I was glad to get off the bus, even if it meant I only had enough time to raid the cupboards for a quick bite to eat before I settled down to finish my English essay.
Cassie had talked nonstop about Sonny and it had been cringe worthy to say the least. I’d just nodded and pretended to listen to her so called advice. There’s no way I’m wearing heels to the next band practise, even if they do make my legs look longer.
I heard Leanne come home around half eleven. I was just saving my document on the laptop when the floor board sounded outside my door.
“Harri,” Leanne hissed. “Can I come in?”
“One minute.” I got up from my desk and tied my dressing gown around me. “Alright.”
My door creaked open and Leanne stumbled in. Her hair was a mess and she was only wearing one sock. Oh dear.
“Where’s your other sock?” I asked.
Leanne looked down at her feet and frowned. “I think Warren used it to mop up the drink he spilt.”
“Really, Leanne. You’re drunk.” I rolled my eyes at her and pulled her down to sit on my bed with me.
“No, Harri. I’m not.” She swayed a little in her seat. “I’m just tipsy. I only had a couple of vodkas. We were celebrating Aiden joining the band.”
“How did you get home?” I asked, watching as she tried to untangle her vivid red hair with her fingers.
“Sonny gave us a lift.”
My heart beat faster at the sound of his name. “He drove while drunk?”
Leanne waved a hand at me. “He only had one. That’s not against the law.”
“It’s still stupid.” I got up and checked the landing. Mum and Dad were still watching TV downstairs. How they hadn’t heard her come in was a mystery to me.
“Aiden said he couldn’t believe we were sisters,” Leanne said.
I turned back around and closed my door. “Yeah, I know.”
“He said we’re so different, ‘cause I’m all rock rebel and you’re so serious all the time. He said he tried to talk to you in lessons but all you want to do is work.”
It felt like someone had just stabbed me in the back. I didn’t even know Aiden that well, yet I’d been nice enough to him; defending him when Cassie had called him a pervert. And what did he think we were in class for? If I didn’t do the work in lesson time, then it would only mean that I had to do it at home. I glanced over at my desk and at the laptop. If he hadn’t disrupted me in lesson time then I could have gone to bed an hour ago.
I felt a tug on my dressing gown and I looked to see Leanne standing next to me. She was squinting down at me with a smile.
“I told him he was wrong though. I said you can be fun when you want to be.” She patted my head and ambled towards the door. “See you in the morning, chick.”
I half smiled at the back of her head and watched as she tried to make it to her room in one piece. “Night, Leanne,” I whispered.
At least someone gets me.
***
I didn’t know how to react when Aiden smiled at me as I arrived at my English class the next day. Part of me wanted to be rude to him, because he’d called me serious. But on the other hand, I didn’t want to fall out with him and have to sit next to someone I despised for the rest of the college year.
I settled into my seat before thinking about what to say to him. He looked a little tired today; his green-blue eyes were surrounded by dark purple shadows and his hair was the messiest that I’d seen it.
“Have a late night last night?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
He smiled and rubbed the back of his head. “You could say that.” His voice sounded hoarse. “Why did you have to leave so early?”
I knew he wanted me to say something along the lines of, “I like to be in bed by nine as I’m so serious,” but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. Anyway, it wasn’t true.
“Cassie wasn’t feeling well,” I replied.
“Cassie’s the girl you were with, right? The blonde one who sat with the sulky look on her face all the way through our first song.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “That’s her alright.”
Mr. Lloyd cleared his throat then and the class quieted down. “I’d like all of the homework to be passed to the front of the room, please. No exceptions.”
I delved into my bag and pulled out the document I’d been working on last night.
“What homework?” Aiden asked. He sounded panicked.
“The stuff we copied off the board at the end of the last lesson.” I waved my paper. “You know, we were supposed to do it for today.”
Aiden gulped and I noticed his adams apple bob in his throat. “Crap.”
I hid my smirk by leaning my face into my palm. “Oh dear.”
“This isn’t funny. I’m dead.”
“Mr. Lloyd isn’t going to kill you. As long as you aren’t one of the ones who never does his homework,” I said.
The look on his face made me want to eat my words.
“What am I supposed to do?” he asked.
I shrugged. I’d never found myself in this position before. What did he expect me to do? Share my homework?
“Let me share your homework.”
I sat bolt upright. “Really?”
He nodded and his hair fell into his eyes. “Please. I’m begging you, just this one time.”
I stared straight ahead of me, watching as the rest of the class passed their work Mr. Lloyd’s way. Why should I share with him? Besides, he’d called me serious. I felt myself frowning and I turned away so that Aiden couldn’t see. What does he think I am? Some sort of homework buddy? My frown deepened when I realised that I hadn’t yet told him no. What was wrong with me? I wasn’t going to do it. End of. But I knew that wasn’t true. A small part of my brain was trying to get my attention, whispering in my ear. If I share with him, he might think he was wrong to call me serious. My frown lifted slightly. That could actually work. And then he might even tell Sonny how cool I am, saving his butt like that.
“Okay, just this once.” I surprised myself when I realised I’d actually said it out loud.
Aiden’s face relaxed at my words. “Thank you so much, Harriet. I owe you one.”
I said nothing. Instead, I scribbled down his name next to mine at the top of my page. I winced at the paper, not quite believing what I was doing, before handing it to the girl sitting in front of me. I watched the paper all the way to Mr. Lloyd’s hands. He stared down at it for a brief moment, before collecting the next batch of work.
***
“You really saved my skin there,” Aiden said as he followed me out of the classroom two hours later.
“Like you said, you owe me,” I replied.
Aiden grinned. “You’re going to hold me to that, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “Why shouldn’t I? I’ve basically just put my reputation on the line by splitting my potential grade with you.” A sudden thought struck me and I grimaced. “If I get anything less than a B, I’m blaming you.”
“You need to chill out,” Aiden said, producing a packet of sweets from his back pocket before popping one into his mouth. He sucked on it for a moment. “Life isn’t all about grades.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah? They’re hardly going to let me into university because I have nice teeth.”
Aiden laughed. “Okay then, you have a point. But you do have nice teeth.”
“It’s called brushing twice a day and not eating sweets all the time,” I said, a sarky tone leaking into my voice. I couldn’t help glancing pointedly at the sweets in his hand either.
“What’s that look for?” he asked. “You’re in danger of sounding like my mum.”
Not wanting to prove him right about me being serious, I grabbed for the packet in his hand and shoved a sweet into my mouth.
Aiden laughed. “Nice one. Although I have to warn you, those sweets have been in my pocket for at least a fortnight.”
I tried not to let him see me gag by turning away to search the lunch room we’d just arrived in. It was full of teens chatting loudly as they stuffed themselves silly with junk food and gossip. The smell of pizza and chips was intoxicating and the lunch queue was so long that it was meandering all over the place.
“Looking for anyone in particular?” Aiden asked.
I turned to him with a surprised expression. Part of me had expected him to go off in search of his own friends. I handed him back his sweets.
“Cassie’s supposed to meet me here.” No sooner had the words left my mouth, I caught sight of her heading my way. She had a moody look on her face and she seemed to be storming over, rather than walking. “Oh, there she is,” I added lamely.
“What’s her problem?” Aiden asked and I looked over to see him jerking his thumb at Cassie. “She been told to take her make-up off or something?”
I couldn’t deny the fact that Aiden had practically summed Cassie up in a nutshell. I didn’t let the smile grace my face though.
“You better go,” I said. “She’ll only bite your head off if you’re here.”
Aiden cocked an eyebrow. “She sounds evil.”
“No,” I replied. “The term is high maintenance.”
“I’ll be off then,” he said with a smile. “Thanks again, Harriet. You’re a life saver.”
I waved as he disappeared towards the exit. “I think the term is sucker,” I mumbled to myself.
After all, I was the one who was about to put up with Cassie’s hissy fit.
Cassie basically dragged me to the toilets. Her nostrils were flaring and I was waiting for her to start breathing fire. The small group of girls that had been huddled around the mirror when we entered, took one look at Cassie and dispersed immediately.
“Lara frickin’ Randal is going to the Caribbean!” Cassie let go of my arm and I felt the blood flow back into my right hand. “I mean, what did I do to deserve this?”
“Uh,” I tried.
“She gets the guy, fine. But then she gets the holiday I want!” She paced back and forth in front of me.
“Cassie, you need to calm down,” I said, reaching to rest a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not worth it.”
She raised her eyebrows at me. “It is so worth it! She’s going to go on this holiday and come back looking even more tanned and lovely than last time and then Mike Finnegan with fall even more in love with her and then he’ll never be mine.”
She looked a little short of breath after her tirade and I sighed.
“Let’s get some lunch and then we’ll go outside and talk,” I said.
“Are you kidding? Have you seen the queue in there? I’ll starve to death by the time I get to the front.” She frowned and raised her hands in the air. “The world officially hates me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. You can share my lunch with me.”
After a few more persuasive looks, Cassie finally followed me out of the toilets and into the chilly November air. Outside was deserted, due to no-one else being insane enough to venture to the benches that were always packed in the summer. Besides, I didn’t want to take my chances inside and have Cassie spot Lara and Mike kissing like I had on my way out.
I brushed away the leaves that had landed on the weathered wood of the bench and gestured for Cassie to sit down next to me. She made a huffing sound before collapsing beside me. I attempted a smile at her before retrieving my lunch from my bag. Lifting the lid, I held the lunch box in front of Cassie. She eyed it as if the contents were poisonous.
“Come on. You get first pick.”
She removed her hands from her pockets and cocked an eyebrow at me. “Wow. I get first pick between the banana and the raisins.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice.
“I have a sausage roll too. Oh.” I moved the banana to my lap and smiled. “I even have a yoghurt.”
“Where’s the spoon?” Cassie asked, pointedly.
My face fell. “I forgot to put one in.”
To my surprise, Cassie smiled and it felt like the clouds had opened to reveal the sun. “You’re hopeless.”
“I may be hopeless, but I’m a hopeless person with lunch.”
Cassie grabbed the sausage roll and began unwrapping it. “Thanks, H.”
I rested my head on her shoulder. “Any time.”
***
Cassie was back to her usual self by the time our French lesson came around. She was even making jokes about our teacher’s shoes and laughing at my lame attempt to draw a stick man; I’d never been good at art.
“His arms are longer than his legs.” Cassie snorted and slapped a hand over her mouth when she realised what she’d just done.
I giggled. “Very attractive.”
“At least I can draw,” she said.
I looked down at the picture she’d sketched on my notebook and nodded. “Yeah, you have that over Lara.”
Cassie’s eyes widened and for a second I thought I’d said the wrong thing. My heart rate sped up.
“Really?” Cassie asked. “Well, I guess she’s not perfect then.”
“Exactly,” I said.
“I bet she has hairy toes too,” Cassie added. “You know, I wondered why she always wore socks in P.E.”
I didn’t bother to remind Cassie that almost everyone in our P.E class used to wear socks. After all, we had done gymnastics in the gym, which also doubled as the canteen. I was just glad that she was smiling again.
“Hey, Harriet. Your hair looks nice today.”
My smile disappeared and I had to catch the curse word that was on the tip of my tongue. “Hi Brandon,” I said, forced enthusiasm in my voice. “How are you?”
Brandon’s own smile grew and he moved around to perch on the side of my desk. “I’m good thanks. Excited for my big football game tonight.”
“Sounds good,” I lied.
He nodded. “You should come. We need all the support we can get, going up against the league leaders.”
“Yeah, Harriet,” Cassie said and I turned to see her smiling eagerly at the two of us. I wanted to kick her.
“Maybe. I think I’m busy tonight.”
“Oh,” Brandon said, sounding a little dejected.
“She’ll see if she can make it though, won’t you, H?” Cassie added.
I spoke through tight lips. “Yeah. I’ll see if I can find the time.”
Brandon’s expression was ecstatic. “Brilliant. Well, I’ll see you later then.”
I was about to correct him when I thought better of it. I didn’t want to have to talk to him for any longer. His optimism was annoying.
I watched him take his seat before turning back around to face Cassie. “You cow.”
She laughed. “What! I was being friendly.” She caught my look of annoyance. “He’s a nice guy, H. You should give him a chance.”
“If you like him so much, maybe you should go out with him.”
“Don’t be silly, H. You know I only have eyes for Mike.”
“Yeah?” I whispered. “Well I only have eyes for Sonny.”
“Well you’re not doing a very good job of getting his attention are you?” she said.
I shrugged. “Maybe I’ll have to make more of an effort.”
“Maybe?”
“Fine. I will have to make more of an effort,” I said.
“Good to hear it. We’ll start at the football game tonight.”
I raised my eyebrows. “But I’m not going to the game. I have dance.”
Cassie pouted. “Fine. We’ll start tomorrow.”
I nodded. “It’s a deal.”