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As she traipses across the snowy campus with her hat pulled low and her coat wrapped tightly around her in a futile attempt to keep the cold out, Pearl wonders why she even attempted to leave her dorm this morning. It’s basically a blizzard out here, with snow a foot deep on the ground and snowflakes flying through the freezing air from grey clouds blocking out most of the sunlight. She should have just stayed in her dorm; after all, judging by the less than a quarter attendance in her lecture, everyone else did.
Shivering and brushing away the snowflakes that cling to her eyelashes, Pearl hurries towards her dormitory block. She looks up at the window on the third floor of the old building, the one that belongs to her dorm, and realises that the light is on. But she didn’t leave the light on. So someone must be in her room…
But only two people have keys for her dorm: Pearl herself and…
It must be Flora! But what is she doing here? Flora is also a university student, but studies at a different uni and doesn’t live in halls. So it’s rather rare to see her on this campus.
She rushes as fast as she dares, not wanting to slip on the slushy ground, and hurries inside hall of residence, one of several huge Georgian buildings dotted all over the campus. The warm air hits her full in the face, and Pearl sighs in relief. It feels so good to be back in the warm.
Desperate to see Flora, Pearl rushes up the stairs to her floor and unlocks the door to her shared flat. Two of her flatmates are sat in the communal kitchen, and laugh when they see a very red, windswept Pearl enter the room.
“Still snowing outside?” James says, and Pearl throws her snow-covered hat at him.
“Hey, Pearl,” says Katie, laughing as James shrugs the wet hat off of his head. “Your girlfriend’s here.”
Pearl blushes slightly, but she’s already so red from the cold that no one notices. So that confirms it: Flora is definitely here. But why?
Katie smiles. “She let herself into your dorm room earlier. Looked really miserable, but didn’t say why.”
This doesn’t sound good.
“Well, I’ll go and see what’s up,” Pearl says, and she knocks on her bedroom door. “Flora? It’s me.”
“Come in, Pearl,” Flora calls, and her voice is flat. “The door is unlocked.”
Hoping there isn’t something seriously wrong, Pearl opens the door and walks into her dorm room. Flora is sat on the bed, her legs tucked up under her long skirt, and she looks like she has been crying.
“What’s wrong?” Pearl asks, shutting the door and then sitting down beside her. “You never normally visit.”
“Yes, well I’m never normally this lonely,” Flora mumbles.
“Lonely? Seriously, what’s wrong?”
She puts her arm around Flora, who leans against her.
Flora sighs shakily. “The Professor has gone off again.”
“Flora, I don’t understand,” she says. Pearl knows that the Professor is Professor Layton, Flora’s adopted father. She knows he is an archaeology professor at a university on the other side of London. And she knows he is a bit of a detective and has solved some huge mysteries in the past. “He’s… gone?”
“Do you know about his habit of solving mysteries?” Flora says.
“Yeah, of course I do.”
“Well, he hasn’t solved any big ones for three years now. The last one was when I was sixteen, and he tried to leave me at home whilst he and Luke went off investigating. But then Luke left the country. But now he’s back, and they’ve gone on another investigation together. And so he’s left me behind. Again.”
On her last word, Flora’s voice breaks. Pearl wraps her arms around her girlfriend, pulling her into a tight hug.
“He always leaves me, or tries to leave me but I realise in time and he has to bring me along,” Flora says, her voice even weaker than before. “He isn’t being cruel, not in the slightest. He doesn’t want to bring me because he wants to keep me safe, to protect me. But… I’m nineteen years old. I’m old enough to look after myself. And… I don’t want to be left alone. So I came here.”
When her neck starts to get wet, Pearl comes to the horrible realisation that Flora is crying.
“No, no, please don’t cry,” she says, rubbing Flora’s back and just wishing she could stop her girlfriend feeling so sad. “It’s okay. You’re not alone now. You’re here with me. And you can stay as long as you need until the Professor comes back. Okay?”
Flora pulls away, wiping her red eyes on a handkerchief (because Flora is one of those wonderfully old fashioned people who still use a hanky these days). She nods, smiling weakly. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Pearl.”
“It’s nothing,” Pearl says, and she gives Flora a quick kiss; her face is damp with drying tears and she tastes salt. “Really.”
And Flora smiles and Pearl hugs her again, determined to cheer her girlfriend up and wishing that she never cries again.