The front door locked, Kate ventured around the side. She unlocked the back door as quietly as possible. As she neared the end of the east corridor, she realised that the kitchen door wasn’t quite closed. A soft glow poured through the narrow gap, oozing into the corridor. Was it her Year Nines? They were a problematic bunch. She’d caught them with that bottle of vodka early in the year and having been forced to reprimand them, Kate hadn’t bonded with any of them. Kate listened to the soft murmur of voices. It had to be the Year Nines. Lexi was the only boarder in Year Ten, and surely Kate’s bookish Year Eight boarders hadn’t gotten their hands on any pot. It had to be her Year Nines. It had to be.

She pushed open the kitchen door. “For God’s sake!” She coughed harshly against the stench. They’d hotboxed the goddamn kitchen.

She flicked on the light and gasped at the sight of her three seniors—Grace, Molly, and Emma. And Lexi.

Her gaze flickered from Lexi, sitting between Emma and Grace on the island counter and spreading Vegemite onto bread, to the opened jars of jam and peanut butter beside them. Two loaves of bread, slices fallen out of their bags like dominoes. A tray of cooked sausages left over from the barbecue. Bloody hell. Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse than the time she’d caught Lexi and Emma snacking on unconsecrated communion wafers because they “were out of chocolate chip biscuits.”

The blue flame burning on the stovetop glowed almost as strongly as the panic in Molly’s eyes.

“Where is it?” Kate demanded.

“Where’s what?” Lexi asked. Slowly, she lowered a half-eaten sausage into the barbecue tray.

“The pot,” Kate growled.

Silence settled heavily. As Kate crossed the kitchen to turn off the burning jet, Emma avoided her sharp glare, staring down into the Nutri-Grain packet in her grasp.

“Is somebody going to tell me where it is?” Kate pressed.

Emma looked to Molly, then to Lexi. Grace buried her face in her hands and groaned.

“There’s none left,” Lexi said. “We smoked it all.”

At least they’re all too baked to lie. Kate exhaled. “How much did you smoke?”

Grace rubbed at her right eyelid. “It’s okay, we only shared two joints.”

“Oh, it’s okay, is it?” Kate asked. She coughed, hard. And to think she’d been so proud watching them clean up after themselves hours before. “You are all in so much trouble. Get to bed.”

They rounded the table, passing Kate at the stove. Lexi had the decency to avert her glassy-eyed gaze, but Emma was less sensible, exhaling audibly as she made for the door.

“You didn’t just sigh at me,” Kate challenged. “Did you?”

Emma’s eyes danced in a haze, more bloodshot than Lexi’s. “No.”

“Good. That’s what I thought. Go.”

Kate pulled up the blind. Sister Ellie was coming in to prepare breakfast at six. Unless Kate wanted her to have an intensely spiritual experience at mass the next morning, she had no option but to air out the room. Just when Kate thought the girls had gone, Molly’s voice ruptured the silence. “Are you going to tell my parents?”