Boy Girl Games

by Stella Wilkinson

  Eventually though, Beth had been unable to take any it more and had simply disappeared from Paige’s life. She never said she was going or explained. She had just moved out of their dorm-room without a word and switched to a whole new school house. Paige went to speak to her housemistress about it, but was told that Beth was suffering from anxiety problems and that it might be better if Paige gave her some space and time to find her feet again.

  Paige’s reaction to losing her best friend, right on top of her own massive health scare, was to throw herself into the social committee with even greater vigour, burying all her grief in a whirl of tasks and organisation. She and Beth had never really spoken again.

  But now Beth had found a new hobby, one that clearly gave her the courage to leave the library and get out in the world. Beth had developed a passion for football, and Paige was really glad to see that Beth was happy and had even managed to get Toby for her boyfriend.

  There was no way, not for all the tea in China, that Paige would ever do anything about her crush on Toby.

  Just like she always did when she was stressed, Paige went into a frenzy of baking. She cooked like a girl possessed. She had to bury her feelings for Toby Falcon right at the bottom of a tray of chocolate brownies.

  She could never cause Beth more hurt. But she really liked Toby. His eyes were the same colour as the brownie mix. His hair was like dark chocolate chips... Dammit! She was totally failing to push him out of her mind. She beat the eggs and sugar together so hard that it splattered up the wall. Glancing at the mess, she thought she could see Toby’s image in it. Oh hell, she had it bad.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  ON SUNDAY AFTER BREAKFAST, Toby went back to the West Tower Common Room in search of Rose and Leo.

  He had spent the entirety of breakfast thinking about Paige. Something had changed when he’d been with her the day before. Previously in class they had merely been friendly to each other, slowly growing that friendship. But on Saturday afternoon it had taken a jump forward. He had felt less friendship for her, but more of an awareness of her as a girl. Like the chemistry between them had suddenly been ramped up by being alone in that kitchen. Maybe it was simply that it had been just the two of them instead of being in a class full of other people, or maybe she had put a spell on the madeleines, but whatever it was he had hardly been able to restrain himself from touching her. He’d sat as close as he dared without obviously letting her know how much he liked being near her, and there had been a definite moment when he thought she was into him as well. Had he read that right? He couldn’t be absolutely sure.

  Rose was at her usual sofa group, at a coffee table in the common room, but she was in full wedding mode, holding up swatches of material for bridesmaid dresses that all looked identical to Toby.

  “Hi, Tobes. Do you prefer this green or this one?” she asked.

  He stared at them for a moment. “What’s the difference?” he said at last.

  In the corner Leo coughed loudly to cover a chuckle.

  “This one is sea green and this one is ocean green,” Rose said in a frustrated voice. “Ocean green is slightly more blue, see?” She held it higher so it caught the light.

  “Oh right, yeah, that one.” He still couldn’t see any difference.

  Rose’s mouth thinned, telling him that he had made the wrong choice.

  “But the ocean green is great too,” he said hurriedly.

  “This is the ocean green, you nitwit.”

  “That one then. Or the other one, I don’t know.” Toby cast a beseeching look at Leo, who held up his hands to show he wouldn’t dare get involved.

  “Listen, I don’t know about dresses, but I think I have found you a fantastic cake idea.”

  Rose’s head popped up. “A wedding cake?”

  “Yeah, remember Paige who made the cheese rolls? She’s a whizz with cakes – she wants to make wedding cakes professionally when she leaves school.”

  Rose sighed. “Toby, this is my wedding cake we’re talking about. I need someone who is a professional now, not some amateur who thinks she can cook!”

  “But she can. You liked her rolls, didn’t you?”

  “No, I’m sorry. But it has to be right – it’s the centrepiece of my special day, not a chance for you to do a favour for your girlfriend.” Rose shook her head firmly.

  “She’s not my girlfriend, she’s just an amazing cook, like totally talented.”

  Rose exchanged a grin with Leo. “It sounds like you want her to be your girlfriend.”

  Toby was quiet for a moment, unsure how to answer that. Then he reached into his rucksack and got out his folder. “Will you just look at these designs before you decide?”

  Rose glanced at them, then stopped, and picking one up she really gave it proper consideration. Then she silently passed it to Leo and picked up another.

  “These are beautiful,” Leo said, “really quite personal to us having tropical fish; it would fit in with the theme, wouldn’t it, Rose?”

  Rose nodded thoughtfully. “Can I meet her?” she said at last.

  Toby grinned, knowing that he had been right about the cake. “Only if you promise not to say anything inappropriate.”

  Rose elbowed him in the ribs. “I would never do that, what am I going to say? By the way, my little brother clearly has the hots for you?”

  Toby groaned – maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all!

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  ON MONDAY MATT SAT in the Special Education class and wondered why Beth was avoiding his eye. The only reason he went to the “strange-people-sharing” class, as he had coined it in his mind, was because of Beth. The Headmistress had suggested he might like to go along for a couple of weeks to deal with any adjustment issues about moving to a new school as well as a new country, but he’d realised almost immediately that he didn’t need it.

  Yet Beth had never noticed that he was still attending despite there being no requirement for him to do so. She didn’t seem remotely aware that the only reason he was there was to spend time with her.

  He’d been settling into Compass Court just fine when he’d first spotted Beth. She was skittish as a hare, and had instantly brought out the hunter instinct in him. He’d coaxed her closer by talking her into going to soccer try-outs, where he’d thought he would shine in her eyes. But instead, she’d outshone him and made him adore her even more. He could see she was still nervy, but she always tried her best, and he still had the instinctual urge to claim her as his girl.

  He had been attempting to reel her in very slowly, when the rug had been pulled from under him and Toby had landed her first. He hadn’t expected that, and he had stepped back immediately. He liked Toby a lot and they had become firm friends, but Beth was still his long term goal. If he ever got the chance that was. So now he was relegated to the sidelines, but it wasn’t all bad, he now had the opportunity to get to know her first, to discover who she really was and what she would respond to. He could be patient. For now it was enough to be her friend. He could see she liked him, and he had to be content with that.

  The first time he’d seen her he’d been captivated. She was just so very British, with her dark hair and pale skin, and her big expressive eyes. She was reserved and coy, but so pretty in her mannerisms. So he tried to hold off, to keep his distance, but he couldn’t resist this one hour a week when they forgot about the rest of the world and focussed purely on each other. That was how it was supposed to be all the time. And Beth was blossoming, but not because of him, it was because of Toby.

  He absolutely had to wait it out. He had to hang back and let her come to him. Even if he had an opening, he wanted her to make the first move now.

  There was also the problem that just being near her made his pulse race. She actually made him nervous! Which was a first for him. He was so used to be confident, but Beth was special. She was also a flight risk, he couldn’t come on strong or he’d scare her.

  Matt sighed and resisted the urge
to press her for what was wrong. Beth was at her best when there was no pressure, he’d learned that already. He just wanted to keep her happy, keep her safe, and wait for the right moment. Play smart not hard. Go super slow until the perfect moment. This was one game he fully intended to win in the end, but it sure was hard to be patient and keep smiling through it!

  BETH KNEW SHE WAS WASTING her one hour a week with Matt, but she felt too guilty to enjoy it. Now that she knew how much she liked him, it seemed like she was cheating on Toby just by coveting that special time with Matt.

  She was currently avoiding Toby, but it wasn’t his issue, it was hers. It was true that she was annoyed with him, because after football on Saturday he had cleaned up and then gone and spent the afternoon studying with Paige. But she didn’t want base her decision on that. She couldn’t break up with Toby until she had really thought it through. It had to be because she knew it was absolutely the right thing to do. Except she wasn’t a hundred percent sure that it was! But she couldn’t continue to ignore her feelings for Matt any longer.

  She spent most of the following week avoiding both Toby and Matt, feeling unsure on the protocol of a break-up and having regular second thoughts about doing it.

  The problem was that she was happier than she had been in years and it was in no small part thanks to Toby. She was well aware that she was now with him for the wrong reasons, but it didn’t make it easier to walk away. Toby was an anchor for her at school and he had given her some secretly craved-for acceptance with the masses. She now felt confident that she was just one of the students like any other, but would that all go away if she finished with Toby? She decided she wouldn’t really mind if it meant she could be with Matt, but that wasn’t actually on offer. Matt was with Marianne. So she would be giving it all up for nothing – nothing except knowing that it was the right thing to do.

  Beth wished she could talk it out with Wendy, but in a rather surprising turn of events, Wendy had just started dating the school bad boy, Logan Moss. Beth couldn’t remotely see what the two of them had in common, except what was clearly an out of control attraction. Logan was constantly sneaking up to their dorm and Beth had taken to avoiding the room, as it was hugely embarrassing for her every time she walked in on the two of them!

  So she was back to library, and thinking about it all way too much.

  On Wednesday, she still didn’t feel strong enough to tackle a real conversation with either Toby or Matt, so she claimed she had a headache and cut football practice for the first time.

  She felt annoyed when Toby rang her mobile phone to see if she was okay. It wasn’t his fault, but she was angry with herself for being so weak and so she snapped at him. After she put the phone down she felt even angrier. She was so cross with herself for letting it go on for so long. She had let a bit of popularity go to her head, and she was a horrible person to keep stringing Toby along.

  She sincerely wished that she liked Toby the way she liked Matt, it would have made life so much easier. Toby was good for her. But it just wasn’t enough, he wasn’t the one.

  On Thursday evening she rang him on his mobile phone, hoping to arrange a time when they could talk in private, but before she could say anything she heard Paige Finchley’s voice in the background.

  Paige, her nemesis, was actually with Toby.

  Chapter Thirty

  IT WAS WEIRD FOR PAIGE to be sitting in West Tower Schoolhouse. Pupils hardly ever went into the other school houses and tended to stick to their own. Paige was in South Tower and in her six years at Compass Court had never once been into the West Tower Common Room.

  Being around Toby and his family was weird too. Paige was an only child and didn’t have any cousins. But as well as Toby, Rose and Leo, Paige now found herself sitting with Toby’s cousins Ellie and Alex too. They bantered together as a family, all so comfortable with each other, and it made Paige kind of sad. She found herself wishing she had some close friends even if she didn’t have much family.

  Paige was just very glad she had made plenty. When Toby had called her on Wednesday night to invite her to West Tower the following evening to talk about the “fish cake”, she had rushed straight into the kitchen and stayed up well past curfew experimenting with her sugar icing and creating various tropical fish designs. Being Paige she had been unable to leave it at one or two – she always went a bit over the top – and had ended up creating a whole reef of not just fish, but also a seahorse, a baby octopus, a turtle, a starfish and an anemone, each fashioned on a base of sugar-icing coral. Then Paige had been up at five o’clock that morning to make the cupcakes, as she wanted Toby’s sister to get a genuine taste of how the cake could be. She had added the decorations to the cupcakes at the last minute and carried them carefully round to West Tower on a pretty cake stand. She had covered them with a large cloth, that Toby now whipped off with a flourish. Paige felt really embarrassed, but she was also extremely proud of how they had come out. Even if Rose and Leo decided against the cake it didn’t matter to Paige. She had learned a lot about working with sugar icing and she had some great photos for her cookbook folder or her future wedding cake business.

  She had been quick to explain all that beforehand, as she didn’t want Rose and Leo to feel obliged to be polite, but Rose had assured her that she wouldn’t just be polite and certainly wouldn’t order a cake unless it was what they absolutely agreed on, because she had very fixed ideas about how she wanted her wedding to look.

  “Oh wow!” Leo’s eyes went wide when he saw the cakes and Paige flushed with pleasure, but it was Rose’s reaction that really mattered.

  Rose’s jaw dropped open and she was speechless for a moment, but then she clapped her hands, applauding the cake with a big smile on her face, and Paige breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  “Paige, it’s even better than I thought it would be. What I mean is that I already had high expectations having seen the pictures, but this is amazing. Everyone at our wedding will be talking about the cake. You’ll probably be inundated with requests for more, and it will be so cute in the photos,” Rose gushed.

  Leo stemmed her flow with a smile and a hand on her back. “Hold your horses, Rose, we haven’t even tasted it yet.”

  Paige nodded, “Absolutely, you have to try it as well. All the sea life is edible, and I can change the flavour of the cupcakes too if you do want it. These are just regular cupcakes, but you could have chocolate cakes or even fruit cakes if you wanted to go a little more traditional.”

  “Regular? These are anything but regular, these are the fluffiest, lightest, most brilliant cupcakes I’ve ever had.” Rose spoke through a mouthful of cake.

  “Told you so,” said Toby smugly as he reached for a second cake.

  Leo rolled his eyes at Paige. “Sorry, she gets a bit enthusiastic when it comes to stuff for the wedding. But I think you can safely assume the cake is a winner. However, there are only ten cakes here and we have nearly a hundred guests – that’s a big commitment for someone to take on, and we need to know for sure if they can deliver, and we need to talk cost as well. Sorry to be the voice of reason, but are you sure you’re up to this, Paige?”

  “The cakes aren’t a problem,” Paige thought it through carefully. “I’ll need to invest in some more equipment to do a hundred plus some extras, but I can write that off as a business expense. The sugar work on top is the time-consuming bit, but as it is in the holidays I can manage that too; it keeps well for several days, in fact it should ideally have a couple of days to harden anyway.” She pulled a pad toward herself and started to jot down numbers. “Food costs, plus let’s say three days of my time, plus set-up on the day. I’ll email the exact figure later, but we’re talking a rough cost of this amount, how does that look?” She pushed the pad back across the table to Leo and Rose.

  Rose spluttered and looked at Leo. Leo looked cautiously at Paige. “Are you sure?”

  Paige nodded. “It’s pretty close to the true cost; the final figure won’t be much differ
ent, I can guarantee that. I’m used to costing dishes, so it was just what to charge for my time really; and as I’m not a professional yet and this would be my first job, I’m happy to come in a little lower than what some others might charge.”

  Rose squeezed her hand and nodded. “Forgive me if this is rude, Paige, but will you still do our cake regardless of what may happen with your friendship with Toby?”

  Paige looked confused and glanced at Toby, who turned rather red but just shrugged at her.

  “Of course,” she said. “I can send you over a proper contract later if you like. My dad has his own business, so I can use one of his standard ones, and I’ll include the firm fee with it.”

  “Then we have a deal,” Leo said, and Rose nodded enthusiastically before taking another cake and biting happily into it.

  A few other friends began to drift over and join them, and the atmosphere relaxed into general chat. Toby had just shifted a little closer to Paige on the sofa when his phone rang in his pocket.

  It was Beth, and he answered it without thinking.

  “Hi, how’s it going?” Beth asked in a friendly voice.

  Toby cast a panicked look at Paige – he hadn’t told Beth about Paige coming to West Tower, or even about the cake. He suddenly realised that he should have.

  “What do you mean?” he said defensively. “It’s fine, everything’s fine.”

  At that moment Rose asked Paige about how she made the sugar-icing fish designs and Paige began to explain. Toby jumped off the sofa and away from Paige’s voice, but it was too late; Beth had heard her.

  “Is that Paige Finchley? Where are you?” Beth sounded like she couldn’t actually believe what she had heard.

  “I’m in the West Tower Common Room, but she’s here to see Rose, not me.” Toby tried to sound soothing, but he knew it hadn’t worked as Beth’s voice rose to a high-pitched anger.