... not in love with Kale Eddison (9 page)

Izzie laughed,
“Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. Now, where are we going for
dinner?”

Kale smiled,
“Jeez, after all that I’m shocked you haven’t changed your
mind.”

Izzie rolled
her eyes, “Um, I’m not about to pass up a free meal, that’s for
sure.”

Kale chuckled,
“Ok, you wanna go now? I know it’s a little early but I’m kind of
hungry.”

Izzie nodded,
“Ok, I could eat too; how about ‘Soda Joe’s’ – it’s usually quiet
around this time and it’s an American diner; it’ll make you feel at
home, yeah?”

Kale raised his
eyebrows, “You know I am British really, my parents just moved to
America when I was two. But hey, it sounds great … you wanna take
my car?”

Izzie debated
with herself and decided to take him up on his offer; it would be
nice not to drive for once. “Sure, as long as you leave me back
here so I can get home.”

Kale nodded,
“No problem, come on then.”

The waitress
had just served them their dessert and Izzie found that she was
actually quite enjoying herself. Kale was really nothing like she
had pictured him; the more she got to know him, the more he
surprised her; in a good way.

“So,” Izzie
began, licking some chocolate off her spoon, “why did you really
decide to finish your last year at Hartside? I mean, not that
Hartside’s a bad school – ‘cause it isn’t – but why not just finish
getting tutored? Come on, making films can’t be
that
bad.”

Kale sighed,
“No, they’re not; I love making movies but I was just fed up of not
having a normal day where I did normal things. I mean, most days
I’d be on the set for hours and if I wasn’t, I was studying with my
tutor and then there are the press conferences, paparazzi, award
shows … I think you see where I’m going with this – I just wanted
that all to stop for a second and just be me; normal high school
student.”

Izzie nodded,
“Yeah, I get all that but you seem to forget something; you’re
not
normal! Come on, you’re
Kale Eddison …
you’re a
big famous film star! Your life will never be normal so you should
just enjoy it. Believe me, having a normal life like mine is not
that
exciting; I’d kill for a bit of disruption in my
everyday boring life.”

She shook her
head at Kale; she really couldn’t believe he’d want a normal life –
it certainly wasn’t much fun.

Kale laughed at
her over-the-top reaction, “Izzie, you really make me laugh. You do
make a fair point; most people would kill to be in my shoes but
they’ve never experienced it firsthand. Yes there are good things
but there are not so good things about it too.”

Izzie shrugged,
“Guess nobody’s ever really happy then; the famous want to be
unknown and the unknown want to be famous … it really is a mad
world.” She laughed and finished off the last piece of her
chocolate fudge cake. “Phew,” she added, “good thing I’m not an
actress otherwise I shouldn’t have eaten
that!
”

Kale smiled at
her fondly, “You don’t know how rare it is for me to see a girl eat
some chocolate – I find it quite nice; there’s nothing worse than
sitting through a date where the girl picks through a salad.”

Izzie grinned,
“Guess you date a lot of stick models then? I tell you one thing …
I couldn’t cut it as an actress or model; I’m in the minority that
believe it’s actually vital that you eat!” She laughed and Kale
chuckled also.

“Seriously
though,” Kale began, his face turning quite sincere-looking, “I’ve
only dated the one model and she wasn’t very sociable and as for
co-stars – don’t get me started!”

Izzie
half-smiled at him; by the look on his face, it was quite clear
that he was telling the truth and, to be honest, she was quite
shocked. “You mean to say that you’ve only dated a few people? I
thought it was nearly the entire female population!” She chuckled
and saw Kale was laughing too.

Kale smiled at
her surprised expression, “Yeah, you shouldn’t believe everything
in the papers. They all make me out to be some sort of play-boy but
I’m not – sure, I like to have a good time but there’s a difference
between enjoying yourself and being a player – they just neglect to
mention that part.”

Izzie didn’t
say anything; she actually felt quite guilty because that’s what
she had believed about him. Although, she couldn’t help but think
that, as an actor; he could be acting right now. Izzie wasn’t sure
what to think so she thought it best to proceed with caution; she
decided to change the subject, “So, looking forward to the play? I
have no idea how I’m going to cope playing such a prominent
character; I mean, the dislike I’ll have to show towards you should
be no problem since it won’t be acting but everything else, I don’t
know …” she trailed off and flashed him a wicked grin.

Kale smiled,
“You’re a very funny girl; you know that? I’m sure you’ll do
brilliantly.”

“Aw thanks, I’m
sure you will too – you know – for an actor!” she smiled at him
again and he had to laugh; she really was great to be around.

“Right,” Kale
said, pushing his messy sandy hair out of his baby blue eyes as he
checked his watch, “it’s almost six … I’d better leave you to get
your car; we both have homework to do.”

Izzie nodded
and grabbed her bag, “Ready when you are.” She stood up as Kale
went over to pay the bill and they walked out of the diner
together, laughing about poor old Ms Belson’s obvious obsession
with Kale. Kale drove back to the school car park and Izzie got out
to go over to her car.

“Hey!” Kale
called after her, “I had a really nice time tonight; I’ll see you
in school tomorrow … talk to you later.”

Izzie nodded
and waved him off as she started her car and then drove home.
Overall, dinner hadn’t been too terrible but one thing was for
sure; Kale was definitely a charmer but Izzie was determined she
would be one girl that wouldn’t succumb to his friendly advances –
film star or not, he was still an ordinary bloke to her.

Chapter
Eight

Izzie woke up
the following morning and smiled to herself when she realised it
was Friday; the start of the weekend – total bliss! She felt today
was going to be a good one and she was feeling extremely happy but
she didn’t really know why. She got dressed and made her way to the
kitchen; her mother was in the kitchen with her grandmother and
they were both looking at a newspaper.

“Hey guys,
what’s up? Did something interesting happen?” Izzie eyed them both
curiously; they were both wearing very sombre expressions.

Her mother
glanced up and quickly hitched a smile on her face; “Hey honey,
nothing’s up. Do you want some coffee? I’ll make some coffee.”
Izzie watched puzzled, as her mother frantically flitted about the
kitchen and her grandmother tried to shove the paper hastily out of
sight. Izzie was no fool; they were both hiding something.

“Why are you
both acting weird? What’s in the paper that you don’t want me to
see?” she frowned at them and then held her hand out for the
newspaper.

Her grandmother
reluctantly passed it to her and sighed, “You’ll find out sooner or
later.”

Izzie opened
out the newspaper to the front page and was shocked to find her own
face there, “What the hell is going on?” She stared at the picture
and then noticed the headline,
‘Kale’s Mystery Girl
Revealed!’
Furious, she frantically turned to page 5 and began
to read.

‘
Teenage
girls all over the world will be devastated! It is with great
sadness that our reporter must announce to the world that the one
and only, Hollywood Golden Boy, Kale Eddison has found himself a
girlfriend. Yes girls, it appears our Kale has finally settled down
and with the daughter of a book shop owner no less! Last night, our
reporter followed young Mr Eddison and our mystery girl and can
exclusively reveal that the young pair dined together at the local
‘Soda Joe’s’ – an American-inspired diner – and eyewitnesses told
our reporter that the couple looked very cosy indeed! One
eyewitness, a Mr Brady, informed our reporter that “that famous
young bloke and red-headed girl” enjoyed a rather romantic meal and
that they “seemed to be having a good time since they were laughing
and joking” throughout their meal. Indeed, another – known only as
Ms C – confirmed Mr Brady’s observations and added that Kale was a
“proper gent” in that he “paid for the bill and everything!” So,
after further investigation, our reporter found out the identity of
this young red-haired female and can reveal it is Isobel – Izzie –
Frank, daughter of Isaac Frank, owner of local bookshop,
‘Page-Turner’. This rather ordinary girl has appeared to capture
the heart of Kale and doesn’t seem to realise it. An interview with
a reliable source – a close personal friend of Miss Frank’s –
revealed that Kale seems besotted with Isobel but Miss Frank is
rumoured to be less than fond of our Kale. In fact, the source
exclusively revealed that Miss Frank once called Kale “egotistic”
and believes that he’s “not that great of an actor” – an opinion
that may or may not have changed. Furthermore, this source revealed
that Miss Frank may be only using our Kale to help ensnare another
young lad – Jake Greenberg. It has been confirmed that these three
are involved in a school production of Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado
About Nothing’ and it is rumoured that young Isobel believes her
close relationship with Kale will help her capture the heart of her
true target – Mr Greenberg. However, the date these two shared last
night and the eyewitness accounts from the other diners seem to
suggest otherwise – as do our reporter’s photographs included in
this article. Perhaps Miss Frank is playing with Kale’s heart in
this rumoured love triangle – one sure to be even more complicated
after today – or maybe our young hero has indeed succeeded in
winning over Miss Frank. Whatever the truth is and whether our
young lovers are involved with each other or not – the question on
everyone’s lips is sure to be “What does Kale Eddison see in a girl
like Isobel Frank?”’

Izzie glanced
at the next page to look at the photographs; she didn’t even notice
a reporter or photographer last night – and she sure as hell didn’t
think Kale did either. One picture was of her and Kale laughing
over dinner and the other was a class group photograph (she was
ringed with a circle) from last year; every pupil had received one
– that meant that someone from Hartside had leaked it to the press
but Izzie didn’t know who. When she had finished looking at the
article she raised her eyes to meet her mother’s and grandmother’s;
they had been looking at her anxiously throughout.

“Well, whoever
this
‘close, personal friend’
of mine is had better watch
out. I can’t believe this is happening … school’s gonna be fun
today!” Izzie sighed and rubbed her face wearily; maybe she’d wake
up and find it was all a dream! Out of the corner of her eyes, she
noticed her grandmother was patiently waiting to ask her
something.

“Shoot Gran, I
know you’re dying to ask something.”

Her grandmother
smiled guiltily, “Oh alright dear, are you really dating young Kale
or not?”

Izzie shook her
head in disbelief, “Gran, did you not listen to me in the cinema
the other night? I’m not dating him; I can barely stand him at
times! And before you ask, I was out for dinner with him because we
both bet on something and he lost; the condition was that loser
bought dinner … that’s it.”

Her grandmother
raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t say anything and Izzie noticed
her mother remained quiet too. She needed to get out of the house;
she grabbed her car keys and made her way to the front door where
she was bombarded by around thirty reporters – she hadn’t even
heard the commotion whilst inside the house!

Izzie pushed
her way through them and managed to get inside her car; she saw her
mother shout at them to leave and motion for Izzie to quickly
escape. She did so and saw the reporters all get in their vans and
cars and start to follow her. She felt like cursing Kale up and
down; this was all his fault and it was all over nothing!

Izzie pulled up
to the school and noticed Kale was surrounded by reporters too; the
ones that were following Izzie had also started to get out of their
cars and run over to Kale while a few encircled her car.

She took out
her phone and was about to text Maddie for help when Kale made a
run for it; he sprinted across the car park towards her car and
quickly motioned for her to open the passenger side door. Izzie did
and as soon as Kale had bolted inside, she locked the doors
again.

“What the hell
Kale? What was the point in that? Now the both of us are just going
to be stuck here instead of just me! You know, next time, a little
heads up would be nice! I had to push through dozens of reporters
at my own house just to get to my car, I mean what the hell are we
gonna do now?” Izzie was furious and breathed heavily after she had
finished her rant. Kale had decided to let her blow off some steam
before he spoke; good thing he did – it looked like Izzie was ready
to hit him!

“Izzie,” he
began apologetically, “I’m really, really sorry. To be fair I did
warn you that something like this would happen but I didn’t know
there was a reporter following us last night and I had no clue that
they’d turn up at your house – I don’t know what to do. My
assistant, Alicia, is going to try and do some damage control but
there’s not much else we can do I’m afraid.”

Izzie glared at
him furiously, “What do you mean ‘not much else’? How are we going
to get into school? I’m telling you now, you see if I find out that
this was all some elaborate plot to get your name in the papers so
you would get more attention for your upcoming film – I swear to
God, I will kill you.”