‘Mum, Lewis has climbed to the top of the pine tree. I think he’s lost his mind.’
‘What!’
Olivia and her mum ran out into the garden, straight to the bottom of the pine tree.
‘Lewis, get down this instant!’ his mum shouted.
‘I’m fine, leave me alone,’ Lewis said.
‘Please get down now, before you break your neck.’
‘I’m all right, honestly.’
‘Lewis, get down now or I’m calling the fire brigade.’
Lewis thought about this for a second. The prospect of being lifted down by a couple of burly fireman was not good for the image he was trying to project.
‘Okay, okay, I’m coming down.’ He slowly picked his way down the tree, climbing from branch to branch. When he reached the lowest limb, he swung by his hands like a gymnast and let himself drop the rest of the way. As he stood up his mum and sister stared at him. ‘What?’ said Lewis.
‘What?’ echoed his mum. ‘Is that all you can say? You could have fallen and killed yourself. What were you thinking?’
‘I just fancied climbing a tree, that’s all.’
‘Are you a child or something?’ his mum replied. ‘Get in the house and don’t be so stupid.’
Lewis went straight up to his room, followed by Olivia.
‘What’s going on, Lewis?’ she said.
He ignored her and started reading Breaking Dawn.
‘Lewis, look at me. What’s happening?’
He slammed the book down on the bed and faced her. ‘Olivia, you know what your problem is? You’re always worried about everyone else, which is lovely, but sometimes you need to mind your own business.’
‘I think this is my business.’
‘How do you figure that?’
‘This new look you’ve got - you’re trying to make yourself look like Edward aren’t you?’
‘Maybe. What’s wrong with that?’
‘It’s creepy.’
‘Thanks.’
‘Sorry, that came out the wrong way. I mean, it seems to be taking you over. Like climbing that tree - Edward climbs trees with Bella. Is that why you were doing it?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘Well, why were you doing it then?’
‘I told you, I just fancied climbing a tree. Anyway, why do you think you’ve got anything to do with this?’
‘Because I was the one who told you to start reading Twilight, so you could get closer to Rachel. Now it seems you’ve taken it to the extreme and you actually want to become Edward.’
Lewis let his breath out slowly through his teeth. ‘Listen, I would do anything for Rachel and if she wants an Edward, that’s what I’ll be.’
‘Did she say that to you?’
‘Yes she did.’
‘Are you sure she didn’t mean, be like Edward in the way you act, rather than the way you look.’
‘Yeah, you’re probably right. And I am trying to act differently. Trouble is, people still see the old Lewis; they can’t see I’ve changed, and Rachel still thinks I’m a male tart. I have to change on the outside as well as the inside.’
‘But why this look?’
‘Why not? It’s who Rachel wants - Edward - so it’s only going to help my cause, don’t you think?’
‘Maybe. What does Rachel think of it?’
‘I’ll tell you later, as soon as I’ve finished this. I’m going to surprise her after school.’
‘Well, good luck. Just don’t start biting anyone, will you.’
‘Edward doesn’t bite people remember.’
‘Oh yeah.’
Lewis had given Olivia all the answers she had wanted to hear, but she wasn’t convinced. She knew what her brother was like and once he set his mind on something he would take it as far as he could. In the past this had simply meant chasing girls and going surfing, which were pretty normal for a guy of his age. Olivia was worried his obsession with becoming Edward was far more unhealthy.
*
Clive looked at his watch. The hands seemed to be stuck. Time was dragging and giving him too much time to think. This was never a good thing for Clive. He wanted the school bell to ring so he could leap out of his desk and catch Rachel who was in the classroom next door. He tapped his foot irritably like he was sending a message in morse code. The bell rang. Everyone automatically stood up.
‘That bell is a signal for me, not you,’ said Mr Williams, their History teacher.
Nobody paid any attention to him and headed for the door. Clive was there first. Out in the corridor he saw the door open to the neighbouring classroom. Clive hung back; he wanted to make it look as natural as possible, as if he’d bumped into her by accident. People spilled out into the corridor and it fizzed with chatter and gossip.
Clive caught sight of Rachel moving slowly out through the mass of people. She was trying to get through the doorway of the classroom. He timed his walk perfectly so he passed her just as she emerged into the corridor.
They hadn’t spoken properly since Rachel had left their writing session to meet up with Lewis. Clive had been seething ever since. Fortunately, time (with the help of a bit of inside information from Cassie) heals all wounds. Clive had assumed, wrongly again, that when Rachel left to see Lewis, they would become a couple. It turned out Lewis was having just as much trouble wooing Rachel as Clive was.
The thought that Mr Right was no nearer to going out with Rachel gave Clive renewed hope. It neutralised his bitterness and, now his confidence was restored, he decided to resume his attack. After being knocked off course, space ship Clive was fuelled up and ready to claim the star named Rachel.
‘Hi, Rachel,’ he said as casually as he could.
‘All right, Clive?’ Rachel replied.
‘Yeah, good thanks. You heading straight home?’
‘Yeah, got tons of assignments to do. Why? What are you doing?’
‘I was going to do some more to the story.’
‘Cool,’ Rachel said, still walking.
‘Want to help?’
‘No, I can’t I’m afraid.’
‘No, of course, you’ve got stuff to do. What about later in the week?’
‘I can’t really, Clive. But you go on ahead without me. After all it’s your story.’
‘No, it’s our story. We wrote it together.’
‘Well, not really,’ said Rachel. ‘You wrote it and I made a few suggestions, that’s all.’
‘Please. I really need your help on it.’
‘But it’s pretty much finished, isn’t it?’
‘No, I still want to try some different things.’
‘I wouldn’t change it anymore, apart from the odd tweak here and there,’ said Rachel, her pace quickening. ‘Look, why don’t you make the changes, print it out and I’ll have a read of it.’
‘I’d really like us to do that together.’
‘But we don’t need to be in the same room to do that.’
‘We could bounce ideas off each other.’ Clive made a ‘boing’ sound and pretended to bounce off Rachel’s arm. She didn’t smile or laugh at his feeble slapstick. She stopped and turned to face him.
‘Listen, Clive, I don’t think you need me on this and to be honest I don’t think us as a writing team really works.’
‘It does. We’re great together.’
‘No we’re not. We argue and fight. It’s not enjoyable. And even though I think the story is wonderful, I just don’t want to go down that road again. I’m really sorry, Clive.’
She continued walking to the school gates, faster than before. He trotted along beside her. Her last comment had caused a hull breach in spaceship Clive, but instead of air being sucked out, his confidence leaked uncontrollably into space.
Strangely, Rachel’s reaction didn’t make him angry. What she was saying made sense. The closer they got together creatively, the further it pushed them apart. If Clive was going to get it together with Rachel, it wasn’t going to be this way. He’d have to f
ind another route to her heart.
‘It’s okay,’ said Clive. ‘You’re right.’
‘I’m so sorry, Clive.’
‘Don’t worry, honestly it’s fine. We’re still friends aren’t we?’
‘Clive, of course we are. Don’t be silly.’
‘Cool, listen I need to be somewhere so I’ll see you tomorrow.’ Clive didn’t really need to be anywhere, but he had to get out of there. It was an awkward situation and, even though he understood and agreed with what Rachel was saying, it still felt like she had split up with him in an odd sort of way.
He threaded his way through the throng of pupils until he was in front of the crowd making its way to the freedom of the school gates.
*
Lewis leant against a lampost outside Rachel’s school. The lampost was covered in marker pen graffiti. Out of the mess he could make out a piece of fresh scrawl, it read: SARAH SMEDMORE WEARS THE SAME CLOTHES. Lewis was reminded of just how cruel school could be and he felt instantly sorry for Sarah Smedmore, whoever the poor girl was.
He turned away and surveyed the building in front of him. It was called Kingslough Secondary School. The whole place looked tired and battered, like an old suitcase. It was nothing like the private school where he had enjoyed an expensive education full of privilege and opportunity. It had all gone to waste on him of course. Lewis looked at his watch just as the bell rang. Though he was supremely confident in his new guise, a small injection of adrenalin began to race around his veins. Soon he could hear hundreds of voices moving towards him as the classes emptied at the end of the day.
A sea of teenagers surged in his direction and he felt extremely conspicuous standing there. To Lewis’ relief, he saw a familiar face marching out of the school gates. Clive was walking fast with his head firmly focused on the pavement.
‘Clive,’ said Lewis.
Clive looked up and across the road. There was no recognition on his face whatsoever. He just stared without blinking. Clearly, Lewis’ new look was working a lot better than he imagined.
‘Clive, it’s me, Lewis.’
Clive’s expression remained unchanged. Then his eyes widened as he saw through the new clothes and haircut.
‘Lewis? Is that you?’
‘Yeah, it’s me. How are you?’
‘I’m, er, I’m fine,’ said Clive, as he examined him, taking in all the details of Lewis’ new look. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I’ve come to meet Rachel. Will she be out soon?’
‘Are you going to a fancy dress party?’ Clive said. He made no attempt to hide the sarcasm. Lewis didn’t bite.
‘No, I just fancied a change of image,’ Lewis replied.
‘Oh, because it looks like you’ve hired an Edward costume or something.’ Clive was definitely mocking him, but Lewis didn’t react. He wanted to look like Edward Cullen. Anyway, Clive wasn’t worth it. He was more like an annoying little brother than a serious threat to him. So Lewis just smiled.
A small group of second-year girls gathered around them.
‘Could I have your autograph please?’ said a pretty little blond-haired girl with big eyes and a nervous voice. Lewis looked down at her with surprise.
‘What?’
‘Can I have it too?’ said her friend holding up a blank page of a text book.
‘What? No, I’m waiting for someone,’ replied Lewis.
‘Oh go on, Robert, give them an autograph,’ Clive said with a sickly smile on across his face.
‘I told you it was Robert Pattinson,’ said the blond-haired girl, nudging her friend. The girls giggled and moved in closer.
‘Look, I’m not Robert Pattinson,’ said Lewis. ‘I guess I just look a bit like him.’ This was an unexpected by-product of his new look - Twilight groupies.
A handful of slightly older girls joined the group. Worringly, Lewis noticed one girl take a look at him and immediately run away to tell another larger mass of girls who were coming out of the gates. They all screamed in unison and ran over to where Lewis stood. This new batch of girls were less restrained than the others and pushed past everyone to squash Lewis against the wall.
‘It’s him! It’s really him,’ someone said.
‘Can I have a kiss?’ said another.
‘Give us a suck,’ shouted a girl next to him and everyone squealed with girly laughter.
‘I’m not Robert Pattinson. My name’s Lewis, now please would you all go away.’
Lewis’ words had about as much impact as a feather made of air. All they could see was someone who looked like the guy on the posters in their bedrooms. It was enough to stoke up frenzied excitement. Lewis kept protesting his innocence and tried to calm everyone down, but being calm was the last thing they wanted to be.
As more people poured out of the school, they saw something going on. More boys and girls were lured into finding out what was happening. The crowd soon turned into to a mob, and Lewis began to fear they would soon start ripping his clothes off.
Lewis turned to Clive. ‘I might need your help.’
Clive didn’t say anything. He just stood there looking smug.
Lewis tried another angle: ‘Listen, if this turns nasty, we’re both going to have a problem.’
Clive looked back at the mob, which was getting bigger and more rowdy by the second. They were a threat to both of them.
‘Okay,’ said Clive. He leant in and whispered into Lewis’ ear, ‘You need to run. I’ll cause a distraction.’
‘Thanks,’ said Lewis.
Clive managed to climb up on the wall behind them and pointed. ‘Oh my God,’ he shouted. ‘It’s the guy who plays Jacob Black.’ The whole crowd swivelled around like automatons to see if it was true. At that point, Lewis ran like he had never run before. Fortunately, he was fit and got a big head start before everyone realised he’d given them the slip. As Lewis dashed towards his van he could hear the screams behind him. They knew they’d been duped and were now chasing him like a pack of hounds after a fox. The van wasn’t far away. As he got closer Lewis pulled his keys from his pocket and hit the button on the remote locking. The van greeted him with a tweet and flashed its lights. He knew he had seconds to get it started and get out of there. Otherwise they would surround the vehicle and tear him to pieces.
It started first time. He rammed the gear stick into first, stamped on the accelerator and wheel-spun away. He afforded himself a quick look in the rear view mirror. His pursuers came tumbling into view. He had made it with milliseconds to spare.
It had been terrifying. He now knew what it was like to be famous. His hands shook and his mouth was dry. Lewis let out a spontaneous laugh. For all its danger, the thrill was intoxicating. He could get used to this.
*
Katrina Wood was the school ‘it-girl’. If anything was going on you could be sure she was at the centre of it. If not, she certainly would be by the end of the day. Everything happened around her, and together with her fledgling entourage, she knew all the gossip. She was the fount of all knowledge but, more importantly, she used that knowledge to influence people’s opinion of you, for good and bad.
Her sharp eyes never missed a thing and she had a savage tongue. It was dangerous to know her and even worse not to. She wielded her omnipotence like a Greek god and played with people’s lives, whimsically building up their popularity, then tossing them away when she was bored of them.
A visit from Katrina was never a good thing, which was why everyone looked on edge when she and her cronies strode into Rachel’s form room the next morning. Katrina headed straight for Rachel and Cassie. She smiled at them both like a shark; her grin was wide but her eyes were dead.
‘Hi, Cassie. Hi, Rachel,’ she said in a voice that was sugar laced with arsenic.
‘Hi, Kat,’ Rachel and Cassie said together.
‘You two like Twilight, don’t you?’
‘Er, yeah,’ they both said.
Kat sat on the edge of their desk. ‘Well, did you hear abou
t what happened yesterday after school?’
Rachel and Cassie shook their heads. Keeping words to a minimum was always a good idea when Katrina was around.
‘Robert Pattinson from Twilight was outside school.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Cassie.
‘You don’t believe me?’ said Kat, dropping her smile.
Becoming Edward Page 15
