When The Snow Falls

Daniel seriously debated his chances of escaping as David covered his eyes with the blindfold. He could tear it off, kick in him the balls and run like hell down the stairs and all the way to Sunny's house. However, something felt off about the situation. They weren't using any force on him and they hadn't looked angry when they had entered. If they had found it was him behind the fire alarm, they should look more annoyed with him.

Someone took his arm and led him out of the room and into the corridor. The prefects had a problem trying to lead him down the stairs without falling down themselves and Raven took the chance during the confusion to whisper in his ear.

"It's the initiation ceremony for the Pudding Club."

It clicked in Daniel's mind. Mr Collings had told him that the test for the Pudding Club involved guessing pudding whilst wearing a blindfold. He had overreacted. Then again, the first meeting was supposed to be the following week as the exams were starting tomorrow. There was something strange, but he couldn't be sure. He would have to see what would happen.

He was pulled outside where it thankfully wasn't snowing. After that he was led through a door, down two corridors and was pulled into a room. Daniel sniffed the air and smelt washing up liquid and disinfectant instead of the musty smell that most of the school premises smelled like. He was pushed down onto a stool and he knew where he was.

It had to be a normal Pudding Club initiation as they were in the Food Technology room. It had been mentioned that the Pudding Club used the Food Tech classroom for meetings.

He became aware from lots of rustling and whispers that there were other people in the classroom. They had to be the other members of the club which meant that his suspects could also be in the room.

"As you can see, we have brought our new recruit here. This meeting is earlier than planned as Liam was able to obtain some puddings for the test today. Regarding future meetings, we can either revert to the old format of one member baking a week or someone can step up to replace Felix," Fenston announced loudly.

There was a smattering of whispers in response. It appeared that neither option was welcome to the members. Daniel couldn't say he'd be thrilled by the idea of every member baking as he couldn't bake to save his life. He refocused his mind, he had to focus on surviving and not on possible poor-quality puddings he could be eating in the future.

"The initiation can't start properly until Liam gets back," David continued on from Fenston. "I can introduce the new member; He's Daniel Entwhistle; he's new and he's in the Scarlet Wren house. Apparently, he likes pudding a lot. The test will show if he's truthful."

There was a brief ten seconds of clapping and Daniel felt more embarrassed than scared. There was also the question of if he could actually get the puddings right. If he failed he would lose a chance to get to observe his suspects and keep an eye on the prefects.

The Scarlet Wren house prefect arrived twenty minutes later. Daniel had spent the last twenty minutes blindfolded ignoring David telling him how attractive he was and trying to listen into the gossiping members. All he'd picked up on was that lots of them thought he was cute and wondered if he would join the Drama Club. He was also sure that he had caught someone whispering how good he looked in a blindfold.

He was slightly relieved by the arrival of Liam as it silenced the whispering, but it also brought all the tension back.

A plastic rustling sound became apparent and he deduced that it was shopping bags. Liam must have convinced Mr Collings to let him go shopping for pudding.

"We are going to have to use some supermarket pudding for the test," Liam warned the club members. "Don't worry, I got them from somewhere expensive."

There was a collective sigh of relief and Daniel raised an eyebrow. He had forgotten for a moment that he was at a snobby school. The supermarket snobbiness had brought him back.

The test didn't start until ten minutes later as it took the prefects a while to arrange the puddings. Daniel sat there whilst his traitorous stomach rumbled at the thought of pudding.

"We're starting now. Keep the noise down," Fenston ordered. "Daniel, are you ready?"

"I am," Daniel confirmed with a tinge of uneasiness. Technically he should be safe as there were other people present and he had known about the test, but he couldn't put anything past the prefects.

"Wonderful," David said.

"Can you tell me what the first pudding is?" Liam asked as Daniel felt something sticky against his lips and opened his mouth.

"Sticky toffee pudding," Daniel answered immediately.

"Next one?"

"Rice pudding."

Daniel tried not to gag as he swallowed the thick pudding.

"This one?"

The third pudding took a while to recognise and then to name. He only had a vague recollection of it.

"Crème caramel."

The test comprised of a total of 40 puddings and by the end of it, Daniel felt sick, but he was confident that his answers were right. The advantage of a past life was that he'd sampled a lot of sweet things. His blindfold was torn off in a theatrical manner by David after the last one and he was confronted by the sight of at least twenty Kingston Royal Academy pupils staring at him intently.

"Daniel Entwhistle has passed the initiation test with full marks," Liam informed them.

The group of pupils clapped politely and Alvin beamed widely at Daniel. Daniel smiled briefly in return and searched for his suspects.

Hugo Barnes was sitting in the back row at the very end looking like watching someone eat pudding blindfolded was the most pointless thing to do. Robert May was in the middle of the front row talking and laughing with the people around him. He was definitely more of a social butterfly than Hugo. He wasted a second looking for Wilfred Anning and found him trying to get David's attention and failing miserably.

Instead the Golden Lion house prefect was keen on talking to him.

"Now that you've got into this club, are you interested in another one?"

It was obvious he was referencing the Drama Club. Daniel had no real interest in joining for himself and he was creeped out by how eager people were for him to join the dating network. Whilst there was some clues to be obtained from it, he really didn't want to be a member. Hopefully he could obtain them without having to join himself.

"Is it possible to join two major clubs at once?" he asked with a curious tone.

David tossed his long silky hair back.

"Of course you can. Half the people here are members of the Drama Club as well. Some people here are even in four clubs. You see, you don't have to attend every meeting."

"Who here is also a member of the Drama Club?"

It was worth asking just to see if David would give him a full list.

"Wilfred is, Hugo is, but he seems to regret joining and only turns up to criticise," David paused for a breath. "Robert is a member, he had a leading role in the most recent play."

He mentioned a few other names that Daniel didn't know. However Daniel had got what he wanted. His two suspects were shaping up to be correct. He just needed to work out which one it was.

"Will you join then?" David pressed him again.

Daniel was saved from answering by the arrival of Liam.

"Stop trying to recruit him into the Drama Club," the Scarlet Wren prefect sighed. "He's academic unlike you."

David flipped his hair dramatically and wandered off in the direction of the other prefects leaving Daniel with Liam.

"Well done on the test. I know you weren't expecting it today so thank you for going along with it. I went to see Felix with the housemaster earlier and I realised we could go shopping for pudding afterwards instead of having to order it in for next week," the prefect explained. "It's also a treat before the start of exams."

That did explain the sudden blindfolding. Daniel couldn't tell if it meant that he would be invited to the inner circle sooner.

Liam patted him on the back encouragingly.

"You've done the hard part. Soon you'll have a chance to be part of something even more exclusive."

Daniel tried not to flinch at the implied invitation to a drug taking society that he had no d.e.s.i.r.e to be part of. A drug taking society that had led someone to their death. He was stuck on how to answer.

"Okay," he said vaguely and tried to change the subject to something safer. "Do you feel prepared for the exams tomorrow?"

Liam ignored the subject change.

"It will change how you see this school. I know you haven't had the best experience with Felix having that accident on your first day. I look forward to when you can join."

Daniel was saved from answering by Robert May approaching Liam. The Scarlet Wren prefect flashed a fake looking smile at Robert before introducing Daniel.

"You'll get to know each other better when lessons actually start," the prefect said.

Robert smiled widely at Daniel. His first suspect had light brown hair, lightly tanned skin and freckles. His smile was open and friendly.

"I look forward to getting to know you better. You should join some more clubs, are you good at sports?"

Daniel hated him immediately. He didn't get on well with optimistic and overly friendly people and the mention of sports was even more off-putting. Whether or not Robert was the person he was looking for was another matter. Liam hadn't reacted oddly to his presence.

He looked around for Hugo Barnes and noticed that Raven was leaning against the wall with his arms folded and was glaring in his direction. The glare was made even more ferocious by all the black eyeliner. Daniel assumed that Raven wasn't happy with him for joining and resumed looking for Hugo.

Fortunately he didn't have to look around properly as the tall dark haired pupil was called over by Robert. His second suspect was very pale and thin and didn't look happy. The introductions were repeated again only with Hugo asking about chess instead of sports. Raven also glared in their direction.

After that he was introduced to even more pupils and lost track of the two.

Daniel left the Food Technology room later on feeling even more wary than he had been before. Hugo Barnes and Robert May were both the perfect suspects and he had confirmation that the prefects were planning on bringing him into the secret society.

He returned to his room and sat down at his desk. As he pulled his notebook towards him, he heard a loud thud right next to him and looked out the window. Sunny and George were standing on the grass outside. Sunny was waving at him whilst George was preparing to throw another stone. Daniel hurriedly grabbed his phone and called Sunny's number before George could smash the window.

If anyone saw him talking to Sunny and George right outside the dormitory building it would look odd and the prefects might hear about it and realise he was up to something. It would have to be a phone call.

"Why are you here?" he asked as soon as Sunny picked up.

"I've been calling you on and off for the past hour," she w.h.i.n.ed. "We got worried about you so we came here."

Daniel looked down at his phone that had been left in his pocket all the time and noticed all the missed calls. It was lucky his phone had been on silent otherwise the prefects would have taken it off him. She did have a very good point though. Anything could have happened to him in that hour. He appreciated their concern as it could have easily been something serious.

"Something happened," he told her. "Shall we meet?"

***

"So, you could be recruited into the drug taking part at any time?" George summarised once Daniel had told them everything they had missed out on.

They had gathered at Sunny's house again. This time Ben had offered Daniel some tea which Sunny had refused on his behalf for the obvious reason.

"And Felix's definitely okay?" she asked.

Both George and Daniel looked at her. She clearly had different priorities to them. George poked her arm.

"He's fine. Daniel's in more danger," he told her.

Sunny flushed in embarrassment and hurriedly contributed to the conversation.

"I think it's Hugo Barnes. He's in the Scarlet Wren house so perhaps Jack admired him and didn't want to think he was part of something that illegal."

"Hugo Barnes isn't that well liked," George corrected her. "Most people here think he acts like he's got a stick up his arse. It's got to be Robert May."

"He wouldn't be involved in anything criminal," Sunny protested. "It's got to be Hugo Barnes."

Daniel watched their argument unfold and kept silent mainly because they were providing him with information without him asking. He let them go on uninterrupted whilst he mulled over everything he had learnt about the mystery. It all added up to a certain person being behind everything.

All his detective skills and instincts from his past life were telling him who it was.

"I think I know who it is," he said. "It's got to be him."