Between The Lines

Chapter 2

“Hey, Alex.”

Unlike me, Alex didn’t have a nickname.  I suppose I could have called him Pizza after his favourite food, perhaps Raven for his feathery black hair, or even Heartthrob for his good looks that sent girls falling at his feet.  Then again, it would honestly be just too much effort nicknaming all three identical triplets.  I doubted any of them would respond to a nickname anyway.

“Dad didn’t get chance to tell you before you left,” he started quickly, glancing out of the open window where a group of his mates were tackling each other on the football field.  It was obvious he was itching to go out and join them.  “He’s going to the barbers in town so he said you can go out with your friends and he’ll take you home at five if you go to the waiting room.”

“Oh, sure,” I replied.  I’d left earlier so as to take the longer route to school.  I didn’t fancy shortcutting through the alleys again and I wasn’t sure if I ever would again.  “Have you lot got football practice?” I questioned.

“Cross country,” he corrected, shooting me a toothy grin as he backed away down the corridor.  He took pride in his multiple sporting abilities.  “See you!”

I called back a short “bye!” before making my own way out of the opposite door and towards the canteen block.

The sky was a placid grey, only interrupted by several flamboyant white clouds that seemed to bounce in the wind as they made their way along the river of ash.  As if to reinforce the high wind levels, a gust of cold air sent my hair into a flurry around my face as soon as I stepped outside the building and I struggled to spit out a long, brown strand that had somehow found its way onto the tip of my tongue.  Whipping my head from left to right and scraping my teeth across my tongue, all the while thanking God that there was no one around to see me, I managed to rid my mouth of the hair, feeling rather disgruntled by the attack as I straightened up and attempted to regain some dignity.

Sure that the immediate area around me was in fact empty, I sneaked one last glance over my shoulder, planning to continue my journey to the canteen, when a lonely figure caught my eye in the distance, strolling towards the unused bike sheds.  My foot froze mid-step as I zoomed in onto the person’s brown jacket and jeans, recognising them immediately.  Unless someone had mysteriously stolen the clothes of the ‘toughest’ guy in school and was strutting around the edge of the school, I was pretty certain that it was Zacharias and Zacharias was someone I wanted to talk to.

I glanced wistfully towards the door of the canteen, a waft of deliciously inviting roast dinner tickling my nostrils as I did so, before turning back to the dingy bike sheds where Zacharias was no longer visible.  As much as I loved food, and as much as my stomach was calling out to be filled, the curiosity inside of me was screaming and digging its claws into my insides, yearning for its own hunger to be ceased.  I'd have to make do with the snacks in my bag.

“You’re so ridiculous sometimes,” I whispered to myself, partly scolding myself for being so irresponsible but egging myself on at the same time.

My old trainers slapped loudly against the pavement as I ran.  It was only a matter of seconds before I was veering around the corner of the school buildings and the bike sheds were lined up in front of me.  I’d expected it to be hard to find Zacharias after he’d got a head start but my eyes found him almost immediately, sitting soundlessly still on the top of the sloped bike shed at the end.  I forced myself into an abrupt halt, wobbling on my toes as I wondered how to approach him.  Should I cautiously walk up to him so as to not make him jump?

Deciding to take a more direct approach, I took a deep breath and marched my way to the bike shed.  The closer I got, the higher up I realised he was sat.  His legs were dangling at least a metre in the air, something that I noted gave him a very good height if he wanted to kick me square in the face.  All he’d have to do was swing his foot up quickly, just enough to bring it up to my 5’3 height, and blood would be spewing from my nose already-