Following Flora by Natasha Farrant Page A

things to do, so she asked Twig to take him to look at the choo-choos.”
    â€œThat’s so sweet,” said Flora.
    Jas said she thought it was revolting.
    Â 
    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4
    Dodi says that Jake isn’t behaving like a proper boyfriend should. He doesn’t wait for me after lessons or talk to me on my own or behave like anything between us is at all different. She thinks he’s trying to avoid me. Like today there was only him and me and Dodi at lunch, because Tom and Colin had detention, and Dodi said, trying to leave us alone, “I have to go to the library now to research population density in the Sahara,” and instead of staying with me he said he had homework to do too, and we all ended up going together.
    â€œIt’s not what you want in a boyfriend,” Dodi said. She says she is going to talk to him and explain the basic rules of going out with people.
    I told her what I thought about it all being a giant mistake.
    â€œI think actually we may not be going out anymore and he just hasn’t told me,” I said.
    â€œHolding hands,” Dodi went on, not listening to me again. “Going on dates. Spending time together.
Kissing.
”
    â€œI’m not sure I’m ready for any of those things,” I said, but Dodi says of course I am.
    Â 

THE SAGA OF BLUEBELL AND JAKE
THE KISS
(OR, UTTER HUMILIATION)
    EXTERIOR, DAY.
    JAKE and BLUE walk home along a London street in awkward silence.
    JAKE
    (staring at the pavement)
    So, d’you want to go to the cinema or something?
    Â 
    BLUE
    (examining the bark of a tree)
    I, um, er, gah.
    Â 
    JAKE
    (apparently not noticing that Blue is dying, strangled by her own embarrassment)
    Saturday afternoon?
    Â 
    BLUE
    Hem, er, goo, agh.
    Â 
    JAKE
    Right, well see you tomorrow then.
    Â 
    He pounces and presses his mouth against hers. She makes a choking sound and runs away.
    THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5
    And that was it. My first proper kiss.
    I don’t know what Dodi said to Jake, but we were all hanging around outside the sweet shop together after school when the others just
vanished
, and the whole pounce/kiss/running away thing happened.
    The film of my life is not even a tragedy. A tragedy is
Romeo and Juliet
or
Titanic
, where everybody dies. My life is barely even a romantic-comedy. At best, it’s reality TV, except sometimes it doesn’t even feel real.
    â€œWhat’s it like when you kiss Zach?” I asked Flora when she breezed in this evening.
    â€œLike it’s none of your business,” she replied.
    â€œBut really.”
    And Flora is truly in an exceptionally good mood at the moment because instead of saying what I fully expected, which was “I don’t have time to instruct inferior sisters in the art of love,” she went all dreamy.
    â€œMagic,” she sighed. “Like we’re the only two people in the whole world, and everything is still, like time has stopped but is spinning really fast at the same time. And warm. Like coming home. Like there’s nowhere else I ever want to be.” She was sort of staring into space, but then she gave herself a little “ah well, back to the real world” shake and said, “Why, what’s it like with Jake?”
    â€œWe’re not really into that sort of thing,” I said.
    â€œWhat, like
kissing
?” she said, and then thank God Jas came into my room and said, “Can I ask you something?”
    â€œYou’re covered in ink,” Flora said as she left. “I swear I never worked that hard in primary school.”
    Jas ignored her. “I need you to help me,” she told me. I said the last time she asked me to help her we all ended up combing our hair for fleas.
    â€œI’m not in the mood,” I told Jas. “I am thinking important thoughts, and I need to write them down.”
    Kissing Jake did not feel remotely like coming home.
    Kissing Jake felt wet and odd and not at all how a