A pair of twins cause headaches at Hayfield Hall.

An unauthorised story set in the SPA Universe created by Karen Page. These events are intended to take place one year after the events described in “A New Style of Education.” Reading that story first is essential.

Note: This story assumes the counselling team at Hayfield Hall does not change significantly as a result of events yet to be revealed in Karen's story.

Chapter 3

Dr Quentin Hobson, Headmaster of Hayfield Hall, closed one folder and opened the next with one hand while he sipped coffee from a mug held in his other hand.

“Now let’s talk about the Fallow twins. Keith, what’s your take on them?”

“They’re both ideal candidates for this school. Academically, they are both very bright but massively underachieving. They both play musical instruments to a high enough standard that they will fit into the orchestra without any difficulty. Alice presents as a classic transgender child, though I suspect there’s more going on there than meets the eye. Peter presents as a fairly typical thirteen year old boy though some of that is an act. Through close contact with his sister, and possibly their experiences in foster homes, he is a lot more tolerant of differences than most boys of that age.

"If you want more detail about why they qualify for a place with us, I refer you to the second page of my report."

There was a rustle of papers and then silence for a moment as those around the table read the information being referred to.

"As a result of what you see there, the twins are socially isolated and quite suspicious of other peoples' motives," continued Keith.

“Also, there’s a lot of fallout from the death of their parents that I don’t think they’ve fully processed. I’m quite sure we’ll hit some turbulence when all of that comes out. We barely touched on Alice’s gender issues …”

Rachel snorted. “‘Allan became Alice and here I am’ is the shortest description of a transition I’ve ever heard.”

Keith grinned and nodded. “They have some serious trust issues with people in authority and in one session I didn’t expect to crack through that many layers of Alice’s shell so I left it at that. I was pretty impressed that I got the story out of her about how she got the computer file changed at the welfare agency. That story alone should give us some idea of the sort of intelligence we'll be dealing with. Also, I’m certain I didn’t get the full story of why they use Alice and Peter rather than their birth names. None of those issues have even been recognized where they are, let alone any attempt made to treat them.”

“We’ve never had twins before,” said Quentin. “We’ve had siblings in different year groups but not twins.”

“We’ve had a few come in with very close prior relationships,” argued Keith. “Jill and Anna were practically sisters when they came in to us last year, for example.”

“We will have to watch that they don’t isolate themselves from the rest of their year group,” said Rachel.

"The same possibility existed with Jill and Anna," replied Keith. "But they integrated into the whole group quite quickly. We must be careful not to simply assume the same thing will happen again with these two.”

“The relationship between the twins is going to create a different dynamic for study partners compared to the normal sorts of relationships that develop between study partners,” said Rachel.

"You seem to be assuming they would be study partners," said Quentin.

"Given their current co-dependency, I don't think we should split them up in any way," responded Keith. "As study partners they can continue to support each other. And yes, that implies a different dynamic than develops between many of our study partners."

“Not every pair that we put together graduate as life-partners rather than study partners,” said Quentin. “Adolescence puts a lot of stress on the relationship between twins as they struggle to establish their own identity. If we can guide the Fallow twins through adolescence and have them graduate with a healthy, long-term, close sibling relationship still in place then I will be a very happy man.”

“We need to be careful to stop identifying them as the Fallow twins,” said Keith. “They are Alice and Peter and with quite significant differences between them. They are very closely bonded and do many things together but react strongly against being treated as the same person.”

“Noted,” said Quentin. “The discussion I’m hearing seems to be assuming that we are accepting Alice and Peter. I’ve heard issues we will need to deal with rather than any actual objections. The rest of you have been fairly quiet. Are we all agreed?”

Quentin’s question is answered by nods from everyone present.

“Very well then.” He took another sip from his (now cold) coffee and closed the current folder. “Next we have …”

Alice and Peter were sitting on the fence outside their foster parents’ house when Keith drove up. They stood up and were walking towards the car even before Keith had finished parking. Keith got out of the car and went to meet them.

“You’re foster parents aren’t here to say goodbye?” asked Keith.

Alice shrugged.

“They had to go to work,” said Peter. “We told them we didn’t mind.”

“You were told you couldn’t bring anything with you,” said Keith looking at Alice.

Alice was clutching to her chest a small battered shoebox that was tied up with string.

“This is all that we own,” said Alice with a tear in her eye.

“All?” asked Keith.

“We do have some money from the house insurance,” said Peter — more to Alice than to Keith. “And a bit of money from the life insurance.”

Peter turned to Keith and explained. “It’s all being in held in a trust for us. It’s not very much — we’re not, like, rich or anything — but now that we won’t have to pay for anything through to the end of high school, it should be enough to get us at least some of the way through university.”

“That’s assuming that shonky accountant doesn’t steal it all,” said Alice to Peter with some bitterness. “It’s going to be hard to keep checking on him when we’re away at boarding school for the next five years.”

Keith smiled calmly. “Our legal people will help you with that. Hayfield looks after its students. We knew about your financial situation. We’ve already started the process to watch over your trust fund for you. Your money will be looked after. So what’s in the shoe box?”

Alice clutched the box more tightly to her chest and didn’t reply. Tears silently ran down her cheeks.

“It’s all we have left from … before,” said Peter. “Dad’s watch, a necklace Mum had loaned to a friend, a few photos, that’s about it — not much survived the fire. The photos are kind of water-damaged and the watch is a bit melted so it doesn’t work anymore. It’s one of those old fashioned ones that Dad inherited from his grandfather.”

“Can’t we please keep them with us?” begged Alice. “It’s all we have.”

“None of the other students are allowed to bring things with them,” said Keith as gently as he could. “It wouldn’t be fair on them if we made an exception for you.”

“I guess we could mail the box to our accountant and ask him to hold it for us until we graduate,” said Peter.

“I don’t trust him that much,” spat Alice.

Keith pressed a button on his keyring and the boot on the car popped open.

“Put the box in there. I will put it in storage for you. It will be safe, I promise you. It will be returned to you when you graduate.”

Alice stood there and hugged the box, crying softly.

“Come on, Al,” said Peter. “We knew their rules. It was worth asking but we expected something like this.” He gently took the box from Alice and handed it to Keith. Then he wrapped Alice in his arms and hugged her.

Keith put the shoebox in the boot and closed the lid.

“Nothing in your pockets?” asked Keith.

They both shook their heads.

“In that case, hop in and let’s get on the road.”

Peter strolled in through the connecting door.

“Do you believe this place?” said Peter. “The walk-in closet is bigger than our last bedroom. And the clothes …”

“I know … I saw! They even put the hair stuff I asked for in the bathroom.”

“You mean a hair-curler and all that? That’s good.”

“With these big rooms and the quality of the clothes,” said Alice. “It all feels like honey in the middle of a really big trap. I’m just waiting to find out what type of trap this is.”

“Whatever type of trap it is, we’ve already marched right into it. We took our chance to get out of that last place. We’ll have to wait and see if this place is better or worse. I’ll tell you this, though. I poked my head into the hallway and introduced myself to a couple of the other newbies and they’re just like us.”

“What, twins?”

“No! They were from the bottom of the heap — just like us. The sort of kids that nobody would miss if we suddenly disappeared.”

“We saw that group of older students as we came in. They didn’t look abused or mistreated or anything,” said Alice.

“How would you know if they were being abused or not?”

“You and I both know what abused kids look like — we can even pick abused kids who are trying to hide it,” said Alice. “Those students aren’t being abused.”

“You’re right. They looked healthy and happy. Maybe this place really is being run by do-gooders who just want us to get educated.”

Alice snorted. “It doesn’t sound likely does it. We’ll just have to keep our eyes open and watch each others’ backs.”

“What’re you doing?” asked Peter.

“Just retrieving our stash before I get changed.”

Alice was sitting cross-legged on the bed unwrapping a small cloth package. A second package lay open on the bed in front of her. Laid out on the cloth were the contents — a series of small photos, cut into ovals, and a tiny brooch in the shape of an owl.

Peter crawled onto the bed and sat crosslegged in front of her. He carefully scooped up the brooch and stroked the owl with his finger. Then he put the brooch down and picked up the photos — handling them carefully.

“The Wedding Photos,” he whispered, reverently. Carefully he looked through the photos — gazing lovingly at each one, before moving onto the next. “I wish we remembered which of the grandfathers was Justin and which was Jordan.”

Alice sighed and stopped what she was doing. “I remember the conversation. I remember cuddling on Mum’s lap while she told us. You were squidged in beside us. I remember her pointing but I can’t remember which way around she pointed.”

“After all this time, we aren’t going to suddenly remember it today. I was just saying what I wished.”

Peter put the photos down and gestured for Alice to finish unwrapping her other package. It quickly revealed a small multi-coloured scarf. Alice lifted it to her face and breathed in deeply.

“I can still smell her perfume,” said Alice. Then she held out her hands to Peter who smelled the scarf carefully.

“It’s so faded now,” said Peter, sadly. “I can barely smell it at all. We handled it too much in those first few months.”

“We didn’t know,” said Alice with a pout.

“I know. But if we had kept it wrapped up better and not handled it so much, maybe her perfume would have lasted better.”

Alice carefully flipped open the scarf and scooped two rings from the central folds.

“Mum’s rings?” asked Peter. “I thought you were going to leave the rings in the box with Dad’s watch.”

“I couldn’t,” said Alice, tearfully. “I knew what was going to happen to the box. Keith did exactly what you predicted and promised to store it for us. Who knows if we’ll ever see it again. I just wish I could have hung onto Daddy’s watch as well.”

Peter grinned and pointed at her now-flat chest. “Two years ago you wouldn’t have been able to smuggle in even that much. At least as a thirteen year old you get some storage space. Dad’s watch would have made you look all lumpy.”

Alice shrugged. “I would have just worn a bigger bra. If I wrapped it well enough, it wouldn’t poke out.”

Peter picked up her hand and rubbed her wrists. “You’d have had to wear a double D to do that. And they might have noticed if you suddenly sprouted out that much between the interviews and now.”

“We should probably hide these,” said Alice. “I bet they search our rooms.”

“Of course they search our rooms,” said Peter, looking around. “And even if they don't, other kids will probably raid us. Those closets have so much stuff in them, I’m sure if we’re clever, we could hide it all in there.”

Alice started wrapping the pile of mementos up again. “Which room should we use? We’ve never slept in different rooms before and I don’t want to start now. Who knows who will try to come in while we're sleeping.”

Peter shrugged. “Both rooms look the same. We’re in here now so we may as well live in this one. We haven’t shared a single bed long-term before but it’s big enough so we’ll manage. We can use the spare room for studying or whatever.”

Peter stood up. “We’re supposed to get changed into their clothes. Everything we’re wearing now goes in those black bags. We probably won’t see them again. They said we'd get them back when we leave but that seems pretty pointless. Even if we only last here for a year or so, by the time we leave none of this will fit us.”

“I know,” said Alice. “I heard the instructions, too. I’ve just been putting that off as long as I could. This is my favourite top. This is my only top. We gave all the rest of our clothes away last night.”

“Have you seen the clothes in there? You’ll have a new favourite top in next to no time. Your old clothes aren’t important. That little pile of things on the bed are the only things that really matter. Let’s hide our stash and get changed. Then we can go out and meet the rest of our group. Keith said they’d all be meeting up in the common room in about half an hour.”

The two of them wandered into the walk-in closet.

“I feel sorry for the others,” said Alice. “Most of them are coming into a place where they don’t know anybody. At least we have each other. We should try to be extra friendly.”

“Sure. We can do that,” said Peter.

“I’m just worried that they’ll all turn out to be horrible little shits like at our last school,” said Alice.

Peter shrugged. “Then we can always go back to ignoring them but we should at least give them a chance.”

“Absolutely. Now where do you think we should hide these?” asked Alice.

“How about there?” said Peter, pointing.

Alice smiled. “Perfect.”

They worked together to conceal their little collection of contraband.

"I'm glad they know about me here," said Alice. "The people who run this place, I mean."

"Why is that?"

"We have that medical appointment later today. Usually I would be getting stressed by now about having to face a doctor. But this one will know my secret already. It's kind of a relief."

"Keith was right about one thing. Sooner or later somebody would call you on that bluff. Something tells me the doctors here would be the ones to do it."

"I still can't believe this place is real. It's nothing like what we expected. Everything is so … so …"

"I know what you mean."