Read The Future King: Logres for Free Online Page A

worth of homework
yesterday, even though I didn’t go here last term. He said it was essential I
should catch up .’
    Bedivere laughed. Morgan tried to say something.
    ‘That does sound like him, yes. He’s not the most popular of teachers
around here. How are you finding Logres so far?’
    ‘Good,’ she beamed. ‘Everyone’s really nice. Everyone I’ve met so
far, at least. I just wish I knew more people in my lessons. I hate sitting on
my own.’
    ‘ Bedivere —!’
    Gwenhwyfar looked to her left in annoyance. Morgan seemed bent out of
shape.
    ‘I have to go, but I’ll see you later, all right?’
    Gwenhwyfar walked on, and much to her delight Bedivere did too.
    ‘All right.’ He smiled and sent her a brief wave over his shoulder.
‘Have fun in Science.’
    As Morgan scurried off down the hall, Bedivere was already talking
again, and when they came into the stuffy room with verbs and poems scattered
about the walls he was happy for her to follow him to his seat. He didn’t say
much during the lesson, preferring to work with his head down, but Gwenhwyfar
didn’t mind, as she was often the same. Looking at the cover of his exercise
book she discovered that he had a delightfully long name, Greenstone-Jones,
which in full made him sound like a gentleman of the past.
    When the time came to pack up, she decided to go for it. ‘So how long
have you known Arthur?’
    ‘Arthur? Since year eight. I only met him when I moved here. How
about you and Emily?’ Nervously, he filled his rucksack. ‘Did you know her
before you came here?’
    ‘No. She’s been really nice though. Are you friends?’
    ‘Not really.’ They slipped out of the classroom and made their way
through the busy corridors. ‘She hangs around with other girls all the time.
What have you got next?’
    A current fired through her stomach and made her whole body fill with
warmth. She didn’t get to sit anywhere near Arthur in Science, but he was still
there, sitting in the same class as her, still there for her to gaze at
secretively. ‘Biology. I don’t know anyone there, either.’
    ‘You’ll get to know people, don’t worry,’ he assured her. ‘Would you
like me to walk you?’
    ‘Please. I’ve got lost so many times this week, it’s ridiculous.’
    He laughed his musical laugh as they scaled the stairs together,
Gwenhwyfar using the brass railing as a means to haul herself up around the
cold stone walls. ‘So you didn’t always come here, then?’
    ‘No, my parents moved here from East Anglia. They were worried about
being so close to the coast and flooding.’
    ‘Did you mind?’ She slipped through the door he held open for her.
‘Moving, I mean.’
    ‘I hated it at first,’ he admitted, ‘but I made some friends, met
Arthur, then things didn’t seem so bad. This place isn’t so terrible once you
get used to it. It’s actually supposed to be the best school in the area.’
    Gwenhwyfar’s attention turned to the queue outside the laboratory she
was due to be sitting in for the next hour and a half. Above the level of
everyone else’s heads she could see Arthur’s, his eyes boring into the lockers
opposite him as he stood cross-armed against the wall. Her plan to tell
Bedivere this was where he could leave her vanished the moment he spotted him.
    ‘Arthur!’ he grinned, bounding towards him. ‘I forgot you had this
now.’
    Drawn out of his reverie Arthur blinked, and then smiled. ‘Bedivere,
what are you doing here?’
    ‘Chaperoning our newest student to her lesson. She says she doesn’t know
anyone.’
    ‘Well, we have something in common, then.’ Straightening, Arthur stood
away from the wall. ‘You can sit with me if you like. Or I can sit with you. I
was getting tired of being so close to the front, anyway.’
    ‘This is your class?’
    ‘Yep!’ Gwenhwyfar did her best to appear confident. ‘I think so, at
least. I’m pretty sure this is the room I was in last time.’
    ‘It should be, as you’ve