First Valentine - Kit & Tully Book 2

1 - Back to School

Felice swings the front door open as our car pulls up in the driveway. Mum raises her eyebrows at the mountain of boxes and bags tumbling down the steps but she doesn't stay a word, just waits in the car, while I go to help my friend.

Part of me was still clinging to a slender thread of hope that her plans to move in with Spike would come to nothing, but deep down I knew that was never going to happen. She's starting the last school year independently while I'm stuck boarding in St Catherine's.

We finally manage to squeeze everything in. My luggage is all school stuff, like the hockey stick I'm not planning to use and the mandatory extra blanket we never actually need. I eye a box of kitchen utensils enviously. "Do you know how to use any of those?"

"Guess I'll have to learn," she says with a laugh.

"Good luck with that." The idea of a domesticated Felice makes me grin in spite of myself.

"Well, it can't be much worse than the crap they give us in the canteen."

She has a point and my brow darkens at the thought of Spike and Felice dancing around their kitchen, music blaring full blast, as they make pasta together, while I'm stuck in school poking at a plate of congealed sausages and chips.

"The band are giving up the house," Felice murmurs in my ear, as Mum cautiously eases her little Peugeot 306 onto the twisty country road. The news surprises me. It was exciting having an almost-famous band like Black Death on our doorstep. Drimshanra suited them because it was cheap and they'd space to rehearse. "Isn't that sooner than expected?"

"It's the end of the summer," Felice shrugs. "Dad offered to extend the lease, but they said it was time to move on. They need to be in Dublin now."

We travel in silence as Mum ignores the sign for the new motorway, determined to stick to the safe familiarity of the back roads. The scenery usually distracts me, but not today. My head is a whirl of thoughts. What does this news mean for Tully? The last week has been busy with back-to-school preparations, or at least that's the position my mother has taken. Tully rings me every night, but apart from when I sneaked out of the house for a few minutes during his shifts in More Video 4 U, we've barely had a chance to see each other. Surely the band will need him in Dublin! My heart races at the thought. If Tully is in Dublin, boarding school without Felice mightn't be so bad.

The sun is shining as we enter the city suburbs, as it always does when it's time to go back to school. Couples my age perch side by side atop a wall or stroll hand in hand down the street, laughter and banter filling the air. They've no idea how lucky they are to be so free. In another world, that could be Tully and me, but he's left behind in Drimshanra, stuck in a dead-end job, working for Felice's dad in More Video 4U.

Not for much longer though, I remind myself, hugging the thought to me. Once his position as guitarist for Black Death is confirmed, he'll have to move to Dublin to be with the band. We pass a group of kids gathered in an open park dancing around a ghetto-blaster. My mother purses her lips and clicks her tongue in disapproval, as a fragment of music floats in through the car window. I know what she's thinking. She's glad I'm safely confined behind the walls of St Catherine's, where she doesn't need to worry about what I'm getting up to.

It makes me feel so trapped and I understand why Felice doesn't want to board this year. If I had the same opportunity I would seize it with both hands too. Still, it sucks going back to school without her. Dropping her off at the house she's going to share with Spike is only rubbing salt in the wound.

But then Felice breaks the strained silence and addresses my mother. "Mrs Lawless, Kit hasn't seen the house in Rathmines properly yet, so I was hoping she could stay with me at the weekend?" She is never this polite normally, but she knows what works with adults and how to use it to her advantage.

My mother isn't fooled for a minute. "I don't know," she says. "Kit needs to work hard this year and do well in her exams."

"Kit always does well in her exams," Felice replies, "and it's only the first weekend of term, so there won't be much for her to study yet."

It's a good point and I can see my mother take it on board.

"What do you think, Kit?" Her question surprises me but yes, I can't deny it, I'm thrilled she's asking.

"I'd love to go!" I totally would. Possibilities swarm through my head. Tully is working a day shift on Saturday, but perhaps he could come up and join us when he's finished. We could all go out somewhere together...

"Alright," my mother says. "But, don't think it's going to become a habit. We're expecting you on the bus the following weekend."

"Of course!" Felice and I exchange delighted grins.

I barely even feel jealous as I help my best friend unload her stuff outside a tiny cottage in Rathmines. Now I know we'll have a whole weekend together, just ourselves, in Dublin, nothing else matters.

"You've cheered up," Mum remarks when the last of Felice's possessions are piled into the miniature hallway, and I scramble into the front seat beside her. "Look, I know it's hard on you going back to board in St Catherine's without Felice, but you can't spend all your weekends with her. This is a once-off for the start of term. That's all!"

Of course I know that. It's my final year of school and my parents have only one thought in their minds, that I follow Dad's footsteps into the family law firm. As the precious only offspring, all their hopes and ambitions rest on me. I often wish I had a sibling to distract them, because I don't even want to do law.

St Catherine's Secondary School for Girls is a short drive from Felice's new abode. Mum doesn't come inside with me. There's no point, I'm too old for that now.

"We'll see you in two weeks!" With a stilted wave, she edges her way through the heavy, iron gates and sets off for home, taking the last remnant of the summer holidays with her.

As I hoist my heavy case up the steps to the sixth year bloc, hockey stick banging against my shin, it hits me, the realisation that I truly am stuck here again for another whole year. And as I push through the door and enter the giddy hysteria of teenage hormones, I feel like I no longer fit in. 

The rest of them don't mind so much. Even though they'll moan about it, they are happy to be back. It's safe, familiar, full of friendly and not-so-friendly faces, but I've had enough. I finally understand what Felice means when she says she's ready to move on, because I feel the exact same way. Instead, there's a whole year of this, with the Leaving Cert exams at the end of it.

"Thought Felice would be with you?"

"Where is she?"

"Is she not coming back this year?"

"Has she been expelled?"

The questions bombard me as soon as I'm inside the door.

"No," I say shortly. "She's a day girl now."

"Lucky cow, how did she pull that one off?"

I shrug in reply, not ready to get into an explanation of how my two best friends are sharing a house without me. But the weekend ahead is a bright spot on the horizon. And I'll persuade Tully to be there too. All I have to do is get through one week of school first. Surely I can manage that.