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Kate stiffened and turned at the sound of Ophelia’s voice. Sure enough she was standing there with that white haired fire girl she’d befriended. Philip Manion was with them and was holding the boy who’d run away from her firmly by one arm. He looked quite impressed but Ophelia’s question stung Kate more deeply than she could explain as she opened her mouth to retort.

Don’t react, Darlryan’s voice rang in her head. You’ve confused her. If you snap like she expects you’ll undo all your good work in ignoring her. And you have the kid to worry about. This really isn’t a good time to get into a fight.

Okay, she replied before speaking out loud. “I am the real Kate. It was the other girl who was the imposter.” She wasn’t sure why she said that but it felt right. The baffled look on Ophelia’s face nearly made her smirk again but she resisted. Oh, this is too perfect, she thought to Darlryan and was rewarded by his warm laugh in her head.

“What do you–” Ophelia began but Philip interrupted her.

“That was one hell of a punch, Kate.”

“He had a knife.” She nodded to where it lay near the boy’s hand. “I wasn’t going to give him a chance to stab me with it.”

“What happened here?” Mr Dooley came around the corner with Sera. He obviously got the wrong end of the stick because he glared at Kate. “I believe I told you to behave yourself.”

Kate took a breath and forced herself to stay calm. “It was self-defence, sir.”

“It’s true, sir,” Ophelia said. “We saw what happened. These two were attacking that kid and she tied to stop them. One of them pulled a knife on her so she whacked him one before he could use it.”

“Yeah.” Kate tried not to stare at Ophelia. She backed me up.

She did, There was a thread of laughter in Darlryan’s mental voice but no surprise. She has always been fairer minded than you give her credit for.

“I see.” Mr Dooley looked at knife and his face hardened as joined Kate by the Asian boy.

“He doesn’t look good, sir,” she said.

“No, he doesn’t,” he agreed and pulled out his phone to call the police and an ambulance.

I was going to tell you it’s time the evening but I think that we’d better wait until tomorrow now, Darlryan said. You’ll have to give a statement now. He paused then added. But that was very well done, Kate. I think you saved that boy’s life.

Thank you, she said.? And tomorrow, okay. She glanced over at Ophelia. The girl was rubbing her neck and kept looking up at the roof of the school’s main building with a puzzled frown. Kate casually looked in that direction as well and saw Paritan leaning against the air conditioner tower. As Ophelia looked up again he vanished. No wonder the girl was so on edge. Kate was about to ask Darlryan why he was having him do that when she was interrupted by sirens announcing that the emergency services had arrived.

—

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