“Yes,” said Walden, wiping her face again. “Yes, thank you, yes. How did this get to you?” She’d had kind and carefully neutral cards from a few coworkers—Ebele, David—but nothing from students.

“Aneeta knows where I work,” said Laura drily. “She’s a strong character, that girl.”

Aneeta, when Walden started teaching her, at the beginning of Year Twelve, had been quiet and well-behaved with a marked tendency to disappear into the background of any lesson. ‘Character’ was one of the things that every school claimed to instil and that no school could really control. Walden was not going to keep crying. It was too embarrassing.

She unfolded the sheet of A5 notepaper. Dear Dr Walden, Nikki had written.

All right, so maybe she was going to keep crying.

“Um—” said Laura.

“Not bad news,” Walden said. “It’s hard to explain.” And then she remembered that of course Laura knew the context. They’d been arguing about Nikki for years. “Nicola Conway is going to Oxford. She says ‘if I get the grades,’ but of course she’ll get the grades. She was having a tricky time making up her mind—well. I’m very glad. I think she deserves it. I think she’ll do wonderfully.”

Nikki had written about the A-level exams. What Walden wouldn’t give for a chance to see the theory paper! She thought it had all gone well. Matty was happy because there were loads of array questions and he’s good at those. What was the date today? A-level results were usually the third Thursday in August—Walden was not going to rest easy until she knew if Mathias had pulled off that overall B—

Will to Christ Church, Nikki to Wadham, both for Sorcery. Aneeta to Imperial College London for an eventual MSc in Biochemistry. Mathias had decided on a gap year to work and travel, and then an apprenticeship instead of university. Did you know there’s a Marshal apprenticeship? They’re starting one with a BThau degree path—Walden had not known that; when had that happened?

Your students forgot you. It was natural for them to forget you. You were a brief cameo in their lives, a walk-on character from the prologue. For every sentimental my teacher changed my life story you heard, there were dozens of my teacher made me moderately bored a few times a week and then I got through the year and moved on with my life and never thought about them again.

They forgot you. But you did not forget them.

Thank you for everything, Nikki had written.

“Thank you,” Walden said, folding up the note, tucking it safely back into the card along with the photos. “Thank you for this.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” said Laura.

“Not really,” Walden said. “Not yet.”

“Do you know what you’re going to do now?”