Falling

by L C Smith

  Sara shuts the door to our room. “How fabulous is he! Tell me everything.” She says as she kicks her new floral weekend bag across the room.

  I laugh. “There's really nothing to tell. He has a girlfriend, who starts college tomorrow. He was just giving me a ride home.”

  “Yeah, right. You so did not come back from his dad's shop.”

  I laugh again, “something like that. I'm going to hit the shower, I'll see you later.” I quickly grab my towel, dodging all her questions and head out the door.

  “Reid, why is your back all wet?” Sara calls out.

  “Didn’t you hear? A water pipe burst.” I say closing the door.

  “Did you see that guy walking out?” Megan stops me in the hall. She must be in serious dream-land if she’s having an actual conversation with me.

  “Yip.” I keep walking.

  “Why was he here? I saw him talking to Mrs. Snouse. “Oh, is he a new teacher?” She squeals.

  “No, he's not a teacher.”

  She raises her eye brow at me. “And how do you know all this. Doing a bit of research, Reid?” She makes it sound like it's a competition.

  “Nope, he told me.”

  “He spoke to you.” Her eyes graze up and down me. “Why?”

  “Because he wanted to, I guess.” I shut the door on her even though I know she is coming in too.

  “I was coming in too.” She swings the bathroom door open behind me.

  “Oh, sorry.” I say and wave my hand over my head at her and turn on the hot water, drowning out her voice.

  As soon as the steam fills up the shower and I can’t see the door I jump up and down. I can’t believe I spent the afternoon with Keller.

  The five minute timer for the shower rings and I shut off the water quickly getting dressed to avoid having to talk to Megan again.

  I open the door to our room, Sara is out. I pull my headphones out of my drawer, plug them in, grab a book and make myself look busy.

  Sara wanders back in a couple of minutes later. She immediately checks my bed, but I pretend like I can't see her. Sara is great, but she always wants details.

  “Time to go.” I can see Sara talking to me, but I leave my earphones in. I so don't care what joys of our educational lives we have to look forward to in the next week.

  Sara drops a pillow over my face, and pulls me up by my wrists. “I know it’s hard to think of anything else. But you will have to wait for another hour to go back to day dreaming about Keller.” I suck in a deep breath as we head for the student centre, then I let in gush back out.

  “He is so fabulous,” I say.

  “You mean to look at, or the actual person?” Sara asks laughing. “Because wow. And he got you out of some serious trouble. And the look on his face, he was so sincere.” She gushes. “Even offering his dad, he must really like you.” She bumps into me to emphasis her point.

  “Maybe, he does have a girlfriend already.” I say whispering, as we wander into the room and take our seats with the other seniors. Sara is a junior, but she always hangs out with us.

  Ms Cartwrite starts off the evening. “I would like to welcome you all back. I hope you all had a safe and happy break and are ready to get back into some good work.” She looks around eagerly, but we all glaze over and stare back, except for Lucy Ike and her little group of the world's best students, like ever.

  Lucy claps and nods her head. It's like she thinks she will get better marks or something for being such a dork. Ms Cartwrite looks at them appreciatively.

  I start playing with the buttons on my phone in my pocket. I wonder if Hayden yelled at him a lot. She should come hang out with Lucy.

  Sara elbows me. “What?” I say surprised.

  She whispers, “Mrs. Snouse says someone put a nail into the dining hall window to stop it from being properly locked.” I cough and look away, tuning into what Mrs. Snouse is saying. She has that red tinge to her face. She gets it whenever she’s really worked up about something. She spits too.

  “Whoever is found to have done this will be expelled. And we will find you.” She threatens.

  “Shocking, that is just shocking.” Lucy says to her group loud enough for everyone else to hear.

  “Yes, thank you, Lucy. It is shocking. Shocking that someone…” She eyeballs the room slowly, stalling on me, then keeps moving. “One of you would have so little regard for the safety of everyone else in this house. That you would put every one of your fellow students at such a large risk.”

  I almost have to put my fingers on my eyes to stop them rolling. They can't find out. Unless they actually catch me doing it, they will never know, because I won't do it again.

  Mrs. Snouse gives the room a last going-over with her gaze, trying to scare the truth out of the walls. She reluctantly steps back. I think this is why she never retires. She wouldn't have anyone to shout at if she left us.

  Mr Nash steps forward. “As you all know tomorrow is swimming sports. And you also all know that we have a compulsory participation policy. It doesn't matter if you are on the swim team or not. It is about everyone having a great day and a good lead back into classes.”

  He turns to Miss Grey who is standing next to him with four boxes and says something. He is all excited. “Could I have the house captains come forward? Katy, Milly, Lucy, of course, and Reid?”

  He smiles at me, because he knows that we are going to win and he is our house co-ordinator. He really doesn't care about participation, that's why I am the only one on the swim team as house captain. All the others are all about the school work.

  Everyone watches as we go and collect our boxes. “Please separate into your houses.” The room files off to the wall with their colour stuck to it. I saunter back to my house, turning with my back against the wall to finish watching Mr Nash give his directions.

  “Each box contains a large piece of fabric, fabric paint, face paint, ribbons and crafty bits of stuff.” He waves his hand like he can't find a word to explain the stuff. “You are all to have a banner made by the time swimming starts tomorrow morning. Each girl is to come dressed in their colours, it doesn't matter if your swim suit isn't the right colour, but do your best with everything else. Right, that's it for tonight. Get on with the banners, you have a couple of hours before lights out. Good luck, and we'll see you tomorrow. Be excited, it's going to be great.”

  Lucy claps again. I don't know what she is clapping about. She would have to take all the water out of the pool and run along the bottom to be able to win something. Even then, I could still beat her, with my house banner wrapped around my face.

  They all turn and look at me expectantly. “I don't know. I can’t draw, or paint.” I answer before any of them speak. “Whoever can, feel free to do your thing. In fact, you can take it to your room and get someone to help you.”

  Jessica takes it. “I will so do it. I'm in art extension.” She pulls out the bit of fabric and looks at it. Then spreads it out, “I've got some great ideas. I'll just need a couple of people to help.”

  I know that it is a group thing, but whenever I draw it always looks like a five year old has done it. Four of them go off talking really fast about their ideas.

  “Reid South, this is a group activity.” I drag my body around to face Mrs. Snouse who is spitting out her words, but Mr. Nash steps in before I have a chance to say anything back.

  “She is showing leadership qualities. She is giving the art stuff to someone who can do it so she can focus on her swimming. Well done, Reid.”

  Mrs. Snouse looks livid. “Mr. Nash, a word please.”

  I escape out the door at the opposite end before they can stop having words and come looking for me.

  Chapter Five

  “Jessica.” I bang on her door. “Jessica. Open the door, it's Reid.” I yawn, still tired from not sleeping much last night. I was having the most horrible dreams about being stuck in this really dark alley with someone following me, but I couldn’t get to the end of it. I walked on and
on, then all of a sudden I had to go back. I had to find the person, I had to go after them, I could feel the pull to them. I tried to stop myself, I was so scared.

  I must have woken up twenty times, each time my eyes opened I couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching me.

  “And knowing who it is will make her want to open it more?” Megan asks walking past in a tiny red swim suit, the kind that you basically can't swim in.

  I knock again and the door falls open. “Sorry. I had music on and didn't hear you.”

  “That’s okay, where’s the banner?” I smile quickly to make up for my bluntness.

  “Oh, it's here.” She rushes over to it, holding it up so I can see the whole thing. “It's awesome, yeah?”

  “Not bad.” I nod enthusiastically. “That's actually really good.”

  “You don't have to sound so surprised.”

  “No, I'm not. I knew you'd do a good job, that's why I gave it to you. But you have done awesome, really. It looks like where going to win lots of things today.”

  “I'm so excited,” she squeaks, ignoring my rambling. People make me nervous, I can be standing there one minute, and the next I have disappeared inside them. So I don’t talk to people at school very often, that way I can avoid most of the pull to people. “You are going to take them all down.” She says not noticing my strangeness.

  “Yes I am, Jess. And it's going to be awesome.” We grab her stuff and head out.

  “I just have to get the house forms from the office.” I say to Jessica half way to my dorm. I forgot to get them last night because I was avoiding Mrs Snouse.

  “I’ll meet you there.” Jessica says. I run the rest of the way to the office. Then stop just before I get to the glass window. I take confused slow steps toward the open door, stopping before I get outside. Hayden is talking to Megan. They don’t see me and I duck back inside the door.

  “Can I get the house forms please?” I ask at the office still confused.

  I want to look again as I walk out, what if Keller told her he was out with me yesterday.

  I open the door to my room and take a quick look around, most of yellow house is here. “Let's get started.” I call, holding up our banner, shaking off my weird feeling.

  The room erupts. Hannah throws her hands up in excitement, sending her paint brush flying into the ceiling. Silence falls across the whole room instantly.

  “Let's just ignore that,” I yell in the same voice. Twenty voices laugh, my stereo gets turned up even more and the room moves back into pace. This is the first time anyone except Sara and I have been in our room. People usually avoid me as much as I do them, but with being house captain this year I have to do more things with people.

  “As your house captain, I thought I would go one step further than everyone this year and get myself a new pair of yellow swimmers. I thought I would lead by yellow example, of yellow awesomeness.” I climb off my chair, reaching for the bottle of yellow body paint, my heart racing from the adrenaline of actually talking to people and having them stop and listen to me.

  “Is the paint waterproof?” I ask anyone who is listening, and hold the brush against my leg. There's no point in painting patterns on me if it's just going to wash off after my first swim.

  “Yes.” Hannah screams out, holding out another brush. “I bought it myself yesterday.” She sings over the top of the song in time to the lyrics.

  I study my legs, I'm not really sure what to draw. I dip my brush into the jar again, slowly scraping the side, trying to get an image of what I should paint.

  “You want me to do it for you? I can make it match the banner.” Jess holds her hand out for the brush.

  “That would be awesome, I’m really bad at anything that includes drawing or painting.” I tell her, sitting back in my chair stretching my legs out. I watch the others while the wet paint brushes up my legs.

  “Who's gonna win?” I shout suddenly. Every head snaps toward me.

  “We are!” Hannah shouts back, ignoring that this is completely unlike me.

  “Why?” I might as well keep going now.

  “'Coz we're yellow!” Hannah screams.

  “'Coz we're yellow!” They all repeat.

  My alarm clock beeps on my table next to me, but I only just hear it over the music. “Let's go.” I shout.

  “Coz we're yellow!” Hannah shouts again as we file out my door.

  I hold up the banner while they organise themselves single file behind me. We march down the hall and out the front of the building, to our right following the path to the pool. I pull the latch to open the door. “'Coz we're yellow!” Hannah screams from the back of the line, announcing our arrival.

  We are the last of all the houses to arrive, but we look the best. I climb right to the top of the bleachers with the other yellow house day students waiting to start. Someone played with the lane ropes overnight, and they can't figure out how to get them back properly.

  Swimming day is the best. No class. I can sit in the sun, and it's not too hot. I get to swim a few races, win them, and the rest of the time shout for people in my house and maybe even get time to read a bit of a book. You can't get much better than that.

  “Reid.” I look around. I’m sure I heard someone say my name, but no one is looking at me.

  I lean back into the wooden boards that make up the fence at the back of the seats, and close my eyes relaxing. “Reid.” I keep my body still and look around.

  I lean over to Kelsey. “Did you say my name?”

  “No, but I think he did.” She points through the gaps in the fence behind us.

  “Who?” I ask, looking around.

  “Him. Down there.” I squint through the sun light. Keller is standing behind the fence.

  “Hey. I didn't get your number yesterday.”

  I take it back, you can't get any better than this.

  “How did you know I was here?”

  “I went to the office, but,” he stops. “I’ll tell you later.” He waves his arm like it doesn’t matter. “You probably need me to be quick.”

  “Kind of. Aw crap.” I whip back around. “This is Braithwaite house banner.” I say rushed, trying to yank it up, Kelsey and Hannah grab an end each and it goes up in front of my face.

  “'Coz we're yellow!” Hannah shouts.

  Mr. Nash cheers loudly and Mrs. Snouse moves on quickly to drown him out. “Carmichael house.” She calls.

  “Hannah, did you bring any more paint?” I ask.

  “Yeah.” She shout-whispers, passing it down to me.

  “Anyone got some paper?”

  “Yeah.” Hannah shout-whispers again.

  I take the tiny piece of paper and the huge paint brush she passes to me and dip the tiniest edge of the end of the brush in the jar, and paint my phone number as small as I can. I blow on it a couple times to make sure it's dry. Fold it in half, check to make sure no one is watching and drop it over the top of the fence letting it sail to the ground.

  “Have fun swimming.” He disappears as quietly as he arrived.

  I laugh. “Say bye to Hayden for me.” I whispher, I can’t see him anymore.

  My phone vibrates in my bag and I leave it inside as I check it. They will take it off me if they catch me with it.

  “She left an hour ago,” he texts me, and I check to see where he is, I said it so quietly.

  Sara's eyes are huge, then she starts fanning herself. “Wow.” She mouths at me.

  “I know,” I call out. Everyone turns to look at me. I forgot Sara wasn't actually speaking.

  My phone shakes again. Another text from Keller. “I’m so disappointed at your lack of commitment why aren’t you wearing your jeans and shoes to swim in?”

  I fumble around in my bag, trying to look like I am finding something. “Sorry, my swimming shoes are only for special occasions,” I text back.

  “Reid. You're up.” Mr. Nash calls out urgently.

  Me. Right. My heads jerks down to look at him. Seven othe
r swimmers are almost lined up at the start blocks. Me.

  “My turn.” It finally sinks in and I say it out loud.

  Hannah jumps up, hands in the air. “Reid's turn! It's …” And the whole of yellow house erupt to their feet as I move through them, “'coz we're yellow!” They all scream for me. This is crazy, I have never had people cheer for me like this, ever.

  I stand behind the blocks staring into the water. It is totally still. The sun is shining on it from the side, making it look crystal clear. I can't believe he came. I cannot believe he came and found me. The gun fires. He came to school and found me.

  Gun. The water splashes up at me from the other girls diving in. I jump on the edge, not bothering to waste time with getting up on the platform. I launch myself into the water, kicking as hard as I can, until I break the surface. My mind goes blank, I know my arms are moving and my feet are kicking. There's the black T mark at the end of the lane. I throw my hand out and touch the wall.

  I stand up. Yellow house is screaming, and I look around. I won. I can't believe it. I dunk myself back under the water looking down to the other end. He came to find me. I spring through the surface attempting to control my stomach.

  Out of the pool.

  “Reid, focus. Okay?” Mr. Nash stops me as I walk back to my seat.

  “Sorry, I will.”

  “It's okay. You still won.” He smiles. “Go get dried off.” Then he’s calling out the next race.

  I dry off in the sun, checking my phone.

  My turn.

  Out of the pool.

  Dry off in the sun. Check phone.

  At last, a text. “Are you winning?”

  “Course,” I text him back.

  My turn again.

  No time to dry off, my turn again.

  Walk back to dry off. It's really hot now.

  “Reid again.” Mr Nash calls out, pointing to the board. My next race is moving to the blocks. I run to the end of the pool and dive back in.

  Back to my spot in the sun. I need to stop entering so many races.

  “What you doing after school?” Keller texts me when there’s only a couple of races left to go.

  “Don’t know, you?” I text back, chewing on the side of my nail completely oblivious to the race.