One Moment (The Little Hollow Series Book 1) (8 page)

Arriving at the main office, I was given my timetable and was told to wait for my ‘buddy’, I couldn’t think of anything worse than following around a goody goody all day. I just wanted to keep myself to myself, this wasn’t going along with my plan to keep my head down. I wasn’t a quiet kid by any means but I also didn’t like to get too involved with the other kids just in case they wanted to come around my house.

Squeaking my sneaker over the tiles in frustration, I turned at the sound of the door opening and in walked a girl with flaming red hair and bright green eyes, she was beautiful.

“Connor Hartley, this is Samantha Reynolds. She’s in the majority of your classes today so she will show you around. The first stop his locker please, Samantha. Here’s the combination, Connor. Have a great first day and welcome to Little Hollow.”

Samantha rolled her eyes and finally looked at me, I could’ve sworn her eyes widened a little. “Well come on then, don’t just stand there staring.”

As I followed her out of the door, she threw over her shoulder that she hated being called Samantha and that I should call her Sammy. She seemed to be a little closed off, just like me, and I instantly wanted to know her.

“So, how long have you lived here for?” We stopped dead at a locker and she pointed at the padlock.

“You know how to use this?” she mumbled in a bored tone and I decided not to take up any more of her apparent precious time.

“Look, if you’ve got better things to do than to show me around, just point me in the direction of my home room and I can find my way from there.”

She looked at me a little startled and I felt bad for being so abrupt. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound…”

“No, no, you’re right. I’m sorry, I’ve just...never mind. Let’s start over.” Smiling, showing her perfectly straight white teeth, she held out her hand and I took it, giving it a firm shake.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Sammy,” she said. I smiled back and finished shaking her hand before turning towards my locker and putting in the combination “So, Connor, where are you from? Definitely not from around here by your accent.”

I tensed up at having to lie to her when we’d only just met but after my hour long ‘talking to’ last night by my step dad, I didn’t want to rock the boat so I told her my practiced story.

After putting my things in the locker, I grabbed a pen and a few books I’d need for my first few classes, put them in my bag, threw it over my shoulder and snapped the padlock shut.

Taking my timetable out my hand, she looked it over. “We’re in home room together and all periods today apart from gym, but I know someone in your class to pair you up with.” Her face made my heart skip a beat and I couldn’t have thought of a better person to be buddied up with.

As we walked to home room, I realized I’d miss-judged her as one of the mean girls, when in reality she was far from it. She was talking animatedly about the whole town and what there was to do, which wasn’t much but she didn’t seem to mind.

Choosing a desk beside Sammy as we walked into the room, a blond haired boy sat in front of me and turned towards us. “Hey, Lew, this is Connor. New kid.”

Looking me up and down he nodded his head at me and I returned it. “Connor this is Lewis, he’s pretty cool.” Lewis squinted his eyes at her and she giggled. “Alright, alright, he’s a lot cool and he’s in your gym class so he’ll look after you for fourth ain’t that right, Lew?”

I refrained from saying out loud that I didn’t need looking after, I just smiled instead as he smirked at me knowingly and winked.

“Sure thing. Where you from, Connor?” Again with the lies. I spun the same story I’d told Sammy and he seemed to buy it. All this lying was emotionally draining and the day hadn’t even started yet. By fourth period, I was a little more at ease. “You any good at football?” Lewis had an excited voice as soon as he started to talk about the sport.

“I’m not bad but running is more my thing,” I shrugged. I could’ve sworn he had a relieved look on his face.

“You’ll be in for a treat today then, it’s track.” Pushing our way into the locker room, I stopped abruptly. I’d have to change in here. In front of everyone.

My back. The bruises. I couldn’t do this.

Turning back around, I started to open up the door. “Hey, man, where you going?” Trying to come up with a good excuse, I mumbled something about not feeling well and ran out into the hall, the only plausible thing was to go to the nurse to try miss as much of fourth as I could.

Before heading there, I went to the bathroom and stuck my head under the hand dryer hoping she would feel how hot I was and not question me too much.

The nurse was a lot nicer here than at my last school, she would’ve gave me an aspirin and sent me on my way, this one was also a lot younger. She couldn’t have been older than twenty-four. As soon as she felt my forehead, she had me lying on a bed with a cool wash cloth across it in a matter of seconds. She sure was thorough, I even had to stop her calling my mom at one point, assuring her I just thought I was dehydrated.

The nurse left me to ‘lie down and rest’ for a little bit and I was until a familiar voice made me open my eyes.

“Sammy, darlin’, you look exhausted! Have you still got those pamphlets I gave you from the guidance counsellor?”

Sammy’s voice sounded beat. “Sure, Miss Riley, but everything’s fine I was just up late with Tommy last night, he had nightmares.”

Miss Riley clucked her tongue and went to say something but must’ve decided against it. “Would you like a bed for the rest of fourth? I’ve got a strapping young man in the bed beside you.” The teasing in her voice made me stifle a laugh.

“Ha-ha, but I could do with a little lie down.” I heard footsteps come closer and I shut my eyes pretending to be asleep, I didn’t want them to think I was eavesdropping.

“Oh, is Connor okay?” I heard her ask. Was that worry in her voice? No, it couldn’t be.

“He’s fine, darlin’, just fine.” She said the last two words a little louder than was necessary, leading me to think she knew I wasn’t really unwell. I heard a bed move and I tried to stay as still as possible.

“You can open your eyes now, she’s gone,” Sammy whispered, I jumped and she laughed.

“How did you know I wasn’t asleep?” I asked as she looked me over.

“Lew text me and told me you looked spooked, logic told me you’d come here. Everything okay?” Not wanting to divulge the real reason why I ran out the locker room like a chick, I laughed and said I just didn’t feel like gym today.

She wasn’t buying it one bit by the look on her face. Just as she was about to reply, we both turned at the sound of footsteps moving towards us. Sammy flipped onto her stomach and pretended to be asleep and I lay back down putting the wash cloth back over my head again.

“Guys? Connor, Sammy. I’ve just spoken with the principal, she’s given you both permission to take next period in here as long as you grab notes off a buddy. Don’t make me regret it, I want you both to get some rest.” She eyed us and Sammy smiled at her before shutting her eyes.

It was silent for a couple of minutes until Sammy cleared her throat. “So, Connor, you never did tell me where you were from.”

Confused, I turned on my side. “Yeah I did.” Raising an eyebrow, she continued to look at me.

“You don’t seem to have your practiced story down as much as you think you do.” She squinted her eyes at me in suspicion.

I started feeling a little defensive. “I don’t have a practiced story. It’s kinda none of your business either,” I retorted and her eyes widened.

“I’m sorry, Connor, I wasn’t calling you a liar or anything. I just thought you, you know, might like to talk.”

I had to stop snapping like that.

“No, that’s okay, I’m just not used to people actually being interested in hearing what I have to say.” I expected sympathy off her which I hated but a look of empathy crossed her face instead.

“Yeah, you can say that again.”

Another couple of minutes passed in silence before I asked, “Who’s Tommy?”

She straightened and look me over, not knowing what was going to come out of her mouth, I just stared at her. “He’s my brother,” that’s all she said.

I got the distinct impression she wasn’t going to say anything else. “You should probably get some sleep.” I changed the subject. Looking up at the clock, we still had an hour until we had to go back to class.

“Yeah, probably, but I think I can hold out. I’m feeling great now. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” She smirked. “So it looks like we’re stuck with each other.” She chuckled and I got a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, it kind of felt like butterflies were flapping around in there, I’d never get enough of hearing her laugh.

I looked down at the time on my cell, it wasn’t like Sammy to be late. Just as I was about to call her, I heard someone shout my name. I braced myself as I felt them hop onto my back and put their hands over my eyes. “Guess who,” they sung.

“Oh, that’s a hard one. Would it happen to be a certain red headed troublemaker with my birthday present?”

Climbing down, I heard her click her tongue. “Well aren’t we a spoil sport today, but open it!” she squealed.

Unwrapping the badly wrapped green package, I smiled at the contents. “You remembered?”

She squinted her emerald green eyes at me. “Connor Michael Hartley, you’ve talked about this non-stop for the past six months, how could I have not?”

I wrapped my arms around her slender waist and picked her up to spin her around. I put her down as she carried on laughing and steadied her as she stumbled a little. “Phew! Those weights must be working! How does it feel to be sixteen?” She picked up the watch out of the box and wrapped it around my wrist.

“The same as it did yesterday! Hey, Red, how...ooft.” She hit me hard in the stomach.

“I told you to not call me that anymore! Even Tommy has started to call me it!” A burst of laughter slipped from between my lips and it got me one of Sammy’s signature looks. I looked down at the watch on my wrist, she must’ve spent a lot of her wages on this but I chose to accept the gift gracefully she would just argue with me otherwise.

“How’s that job of yours?” Seeing her face light up made me so happy. God knows that Sammy of all people deserved a bit of happiness in her life.

“It’s going good. Miss Debbie thinks I can start trying for a cosmetology license as soon as I turn sixteen.” The excitement in her voice was contagious.

“Sammy, that’s awesome! You’re still doing your school work at home though, right? You’re still getting your GED?”

She looked up at the sky, then back at me. “Of course I am! Piece of cake!” she replied with a wink and started walking towards our regular picnic spot under Old Oak.

I picked up the basket I’d packed with all our favorite food and followed her as she laid out a blanket for us to sit on.

After a few minutes of tucking into the food and drink, I felt the mood change. “Connor, you don’t have to talk to me if you don’t want to but I saw the bruises on your neck again. Why don’t you tell anyone?” As soon as she started the sentence, I knew what was coming. This was a regular conversation for us. I hitched my sweater up more to cover my neck and rubbed my hands down my shorts.

Sammy was my best friend but I choked up every time she asked about my step dad, I knew she didn’t judge me but it was still hard to talk about the fact I was sixteen and still got regular beatings off the scumbag who lived in my house. He always made sure to leave them somewhere that no one would see. I remembered the promise I made myself three years ago and reiterated it to myself;
one day, I will be bigger than him
, I wasn’t far off that now.

Over the past three years, I’d had an insight into Sammy’s life and hers into mine. Sammy didn’t have it easy, she chose to leave school and do her work from home so she could bring money in and look after her little brother Tommy. I’d never heard her complain once, she was a fighter and I was insanely proud of her.

“Connor?” Placing a hand on my arm, I looked up into her worried eyes and smiled.

“Sammy, you’ve got enough on your plate right now. I’m absolutely fine, I promise. Hey, look at me.” I took her hand in mine as I tried to reassure her.

“You know he can’t get away with it! One phone call and he’d be charged; you know that right?” Her wides eyes plead with me to consider calling the cops but she knows I can’t.