‘Way too harsh, Tal.’ Ally sounds thrilled and impressed.

‘It’s got nothing to do with Yin’s dad, anyway, it’s the same guy who took that German girl.’ Brooke would never normally join in a conversation with the Blondes, but people have been talking all day, to anyone. She’s on tiptoes, trying to see the two teachers in the corridor. ‘Did you see those two men outside reception? I bet they’re plain clothes detectives. Ooop!’

Brooke makes it to her stool as Ms Nouri slips back into the classroom.

Natalia raises her hand. ‘Ms Nouri, why did the life model get cancelled? Sarah was looking forward to seeing a naked dude.’

Sarah’s expression doesn’t even change. She’s still shell-shocked from the first takedown. Natalia looks at me again, and this time I stare back, trying to figure her out. I don’t need your help, I try to say with my eyes. But maybe that’s not it, maybe she’s randomly lashing out at her own friends for no good reason. There’s no sign of the desperation I glimpsed on her face in the quad yesterday.

‘We thought it best to reschedule.’

‘Is it because he’s a suspect?’

Ms Nouri sits on the edge of her cluttered desk. The art rooms are the only places at school that aren’t unnaturally neat. She’s wearing a black dress and tights that look like smashed-up stained-glass windows.

‘Let’s discuss the art prize,’ she says. ‘The deadline is the week before your major project is due. So you should all consider finishing your project early and entering the prize. This year I want to make a proper exhibition out of it—Mrs Christie has already agreed to let us use the main hallway. Most of you have been working hard, and I think it would be great for other students to see what you’ve done. We’re going to award a separate prize for the student vote.’

Ms Nouri seems to stare hard at me in particular as she says this. I let my head drop, and my hair closes around my face. How could anyone not know about the art prize, given the entire school is plastered with posters about it?

At the beginning of the year I looked up Ms Nouri’s website. She’s a real artist, with a painting degree from the best art school in Tehran. She’s done commissions and exhibitions, and is way too talented to be stuck at Balmoral. I want to impress her so much it’s crippling. And the $500 first prize would be handy.

‘How can we think that far ahead when we don’t know if we’ll survive this week?’ Ally’s voice is plaintive.