After class, Esme and Daniel walked to their usual lunch spot on Pier Two and sat on one of the long wooden blocks at the boardwalk’s end. Across the water, students sailed out as far as they could without leaving the school grounds, marked by a line of buoys. The air held a bite of cold, and the sky was serene: an uninterrupted panorama of blue, except for three wafer-thin cirrus clouds, floating along like runaway wedding veils.
‘Where’s Lillian?’ asked Daniel.
‘She’s had a bad cold the past few days,’ said Esme. ‘Maybe she went to sick bay.’
Within moments, however, Lillian arrived, looking very out of sorts. Judging by her moist eyes and red nose, her cold had gotten worse.
‘You look terrible!’ said Daniel, through a mouthful of sandwich.
Lillian’s face crumpled.
‘Sorry,’ he said
