The Alchemists

Her actions were immediately followed by muffled shrieks from the crowd. The girl turned to find Peter looking pale. The young man was shaking to shake his head slowly with worried eyes as if begging her not to rat them out.

Rose lowered her head and slowly walked forward. Madame Ferguson was shocked to see her.

"Y-you ..? But why ..?!" She pressed her lips in surprise. The old lady's face looked devastated.

She never thought that the perpetrator of the vandalism was Lady Rose Fournier, the new student. Wasn't this girl a lady from high nobility??? She couldn't possibly do it, could she?

The Duke and Duchess Fournier had phoned her privately to request that their only daughter be educated at St. John Academy so that she could be a good lady.

However .. in just one day, she had made created such big trouble??? Jeez ...

Rose turned to her friends and found their faces looked extremely tense.

She could guess that they deeply regretted believing in her and made her a member of the Night Stirrer Gang.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed her apology.

The members of the Night Stirrer Gang cursed Rose silently for selling them off.

Seeing their expressions, Rose smiled faintly. She approached Madame Ferguson and curtseyed.

"I am so sorry, Madame…" Rose looked at Madame Ferguson with a face full of regret. "But I really need to go to the restroom. The siren went off when I just woke up and didn't have time to go to the toilet. Sorry, but I want to excuse myself to go back to my room to take a pee."

Madame Ferguson was stunned for a moment. Her astonished face immediately changed as realization dawned on her. The old lady then nodded softly. Rose bowed again and immediately ran away.

Everyone who didn't hear their conversation was puzzled to see Rose running off the courtyard and not coming back.

Madame Ferguson looked frustrated. She ordered the prefects to gather to investigate the matter and then disperse the students from the yard.

***

When they met at breakfast, Peter and his friends immediately huddled Rose. They asked her to take responsibility for her actions that made them scared to death earlier.

"We thought you were betraying us," grumbled Harry. "How insolent! I almost got a heart attack. Hey, what if I had a weak heart???"

"Then what did you tell her? She let you go, just like that..." asked Peter.

Rose shrugged, "I told her I need to go to the toilet... hahahaha. But for God's sake, your faces looked ridiculous. I think it's good to get a shock every now and then to train your heart to be stronger.. hahaha."

"Train my heart to be stronger, my foot!" Peter snapped at Rose.

Jack frowned and looked at Rose searchingly. "You were really joking this morning... or did you actually want to turn yourself in? As I recall, last night you said you wanted to create trouble so you will get kicked out of school ..."

Peter was surprised. He glared at Rose. "Is that true? Why do you want to be expelled?"

Rose immediately frowned and looked away. "That's my business. Sorry, buddy, but the tables for boys are over there!"

The four boys left feeling dissatisfied. Helene, who saw the incident immediately approached Rose. 

"Hey, Rose. Do you know them? What were you talking about? They seem angry…" she asked in puzzlement.

"Well .. nothing much." Rose immediately sat down and ate. She didn't want to tell Helene what she did with the boys the previous night.

The first lesson of the day Etiquette, and they would learn to dance. Boys were still separated from the girls. The one teaching the dance class was Madame Prune, and she immediately played a boring waltz and made them move.

Joan used the class as an opportunity to show off that she could dance well, and Madame Prune praised her over and over again. Rose was very upset to see the arrogant girl prancing like in what she called a duck move.

"She is show off ..!" she said in annoyance. "She is not even good. She looks like a duck to me."

"How could you say that? She is really good .." said Helene in confusion.

"This dance class sucks. I thought that going to boarding school would mean I can avoid dance lessons at my house, but apparently not…" complained Rose.

"Do you get a dance lesson at your home?"

"Well, my mother insisted on calling the teacher to teach us, I mean Leon and me. I am not fond of dancing, but at least I have a good partner at home. Dance lesson here sucks."

"St. John's will have annual dance party. You can dance with the boys. We will even invite students from other schools. It will be fun!"

"I only want to dance with Leon." Rose sighed deeply.

Her face looked pensive, staring out the window. She remembered how her mother insisted on wanting her to learn to dance so that one day she could be a good lady.

Rose hated the lesson, but she always pretended to like it because Leon loved dancing. He really looked like royalty when he danced.

"Is that why you hate this school?" Helene asked softly. "You don't want to go to school here because you have to part with… Leon?"

Rose gasped. "Never mind, Helene ... Don't talk about it again. I'm sad to think about it ..."

***

Rose met Peter in History class. She acted as if nothing had happened, and Peter understood. He let her be, without asking her anything.

"Tonight, the village next to our school was having a carnival…" said Peter as they walked out of the classroom. "We want to go."

"Aren't students prohibited from leaving the school gate?" asked Rose, surprised.

Peter smiled mischievously and nodded.

"That's why we want to go…"

Rose smiled too. Precisely because it is forbidden ... the Night Stirrer Gang would do it.

They made plans to sneaked out as soon as the room lights were turned off, which was 9 pm. Carnival usually lasted until midnight, and they could go home immediately and get enough rest, so they would not be suspected the next day. 

Rose became so excited that Helene was surprised to see her in such a good mood.

"What's the good news, Rose? You look very happy..." she commented when they walked toward their rooms after dinner.

"Really? I am feeling like myself. There is no good news or anything special.." Rose replied lightly. "Maybe because we had spaghetti for dinner. I really like spaghetti…"

"Oh... I see." Helene didn't ask anymore. She thought Rose didn't want to tell her what was on her mind, so she wouldn't press on her.

***

"Hey ... The meeting place was suddenly moved because the stable is not safe anymore ..." he said quickly, "Come with me ..!"

Rose was hurrying down the window to follow Peter, when there was a knock on the door to her bedroom. Rose suddenly remembered that she did not lock her door.

Gosh.. who might that be? Was it the teacher? Or a school prefect? Did anyone know about their plans?

"Rose ... where are you?" Helene came in and lighted a candle because she didn't dare to turn on the light. She immediately saw an empty room. "Gosh. Oh, Rose .. Are you really running away..?"

She ran to the window and caught Rose trying to get down from the tree to the ground. She instantly gasped in surprise, never expecting that Rose would be running away with a boy from their class.

Peter and Rose froze. The two of them looked at each other, shook their heads in unison, then climbed back up.

"Listen, Helene… We can explain…" Rose said quickly. 

"Are you running away from school? I thought you are happy with this school because you were in a good mood today. Apparently, you still want to leave this school and return to Leon..."

"You're wrong," blurted Rose. 

She didn't feel good about Peter looking at her with disappointed eyes. Now Peter knew that she was really trying to flee from St. John. 

From now on, whenever she created trouble, Peter would suspect that she did it to get herself expelled. And the Night Stirrer Gang would always be on their toes about letting her join them for fun.