Fossil Fools

Chapter 22. OMG. Ambar comes over!

The bell rang and my heart jumped.

Dad answered the door and led Ambar through to the living room. "Jasper, a friend of yours is here." Dad called out.

I took a deep breath and came out. He winked at me, in a creepy way.

"Would you like something to drink Amber, tea maybe?" he asked.

"Thank you. Do you have any beetroot juice, or other vegetable juice? By the way, my name is Ambar, not Amber. It means Sky in Hindi"

"Ok, sorry. Actually, I do have juice, Ambar. I juice a lot, so no worries. Beetroot and celery, apple and some fresh ginger?"

"Wow, that's amazing, thank you!"

"Great. I'm making you one as well Jasper, you need the vitamins." He turned and went off to the kitchen.

It was the first time I'd seen her in normal cloths, not school uniform.

She took off her coat and sat down next to me. She was wearing really nice dangly amber teardrop shaped earrings, which swung as she moved her head. Ambar wearing amber.

"He's cool, your dad." she said. "Is he vegan?"

"How did you guess? Yes he is, but before you ask, I'm not."

"You know, Greta says if you care about the planet, it's the only diet you can ethically have." She said.

"I've been vegan the past three years. My mum freaked, she couldn't cope with it. So I had to learn how to cook vegan from scratch. Anyway, enough of that, how are you doing? What's going on?"

It felt weird speaking with her from the living room, but my room was a total mess and I couldn't get off the sofa.

It felt so easy to speak with her. She seemed so patient, sitting there next to me on a chair. She listened as I told her about the things I could tell her without her running from the room, thinking I was mad.

Dad brought in the juice, and some ginger biscuits and then slipped away. She asked loads of questions whilst she sipped on her bright red juice.

"Jasper, don't eat these biscuits. They are probably made with palm oil from unsustainable sources. Palm oil is destroying the primary forests that are home to the Orangutans. Tell your dad! He needs to know."

Wow, she is something else. She liked to talk as well as listen. Boy, could she talk.

She told me about how ridiculous so much of school was. She found it so difficult to find friends who understood the entire education thing was a charade.

We weren't learning about the things that mattered. We weren't learning about the skills we need for a new earth. The world that was trying to be born.

The world without capitalist greed, without an oppressive Tory government, without consumerist crap destroying the ecology of the living planet.

She told me about her activism with Vegans for Animal Rebellion, and the marches she had been on.

I learnt about her mum, and little sister Nisha, and the council flat they lived in on the fifth floor of a grotty block in Camden. Her dad wasn't around much, had started a new family in Streatham, at the end of the world.

She paused and absent-mindedly picked up a polished ammonite that lay next to her. Her finger followed the smooth spiral back and forth.

I managed to get a word in. "I really like your earrings. They suit you. Do you know what amber is made from?"