... not in love with Kale Eddison (17 page)

Kale grinned,
“Ok, how about we hit ‘Wing Ting’s’ before we go to the cinema on
the night of your choice? I can only imaging what horrors you have
planned for me … you’re going to make me suffer through the most
god awful movie, aren’t you?”

Izzie smiled
slyly, “Yeah, one of yours! No, I’m joking, you’ll just have to
wait and see, now let’s go dance.”

Kale let Izzie
drag him back to the dance floor and they had a good time competing
to see who could come up with the wackiest moves. After a while,
the DJ changed the track mid-song and declared, “This is for all
you loved up things out there.”

Izzie groaned
at the soppy choice of song and quickly tried to escape the dance
floor but Kale was too fast; he grabbed her arm and pulled her
back.

“Come on,
you’ve ridiculed me all night on my horrible dance moves, the least
I can do is show you that I do know how to slow dance.”

Izzie was
unsure; hadn’t she promised herself to avoid such situations until
she figured out her exact feelings for Kale? He wasn’t going to
make it very easy for her; that was clear. She sighed and decided
to limit herself to one dance; she could survive one dance …
couldn’t she?

They moved
around the dance floor; Izzie noticed that Kale was quite graceful
but she wasn’t going to inflate his ego by admitting it to him. She
tried her best to keep as much distance as possible between them
but her body seemed to have different ideas; she found herself
pulled to him like a magnet. Kale certainly wasn’t doing much to
help matters either; he kept pulling her in closer and moved her
arms to around his neck. Izzie was feeling uncomfortable now; her
heart was thumping wildly and her stomach was doing somersaults.
She had nowhere else to look but into his face; his baby blue eyes
were shining and Izzie really noticed how handsome he actually was
despite what she had claimed about his looks in the past. She
shivered, even though she wasn’t cold and was relieved when the
song ended. She pulled away from him; the magnet attraction between
them had seemed to have disappeared now thankfully. Kale didn’t put
up a fight when Izzie led him to the refreshment table once again;
he had pushed his luck and he was just happy that he had been able
to get
that
close with Izzie and not screw it up.

“So,” Izzie
began, coughing awkwardly, “you think the reporters are still
lurking out there?”

Kale shook his
head, “Dunno but I hope not. What time is it anyway?”

Izzie glanced
at her watch, “Wow, it’s nearly midnight; I’d better get going … my
mother won’t sleep until she knows I’m home safe.”

Kale nodded, “I
think I’d better go too. I’ll walk you to your car.”

They walked
down the deserted corridor and, very hesitantly, opened the door
before they stepped outside. Thankfully, all the reporters had left
so they could go to their cars without hassle. Kale walked Izzie to
her car but stopped her from getting in right away.

“Izzie, I …” he
trailed off; there was a peculiar look on his face and Izzie
noticed that he turned his face from her for a moment. Kale shook
his head and turned to face Izzie again; his face was
expressionless now but it looked forced … whatever he was feeling
right now; he was determined to hide it. He cleared his throat and
stepped back to allow Izzie to get into her car, when she had
settled herself in the driver’s seat, he made to close the door for
her but paused.

“I’ll see you
Monday,” was all he said before he closed the door and started to
make his way over to his car; leaving Izzie sitting in her car
feeling very perplexed indeed.

Chapter
Thirteen

The weeks that
followed the Halloween Dance and Kale’s odd behaviour in the car
park, were actually quite normal; by Izzie’s standards anyway. Kale
never mentioned his strange behaviour that night and neither did
Izzie; they merely carried on as if it had never happened. They
were both tied up with the play rehearsals and were getting on
swimmingly but they didn’t discuss anything that would veer into
dangerous territory and they both avoided the ‘kiss scene’ for as
long as possible. However, there was no real awkwardness between
them and Izzie felt that they were – at last – building what she
hoped would end up to be a solid friendship.

So, it was a
great surprise to them when they both realised it was merely a week
until Christmas Eve. It was the last day of school before the
Christmas break and they were just finishing their last rehearsal
for the play which was due to open the final week in January. Ms
Belson prowled around everyone, making sure that they knew their
lines and were totally prepared for the opening night.

“Alright
everyone,” she spoke loudly above the noise, “I think we’ll call it
a day. Now, I know that this is considered to be a break by all of
you … but it is
not
a chance to neglect rehearsing
altogether; I expect you all to keep running through your lines and
improving your performance, even if you think you can’t do anymore
… there is always room for improvement. Ok, you can all scram … oh
and Merry Christmas.”

After everyone
had exchanged Christmas wishes – apart from Maddie or Jake; they
had since become a couple from the Halloween Dance and neither had
bothered with Izzie or Kale which suited Izzie just fine; her
friendship with Maddie was well and truly over now – they all began
to file out of the room until it was just Kale and Izzie left.
Izzie finished packing her bag while Kale rummaged around, trying
to find where he had left his own. Eventually, Kale spotted it
under a table and pulled it out. He glanced over at Izzie; she was
still putting the last of her notes into her bag. Kale extracted a
gift box from the depths of his bag and looked at it hesitantly. He
sucked in a deep breath; he could do this, it was only a Christmas
present. He turned to take another quick peek at Izzie and found
her looking at him strangely. “Kale, you ok? You ready to go?”

Kale shrugged,
“Yeah, I’m fine but hold on a second. I have something for
you.”

Izzie had been
about to leave the room but she stopped suddenly in her tracks when
he said that. She slowly turned around to face him; Kale closed the
gap between them and held out his hand, offering her the small gift
box. Izzie took it reluctantly but then smiled sheepishly at him as
she removed a package from the inside of her coat while Kale looked
at her, puzzled.

“Great minds
think alike … I didn’t know if we were going to do presents or not
but I couldn’t resist when I spotted this.” She handed him the
package, Kale smiled at her and Izzie added, “Look, let’s not open
them until Christmas Day, ok?”

Kale nodded and
they made their way out to the car park where they had parked side
by side. Before he got into his car, Kale called to Izzie, “Hey, I
forgot to say … Merry Christmas.”

Izzie smiled,
“Merry Christmas Kale.” She watched him start his car and back out,
then he was gone. Izzie started her car and quickly turned down
‘Driving Home for Christmas’ that was blaring from the radio before
she pulled out onto the main road. She found herself distracted the
whole journey home; she was utterly mystified as to why on earth
she felt so sad.

Izzie had
managed to push her confusing thoughts to the back of her mind by
the time she had arrived home. However, she now found herself faced
with the dilemma of debating about whether to open the present Kale
had given her or not; she was extremely curious and came close to
caving and opening it on more than one occasion but she managed to
resist at the last minute. She eventually set in under the
Christmas tree near the back; it would be easier to avoid
temptation if it was out of sight.

When Christmas
morning arrived, Izzie was wide awake at the freakishly early time
of 6.30am. She knew it was too early to go downstairs but her
curiosity about Kale’s present had been killing her all week; she
really felt like she couldn’t wait any longer. She sighed and tried
to convince herself that she could wait a few hours more; it
wouldn’t kill her.

However, just
as she was about to attempt trying to sleep, Izzie heard a faint
noise coming from the kitchen. Curious, she got up, stuck her head
out her bedroom door and strained to hear what the ruckus was.
After a few seconds, Izzie concluded it was her father; judging by
the noise of pots and pans banging, her dad was getting started on
cooking the turkey. Izzie smiled to herself; this was the perfect
excuse to explain why she was up so early. She grabbed her dressing
gown and headed down to the kitchen to get a coffee before opening
her presents; she didn’t want to appear too eager.

When she
entered the kitchen, she was met by the sight of her father
struggling to fit a rather abnormally large turkey into the
oven.

“Jeez Dad, are
you sure that turkey’s big enough? I mean it does have to feed four
mouths.” Izzie smirked as her father turned to her red-faced and
sweating profusely.

“Izzie, it’s
too early for your sarcasm. Now, if you’re just gonna stand and
look at me, you’d better get what you’re looking and vamoose out of
here.”

Izzie chuckled
but hurriedly made a quick cup of coffee for herself and hastily
left the kitchen. She wandered into the living room to find both
her mother and grandmother yawning and making their way to the
kitchen in search of some caffeine.

“Better watch
out in there,” Izzie warned them, “Dad’s having his usual tussle
with the turkey.”

Izzie heard her
mother groan and mutter what sounded like, “Not again” before she
made her way into the kitchen to help her husband.

Izzie looked
over at her grandmother who had chuckled, “I think I’ll leave them
to it. Now dear, how about
we
deal with the presents.” She
winked at Izzie and lifted the first present from under the tree
and handed it to Izzie.

Izzie looked at
the label and discovered it was from her grandmother, she ripped it
open as her grandmother plonked herself down on the armchair
nearest the TV. Izzie discovered a beautiful dress inside the
wrappings and hugged her grandmother.

“Gran, it’s the
one I had been looking at a few weeks ago but how did you
know?”

Izzie watched
her grandmother smile, “I have my sources,” she merely chuckled and
Izzie frowned at her but examined the dress in her hands further.
The dress was even more beautiful on closer inspection; it was
floor length and a silky material in a teal colour, it also had
delicate little straps and lots of tiny embroidered flowers on it,
along with a silk sash around the waist.

Izzie looked at
her grandmother sternly, “Gran, this dress must have cost a
fortune. I don’t deserve it.”

Her grandmother
scolded her, “Izzie! It doesn’t matter how much it cost, I know you
wanted it so I got if for you – end of. Besides, you never know
when you might need a slinky little number like that.”

Izzie rolled
her eyes, “Where could I possibly wear this Gran?”

Her grandmother
tutted at her, “Really Izzie, don’t you have a formal coming
up?”

Izzie nodded,
comprehension slowly dawning on her face, “Thanks Gran, it’s
perfect for it.”

Her grandmother
nodded, “Right, that’s it settled. Now, let’s get cracking with the
rest of these, shall we?”

Izzie agreed
and attacked the small pile of presents with much gusto.

Within fifteen
minutes, they were down to the last two; one of which was the
present from Kale. Izzie had hoped her grandmother wouldn’t spot it
but it was the next one her grandmother was holding out for her to
open.

“Alright dear,
this one has a card taped to it so I don’t know who it’s from but
it’s addressed to you and this last one is mine … why don’t we open
them together before your parents join us to open theirs?”

Izzie swallowed
hard; she was very nervous but also excited that she would finally
find out what Kale had given her. She nodded her head at her
grandmother and proceeded to tear the card off the present first
and opened it.

Izzie, I saw
this and thought of you …

because you are
one! Merry Christmas.

Love Kale
xx

Izzie felt very
nervous now and she spotted, out of the corner of her eye, that her
grandmother had already opened her own gift of a bath set and was
now looking at Izzie curiously. Izzie carefully opened the wrapping
paper to find a small jewellery box; she was definitely dying to
know what it was inside now. She sneaked a glance at her
grandmother and found her still watching with building
excitement.

“Sweet Jesus
Izzie … put me out of my misery already and open the damn box!” Her
grandmother told her hysterically. Izzie laughed and slowly prised
the box open to find a beautiful necklace. She heard her
grandmother gasp in admiration and Izzie examined it more closely;
it was white gold with a fine chain and the pendant on it was in
the shape of a star. Izzie chuckled to herself; so that’s what Kale
had been referring to – he believed Izzie was a star. Izzie felt
quite touched at this but also confused; her emotions were running
high and she didn’t know whether she should be mad at Kale or not.
In fact, Izzie could only feel the urge to cry; Kale had been so
sweet but it was also making everything a heck of a lot harder.
Izzie fought back the tears, feeling ridiculous for even wanting to
cry in the first place, and handed it over to her grandmother who
was clearly itching to examine the necklace.

“Oh it’s
beautiful Izzie, I’m assuming this is from that lovely young Kale
Eddision – am I right?”

Izzie nodded
and then suddenly cringed to herself; boy, now she felt really
stupid about what she had given Kale …