by Cathy Cole
“Shame about the earrings, Polly,” Eve drawled, shouldering an expensive-looking leather rucksack. “Mind you, they were vile. No wonder they burned Mr Morrison’s eyes out.”
Lila was comforted to see Rhi look awkwardly at the floor. Clearly Eve’s nasty streak didn’t impress her best friend.
Eve shifted her attention. Lila felt her steely blue-grey gaze taking in her pristine uniform and neatly brushed hair, clearly assessing just how much of a threat she posed. Her eyes stopped on Lila’s wrist where her blazer sleeve had ridden up. They widened maliciously. Too late, Lila realized her tattoo was on view.
“Nasty graze you have there, new girl,” Eve commented. “It looks almost like a tattoo. But of course, tats are illegal if you’re under eighteen. So it couldn’t possibly be. Could it?”
“Leave her alone, Eve,” Polly said. “Come on, Lila.”
Lila’s feet were rooted to the floor. Her good intentions of staying out of trouble were dangerously close to collapse. Polly hadn’t deserved that crack about her earrings. She didn’t deserve this treatment either. Because she dared to talk to Ollie? Who did Eve think she was, throwing her weight around like she owned the place? A bubble of anger starting rising in her blood. It boiled over, strong and fierce.
She met Eve’s gaze head-on.
“Why don’t you ask the guy who tattooed ‘Ice Queen’ on your arse?” she asked.
There was a shocked silence. Eve stared at Lila like she couldn’t believe her ears.
“What did you say?”
OK, so Lil had just broken through, Lila thought. But it was worth it for the look on the Ice Queen’s face.
“You heard me,” she said. “Come on, Polly. It smells like a tin of old tuna around here.”
THREE
“You shouldn’t have said that,” Polly muttered, hustling Lila away from the classroom.
“Eve Somerstown is a bully!” The Lil part of Lila was still fired up. “You have to stand up to bullies, or they trample you.”
The look Polly gave her was a combination of awe and exasperation. “Eve’s the most popular girl in the school. Her dad owns half of Heartside Bay. Making an enemy of Eve Somerstown is like . . . I don’t know, getting through immigration and shooting the president.”
“Some president!” said Lila.
Why wasn’t Polly thanking her? She just got them both out of trouble! A small voice in her head muttered something about frying pans and fires. She tried to ignore it.
“Just watch your back,” advised Polly. “Eve’s like an elephant subscribed to text alerts. She doesn’t forget.”
The way she said it sent a chill down Lila’s back. Just like that, her anger boiled away, leaving Lila to face an unpleasant truth. Eve Somerstown sounded like the kind of girl who knew how to bear a grudge. Lila knew she had just made a huge mistake.
Her sudden anxiety must have shown in her face.
“Hey, don’t listen to me,” Polly added. “I get stressed about stuff like this, but it’s clear you can stand up for yourself.” She glanced at Lila’s neatly buttoned collar. “You’re kind of a surprise,” she said thoughtfully. “You know that?”
Lila’s phone vibrated.
Talk 2 me xx
Her fingers strayed to her tattoo. On top of everything else that had happened that morning, she really couldn’t face Santiago. She wanted to forget about him. Didn’t he realize that?
She’d hardly put her phone back in her pocket when it buzzed again.
TALK 2 ME LIL xxx
She tapped out a swift, irritable reply.
GO AWAY
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. The texts all said the same.
Miss u. Love u xxx
“You should put that away before someone confiscates it,” Polly told her. “They’re really strict about phones here. Apparently there’s a whole room in this place full of confiscated hardware.”
Buzz. Buzz.
“I’m trying to,” said Lila helplessly.
“Someone really wants to talk to you,” Polly said.
“It’s no one important.”
Lila shoved her phone in her pocket. Don’t ask me anything else, she thought imploringly. The thought of talking about Santiago, even to someone as sympathetic as Polly, made her blood run cold.
To her relief, Polly dropped the subject. “What’s your next class?” she asked, peering at the paper in Lila’s hand.
“History.”
Polly pointed down the corridor. “History’s that way. You OK finding it by yourself?”
Lila was jolted out of her thoughts. “You don’t do history?”
“Don’t panic, Eve doesn’t either,” Polly said kindly. “You’ll be fine. Just don’t call anyone else a tin of old tuna, OK? See you in maths.”
Lila was surprised how nervous she felt, hearing Polly’s shiny patent-leather brogues tapping out what sounded like a final farewell down the corridor. It was so hard, keeping everything together in this strange new place.
Buzz.
Going crazy without u xxx
Lila felt exhausted. When would Santiago get the message? She couldn’t deal with him right now. As her thumb hit the off button, she ran into her second person of the day.
“Hey, watch where you’re going!” said an irritated voice.
Lila almost dropped her phone. She looked up to apologize to whoever it was she’d trodden on. She recognized him from English that morning as the boy who had been staring at her: tall and geeky with short hair the colour of chestnuts. His heavy glasses had slid down his nose and there was a pained look in his electric green eyes.
“Don’t feel you have to apologize or anything,” he said sarcastically. “I have one spare foot.”
The apology she had been framing died on her lips. He shook his head and pushed through the classroom door in front of her.
Lila wanted to scream at the unfairness of it. She took several deep breaths to calm herself. It was no good. Her anger, damped down a little since her spat with Eve, roared up again like a freshly fanned bonfire. He hadn’t even given her a chance to apologize! Back in London, Lil ate guys like him for breakfast. She couldn’t let a sorry specimen like that one get her down.
The history teacher, Ms Andrews, was a lot more welcoming than Mr Morrison. She beamed at Lila from beneath a blond fringe.
“You must be Lila? Welcome to the class. I’m afraid we’re a little full, but there’s a seat next to Josh over there.”
She pointed at the empty chair. Lila’s heart plummeted as she registered who her neighbour would be. The guy from the corrider. She couldn’t believe the morning she was having.
Rubbing his chestnut-coloured head, Josh regarded her over the tops of his glasses as Lila slowly sat down. His green eyes were no friendlier than they had been outside the classroom. The name Josh Taylor was written at the top of his book.
“I guess you’re Josh,” Lila said, to break the silence.
“Looks that way,” he said drily.
“Lila.”
There was silence again.
“I was going to apologize, you know,” Lila blurted. She knew she sounded petulant but she couldn’t help it. “Only you didn’t give me a chance.”
Josh pushed his glasses up his nose. “Apologizing isn’t the fashion around here. It’s easier to assume the worst.”
He bent his head over his book. Lila felt another rush of annoyance. Didn’t he have any manners?
She tried to concentrate on what the teacher was saying about post-war superpower relations. It wasn’t easy, particularly as she had the sense that Josh was staring at her every time she looked towards the front of the class. She wished she was sitting next to someone friendlier, who didn’t take so many notes.
Sneaking a glance, she was surprised to see Josh wasn’t taking notes after all.
He was sketching, clearly not paying any attention.
“So, Josh,” said Ms Andrews, after a complicated explanation on the causes of the Cold War. “Recap for us. How did the Berlin Blockade affect relations in Europe?”
Lila allowed herself a private grin. She was going to enjoy this.
Josh laid down his pencil. “The Soviets wanted control over the whole of Berlin, not just the eastern sector where they were based. They blocked all supply lines – rail, canal and road networks – into those parts of Berlin controlled by the Allies. The West responded by dropping supplies into the city by air, embarrassing the Soviets into lifting the blockade eleven months later. Battle lines were drawn. From that point, the Cold War was inevitable.”
Lila shut her mouth, which had fallen open. Ms Andrews moved on to someone else, then wrote up a set of instructions on the whiteboard.
Josh glanced at Lila’s face. “Just because I’m a guy, it doesn’t mean I can’t multitask,” he said, taking up his pencil again.
“I didn’t say anything,” Lila protested.
“You were thinking it, though.”
He was infuriating. Lila’s eyes rested on his drawing. It looked like a girl’s face in profile. Straight nose, wavy hair. A mole set just above a curving cheekbone. Her hand lifted to her face in surprise, feeling the mole on her own cheekbone.
“Is that—”
He slammed his book shut. “The instructions on the board say to do this part in pairs,” he said. “You go first.”
Great, thought Lila, reaching slowly for her pencil. Why would Josh want to draw her? He couldn’t stand her.
They got on with their work. Josh looked surprised as she got more than her share of questions right, and she felt a little stab of triumph. I’m not as stupid as you think, geek boy, she thought.
“Do you draw in class a lot?” she asked at the end of the class, as they packed up their belongings.
Josh shrugged. “Depends on the class.”
“Were you drawing me?”
Josh shoved his book deep inside his bag. “Are you always this nosy?”
Lila flushed. She was only expressing an interest. If he’d been drawing her, she had a right to know why. What was his problem?
“Are you always this rude?” she demanded.
“Am I rude?” He seemed surprised by the question.
Lila could hardly frame her answer, she felt so annoyed. “You’re the rudest guy I’ve ever met!”
Josh finished packing his bag in silence. Lila could feel her whole body trembling with irritation as they walked out of the history classroom side by side. If they had maths together, she promised herself she would sit as far away from Josh Taylor as she could.
FOUR
As they turned into the corridor, Josh looked at her.
“Sorry,” he said a little awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
So you’re talking to me now? Lila thought, turning her phone on. She wasn’t prepared to forgive him quite yet.
“Friends?” he said.
“Don’t push it,” Lila muttered.
“Acquaintances, then.”
“I can do acquaintances,” Lila conceded after a moment. She allowed herself to smile at him. When he smiled back, it transformed his face.
“So,” he said. He sounded nervous. “As an acquaintance, can I ask you a question?”
“What?”
He scratched his ear. “Can I—”
Buzz.
They both looked at Lila’s pocket. Josh looked annoyed by the interruption.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket.
CANT LIVE WITHOUT U CALL ME BABY PLEEEEEZ xxx
“They confiscate those,” Josh said.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Lila said irritably.
“Lila!”
Ollie was skidding down the corridor towards her. She was relieved to see a friendly face.
“How was history?” Ollie glanced at Josh. “Between them, Josh and Ms Andrews probably bored you to death. Give this guy a chance and he’ll tell you everything about Hitler right down to the size of his socks.”
“At least I can talk about something other than football,” said Josh mildly.
Buzz. Buzz.
“They confiscate phones around here,” said Ollie.
“I know,” Lila sighed.
More kids joined them as they funnelled towards the maths block. With relief, Lila saw Polly’s blue-black hair in the scrum, but the sight of Eve’s red mane as well made her uneasy again.
Buzz. Santiago couldn’t keep doing this. It wasn’t fair.
Lila wasn’t sure how it happened. One minute she was upright. The next, for the second time in as many hours, she was lying flat on her back among a sea of surprised faces with her belongings scattered everywhere.
When would her life stop being such a farce?
She suddenly glimpsed Eve’s face in the crowd. It was triumphant. Now she thought about it, she had felt something trip her up. She glared at Eve, but didn’t say anything. She wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.
Ollie and Polly’s faces loomed over her.
“Are you OK?” asked Polly in concern.
“I tripped over my shoelace,” she said shortly.
“You have to stop falling at my feet like this,” Ollie quipped. “People will talk.”
She couldn’t help but feel a little better looking into his smiling eyes. He helped her to pick up her books, which had scattered halfway down the corridor. Polly picked up the stuff which had rolled in the opposite direction. Lila looked around the gathered crowd, but Josh had vanished.
“Josh hates drama,” Ollie said, noticing the way Lila was looking around. “You won’t see him again today. No loss. ‘At least I can talk about something other than football.’ Right! Roll up for conversations on the most boring subjects in the universe!”
“It’s OK, Ollie,” said Polly, returning with several biros and Lila’s calculator. “We all know you’re threatened by Josh’s intellect.”
“Hey!” Ollie protested.
Polly shrugged her shoulders. “What can I say? The brain shop was all sold out when it was your turn.”
Lila giggled at the look on Ollie’s face. It felt really good to laugh again.
“It takes brains to play football too, you know,” Ollie insisted. “But you don’t hear me going around boring everyone about that, do you?”
Lila and Polly both raised their eyebrows.
“I seem to remember something earlier today, about a match where you thrashed the other side,” said Lila. “Seven nil, wasn’t it? ‘Of course, it’s a team game, but I scored most of the goals. . .’”
“OK, bad comparison,” Ollie admitted. “But you know what I mean. Josh Taylor’s a pompous idiot.”
“And you’re certainly not pompous, Ollie,” said Polly innocently.
“Exactly,” said Ollie, failing to pick up on Polly’s sarcasm.
Polly grinned at Lila. Lila grinned back, sharing the joke. Suddenly she felt like maybe she could survive at Heartside after all.
Her phone had landed near Ollie’s feet. He picked it up. Like it was happening in slow motion, Lila saw him take in all the texts from Santiago.
“Whoa,” said Ollie. “These are, uh . . . pretty gushy.”
Lila’s face was burning up all over again. Ollie was going to think she had a permanently red complexion. “My ex,” she said, snatching the phone from his hand.
Ollie’s expression was a mixture of surprise and curiosity. “How ‘ex’ are we talking?”
“Very.”
Polly was looking interested now. “Same person who was texting you earlier?”
Lila prayed that Ollie and Polly would lose interest in this line of conversation, and fast. But
there was no chance of that.
“The guy still sounds pretty keen,” Ollie said.
“Was it someone in London?” Polly asked.
“Do you mind if we don’t talk about this?” Lila begged. “I can’t take much more drama today.”
Ollie gave a slow smile. Lila had a flashback to the way he had looked when he pinned her against Mr Morrison’s door at the start of her whole disastrous day. It already felt a lifetime ago.
“You’re a mystery, Lila Murray,” he said. “I like mysteries.”
“As long as they aren’t too complicated,” Polly quipped. “See you in there, guys.”
Lila spotted Rhi approaching Eve by the maths classroom door as Ollie handed her the last stray book that had fallen from her bag.
“Time to get out of here,” she muttered. She looped her arm quickly through Ollie’s.
“Fine by me,” he said, looking pleased.
As she towed him into the classroom, Lila risked a glance at Eve and Rhi. Eve’s face was thunderous at the sight of Ollie and Lila arm in arm.
Suddenly, Rhi frowned at her in sudden recognition. Leaning towards Eve, Rhi whispered something in her best friend’s ear. Lila swallowed. Now Rhi had figured out who Lila was, what kind of ammunition was she giving Eve to use against her? She had plenty, Lila knew that much. She wasn’t proud of the way she had treated Rhi. She’d been a different person back then. But how could Rhi know that?
Leaving the past behind was going to be much harder than she’d thought. When would the shadow of Lil go away? And with the way she’d just flaunted Ollie in front of Eve, she hadn’t exactly done herself any favours.
FIVE
As the bell finally went for the end of the day, Lila struggled to pack away her books, get out of her seat and leave the IT suite. She dragged her feet down the corridor, hoping she wouldn’t bump into Eve or Rhi on her way out.
At lunch she had sat with Polly. Although she smiled at the kids she recognized from her morning classes, everyone scurried past the table without even acknowledging her. She guessed Eve had made her feelings clear to the entire year. She could practically hear the Ice Queen’s drawling voice in her head, warning everyone off the new girl. Only halfway through day one, and she was already a pariah. Even Polly’s company couldn’t change that. She hadn’t seen Ollie again all day.