"That's the last thing," Mrs Winston says, ticking cement off her shopping list in her sizeable notebook.
I hold in a sigh of relief as she says this, it's been a big day buying all the stuff for their house. There is only so much you can take of shopping.
Especially if its all at a hardware store.
After we got dressed at the Winston's this morning, Cam and I piled into Mrs Winston's car (a yellow VW Bug, my dream car), Sam refused to come with us, I wonder why? I'm actually kind of relieved he didn't come because though after our little "bonding session" this morning, my thoughts on him have changed, but I just can't get over my gut feeling. I just can't trust him. Not yet. He still scares me.
"Finally," Cam mutters, as he plonks the cement bags on our over filled trolley. His mutter earns him an almost dirty look from Mrs Winston.
"What did you say dear?" She asks, acting like she didn't hear even though we all knew she had.
"Nothing mother," he replies, acting innocent by crossing his arms behind his back and whistling.
"I should hope so," she says, though she tries to act serious, I could tell she was hiding a smile.
I just laugh in the background at the two of them, Cam started to push the trolley towards the front of the store towards the registers, his mother following him closely. When they hear my giggles they both turn their head in unison giving me identical glares. That just makes me laugh more. Then they turn their heads forward and shake their heads at the exact time, I turn hysterical, as I walk behind them my laughter fills the massive warehouse and I earn a few strange looks.
By the time we reach the counter my laughs had resided and I was just smiling widely. But that smile quickly vanishes when I see who is working at the checkout.
Gabriel Hayes.
My heart literally plummets through my feet and far into the ground below.
One of my many bullies at school. Apart of a gang. His brother is the worst of them. Steven Hayes. All of them are out to get me. I just try to avoid them at all costs.
I hate the lot of them, I hate- Oh God, a wave of realisation comes upon me that Gabriel belongs Daniel' s gang! How could I forget that his band of jerks make my life miserable? Daniel is head of the group and the most popular guy in school... How could someone who is so nice to me (who maybe the only one as school I don't hate -apart from Cam), have control over a group who enjoy making my life a living hell? But I suppose he is never really around for all the bullying, he spend the remnants of his time with his girlfriend, Rachael Gray. Another person who enjoys making me sink into depression, She acts sickly sweet around Daniel but has a terrible habit of bashing me up in the girls toilets or pushing me against the lockers whenever he happens to be studying or actually hanging with his band of thugs... What ever chance she and her cronies get, she gladly takes.
Since it's the holidays and late in the afternoon, next to no employees are working the register at the hardware store, so Gabriel's the only one working at a cashier.
No other choice but to go to him.
Shit shit shit.
Mrs Winston and Cameron don't notice me lagging behind them and trying to hide from Gabriel's view. I'm not very good at being subtle and hiding from people... I try and hide from Gabriel's view behind Cameron, but to my luck Cam faces sideways to look at something on the counter. That's when I feel Gabriel's cold eyes on me, cutting into my head, so I pretend to go over and look at what Cam is looking at to get out Gabriel's view.
It wasn't very affective because Cam turned his body to show me what he was holding and Gabriel could see me again. His eyes cutting in mine as he continues to scan all our items. I glare back at him for a moment until Cam realises I'm not listening to him and his head snaps behind him and sees Gabriel eyes on mine. When Gabriel notices Cam looking at him, he looks down at what he was scanning. Cam looks at me with questioning eyes. I just pretend to be interested in what he had in his hand. But he just put his hand behind his back so I couldn't see it, I look up to see him still giving me a curious look.
"You two, hurry up!" Mrs Winston calls behind as she pushes the trolley out of the ware house and into the large empty car park. We jog to catch up with her. Even though she's short Mrs Winston can sure walk fast, and she is very strong too. She's like a Shetland pony, small and muscly.
"What was that all about?" Cam asks curiously, he had a smile on his face but I can see him hiding another emotion. I'm just not sure which emotion it is...
"What was what about?" I reply.
"You know, that guy at the counter and you looking at each other," Cam retorts.
"Oh, that! Yeah that's just some dickhead at our school... I was death staring by the way, not looking!" I say, holding in my anger.
"Calm down, I didn't mean to-" Cam starts.
"What are you two blabbering about? Hurry up and help me pack the car," Mrs Winston orders, who knew she could be serious sometimes?
Cam and I stop talking and just pack the car in silence, Cam picking up the heavy things like cement bag and big plants. While I go for the easier things like the seeds and measuring tapes. When he notices that I'm taking only really small things, he gives a look. In response I just stick out my tongue and laugh. As I watch him hall a big bag of soil, I place a small shovel on top of it. He chuckles, muttering something that sounds like "shes a strange one." I give him a glare and then push the empty trolley back into the booths in the car park, since we had unloaded everything. Then I run back to the car and hop in the backseat and we head home.
******************
We turn down the dirt road that leads to our houses. The whole time I've been in the car I've been admiring its splendour. I've always wanted one of these cars, the seats are comfortable the steering wheel is cool, the colour is awesome! Yellow.
As you can tell I'm not very experienced in the different things to do with cars, I don't even know what the clutch does... And as I blabber on in the back seat about how much I want their car I earn funny looks from Cameron as I describe a lot of the parts as "thingy's ". I just ignore his looks. Mrs Winston seemed appreciative of my blabbering, she didn't seem herself. She was always giving polite "hmm," or "yeah I like it too," etc, etc.
As we near the houses I see a figure standing out the front of my small house. And I see a golden flash dancing around the figures legs. And we come closer I realise who is there.
Daniel.
He turns his head to see the car approaching, his tanned skin seemed to glow in the late afternoon light. His tallness seemed to make my front fence and gate seem smaller than it already was, and his presence infront of my shack like house seemed dominating, and it was clear he didn't belong in a small house.
Mrs Winston drove past my house and Daniel, then parked in her garage, next to Sam's shiny convertible. I got out of the car and asked if it was alright if I quickly ran over and talked to a "friend."
"I'll come," Cam says quickly, "we can unpack the car later," flashing a quick look at his mother.
"Ok dears, " Mrs Winston sounds resined. But for some reason she seems relieved to get us out of her hair for a few minutes. We jog down Cams driveway and then slow to a walk when we come closer to Daniel. My heart is beating fast, after remembering what it was like last time these two saw each other.
"Hi Daniel, what are you doing here?" I say cheerily and then smile at Daniel.
"Well, I heard about your brother," Daniel says looking at his feet. The smile vanishes from my face as quick as lightning. And my heart beats faster, if that's possible. I feel Cam tense beside me, he seems to move closer to me, letting me know he's there for me. I quickly look over at him before replying to Daniel.
"Yeah, we had the funeral yesterday," I trail off.
"Ariana, I wish I knew, I would've been there," Daniel says seriously.
"I should've told you, I just was trying to be distracted from it really," I say looking at my shoes, "it was pretty selfish of me."
"It wasn't selfish at all, if my little sister...died...I would try to never think about it...and probably do stupid things because of it..." Daniel admits.
"I didn't know you had a little sister," I say looking up into his eyes, a small smile creeping onto my lips. He has a sister. Who knew?
"Yeah I've had one for the past nine years," he replies with a smile. I chuckle. Then look at the gold flash that was around his legs when we drove by, Alfie!
"Alfie!" I say excitedly. From my excitement to see the dog I earn a happy bark from the female dog with a boys name. I go onto my knees and start parting Alfie all over and cooing. She rolls onto her side and I pat her stomach. She makes a happy groaning sound. I laugh.
Cam leans down next to me and starts patting Alfie too. And says," I've always wanted a dog."
"Me too."
"He's so cute," Cam says.
"She is," I reply putting emphasis on the "she" part.
"She?" He says confused. I hear Daniel groan as he knows that I'm going to embarrass him.
"Yes, she." I say matter of factly.
"I thought Alfie was a guys name...but I guess," Cam says softly trailing off at the end, his confusion evident on his face.
"Your right, it is a guys name," I say hiding my smirk. "Should I tell the story or do you want to?" I ask looking up at Daniel from the ground. It was like looking up at a skyscraper.
"You do it," Daniel mutters, he looked pretty awkward.
"Ok," I smiled liking the control I had over the conversation and Daniel, no matter how small that control was. "When Daniel, here, was a little boy he really liked the name Alfie, he was like obsessed with the name and tried to force his parents to rename him-"
"Shut up," Daniel says seriously. "I will tell the story because Ariana here is getting a bit too carried away." He gave me a death stare. "I hate to know where that story was going to go."
"Oh, I didn't get to the underpants yet," I smirk in response.
"Underpants?" Daniel said confused. But before I could tell him how he wrote Alfie over all his underpants, he cut me off. " I don't actually want to know."
"Fine," I say standing up and crossing my arms.
"Ok, basically the story is that I really liked the name Alfie and then when my parents got me a golden retriever I forced them to name it Alfie," Daniel says bluntly, staring me down and I nearly forgot that Cameron was standing next to me. Until he spoke.
"What an interesting story," Cam says, looking at the two of us mock glaring at each other.
"I thought so too," Daniel says.
"Yeah," I say simply, looking away from Daniel to Cam.
"We'd better get back to help mum out with the stuff," Cam says looking a little forlorn.
"We should, and get started with all the preparing and stuff," I reply.
"What are you preparing for?" Daniel asks.
"We going to make their house cooler than it already it is," I say with excitement.
"What Ari said," Cam says amused, "except the house isn't cool yet, but it's going to be with her help."
"Yeah because I'm just so good at this kinda stuff," I say sarcastically.
"You are, though," Cam says.
"Funny joke," I respond.
"Can I help?" Daniel asks cutting in from our bickering.
"Sure man," Cam says, "have to ask mum first, though, it's pretty dangerous stuff and she doesn't want to risk your life."
"Haha funny," I say sarcastically to Cam. Then turning to Daniel I say sweetly, "we could always use another hand."
"Cool," Daniel says smiling, which is weird for him. You never see Daniel Fraser smile.
"Let's go find her then," I say smiling and then leading the way back to the Winston's. Alfie now off her lead and walking at my heals. I was trying to make the boys talk but it was pretty quiet, except for the sound of all our feet on the sand road. Alfie jogs beside me with her head facing up to me, and even though she's a dog I could swear she was smiling. At least someone here was smiling, I have a horrible feeling something bad and silent was happening just behind my back. Instead of dwelling on that thought I set my shoulders and walked I to the house, to find Mrs Winston.
I find her in the high ceilinged lounge room, she was plonked down on one of the red sofas and was reading the same magazine as I had seen the night before. When she notices our presence she quickly shuts the magazine and chucks it on the glass coffee table that's filled with other magazines. I smile at her and then turn my head as the boys enter through the doorless threshold behind me. Then they stop and stand like statues, Cam's stance is casual while Daniels is tense. They stand side by side an refuse to look at each other. Since no one was talking I decided to take the lead, turning back to see Mrs Winston slightly surprised face at some random boy in her house.
"Mrs Winston, I would like you to meet my friend Daniel," I say politely. Then turn and say, "Daniel this is Mrs Winston."
"Nice to meet you, dear," Mrs Winston says with a smile.
"And you," Daniel says with a polite nod. Before there is an awkward silence I felt coming on, I continue speak.
"Daniel has offered to help with the house," I say, "so we thought we'd better ask your opinion."
"Since his life might be at stake," Cam cuts in, with a smirk. Both Mrs Winston and I give him a dark look.
"Cameron dear, shush, you know that is not true," she says brushing off his comment. Then turns to Daniel with a bright smile, "I always say more hands make lighter work, and we could use a bit more muscle around here."
"Mum, shut up," Cam groans, looking at the roof. Causing me to smirk.
"Don't talk to your mother like that," she retorts. Cam just grumbles and crosses his arms. I smirk at him over my shoulder and he catches my eye and squints his eyes at me.
"Well we might as well get started then," Mrs Winston say, standing up and clasping her hands together. "Boys, can you please unpack the car and put the stuff out the front of the house on the verandah, Ariana come with me," she orders.
I follow her out the glass sliding doors at the front of the house and onto the verandah and down the large wooden steps. Which were like lots of verandas on top of each other in a long incline. I jump down the steps after Mrs Winston, Jeez she's a quick walker!
"Now Ari, I need your ideas on what I've planned to do. First, we create a garden bed along the side fence and on the small strip between the driveway and the fence over there," she says pointing in the direction of the garage. "Then we create a path to the verandah using big bits of pavement spaced out, then we plant some grass and so it sprouts all around the front and between the pavement, so it will be a sea of green. Then we plant a tree in the middle of the grass patch to our right, you do you think?" She finishes and looks at me. I turn taking everything in, then begin to speak.
"I like all the ideas so far, especially the bit about the grass growing around the pavement path. But I think since we a tree on the right we could do something to left too, like a little garden bed with colourful flowers. And then also wee could use the same flowers around the base of the tree. And for the garden beds on the side fences we could use different types of bushes and flowers, trying to use as much colour as possible. Then may be we could put a picket fence at the front with a gate that leads to the path," I say, then take a deep breath once I finished. I look over at Mrs Winston and see her thoughtful.
"I like it! Colour. Fence. Flowers. Brilliant." she exclaims. I smile widely at her, glad that she likes my ideas.
"And for a finishing touch maybe we could put some lights wrapped around the tree, just to light the garden up at night," I say smiling.
"Absolutely brilliant Ari, I'm glad we have your mind," Mrs Winston says smiling widely.
"It's not that great, but thanks Mrs Winston," I say smiling still.
"It's true Ari, and how many times do I have to tell you to call me Miranda? You make me feel old," she says affectionately.
"As many times as it takes me to remember, Mrs Winston," I reply. She laughs and then grabs me in a rough hug, I hug her back tightly. She's the mum I always needed.
"Thank you," I whisper.
"It's no trouble at all," she gushes. I pull out of our hug and stare her in the eyes.
"I mean for everything," I say seriously.
"Ari, don't- you'll make me cry," she gushes.
"I need to tell you though," I say looking straight into here watering eyes. "You are what I've needed my whole life, I need to thank you for being here. I need you guys. I've got no one else."
Tears are now falling out her eyes and rolling down her smiling cheeks. My eyes tear up too and I hug her again.
"We aren't going anywhere Ari," she whispers, sobbing softly. "Your like the daughter I never had, but wanted."
"Your the mother I always needed," I say through my sobs.
"Oh Ari," she sobs, not knowing what else to say. "Ari even though we haven't known each other very long, I feel your already a part of our family. Family is forever, so if you want want you can be with us. If you want?"
"Really the question is if you want me," I say.
"Would I really be asking if I didn't want you to be."
"I guess not," I say quietly, my heart thumping.
"Well that's settled then," she says, though her voice is strong her voice is croaky.
"It's settled then."
*********
By the time the boys had unpacked the car night had fallen and we all decided to pack up for the night. Daniel headed home with Alfie, who was tied to the fence pole next to the driveway. We said our goodbyes and Alfie her bark of sadness for leaving. And before we settled in for the night I decided to go home and check on my parents. I told Cam he could stay and rest while I ask if I could stay another night at the Winston's.
When I enter the house, the house is quiet except for the tv going on in the front room. No doubtedly my father is sitting in his chair and drowning his sorrows in a bottle of beer. I call out to mum, and she enters the small hallway from the kitchen doorway. She smiles when she see me, then I walk over too her as quietly as possible not wanting to disturb my father.
"Hi Mum," I say.
"Hi Ariana, how have you been? Have you had fun over with the Winston's?" She asks quickly and quietly.
"I've been pretty good actually, pretty distracted. The Winston's are very nice and offered for me to stay another night, is that alright?" I say quickly, "I'm just not ready yet, to face the room..." I trail off.
"Yes of course, I understand, I'm not feeling too great about it either," she says sadly.
"But it was fun because we are going to start to do up their house and the garden, we bought all the stuff today," I say excitedly, yet my voice is hushed.
"That sounds wonderful, you'll have to show me the progress," she says smiling.
"It should be great, I like what we have planned so far," I say happily.
"I can't wait to see it come to reality," she says smiling.
"Thanks mum," I smile.
"No problem. Do you need anything to take back over to their place?" She asks.
"Yeah, I'll grab some new clothes and stuff, then I'll go back over to their place," my words sound more like a question than a statement.
"Alright dear, I'll go check on your father, have fun and I'll see you tomorrow," she say smiling affectionately.
"Ok mum, you have fun too," I smile, "see you then."