Dark Secrets (9 page)

David cleared his
throat into his fist. “Don’t do that. It’s okay, I talk to
inanimate objects all the time.”

“
You do?” I said as
he sat beside me.

He nodded. “Is
something on your mind, new girl?”

“
A lot of things are,
but only one of them’s bothering me right now.”

He clasped his hands
together on the table in front of him. “I’m all ears.”

I tried to think of
something funny to say, but couldn’t. “I’m sorry about
before.”

“
Before what? Before
the beginning of the world, before the coming of
Christ?”

“
Ha-ha.” I slapped
his forearm, noting the silkiness of his skin just below his
sleeve. “No, about before, when I choked up.”

He laughed. “Oh, don’t
worry about that, pretty girl. I have a tendency to...” he smiled,
“...over-share.”

“
Not really. All you
said is you like me.” I dipped my shoulder a little, feeling funny
about saying that out loud. “And I just choked because no one’s
ever said that to me before.”

“
Well, it wasn’t a confession of love.
Like
can mean many
things.”

“
I know.” I just
wished it was a confession of love. “And I guess...in that sense, I
actually like you too.”

He grinned, making a
thin line of his lips. “Good. Then, friends?”

“
Yeah,
friends.”

David frowned then,
looking down as my belly added its two cents. “Hungry?” he
said.

I wrapped my hands
over the rumbling. “Uh, yeah, just a little.”

Chapter
Four

Though the rest of the
school was unbelievably free of clichés, given that I’d expected a
High-School-Musical type scene when I first arrived here, the
cafeteria was not. The buffet style cabinets, the old ladies in
hairnets, and even the giant hall with long lines of plastic picnic
tables, looked just like something out of a movie. Nothing like the
old window-in-a-wall we had at my old school, where you could buy
pies and wraps and that’s pretty much it.

“
This is so much
cooler than back home,” I said, sliding my tray down a few seats to
sit at the centre of the empty table. The warm weather had
attracted most of the students outside today, so we had free pick
of the room.

David slid in next to
me. “
Cooler
would
be if they hired enough kitchen staff to accommodate the great
number of students.”

“
I thought they did
just fine.”

“
Today, yes,” he
said. “But it usually takes until the end of lunch period to be
served, and half of us end up eating in class.”

“
Oh, why was today so
quick then?” I looked back at the now empty buffet—all the kids
seated, eating, aside from a few dregs gathering by the drink
machine or buying dessert.

“
They had help
today.”

“
Volunteers?”

“
Of a sort.” David
covered his smile with a fist. “Half the football team is serving
detention in the kitchen.”

“
Really?
Why?”

“
Something about
ditching paper cannons.” He picked up a corn chip and held it near
his mouth. “You planning to eat?”

“
Oh, um, yeah.” I
straightened my tray and leaned my elbows on the table. “So, what’s
the deal here anyway, like, social hierarchy? I’m guessing they’re
at the top.” I pointed to the group of well-built jocks at the
corner of the room.

“
The guys having the
fruit war?” He smiled as a piece of banana hit the glass window
then slid down into a pile of pulp on the floor. “That’s the other
half of the football team, and yeah—” he nodded, looking away from
them, “—they’re pretty much the top of the food chain. Fourth on
the list would be these guys.” He waved at one of the girls at the
table in front of us. “Music class. They pretty much hang out
together. The lowest ranking would be the boys behind
you.”

“
Let me guess.” I
smirked, looking at their paper-wrapped sandwiches and milk cartons
beside the chessboard. “They’re the chess geeks.”

David laughed. “You
must be psychic.”

“
Well, the whole
scene is self-explanatory, but the ‘Chess Club’ jacket was a dead
giveaway.”

“
Yes, I suppose it
is. Do you play?”

“
Play?”

“
Chess.”

“
Oh, yeah. I do.
Should I be sitting with them?”

“
No.” He chuckled.
“Unless you want to wear fruit juice home every day.”

I shrugged.
“Strawberry would look rather fetching on me, I think.”

“
Your hair smells
like strawberries,” he said, and I wondered quietly how he could
smell that.

“
So
where do
you
fit
in?” I asked.

David looked to the
side. “Well—”

“
Hey, guys.” Emily
perched herself on the seat across from David.

“
Emily.” He nodded
his greeting.

“
Hi,” I said, then
shovelled a mouthful of lasagne into my gob—an offering for the
empty hole in my belly where a green ogre dwelled.

“
Hey, do you guys
mind if Ryan and Alana sit with us?” she asked. “They’ve got
new-girl fever.”

“
No,” I scoffed, “why
would I mind?”

David lifted one
shoulder. “Fine with me.”

After Emily signalled
them over, she leaned forward and a bright grin lit up her caramel
eyes. “So, what’dya think—a new love blossoming, or
what?”

New love? My head
burned as if a warm towel had just been wrapped around
it.

“
I think you might be
right, Emily,” David said, a sassy smile twinkling in the corners
of his eyes. And as I was about to grab both cheeks and run
screaming like a girl at a boy-band concert, he redirected his gaze
to the pair walking toward us, standing as close to each other as
possible. “I don’t think either of them has figured it out, yet,
though,” he finished.

Emily sighed, gazing
dreamily at Alana and Ryan, while I caught my breath.

“
Hey, all.” Ryan
bumped knuckles with David, then sat down next to Emily, sliding
Alana’s tray closer to his.

“
Hi, guys.” I smiled,
still feeling silly.

“
Hey, Ara—so cool
what you did to Mr Grant, today.” Ryan pointed gun-fingers at me.
“I’m sure it’ll go down in high school history: The Newbie Bites
Back. Part One.” Beneath his docile tones, he made himself sound
like the voice-over for a movie trailer.

“
I wasn’t biting
back,” I said with my mouth a little full, “not really. I was
just…politely not taking any crap.”

“
So noble.” Ryan
nodded, lost in awe. Alana sat quietly beside him, not making any
effort to stand out.

“
So, Ara?” Emily
said. “We just finished French class—are you taking French this
semester?”

“
Nope. Foreign
languages just don’t click up here.” I tapped my head. “My friend
tried to teach me some French once…it was bad. I sounded like I was
spitting insults at someone who made me hungry.”

Ryan and David
chuckled to themselves.

“
That’s a pity.”
Emily propped her cheek against her hand. “I was kinda hoping we’d
have someone to take the spotlight off us for a while.”

“
Spotlight?”

“
Yeah. Our teacher,
Mz Sears—” Ryan pointed his chip at me, “—Total cow.”

“
You mean
grenouille?” Emily said.

“
Uh, Em?” David
frowned. “You know that doesn’t mean cow, right?”

Her cheeks flushed
pink. “Uh—”

“
Well, what’s being a
cow got to do with a spotlight?” I asked. Unless she was a Broadway
cow.

“
Oh, nothing.” Emily
sighed. “I just thought she might play nice in front of a new kid
for a while.”

“
She’s not
nice?”

“
Sometimes, but she’s
just so finicky. Everything has to be done a certain way. If you
don’t follow her rules to the T, she goes all PMS on you,” Emily
added, then looked at Ryan.

“
Yeah. She’s so
stuck-up, Ara, like you wouldn’t believe. She came from some
private school in the city, and she just doesn’t understand our
ways.” Ryan waved his hands about in the air, making ‘scary
fingers’.

Alana shook her head
and smiled into her salad.

“
Well, I come from a
private school. I’m not stuck-up, am I?” I asked.

“
You
come from a private school? No
way.” Ryan leaned back in his seat, making a cross with his index
fingers.

“
Yes way.” I sipped
my choc-milk to wash down my lunch. “It’s nothing like this place.
A different world.”

“
So where did you go
to school?” Alana finally spoke up.

“
Really far away.” I
smirked.

“
How far?” Ryan
asked.

“
Very
far.”

“
Yeah, you have a bit
of an accent there. What is that? English?” Emily leaned in
slightly, as did Ryan and Alana, and the eager curiosity in their
eyes made me want to smile—until I looked at David. I wasn’t sure
if he didn’t care, or didn’t want to know, but he sat still, with
his fingers clasped just in front of his simple smile.

“
Okay. Promise you
won’t laugh.” I pointed at them.

Ryan crossed his
heart. Emily crossed her fingers, laughing already. Alana and David
waited patiently.

“
I’m…from Australia.”
Almost closing my eyes, I awaited the onslaught of giggling—but
they just gawked at me.

“
No way? You’re all
the way from Oz? You’re totally like Dorothy,” Ryan
said.

“
Yeah, and that makes
David Toto.” Emily laughed.

“
Yeah, um, Dorothy
was from Kansas,” I said. “If anything, I’d be the Cowardly
Lion.”

“
No, the Tin Man.
Didn’t that Aussie guy play the Tin Man in that movie?” Emily
looked up at the ceiling as though her answer would be
there.

“
No way—Tin Man? Ara
has too much heart,” Alana added. “You saw her play the
piano?”

Mockingly, I tilted my
head and sighed. “Aw, thanks.”

When Alana ditched a
piece of lettuce at me, David’s hand shot out and caught it—right
in front of my face. My mouth dropped and everyone else burst out
laughing. “Nice catch, David.”

“
Yeah, he used to
play baseball,” Emily said.

“
Really?” I turned to
look at him.

“
It was—” he stood up
and reached across the table to drop the lettuce on Alana’s plate,
“—a long time ago.”

“
So, all the way from Australia, hey? You don’t
sound
Australian,” Emily
said.

“
Actually, I do. Just
not so much anymore.” I smiled softly. “I’ve spent the last month
or so working on my accent, but you can hear it when I get
upset.”

David shifted in his
chair.

“
Are you ashamed of
it?” Alana asked.

“
No.” I shook my
head. “I just didn’t wanna draw any extra attention to
myself.”

“
So, is it different
over there to, like, how school is here?” Emily held a forkful of
carrot just in front of her mouth.

“
Yeah. In ways. I
mean, we have our school year from January to December and we break
over summer as well, except it’s over Christmas.”

“
Christmas in
summer?” Ryan stared into the distance. “Weird. But
cool.”

“
Actually, it’s not
cool,” I said. “It’s really bloody hot.”

Emily and Ryan stared
at me blankly.

Alana stifled a soft
giggle. “Summer is hot, Ryan?” She nudged his arm. “Not
cool?”

I looked at David, who
shook his head. Emily and Ryan did the same, half
smiling.

“
Okay, that goes in
the vault as the worst joke of the week.” Ryan pointed at me again
with his ketchup-covered chip.

I feigned
insult.

“
But you did sound
very Australian when you said bloody,” Emily added.

David chuckled beside
me.

“
Yeah, say it again?”
Ryan leaned forward, turning his ear toward me, making a funnel of
his hand.

“
She’s not a circus
freak, Ryan.” Emily pushed his hand down.

“
Thanks,” I mouthed,
and with my belly full, all my pre-rehearsed questions came
flooding back. “So, where do you guys normally sit?”

“
Well,” Emily chimed
in, “David sits with the giant, incredibly gorgeous guys throwing
food at each other.” She grinned at David. “More like monkeys,
really. And I sit with that group out there by the tree.” She
pointed to the windows covering the back wall of the cafeteria.
Outside, in the sunshine, a large group of cliché-ridden boys and
girls gathered under a big oak tree, laughing and throwing
water.