Verity (4 page)

“Yeah, maybe,” she said, sounding unconvinced. She looked shaken, I didn’t get the impression she was used to that sort of treatment.

“So, do you live nearby?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yep. With my Dad and Gran. My Dad works in the hospital.”

“He’s a Doctor?”

I nodded. “Not much goes on around here. We’re only living here ‘cos we stay with my Gran, and my Dad’s job is nearby. Just wait until colege, then I’m outta here.”

She laughed. “I’m sure it isn’t that bad. I’m not realy used to anything special anyway.”

We dumped most of her books in her locker. I decided to walk her to the P.E. hal just in case Dawn tried to make trouble for her. She stil seemed realy shy, so I felt like I should be more welcoming.

“Um, so... if you need any help with anything else, just ask. And hey, if you’re not busy tomorrow, you could always join me and my friends at lunch. There’s only the three of us, so if you have other plans don’t worry about it.” I added the last sentence hurriedly and managed to make myself sound lonely
and
desperate. But she thanked me, smiling, and we swapped mobile numbers.

I left her at the gym, promising to see her the next day, and hurried off to my own class which I was now late to. I stil had a smile on my face from chatting to Amelia when I realised Nathan was standing in my way. Even though I knew that, logicaly, he wasn’t the boy from my dream, I stil felt jumpy when I saw him. My stomach flipped whenever I looked at him, dream eyes or not.

I moved to walk around him, but he sort of put out his arm to block me. At least that’s what it looked like.

“Hi,” he said, so low I could barely hear him and staring at me in a way that I didn’t understand. As his eyes searched mine, my cheeks grew hot and, predictably, my mouth dried up. Lo and behold, my brain turned to mush. I mumbled something back at him and scurried past, cursing my social awkwardness. I couldn’t function normaly in his presence at al.

By the time school ended, it was raining quite heavily, so I was relieved to see my Aunt Stela’s car outside. She was always up for giving me and Tammie a lift home, especialy in bad weather. Her pet dog, Doly, took up most of the back seat, but the dog’s head was out of the window, panting heavily. I saw lots of people avoiding the car in case she jumped out. She wasn’t dangerous, but her size made her look intimidating. Plus she drooled a lot. People tended to avoid dog drool.

She whined softly in anticipation when she noticed me and practicaly squeezed half her body out of the window to get to me. I shoved her back in, with difficulty, before joining her in the back. Stela turned around to talk to me, but Doly flipped out. She launched herself at the window, almost squashing me in the process. The hackles on the back of her neck were raised as she gave a low warning growl. Hushing her, I glanced out the window, but al I saw was Nathan standing a few yards away looking at the car. Doly sat back down but kept her front paw on my leg protectively.

“That was weird,” I said to Stela who nodded in agreement. I looked back out at Nathan, but he was gone. I wasn’t sure if Doly had been growling at him, or if he had stopped walking because of the noise she was making. Tammie and Joey got into the car so Stela started the engine and set off. Doly had calmed down, but she was stil acting strange. She wouldn’t move away from me for even a second, so I felt like I was stuck in a corner.

When I got home, Dad and Gran were both around and making a show of being nice to each other. I couldn’t concentrate on them because I was too busy thinking about Nathan and how many times he had caught me looking at him throughout the day. I pushed my dinner around my plate distractedly as they tried to prove they liked each other and could get along. I ended up going to bed early just so I could think in peace. Before I fel asleep, I realised I had only heard Nathan say one word, but I had spent the whole day obsessing over him. That was crazy, even for me.

That night I had one of my recurring dreams again. This time the eyes came with a distinguishable face. Nathan’s. In my dream, I had the overwhelming sense that he was
mine
, he belonged to me. I sat up straight in the darkness, sweat dripping down my back. I was completely unnerved al over again. I wasn’t sure if my dream had changed because I had spent so much time thinking about him or not; either way, those dreams were affecting me in every part of my life. It took a long time for me to fal back asleep that night.

The next morning, I met up with Tammie at the bus stop. Another cold day, it had rained throughout the night. Tammie was too hyper for my liking. I wasn’t a morning person at the best of times. I hadn’t had enough sleep the night before between waking up from strange dreams and then tossing and turning because I was worrying about said dreams.

“So how were the odd couple last night?” Tammie danced on the spot to keep warm. I mentaly prepared myself to hide if anyone saw her.

“Fine, I suppose. Pretending to get along. Long may it last.”

“They could be worse,” she said.

“How?”

“I dunno. Just could be.”

“Whatever.” I roled my eyes. I knew for a fact Tammie would go insane if she had to live by my Dad’s rules. “Oh!” I said, remembering something I was supposed to tel her. “I invited a new girl to sit with us at lunch today.”

Tammie raised her eyebrows. Maybe because she knows I can’t string a sentence together in front of someone I don’t know.

“Come on, Tams, give her a chance. She’s younger than us, and she got hassled by Dawn and her crowd, so I said she could sit with us. She’s nice though, I promise.

Her name’s Amelia.”

“Hmm, we’l see,” she said, before grinning mischievously. “Speaking of nice, did you see the fine specimen of a teenage boy who joined history yesterday? Yummy.

Oh, wait, sily me, of course you saw him, your bloody jaw dropped when he walked in. What was that about?” I blushed. “That’s not what happened, don’t be ridiculous.”

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “For once I agree with Dawn, it was only obvious you liked him. Bit of a relief that you finaly noticed a boy actualy. I was starting to think you must fancy
me
.”

“Oh, whatever.
Joey
!”

“Cheap shot, Perdy.” It was her turn to blush.

The bus rattled up the road before she could think of anything else to embarrass me with. We sat in our usual seats, ignoring the filthy looks Dawn threw our way. The windows were so ful of condensation, I couldn’t see a thing outside. We had been on the bus for a few stops when I was surprised to hear somebody cal my name.

Amelia sat down on the double seat facing us. I tried to say helo but stuttered to a stop when Nathan sat down next to her. I looked at Tammie in confusion, but she was too busy giving Nathan an appreciative glance to notice.

He smiled at us, his knee tipping off mine, and I froze.
Oh, crap
. Those few seconds felt like eternity as I had a mini panic attack in my head, not knowing what to say.

Dawn saved me, sort of, by caling to Nathan very loudly in an incredibly snobby tone of voice—even for her.

“Nathan! We’re al sitting back here. There’s a space right by me, so you don’t have to sit next to
them
.” She spat out the word
them
as if we were rotting with some contagious disease. The implication was clear. We were not worth sitting next to or near, and we weren’t the type of people he should mix with unless he wanted to catch the outcast gene.

I was a little annoyed on behalf of Tammie and Amelia and even thought about answering Dawn back, but Nathan got in there first.

“No, thanks. I’d rather sit here next to my sister. You know, one of
them
. I’d introduce you, but I think you’ve already met,” he caled back, even louder than Dawn.

Dawn blushed furiously, slumping low in her seat as if it would hide her away. An eerie silence filed the bus—only broken when Tammie burst into husky laughter. I gazed at Amelia and Nathan, marking the similarities. Now they were both in front of me, I could see the resemblance.

They had different colours and textures to their hair, different builds and skin colour, but their features were alike after al. His accent was pretty similar to hers too, I just hadn’t heard him say enough words to notice before. I couldn’t stop looking at him—again—as he glared at Dawn, but I realised his eyes weren’t angry. In fact, they twinkled with amusement.

He caught my eye and winked. I bit my lip and looked away, anything to be able to speak again. I knew I had to be the one who started the introductions.

“Wel, um, this is Amelia... Amelia, this is my best friend Tammie... and erm, that girl at the back of the bus kicking herself is Dawn.” They al laughed, shattering the tension.

“Ah, yes, I recognise Dawnie Dearest now,” Amelia said, stil giggling. “This is my big brother Nathan. Nathan, this is the girl I was teling you about yesterday, Perdita.”

“Perdy.” I roled my eyes as Tammie corrected Amelia with the shortened version everyone else used.

Nathan shook his head. “Perdita is much better.” His eyes pierced into mine, and al of a sudden, I found it hard to breathe. My lips parted of their own accord. I couldn’t even look away. I felt like I was being hypnotised. I forgot the others were sitting there and just stared back at him, my stomach fluttering al over the place. My skin tingled with goose bumps, but he broke the spel by jumping to his feet and mumbling something under his breath. He hurried down to the back of the bus and sat there instead, leaving me wondering what just happened.

“Wow,” Tammie said. “He’s almost as bad as you Perdy. Soul mate material or what.” She burst out laughing at her own so
not
funny joke while Amelia looked at me as if I had done something to make her brother run off.

When we arrived at school, Dawn sidled up to Amelia.

“
So
sorry about yesterday,” she said in her silkiest voice. “Just a little friendly teasing is al. No hard feelings, eh? I hope you sit with us at lunch today; we’d
love
to get to know you.” She gave Amelia a winning smile, but nothing could penetrate the stony expression on Amelia’s face.

“No thanks, I have plans,” Amelia said, before linking arms with me and Tammie and walking into school with us, leaving Dawn to stand there open mouthed with surprise. I saw Nathan shake his head at Amelia, looking amused. I didn’t know if it was better or worse that he was the brother of my newest friend seeing as I had the beginnings of a major crush on him. Beginnings? Who was I kidding?

Whenever he looked in my direction it felt like he was generating massive heat waves and directing them straight at me. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one he was having an effect on. The people who normaly surrounded the likes of Dawn and Aaron had suddenly chosen him as their new leader or something. It was kind of creepy how they latched on to him. Maybe I was jealous that they got to spend time with him, but it was al very sheep like. I don’t have much of an identity, but at least I don’t share one with anyone else.

True to her word, Amelia sat with us at lunch. Joey was doing some sort of extra homework in an empty classroom, so he didn’t show up which let Amelia get to know Tammie and me a little better. Nathan stopped by our table and said helo but soon carried on across the room to sit with Dawn’s crowd. They were more than happy to accept him into their fold. I hoped I hadn’t been staring up at him as longingly as I had felt.

“No offense, Amelia, but your brother doesn’t have the best taste in friends,” Tammie said, looking mildly disgusted.

Amelia glanced over at her brother. “He’s probably just trying to get to know as many people as possible.”

“Where are you from, Amelia?” I asked, desperate to change the subject. I also desperately wanted to talk about Nathan, but I had to show some sort of self-control.

“Yeah, I can’t tel by your accent,” Tammie said, curious in spite of herself.

“We’ve moved around a lot. I’ve lived in Switzerland, South Africa, Canada, Austria, and Denmark. Plus we’ve stayed in France and Germany a lot to visit where my grandparents came from. We spent the last few years in England,” Amelia said, rattling off countries as if they were nothing.

“Oh, you lucky thing,” Tammie said.

Amelia shrugged. “It’s nice seeing different places, but it would be better if we settled down, I think. It’s hard to keep friends when you move on so much.”

“Why did you move here?” Tammie asked. “It’s not exactly buzzing with life.”

“I’m not sure why we moved here in particular, but I like it, plus the weather is pretty mild.”

“Feels cold and wet to me.” Tammie didn’t bother hiding the scorn in her voice, and I worried in case Amelia would hate her.

“It could be a lot worse, trust me,” Amelia told her. “I hope we stay here this time.” She sounded a little wistful, and I almost felt sorry for her. Traveling sounded like a great opportunity, but it must have been hard for her not having a permanent home. I was even more determined to make her feel welcome.

“Wel, even if you move on, it’l be easy enough to stay in touch with us,” I said, meaning it.

She grinned at me, and I was struck by something wholy familiar about her. I knew it would be easy to be friends with Amelia. After only a day, I felt like I knew her for years. By the end of lunch, even Tammie was caling Amelia her new little sister. I was relieved to see Tammie liked her. Amelia was extremely nice, but Tammie could be contrary around other girls. I just hoped things would go as smoothly once Joey was around.

I saw Amelia a couple of times throughout the day; I was sort of keeping an eye on her, even if I wasn’t exactly aware I was doing it. As far as I could tel, she wasn’t getting hassle from anyone. It didn’t hurt that her big brother was pretty popular already. I doubted anyone would bother her with anything other than trying to be her friend, although she didn’t blend in as wel as he did.

Nathan made a point of saying helo to me and Tammie if he passed us by in the halway, much to the chagrin of Dawn. Even some of the others nodded at us in passing whenever he did it. It was sweet of him to make an effort to be nice to us when he was probably hearing al sorts of bad things about us from Dawn. It wouldn’t have shocked me if he tried to stop his sister from spending time with us based on gossip, so I was pleasantly surprised by how he handled it.