Verity (3 page)

Glancing up at the clock above the whiteboard, I groaned as I realised just how much time was left before the next class. Tammie gave me a sympathetic smile before sneaking her phone out of her bag to read her text messages.

Most of the rest of the class were slouched back in their chairs, passing notes or sending silent texts. Aaron Hannigan entertained himself by throwing pieces of wet paper at the less popular kid in front of him, much to the amusement of the easily pleased girl sitting next to him. Dawn Talbot’s shoulder-length blonde hair was being brushed by one of her clones, and Abbi Mitchel decided to irritate everyone around her by filing her nails noisily.

Bored of people watching, I bent my head and continued drawing on my book. I was vaguely aware that the classroom door had opened and that most of the girls in the room had started whispering loudly, but I was too busy carefuly filing in an iris to look up. What interested them rarely interested me.

“Students, this is Nathan Evans, the newest pupil to join your class. I trust you’l al welcome him. Now sit down the back there, lad,” the most boring teacher in the world said.

The new kid passed through the room amidst excited whispers. In the middle of double history, almost anything becomes something to discuss. But Tammie kept kicking me under the table as hard as she could, hinting at me to look up.

I frowned at her. Roled my eyes as she nudged me urgently, and glanced up just as Nathan Evans was about to pass by my table. We looked right at each other; my mouth gaped open in shock. He paused, looking as startled as I felt. I knew him. Or at least, I knew his eyes, I had just drawn them in my book. The hairs rose on the back of my neck; a shiver of excitement ran through me. How was this possible? How could I have seen his eyes in my dreams? The hint of surprise on his face quickly turned into a deep frown that brought me back to earth. I could feel my cheeks flush red and quickly looked down at my book.

He moved on and sat in an empty seat at the back of the room, but I could have sworn I stil felt his eyes burning into me. I groaned inwardly,
why did I have to
freak out the new kid by staring in his face like that?
Most of the class were stil nudging each other and whispering, but my hands trembled so much I didn’t trust myself to pick up my pen, never mind look into their faces to see if they were talking about me or him.

“Perdy, are you okay? What on earth was that about?” Tammie hissed in my ear.

I shrugged, trying to come across as nonchalant. I had the strongest urge to turn around in my seat and stare at him again, just to see how alike those eyes realy were.

That compulsion scared me enough to make me want to run out of the classroom and never return. There were some things you couldn’t live down. I learned that the hard way as I heard Dawn loudly remark, “Isn’t it sweet that the freak has a crush on the new boy?” Most people giggled, especialy when my face turned tomato red.

Tammie stuck her middle finger up at Dawn in response. I cringed and kept my head down for the rest of the class.

I couldn’t stop thinking about him. It was like that word had finaly launched itself off the tip of my tongue; big-time relief, as though something I had been waiting a long time for had finaly arrived. I was freaking myself out. I knew it made no sense, but a sneaky thought kept popping into my head. His look had echoed my own; he recognised me too.

As soon as the bel rang, I picked up my things and ran out of the room, the first one to leave. I didn’t want to look at anyone passing me by, and I definitely didn’t want to put up with Tammie’s questions. I hurried to the science lab alone. Most of the people who passed me by pushed against me roughly as if I didn’t exist. I kept my head down, avoided eye contact and made it to the class first as usual.

Except, I wasn’t actualy first. I only realised this when I walked straight into the new kid who was already casualy standing outside the locked door. I gazed at him in confusion, wondering how he had gotten there so quickly, before getting my act together and moving to the other side of the door.

I sneaked a glance back at him, but he caught me so I looked away before I could get drawn in and embarrass myself again. I closed my eyes in a sort of despair as it occurred to me that he probably thought I was stalking him or something.

Luckily, it wasn’t long before the rest of our classmates joined us and surrounded him, bombarding him with questions and giving me plenty of opportunities to sneak glances at him. He was quite good looking once I got past his eyes. In class, a lot of girls argued over who got to sit next to him.

Even though plenty of girls obviously liked him already, he didn’t seem cocky or arrogant. He chatted back to anyone who spoke to him, so he was pretty friendly.

I’ve never realy had a type, but he made the butterflies in my stomach flutter extra fast.

His skin was nice and clear, the colour of milky coffee. Dimples chased his smile, which was sort of adorable. His hair was jet black, straight and cut in a way that wasn’t particularly fashionable, but it suited him. He was better looking than any of the other boys in my year, but again, it was his eyes that caled to me. It was remarkable how similar they were to the ones in my dream. Big, very dark brown ones that lit up when he smiled. There was something sincere and nice about his whole face. In short, he was hot. Way too hot for me to keep looking at.

But look I did. I couldn’t help myself. I found myself peeking at him al day. I caught his eye more than once. Every time he looked at me, I felt like he knew what I was thinking. There was something realy intense about him. I couldn’t understand how everyone else was so easy in his company. I could feel myself crumbling if he merely glanced at me.

I saw him everywhere I went, he was in so many of my classes. Even when he was surrounded by people, I stil knew exactly where he was, but I didn’t have the guts to start a conversation with him. Knowing me, my mouth would dry up, I’d stutter something nonsensical and probably trip and fal into a bin for good measure.

Lunchtime was a quick relief because I couldn’t spot him in the canteen, and I had some company in the shape of Tammie and Joey. I waited until Joey took a realy big bite out of his rol before I talked to him about Dad and Gran.

“I walked out of my house last night, Joe.”

He choked on a piece of bread, spluttering for a few minutes before swalowing noisily.

“What do you mean, walked out?”

“They were fighting again, so I left and went to Tammie’s house.” I tried not to laugh at the gormless look on his face.

“So what did they say?” He knew quite wel what things were like for me, although he agreed with some of it, like wearing heavy navy jumpers and avoiding boys.

Tammie was a bit of a feminist, and it disturbed her greatly that she was attracted to an old-fashioned chauvinist who thought my Dad’s rules were for my own good because I was ‘just’ a girl.

“Gran offered to let me paint my room however I like, and Dad said I could wear what I wanted, pretty much. And that I could maybe stay out later and do some stuff. As long as I don’t mess up.”

“But why did they take you seriously? You always moan about their rows. It’s never stopped them before,” he said.

I shrugged; I hadn’t thought of that.. “I don’t know, I got realy angry with them and told them I’d leave if they didn’t cop on.”

“Wow.” He took another bite of his rol, then spoke with his mouth ful.

“You must have realy scared them.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know. Hinting you’d go to your Mam’s,” he said. “That would kil them both.”

“Oh,” I said slowly as comprehension dawned on me. I hadn’t meant I’d leave for her house, I hadn’t even realy meant that I would actualy leave, but of course, that was their worst nightmare. I had accidentaly touched a nerve. I didn’t get why they would ever believe I might want to spend time with my mother, but they rarely made sense to me.

“She’s a bit slow sometimes, isn’t she?” Tammie said. “Anyway, it’s up to us to make sure that she doesn’t get into any trouble, or she’l be right back where she started. Having no life at al.”

I stuck my tongue out at Tammie, but she was right, I would have even less privileges if it al went wrong.

Joey looked thoughtful. “I suppose I better keep an eye out, just in case any of the tossers around here start sniffing around.” He glared around the room as if trying to figure out who needed to be watched the most.

Tammie and I exchanged eye rols. For some reason, Joey seemed to think that the entire male population of the town left Tammie and me alone because of his presence only.

“Okay, who’s up for a walk to the shop? I’m in desperate need of a Snickers.” Tammie stood and picked up her bag.

I made a face. “Eh, it’s raining. No chance.”

“I’l go,” Joey volunteered. “Wouldn’t mind one myself.”

They left together, Tammie throwing me a sneaky wink as she walked away. Their need for a snack might be worth facing the now steady rain outside, but there was no way I was wilingly going to let my hair get wet over a bar of chocolate. Besides, I got the feeling that Tammie wanted to be alone with Joey. I had homework to get through while she tried to... whatever.

I attempted to concentrate on my French homework, but without Tammie and Joey’s chatter, I was hopelessly distracted by thoughts of the new boy, Nathan. I glanced around the room as I tried in vain to memorise a list of verbs and noticed a girl I had never seen before walking across the canteen while struggling to carry a mountain of books. I didn’t know her, so she had to be new.

She looked very young and innocent, sort of like a pretty little china dol. Her hair was dark and wavy, and as she turned her head I saw it reached her waist. She wore a long, vibrantly coloured gypsy style skirt and noisy bangles on her wrists.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dawn and her friends pointing in the girl’s direction. I instantly knew they would hassle her. For some reason, my hackles went up, I felt strangely protective of the kid. She was al alone and dressed differently to Dawn and her crowd which made her a prime target. The group of girls strode arrogantly toward her, like predators confident of the power they held over their prey. They surrounded her, doing their best to intimidate her as they giggled together.

She looked so uncertain that I felt a pang of pity for her. Before I had time to even think about it, I was already standing up.

Abbi pushed roughly against the girl’s shoulder while Dawn swung her bag toward the pile of books the girl carried. The new girl lost her balance from the impact and fel backward as al of the books slipped out of her hands. Dawn and her cackling friends moved on. I was already hurrying over when Dawn glanced back over her shoulder to admire her work.

“Whoops, so sorry,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

How dare they? I forgot about hiding away in my outrage.

“Oi!” I shouted at the girls, a little too loudly. People started to look in our direction. “What the hel do you think you’re doing?” The girls turned and just stared at me in disbelief. Dawn’s eyebrow lifted as she looked me up and down.

“Excuse me?” she said.

“Something wrong with your hearing?” I snapped back. Everyone in earshot laughed as Dawn’s face turned from red to purple. The laughter was mostly down to my unusual reaction, everybody loved seeing someone lose the plot. For once, I didn’t even care.

“So what is it then? Do you lot feel al big and brave when you pick on someone? Safety in numbers and al that.
One
girl, who’s obviously younger than you al, isn’t going to do much against six of you, is she? That how you get your kicks? Pathetic. Sad pack of sheep,” I said, wanting to throw something.

Dawn laughed without humour. “As if I care what a freak like you thinks!”

“I’d rather be a freak than have to put other people down to feel good about myself.” I turned to the new girl and helped her up before picking up some of her books.

“You okay? Don’t pay any attention to the Queen Bee and her drones over there. This is the best it’s going to get for them; they have to make the most of it the only way they know how. By acting like spineless little bitches. You should be flattered that they don’t expect you to be just like them, actualy.” I suddenly realised that a lot of people had gathered around us to listen. I lost my nerve and shut up, but it was too late, people were already clapping. A lot of them had been Dawn’s targets in the past. Dawn looked horrified, but she bit her lip and let her friends lead her out of the canteen. Some of them had the decency to look ashamed, but they stil didn’t stand up to her or apologise to the new girl.

The crowd wandered away once they realised the mini drama was over, leaving me and the girl in the centre of the canteen. She grinned at me in such a friendly way that I couldn’t help grinning back. I was a little startled to see that her eyes looked familiar too. I realy needed to get over the eye obsession. I carried on picking up the girl’s books before putting them on one of the tables so I could shake the hand she extended.

“Thanks for the help,” she said. “I’m Amelia, I just started here.”

I couldn’t place her accent; it definitely wasn’t Irish. I didn’t want to throw a load of questions at her if she was only new.

“Hey Amelia, I’m Perdita... but everyone cals me Perdy, unfortunately.”

She smiled at me broadly, making me feel totaly at ease which was a rarity for me.

“Pretty name,” she said.

I shrugged. “What’s your next class? I’l walk you and help carry your books. We should probably find your locker first so you can ditch some of them though.”

“Oh, right, I’ve P.E. next, so I need to head to the gym hal, but my locker is on the way,” she said. “I started school today, so I’m a bit lost. Thanks again for the help; I was beginning to think that nobody could pass for friendly in this place.”

I gathered up my own things, we divided up her pile between us, and then headed toward her locker. “Those girls were just bored. They’re like that with al of us, don’t take it personaly. I’m pretty sure they’l leave you alone now though.”