Faye's Diary

Chapter 9: Jamaal's Bacon Sandwitch

When I met up with Jade and Eliza at break time, the first thing Jade said was, “Hey, what lesson did you guys have?”

In our school we have two lessons before break, then two lessons after. Then, after lunch, we have one more lesson and then we go home.

“Oh Jade, we know you love your lessons but it’s break now. Honestly, you can shut up about them.” Eliza said sarcastically.

Jade gave her a friendly punch and then said, “No, it’s just that Jamaal had maths, I was wondering if any of you had been with him.”

I laughed and said, “No, don’t worry; I had germen.”

“And I had history. What a right laugh that was too; not. Miss was in a right mood with us because some of us had juice in our bottles. I mean, how pathetic is that?” Eliza said sarcastically.

“What, so you’re not allowed juice? You should bring your water in a vodka bottle tomorrow and see what she says,” I joked.

We all began to laugh just as the bell went. “Anyone else have technology in room A38?” I asked hopefully.

It turned out that Eliza did. I was glad that Jade wasn’t coming in a way. I did really like her; she was funny and quite kind, but she is sometimes just a little bit too loud.

I looked at Eliza. My best friend. My best friend for nine years. Should I tell her about the diary? We never kept secrets from each other, although we often kept them from Jade. My mouth opened but then closed again almost immediately. My heart was saying yes but my head said no.

Suddenly, an image of my uncle Dean popped into my head. A few Christmas’s ago, he had said to me, “Faye, if you were going to copy homework from somebody, who would you copy from; the cleverest girl with the sharpest mind or the nicest girl in class?”

I had replied, “Was the nice girl clever?”

Uncle Dean rolled his eyes. “Just answer the question.”

I had thought for a few moments but then said, “Probably the cleverest girl.”

He had smiled and then said, “Well done! And why would you pick her?”

But I had said, “Because copying someone else’s work isn’t very nice and the nice girl doesn’t deserve to have her work copied because she is nice.”

But instead of telling me that I was a very nice little girl, which is what I thought he was going to do, he just shook his head and walked away.

I looked at Eliza again and realised that I now knew what he was trying to say. The clever girl represented my mind and the nice girl represented my heart. He meant that by copying the clever girl, I would be more likely to get the answers right. So, I should always follow my head and not my heart. Uncle Dean was trying to tell me not to tell Eliza about the diary.

So I didn’t.

At lunch time, we went to our secret place as always. Well, it wasn’t exactly a secret because everyone knew about it but no-one else ever went there apart from us. Other people had their own ‘secret places’ too, and no-one else went to those either. People’s paces were like their own property; if anyone else went there, it was like trespassing. Those who didn’t have their own place just went to their form room.

Our place was at the very top of the main building. It was at the top of the third flight of stairs and no-one ever went there. In fact, I don’t even think we were allowed to go up there because it is full of broken things that the caretaker keeps saying he will mend, but never does and probably never will. I smiled as I thought of what my Mum would say, 'Caretaker? Couldn't-care-less-taker more like!'