57: The signs

The signs were there and they had been clear, but priorities had been shifted. Diverse goals had been involuntarily put in place.

If Isabelle could go back to this very moment, she would have made different choices. She wished she had taken a different step. If she had paid just a little more attention, things wouldn't have turned out as they did.

For coming late, Mr Edward had asked Emily to run laps around the track.

It was unlike Emily to not have argued as she dropped her bag among the many others on the field and did as she had been told.

Watching her best friend move with her mood as solid as a rock, Isabelle wondered what might have happened.

Emily had come out a few minutes after Martin joined them.

Martin hadn't been punished and had even been asked to sit at the bleachers or the bench set aside under the canopy on the field. He had chosen to sit under the canopy and watch. It was unfair he hadn't been punished, but then again he looked unwell. She didn't know him well and