Popping the Cherry (22 page)

I’d caught glimpses of Zac a couple of times, alas not long enough to make eye contact with, let alone talk to, but I’d managed to point him out to Flick. Each time I’d spotted him, though, my heart had skipped a beat. Nothing like what Jake did to me: even a simple ‘hi’ text message from him made my heart race as if I’d just run the two-hundred metres, but I figured any reaction to a guy that wasn’t Jake had to be a good thing.

Gemma was spending more and more of her time with Ben, and things getting pretty serious between Flick and Sean, so I didn’t really get out much as term drew to a close. Nathan came by, though, fast become my surrogate best friend and shopping partner. Mum even came right out and asked me if we were an item a couple of weeks ago. I’d laughed so hard I’d nearly peed my pants. Of course, she didn’t have a clue what was so hilarious, which only made the whole thing funnier.

Easily the highlights of each week were my driving lessons. Twice a week, sometimes more, Jake had shown up freshly showered, and off we’d gone in my little Ka. We talked about anything and everything, from his plans for the house, to what lessons I’d had that day, to philosophical debates and discussions about current affairs, chatting about my favourite books, even discussing what I loved so much about Shakespeare. Weeks ago, he’d told me I was ready, that there was nothing more he could teach me. After that, my lessons were all about gaining confidence and road experience.

Apparently
.

Part of me—a rather large part—had hoped it was just Jake’s way of spending time with me without raising too many eyebrows. Great while it lasted. Our excuse for spending time together had run its course. The last day of term had finally arrived, along with my driving test straight after college. If he’d had any intention of making a move on me, he would have done it by now. Forced to face the facts, I had to accept that my time with Jake was over. I needed to move on while I still had some pride left, before Jake proved to be my downfall.

I’d spent the whole week deliberately avoiding him, trying to get it through my thick head that it was for the best. He’d texted me a couple of times, even suggested a
Star Trek
marathon, but I didn’t reply to any of them. Spending time with him would only more hurt in the long run. I had the entire summer ahead of me. If—no, when—I passed and got my stupid licence, I would have my independence back. Free to go wherever I liked.

Yeah, right. Keep trying, Lena
.

Licence or no licence, I still had nowhere to go and nobody to go with. Even Nathan was abandoning me to do labouring for Jake. To top it all off, I had no one to talk to about any of it. Gemma had always been the one I turned to when it came to guy stuff, which meant this time I was truly on my own. It was almost as if I’d been living two lives over the past few weeks. Not one person knew about my crush on Jake, if I could still call it that. Every single day, I’d had to remind myself that Jake and I were just good friends. And every single day my heart had laughed at me and fallen in love with him that little bit more.

Argh!

As I trudged down the steps of the bus and made my way into college for the last time as a Lower Sixth student, I didn’t think my mood could get any worse.

‘Hey, Lena, watch out!’

‘Huh?’ I jerked my head up just in time to see Malice dip her shoulder, angling it to inflict the most damage possible, right before she body-slammed into me.

Wrong again
.

Caught off balance and unprepared, I bounced off my locker, then rebounded backwards. Malice stood over me as I lay spread-eagled on the floor, but then she lunged. My reflexes kicked in, and I automatically raised my arms to block her, which only made it easier for her to snatch her intended target off my shoulder. Wonderful.

‘Let’s see what you keep in here, then. The key to your chastity belt, maybe?’ she said, opening the flap of my bag, then tipping it upside down and shaking it.

‘What the fuck did you do that for?’ I asked, scrabbling over onto my hands and knees to gather up my belongings she’d unceremoniously dumped all over the floor.

‘Ooh, mind your language, Virginia.’ Malice sneered, and my hand fisted. ‘What would your precious mummy and daddy think if they heard you saying such naughty, naughty words?’

‘You are such a bitch.’

‘Why, thank you, I do my best.’ She tossed back her hair, then took great delight in kicking my stuff further out of my reach. ‘I told you nobody shows me up and gets away with it.’

Jeez, is that your problem?

Well, one of us needed to act like a decent human being and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be her. ‘And you’ve proved your point. Congratulations. Now will you please leave me alone?’

‘Why on earth would I want to do that when I’m having so much fun?’

She was still laughing when she planted her pedicured toes on top of one of my notepads I’d managed to retrieve. Unfortunately, my fingers were still in between. In a fight between the bones in my hand and her platform shoes, I didn’t rate my chances.

‘Fine. You win, Malice. Is that what you want to hear?’ My eyes could prickle all they wanted. No way was I going to give her the satisfaction in breaking me.

‘You’re learning,’ she said, increasing the amount of weight of my hand. ‘That’s good.’

I must not wince
.

‘So are we done now?’

‘Oh, no, Virginia, I’m nowhere near done with you yet.’

‘Great. Then how about a timeout?’ I said, trying to make my request sound perfectly reasonable. ‘I have a class to get to.’

Malice opened her mouth, no doubt to hit me with another delightfully sarcastic insult, but then she closed it again. Distracted by something behind me, she lifted her foot off my hand and stepped around me. Demonstrating what had to be a practised move so as not to show her knickers, she squatted down to pick up whatever it was she found so fascinating.

Her eyes became circles and her eyebrows arched, yet her forehead stayed immaculately smooth. ‘Well, well, well. What do we have here?’

Before I could tell what it was, she shoved it into her bra of all places, and set off down the corridor, summoning her crones with a click of her fingers.

‘Hey, you might want to lay off the Botox for a while,’ I called after her, flexing my fingers.

She didn’t so much as glance back, but her cackle made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

‘She’s a psychopath,’ I muttered to myself. I was still getting to my feet when the bell rang, just to add to my misery, giving me a minute, tops, to locate my bag and throw my stuff into it any old how before I ran off to class.

OK, now my mood definitely couldn’t get any worse.

Morning classes turned out to be good fun—
thank God
—aside from the stack of homework my tutors handed out for us to complete over the holidays. The moment the lunch bell rang, we all stampeded out of class with the majority of us heading for the canteen, but everywhere I went I appeared to be attracting stares. Whispered conversations started up whenever I drew near, sometimes accompanied by lots of giggling behind hands. Some girls openly pointed, suspiciously in my direction.

What’s going on now?

‘That’s the one I was telling you about,’ I overheard as I walked past one gaggle of girls from Upper Sixth.

Paranoid, I checked over my shoulder to see if there was anybody else close by. Nope, I was all on my own. They were talking about me. Suddenly Gemma sprinted up behind me, out of breath.

‘Oh, my God, there you are,’ she said, grabbing hold of my arm and trying to lead me away from the canteen. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’ She lifted her phone back to her ear and said, ‘It’s OK, I’ve got her. Meet us by the oak tree, yeah?’

‘Gemma, I’m tired and I’m hungry, and it’s soaking wet out there.’

‘It stopped raining an hour ago, it’s fine.’

‘Look, I’m really not in the mood for any more of your games, I’ve been the butt of enough jokes for one day,’ I said, wrenching my arm back and storming towards the canteen.

‘No!’ She leaped in front of me and barricaded herself against the canteen door, blocking my entry. Panic flashed in her eyes and made my pulse race. ‘You can’t go in there.’

‘Why not?’

‘Just trust me. Please.’ she said, seizing the opportunity to grab my hands.

Too stunned to react, I let Gemma lead me away from the canteen and out through the side door, deeper into the gardens where Flick, Piper, Chloe and, bizarrely, Sean were all waiting for me. The rain had stopped, but grey clouds overhead threatened more yet to come.

‘Who would do such a thing?’ Piper said, the only one with her back to me, so not realising I was approaching. She was totally oblivious to the nervous head shakes from both Flick and Chloe.

‘Do what?’ I demanded.

Piper yelped and spun around to face me. ‘Er … nothing.’

‘Has this got something to do with everybody staring and pointing at me?’

‘What do we tell her?’ Chloe whispered.

‘No, come on, I’ve heard enough whispering for one day. Just spit it out,’ I said, trying to make eye contact with any of them and failing. ‘Please?’

A ricochet of pointed glances darted around the group.

‘Och, fine, I’ll do it then,’ said the last voice I expected to hear.

Sean stepped towards me, producing a roll of paper from behind his back.

‘No, Sean, not that.’ Flick made an elegant lunge for the roll but I was too quick. I yanked it out of Sean’s hand and away from Flick’s reach, and unfurled the sheet of A3 before she could get a second go to rip it out of my hands.

Oh no!

I didn’t bother to put up a fight when Flick tried again. I’d already seen enough. My hideously ugly college ID photo and the words, ‘Operation: Popping the Cherry’ were burned into my eyes, blinding me to everything else.

‘How many?’ More goddamn silence. ‘Fuck this shit,’ I said, raking my hand through my hair before I realised what I was doing. Talk about adding insult to injury. Jake wouldn’t be holding out on me, no matter how bad things appeared. Instead of bellowing at them, my voice grew quieter, more sinister. ‘I said … How many?’

‘We don’t know,’ Gemma said. ‘But they’re all over college.’

Stop the world. I want to get off!

‘Oh, man …’ It was either break down or come out fighting, so I crouched down and upended my bag right there at the foot of the old oak tree. Under the surprised stares of my friends, I picked through every single item. Only one item was missing, but I knew that already. ‘I’m going to kill her.’ I sprang to my full height as if rising out of blocks and lashed my empty bag to the ground.

‘Who?’

‘I’ll give you three guesses.’

‘Malice,’ they said in unison, except for Sean, who looked dumbstruck.

‘Flick, I think you need to explain to your boyfriend what’s going on before his head explodes.
Me?
I’ve got a girl I need to go see.’ I turned on my heel and was mid-stride when Piper and Chloe grabbed an arm each.

‘She’s already gone, Lena,’ Gemma said. ‘I saw her getting into her car with that creepy Hayden bloke when I was looking for you.’

‘Damn it.’ The fire raging inside me fizzled out and left me with nothing. ‘Now what do I do?’ I asked, sinking to the ground. The seat of my jeans grew damp, but I was past caring, so I put my head between my knees and tried to breathe.

‘Maybe it’ll all blow over,’ Chloe said, trying to be helpful. ‘It’s the last day of term. Everybody’s got better things to do than be sucked into one of Malice’s vicious practical jokes.’

‘Yeah, right.’ I nodded towards the bodies piling out of the canteen, nearly all of them staring in our direction. ‘I don’t buy that for a second and neither do any of—’

‘I can show you a good time, Lena.’ shouted one guy I didn’t know.

‘No, pick me, I love cherries,’ said another.

‘Hey, sweetheart, my car’s parked out front and the back seat is plenty big enough,’ said another complete stranger, blowing kisses at me.

‘I have to get out of here,’ I said with a grimace. ‘Now.’

Nobody even tried to argue with me.

‘Let me give you a ride,’ Flick said, helping me up. ‘I’ve got a free now, anyway.’

‘Take care,’ Gemma said, flinging her arms around me. ‘I’ll be round straight after college, OK? We’ll figure something out. I’ll even buy the lattes.’

‘No need, I won’t be there,’ I said, returning her hug. Once more I found myself wishing it was the other Saunders sibling comforting me. ‘I’ve got my driving test this afternoon, so just go to Ben’s like you planned. I’ll see you at the beach tomorrow, hopefully in my own set of wheels.’

‘Really?’ Gemma pulled back and did her disappearing-eyebrows trick. ‘You’re sure?’

‘Yeah, go on, I’ll be fine. I’ll text you with any news. OK?’

‘OK. Love you,’ she said, giving me one last squeeze before letting go.

Piper shoved my refilled bag at me, so I nodded to Flick and we set off, both opting to go around the outside of the building, where there would hopefully be fewer people. The innuendos and catcalls from the guys, and the pointed stares and whispers from the girls, followed us wherever we went and all the way to Flick’s car.

The second my seatbelt clicked, Flick floored the accelerator, only just missing two of the more persistent jerks, to get me home in record time. ‘So what time is your driving test?’ she asked.

‘Four-fifteen,’ I said, reaching into the footwell for my bag.

‘You’ll be fine, but good luck anyway, Lena.’

‘Yeah. Luck. I could certainly use a bit of that.’ I stepped out of her car and shut the door, barely managing not to slam it for fear it would fall off. Flick offered me a sad smile, then waited until I had the front door open before she peeled away, heading back to college. The first drop of rain fell before I’d got the door shut, and then the sky opened.

I dragged my phone out of my bag to go through the fifteen text messages and three missed calls I’d spotted when we were leaving college, but now there were sixty-four texts and seventeen missed calls. Sixty-five texts. Seventy-two texts. Eighty-three texts …