While they’re talking, I check out the clothes Michi’s wearing. She looks amazing. I guess it’s what you’d call the goth look. It really suits her, with her long black hair and dark eyes. I wonder what it would look like on me? Sucky, probably.
‘Michi’s an unusual name,’ I tell her. ‘Where does it come from?’
‘My dad’s Japanese,’ Michi explains. ‘It means “righteous way”. Pretty boring, really.’
‘At least you know,’ I say. ‘I’ve no idea what Lexi means.’
‘Monkey brains, I think,’ says Mia with a straight face.
‘Very funny, baboon bum,’ I fire back.
‘You guys are cool,’ says Michi.
We grin at her. So’s she. I offer her some chocolate buddies from the giant bowl in the middle of the room.
‘So what’s your class like?’ I ask her. ‘Mia never tells us anything.’
‘Fibber,’ laughs Mia, throwing a cushion at me. ‘You just never want to listen.’
‘It’s okay,’ says Michi. ‘I’ve got some good friends in there. Jessica and Amira. They’re not into music, though.’
‘And Miss Gobbett,’ giggles Mia. ‘Don’t forget her. She’s your very best friend.’
Michi rolls her eyes. ‘Hardly. She is such a slavedriver. And strict! The first day of school, the very first day, she told me to go to the sick bay and get something to take the black nail polish off my fingernails. She called it slime.’
‘You wore black nail polish to school?’ I gasp.
Michi shrugs. ‘Sure. Why not? My last school never cared. It was one of those community schools. Kind of … experimental, you know. We did a lot of music and art.’
Woah, I think. This girl is so different! Nothing like any of the kids at Gold Street.
‘Gobbett told me I had to get rid of all my jewellery too,’ Michi goes on. She points to a silver chain she’s wearing around her neck. Dangling on the end of it is a silver creature. It looks like a cross between a dragon and a bat, with delicate wings and fiery red eyes. ‘But no way was I going to take this one off. So I just tucked it inside my uniform, where she can’t see it.’
‘That is so cool,’ says Mia. ‘I want one too.’ She points to Michi’s violin case. ‘So, Michi. Why don’t you play us something?’
‘What, now?’
‘Sure,’ says Mia.
Michi unclips the little case and pulls out her violin and a bow. After a few warm-up runs, she starts to play for real. It’s a classical piece – beautiful and sad all at the same time.
‘Wow,’ I breathe, when she finishes. ‘That was amazing.’
‘I told you she was good,’ says Mia. She jumps up to grab her flute. ‘So should we have a bit of a jam now? Let’s show Michi some of the songs we’ve been writing.’
‘Shouldn’t we wait till Alysha gets here?’ I say, then bite my tongue. Alysha’s not exactly my favourite person right now. She spent lunchtime hanging round with Paige and Jayde instead of coming over to sit with Mia and me, like she usually does. And even though she sat next to me in the classes after lunch, she spent most of her time looking over to their table to see what they were up to. So I’m not really sure I care that much whether she turns up or falls in a hole at the moment. ‘Okay, let’s do it,’ I say.
I fire up the keyboard and play a few random chords, then launch into the opening bars of ‘Living in Pink’, a song we wrote over the summer holidays. Mia picks up her guitar and away we go.
Michi closes her eyes and listens, getting a feel for the music. Then she joins in with her violin. It sounds awesome! We move onto another song, and Michi picks that one up really fast as well.
‘That was great,’ says Mia at the end of the song. ‘We almost sound like a real band.’
Michi grins. ‘Do you know how to play “Get Some”?’ she asks.
‘Are you kidding?’ says Mia. ‘It’s my favourite song!’
We’re onto about the tenth chorus (the song’s so catchy we just can’t seem to stop playing it, and we keep adding our own lyrics), when Alysha turns up. She sinks down onto a cushion and waits for us to finally finish. Her lips are all glossy and there’s something different about her hair, but I’m too busy concentrating on the music to work out exactly what.
‘Hi, Alysha,’ Mia says brightly. ‘Have you met Michi? She’s in my class.’
Alysha’s eyes travel over Michi, taking in her hairstyle and outfit. ‘Seen you around,’ she says slowly. OMG, I hope she doesn’t say anything rude about her, like Henry or that poor girl with the pudgy knees. But then she smiles.
‘Me too,’ says Michi.
While they’re chatting it hits me – Alysha’s had her hair straightened. It’s normally really wavy, but now it hangs straight down her back in a heavy curtain. She’s wearing eyeliner too, and bronzer on her cheeks.
Mia’s finally noticed. ‘Alysha, you look amazing.’ Alysha flicks her head ever so slightly to the left, so that the thick curtain of hair lifts and settles again. ‘Thanks,’ she says. ‘I’ve been over to Paige’s. You know, from my class?’
I open my mouth to say something, then clamp it shut again. If Alysha wants to go over to Paige’s after school, instead of hanging out with her besties at Pink HQ, that’s her business. Isn’t it?
Alysha rummages around in her bag and pulls out a tiny tub of Strawberry Secrets lip gloss, an eye pencil and a bronzer compact and brush. ‘Paige said I could have these,’ she tells us. ‘She’s already got heaps.’
‘Nice one,’ says Mia. She grins at Alysha. ‘Hey, let’s all put some on.’ Alysha passes her the bronzer compact and Mia dabs some of the tawny powder on her cheeks with the fat brush.
‘Not like that,’ Alysha tells her, rolling her eyes. ‘You look like a circus clown. Here, give it to me, I’ll show you how to do it.’
She expertly dusts the powder onto Mia’s cheekbones, across the bridge of her nose and under the chin, then holds the brush out to Michi. ‘Want some too?’ she asks her.
‘Nah,’ grins Michi. ‘Not really my style, thanks.’
I check out her clothes again. She’s definitely got buckets of style. ‘Your mum must be really cool,’ I tell her. ‘No way would my mum let me dress like that, well, not till I was way older, anyway.’
Michi giggles. ‘Yeah. I guess you could say my mum’s kind of … different. Nothing like my dad. He’s way straight. It amazes me how they ever got together sometimes.’
She turns back to Alysha. ‘Come on, then. Hit me with the girly make-up – even if it does clash with my outfit. Hey, my dad might even approve!’
We load Mia’s iPod into the speaker dock and turn it up loud. Mia grabs the eyeliner and starts to apply it to Michi’s eyes. And Alysha does mine. I close my eyes and tilt my head back as the feathery brush tickles its way across my cheeks. The lip gloss smells like ripe fruit and summer. Yum.
I take a peek at Alysha and smile to myself. Her face is all squished up in concentration. Then she notices me looking at her.
‘What?!’ she snaps, the brush in mid-air.
‘Nothing,’ I say innocently. ‘I suppose you can’t help looking like a monkey.’
‘I look like a monkey? We’ll see about that.’
Giggling, she swipes the brush across my nose. I try to grab it from her but she holds it at arm’s length, making me jump for it.
It’s good to have her back.
Chapter 5
I peer at the timetable taped inside my locker door. Maths in Room 42. That’s a portable on the other side of the science block. I think. I still get a bit lost sometimes, even though we’ve been here a couple of weeks now.
Next to me, Alysha is chatting to Paige about the photos and posters Paige’s taped inside her locker. I take a quick peek. They’re of Ryan D’Ario, the hottie from Bailey’s Beach.
‘Did you see last night’s show?’ Alysha asks Paige. ‘How about that part where he nearly got in the fight with Jackson?’
‘I know,’ says
Paige. ‘Just as well Evan came along in time.’
I want to join in but I missed last night’s episode. Jordan wanted to watch his cartoons which were on at the same time and we got into a big fight over it. In the end we made so much noise screaming and yelling that Mum said she was going to watch the news instead and that was that. We both missed out. I hate families sometimes.
‘Come along, girls, you’ll be late for class.’
I spin around. It’s Mrs Turner, the duty teacher. She makes shooing movements with her hands, trying to send us on our way. I tap Alysha’s arm. ‘Leesh? Turnip’s on the warpath. You coming?’
‘In a minute, okay?’ Alysha drawls. She whispers something to Paige and they both giggle. Finally, after a whole lot of hair flicking and adjusting of uniforms, Paige slams shut her locker door and they head off up the corridor. Looks like Jayde’s away again. She started throwing up in science the day before yesterday and hasn’t been back at school since.
I grab my books and hurry to catch up with them. We reach the portable and I look around for a good place to sit. But instead of sliding into the seat next to me at our usual long table near the window, Alysha cosies up next to Paige at the back of the room, and I’m left all by myself. Traitor!
I try to keep my mind on the information Mrs Smullins is patiently explaining, but it’s hopeless. Every time she turns around to write something on the board, Alysha and Paige start whispering to each other. Now Alysha is drawing something in her maths folder, carefully shielding it with her hand so no-one else can see. When she’s finished, she moves her hand away to reveal the drawing to Paige. Paige’s eyes bulge, and she covers her mouth with her hand to stop the snort of laughter before Smullo catches them out.
I want to see the drawing too. Alysha’s drawings are always a blast. She does caricatures of teachers with balloon heads and exaggerated features, but you can always pick who they are. I wait till Smullo is writing up the next equation on the board, then frantically wave at Alysha, trying to get her attention. But she just stares straight ahead. Maybe she can’t see me from that angle. I wave at her again, twinkling my fingers this time. ‘Leesh!’ I mouth at her. ‘Give us a look.’
Smullo finishes her equation and turns around, catching me in the act. Alysha hastily turns to a blank page in her folder, hiding the evidence in case I dob her in. As if I would.
‘If you’ve got something to say, Lexi, perhaps you’d like to share it with the rest of the class?’ Smullo’s chins wobble as she goes off. She is such a gorgon. ‘Er … no, miss, sorry, miss,’ I mumble, my cheeks burning. From the back of the room, I hear a stifled giggle. Paige, probably. I’m too embarrassed to look over to check who’s made it.
‘Right, everyone.’ Smullo moves away from the board and taps the maths textbook on her desk. ‘I want everyone to turn to page forty-six and complete the first two sets of problems. No talking, all right?’
There’s a little buzz in the room as everyone gets out their textbooks and starts flipping to the right page. I stare down at the first problem. It doesn’t make any sense to me at all, even though Smullo spent ten minutes explaining how to do it. At Gold Street, Mia, Alysha and I always used to work on our maths problems together. With help from each other, somehow we’d manage to muddle through till we found the right answers. But now Mia’s in another room on the other side of the school, and it looks like Alysha doesn’t want to know me.
Smullo moves around the room, checking people’s work or giving help where it’s needed. I keep my head down and pretend I know what I’m doing so she doesn’t come over to my table. I’m the only person in the room – probably in the whole school – sitting at a table all by myself. Lexi the Loser. That’s me.
As soon as the bell rings and we’re dismissed, I pack up my books, race for my locker and shove my books inside. No way am I going to hang around waiting for Alysha. She’s too busy twittering away to Paige. Then I head out to the bench under the peppercorn trees where we meet up every recess and lunchtime, and wait for Mia to turn up.
At least I’ve got one friend I can count on.
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Jayde is back on Monday morning. Her face looks a little paler and her hair isn’t quite so bouncy, but apart from that she’s her old charming self. She and Paige walk up the middle of the corridor on their way to the lockers, arms linked and heads close together. They don’t even notice when Jack and Nick bump into them as they hurtle past. If that had been me Jack bumped, I wouldn’t wash that spot for a week.
Alysha’s already at her locker when they arrive.
‘Hi, Paige,’ she begins importantly. ‘Did you have a good weekend? I called you a couple of times to see if you wanted to go down to Eastfields but your mum said you were out. Did you go to see Switch? You know, that new movie about the girl who swaps places with her brother for a day?’
Paige unlinks her arm from Jayde’s without even a glance at Alysha, then carefully unlocks her locker. She rummages around in it for a while, then checks her lip gloss in the little mirror taped to the inside of the door.
Alysha presses on. ‘Because I was reading about that movie in Crave magazine. And it said it was really good and gave it four stars and a lips icon, which means it’s, like, really really good.’
Paige is still busy doing something in her locker. I wait till Jayde’s looking in the other direction, then give Alysha a meaningful eyebrow raise and a zip-it gesture across my mouth. Anything to make her realise she’s twittering on like a moron. She gives me a greasy, then starts in on Paige again.
‘Or maybe you went bowling with those guys you were telling me about? Because if you did, that’s fine, because I was kind of busy myself anyway, and –’ Paige finally finds whatever it is she’s been looking for in her locker and turns around to face Alysha.
‘Nah,’ she says, smiling sideways at Jayde. ‘Jayde and I went shopping. Didn’t we, Jayde?’
Jayde blows out a large pink bubble of gum, then pulls it back into her mouth with a smacking sound. ‘Mm-hmm,’ she says, looking bored.
Alysha looks like she’s just been punched in the stomach. Hard. Her mouth opens and closes like a goldfish’s. ‘Oh,’ she says finally. ‘That’s nice.’
She turns to Jayde. ‘Are you feeling better now, Jayde?’
Jayde shrugs, her hazel eyes glittering like a snake’s. ‘Not really, but my moron mother didn’t want me to miss too much school. So here I am.’ She gives Paige’s arm a possessive squeeze. ‘And besides, I was missing my bestie.’
A
lysha smiles thinly. ‘I can help you catch up on the work you missed, if you like. You can borrow my notes, any time.’
Jayde raises one perfectly plucked eyebrow. ‘I can? Wow, gee, thanks, Alysha.’
I can tell Alysha’s not sure if Jayde’s being serious or not. She blushes and smiles gratefully at Jayde, like she’s just offered her a day pass to a beauty spa. She’s about to ask her something else when the bell rings. Locker doors around us slam shut as kids start hurrying off to class.
‘What have we got first?’ Jayde asks Paige.
‘Double English,’ Alysha chimes in helpfully. Bad call, Leesh. I’m torn between heading off to class and leaving her to self-destruct, or hanging around to pick up the pieces. I decide to stay. Not that she deserves it … Jayde stands still and sniffs the air like a dog. ‘Did you just hear something?’ she asks Paige. ‘Because I was having a private conversation with you, Paige, and someone else seems to have butted in.’
Paige giggles, then shoots an embarrassed look towards Alysha. ‘You coming to class?’ she asks her.
Alysha nods then quickly gathers her things together. But by the time she’s done that, Paige and Jayde, arms linked again, have already moved off up the corridor. Alysha trails along behind them and I fall into step beside her.
‘Michi’s nice, isn’t she,’ I say, trying to take her mind off what’s just happened. Okay, so Alysha’s been treating me badly lately, but she’s still my friend. ‘And an awesome musician. She makes us sound like a real band.’
Alysha’s eyes are still following Paige and Jayde. ‘She’s okay, I guess,’ she says. ‘If you’re into that emo look. Which I’m not.’ She turns her attention back to me. ‘So what did you get up to on the weekend?’
‘Mia and I went to that op-shop on Smith Street,’ I tell her. ‘The one with all the ’60s vintage gear. Mia found some really cool stuff. You should see this one dress she found. It’s got –’
‘Thanks for inviting me,’ Alysha sniffs.
I stare at her. ‘I didn’t think you’d want to come,’ I say.
‘That’s the trouble with you, Lexi,’ Alysha snaps. ‘You don’t think.’
A Year in Girl Hell Page 3