Prologue
RAEGAN
It was about three in the morning as she left the house, sneaking out through the kitchens. It wasn’t often that they were in the country house during the summer months, so Raegan was going to take the opportunity to get at least one polaroid of the sunset over the fields and through the trees at their borders. The sun would first show at about 4, and it took a good half hour to walk to the fields, and she wanted to be sure she was there on time.
Although now, forty-five minutes later she was wishing she had brought some coffee or something to keep her going. The sky started to lighten to one corner of the field though, and Rae smiled. This was what she came for. She picked up her camera when something caught her eye: a silhouette under one of the trees. Rae thought for a moment before smiling. Perfect.
ARIEL
“What do you mean you’re gay?”
“Ariel we did not bring you up to disappoint us like this. It is an abomination.”
“Lord have mercy on us. Ariel have you thought this through? The Lord condemns this kind of thing, and we can’t accept this.”
“I’ve just about had enough of this.”
It was racing around her head, making her dizzy, even hours after it had happened.
Ariel had expected a bad reaction. She hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
She watched the sun rising over the fields, warming her frozen face and hands. She’d been out here all night.
She stood after a few moments, feeling the dew-soaked into her clothes. Shivering, she made her way back through the trees back home. Home... Could she even call it that anymore?
She opened the kitchen door and saw her mother asleep at the kitchen table. Ariel didn’t dare wake her. She hung her coat up on the hooks, along with her scarf, and took off her trainers, leaving them on the rack. She tiptoed through the kitchen up to her room. She changed into a different pair of jeans and a t-shirt, pulling a loose-knit jumper over her head to warm her up, hanging her other clothes on the radiator to dry.
Time for some tea she thought, smiling to herself. She walked down as quietly as she could to the kitchen, where her mother was now waking up. She filled the kettle and put it on to boil, making up two mugs for tea.
“I’ve been thinking.” Eventually, her mum spoke up. “I stayed up last night researching and I found this traditional Catholic boarding school. You start in September, but you leave in a week. Get your things ready.” And with that, she took her tea and left.
Great. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse...
