Secret Guard

As I've already mentioned, at Hailsham (in Never Let Me Go, of course. You need to pay more attention!) guardians are basically teachers. You'll need to remember this for later on. Without further ado, in this section of flashbacks, Kathy talks about how her relationship with Ruth started. While they are in the same year, they'd never really crossed paths until one day in the sand pit, Ruth gets angry at two girls sitting behind Kathy. Kathy describes that all she wished for at that moment was for Ruth to see that Kathy was not with the other girls, that she was not part of Ruth's problem. So basically, she was a little intimidated/afraid of Ruth. The next incident mentioned is when Kathy's around seven or eight. Ruth asks her if she wants to ride any of her horses (imaginary horses). They ride around and bond over the different horses, but Ruth seems frustrated at the end when Kathy isn't "riding correctly" and makes her lead the horses back to their stables. Out of nowhere, Ruth mentions Miss Geraldine, a sweet, soft-tempered guardian (see, told you), asking if Kathy likes her. Kathy replies in the affirmative. And this is where Ruth mentions the "Secret Guard" and almost begrudgingly lets Kathy into this prestigious club. Apparently Ruth and her friends think someone is planning to kidnap Miss Geraldine and the Secret Guard collect evidence against people, blaming (between themselves) random people for being at the head of the conspiracy. They never actually do anything to protect Miss Geraldine, instead just continuing to "gather evidence."
Miss Geraldine is the root of the problems Kathy and Ruth start having. Ruth always hints that Miss Geraldine favors her over all the other students and finally that Miss Geraldine gave her this really pretty pencil case. She never directly says this so Kathy cannot confront her. So she comes up with a plan to figure out the truth, because she believes Ruth just bought it from the Sale (the Sale is where the children get all their stuff, clothes, toys, gadgets, etc.). She tells Ruth she was looking at the register, where all the information on what was bought lies. Ruth responds to this worriedly; she knows Kathy has figured out Miss Geraldine definitely did not give Ruth that pencil case. Instead of getting angry, though, and getting back at Kathy, Ruth becomes downcast, and Kathy feels sorry. She makes mentions about how Miss Geraldine favors Ruth to make amends.
This section seems a little unimportant to me, but I guess it must be setting up Ruth's character and her relationship with Kathy for further down the road. Not much to say about this section other than GET TO THE POINT! I just want to know what is going on with Hailsham, why Madame is afraid of the children, why Miss Lucy says the children should know more? So many unanswered questions, it makes my brain go fuzzy.