her eye as she spoke, wearing a curious expression. Sally flushed slightly and opened her mouth, but one of the other girls piped-up first.
"Oh, we couldn't possibly, not in mixed company!" she said, and the other girls nodded.
"How about Sardines?" Henry, Alicia's 'father', suggested. There were some grins from the boys, and nods from the girls.
"Sounds fine to me," said Stuart. "Only let's not be noisy, eh? My parents are in the study upstairs, third door on the right, and I don't want to disturb them."
Darrell nodded, mostly in her approval that there were in fact some 'real' adults in the house, and not just a party of giddy students, which seemed to her to be a recipe for disaster.
"Right oh, let's draw straws, shall we?"
Darrell drew the shortest straw, and so found herself a few moments later wandering about the first floor of the house, looking for somewhere to hide. She carefully avoided Stuart's parents, and had a quick look in each of the guest bedrooms, all of which had some potential hiding places. She rejected the linen cupboard as too obvious, then found, to her delight, a unexpectedly narrow and deep storage cupboard off what appeared to be Stuart's own room. The cupboard was notable for the fact that it took her several moments to find the light switch, and so she turned it back off and felt her way carefully to the back of the cupboard, hoping that people would be unwilling to explore too deeply in the dark. She stood in the very back corner, and waited.
It must have been only two minutes before the first person thought to look in the cupboard. A tall figure opened the door, silhouetted in the light from Stuart's room. Darrell thought it must be either Tom, or Graham, another of her 'brothers', as they were the tallest. In any event, her plan worked. After scrabbling around the door frame for a moment trying to find the light switch, Tom-or-Graham seemed to give up, and left, closing the door again behind him.
The next figure to open the door, a few minutes later, was female, and had her hair tied back; any more than that Darrell couldn't tell. This new figure went through the same ritual of attempting to find the light switch, then seemed to give up, but didn't leave as Tom-or-Graham had. Instead she slipped inside the cupboard, closing the door carefully behind her, and felt her way forwards in the dark. Darrell could hear the girl breathing, and knew she was close, but it took her by complete surprise when a hand slid around her waist in a companionable fashion. She gasped in surprise at the unexpected gesture, but thought she knew who this must then be.
"Sally!" she whispered excitedly. "How did you guess I was in here?"
"I heard you breathing," the voice replied, "but you guessed wrong." It was Alicia, not Sally after all.
Darrell grinned in the dark as Alicia pulled her closer, pinching her lightly on the side. "You gave me a fright," Darrell said in the same low whisper, "but I'm glad you found me. I wanted to talk to you and I suppose now's as good a time as any." This was perfect, in a way. Darrell knew Alicia would never lose the game by leaving the cupboard, so she had no way of escaping the conversation. "I wanted to ask you about what you said in The Tudor."
"Well, what about it?"
Darrell paused, thinking. "Um. It's rot, is all. You know you were just being mean," she said, as it was all she could think of. For all that she'd been running the night over in her head all week, she'd only gone in circles.
"If it was rubbish then why are you so hung up about it?" Alicia whispered, leaning in close so that she barely had to make a sound - close enough that Darrell could smell the sweet fruit punch on the other girl's breath. "Darrell, Sally is altogether too possessive of you. D'you think Betty gets upset and leaves the room if I talk to someone else? Do you ever see her trying to hog all my attention?"
"Sally and me aren't like Betty and you," Darrell countered decisively.
"Well, what are you like, then?"
A sound came from the room, and then they heard the door handle turn. Alicia pulled herself closer to Darrell so that they were both squashed together into the corner of the cupboard. Darrell wasn't sure she was altogether comfortable all of a sudden, but she didn't really have time to think about it. The silhouette was female again, and began to run their hands around the inside of the door-frame. This time, though, there was a soft *click* and the light came on.
Darrell and Alicia blinked in the sudden glare. Sally stared back at them, her face blank.
Then she switched the light back off, closed the door, and they heard her footsteps leaving the room outside.
There was a pause before Alicia spoke, her voice cutting through the dark.
"You're quite right, mind you. You and Sally aren't like Betty and me at all..." She trailed off with the air of someone who knows more than they're saying.
"Oh, shut up, Alicia!" Darrell snapped, her patience deserting her. She pulled herself violently away from Alicia's arms, and stumbled across the cluttered floor of the cupboard. "For someone who's supposed to be my friend you're horrid sometimes. I wish I knew why it is you have to be so mean and twisted all the time. Whatever's wrong with being straight with people?"
She was at the door, and opening it to leave as she heard Alicia's parting words float from the back of the cupboard. "Perhaps you should ask darling Sally that?"
Darrell stomped into the hallway and bumped right into Tom. "Darrell! I already checked in there, where were- wait, shouldn't you be hiding?"
"Tom, did you see Sally?" Darrell asked. "No, I don't have time to explain," she interrupted as Tom opened his mouth to speak. "Can you just tell me where she went?"
Tom shrugged, looking characteristically perplexed. "She went downstairs. Maybe she-"
But Darrell was already gone, making her way down the stairs. She saw Sally immediately at the other end of the otherwise deserted hall, putting on her coat, her back to the staircase. Darrell was across the hall and behind her in a few strides, and caught her by the shouders.
"Sally-"
"Let go of me!" Sally cried, twisting herself in the other girl's grip. But Darrell was angry now and just firmly turned Sally around to face her. "Let go," she said again, but the struggle had gone. She knew what Darrell was like when she lost her temper.
Darrell's fury died, though, when she saw that Sally was crying, her eyes and nose already a little puffy, tears rolling freely down her cheeks as she stood looking up at her friend. "Oh Sally, whatever is the matter? I do wish you would tell me."
Sally swallowed a couple of times, regaining control of herself. "I just... I don't mean to be so possessive, Darrell."
Darrell frowned. "Pardon?"
Sally winced a little and explained. "I followed Alicia. I was listening at the door the whole time you- I heard you talking."
"Alicia was just being mean, Sally-"
"No, she was right! I hog your company, I make you talk to me, I make you feel guilty when you spend time with anyone else, I go off in an awful huff if you don't give me attention..." Sally's bottom lip began to quiver again.
Darrell shook her gently. "Don't be silly." She pulled her best friend into a hug. "Sally, there's no one else I'd rather spend time with. When did you ever see me do anything that I didn't want to?"
"You won't drop me?" Sally's voice was muffled against Darrell's shoulder.
"Of course not!"
Sally seemed to relax a little into the hug, leaning her head on the taller girl's shoulder. "Darrell?" she asked in a small voice. "What were you and Alicia doing in that cupboard?"
Darrell wrinkled her nose, confused. "Playing sardines."
"No, I mean... She had her arms around you," Sally said, feeling very awkward.
"Oh. Well, it was dark, and we couldn't see anything. I think she was steadying herself." Why did Alicia have her arms around me? I don't remember how we got like that... Darrell realised that her head actually felt a little fuzzy, and she started to wonder exactly how much alcohol was in that fruit punch.
"All right," Sally said, not sounding convinced. "I feel quite dizzy," she added.
Darrell sighed. "It's the punch, I think. I'm not completely sure Alicia had our best interests at heart in suggesting that we eat any of the fruit floating in it. We should probably go home."
"Yes. After all..." Sally added, "You're a soldier tomorrow."
"And you a lawyer." Darrell broke the hug and took Sally's hand. "Come along then, Portia. Let's get you to bed."
Chapter 4
Fandom: Malory Towers
Pairing: Darrell/Sally, I think.
Rating: None
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Enid Blyton, or her estate or publishers or whatever, not me.
Words: 2400 approx.
Spoilers: The whole Malory Towers series.
Notes: Malory Towers post-fic, with Darrell, Sally, Alicia and Betty at St Andrews university.
Chapter 3, concerning small spaces.
The next week flew by for Darrell, much of it taken up with extra study sessions for her forthcoming December exams. She and Sally saw each other only in the evenings, when they would sit down in the common room together with a book each, or a chess board or jigsaw between them.
Sally seemed to be her usual self, despite the events of the previous weekend. She was a little quiet, perhaps, but then, she seemed to be studying very hard.
Darrell was strangely distracted these days. Her mind was drifting back to that uncomfortable night in the Tudor more often than she'd like, and she'd yet to figure out what exactly it was that was bothering her.
She had seen nothing of Alicia, although Sally said that Betty had attended all of her British History lessons that week, obviously knuckling under and getting to work in time for the exam period. That Friday night she and Sally missed their evening in the Tudor - as they occasionally did anyway - since they would be there the next night.
When they arrived at the Inn on Saturday, though, Stuart and his other academic children were waiting outside. They recognised him from some yards away, as his carrot red hair stood out a mile, but as they neared the party they realised that he was not the only familiar face.
"Why didn't you say Tom would be here?" Sally demanded in a fierce whisper.
"I didn't know!" Darrell protested. "I didn't even know he was one of Stuart's children. Imagine that, our long-lost academic half-brother," she joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"That's not funny, Darrell, what if he wants to talk to me?"
"Then talk back, Sally!" Darrell said, amused, pinching her friend gently on the arm. "He's only a boy."
Sally scowled, but did not seem too disheartened, as she smiled cheerfully at Stuart in greeting as they arrived at his side.
"Waiting outside for us, 'Father'?" she joked.
Stuart shook his head. "We're not actually staying," he explained. "This was just a good place to meet. Follow me."
He led them back along the way they had just come for a little bit, making Darrell and Sally wonder why they'd come out this way at all, but soon their path turned up through town towards, they disovered a few minutes walk later, the Botanic Gardens towards the outskirts of town. Stuart led them up to one of the larger, older cut-stone houses on Kinessburn Road, near the Gardens.
"My parents' house," he explained. "My elder brother held raisin parties here before me, and last year and this year, I've hosted my own. The front door was unlocked, and he led them into a large porch, followed by a wide, wood-floored hallway. The students were exclaiming over their surroundings when they heard a call from one of the rooms off the hall.
"Well, you lot certainly took your time!" Darrell and Sally looked at each other. They knew that voice.
"Alicia!" They greeted her in unison as she opened the door of the room, standing in the doorway. The party was going on in the main room of the house: its large, airy drawing room. Around a dozen other students were there already, chattering away to each other animatedly.
"Well Alicia, whatever are you doing here?" Darrell asked, smiling in greeting. She hadn't forgotten Alicia's harsh words when last they met, but well, if Alicia was pleased to them, then she was pleased to see Alicia, and hang things said in the heat of the moment.
Alicia grinned and pointed at one of the other fourth year boys. "Henry's my 'father'. This party's for Stuart and his flatmates, and Henry's one of them."
"And Betty?" Sally asked, scanning the room but not seeing her face.
"Not here. Different dads. We weren't as lucky as you two - we're in different degree subjects anyhow, so there was little chance we'd have the same parents. So, I'm jolly glad you're here," she added, linking an arm through Darrell's and smiling at them both. "Let's get some punch."
The punch bowl was on the long table at the back of the room, which also housed tumblers and assorted 'party' food on plates. It was large, and deep, and had large amounts of fruit soaking in it. It smelled rather good: tangy and sweet at the same time. The girls helped themsevles to glasses, Alicia topping up the one she already had. "Do make sure you get a piece of fruit in it," she said. "It tastes marvellous - soaked up all the flavour, you know."
There seemed to be three academic fathers including Stuart there, each of them with five children. All of Alicia's siblings were boys ("Just like at home!" she joked), but otherwise it was more or less balanced. Everyone appeared to be having a nice time, mingling and talking and laughing as they shared stories from their first term.
Sally was worried that Alicia was going to hang around her and Darrell - or rather, Darrell - all night, but she seemed to be flitting quite happily from group to group, talking to everyone in turn. Sally was interested to note, though, that she seemed to keep coming back to Tom, and she wondered idly if this was simply because they often spent time together in the Tudor, or if there was some other reason for her attentions.
It was about ten in the evening and half a punch bowl later that somebody suggested party games.
"Cards?" one boy suggested.
"Boring!" chorused the girls.
"Blind Man's Buff?"
Stuart shook his head. "My parents would flay me alive if anything was broken while we careered around with blindfolds on."
"Truth or dare?" This came from Alicia, who glanced at Darrell out of the corner of her eye as she spoke, wearing a curious expression. Sally flushed slightly and opened her mouth, but one of the other girls piped-up first.
"Oh, we couldn't possibly, not in mixed company!" she said, and the other girls nodded.
"How about Sardines?" Henry, Alicia's 'father', suggested. There were some grins from the boys, and nods from the girls.
"Sounds fine to me," said Stuart. "Only let's not be noisy, eh? My parents are in the study upstairs, third door on the right, and I don't want to disturb them."
Darrell nodded, mostly in her approval that there were in fact some 'real' adults in the house, and not just a party of giddy students, which seemed to her to be a recipe for disaster.
"Right oh, let's draw straws, shall we?"
Darrell drew the shortest straw, and so found herself a few moments later wandering about the first floor of the house, looking for somewhere to hide. She carefully avoided Stuart's parents, and had a quick look in each of the guest bedrooms, all of which had some potential hiding places. She rejected the linen cupboard as too obvious, then found, to her delight, a unexpectedly narrow and deep storage cupboard off what appeared to be Stuart's own room. The cupboard was notable for the fact that it took her several moments to find the light switch, and so she turned it back off and felt her way carefully to the back of the cupboard, hoping that people would be unwilling to explore too deeply in the dark. She stood in the very back corner, and waited.
It must have been only two minutes before the first person thought to look in the cupboard. A tall figure opened the door, silhouetted in the light from Stuart's room. Darrell thought it must be either Tom, or Graham, another of her 'brothers', as they were the tallest. In any event, her plan worked. After scrabbling around the door frame for a moment trying to find the light switch, Tom-or-Graham seemed to give up, and left, closing the door again behind him.
The next figure to open the door, a few minutes later, was female, and had her hair tied back; any more than that Darrell couldn't tell. This new figure went through the same ritual of attempting to find the light switch, then seemed to give up, but didn't leave as Tom-or-Graham had. Instead she slipped inside the cupboard, closing the door carefully behind her, and felt her way forwards in the dark. Darrell could hear the girl breathing, and knew she was close, but it took her by complete surprise when a hand slid around her waist in a companionable fashion. She gasped in surprise at the unexpected gesture, but thought she knew who this must then be.
"Sally!" she whispered excitedly. "How did you guess I was in here?"
"I heard you breathing," the voice replied, "but you guessed wrong." It was Alicia, not Sally after all.
Darrell grinned in the dark as Alicia pulled her closer, pinching her lightly on the side. "You gave me a fright," Darrell said in the same low whisper, "but I'm glad you found me. I wanted to talk to you and I suppose now's as good a time as any." This was perfect, in a way. Darrell knew Alicia would never lose the game by leaving the cupboard, so she had no way of escaping the conversation. "I wanted to ask you about what you said in The Tudor."
"Well, what about it?"
Darrell paused, thinking. "Um. It's rot, is all. You know you were just being mean," she said, as it was all she could think of. For all that she'd been running the night over in her head all week, she'd only gone in circles.
"If it was rubbish then why are you so hung up about it?" Alicia whispered, leaning in close so that she barely had to make a sound - close enough that Darrell could smell the sweet fruit punch on the other girl's breath. "Darrell, Sally is altogether too possessive of you. D'you think Betty gets upset and leaves the room if I talk to someone else? Do you ever see her trying to hog all my attention?"
"Sally and me aren't like Betty and you," Darrell countered decisively.
"Well, what are you like, then?"
A sound came from the room, and then they heard the door handle turn. Alicia pulled herself closer to Darrell so that they were both squashed together into the corner of the cupboard. Darrell wasn't sure she was altogether comfortable all of a sudden, but she didn't really have time to think about it. The silhouette was female again, and began to run their hands around the inside of the door-frame. This time, though, there was a soft *click* and the light came on.
Darrell and Alicia blinked in the sudden glare. Sally stared back at them, her face blank.
Then she switched the light back off, closed the door, and they heard her footsteps leaving the room outside.
There was a pause before Alicia spoke, her voice cutting through the dark.
"You're quite right, mind you. You and Sally aren't like Betty and me at all..." She trailed off with the air of someone who knows more than they're saying.
"Oh, shut up, Alicia!" Darrell snapped, her patience deserting her. She pulled herself violently away from Alicia's arms, and stumbled across the cluttered floor of the cupboard. "For someone who's supposed to be my friend you're horrid sometimes. I wish I knew why it is you have to be so mean and twisted all the time. Whatever's wrong with being straight with people?"
She was at the door, and opening it to leave as she heard Alicia's parting words float from the back of the cupboard. "Perhaps you should ask darling Sally that?"
Darrell stomped into the hallway and bumped right into Tom. "Darrell! I already checked in there, where were- wait, shouldn't you be hiding?"
"Tom, did you see Sally?" Darrell asked. "No, I don't have time to explain," she interrupted as Tom opened his mouth to speak. "Can you just tell me where she went?"
Tom shrugged, looking characteristically perplexed. "She went downstairs. Maybe she-"
But Darrell was already gone, making her way down the stairs. She saw Sally immediately at the other end of the otherwise deserted hall, putting on her coat, her back to the staircase. Darrell was across the hall and behind her in a few strides, and caught her by the shouders.
"Sally-"
"Let go of me!" Sally cried, twisting herself in the other girl's grip. But Darrell was angry now and just firmly turned Sally around to face her. "Let go," she said again, but the struggle had gone. She knew what Darrell was like when she lost her temper.
Darrell's fury died, though, when she saw that Sally was crying, her eyes and nose already a little puffy, tears rolling freely down her cheeks as she stood looking up at her friend. "Oh Sally, whatever is the matter? I do wish you would tell me."
Sally swallowed a couple of times, regaining control of herself. "I just... I don't mean to be so possessive, Darrell."
Darrell frowned. "Pardon?"
Sally winced a little and explained. "I followed Alicia. I was listening at the door the whole time you- I heard you talking."
"Alicia was just being mean, Sally-"
"No, she was right! I hog your company, I make you talk to me, I make you feel guilty when you spend time with anyone else, I go off in an awful huff if you don't give me attention..." Sally's bottom lip began to quiver again.
Darrell shook her gently. "Don't be silly." She pulled her best friend into a hug. "Sally, there's no one else I'd rather spend time with. When did you ever see me do anything that I didn't want to?"
"You won't drop me?" Sally's voice was muffled against Darrell's shoulder.
"Of course not!"
Sally seemed to relax a little into the hug, leaning her head on the taller girl's shoulder. "Darrell?" she asked in a small voice. "What were you and Alicia doing in that cupboard?"
Darrell wrinkled her nose, confused. "Playing sardines."
"No, I mean... She had her arms around you," Sally said, feeling very awkward.
"Oh. Well, it was dark, and we couldn't see anything. I think she was steadying herself." Why did Alicia have her arms around me? I don't remember how we got like that... Darrell realised that her head actually felt a little fuzzy, and she started to wonder exactly how much alcohol was in that fruit punch.
"All right," Sally said, not sounding convinced. "I feel quite dizzy," she added.
Darrell sighed. "It's the punch, I think. I'm not completely sure Alicia had our best interests at heart in suggesting that we eat any of the fruit floating in it. We should probably go home."
"Yes. After all..." Sally added, "You're a soldier tomorrow."
"And you a lawyer." Darrell broke the hug and took Sally's hand. "Come along then, Portia. Let's get you to bed."
Chapter 4