The next day he began to subtly dig for information about Paige. First he sounded out some of the guys after his Phys. Ed. class.
“Hey, Joey, do you know a girl called Paige? She’s in our year, blonde hair?”
“Sure, I know her, she’s in my Business Studies class. Why? Aren’t you with Beth anymore?” Joey said.
“No, it’s not like that, I’m just curious about her.” Toby tried furiously to think of a reason why he might be curious. “I was, uh, thinking of signing up for some committee for extra credit and Beth mentioned that Paige might be in charge of it.”
“Really? What committee? Paige seems fairly quiet, I can’t see her being in charge of anything.” Joey stopped thoughtfully. “Mind you, she’s quiet yet confident, maybe she would be the type. I guess I don’t know.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Toby changed the subject until Joey went to shower, then he tried a different tack on one of his other friends.
“So, Greg. I have a class with this girl called Paige Finchley. Didn’t you used to go out with her?”
Greg looked understandably surprised, seeing as Toby knew full well that Greg had never dated Paige, but he couldn’t think of a better opener.
“No. It wasn’t me. You must be thinking of someone else. I think Tom Forbes dated her before he moved to Devon.”
“Oh, right.” Toby scowled when Greg didn’t say anything more. “So you don’t know her?” he fished.
“Not really. I know I would date her if she was interested.” Greg grinned. “She’s not really the flirty type, is she? Maybe she has another boyfriend now who doesn’t go to our school.”
Toby got a similar response from Reed in Chemistry class. None of the boys seemed to know much about Paige. Perhaps Beth had been right about Paige totally being a girl’s girl.
Toby didn’t have many female friends, and he didn’t want to get caught asking questions by any of Beth’s friends or Paige’s, so he eventually chose to ask someone from South Tower, as he had noted Paige eating at the South Tower table. He couldn’t image the girls he selected as being friends with Paige though, as they were both quite loud and popular.
He was wrong. Surprisingly, it turned out two were friends with Paige, or at least claimed to be. He had decided to chat up Bianca and Prisha, who were eating their break-time snacks on a picnic bench next to his. Normally the only conversations Bianca and Prisha had were pretty catty ones about other girls, but Paige seemed to have charmed them too.
“Of course I know Paige.” Bianca said, “We arranged the school Secret Santa together. Wasn’t it a huge success? I mean, literally everyone in the school got a present. Some of them were really lame, but Paige insisted that it should be totally fair and wouldn’t let anyone choose who they gave to or got gifts from. She’s like that. And don’t you think those dresses she wears at weekends are cute? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in just jeans and a t-shirt.”
“Totes.” Prisha nodded. “She’s not afraid of colour, unlike some girls I could mention.” Prisha gave Toby a pointed look, but he had no idea what she was getting at and just looked at her blankly; eventually she gave him a forgiving smile and continued, “Paige knows how to accessorise. We did this charity thing where we made stuff out of recycled bottle tops and all kinds of trash that we would normally throw away. And Paige made like a million pairs of gorgeous earrings, which everyone wanted to buy, and we made loads of money for the charity. Do you remember those twisty earrings, Bea? I think you got a pair for your mother.”
Toby walked off in a daze. He was no further forward on finding out anything in particular about Paige, but it seemed clear that Beth was right on the whole. Paige was involved in school activities and it seemed like she might be a bit of a do-gooder. He still couldn’t see her being a mean girl though; she was obviously just one of those really nice people that others couldn’t help liking. Yet Bianca and Prisha surely hated those kinds of girls, yet still liked Paige... And why did Beth hate her so much when Beth was a really nice person herself?
He was more confused than ever. Girls were such a mystery; he couldn’t understand them at all.
Chapter Twenty-four
TOBY MADE A SPECIAL effort to chat to Paige during their Thursday class.
The whole term of Home Economics was devoted to patisserie cooking, which basically meant all different kinds of bread and cakes. He had almost enjoyed making bread, but the fancy pastries were the classes he hated the most. That particular day they were making tarte tatin and tarte aux abricot, both of which were fiddly. Layering the thin slices of fruit into circular shapes on top of puff pastry made him feel especially ham-fisted. At least Ellie would be happy, assuming he didn’t burn them to kingdom come. He watched Paige lay them out so neatly it looked like it had been done by a machine, and he considered the possibility that she was in fact a high-spec robot sent back through time to either make him look bad or to get him through the course. It all depended on what she said when he asked for help.
“So, you’re pretty good at this kind of stuff?” he started tentatively.
Paige remained utterly focused on her tarte until she finished the precise circle she was working on, and then she looked up and gave him a smile.
“Would I sound totally immodest if I said yes?”
“No, just honest.” He liked that she didn’t deny her ability, which would be the normal response. “So how come you’re so skilled in the kitchen? It’s kind of a dated pursuit for a woman these days, isn’t it? I mean aren’t girls now all about equality?”
Paige laughed. “Everyone has to eat, Toby. But you’re right, I don’t see cooking purely as a female pursuit, just a personal one. I like to cook and it’s more than just a hobby to me. Plus don’t forget a lot of top chefs are men. It’s a shame there aren’t more boys in this class, but that’s just school politics I suppose. I think that out there in the real world men and women both cook.”
Toby looked sceptical at her balanced views. “Oh yeah, and who cooks in your house back home? Your mum or your dad?”
“You got me there.” Paige turned back to her apples. “My mum did do most of the cooking. My dad’s pretty hopeless in the kitchen; he lived on baked beans and toast before they were married. But my mum turned it into a business, it wasn’t just to feed us.”
“She doesn’t do it anymore?” Toby frowned at her use of the past tense.
“No, they travel too much now, she gave it up to manage my dad’s business instead, hence me being at boarding school.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Paige gave him another warm smile.
“My parents travel all the time too,” he offered after a long silence.
Paige looked sympathetic. “Do you find that hard?”
“No, not really. I have Rose, my sister, here at school, and Ellie Parkhurst in our year is my cousin.”
“That’s nice. So does your mum do the cooking during the holidays?”
“No, not so as you’d notice,” he joked. Then his voice softened. “She’s a journalist, even when they are at home both my mum and dad work constantly.”
“Wow, that’s a tough job. It’s funny, but from your attitude I assumed you came from a really traditional household, where your dad worked and spent his Saturdays watching sports and your mother stayed at home washing your muddy football kit.”
Toby looked surprised. “That’s what I thought about you! You like cooking and you’re kind of girly, so I assumed you had a really traditional home too. But both our mothers have high powered careers.”
“So you and I are the total stereotypes and our parents aren’t? How contemporary is that?” They shared a grin of mutual appreciation at the humour of the situation and each of their preconceptions about the other.
“So, uh, in the interest of honesty, Beth says you’re a bit of a social dynamo – but you don’t really seem the type.”
“Yeah, I know. Beth wasn’t very happy with me when I sto
pped hanging out in the library, but I just needed to do more.”
“Hang on.” Toby stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Paige. “Are you saying you and Beth used to be friends?”
“She didn’t tell you?” Paige looked confused. “We were really close, but then I got sick, and I almost died. After that I kind of went into hyper drive. I had to fill my time with proactive things; I guess it was a knee-jerk reaction, but I just didn’t want to waste a single second anymore, and I suppose I overcompensated a bit. I threw myself into every and any activity I could find. It’s been over two years now and I’m only really just slowing down. I became a bit of a control freak, and I know Beth hated it; I kept trying to bully her into doing all this stuff with me that just wasn’t her thing. I made her do all sorts of things she was uncomfortable doing. At first she went along with it to make me happy, but I realise now that I got pretty pushy and ended up pushing her away.”
“Wow, I had no idea – she never said.”
Paige looked sad, so Toby dropped it.
“You don’t think you might have time in your schedule to give me a little help with the theory stuff, do you?” Toby forced himself ask even though it made him feel like a dumb idiot.
“Of course. What do you need the help with?”
“I don’t even know, but Mrs Meadows says I may fail the course, something about the basics of home management...”
“Oh, right. That’s an easy fix – no problem. Do you want to meet Saturday afternoon and I’ll give you an overview on the basics? I also have a couple of books that will really help too if you want.”
“Yeah, that would be great. Much as I hate this class, I really have to pass it to get my Uni place, so I’ll do whatever I have to.”
“Charmed, I’m sure,” Paige teased, then explained about Kitchen Two, and said she’d meet him there.
Chapter Twenty-five
“YOU’RE DOING WHAT?” Beth’s voice rose shrilly. “You’re actually going to have a private study session? Like she can’t just give you the books? Or meet you at the library like a normal person? You have to go and cosy up in a kitchen? What then, afternoon tea and Paige’s special madeleines?”
Toby was about to apologise, then he stopped. What was he doing wrong? Nothing as far as he could tell; he was only going to study with the girl who sat next to him in class and just happened to be the best at the subject. It wasn’t exactly romantic, or anything for Beth to get bent out of shape over.
“Look, Paige told me about how the two of you used to be friends...”
Beth cut him off: “Oh, did she now? I bet she couldn’t wait to tell you how socially inept I am, about how I suck at anything crafty, how dull I am and that everyone just loved her and ignored me.”
“Get a grip, Beth, she didn’t say anything of the kind. She said the opposite, how she knew she got a bit pushy and lost your friendship.”
“You’re kidding me? That cunning witch. She’s manipulating you, Toby. Obviously she likes you and she can’t say anything horrid about me because I’m your girlfriend, and because she knew full well that I wouldn’t be happy, so she’s made me into the bad guy!”
Toby folded his arms defensively. “You’re making you into the bad guy, Beth. Do you know how nuts you sound right now?”
“Ewr!” Beth gave a low scream of frustration. “This is exactly what she wants. Now we are fighting, and it won’t be long before we break up and you start dating her, just you wait and see.” Beth turned on her heel and stormed off.
Toby stood looking after her, wondering if she was right and Paige was somehow playing them. After all, Beth wasn’t far off the mark; he had found himself thinking about her less and less, and thinking more and more about Paige...
BETH SAT IN THE LIBRARY and tried to use the peaceful space to calm down.
She and Toby had been dating nearly three months now. She got on well with Toby; he was a nice boyfriend and she liked being with him. She wished there was more fire between them but at least there was friendship. They hardly ever rowed, until now.
Once again, Paige was ruining her world. It had taken a few weeks but Beth had began to find school less and less daunting. She was slowly making some more friends out of Toby’s group, but mainly she still stuck with Wendy, whom she trusted not to turn on her. The library was still her haven, but now she didn’t devote all her thoughts to study. She was becoming normal and well adjusted. She needed Toby.
But Toby just didn’t understand about Paige.
Toby and Paige were actually sharing a desk in one of their classes together, and it made Beth feel at her most anxious whenever Paige’s name was dropped into conversation. Which happened quite a lot. Toby didn’t seem to be aware of it but he was mentioning Paige more and more often. But their relationship was too important to her to want to risk over a big fight, and despite the Paige situation, she was mostly happier than she had been in years. She didn’t just have her studies now, she had other interests too. Well, three other interests anyway. She had football, she had Toby and she had Matt.
Football and Special Ed. competed constantly for her favourite time of the week. Now that the evenings were getting warmer and lighter she loved getting out to football training; the fresh air and exercise made her feel more alive than she could ever remember, and if she had thought training was fun, then actually playing matches against other people had turned out to be such a high that she felt like she was flying around the pitch. They kept winning games, and were currently second place in the league, having only lost one match to a team where Toby was convinced that the girls were actually boys in bad disguises.
And then there was Special Ed, her little bubble with Matt. Miss Grant remained off sick and the class had simply become an hour to do as they wished. So Beth and Matt used it to talk. They never spoke about Toby and Marianne; instead they talked about their classes at school, about their parents and the pressures they put them under, and they talked about themselves, sharing stories of their lives. They grew closer and closer, and Beth found herself opening up to Matt all about her problems in the past, the meds she had been on, the therapy she had had.
Matt wasn’t like Toby; he didn’t instantly understand, but he did listen, and in the end she told him more than she’d ever told anyone. That one hour a week they got to spend on their own became very precious to her. And she sometimes felt like she lived for the moments that he touched her hand, or her cheek, or even just her arm when they were talking.
She also felt consumed with guilt at how unfaithful that made her feel to Toby. But she was also enough of a realist to know that it was silly to break up with Toby. He had given her such a lot of support, and through him she was finally fitting in at school. She didn’t want to risk losing that, simply because it made life so much easier. She could just get on with being Beth Jenkins instead of being scared and hiding all the time.
She owed Toby for that. Him and football. Football had also brought her out of her shell an enormous amount. She found that she loved playing, even though the games were public and people came to watch. She was able to focus far more on the cheers of the spectators than the occasional heckling that a few members of the crowd were prone to. And the cheers had become louder and more frequent as they had climbed all the way up the league to second place.
Plus, breaking up with Toby for Matt was an exercise in futility, simply because she now knew that Matt was dating Marianne, and her gut twisted just at the thought of it.
And so life continued, until one Saturday in March when they played against Down Leigh School, and had a real battle on their hands.
The Downs Leigh team were from a school only thirty miles away, and the competition between them had been hotting up all season. Down Leigh were third place in the league and were absolutely intent on beating the Compass Court team so as to go on to play the Marlow’s team and hopefully win the league.
Toby gave them all a pep talk before the game. Despite the sunshine it was a v
ery crisp spring day, and Beth hopped up and down on the spot wrapped in a scarf while listening to Toby. At least, she was trying to listen to Toby; what she was actually doing was watching the play of Matt’s muscles as he took off his sweater and was momentarily bare-chested before he pulled on his football shirt. She thought she might faint for a second as she stored the image in her brain.
“We need this win,” Toby’s voice was still going, “so we’re dropping our standard four four two formation and I’m switching up to a two four four. Bryn, you’re going to have to work much harder in goal tonight, and Beth and Joey, that means you are moving from midfield to being second forwards. Sorry for the last minute change, everyone, but it’s just like we practised a couple of weeks ago. Does everyone remember?”
“Huh?” Beth tuned back in just in time. “I’m a forward today? Are you sure?”
“Of course.” Toby gave her a pat on the back. “You’ll be great – just don’t listen to the crowd, because they will be trying extra hard to put you off.”
Once the game started Beth forgot to think about anything but the ball. She saw it less but every time she had it she had think twice as fast. She felt crowded by the defenders, which was where Down Leigh had concentrated their team in direct response to their own new formation.
Usually she loved football because she had time to get it right and to be in the zone of just her and the ball, but now she was running harder and getting tackled more often and it was throwing her off. She couldn’t hide out in midfield; she was much nearer the goal and so the crowd were that much louder. The match had also attracted more spectators than normal, and Beth was beginning to crack.
Boy Girl Games Page 10
