Falling (6 page)

“Cool name.”

“I know. It matches him.”

“He is super-hot.”

“I know.” I hope he can’t lip read because we are both still looking at him.

“Sooo?” She drags out.

“So what?” I know what she's getting at, but I can see Mrs. Snouse now, and if I keep talking to Sara like I was here all along, she might just leave me alone.

“You know.” She looks back at him again. “He just waved at me.” She squeaks, I whip my head around. Now he is laughing at us.

“I met him at the mall on Saturday. I accidentally tripped over his girlfriend. Then I ran into him today near the library. He works at a record store a couple of shops down.”

“Oh, yeah?” She is giving me her what-a-load-of-crap look. I just shrug my shoulders. I steal another quick look to see if he's still there. He's on his phone, it looks like he's yelling at someone. I guess Hayden finally found him. Funny, I thought she would have called before now. Unless he had his phone turned off. My stomach jumps at the thought.

Here we go. “Miss South, where have you been? You know that you must return by six thirty on school nights.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Snouse. I got caught up and didn't realise what the time was.”

“Well, I don't care what you were caught up with. And I see that a young man dropped you off. I hope he had nothing to do with why you are late.” Her nostrils flare at the excitement of finally catching me in something.

“I'm so sorry I got Reid home late. Mrs. Snouse is it?” Keller holds out his hand to her. Where did he come from? I didn't even hear anyone behind us. “Reid was at the library, and my father owns a record store three stores down. We had a water pipe burst and she helped out while he was with the plumber. She tried to get back on time, but my dad wouldn't hear of her not getting dinner before she came home. I am so sorry again that she was late. I'll tell my dad that she really does have to be back by six thirty next time.”

“Oh. Right.” Mrs. Snouse is as unprepared for this as I am.

“Would you like my dad to call you about it?” He is smiling so sweetly you can do nothing but believe every, single, syllable, he utters while you melt at the sound of his voice.

“Wow.” Sara whispers in my ear. I just move my head ever so slightly up and down, but my eyes stick to Keller like glue.

“No, that will be fine. Please pass along to your father that we expect all students to be returned by six thirty, there are no exceptions to this. I will not gate Reid this time because it wasn't completely her fault. Although I suspect she wasn't entirely rushing to get back. Thank you. You may leave now. The girls need to get in and ready for tomorrow.”

Mrs. Snouse stands there looking at him, trying to move him off the property with her eyes. I walk behind her so she can't see me. “Thank you so much. You are the best in the whole world.” His smile stops midway. I really have to stop mocking his girlfriend with things that I’m not supposed to know.

“See you later.” He calls as he skips down the steps. But he’s stopped before he reaches Ernie.

“Hi, how are you?” Megan smiles at him, pushing a bunch of her hair out of her face. “Nice to meet you.” Ew, even her mum is giving him that smile.

Sara and I freeze in place, watching them ooze over him. Mrs. Snouse starts walking, herding us into school, and Keller makes it back to his car without either of them following.

“Reid, you will still be stood down from the swim team for a week. Six thirty is not negotiable.” She announces as soon as we are in the building.

I feel my stomach tighten, apart from Sara, swim team is the one and only thing that keeps me going here. “Yes, Mrs. Snouse.” I mumble, at least I’m not gated I think as we walk back to our room.

Sara shuts the door to our room. “How fabulous is he! Tell me everything.” She says as she kicks her new floral weekend bag across the room.

I laugh. “There's really nothing to tell. He has a girlfriend, who starts college tomorrow. He was just giving me a ride home.”

“Yeah, right. You so did not come back from his dad's shop.”

I laugh again, “something like that. I'm going to hit the shower, I'll see you later.” I quickly grab my towel, dodging all her questions and head out the door.

“Reid, why is your back all wet?” Sara calls out.

“Didn’t you hear? A water pipe burst.” I say closing the door.

“Did you see that guy walking out?” Megan stops me in the hall. She must be in serious dream-land if she’s having an actual conversation with me.

“Yip.” I keep walking.

“Why was he here? I saw him talking to Mrs. Snouse. “Oh, is he a new teacher?” She squeals.

“No, he's not a teacher.”

She raises her eye brow at me. “And how do you know all this. Doing a bit of research, Reid?” She makes it sound like it's a competition.

“Nope, he told me.”

“He spoke to you.” Her eyes graze up and down me. “Why?”

“Because he wanted to, I guess.” I shut the door on her even though I know she is coming in too.

“I was coming in too.” She swings the bathroom door open behind me.

“Oh, sorry.” I say and wave my hand over my head at her and turn on the hot water, drowning out her voice.

As soon as the steam fills up the shower and I can’t see the door I jump up and down. I can’t believe I spent the afternoon with Keller.

The five minute timer for the shower rings and I shut off the water quickly getting dressed to avoid having to talk to Megan again.

I open the door to our room, Sara is out. I pull my headphones out of my drawer, plug them in, grab a book and make myself look busy.

Sara wanders back in a couple of minutes later. She immediately checks my bed, but I pretend like I can't see her. Sara is great, but she always wants details.

“Time to go.” I can see Sara talking to me, but I leave my earphones in. I so don't care what joys of our educational lives we have to look forward to in the next week.

Sara drops a pillow over my face, and pulls me up by my wrists. “I know it’s hard to think of anything else. But you will have to wait for another hour to go back to day dreaming about Keller.” I suck in a deep breath as we head for the student centre, then I let in gush back out.

“He is so fabulous,” I say.

“You mean to look at, or the actual person?” Sara asks laughing. “Because wow. And he got you out of some serious trouble. And the look on his face, he was so sincere.” She gushes. “Even offering his dad, he must really like you.” She bumps into me to emphasis her point.

“Maybe, he does have a girlfriend already.” I say whispering, as we wander into the room and take our seats with the other seniors. Sara is a junior, but she always hangs out with us.

Ms Cartwrite starts off the evening. “I would like to welcome you all back. I hope you all had a safe and happy break and are ready to get back into some good work.” She looks around eagerly, but we all glaze over and stare back, except for Lucy Ike and her little group of the world's best students, like ever.

Lucy claps and nods her head. It's like she thinks she will get better marks or something for being such a dork. Ms Cartwrite looks at them appreciatively.

I start playing with the buttons on my phone in my pocket. I wonder if Hayden yelled at him a lot. She should come hang out with Lucy.

Sara elbows me. “What?” I say surprised.

She whispers, “Mrs. Snouse says someone put a nail into the dining hall window to stop it from being properly locked.” I cough and look away, tuning into what Mrs. Snouse is saying. She has that red tinge to her face. She gets it whenever she’s really worked up about something. She spits too.

“Whoever is found to have done this will be expelled. And we will find you.” She threatens.

“Shocking, that is just shocking.” Lucy says to her group loud enough for everyone else to hear.

“Yes, thank you, Lucy. It is shocking. Shocking that someone…” She eyeballs the room slowly, stalling on me, then keeps moving. “One of you would have so little regard for the safety of everyone else in this house. That you would put every one of your fellow students at such a large risk.”

I almost have to put my fingers on my eyes to stop them rolling. They can't find out. Unless they actually catch me doing it, they will never know, because I won't do it again.

Mrs. Snouse gives the room a last going-over with her gaze, trying to scare the truth out of the walls. She reluctantly steps back. I think this is why she never retires. She wouldn't have anyone to shout at if she left us.

Mr Nash steps forward. “As you all know tomorrow is swimming sports. And you also all know that we have a compulsory participation policy. It doesn't matter if you are on the swim team or not. It is about everyone having a great day and a good lead back into classes.”

He turns to Miss Grey who is standing next to him with four boxes and says something. He is all excited. “Could I have the house captains come forward? Katy, Milly, Lucy, of course, and Reid?”

He smiles at me, because he knows that we are going to win and he is our house co-ordinator. He really doesn't care about participation, that's why I am the only one on the swim team as house captain. All the others are all about the school work.

Everyone watches as we go and collect our boxes. “Please separate into your houses.” The room files off to the wall with their colour stuck to it. I saunter back to my house, turning with my back against the wall to finish watching Mr Nash give his directions.

“Each box contains a large piece of fabric, fabric paint, face paint, ribbons and crafty bits of stuff.” He waves his hand like he can't find a word to explain the stuff. “You are all to have a banner made by the time swimming starts tomorrow morning. Each girl is to come dressed in their colours, it doesn't matter if your swim suit isn't the right colour, but do your best with everything else. Right, that's it for tonight. Get on with the banners, you have a couple of hours before lights out. Good luck, and we'll see you tomorrow. Be excited, it's going to be great.”

Lucy claps again. I don't know what she is clapping about. She would have to take all the water out of the pool and run along the bottom to be able to win something. Even then, I could still beat her, with my house banner wrapped around my face.

They all turn and look at me expectantly. “I don't know. I can’t draw, or paint.” I answer before any of them speak. “Whoever can, feel free to do your thing. In fact, you can take it to your room and get someone to help you.”

Jessica takes it. “I will so do it. I'm in art extension.” She pulls out the bit of fabric and looks at it. Then spreads it out, “I've got some great ideas. I'll just need a couple of people to help.”

I know that it is a group thing, but whenever I draw it always looks like a five year old has done it. Four of them go off talking really fast about their ideas.

“Reid South, this is a group activity.” I drag my body around to face Mrs. Snouse who is spitting out her words, but Mr. Nash steps in before I have a chance to say anything back.

“She is showing leadership qualities. She is giving the art stuff to someone who can do it so she can focus on her swimming. Well done, Reid.”

Mrs. Snouse looks livid. “Mr. Nash, a word please.”

I escape out the door at the opposite end before they can stop having words and come looking for me.

“Jessica.” I bang on her door. “Jessica. Open the door, it's Reid.” I yawn, still tired from not sleeping much last night. I was having the most horrible dreams about being stuck in this really dark alley with someone following me, but I couldn’t get to the end of it. I walked on and on, then all of a sudden I had to go back. I had to find the person, I had to go after them, I could feel the pull to them. I tried to stop myself, I was so scared.

I must have woken up twenty times, each time my eyes opened I couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching me.

“And knowing who it is will make her want to open it more?” Megan asks walking past in a tiny red swim suit, the kind that you basically can't swim in.

I knock again and the door falls open. “Sorry. I had music on and didn't hear you.”

“That’s okay, where’s the banner?” I smile quickly to make up for my bluntness.

“Oh, it's here.” She rushes over to it, holding it up so I can see the whole thing. “It's awesome, yeah?”

“Not bad.” I nod enthusiastically. “That's actually really good.”

“You don't have to sound so surprised.”

“No, I'm not. I knew you'd do a good job, that's why I gave it to you. But you have done awesome, really. It looks like where going to win lots of things today.”

“I'm so excited,” she squeaks, ignoring my rambling. People make me nervous, I can be standing there one minute, and the next I have disappeared inside them. So I don’t talk to people at school very often, that way I can avoid most of the pull to people. “You are going to take them all down.” She says not noticing my strangeness.

“Yes I am, Jess. And it's going to be awesome.” We grab her stuff and head out.

“I just have to get the house forms from the office.” I say to Jessica half way to my dorm. I forgot to get them last night because I was avoiding Mrs Snouse.

“I’ll meet you there.” Jessica says. I run the rest of the way to the office. Then stop just before I get to the glass window. I take confused slow steps toward the open door, stopping before I get outside. Hayden is talking to Megan. They don’t see me and I duck back inside the door.

“Can I get the house forms please?” I ask at the office still confused.

I want to look again as I walk out, what if Keller told her he was out with me yesterday.

I open the door to my room and take a quick look around, most of yellow house is here. “Let's get started.” I call, holding up our banner, shaking off my weird feeling.

The room erupts. Hannah throws her hands up in excitement, sending her paint brush flying into the ceiling. Silence falls across the whole room instantly.

“Let's just ignore that,” I yell in the same voice. Twenty voices laugh, my stereo gets turned up even more and the room moves back into pace. This is the first time anyone except Sara and I have been in our room. People usually avoid me as much as I do them, but with being house captain this year I have to do more things with people.