Chapter 26

 

“I don’t believe this,” I muttered to Jemma as we moved along the path towards the pond.

 

“Just ignore him,” Jemma responded, taking my arm and linking it through hers.

 

“Its hard to when he keeps glaring at me.”

 

“He’s just being childish.”

 

“He never used to be like this,” I observed, “look what I’ve done to him.”

 

“You can’t blame yourself for his behaviour.”

 

Personally I wasn’t so sure – Simon seemed to have taken on a whole new personality since we’d broken up.  He still hadn’t spoken a single word to me and every time he saw me he either glared and walked in the opposite direction or looked at me like a wounded dog.

 

As if on cue he turned around and glared at me, before turning back to chat to Sean.  The fact that he was even hanging out with Sean showed me how much he hated me.  Before if we’d been put in the same group we would have been so happy – right now he’d be walking with me and Jemma and we’d all be laughing together at all the silly things Sean was doing.

 

I looked quickly away from him, instead scooping my net through the air to see if I could catch any bugs. 

 

This whole thing was so pointless. 

 

Mr Grantham had us all out in groups taking samples from the ponds so we could take it back to class and do a project on pollution.  All terribly fascinating, and pointless.

 

We stopped at a section of the pond that wasn’t inhabited by any of the other groups and started dangling our nets in the water, desperate to scoop up some of the algae that would get us higher marks.

 

“I hate geography,” I announced as I put some slimy green stuff into my little sample pot.

 

“Why did you take it then?” Jemma asked.

 

“Because I thought it would be easy,” I confessed, “but so far all it’s been is boring.”

 

I sat down on the grass, my little pot of scum sitting beside me.  It was yet another beautiful spring day outside and it seemed such a waste to be sat in a stuffy old classroom, really I should be making the most out of the fact I had even been let out.

 

All too soon our half an hour was up and we were traipsing back inside the dull corridors of school and up to the geography room.

 

Mr Grantham was standing by the door ready to welcome us in, he already had his magnifying glass at the ready.

 

We sat back down in our groups and began to look at each other’s specimens under the microscopes.

 

“You see anything?” I asked Jemma as I scrunched up my eye and glared at the big splodge of green.

 

“Not really,” she confessed.

 

“I’ve got something!” Sean piped up excitedly, sending Mr Grantham flying across the room towards him with much enthusiasm.

 

“You found something boy?” he asked

 

“Sure have, its alive” Sean replied with a grin.

 

Mr Grantham bent down to look, his face suddenly turning red with anger.

 

“Take them back to the pond,” he snapped.

 

Everyone around the room stood up to look in our direction, craning their necks to see what the fuss was about.

 

We all burst into laughter, the image of Mr Grantham enthusiastically looking at tadpoles through a microscope tickling us beyond belief.

 

Spirits were somewhat lifted after that, and we all left the room in pretty good humour an hour or so later.

 

We were all giggling at some witty tadpole jokes someone had just come out with when Jemma suddenly turned to me.

 

“You OK Kim?”

 

“What?” I asked in confusion.

 

“You’ve changed a bit.”

 

The pangs of guilt set in, I had this huge huge secret and I still hadn’t even told my best friend and that just made me feel awful, best friends were supposed to tell each other everything.

 

“What do you mean changed?”

 

“I don’t know, you just seem a bit distant.”

I quickly gave her a hug, I wanted more than anything to be able to tell her that none of this was anything to do with us and that it was something entirely different, but I had to keep it quiet until Ben was ready to announce us to the world.

 

“You are OK with me then?” Jemma asked.

 

“I’m more than OK,” I smiled at her.

 

She let out a deep breath of air, rather like she’d been holding her breath for days and days and this was the first opportunity she had had to let it all go.

 

“Will you come over on Saturday night?” she asked.

 

“Course I will,” I replied.

 

“Thought we’d have a girlie sleepover.”

 

“Sounds fantastic.”

 

I gave her a huge grin and was relieved when she smiled back and we continued our walk to next lesson.

 

She chattered excitedly next to me about makeovers and chick flicks, but my mind was elsewhere – I’d have to make sure I saw Ben tomorrow night now, I could never go a whole weekend without seeing him.