‘But . . . but they’re not from me,’ he said. ‘Sorry. Should be, I suppose, I just didn’t think of it. Looks like you have another admirer. Hmm . . . don’t know if I like that. No message, you say?’
‘Not an admirer,’ I said. ‘I think I might know who sent them and believe me, you’ve got no competition. Er, see you at school later.’
Just as I was about to leave for school, Mum called me into her room. ‘I’ve just had a call from the florists, Lia. They say that you called yesterday and ordered some flowers. They called to ask if I wanted to change my usual weekly order of white lilies to tulips from now on.’
I shook my head. ‘Sorry, Mum. I think it might be Kaylie stirring it again.’
Mum sighed. ‘Darling, we have to do something.’
‘I know, I know,’ I said. I could kill Kaylie, I thought. But then that’s probably just what she wanted – a confrontation so that she can deny everything and make me look like a fool. But now this was getting out of hand. She was involving Mum. I wondered what else she’d ordered in my name that Mum would have to pay for.
When I got to school, Kaylie, Jackie, Susie and Fran were all standing in their usual spot near the radiators in the hall. I saw them look over when I walked in and Kaylie said something and they all giggled.
How to play it, I thought. I guess they’re waiting for me to be upset or mad. Well, I’m not going to be.
I smiled as I went by. ‘Hi. Lovely day, isn’t it?’
Ha. A puzzled expression flashed across Kaylie’s face. She couldn’t ask if I’d got the post or flowers, as that would identify her as the person sending things. And she’d never know if I got them or not if I didn’t react. Yes, that was how to play it. She could deny sending me things and I could deny ever getting anything.
Sadly, though, my lack of reaction only made Kaylie react more. It was just after RE at the end of the day and most of the class had filed out. I asked Cat if I could borrow a book. ‘Yeah, sure. In my bag,’ she said, pointing to her rucksack. But then she suddenly tried to grab it before I did. ‘Er, no, let me get it for you.’
I was instantly suspicious. There was something in her bag she didn’t want me to see. Maybe another invite to one of Kaylie’s little weekend parties. I didn’t mind that, but I did mind Cat hiding stuff from me.
I looked into her bag before she could stop me and saw a piece of pink paper folded up next to the books. Kaylie always wrote on pink. I quickly pulled it out and began to read it.
‘Oh no,’ said Cat. ‘Please don’t read that. I so didn’t want you to see it.’
My face must have fallen, because Cat put her arm around me. ‘Lia, she’s not worth it. Nobody’s going to believe what she’s written.’
It said:
To Year Nine,
If you ever wondered why Lia Axford left her last school, this is why. She was expelled for lying and making up stories about classmates to try and make out that they were doing bad things. Be very careful what she says about anyone, as it will be lies. She twists events to make people think that everything is about her. Remember – Lia equals LIAR.
I felt tears sting my eyes. ‘It’s not true!’ I blurted. ‘I left my old school because I wanted to live at home. That’s all.’
Cat put her arms around me. ‘We know that, Lia. That’s why I didn’t want you to see the note.’
‘Why has she got it in for me? I don’t understand.’
‘Because she’s a mean, spiteful cow,’ said Cat. ‘And she’s jealous because you’ve got everything that she wants.’
I glanced up and saw Susie peering through the glass pane at the classroom door. I didn’t even bother to try and hide that I was crying. OK, result, I thought. You got me. Made me cry. Now go and tell your leader. Let her know Lia’s in tears and I hope you’ll all be very happy.
I DECIDED I had to take action. Put a stop to it. And there was only one way to do it. Cat had said that I had everything that Kaylie wanted, and that included Jonno. So the solution was simple.
‘What do you mean you don’t want to meet up later? Why?’ he asked, when I saw him outside the gates after school.
‘Look, it’s not you, it’s me . . .’ I started.
‘It’s because I watched the game with your dad last week, isn’t it? I knew it was a mistake. Girls always hate it when blokes watch the footie. Look, I won’t do it again if you don’t want me to.’
‘It’s not that Jonno. I didn’t mind. Not really.’
‘So what is it, then?’
This was proving more difficult than I’d thought. I couldn’t come up with a logical reason. I did like him.
‘It doesn’t make sense, Lia. Come on, talk to me. We get on really well, so what’s the problem?’
‘Just . . . things are a bit awkward at the moment. Maybe we could go out at a later date. In a month or so?’
Jonno looked bewildered. ‘Now you’re really not making sense. Unless . . . is there someone else you’ve been seeing and you have to finish with him?’
‘No. No one else.’
‘So what, then? Come on. This is crazy.’
At that moment, Becca walked past. ‘Phone me later, Lia,’ she called.
‘Sure,’ I said.
Jonno waved her over. ‘Hey, Becca. Lia doesn’t want to see me any more and won’t tell me why. You’re her mate. Can you enlighten me?’
Becca looked surprised and glanced at me, then back at Jonno. ‘Kaylie O’Horrible,’ she said.
‘What’s she got to do with it?’ asked Jonno.
Becca nudged me. ‘I think you should tell him, Lia. She can’t rule people’s lives like this.’
‘What is going on?’ asked Jonno, who by now looked really confused. ‘What do you mean, Kaylie can’t rule people’s lives?’
‘She’s been giving Lia a hard time,’ Becca blurted out, ‘because you’re going out with Lia and not with her.’
Jonno narrowed his eyes and his expression turned to thunder. ‘A hard time? Like how?’
‘Telling lies about Lia, for a start,’ said Becca. ‘Spreading rumours.’
Jonno turned to face me. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
I felt at a loss to say anything. I felt so mixed up. Part of me felt relieved, as I’d been worried that he might have heard something about the note and wondered if it was true, if I really was a liar. Another part just wanted to escape from everything. It was all happening too fast. My head suddenly felt vacant, like someone had sucked all the air out of it. I saw Jonno glance behind Becca and me at a crowd coming out of school. Kaylie and the Clones were amongst them. Jonno took one look at them and went straight over.
‘Oh hell, now what have you started, Becca?’ I asked.
Becca looked hurt. ‘Look, I told you I’m on your side. Girls like her can’t be allowed to get away with it. I saw that note she sent round class. You – we – have to stand up to them.’
I strained to hear what Jonno was saying to Kaylie. Whatever it was, it looked heated and a small crowd gathered to see what was going on. Jonno is easily the most popular boy in school and Kaylie wouldn’t like the fact that he was yelling at her in public. She was shifting about on her feet and looking at the pavement as though she wanted it to swallow her. Jonno finished what he was saying, then turned to leave. As he walked back towards us, he turned back. ‘Just stay out of my business and grow up, Kaylie. I’ll see who I choose and it wouldn’t be you even if you were the last girl on the planet.’
‘You’d be so lucky,’ she called after him. But she looked upset.
Oh finking stinking, I thought as my stomach twisted into a knot. What now? I know Becca meant well. I know Jonno meant well, but now it was all out in the open, in front of the whole school. Jonno came back to me and put his arm around my shoulder. I glanced back at Kaylie as he began to lead me away and she gave me the filthiest look. If looks could kill, I thought, I’d be six foot under. It was awful. Everyone was staring and I knew it would be all around the school in half an hou
r. So much for fitting in and lying low, I thought. She’s never going to let that happen now.
Jonno seemed to think that his ‘conversation’ with Kaylie had put an end to the idea of finishing with him. And quite honestly, it didn’t seem to matter any more. Whether I was with Jonno or not, it was too late. Kaylie had been humiliated in public. War had been declared, and though not directly by me, I was in the front line whether I liked it or not.
Jonno and Becca stayed with me as I waited for Meena to pick me up. Only when they saw Kaylie and the Clones pile on the bus with the other school kids, did they go off on their various ways, Jonno to football practice and Becca to a production meeting with Miss Segal.
This is ridiculous, I thought. Now they think I need bodyguards.
As Meena drove me home, I had a good long hard think. The situation couldn’t continue like this. I didn’t want to fight with Kaylie or any of her mates. Or argue with them. I just wanted to get on.
‘What would you do if someone waged war on you, Meena?’ I asked.
‘Hmmm,’ she said as she drove down the windy roads towards our house. ‘I no like war. I think is big waste of time, money and innocent lives. Best not have war.’
‘Yes, but if someone starts a war against you, even though you don’t want it, what then?’
‘Once I read book by Mahatma Gandhi. He leader of India for long time. He had good philosophy. He say that before resorting to war, one should always try the peaceful approach. Make effort to negotiate.’
I hadn’t thought of taking that approach. I’d thought my only two options were to back off or fight. Hmm. Negotiate. Maybe I should give it a try. Plus, Mum’s always saying that there’s good in everyone. Kaylie must have feelings; she’s only human. There’s bound to be a heart in there somewhere. Maybe I could appeal to her better nature.
When I got home, I went straight to my room and turned on my computer. I opened my Outlook Express and looked for the folder of old e-mails. There was one in particular I was looking for. It was from before Christmas, before everything went weird with Kaylie. It was one of those chain letters that tells you to send it on to ten people immediately or else something awful will happen to you. It had been sent around to just about everyone in the school and before you got to the actual message, there were about five pages of people’s e-mail addresses. I vaguely remembered Kaylie’s being on the list. It was blondebombshell.co.uk or something. I scrolled down the list. Bingo, there it was. [email protected].
I opened a page for a new message and began to write:
Dear Kaylie,
I wanted to ask why you are being so horrible to me. These last few weeks have been the worst of my life and I’ve been really miserable . . .
I deleted that. It sounded too much like I was a victim.
Dear Kaylie,
Mahatma Gandhi said that in times of war, one should try the peaceful methods of finding a solution before resorting to fighting . . .
Definitely not. For one thing, Kaylie wouldn’t know who Mahatma Gandhi was and would probably think that I was trying to be clever. Delete.
Dear Kaylie,
As you know these last few weeks have been rather strained . . .
Rather strained? Understatement! When did I get to be so polite? I sounded like the blooming Queen! May husboind and A have been rather strained lately . . . it has been my annus horribilis. No. Definitely the wrong tone. Delete.
Dear Kaylie,
You finking stinking cow. You’re making my life hell – to the point that I don’t want to come to school any more. But I suppose that would make you very happy, so you can stuff it. You’re not going to win, you rotten bitch. I don’t know why you’ve got it in for me, but LEAVE ME ALONE. You stink, your hair’s dyed and . . . and you’ve got a big bum and short legs. And I bet that they’re hairy.
Hmmm. I knew I couldn’t send that, but it did make me feel slightly better writing it. I quickly deleted it. With my luck, I’d press the wrong button and send it off by mistake!
After about twenty more versions, I finally wrote:
Dear Kaylie,
I don’t understand why you have been so mean to me the last few weeks or why you sent that blatantly untrue note around our year. However, I’m prepared to put it all behind me if you are. Can we start again, make an effort to get on and be friends?
Li@
There, I thought. Simple, to the point, and not too emotional. I pressed the send button before I could change my mind and off it went. I felt lighter than I had in days.
Half an hour later, Cat phoned.
‘Are you on your own?’ she asked.
‘Yes. Why?’
There was a silence. Then Cat said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this . . .’
I felt my chest tighten and the knot in my stomach twist. ‘What?’
‘I was just on the computer and I got mail. From Kaylie. I think she’s sent the same message to everyone.’
‘What? What did she say?’
‘I wanted it to come from me and not anyone else.’
‘I understand. What did she say?’
‘She’s written: Ha ha, look at this. How pathetic. Poor little rich girl’s got no friends. Then she’s pasted an e-mail from you asking if you could be friends with her. Did you write that?’
I felt sick. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I did. I . . . I thought . . . oh, I don’t know what I thought.’
‘I’m so sorry, Lia. She’s such a cow.’
‘Yeah.’
‘You do have friends. I’m your friend – you know that, don’t you? And Becca. And Mac and Squidge. You don’t need people like her. Or her approval.’
I knew she was right, but her words didn’t console me. I didn’t understand. Why were some people so horrible?
Two hours later, Becca phoned to tell me about the message. Apparently Mac and Squidge had got it as well.
‘It looks like she’s sent it to everyone from our school that has a computer,’ said Becca.
‘And that’s just about everyone.’
‘I’m going to kill her,’ said Becca.
‘Be my guest,’ I said. ‘I can’t deal with it any more.’
I CRIED myself to sleep that night and the next day woke with the now familiar knot in my stomach. I didn’t want to go into school, but I daren’t tell Mum. She’d soon realise why and storm in and have it out with the teachers. Another person waging war on my behalf was the last thing I needed. But then, my methods of trying to resolve things hadn’t worked either. I felt ill. I didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to do anything but hide under the duvet and come out when it was all over and someone appeared at my bedside to tell me that it had all been a bad dream.
I made myself get up and get dressed, and then hoped that Mum and Dad would go out somewhere for the day and not notice that I hadn’t gone in.
At half past eight, the doorbell rang. It was Squidge.
‘Hey,’ he said.
‘Hey. What are you doing here?’
‘Thought you might like someone to go into school with,’ he said.
‘But you’ve come right out of your way.’
‘No problem,’ he said.
‘And Meena usually drives me.’
‘Cool. I’ll arrive in style.’
‘Not if Max and Molly have their way,’ I laughed. ‘They’ll be covered in mud.’ The dogs had just spotted us from one of the lawns below the house and were running as fast as they could towards us. Squidge and I made a dive for the car, which was waiting outside one of the garages, ready to take me to school. We only just made it in time and couldn’t help laughing at the disappointed looks on their faces as they put their paws up to the windows.
A few moments later, Meena appeared and we were on our way, leaving Max and Molly behind on the drive. As we got closer to school, I asked if he’d seen the message that Kaylie had sent round.
‘Oh that.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s what the delete button is for.’
Then
he asked about what I was doing at the weekend and filled me in on the film he was making about the school show. We talked about music, what movies were coming out . . . everything apart from Kaylie and the Clones. By the time we got to school, the knot in my tummy had loosened a bit. Only when we got out of the car, did he refer to it.
‘Don’t let them wear you down, Lia,’ he said. ‘And you know where I am if you need me.’
As I walked towards class, Jackie came up behind me.
‘Hey, Lia,’ she said.
‘Uh,’ I replied, wondering what nastiness she had in store.
‘How are you?’
What does she mean, how am I? I thought. She must know the effect that they’ve had on me these last two weeks.
‘Look, Jackie, I don’t know what you want, but if you want the truth, I’ve been very freaked out. I don’t know why you and your mates are being so horrid to me. I’ve never done anything to you and I’ve had about as much as I can take.’
Jackie shook her head. ‘I know. I feel rotten about it.’
I felt shocked. ‘You do?’
‘Yeah, course. Not everyone agrees with Kaylie all the time and I think she’s been really mean to you. I’m sorry.’
This was the last thing I expected. ‘Oh,’ was all I could say.
‘Yeah, a few of us feel bad about it. She can be a Class A bitch, can Kaylie.’
‘Really,’ I agreed. ‘A total bitch.’
She gave me a friendly smile, then took off down the corridor. Strange, I thought. Not at all what I expected, but then maybe some of the Clones have got minds of their own after all. I made my way to the girls’ cloakroom to sit for a minute on my own before facing everyone who had no doubt got Kaylie’s e-mail the night before. I’d only been in there a few minutes when I heard the door open and voices. One of them was Kaylie’s. I quickly lifted my feet off the floor so that she wouldn’t know that I was in there.
‘And did you see the way she wrote her name? Lia with an “at” symbol, like you use on e-mail addresses,’ Kaylie was saying. ‘I suppose she thinks she’s pretty cool, doing that.’
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