because she wasn’t expecting it, I managed to pull her down with me.
She fell on to her knees before Alex or Mia could save her, and her jacket potato – no butter – rolled with a slap into my mess of gravy and chips.
The kids standing to get a better look let out a gasp, and Charlie wasn’t smiling any more. Alisha crouched beside me now, with her hand on my back, and Kiaru held out a fuzzy-looking grey bundle of toilet roll, like Granny used to have, and their faces were concerned, the only ones in the whole horror show not gawking.
‘Psycho!’ Charlie shouted, leaping up as Chase made her way over to us. I wiped my meaty hands unsuccessfully on Kiaru’s ball of tissue, and then we were marched to Kes’s office where I found myself accusing Charlie of pushing me down the stairs in an on-the-spot explanation of my mad-seeming behaviour.
Unable to tell who was lying, Kes gave us each a week of lunchtime detentions, and though I knew Charlie would probably get a note from Chase to say she was
needed at rehearsals
, I was overflowing with relief. Lunchtime detentions meant my parents would be none the wiser.
‘You’re going to be sorry for doing that,’ Charlie said to me, as we left.
‘I don’t think I am,’ I said, buoyed a little from sticking up for myself. ‘I reckon it will always be one of my top five favourite things that I’ve done.’
‘I wonder if it’ll always be one of your mum’s top five favourite things you’ve done,’ she said drolly, and my feeling of security drained from me. ‘Or if maybe she’ll get
really stressed
.’
Fourteen
The chips-and-gravy incident didn’t help with the ‘bloom’ call, but people that wouldn’t normally smiled at me as I went about the school, and I felt like maybe the gammy leg stump I’d been trailing since Ti had left was healing over a touch. Especially when Alisha found me in the chaos that is the end of the school day, and put her hand on my arm.
‘Did you enjoy your dinner?’ she asked, and we grinned at each other, as though we were already friends. Alisha wore a smart grey coat with a thick blue scarf wound round her neck, and with her warm hand still on my arm, I felt sort of spectacular. She hadn’t spoken to me since Year Seven when she told me my Maths textbook was upside down, but I’d always liked her from afar. She and Kiaru seemed kind and clever, like they knew how to have a good time without hurting anyone.
Ti thought they were snooty because they wore pretentious glasses, and had houses on Castle Road, but I found them interesting. They arrived at school together every morning in this sleek black four-by-four with tinted windows, and sat at the front of every class. It impressed me the way that they passed notes and sniggered like everyone else, but never got called out by the teachers because they could answer all the questions too.
‘
Rosie Bloom
,’ she said, and I pressed my lips together, embarrassed by the dumb feeling of pride rushing through me at her attention. When she smiled, her face was even more lovely, her cheekbones high and round, and I felt myself smiling back without choosing to.
‘Can you hang out after school?’ she said. ‘We want to ask you something.’
Linking her wrist through my arm, the way I’d seen her do dozens of times to Kiaru, she led me through the corridors, and outside to the gym, where he was waiting for her.
All the way, she talked about
Grease
, and how she should have been given a bigger part because her singing voice was way better than most of the cast’s, and how Pirate FM wanted to do an interview with the ‘stars’, which was annoying because they were too inarticulate for the radio.
‘Sure, they have faces for TV, but none of them should open their mouths!’ she moaned, and I laughed but all I could really think about was what she wanted to ask me.
Kiaru lifted his chin in the barest minimum of hello, so I didn’t bother smiling. I hoped for a minute to
She fell on to her knees before Alex or Mia could save her, and her jacket potato – no butter – rolled with a slap into my mess of gravy and chips.
The kids standing to get a better look let out a gasp, and Charlie wasn’t smiling any more. Alisha crouched beside me now, with her hand on my back, and Kiaru held out a fuzzy-looking grey bundle of toilet roll, like Granny used to have, and their faces were concerned, the only ones in the whole horror show not gawking.
‘Psycho!’ Charlie shouted, leaping up as Chase made her way over to us. I wiped my meaty hands unsuccessfully on Kiaru’s ball of tissue, and then we were marched to Kes’s office where I found myself accusing Charlie of pushing me down the stairs in an on-the-spot explanation of my mad-seeming behaviour.
Unable to tell who was lying, Kes gave us each a week of lunchtime detentions, and though I knew Charlie would probably get a note from Chase to say she was
needed at rehearsals
, I was overflowing with relief. Lunchtime detentions meant my parents would be none the wiser.
‘You’re going to be sorry for doing that,’ Charlie said to me, as we left.
‘I don’t think I am,’ I said, buoyed a little from sticking up for myself. ‘I reckon it will always be one of my top five favourite things that I’ve done.’
‘I wonder if it’ll always be one of your mum’s top five favourite things you’ve done,’ she said drolly, and my feeling of security drained from me. ‘Or if maybe she’ll get
really stressed
.’
Fourteen
The chips-and-gravy incident didn’t help with the ‘bloom’ call, but people that wouldn’t normally smiled at me as I went about the school, and I felt like maybe the gammy leg stump I’d been trailing since Ti had left was healing over a touch. Especially when Alisha found me in the chaos that is the end of the school day, and put her hand on my arm.
‘Did you enjoy your dinner?’ she asked, and we grinned at each other, as though we were already friends. Alisha wore a smart grey coat with a thick blue scarf wound round her neck, and with her warm hand still on my arm, I felt sort of spectacular. She hadn’t spoken to me since Year Seven when she told me my Maths textbook was upside down, but I’d always liked her from afar. She and Kiaru seemed kind and clever, like they knew how to have a good time without hurting anyone.
Ti thought they were snooty because they wore pretentious glasses, and had houses on Castle Road, but I found them interesting. They arrived at school together every morning in this sleek black four-by-four with tinted windows, and sat at the front of every class. It impressed me the way that they passed notes and sniggered like everyone else, but never got called out by the teachers because they could answer all the questions too.
‘
Rosie Bloom
,’ she said, and I pressed my lips together, embarrassed by the dumb feeling of pride rushing through me at her attention. When she smiled, her face was even more lovely, her cheekbones high and round, and I felt myself smiling back without choosing to.
‘Can you hang out after school?’ she said. ‘We want to ask you something.’
Linking her wrist through my arm, the way I’d seen her do dozens of times to Kiaru, she led me through the corridors, and outside to the gym, where he was waiting for her.
All the way, she talked about
Grease
, and how she should have been given a bigger part because her singing voice was way better than most of the cast’s, and how Pirate FM wanted to do an interview with the ‘stars’, which was annoying because they were too inarticulate for the radio.
‘Sure, they have faces for TV, but none of them should open their mouths!’ she moaned, and I laughed but all I could really think about was what she wanted to ask me.
Kiaru lifted his chin in the barest minimum of hello, so I didn’t bother smiling. I hoped for a minute to
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