When The Snow Falls

"What does the Pudding Club do?" Daniel asked.

It had to be something related to Jack's death and Felix's near death. It sounded innocuous but there had to be something strange about it for Felix to have concealed the notebook in his pillow rather keeping it somewhere more open.

"They eat pudding," his father stated simply. "One member chooses one to eat, someone makes it for the next meeting, they eat it and they all discuss and evaluate it. Then it repeats with a different member. That's the normal part of it at least. I know that the inner sect was for something completely different and much less innocent. I wasn't aware of it though."

The normal operations of the Pudding Club sounded like something Daniel would actually enjoy being a part of. The recipes in the hidden notebook had to be the ones that were critically analysed at the meetings.

"I appreciate the information," Daniel said. "I have to revise now. Bye."

He put the phone down and sighed in satisfaction. He had gained a new pair of boots, the promise of future chocolate and most importantly, identification of the secret society. It was a shame his father hadn't known much about the inner sect.

Should he join the Pudding Club? It was wouldn't be unnatural if he did because he did like his desserts. It wasn't like his father would find out. He looked through the recipe book again and his stomach rumbled when he saw the drawings of all the puddings. Due to Felix's fall the previous night and his meeting with Sunny, he hadn't yet had a chance to sample any of the desserts in the canteen.

His mind flashed back to his tour of Kingston Royal Academy given by Liam. He had said the desserts were good. Was that referring to the Pudding Club rather than the actual canteen? Then again desserts and pudding weren't quite the same thing.

He started to consider Liam as a potential murder suspect. Liam and Christopher had joined him a few minutes after he'd found Felix and seen the person on the roof. Had Liam had enough time to run down, encounter Christopher who'd said he'd seen something and then discover Felix's unconscious body in the space of a few minutes? Liam hadn't seemed too out of breath.

It seemed that he would have to test the times. The other prefects had turned up later so they also could have been on the roof. There was of course, the potential that it was not the prefects, that it was someone else he hadn't come into contact with yet.

What he needed to do next is to find out who was in the Pudding Club. If the prefects were members, they were even more likely to be the ones on the roof.

He also needed to keep an eye on the cat situation. Their disappearance was disconcerting mostly because it meant that someone had seen him in the canteen and used that time to enter his room and remove the cats.

His heart skipped a beat when he realised that his clandestine meeting with Sunny might have also been witnessed as well. Hopefully if anyone had seen it, they would have assumed it was of the romantic nature.

***

The bright sunlight shining through the curtains was what woke Daniel up the next morning. He peered out the window to see if it was still snowing and was cheered to find that it wasn't, although there was still a thick layer of snow on the ground.

No one had crept into his room in the middle of the night and he'd actually slept. His aim for the morning was to find Mr Collings and express an interest in clubs. If all went to plan, he would be told about the Pudding Club and Mr Collings should mention some of the members which would give him some starting points for investigation.

The plan changed when he walked into another boy emerging from the room next door. The boy had a smattering of freckles across his pale face, big glasses, ginger hair and a cheerful smile. He looked to be the happiest pupil Daniel had seen so far.

"You must be the new person," he said cheerfully. "I'm Alvin. I arrived earlier this morning in case you're wondering why we've never met."

His admission actually answered two of Daniel's questions. Firstly, why he'd never heard anyone next door, his room was the first one in this section so he only had one neighbour and why Alvin was so cheerful; he had no idea about Felix.

"I see," Daniel smiled weakly. "Are you going to breakfast?"

Alvin grinned. "Second breakfast. I ate before I got here so it's second."

Daniel nodded approvingly. He was keen to try out the waffles he'd sighted the previous morning.

"Let's go together," he suggested.

Alvin appeared to be the last person that would be involved with the prefects and the secret society so he could be a good source of information. Alvin disappeared into his room momentarily to grab a coat and scarf and they left the building together.

"How would you rate the food here?" he asked to start off on a simple topic.

"Pretty good since Ben's only allowed to serve the food and clean up now. There were some food poisoning cases when he first came here to work."

That sounded very plausible to Daniel based on what he'd seen of Ben.

"I know what you mean. How are the desserts? I haven't tried any yet?"

The answer to this question would be interesting.

"The choice is limited," Alvin admitted. "The ones that are available are nice, but you get bored with them."

It did make sense to Daniel. If you had to eat three times a day in the same place with a limited menu for several years straight you would eventually grow tired of the menu. That had to be the main reason for the Pudding Club to exist and flourish.

"The dessert menu hasn't changed for years," Alvin continued on. "I'm a member of a club that's devoted to pudding. That's where I get my fix."

It really was fortunate that he'd met Alvin. He really did hope that he wasn't a member of the inner circle as well. Alvin was the friendliest pupil he'd met and seemed too nice to be mixed up in anything dodgy. He reminded himself that appearances could be deceiving and busied his mind by working out how to use Alvin to his advantage.

"That sounds cool," Daniel commented. "What sort of pudding?"

"We've had apple crumble, banoffee pie, rice pudding- a real variety. Back when it used to be every member's duty to make the pudding, someone just put jelly and ice cream together. The rules tightened up after that. Felix is a member and he's been making the puddings for the past couple of years."

That was something that Daniel had been hoping to hear. He had been relatively sure that Felix had been a member because of the recipe book, but confirmation had been needed in case Felix had simply liked writing down pudding recipes.

They had reached the canteen by this point and they both wiped their shoes on the mat to shake off the snow. Daniel locked gazes with Ben and deeply hoped that Ben wouldn't say anything in front of Alvin. He shouldn't because he could directly contact Sunny now and Ben wasn't needed as a middleman.

Daniel's attention was instantly diverted back to Alvin when he made an important comment.

"There was something strange about him at one of the most recent meetings. He made black pudding which was odd. It's not something you would eat after a meal, it's more of a breakfast item," Alvin told him.

The inclusion of black pudding had been strange to Daniel when he'd first gone through the notebook. Now that he knew the the recipes had actually been used, it was even more of an anomaly. Had it been to make a point?

"Where did he get the blood from?" Daniel asked.

Alvin shrugged as he picked up a plate.

"Who knows? I would prefer not to know myself."

It appeared that Alvin was the type of person that shut out things that would intrude on their d.e.s.i.r.e for everything to be normal and happy. What else was he trying to avoid?

Daniel knew he was going to have to tell Alvin about Felix being in a coma. Taking into account that they lived next door to each other and were in the same club, his reaction would be interesting.

He waited until they were seated at a table that was comfortably warm to broach the subject.

"You probably haven't heard about Felix yet, he fell off the roof and now he's in a coma," he said with deliberately wide eyes.

Alvin dropped his slice of toast and his mouth dropped open.

"Really? It doesn't feel like that really could happen...even after the last accident," he murmured and perked up again. "He should be fine, it's Felix."

Daniel wasn't sure how to proceed. Alvin was still in denial about the true state of Kingston Royal Academy. He didn't want to pull him out of his false impression, but he wanted information and it wasn't healthy to pretend Kingston Royal Academy was a happy place to stay..

"There's a low chance of him waking up," he lied. "I've heard about Jack's murder as well."

Alvin squirmed in his seat and looked around nervously.

"...It was an accident..." he muttered. "I know he was acting strangely before that night, but it wasn't a murder."

His new friend looked very ill at ease and looked like he wanted to run away so Daniel didn't continue the pressure and smiled widely instead. He had obtained some useful information from him anyway.

"I must have misunderstood it. There's lots of gossip here. I don't know anything about Jack so I wasn't sure what happened."

"Okay," Alvin said and resumed eating his toast. "I overreacted myself."

Daniel raised an eyebrow and started on his own breakfast before it could get cold. He'd probably gone overboard with the jam by most people's standards but it was just right for him. Alvin recovered his usual carefree persona once he'd finished eating and was talking nineteen to the dozen again.

"You shouldn't let Jack's accident put you off here. It's a beautiful building, the teachers aren't lazy, everyone's motivated, you can trust the prefects to keep order."

Daniel managed to not spit out his tea when he heard that line. It was a close call though. His theory about Alvin living in denial was right. Even Christopher didn't trust the prefects.

"Sure, it's cold and in the middle of nowhere, but you'll get used to it."

"Do you have any advice on staying warm?" Daniel asked, he couldn't take much more of Alvin's delusions.

"Heat packs," was the reply. "I might have some spare that I can give to you. It's going to be quite a wait for the designated trip to the town so you won't be able to get any yourself."

One of the reasons for Daniel being secretly glad that he'd missed the admission period for Kingston Royal Academy all those years ago was the most major restriction placed on the pupils. They were not allowed to leave the school grounds except for one day every half term where they were escorted into the town by the teachers. Although it wasn't like there was much in the surrounding area to warrant being allowed off the grounds. It was just a road and grass.

After they had finished Alvin offered to look for his spare heat packs and they walked back to the dorm together. Daniel awkwardly stood in the doorway of Alvin's room as he hurriedly searched through the mess on his side of the room. Eventually Alvin emerged triumphantly with two fleece wrapped heat packs.

"I've found some. The best time to use them is English because that's the coldest classroom," he explained.

"Thank you," Daniel replied. "I'm going to revise now."

He opened the door to his room and found someone else in his room waiting for him. The person turned to face him and he saw it was a serious looking Liam.

Why was he in his room? Daniel's heart sped up. The recipe book was in his coat pocket. Surely Liam wasn't going to search him?

"I wanted to talk to you," the Scarlet Wren house prefect said. "Close the door."