Boy Girl Games
Book Seven in the Flirting Games Series
by
Stella Wilkinson
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Copyright Stella Wilkinson 2016 www.stellawilkinson.com
Cover Art by Littera Book Designs
All characters herein are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher or author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book was written, produced and edited in the UK, where some spelling, grammar and word usage will vary from US English.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Also By Stella Wilkinson
Chapter One
ONE LOOK AT THE BOY coming out of the classroom in front of her and Beth dropped her books. She’d never seen him at Compass Court School before, but she thought it might just be love at first sight.
Seeing all the books tumble from her arms and on to the floor, the boy turned and made his way back toward her.
Beth closed her eyes and counted to three, giving herself time to handle the inevitable interaction. She would have liked to count for longer and properly get her breath back, but there wasn’t time.
“Hi, need a hand?” The boy was already beside her and picking up the books.
He had an accent, almost certainly American. From behind her curtain of hair, Beth gave him a quick once-over. He was in great shape, and suntanned too, like he spent a lot of time outside. His hair was a lovely brown, and his face – she adored his face already, it was just so perfect. Also his eyes were kind, like he might actually be sensitive rather than a completely immature pain in the neck like the other boys her age, who thought that firing spit-ballers at shy girls was hilarious.
Beth pushed her hair back in an attempt to look normal and not like the awkward nerd that she really was.
“Thank you.” She gave him a nervous smile and accepted the pile of books back that he had stacked in his arms.
“Big reader, huh?” he said, nodding at the books.
“Yes, no, I mean, yes.” How did she say that she liked reading and was taking the books back to the library, without giving away the fact that she had no life?
“Nothing wrong with self-improvement,” he smiled at her, and her heart melted into a lump of goop.
“Okay, see you around.” He slung his satchel over his neck, giving her a wave as he went.
She stood there staring after him with a dreamy smile on her face, until she suddenly became aware that she’d had that look for rather a long time and she’d totally failed to respond to him and now he was gone.
“I probably looked like a gormless idiot,” she admonished herself silently. And she hadn't even asked his name. Why had she been so dumb? She should have asked him about a million different questions – the most important of which was when exactly would she see him around? Was he in her year? Which Schoolhouse was he in? What subjects was he taking? And the one she would never ask: did he have a girlfriend?
BETH SAT INSIDE THE cool quiet library and looked out the window at the bright sunny January day. A part of her longed to go out there and just be happy, maybe she take a walk in the woods around the school, letting the crisp wintry air touch her skin and then go for hot chocolate in the local village café. The stuff normal girls did.
But the library provided sanctuary. Nothing bad was going to happen to her in there. No one would call her names or put dead worms inside her bag. It was always pretty empty in the school library on a Saturday. It was only populated by kids who were studying or checking their email, all being nice and quiet. People like her. Sometimes she felt like the only sixteen year old in the world lame enough to spend her Saturday studying, and while she did genuinely love to read and she absolutely wanted to ace her exams, she knew she should be doing more with other people in her year. Getting out there. The problem was that “out there” was scary. Groups made her nervous, one-on-one conversations made her edgy, she got anxious about even thinking of participating in any of the hundreds of options available at the school, other than being in the library.
At least she was mixing in a way, even if it was just sitting in a room with other students. But being in the thick of the library didn’t stop her feeling alone. She used to have a best friend who came with her to study, but Paige wasn’t a bookworm, she was the worm that turned. And two years earlier she had turned quite literally on Beth.
After Paige had suffered a bout of teenage meningitis that had kept her away from school for four months, Paige had come back different. She had become “Little Miss Get Involved”, and although Beth had tried to do it with her, it was just too hard to handle all that social interaction. But Paige hadn't understood and had dropped her as a friend. Since then, Beth had shied away from social groups and had become pretty lonely. Her life had become a round of keeping her head down and going from class to class and then back to her dorm room.
But now, for the first time since her falling out with Paige, Beth had a reason to get out there. She’d never really paid much attention to boys before, especially as she was pretty invisible where boys were concerned. But the American boy in the corridor might just be worth coming out of her shell for. She just had to know – who was he and how would she manage to see more of him?
Chapter Two
BETH CREPT IN TO THE Special Education classroom and with her head down and moved quickly to her usual seat by the window. “Special Education” was the name of the extra class for people with adjustment issues. They met one hour a week and the Student Councillor tried to encourage them all “to share and grow.”
She was slumped in her chair doodling, when she felt a pair of eyes on her. Somehow she just knew someone was looking at her, and she felt a momentary panic as she surreptitiously scanned the classroom for any potential threats to her safe space.
Then she saw him. He was sat two rows in front of her on the other side of the room and he was grinning at her in recognition.
Beth ducked her head as a blush spread across her face. She counted to five trying to compose her features, and then another five as her blush refused to go away. She discreetly fanned her face with her notepad and then looked up again.
He had looked away.
Beth didn’t mind. He
was here! She took advantage of the distraction caused by the teacher arriving to study him further. The back of his head was just as lovely as the front, she decided.
“Hello everyone, today we’re going to break into small groups and discuss books. Nothing more, just grab a book from the table at the back and tell the others in your group what the book is about.” Miss Grant gave them all a vague smile and then moved to partner a couple of people up who looked too terrified to move. Beth watched as the new boy looked around and then his eyes rested on her. He got up.
Oh goodness, he was coming over to speak to her!
Beth had a moment where she suddenly wanted to make a dash for it, but she was hemmed in by the wall and there was nowhere to go anyway.
“Hello again.” He had stopped by her desk. “Do you want to be in a group with me?”
Beth opened her mouth to speak but Miss Grant had followed him. “Good morning. Do you two know each other?”
Beth shook her head just as the boy said, “Yes.”
“Well, not really,” she qualified as their teacher looked confused by the mixed response. “He helped me pick up some books that I dropped. That’s all.”
“I’m Matthew, Matthew Lake. I just moved here and the Head suggested I attend this class for a few weeks as I was starting in the middle of a school year and don’t know anyone.” The boy explained to the teacher.
“I’m Miss Grant, we’re very glad to have you Matthew.” She made a note on the clipboard she carried; “And this is Bethan Jenkins, I’ll leave the two of you to get acquainted then, chose any two books from the table and see if you can start a discussion.” She moved away to tackle another student who was loudly blowing bubbles with her gum and looking totally disinterested in joining in.
“Bethan.” Matthew smiled at her as he spoke her name for the first time, and she thought how nice it sounded when he said it.
Matthew inclined his head questioningly toward the bookcases at the back. Beth had pretty much read all the books and was fairly unimpressed with them, but she nodded eagerly and followed him over.
There was a large group table by the books and two fourteen-year-old girls were already sat at one end, both doing something on their phones and ignoring the task they had been set.
Beth sat down as far away from the girls as possible to try to get some relatively private time with Matthew. This particular class had kids of all ages, but she was sure that Matthew was about fifteen or sixteen, just like herself.
She grabbed a couple of books off the middle of the table to make a pretence of reading and handed one to Matthew. He cottoned on to her ruse and flicked through it in an offhand manner.
“So, Bethan, are you in Year Twelve? That’s the one I’ve been placed in.”
She nodded. “Just Beth,” she managed to say.
“Yeah, me too. Just Matt. Only my mother calls me Matthew. It’s good to see someone else my age here. So far I’ve only met the guys in my room, and not really had a chance to talk to anyone in any of my classes. I noticed you in English this morning, but Mr Jeffrey made me sit at the front because I’ve never even read any Thomas Hardy and have tons of catching up to do.”
Beth stared at him in surprise. He had been in her English class? Why hadn't she noticed him? Maybe she had been so busy staring at the floor as usual that she had missed the first exciting thing to come into the room since Rory Mahony had come in wearing the donkey’s head from his role in the Year Twelve play.
But what good would it have done if she’d seen him? She would only have messed it up then as she was doing now. She was aware that in the whole time they had been together that day, she had actually only managed two words directly to him.
Thankfully Matt didn’t seem to have noticed yet that she was unable to communicate like a normal human. He was still chatting away, talking about the activities he’d done in his last school. She tuned back in to what he was saying.
“...and soccer. That’s my greatest passion. Or ‘football’ as you Brits call it here. Do they have much of a team at the school? The soccer season is only just starting and I saw a notice up in the school gym about try-outs so I’m going on Saturday. Do you like soccer?”
Beth gave him a startled look. She could hardly say yes, as she knew almost nothing about it, but on the other hand he had just said it was his passion and she wanted to appear to share his interest.
“Soccer, um, I mean football, is fairly popular here, and great exercise.” She settled for something non-committal, that might sound like she played the sport.
He smiled and opened his mouth to say more, when the teacher came back around to them.
“Well done both of you, nice to see you in discussion, and what books are we talking about today?”
Beth panicked and closed her eyes.
“Nothing yet,” Matt said honestly, “We were just getting to know each other first, what our hobbies are, that kind of thing. But it turns out that Beth is very keen on reading, so we were just about to start talking about...” he looked down at the book he was holding, “aqueducts.” He finished his sentence with slight disbelief that he would be interested in such a book.
But Miss Grant looked thrilled. “Aqueducts? How marvellous. I love that one. Don’t you think the architecture of the ancient world was fascinating?”
“Fascinating,” Matt agreed doubtfully.
“Good, good. Carry on then, children.” She sailed on towards the two fourteen-year-old girls, who quickly hid their phones.
Whatever Miss Grant said to the girls was about to put a clear dampener on their conversation. Both the girls got moodily to their feet and then joined Beth and Matt.
“We’ve been told to come and talk about books and stuff with you guys.” The first girl sat down and then instantly shifted her focus back to her phone.
The second girl gave Matt an assessing look and started flicking her hair around. “So, I’ve got one on all the different religions, what books are you talking about?”
“I have one on aqueducts, if you’re interested?” Matt said with a wry smile.
The girl pouted. “Not really. I don’t even know what that is. Was it one of the miracles?”
“Not the kind of miracle you’re thinking of, no. But perhaps a miracle of engineering.” Matt smiled at Beth and she smiled back. Unfortunately that was pretty much the end of their conversation. For the next half hour the girl attempted to engage Matt’s attention on a variety of topics, while Beth sat there like a lemon trying to think of something intelligent to say and wishing she had the courage to say anything at all.
Mostly all she could think about was how attractive he was and how much she wanted to press her lips against his, which was hardly on topic.
When Miss Grant began to round up the class by giving a talk on integration, Beth gave up trying to think of something to add. She had managed a grand total of thirteen words. She looked at the floor, wondering if Matt thought she was a bit simple.
Matt and Beth helped Miss Grant put the books away in a box and then held out his hand to help Beth to her feet from the floor where she had been retrieving the last book. She put her hand in his and tried to memorise how it felt. His hand was warm and strong and strangely reassuring. It was right somehow.
Miss Grant finished with a list of things she wanted them all to do before the next class, all of which sounded incredibly scary to Beth. Quite ordinary tasks like help someone who needs it and writing down how it made you feel.
Beth closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she opened them, Matt was looking at her with an odd expression on his face.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Beth quelled the urge to make a run for the door, and tried to breathe very slowly.
“Yes,” she managed to say after three deep breathes.
“Can I walk with you to the next class?” he asked.
She nodded furiously, just glad that he was still talking to her.
Fourteen words so far. She r
eally needed to say more.
“So, um, good luck with the football try-outs,” she blurted before she could let herself overthink it.
“Thanks. Yeah, I don’t know why I get nervous. Soccer is one of the few things I’m quite good at, but it’s hard breaking into a new team. It’s scary when you don’t know anyone there. Maybe you could come along and give me some moral support, next Saturday morning on the sports field?”
Before she had time to answer he stopped at a door and looked down at the timetable in his hand.
“Oh, I think this is me, you’re not in this one?” She shook her head. “Okay, See you soon.” Matt gave her a warm smile and disappeared into the class room.
“Bye,” she managed, before turning in the opposite direction to go to her own classroom.
Beth felt a bubble of happiness sitting somewhere inside her chest. She had talked to Matt and she had enjoyed it, mostly. She might have only managed a few sentences so far, but being in his company had been actually fun. She just wished she could be more normal, like any other girl hanging out with a cute boy, instead of being such a closed book.
Back in her dorm room after classes were finished for the day Beth wrote up her diary, reliving every word he’d said. He had asked her to come and support him at the football try-out! She hugged herself with the knowledge that he was saying he wanted to spend more time with her; that was great. But without realising it he was also asking her to do something scary. But could she? For him?
Chapter Three
BETH KEPT HER EYES peeled every day for a sighting of Matt, but they were few and far between. He ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at the East Tower table, while Beth sat at the North Tower table. He had waved at her, but she’d been too scared to go over and he hadn’t crossed the room either. While students could sit at other tables, it was rarely done, and Matt obviously felt he had to stay at the East Tower table. Each day in her free lessons she went to the library and walked as slowly as she could while scanning the corridors for him, then her heart would deflate as she reached the library and went inside.
Boy Girl Games Page 1
