Linksshifter II

A Path Between The Waves - ~~

"Bloody –" Sonali said, gathering her wits together as best as she could. "Who in the hell wis that? What in the hell wis that?"

Jordyn gave her a look, then suddenly relaxed her expression. "Right – that's right, you've always been late in because you've had training. That's why you haven't never seen her before. Otherwise I'd worry about you – there isn't anyone else here who doesn't know about Colleen Macnamara."

Sonali shook her head slowly. "No, I can believe that. So fill me in – who is she? Is she a model or whit? That tall, an' she sure wears her clothes like it. What in the hell is she doing here and no on a London runway?"

Jordyn opened her mouth wide, bracing her jaw with her fists, eyes lit up. "Sonali, do you fancy her? Did you finally decide to join the club?" Sonali gave her a look. Jordyn was a good friend, but she'd also had a crush on her at least since second year, when she'd asked her out for the first time, and not being able to respond to it could be a real pain at times like this. "Kidding, kidding, hen. I know you're not into anyone like that. But if you were, you wouldn't be the only one – I think near on every boy in the school's had his eye on her one time or another, and probably more of the girls than'd admit to themselves they was in the club." She pushed her bike ahead and into the rack in the shed, and Sonali followed.

"Right, I can see that – it don't do it for me, but I'm not blind, you know. So what's her deal – is she from here? Looking like that, how's she no got discovered by some agency and gotten out?"

Jordyn bent over to run her lock through her front wheel. "I don't know – I don't think anyone knows for sure. There's a lot of stories about her, but you can tell near on all of them's made up – it's like she don't really have a lot of friends round school, and you can see that, can't you? The boys are afraid of her, and girls don't want to hang about her and have people look at them like her entourage, right? So nobody really knows nothing; what I heard that's probably not a whole lie is she lives on one of the hard estates up in Tillydrone with her old nan – she got in here on scholarship and that's why she treats people like that. Like she can't do nothing but study or it all falls apart, and where she come from, you got to do that or they'll have you in bits."

Sonali nodded slowly, rolling her bike forward and digging her chain out of her school bag. "Right. Yeah. I think I get it, and it makes sense, but I'm sure it wouldn't kill her to be a bit nicer to people. I mean, it's well to be the prettiest girl in school in Aberdeen, but it's Aberdeen – do you really want to spend your whole life here?"

Jordyn shrugged. "I don't know – I rather like it, even in the winter, even when they're shuffling crews off from the rigs and you can't hear yourself think for the helicopters. I mean, I do want to go out and see more of the world, but if I came back here I'm not sure I'd mind it." She hitched her bag up, pulling the strap in under her arm.

"Yeah, it's not bad – not bad bad, but myself, I've got reasons that I want to get out, and you see someone like that and just think, what a waste. If it was me in her shoes, I'd be gone so far and so fast you wouldn't see my feet touch the ground. But I guess everyone's got their reasons." Sonali stopped for a second, straightening her blazer and checking that her hair was still in place in the dull basin of a water fountain.

"So do you figure going to the library after school then? If you're still on about that?"

Sonali straightened up, pulling on her lapels to try and shake a stubborn crease out of them. "Yeah – I got to figure they might have something, somewhere or another. I'll see and ask round in class, but I don't expect anyone else might know anything. Why? Did you want to come with?"