Chapter 5: The Parable of the Boiled Frog.
It is supposed to be very difficult to sense gradual change. I was once told a story about this, the parable of the boiled frog. It says that if you put a frog in a pan of cold water, and slowly heat the water up, the frog will just continue swimming around, slower and slower, until it is eventually boiled. However, if you try to drop another frog into a pan of already boiling water, it will immediately try to get out. This gruesome little tale is supposed to illustrate the fact that people will notice big changes right away, but not changes that come around bit by bit.
The events that happened in the week following The Accident are the reason I mention this little fact. Had the attention come all at once, I would have noticed right away. I’m a nobody. I don’t figure on the spectrum of popular kids that attend my school. I’m not cool or uncool enough to show up on the members of the popular clique. And therefore I’m invisible to these same people. And that’s fine with me. Sure, sometimes I wished I didn’t blend with the walls so much, especially around cute boys like Robin Hankle or Gary Turdle, but mostly I was fine with my Nobody status. I didn’t get noticed, but I didn’t get bullied, and that was definitely a plus. I didn’t care about being popular. I just wanted to get my A-levels and get the hell out of this place.
I had somehow survived the week, and Friday had rolled around, bringing with it the promise of the weekend and blessed relief from the hell of school. I arrived on Friday morning feeling almost chirpy. Sure, Connor’s accident was still the most talked about piece of gossip, it’s not every day your classmate ends up in a coma, but I had heard no further mention of the mysterious girl who had been in the car with him.
I strode into English class with a spring in my step, ready to tackle the day and anything life threw at me. It wasn’t until I had sat down and retrieved my things from my bag that I became aware of the stares I was receiving from a group of girls on the other side of the room. One of them was Charlotte Merring; she was sitting on her desk, surrounded by her group of friends. They were having an intense discussion about something, and, as they kept glancing in my direction, I had a horrible feeling I knew what it was about.
People are incapable of sensing gradual change, but once it’s brought to your attention, you wonder how come you didn’t notice before. So okay, maybe everyone wasn’t talking about me, but that’s what it felt like to me as I walked through the corridor on my way to French class. Everywhere I looked people seemed to be whispering and staring at me. I slipped into the loo, hoping to discover I’d suffered some hideous wardrobe malfunction, to find out I’d been walking around with my skirt tucked into my knickers.
The door opened and without thinking, I dove into the nearest cubicle and slammed the door. The clack of several pairs of high heels told me several girls had entered the bathroom. They were gossiping about Penny Gerner, who had apparently cheated on her boyfriend with his best friend or some other garbage like that. I breathed a sigh of relief for no reason.
I was about to emerge from my hideout when one of them changed the subject.
“So what’s the latest about Connor?”
I froze.
“Still in a coma apparently.”
“Such a shame. He was so gorgeous,” one of the girls sighed. He’s not dead yet, I thought furiously.
“Though apparently Charlotte has found out who the girl in the car was.”
“Really! Who was it?”
“One of the girls in Charlotte’s class. She takes A-level English.”
“Which one? The irritating perky one with the brown hair?”
“No, that’s Ashley. The weird one with the stupid name is the one who was with Connor. The tall, scruffy blonde. Annabelle, or something like that.”
“She was the mysterious girl? Her? What was she doing with Connor?”
“I don’t know, maybe he was giving her a lift or something.”
“It’s not as he would hook up with her, is it?”
The girls laughed nastily and left. I was left leaning against the cubicle door, feeling completely gutted.
Ashley came marching up to me as I was having lunch. Her usually cheerful face was thunderous.
“Hey Ash,” I said. “What’s up?”
“Is it true?” she asked.
“Is what true?”
“About you and Connor? Were you in the car with him when it crashed?”
Several people from the next table over stopped talking. So here it was, the moment of truth. The make or break moment. Until now, it had all been speculation and rumours. Two choices offered themselves to me. Whatever I said right now would forever change things. Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating a bit, but it would make a difference some way or another. I could confess right here and now, or lie and hope they never discovered the truth. However, my name had already been dragged into the mud. The damage was done. I could out myself or I could be outed by someone else. My choice. The ball was in my court. I just had to decide where to send it.
“It’s true,” I said simply. It seemed there was a gasp from the next table, but I might have imagined it. Ashley looked like I had just slapped her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She demanded, hands on hips.
“Tell you what?” I asked.
“Don’t play dumb, Annabeth.” Her voice was getting louder. People were beginning to stare at us. “Why didn’t you tell me about you and Connor?”
“Oh. That.”
“Yeah, that,” she sneered. I was beginning to feel very annoyed. “Why didn’t I know about it?”
“Because, to be honest, it was none of your business.” This came out rather more sharply than I had intended. Ashley’s face darkened.
“You’re a right cow, Annabeth, do you know that?”
“Hey! Where the hell did that come from?”
“You are such a bitch!”
“Because I don’t tell you every insignificant of my life?”
“No!” Ashley was yelling now, her shrill voice echoing around the cafeteria. “Because you think you’re so much better than everyone else!”
She was pathetic. I stare her as if seeing her for the first time, a sad, stupid, slimy little toad, quick to judge people and ready to do anything to be more popular. Her words had no more effect on me than if she had remained silent.
“Sorry Ashley,” I said, my voice dripping with ice. “But you’re going to have to try harder than that.”
I grabbed my bag and strolled out, acutely conscious of everyone’s eyes upon me.
I spent the rest of my lunch hour hiding between the shelves in the library, trying to sort out the mess in my head. I tried to work out if I felt bad about ruining my friendship with Ashley. She was pretty much my only friend, and yet I couldn’t have cared less she had called me a liar and a cow. Right now, I was relieved to be shot of her.
When it was time to return to class, my nerve almost failed me. Thankfully, neither Ashley nor Charlotte was doing economics A-level, so I would be spared seeing them. I did not fancy facing the other students, but I would have to do so sooner or later, so it might as well be now.
I’m probably blowing this out of proportion, anyway, I told myself as I made my way through the corridors. Most people probably will have better things to think about than what I was doing with Connor West on Saturday night.
“Hello skank.”
Oh hell, I had forgotten Kathy, Connor’s girlfriend, also took economics.
“Hi Kathy,” I said.
“Have you been fooling around with my boyfriend, you little tart?”
“No, I have not,” I said, but I could tell it was useless.
“Then why were you hanging around with him on Saturday, dressed like a slut?”
“He was just driving me home,” I said, trying to stop my voice from wobbling. “I missed the bus home and he saw me walking home and he ...” I trailed off.
Kathy leant on my desk and stared right into my eyes, trying to intimidate me.
“Then why were the two of you in Craylen, together, on Saturday evening, when he told me he was playing football with his friends?”
I had not lived with Jennifer for the past three months without learning how to resist intimidation. Jennifer had tried the “intense-stare-into-you-eyes” trick on me so many times it had cessed to be effective. I stared right back her.
“Connor is not cheating on you, not with me, not with anyone else. Whether you believe me or not is your choice.”
For a moment, I thought Kathy was going to slap me. But instead she just called me a bitch and flounced over to her desk. I slumped in my seat and sighed. I had a sinking feeling this was only the beginning.