Star-Crossed by Jo Cotterill

room – and his son is just the same. So stay away from the Banners. They’ll just betray you, like he did Dad.”
    You nod, and rest your head on your sister’s shoulder. She uses the remote to turn on the TV, and you start to watch. She laughs at something, but you’re not really listening. You’re thinking about how stupid you were to ever think that Chris was a good person, and about how when you next see him, it will be guns blazing once again.
    I believe it’s you who’s met your match, Mr Banner. Get ready to feel very bad about yourself next time I see you.

A gust of wind swings the door shut behind you with a bang as you enter the Year Eleven area at lunch, a week after the first rehearsal. You sweep your wind-tangled hair out of your eyes and take a look around, but you immediately know something is wrong.
    Rubes is sitting with Helene Johnston, who’s another girl from the play, and a group of her friends. The friends are talking among themselves, and Rubes is talking to Helene. He is obviously telling a story, gesturing animatedly, and talking fast. You start to walk over to their table, winding between the little groups of squishy chairs. The volume of noise drops slightly, so you look round to see why. Casting your eyes around the room, you see that about half of the people there are looking at you. As soon as they see you, they all glance away and start up their conversations again. You sigh. Can’t they find someone else to talk about?
    It’s been like this for just over a week. Everywhere you go, people have been staring as you walk past, then when you look back at them, they all look away. You’ve been getting more and more frustrated and now you are plain sick of it. You decide to ignore everyone and just sit with Reuben, so you focus your sights on him and speed up.
    Helene flicks her long, blonde hair and laughs at a turn in the story. The two of them are still laughing as you arrive at the table. They turn around and Rubes smiles at you and pats the seat next to him for you to sit down, but Helene’s face falls.
    â€œCan I sit down?” you ask her.
    For a second she just stares at you, then she smiles and nods.
    â€œYeah, sure, why not.”
    You sit down and realize that Helene’s friends have stopped their conversation and are all looking at you, as if waiting for you to do something. You are starting to feel like a monkey in a zoo.
    â€œWhat?” you say. “ Why are you staring?”
    They all look at each other, then back to you. A girl with straight red hair speaks. You recognize her as Kate Littleton, a ballet student who spends most of her time in the school dance studio practising her pliés. You know her enough to like her and smile at her in the halls, but don’t talk to her often. “You mean, you don’t know what everyone is talking about?”
    They all stare at you again. You lose your patience.
    â€œDoes it look like I do? What’s the latest on my oh-so-depraved social life?”
    She laughs. You look at her, then she stops laughing. “The rumours,” she says. “What everyone’s been talking about.” You stare at her blankly. With the air of letting someone in on a great secret, she talks again, hardly above a whisper. “Everyone’s saying that you’ve been sending Chris Banner threatening letters. I heard that you had a huge fight and that you broke Chris’s rib.”
    Helene butts in, resting her elbows on the table too. “And Misha told me that you have to see a psychiatrist because you have anger management problems, because of your dad. She said that your dad had a fight with Chris’s dad ages ago, and it left him all mentally unstable, and because of that you want revenge. On Chris.” She pauses for dramatic effect, and leans in that tiny bit more, dropping her voice to a low whisper. “Everyone thinks that you’re about to go crazy