BEING SHADOWED is a disconcerting feeling of course, if the stalker was not a besotted admirer of style in search of purpose.
'Who's that?' Pirouette said as the Wonder girls ambled as a group in the twilight. Lessons had ended for the day and no one wanted to immediately return to stuffy rooms. The Perfectine had actually agreed to walk with the others, searching for flaws amid pine cones and uncivilised squirrels and their strange creaking barks that needed oiling to her mind.
'Where?' Meresinth said. She had joined the group in search of mischief, for with Pirouette among them there was bound to be a melodramatic crisis of minuscule proportions about to explode at any moment.
'Behind that ugly tree,' the agitated girl said, pointing at a large spruce some way off the amble path.
'Probably a serial killer in search of victims,' Meresinth dismissed the matter. 'Anyway, I don't see anyone, just spruce bugs.'
Vetta stepped forward and peered at the tree with some excitement.
'It is a lovely tree,' she said without thinking and the others laughed. And then to their astonishment Vetta stepped over a line of boundary stones and waded through a small mound of fallen leaves and ferns straight towards the tall, dark spruce with its tangle of glossy green ivy and sticky bugs.
'Vetta, where are you going?' Esper asked. Vetta paused and looked back at the others. There was a moment when the two girls just looked at each other as if seeking an understanding and then Esper shook herself.
'Let's get back. It'll soon be time for the evening meal,' she said all in a rush.
'Vetta, we're going back,' Meresinth shouted at the now distant girl who paused again and waved.
'Yes,' Pirouette shouted also, though less loudly and with a modicum of restraint. 'There is clearly nothing here that even remotely resembles civilisation.' Vetta continued to walk off among the trees towards the spruce.
'It's okay,' Esper assured the puzzled Wonder girls. 'Leave her. She will return safely, as she always does.' With that she began with a show of unconcern to retrace her steps towards the grounds of Miss Plazenby's. She felt a curious thrill but was not sure why.