She paused and looked imploringly into its eyes and pressed her mouth to its own kissing it passionately, their mouths were still locked together by the time Cassandra said sternly, “What’s HE doing here?”
Kimberley pulled her lips away and giggled. “What are you doing here anyway, you scared me?”
It smiled and walked over to Cassandra, draping its right arm over her shoulders. She shrugged off its arm, repeating her question. “I said what are you doing here?”
The figure was a stocky boy about who looked about a year older than the girls. He wore big black boots and his jet-black hair was greasy and unwashed, his skin was smooth, but very white unlike Kimberley’s, which was a tanned golden brown. This figure had not seen too much sun in his days, other people loved sitting out in it, but he couldn’t really be bothered about working up on his tan, he wasn’t a sun kind of guy.
He had green eyes that did gleam in the sunlight, this was Denton, Kimberley’s boyfriend, a juvenile delinquent in every way, he was a loner and a bad boy which was the reason Kimberley felt so strongly for him, she loved the rough type, He took out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a huge drag and stared at Cassandra.
“Boo,” he grinned through yellow teeth, the only imperfection on his face.
“Moron,” huffed Cassandra.
She didn’t like Denton at first, she thought he was a waste of space and not good enough for her best friend, but as the weeks went by she was slowly starting to warm to him, just slowly.
“You girls weren’t in school this morning, now why was that?”
There was a hint of smugness in his voice as Denton’s school attendance record was terrible, he was held back a year for his terrible punctuality and failure to complete his end of year exams, and he just went to school to pick up his messages and to socialise without working too hard, but on one of the hottest afternoons in the year and to the girls’ surprise, Denton was in school whereas the two girls weren’t.
Kimberley glanced suspiciously at Cassandra and then back to Denton. “What do you mean we weren’t in school?” Kimberley’s quavering voice asked. “It’s first thing in the morning…we’re not late.”
Denton grinned. “I would check your watch if I were you, ladies…it’s the middle of the afternoon.”
Cassandra dismissed the notion in an instant. “No it isn’t, it’s 8.30am.”
“No it’s 1.00pm, look at the sky, have you ever seen the sun out that early in the morning? Face it, ladies, you both slept in and on the day of Mr Glaucas’s rally as well, thought you’d be helping out on that.”
Kimberley was worried now. “The rally is not until tomorrow though.”
“Wrong answer, babes, the closing down rally is today…you two have missed a whole day.”
Cassandra’s hand reached automatically for her stomach and rubbed it nervously.
“You’re lying.”
Denton’s grin stayed. “Am I? Check your watches, check your phones.” Both girls scrambled into their bags to check for themselves. Cassandra pulled hers out first. “My watch is saying 8.35am?”
“Well it’s wrong.”
Kimberley snapped. “DON’T LIE!” Denton begun to lose his patience. “Because I was there, I went to school for once and you two had done a disappearing act, I went in because I had some business to sort out; I’d thought I’d wait until Mr Davis had finished the register and then do the off. When he didn’t call your name out, Hun, I thought you might be ill so I was going to go round your house and check up on you but we’ve got sports all day so I stayed at school all day.”
“Charming,” Kimberley tutted.
“In fact quite a few people weren’t in school yesterday.”
Cassandra cut him short. “OK, WE GET IT, we missed some classes yesterday, big deal.”
Denton loved winding up Cassandra up and teased her even more. “Wait a minute, little miss bookworm fails to turn up to school and it’s not a big deal? Were you ill?”
“No.”
“Then where were you?”
Kimberley tried to intervene. “Just leave her alone, Denton.”
“No seriously, she’s always on my case about how we should never skip school for our studies and she doesn’t even turn up yesterday, what’s that about, eh? I wouldn’t mind but I’m not even going out with her.”
Cassandra sounded frustrated. “Could we just leave it please?”
Denton still pressed on. “Not until you tell me.”
Cassandra sighed; her best friend’s selfish and useless boyfriend had got the better of her.
“We went clubbing the other night and they sprayed us with some green water stuff and plus the drinking water was infected that knocked us out for a bit.”
“A day,” Denton added.
“Yes, a day and it’s given us a rash, there I said it, you satisfied now?”
Denton shrugged. “Couldn’t be bothered really, I was just winding you up…was Aphrodite there by any chance?”
Unimpressed, Kimberley poked him hard in his stomach with her elbow. Denton used to date Aphrodite before her and sometimes her insecurities got to the better of her and thought that there was something still going on between them, there wasn’t…but Aphrodite still revelled in the fact that it still played on Kimberley’s mind.
Denton rubbed his aching stomach, open-mouthed. “What was that for?”
Kimberley was genuinely hurt that he still hadn’t asked if she was ok. “Thanks for asking, I’m fine by the way…your concern for me is extremely touching.”
Denton went in to kiss her, but she pulled away. “Too late, you’ve ruined it.”
Sensing that he had really upset her, Denton moved in on her again. “Baby, I was just about to ask you but you’re always asking how ‘I should be nicer’ to Cassandra as she hasn’t got many friends.”
Denton caught another elbow in his stomach.
“God you are so tactless.”
Kimberley fluttered her eyes apologetically at Cassandra. “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it, it’s just I know how you get bored sometimes when me and Denton are together.”
Cassandra didn’t even look up. “Listen, can we get back to school now? I don’t want to be late.”
She went to leave, muttering under her breath, “This place is boring anyway.”
As Cassandra headed out back into the hedge clearing, Kimberley and Denton followed with embarrassing reluctance; the look on their faces knew that they had unintentionally upset their friend.
As they got back on to the pathway to school Kimberley broke free from Denton and trotted up ahead to try and make peace with her friend, whispering in her ear, worriedly, “We missed a whole day.”
Cassandra nodded. “I know.”
“Do you think it was the water?”
“I don’t know.”
Kimberley was agitated. “Do you think we’ve caught a sleeping bug?”
Cassandra snapped. “I DON’T KNOW, KIMBERLEY!”
Denton knew if Kimberley was to fall out with Cassandra, that’s all she’d be talking about all afternoon and moaning in his ear.
He sighed heavily and gave his face a long wipe with his bare white hands, he picked his nose with his long forefinger probing around for the stuck crust, it came out slowly and with a pleasurable feeling, Denton blew his nose to clear out any more blockages before popping the bogey in his mouth and now could see the girls had made up from their simultaneously laughing on the path ahead, he sighed again and started to run to catch up with them, shaking his head in bemusement with his first few strides. “Women.”
Another boy from a short distance behind watched as Denton threw both arms over the girls shoulders and began laughing and joking with them, he saw how the girls were relaxed in the company of Denton and how he could effortlessly speak to girls and make them feel at ease, a twinge of jealously hit the other boy as he wiped his runny nose upwards with the flat of his palm, it was one of the hottest days of the year and he had a s
ummer cold.
This was Felcey, a boy who was in the same class as the three people he looked upon, he had scraggly black hair which he had to constantly flick back and a polka dot acne-filled face, his clothes hung too long on his very skinny body, he wasn’t wearing shorts like every other male, he did that last summer as was ridiculed on his thin legs, even a few teachers had a laugh at his expense.
He bent down to tie up his laces, coughed and cleared his throat then hurried along briskly to catch up with the others in front.
Kimberley had let Denton carry both hers and Cassandra’s books, the girls chatted along while Denton begrudgingly hung behind, and he was the first one to turn around when he heard a very quivering voice behind them.
“Kimberley? Hello Kimberley?”
The girls turned around now and Kimberley gave a warm smile, unlike most of the other girls in the school she was genuinely nice to him and her eyes didn’t lie as they smiled at him too.
“Hey Felcey, how are you?
Felcey rocked nervously in her presence, he could feel the jealous eyes of Denton bore holes into him, Denton knew Felcey was no threat to him, but always got jealous when his sweetheart paid other guys attention and gave them her smile and warmth which he thought was reserved solely for him.
“I’m fine, thanks.”
He shifted uneasily in his shoes, always nervous in the presence of girls, more so for the pretty ones like Kimberley.
“Thank you for being my science partner for that experiment.”
Kimberley cocked her head to one side and replied cheerfully, “That’s fine, Felcey, thank you for having the patience for putting up with me; I’m such a blond in the science labs.”
Denton frowned for a moment and then noticed something Felcey was carrying. “What you got there then, nerd?”
Kimberley flashed Denton a dirty look as Felcey handed it to her. “I made this for you, as a thanks for pairing up with me.”
It was a clay model of Kimberley’s head, perfect in every way, it was dark brown but the hair was white and extremely smooth to the touch.
Kimberley took it from him and turned it around and upside down as she admired it in her hands.
“Oh Felcey, it’s lovely, thank you so much.” She held it close to her chest, Felcey gave a faint smile.
“Its fine, I made it a few days ago; it’s clay with a mixture of milk for the hair, there was more milk but it got wet and it dripped out.”
Denton’s jealously grew even more as he wrenched the clay figure from Kimberley’s grasp.
“How long did this take to make, nerd? Looks like you knocked it out in a few minutes and how did it get wet? It hasn’t rained in ages.”
Felcey stuttered, “Um, it doesn’t matter really.”
Denton didn’t stop. “God, you’re a nerd.”
This time Felcey retaliated. “I’m not a nerd.”
“You’re not a nerd? Ok if I was to give you a pair of sandals, what would you wear with them?”
Felcey answered in an instant. “Socks.”
Denton struggled to keep a straight face but continued. “When was the last time you went to the cinema?”
“Last week,” Felcey answered defiantly.
“Who with?”
“On my own.”
“Did you stay past the credits to see if there was an extra bit at the end?”
Felcey looked to his shoes and mumbled, “Yes”
“Then you’re a nerd, my good man.”
Kimberley snatched the model back and scolded her boyfriend, he snatched it back in jest and waved it above his head.
“Come and get it, nerd.”
Kimberley half-heartedly yelled, “Don’t be so mean.”
Cassandra jumped in too. “Yeah, don’t be such a dick, Denton.”
Felcey looked to the floor, unsure if Denton was mucking around or bullying him, apparently it was the former.
“God, stop taking things so seriously.”
He grabbed Felcey and put him in a playful headlock, ruffling his hair with his knuckles. “I was just playing with you.”
Denton released Felcey who took a step back to straighten his hair; it made no difference to it anyway.
He then thrust the clay model and the books he’d just picked up in to the arms of Cassandra.
“Here take this and these.”
Denton then scooped up Kimberley in a Fireman’s lift, carrying her over his shoulder; she squealed, followed by hysteric giggles thumping her little fists upon his back, “HEY, PUT ME DOWN, PUT ME DOWN!”
Her cries fell on deaf ears as Denton spun her around gleefully; he managed to put up one arm to wave goodbye to a dumfounded Cassandra and Felcey. “See you later, nerd and nerdette.”
Kimberley shouted between giggles as she was being carried away, “HEY, YOU TWO, DON’T LEAVE ME WITH THIS MADMAN.”
Felcey gave a wave back as Kimberley blew him kisses.
“BYE, FELCEY, THANKS AGAIN FOR THE MODEL.”
Followed by more kisses, Felcey looked on and slowly bit on his lip imagining and wishing he was Denton for a few seconds, he saw Cassandra baulking under the weight of a clay model and her own and her friend’s books.
“Let me take them for you.”
Felcey relieved her of their textbooks and Cassandra smiled. “Thank you, Felcey.”
Even though he had been in the same class as Cassandra for the last three years, he still felt nervous around the company of girls and now had to make the rest of the journey back to school and make conversation with one, a nice one at that.
As they headed back to their class he took a deep breath and tried.
“So how has your morning been so far, Cassandra?”
Cassandra could tell Felcey was trying and laughed with a bitter taste in her mouth. “To be honest, Felcey, I’ve had better days.”
Felcey stopped walking and lifted up his sleeve, his arm was itching all morning and now it seemed was sweating some form of white liquid, he wiped it off his forearm and rolled back up his sleeve and sighed.
“Tell me about it.”
The morning had started badly for Elias Glaucas and the day just went from bad to worse; he had a splitting headache and the signs of a heavy cold were on the way, a cold he was sure he had picked up from his daughter, how she had a cold on what was proving to be one of the hottest summers on record was beyond him.
He stood outside his front door desperately trying to find his keys, he patted himself from top to bottom but the keys weren’t on him, he banged hard upon the door. “KAY…KAY, IT’S ME, LET ME IN.” He banged harder. “KAY, OPEN THE DOOR, I’VE LOST MY KEYS.”
Elias heard footsteps coming down the stairs and then a familiar voice. “Just a minute.”
Elias stepped back from the doorstep as the chains were released from the other side, the door was opened and standing in a bathrobe and with a towel wrapped around her head was a woman who looked to be around her late teens, slim and slightly annoyed.
“What are you doing back so soon? I was in the shower.”
Elias brushed past her. “I noticed…where’s Gemma? How is she?”
The woman removed the towel from her head and began drying her hair, still annoyed at having to leave her invigorating shower.
“Could you turn around please?” He did.
“She’s in bed and she was sleeping, but probably awake now thanks to your banging, why are you home now? I thought you were doing your ‘Save the school rally’ thingy? And where’s your key?”
Her hands vigorously worked the towel all around her head as she waited for an answer; her eyes were huge.
“I must have left my keys at work – I hope I’ve left them at work and we’re still doing the rally, I just came back to collect some flyers.” He ran up the stairs still talking to her. “I wanted to check up on Gemma.”
The woman felt hurt. “Don’t you trust me to look after my own niece?”
Elias stopped at the top of the stair and turned
around, he had to answer and face her.”
“Don’t be silly, of course I do, it’s just that you’ve got loads of stuff to sort out with your big move and all, so I thought I’d come home to give you a hand.”
His excuse was slowly working.
“Thanks, but I think even I can look after a sleeping teenager, anyway what about this rally? Do you still think you can keep the school open?”
“I don’t know, the Networks are breathing down my neck, by rights we were meant to have closed down last week, they want every school in the county shut so kids can watch and boost the ratings for their stupid reality TV shows. He rubbed his hand through his hair with his face expressionless. “I’m running out of time.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” his sister warned.
“Stupid? You’re the one who has just got her pilot’s licence but instead of getting a flight job, you want to travel the world?”
“You want me to fly for a living, Bruv, it was your idea to get me to train as a pilot, I just want to see the world.”
“You’re wasting your talent, Sis, you could do a lot by being a pilot.”
Kay frowned back at him. “Being a pilot isn’t all that special, do you know what happened when I had my first flight? When I spoke on the intercom to introduce myself I should have been so proud as the youngest girl to qualify from the flight school, but as soon as every passenger on the plane heard my voice…I heard them giggling and laughing saying, “You should be a stewardess, sweetheart’ and ‘Why don’t you put the real pilot on’.” Kay pulled a face biting the left hand side of her lip. “Useless idiots, I bet you think I should have waited it out and been somebody in the air.”
Elias lifted his shoulders to shrug but held them up for a while as he grinned at his little sister.
“You know me, Kay, in time you would have proved the whole plane wrong.”
Kay grinned slightly.
“I know you only too well, Bet one day I might have to fly your tubby arse across the country.”
Elias shook his head and laughed. “I very much doubt that, Sis.”
She shut the front door, which her brother had forgotten to do, and continued drying her hair in the kitchen as he went upstairs.
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