She rose slowly and floated back up the stairs on a cloud. Entering her dorm, she found Ellie sat at her desk, frowning over a History book.
“Hi,” Ellie said without looking up. “Any idea why Ethelred the Unready was called that? Do you think he took hours to get dressed for a night out and when his friends came to pick him up they would say, ‘Forsooth Ethelred you are never ready; all the buxom wenches will be taken!’ No, of course you don’t know. You’re probably worse at British history than I am.”
Flora gave her a dreamy smile. “Yeah, not a clue, though I could tell you the entire life of Benjamin Franklin if that would help?” She paused. “You will never guess who just spoke to me.” She threw her school bag on to her bed and then sat beside it, bouncing up and down.
Ellie turned away from her books, looking interested. “The Holy Spirit?” she joked.
“Gabriel.” Flora spoke his name with reverence, stringing it out into three clear syllables.
“So almost the Holy Spirit then.” Ellie gave her a wry look.
“We talked. He actually took an interest in…” Flora broke off, a look of horror coming over her face.
“Oh my goodness! I’ve just realized: all that time I thought we were talking about me, we were talking about you!”
She flopped backwards on to the bed, her arms wide.
“I don’t believe this,” she wailed. “I finally fall in love, for the first time in my life, and he was just pumping me for information about you!”
Ellie moved to sit beside her and patted her arm. “I’m sure that’s not true. Gabriel has no interest in me whatsoever.”
“He does.” Flora shut her eyes against the pain. “Everything he asked me was indirectly about you. Why is every boy in this school in love with you? Everywhere we go it’s all, ‘Hey Ellie’, ‘Hi Ellie’, ‘Cute shoes, Ellie’. Gabriel is just another victim of the Ellie magic!” Flora knew she was being unfair, but she pulled away.
“Seriously Flora, you should pay more attention. It’s never actually about me. None of them care about me. It’s because I’m Jack’s sister. If you think about it the comments are more like, ‘Hi Ellie, how’s Jack?’, ‘Hey Ellie, what’s Jack doing now?’ I’m known just for being his sister. It’s not really that flattering.”
Flora opened her eyes. Thinking back, she realized Ellie had a point. People were always asking after Jack. Ellie saw the comprehension dawning in Flora’s eyes and nodded.
“Jack was such a legend at this school, even the teachers are always asking me how he’s getting on. He was Captain of everything. Half the trophies in the hallway have his name on them and he boxed for the County. He’s even famous for having punch-ups. That’s the only reason everyone knows who I am.”
Flora sat up. “It’s not the only reason. Boys ask you out because you’re pretty.”
Ellie smiled. “I hope so. But it’s not easy living in Jack’s shadow. I’ve often wondered if that’s why Alex is so different from Jack.” She looked thoughtful. “You know, he’s actually much smarter than Jack. At science anyway, Alex is very clever. Maybe he purposely doesn’t compete with Jack.”
Flora flopped back again. “Gabriel wouldn’t care about Jack. He never mentioned him.”
“Hmmm, I wonder.” Ellie was still smiling. “Do you think maybe Nate put him up to questioning you?”
Flora once more jerked back up.
“Of course! He was asking for Nate. He’s Nate’s best friend and Nate clearly has a total crush on you.” Relief swept through her.
Ellie went back to her desk.
“Well, I don’t know about the total crush, but it makes more sense.” She bent her head back down to her book, wanting to avoid Flora’s eye. She was sure that Gabriel had been asking for Nate. But why? She couldn’t help but feel a furl of excitement in her chest that Nate had obviously talked about her to Gabriel. Was Nate genuinely interested in her? Or was this part of some flirty point-scoring game she felt they were playing with each other?
Either way, it was a pretty big compliment.
***
Later that evening, Gabriel waited till Jerry and Owen went to bed before brandishing his list triumphantly.
“Uh hum – I now present the full low-down on one Eleanor Parkhurst: she likes cats. She watches school sport most Saturday mornings; likes watching the First Fifteen play rugby this time of year or the cricket in the summer. She is good friends with the school chef, Rene, and has tea with him every Sunday around 6 pm, sometimes with Rose or Alex or both. She is fond of Chinese food. On Mondays she sometimes plays at the chess club; she is long-standing champion. Her other evenings are generally free. She is very good at English and French, but failing Math and History. Current boyfriend is Liam Anderson; at least he says he is. His friends confirm they are going into Oakworth together on Halloween, which is also her 15 birthday. Because of her brothers and cousins she has friends in almost every school year. She emails her parents every week and talks to her brother just as often. Do I need to remind you who he is?”
“Good grief, Gabe! You got all that in a few hours? You should join MI5.”
Nate took the list from Gabe, who sat back looking smug. “So now you have it, what will you do with it?”
“I’m not sure; there must be something useful here. Chess club? That’s a bit geeky; I’ll give that a miss. Tea with Rene, yes, maybe that could be useful. Failing History, yes, I’m sure I can use that.” He skirted over the Liam Anderson bit. “Thanks Gabe, I totally owe you one.”
***
The following afternoon was a Sunday and at around four o’clock Nate went to visit Rene.
He said he wanted to chat about the history of bread for a school project. The school had an old-fashioned bread oven, said to date back to 1730, and Rene was enthusiastic about explaining to him how it all worked. They continued to chat about the different baking methods in Tudor times until nearly six, when Rene commented that Ellie and Rose would be coming down to visit shortly and Nate said he really ought to be off.
He passed them in the long corridor to the kitchen. He smiled a hello, but didn’t stop.
Rose nudged Ellie. “Gosh he’s good looking, isn’t he?”
Ellie shrugged. “I suppose so. You don’t fancy him, do you?”
Rose smiled. “No, he’s definitely not my type: far too confident, but I can still look! Anyway, Alex tells me that Nate seems to have set his sights on you?”
Ellie’s insides jumped. Was that really true? Personally she had thought Nate was just playing a cat and mouse game because she had got in his way and annoyed him. She should have backed off as soon as Rose stopped being his target, but she couldn’t help feeling a little thrilled by his attention.
Trying not to give anything away, she shrugged again. “Nah, it’s just a bit of harmless flirting. He’s not interested in me.”
Rose looked concerned. “Are you sure Ellie, because he’s a bit of a heart-breaker. Not that I think you couldn’t handle him,” she hastened to add. “I’ve always admired how blasé you are with boys, but I figured it was because you had just never fallen in love. It would be awful if you finally did and it was Nate!”
Ellie gave Rose a look that quickly shut her up. She didn’t want to have this conversation. Rose was more right than she realized when it came to Ellie’s feelings about boys: she was searching for that elusive amazing guy who made her feel something more. But she didn’t want it to be Nate either.
Unfortunately, the more Alex or Rose told her to stay away from him the more appealing he became. She seemed to see him everywhere suddenly and she wished people would stop mentioning him at all!
Rene waved from the stove, indicating that they should sit at the table.
“What a shame,” he said. “You’ve just missed Nathaniel Naverly. I’ve not spoken much with him before, but he seems a very intelligent boy.”
Ellie sighed. It was all a great big plot to make her think about him constantly and everyone was in on
it.
***
Nate was pleased: as plotting went this one was going well. So far he had ignored her leaving the kitchens, but hopefully left Rene talking about him. He had overlooked her in the Games Room, chatted to his friends while she had been there with hers. He had passed her alone in the courtyard and pretended to be talking on his phone. He had sent Owen to chess club and got him to mention him a lot. He had even let Pamela McBride sit on his knee at dinner one night, even though she bored him, aware he was in full view of Ellie over at the West Tower table.
He had given Ellie too much attention and now he wanted her to miss it. She was a clever girl, but she was out of her league at game playing. Right now she should be feeling a bit neglected.
The next stage of his plan was to somehow get their History teacher, Mrs Marsh, to invite Ellie to join him for some extra History lessons and if he’d got it right Ellie ought to jump at it.
***
Ellie was feeling rather neglected. Nate had openly made a spectacle of them both by sending her emails and talking to her friends, and now he seemed to be avoiding her.
Was he saying he wasn’t interested? Because that was just fine. Neither was she. She didn’t know what he was playing at – it rather looked like he had forgotten about her – but if it was still a game then she was determined to figure out the rules before she got played. She felt he had taken it too far when he let Pam McBride slobber all over him. Maybe she was supposed to get jealous? If that was the case then two could play at that.
On Halloween it was her fifteenth birthday and she went into Oakworth Village, as arranged, with Liam. She hadn’t seen much of Liam in the last few days; she had stayed in the West Tower Common Room studying most evenings rather than in the library where he often cornered her. But now she decided to be as nice as possible. She linked her arm through his to walk to the village, laughed at his jokes and didn’t duck when he gave her a quick kiss. They found a table to themselves in the Fox and Hounds pub, and he bought her a Diet Coke.
It was a visiting weekend at the school and Ellie reckoned that most of the pupils from the Upper School who didn’t have family coming to visit would be going into Oakworth Village. In fact she was counting on it…
Chapter 8
Jack Parkhurst was glad he had decided to drive over to his old school and drop in on Alex and Ellie. Their parents normally tried to do a Saturday visit once every couple of months, but as a recent ex-pupil it was a great feeling to come up the driveway and know that he wasn’t going back to his old room.
He smiled fondly at the grand old building. Compass Court Boarding School had been his second home for seven years and he’d been happy there.
It was an old manor house built around the first ever proper fixed compass in Britain. It was built in a square and the huge iron compass itself still stood in the center of the large courtyard in the middle. A tower had been built at each corner making up the four schoolhouses. The towers were each at the corner they were named after: North, East, South and West. He’d been in West Tower House. He could see his old window from the front drive.
Looking round the driveway, he watched as various parents collected their children for a day out. He waved at a couple of people he knew from the year below him.
You always got a funny mix at boarding school. Kids were sent here for so many different reasons. His own father was an army captain, in charge of training, and was sent all over the country as needed, and his mother preferred to rent a house in barracks rather than stay at home so they could be together. She hadn’t wanted the children to get moved around all the time so they shut up the family house during term time, which was why he and his brother and sister had all attended boarding school.
Jack wandered into the main hall looking for his brother and sister. Alex was in the courtyard with their cousins, Rose and Toby.
Alex and Rose were both 16 and had been born only days apart, and so they’d always been close. Toby was only 13 and Jack hadn’t ever really had much time for him as the age gap between them was so large, he himself having turned eighteen last January.
He was more interested in finding Ellie. As younger sisters went, Ellie was pretty cool. She was full of mischief and sharp as a tack. He’d actually really enjoyed having her around when she finally joined him and Alex at Compass Court. She was cheeky with his friends, up for any dares and perfectly capable of charming her way out of trouble with the teachers. Plus it was her birthday this weekend, and he was looking forward to surprising her.
Alex saw him and made his way to Jack, letting him know that Ellie was in the village pub.
Rose looked up and gave Jack a wave. He waved back, but didn’t bother to go over. Rose and Toby had spent 3 weeks of the summer holiday at his parents’ house while their own parents had been abroad working, so he didn’t feel the need to chat to her again so soon. Not that he’d seen a huge amount of her during that time. She had spent most of it on her phone gassing away to her friends.
Rose seemed to have changed this summer; she had blossomed from a kid into a teenager. She seemed far more interested in fashion magazines and boys than she had been before.
Poor Alex, Jack smiled to himself, he was getting left behind. He hoped Alex grew up a bit this year; he was too skinny by half. It was such a shame that Alex preferred science to sport.
There were other faces he recognized. Quite a lot of people nudging each other and pointing him out. He tried not to feel gratified by it.
He was still smiling as he got back into his car to drive into the local village. Maybe school days really were the best days of your life…
***
Sophie Jones had been watching Jack out of the corner of her eye from the moment he’d arrived to talk to Alex, until the moment he drove away. Her stomach was clenched with longing. Jack was just the most perfect guy she’d ever met. He was bright, funny, charming and unfairly good-looking. Tall and broad-shouldered, not to mention the rippling stomach muscles she’d been lucky enough to once get her hands on. He had floppy dark brown hair, an infectious grin and eyes that twinkled pure golden brown when he laughed. He was friends with everybody; everybody except her. She wondered if he was avoiding her now. She felt like an idiot for throwing herself at him. She guessed he didn’t respect her any more. Not that he’d said so. But he had said he would call her and then he never did.
She wished she could talk to Rose about it. But she couldn’t tell Rose. Rose would be outraged on her behalf and probably try to force Jack to ring her. It would be really embarrassing. Especially as her friends thought she was the authority on flirting. It was true she wore her skirts short and, yes, she liked chatting up boys; she thought she had gotten quite good at it. So why hadn’t she played the game better with Jack? Could she have done anything different to get him to like her more? The trouble was she had run out of time. It had taken her five years just to get him to notice her as a girl, and then he had been leaving Compass Court and there was no guarantee she would ever see him again.
She had known that the end of year dance for the Upper School was her last chance. She’d had a few alcoholic drinks for Dutch courage and then she’d flirted outrageously with him till he took her up on it. It was just supposed to have been a bit of kissing in the woods behind the school. But it had been far more. She had wanted him so much and it had been amazing. Right up until the last moment.
He’d stroked her face and told her she was beautiful. He’d walked her back to her dormitory door and then he had shattered her illusions by apologizing and saying it shouldn’t have happened.
***
As Jack steered the car down the curving driveway, he glanced back at the school. It was then that he noticed Sophie Jones standing near Rose.
He felt guilt lance through him at the sight of her. She had cut her blonde hair since he’d seen her last; she now wore it in a bob just above her shoulders. It suited her, though he’d liked it long.
He remembered only too clearly h
ow he’d unclipped the piled-up style she had worn at the end of term ball last year. He could still recall how silky it felt when he’d run his fingers through it before they kissed.
Damn, he should have stopped it right there.
He’d known how much she liked him. But it was the last day of his final year and he’d had a fair bit to drink that night.
She’d been flirting with him outside the front door and he’d practically hauled her into the woods by the river to kiss her. He’d never meant it to go any further.
He’d tried to apologize, but that seemed to upset her. He liked her a lot and he really did fancy her, but he didn’t want a long distance relationship and he didn’t want to start University with a girlfriend to think about, especially one who still had another two years at school.
He wouldn’t have minded having a girl in the background just for a bit of fun, but he didn’t think Sophie was that kind of girl. She liked him too much; he’d just end up hurting her even more.
He still had her number in his phone. He wondered if he should call her or maybe he could just text her.
He shook his head and put the car into third gear. He needed to bring his concentration back to the road ahead. The metaphorical road ahead as well as the real one.
Chapter 9
Ellie had her back to the door, but could hear people coming and going, when suddenly she heard Nate enter with his friends. She could hear their voices at the bar, which meant they must have a clear view right to her table. Sliding over on to Liam’s lap, she wound her arms round his neck and began to kiss him. After his initial surprise, he seemed pleased and kissed her back in earnest, his arms around her waist. She thought she had been doing it long enough to make a statement and was just about to move away when a voice made her freeze.
“Eleanor Parkhurst! I swear you are so in trouble!”
The Flirting Games (The Flirting Series - Young Adult) Page 4
