Ellloooooooo!! Erm …. Chloe has been a bit dumb! I seem to be really slow writing this fic …. It was started months and months ago and I loved it .. then got distracted by the Follower and this has taken such a back bench meaning that I only have up to Chapter 5 written (eeeeeeeeek!!) so am going to try my best to get a move on with it over the next week … if that fails I’m afraid that updates for this fic will slow down a bit! Anyone who speaks to me on a regular basis, you must yell at me to go and write – you know how I need a kick-start sometimes! Anyway, enjoy this chapter xx
Chapter 4
I gulped my tea quickly, wincing slightly as the hot liquid hit the back of my throat.
“What’s the hurry sweetie?” Mum asked, noticing my haste.
“Nothing,” I replied quickly, picking up my school bag and throwing it over my shoulder.
“Aren’t you going to wait for the postman?”
“Why would I?” I replied, pretending that I had completely forgotten what day it was.
“Well, he may have something for you,” she replied, giving me a wink.
Sighing to myself I kissed her goodbye and headed out of the door. I knew exactly what the postman would bring, the valentines card that my Dad sent me every single year. In all of my 16 years I had never got a Valentines card, and this year was hardly going to be any different.
“Stupid bloody day,” I muttered angrily as I stomped down the road towards the bus stop.
“Kim!” a voice shouted out from behind me, “wait up!”
I turned behind me to see Simon, red in the face, running to catch up with me.
“Blimey, what land were you in?” he commented, “I’ve been shouting your name for the last few minutes.”
“Sorry”
“In a grump?” he asked grinning.
“No,” I snapped back, “Just don’t feel like being cheerful.”
We carried on the rest of the way down the road in complete silence. The bus stop was situated outside the pub that was just at the end of our road. Taking full advantage of the benches outside I settled down to do my homework before the bus arrived, ignoring the fact that Simon was still sat there looking at me. Maybe I did feel a little guilty, but I just wasn’t in the mood for talking to anyone.
As I walked through the main doors to school I was greeted immediately by a couple of eager faces.
“Well?” Rena asked.
I hung my coat up in the cloakroom and brushed the little bits that had gathered on the front of my uniform. It was a pain having to wear black, maybe the whole idea of dressing prefects in black was to make us appear more threatening to the first years, although that was a waste of time as most of them were cheeky and didn’t listen to a word we said to them.
“Kim?”
“Sorry Rena, what?” I replied, turning to her in confusion.
“Did you give Ben the…”
”Shhhhh,” Jemma whispered and turning to where she was facing we noticed a
group of Populars heading towards us.
“Hey Kim,” one of the girls looked at me and smiled, to anyone else it would have sounded pleasant and friendly, to me it sounded like she was completely taking the piss. They had a habit of doing that, being all nice and friendly to you, but at the same time managing to talk down to you like you were a child of three.
I forced my face into a smile and grinned back at the girl.
“Get any Valentines?” she asked me politely.
“One,” I replied quietly, not wanting to admit that I hadn’t waded my way out of the door this morning.
“Ooooh,” the girl replied, excitedly clapping her hands together and grinning at her two friends, “who from?”
“Dunno, it was anonymous,” I replied, blushing slightly as all eyes fixed on me.
“Could it have been from your friend Simon?” she asked, her grin still taking over her face.
“Doubt it,” I replied.
“You two aren’t an item yet then?” she asked.
It annoyed me so much when people, especially Populars, thought that Simon and I were an item, why did people believe it was impossible to be really good friends with someone of the opposite sex.
“No,” I replied, bending my head down to straighten my tie.
“Well, don’t worry, I’m sure it’ll happen for you soon,” the girl replied.
“What do you mean?”
The girls turned on their large heels and left, one of them shouting over her shoulder at me as they walked down the corridor.
“Valentines magazine!”
My heart fell, suddenly I knew exactly what the Popular had meant. Every year at Jarrold High the Valentines Magazine was produced. It was organised by the Populars in year 11 to celebrate Valentines Day and raise money for charity, the idea being that you would pay 10p to put a short message to your loved one in the magazine. This was then sold to the entire student body for 50p. It was usually full of joke proposals to teachers and first years declaring their love for the Head Girl.
“You didn’t did you?” Rena asked, nudging me and bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Didn’t what?”
“You didn’t put a message in there for Simon did you? Jemma asked, obviously following Rena’s train of thought.
“NO!” I shouted back. It was something else altogether when my best mates decided that I fancy Simon as well.
“Let me see your copy,” I said forcefully, snatching it out of Rena’s hands and flicking through the mass of A4 paper.
“Shit!” I exclaimed as my eyes fell on the offending message.
“Shit!” I repeated, waving the magazine frantically in front of my friends.
They read it each in turn before turning to me.
“Who do you think put it in?” asked Rena.
“One of the Populars,” I replied angrily, “must’ve thought it would be a funny joke.”
“Take it easy,” Jemma gently placed a hand on my arm, “this thing is always full of jokes, no harm done.”
“Yeah and what if he believes it?” I replied, rolling the magazine up and shoving it back into the depths of Rena’s bag.
“He won’t.” Rena replied, “you and Simon are great friends, he’ll think its funny.”
For some reason I wasn’t so sure, it seemed to me that Simon had started to view me as something else these last few weeks. After the summer holidays something had changed, every time I turned around he would be behind me and he had started to call round for me at the weekends as well. I had an awful feeling that this was the window he had been waiting for.
“Girls!” a voice appeared in front of us. Some more Populars had spotted us and were heading over.
“Oooh, its Kelly,” Rena said, smoothing down her hair as the tall girl approached us. Rena idolised Kelly and would do anything to impress her.
Everyone in the school thought Kelly was gorgeous, girls wanted to be her and the boys wanted to shag her, that’s the way it was, and that’s the way it would always be. She was incredibly tall with natural blonde hair that cascaded down her face in tight curls, she had a pretty face, that was normally well hidden behind a thick caking of make up. She always wore bright blue eye shadow and pink lipstick. On anyone else it would have looked daft but Kelly looked like she had just stepped off the catwalk. Although she was forced to wear the same as everyone else in school, she still seemed to manage to wear uniform in a completely different way. Her black skirt was short and perched neatly around her behind, riding slightly up to show off her long thin legs, her shirt was untucked slightly at the sides and she wore her prefect tie in a tiny little knot, with the ends frayed to perfection.
“Hello” she reached us, smiling and showing off her perfect set of white teeth. “I heard about you and erm…”
“Simon?” Jemma offered helpfully.
“Yeah,” she replied smiling, “you guys an item now?”
“No” I replied quietly.
“And that’s not the only bit of gossip,” she added, choosing to ignore the fact that I had just denied the rumour.
Rena and Jemma leaned in closer, loving the fact that Kelly had chosen to confide in them.
“Ben got a Valentines Card from a mystery admirer this morning,” she said, keeping her voice down to a hush.
“He did?” Rena asked, her voice charged with fake innocence.
“Yep,” Kelly replied, giving a sly little smile, “and rumour has it that it may be one of you girls.”
All three of us shook our heads violently.
“It doesn’t matter if it was,” she continued, “Ben would never want anyone other than me.”
“No of course not,” Rena replied quickly, her face lighting up red as Ben suddenly appeared from round the corner.
He approached, glancing his eyes quickly in our direction, before focusing all of his attention on Kelly.
“Missed you babe,” he said, leaning forward and whispering loudly in the blonde’s ear.
She giggled and turned towards him, their lips meeting in a passionate kiss.
Putting her perfect little hand into his, she turned to us and smiled before she and Ben walked off towards their form room.
“Bastard.” I muttered at his back.
“What?” Rena asked, a dreamy expression enveloping her face.
“Did you see the way he looked at us?” I commented, “it was like we weren’t even here.”
“He looked amazing,” Rena declared, her eyes still fixed on him as he became a small dot at the end of the corridor.
“That was a bit of a close one,” Jemma turned to look at Rena.
“What?”
“I think his girlfriend is on to you,” she replied.
“I’m going to form, I’ll see you guys later.” I interrupted.
I left, leaving all thoughts of Ben Adams and Kelly Homer with them.