Chapter 13

 

“Bastard, bastard, bastard” I muttered to myself as I fiddled with the lock on my locker.

 

“Poor locker, what’s it done to you?” Jemma asked as she appeared beside me, throwing her own books into the locker next to mine.

 

“Not the locker, bastard Ben.”

 

“What’s he done to you now?” Jemma rolled her eyes.

 

“I have to go to his house for a barbeque tomorrow night.”

 

“Mi god!” a voice squealed and Rena appeared next to us, “you are going to Ben’s for a barbeque!”

 

“Keep your voice down,” I hissed angrily at her.

 

“Why?”

 

“Well first of all, I don’t want the Populars hearing cos they’ll only give me a hard time, and secondly Simon is going to have a complete hairy fit.”

 

“Yeah, but it’s Ben, you are going round Ben’s house!” Rena replied, a dreamy expression taking over her face.

 

Turning away from her, I directed my conversation back at Jemma, hoping that I might get more sense out of her.

 

“I don’t want to go to it”

 

“Take it Ben didn’t invite you himself,” Jemma commented, shutting the locker and turning towards me.

 

“Nope, it was his mother, they are having this family barbeque thing.”

 

“And your mum is making you go?”

 

“Yep, she says it has to be a family thing, who has barbeques in Winter anyway, its madness, how they going to get the thing alight?”

 

“I’m sure it wont be that bad Kimmie, he may not even be there.”

 

“Try telling that to Simon,” I muttered.

 

“What’s Simon got to do with it?”

 

“He wont like it, he hates Ben, and he hates me and Ben more than anything.”

 

“You and Ben – what?”

 

“Dunno,” I shrugged in response, “he seems to have an issue with something that doesn’t exist.”

 

Jemma raised her eyebrow, knowing as well as I did that the whole idea of a “me and Ben” was completely ridiculous. 

 

“I’m sure he’ll understand if you explain it to him.”

 

“He wont, plus I’m supposed to go round his on Wednesday.”

 

“Did you explain that to your Mum?”

 

“Yep,” I replied, “and she said that I had to arrange for another day.”

 

“Oh”

 

Seemed that there was nothing my friends could say or do to make it any better either, I’d have to go to the barbeque, and I’d have to tell my boyfriend where I was going too.

 

I didn’t get the chance to speak to Simon until after the first bell had sounded and we all filed our way down towards the hall for assembly.  His form room was opposite mine and so sometimes if we both walked slowly we’d manage to find each other in the tangle of bodies in the corridor.

 

As soon as he saw me he grinned, and reaching towards me found my hand and clasped it tight into his.

 

“Morning, gorgeous”

 

“Morning,” I replied quietly.

 

We walked down the stairs, him happily babbling about some kind of IT project he got an A in, I nodded in all the right places, yet my mind wasn’t at all focused on what he was saying, I was too busy worrying about how I was going to tell him what I had to.

 

By the time we got to the hall, filed in and sat down in our seats I still hadn’t told him.

 

As the Deputy Head climbed up the stairs onto the stage, he took my hand again and placed it on his lap.

 

“Quiet now please,” his voice boomed out across the hall.

 

The murmur of voices fell into silence as the headmaster walked onto the stage and took up his position.

 

Suddenly finding my voice I turned to Simon and whispered in his ear, “I need to tell you something.”

 

“What’s that?” he whispered back at me.

 

Waiting for the headmaster to start on the announcements I turned back towards Simon.

 

“I can’t come to yours.”

 

“How come?”

 

“I have to go to a barbeque”

 

“In January?” he asked, “who has a barbeque in January – that’s absurd!”

 

I took a deep breath, this was the moment I had been dreading.

 

“It’s at the Adams’ house”

 

“As in Ben Adams?” Simon asked in disbelief.

 

“Yeah,” I admitted, watching his face turn from the sweet caring one that I had grown so fond of to a twisted face of rage.

 

“And you are actually going?”

 

“My mum is making me,” I tried to explain.

 

He let go of my hand and folded his arms.

 

I reached out to try and take it back, but he had it tight against his body and wouldn’t let me untangle it.

 

“Don’t be like this,” I hissed at him.

 

He ignored me, his icy stare locked towards the stage.

 

“Simon please.”

 

I had obviously started to speak loudly without realising as suddenly the whole hall fell into silence and a voice boomed at me from across the hall.

 

“Kimberly White, stand up please.”

 

Shit!

 

I had been caught, and now I was about to be publicly humiliated.

 

“Is there something you’d like to share with us?”

 

“No sir,” I said meekly, feeling myself going red.

 

The whole hall had turned to stare at me and I could see the year 7s down the front sniggering and laughing.

 

“Well it must have been something very interesting to keep you from listening to my notices.”

 

If a fire-breathing monster had appeared at that moment to eat me alive I honestly wouldn’t have minded.  I had never been so embarrassed in my entire life.  I wanted so much to hide, but there was nowhere to run.

 

“I’m sorry Sir, it won’t happen again.”

 

“Too right it won’t, detention in my office tomorrow please.”

 

I sat back down again and put my hands on my face, hoping that miraculously they would manage to cool it down a bit.

 

I turned back to look at Simon, hoping for a sympathetic nod in my direction, after all it had been his fault I had to stand up in the first place, but he was still looking in the opposite direction, as if I didn’t exist.

 

When we stood up 10 minutes later to make our way to first lesson he stormed off up the corridor and wouldn’t turn around no matter how loudly I shouted. 

 

In the end I had to give up, hoping that he would eventually come to his senses.

 

Unfortunately that wasn’t to be the end of the nightmare though.

 

6 hours later things weren’t really much better, Simon still wasn’t speaking to me despite me having tried to explain at least 20 times.  By the time the bell sounded for the end of school I was thankful to be going home, and looking forward to spending a night curled up on my bed watching a film and painting my nails.

 

I lugged myself down the drive and outside the school gates, stopping at the hedge where my Dad was to pick me up.  He always picked me up on a Monday night, he’d come right past the school gates on his way back from the cash and carry and I was always so relieved to get a night off going on the school bus.

 

However, this day I wasn’t alone at my bush – there was someone else there too.

 

“What you doing here?” I glared at Ben, I couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to be polite to him, just because he was a Popular, I was in such a bad mood and having such a rubbish day I didn’t care who knew it.

 

“Your Dad is giving me a lift home,” he grunted in reply.

 

I flew my hands up into the air in exasperation, “why?”

He looked rather shocked that I was being brave enough to talk to him like that, and if I had been in a better mood I’m sure I would have found the look on his face very funny.

 

“He offered.”

 

“You didn’t have to accept,” I said quietly.

 

“My Mum fixed the whole thing.”

 

“Oh”

 

We spent the next few minutes standing at the hedge in silence, I was propped up against the post box, trying my best to pretend he wasn’t there and he in turn, was stood a good few metres away from me texting on his mobile.  I think we were both relieved when my Dad showed up a few moments later.

 

“Hey guys”, my Dad beamed at us as we both climbed into the car.

 

“Hello Mr White,” Ben said back politely, jumping into the front.

 

That pissed me off more than anything! I always sat in the front … my car, my dad, my front seat – I hated him more than ever now.

 

“School OK?” Dad continued.

 

“Yeah was good,” Ben confirmed, turning into that charming boy my parents loved so much.

 

“Kim?”

 

“Yeah great,” I grunted back.

 

“Oooooh dear, I detect girl problems,” Dad said cheerily, and I saw him winking at Ben.

 

I sunk lower into the seat, moving my head lower down so I could no longer be seen in the mirror.

 

“Problems with the boyfriend?” he continued to embarrass me.

 

I made a little grunting noise in response and began to dig my way through my school bag, hoping desperately that the subject would be changed – no such luck!

 

“You met Kim’s young fella?” my Dad asked Ben.

 

“Not sure,” Ben replied, turning around and giving me a look I couldn’t quite place.

 

“You must know Simon,” Dad continued, “he lives up the road.”

 

“Yes I know him,” Ben replied, his voice stony.

 

“He’s a lovely lad, just right for our beautiful Kim.”

 

OK. I had just reached a new level of embarrassment.  My father had just told Ben I was beautiful – I was about to die!!

 

I spent the rest of the car journey practically sat on the car floor, blinking back the tears that kept threatening to fall.  When we reached our house I kept my face firmly facing the floor, not wanting him to see me upset, I hardly even noticed as he got out and left, although I’m sure he spoke to me just before I went inside.

 

“I’ll see you at the Barbeque tomorrow Kim.”