by Ruth Houston
"Oh, I'm just digging myself a deeper hole, aren't I?" I muttered.
"Yeah…" Lucas laughed.
I smiled nervously and ran my fingers through my hair. Next thing I knew, Lucas was leaning over the table towards me, his hand closing over mine and a reassuring smile on his face.
"Don't worry, I think you're gorgeous too," he said.
I blushed furiously as a grin highlighted my red cheeks.
* * *
I left for school extra early the next morning so that I arrived at eight o'clock. Let's just say I was extremely excited to tell Georgia and Harry about my date with Lucas.
I hurried into school, searching for my two best friends. I found them outside Harry's locker, obviously having just arrived together as they always did.
In my excited state my low-key plan went straight out the window as I barreled toward them calling, "Guess whaaaat!"
Georgia and Harry spun around, surprised to see me skidding to a halt in front of them with a stupidly wide grin plastered on my face.
"Er… what?" they asked in unison, looking slightly apprehensive.
"Guess who went on a date with Lucas yesterday afternoon?" I said in a sing-song voice, beaming.
Their jaws instantly dropped and Georgia winced as Harry let out a high-pitched squeal and I was instantly covered in bone-crushing hugs.
"Aw, honey, I'm so happy for you!" cried Georgia, jumping up and down as she hugged me.
"So, what happened?" Harry asked, thriving to hear every single detail.
As we walked through the hallways to make our way outside, I gave my friends a detailed explanation of the entire date, including the part where I gave him my phone number and email address.
"Finally, your brain is working properly again," joked Georgia as we flopped down in the shade. "I thought you'd have another mental blank and forget again."
I stuck my tongue out at her. "No, you don't have to worry. I learn from my mistakes."
"When do you think he'll ring you?" Harry asked.
"I don't know if he'll even remember to," I said, voicing the thoughts that had been on my mind since I got home last night.
Georgia gaped at me. "What do you mean?" she cried. "He seems totally into you!"
I frowned at her. "You haven't even met him," I reminded her.
"Oh, right." Georgia frowned for a moment before adding, "Well, I'm sure that if I did see you two together I would think that!"
I laughed and rolled my eyes just as Penny, Jade and Haylee walked up.
"Who are we talking about?" Jade asked, throwing herself down beside Harry, unwrapping a chocolate bar and taking a huge bite.
"Amber's new boyfriend," Georgia said, her eyes twinkling.
"Ooh, who is it?" said Haylee quickly as she sat down with her skirt swirling around her knees. She was always in for a good gossip.
"Lucas Thorn," I told her, smiling.
"He goes to Wilson's Private," Harry added as if that made Lucas akin to royalty.
Penny seemed to think for a moment before turning to Haylee and saying, "Hey, isn't that Lucas guy the one that you met the other day at the beach? You know, the one you said was undeniably gorgeous."
Jade rolled her eyes and muttered to herself about something to do with 'rich pimps' before stuffing the rest of her chocolate in her mouth greedily. Haylee simply shot her a filthy look before turning back to her other sister and shrugging.
"I don't know… it's hard to keep track of all the hot guys I meet," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder with a look of indifference.
As a normal loud conversation settled in, I glanced at Haylee only to see her staring at me. Wait… was that a stare or a glare? But why would she be glaring at me? We're friends and friends don't glare at each other like they want to rip each other's throats out, right? So why was Haylee looking at me just like that?
As soon as I had caught her eye, Haylee hitched a smile on her face. But even though she was grinning as though she didn't have a care in the world, her eyes still glinted with a hint of… jealousy?
Wait, Haylee can't be jealous! Especially of me. Well, if she can't be jealous of me and she's looking at me like that… what in the world was wrong with her?
* * *
The first two periods seemed to crawl by extra-slowly. I spent the classes staring at the clock, waiting for lunch to roll around. I just couldn't stand school today… even more than usual.
As soon as the bell signaling lunch rang out through the halls of Black Ridge High, I was out of the Science classroom, heading for my locker before the lunchtime crowds settled in. Masses of students pushed past me on their way out to the school grounds as I dumped my books in my locker.
I met Harry, Georgia and Jade in our usual spot and, feeling slightly restless, I climbed the tree they sat under.
"What are you doing?" Jade called, laughing as my foot slipped and I was left hanging from a branch, swinging dangerously high from the grass below.
"I don't know," I replied, struggling to hook my leg back over the branch.
"Amber, get down here before you hurt yourself," Georgia laughed, shaking her head at my miserable attempt to be adventurous.
I pulled myself up onto the branch and threw my hands up in triumph. "I did it!" I called happily. I let out a shriek of surprise as I wobbled dangerously before wrapping an arm tightly around the tree trunk.
"Yeah, good for you, babe. Now can you listen to Georgia for once and get your little butt back down here?" Harry pleaded, his fear of heights clearly kicking in as he stared at me in terror.
With an evil grin, I pretended to start falling out of the tree. Harry squealed with fright and ran underneath my branch to catch me. I steadied myself and cackled with insane laughter.
What can I say? I'm amused easily.
"Hey, Amber, your phone's ringing," Jade told me, pulling my mobile out from my bag. "It's Lucas." She wrinkled her nose as Georgia squealed with excitement.
"Lucas?" My insides bubbled with anxiety as I leaned forward to grab the phone off Jade.
I leant a little too far, over-balanced and fell, screaming, out of the tree. Luckily Harry was already at the ready to catch me. He ran underneath my falling body and I fell on top of him, pushing us both to the ground.
After checking that all my limbs were still attached, I couldn't help but fall into a lapse of loud laughter. I then remembered the call and staggered, answering the phone with a giggly, "Hello?"
"Hey," came Lucas's surprised reply. "You sound happy."
"Oh, right." I laughed. "I just fell out of a tree."
"Well, that doesn't seem reason to giggle. Are you OK?"
I could tell by his tone that he was worried. Aw, how sweet, I thought.
"Yeah, I'm –" The rest of my sentence was drowned out by Georgia's over-excited whooping. Turning toward her I saw her performing her 'happy dance'.
Oh yes, that's right. She has her own happy dance. It involves a lot of kicks, wiggles and exaggerated windmill-arms. As she danced, Georgia was cheering and grinning at me.
"Scooooooooooooore!" Georgia finally cried, leaning toward the mobile's speaker so Lucas could hear her voice clearly.
I heard Lucas laughing and asking who said that as I attempted to shoo Georgia away. Finally, Harry and Jade managed to restrain her by sitting on her stomach and covering her struggling mouth with their hands.
"Just some random crazy-woman," I told Lucas. "I've never seen her before in my life. Strange world, huh?"
Lucas laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is."
There was a moment's silence before I said, "So… did you ring me for a reason or did you just want to hear my ever-so-lovely voice?"
"I'm not saying that your voice isn't lovely," Lucas began, "but, yes, there is a reason for this call."
"And that would be…?" On a silent order from Harry, I pressed 'speakerphone' so that they could hear.
"Well, I was just wondering… I mean you don't have to if you don't want
to… um… there's this thing," Lucas stammered.
I grinned. "What type of thing?" I asked playfully, winking at the nodding and smiling Harry.
"A party type of thing," Lucas replied. "My friend, James, is having a party at his house this Friday and I was wondering if you would like to come with me."
I opened my mouth to answer when I saw Harry and Georgia gesturing furiously at themselves before pointing to the phone and repeating the action. I glanced at Jade to see if she wanted to come too but she simply shook her head, whispering, "I'm not really into parties."
"Um… hello?" Lucas said timidly. "Look, if it's too rushed that's cool. I understand."
"What? No! No, not at all!" I cried, mortified as I realised I had spent at least a minute trying to convey silent messages with my friends. "Of course I'll come… on one condition."
"Er… OK. What's the condition?" Lucas asked hesitantly.
"My two friends get to come too." Harry and Georgia grinned and gave me the thumbs up.
"Would one of those friends happen to be the random crazy woman you've never seen before?" Lucas said, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Unfortunately, yes," I laughed.
"OK, they can come," Lucas said.
"SCOOOOOORE!" exclaimed Georgia, causing Harry and Jade to leap on her to silence her again.
I shook my head, laughing.
CHAPTER TEN
The week seemed to be thrown into slow-motion. Two days seemed to slide by like two months and I was becoming more impatient with my seemingly frozen calendar.
It was Wednesday when I was sitting Math with Haylee, Harry and Penny when the news about the school dance arose. I was at first unaware of the dance because I had been trying to sleep away third period as a desperate attempt to make the day pass by faster.
Harry shook me out of my trance and I jerked upright, blinking furiously against the sudden light. After realizing that there was no fire, I slumped forward on my desk, eager to return to my sleep.
"Amber, snap out of it!" hissed Penny.
"What is it?" I grumbled.
"Hello! Amber, are you still in there?" Harry said. "What's so important that I would wake you from your beauty sleep?"
I thought for a moment and then said, "Um… nothing's important enough to wake me up, Harry."
"The school dance is," Harry told me.
"School dance? What school dance?" I exclaimed, frustrated that I had dozed off during such an important announcement.
"The school dance that's coming up, sleepy-head," Harry said. "That's what I've been trying to tell you for the past ten minutes!"
"When is it?" I asked.
"Three months," replied Haylee.
I yawned. "So, what are we worried about then?" I asked, laying my head down on my desktop again and shutting my eyes.
"They're looking for helpers and Haley and Harry want our whole group to volunteer," Penny told me.
My eyes shot open and I sat bolt upright, glaring at my friends. "No! No way! You know what happened last time!"
Harry sighed. "Oh, come on Amber, that was two years ago!" he cried.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Yes, two years ago and I'm still not over it. Doesn't that say something?"
"That you're a drama queen?" offered Haylee from my left.
I sighed. "I think you're all forgetting what exactly happened."
"No, I remember quite clearly actually," Harry grinned. "You were putting streamers on the walls and someone kicked the ladder out from underneath you. You fell, tearing down all the decorations everyone had managed to put up that day and you then continued to fall straight on top of your crush – Danny, I think his name was – and you broke his leg in three places. Danny left the school the next day, saying everyone at Black Ridge were 'crazy people'."
I shuddered, the memory washing over me like an icy wave. "Thanks Harry, for that nice reminder. But I do recall that none of that was my fault and it could happen again this year because that someone who kicked the ladder out from under me is still at this school."
We all fell silent, our gaze drawn to a particular someone sitting on the other side of the classroom beside Veronica and the rest of her mindless bimbo robots.
"Ashley Everton," I hissed underneath my breath, glaring daggers into the girl's foundation-covered forehead.
Oh yes, Ashley Everton. The one girl who had succeeded in making my entire high school life a complete living hell. She was the one that had pretended to be my best friend when I had come to Black Ridge halfway through Grade Eight; the one who had managed to humiliate me in ways that I won't even mention, one of those incidents being more horrific than the one Harry had just described.
Ashley, with her big blue eyes, bleached-blonde hair and pretty features, had been instantly named 'Queen of the Populars' as soon as she had stepped into Black Ridge. Some even said she was more highly regarded than some seniors even when she was thirteen. All the guys wanted to be with her, all the girls wanted to be her… you know the drill.
Of course, she was the perfect little girl in the eyes of the adult of the school, the hottest girl who would do anything in the eyes of the male population and the Devil in the eyes of the girls. Veronica has even admitted to me that her and her group hated Ashley but was too scared to step out from underneath her 'cool' shadow.
It was rumoured that Ashley had set Tristan in her sights as soon as he had come to this school, not that I cared or anything. I just felt that someone should warn her before she realised what an idiot Tristan was…
"Er… Amber? Class if over," Penny told me, jerking me out of my thoughts as she packed up.
"Come on guys; let's go up to Mrs. Claymyer and tell her we volunteer," Haylee said.
"Oh, I'm not sure if I'm going to –" I let my sentence trail into nothing as Harry grabbed my arm and literally dragged me to the front of the classroom.
"Hey Mrs. Claymyer," Haylee said, smiling brightly at our frizzy-haired Math teacher.
Mrs. Claymyer looked up from the test sheets she was shuffling on her desk. "Oh hey girls… and Harry," she added hastily, realizing her mistakes. For some reason, all the teachers assumed Harry was a girl until they looked at him properly. It was probably the way he stood.
"How can I help you?" the teacher continued.
"Well, we were wondering if we could volunteer to help for the school dance," Harry said.
"Actually, I don't –" I began but Harry cut me off by elbowing me in my side, causing me to gasp in pain.
"Sure, that would be great." Mrs. Claymyer smiled, flashing us her lipstick-smudged and yellowing teeth – gross. She whipped out a blue clipboard with a list attached to it and handed it to Haylee. "Just sign your names there. There's a meeting after school in the gym. You have to be there if you want your preferred jobs."
"No problem," Harry grinned.
"Actually, I have a problem –." I groaned as Harry stepped on my foot and forced me to sign the list.
* * *
So there I was, drawing aimlessly in the middle of my English notebook in the gym after school. The leader of the whole volunteer program – I think her name is Rachel Wind-something – stood in front of the crowd of students, explaining what each job would entail and how long we were looking at spending our free time at the school.
"Amber, pay attention," Penny hissed in my ear.
I simply rolled my eyes and gestured to Jade who was snoring on my shoulder. She shared just as much enthusiasm for the volunteering thing as I did and she too was dragged along by our excited group.
Finally, when I decided to pay attention, I realised that we'd already reached the topic of who was doing what. Surprised, I glanced at the clock on the wall opposite and found that I had been dozing off for an entire hour. Hey, I was kinda proud of myself.
"OK, so who wants to be in the snacks and drinks group?" Rachel asked the volunteers.
Around fifteen people raised their hands and Rachel wrote their names down before telli
ng them they could leave with a newsletter that told them what they would need to get.
"Good, can we please choose something so we can get the heck outta here?" I whispered to Georgia.
"No, Amber, be patient. I want a job that we can enjoy," Georgia said.
I sighed as Rachel rattled off the list of jobs, waiting for my friends to make up their minds.
Finally –
"Decorations."
My whole group shot their hands in the air.
"No way!" I cried, loud enough for a few people sitting around me to look at me strangely. "I refuse to do decorations again. That's a death-wish!"
"You're doing it!" muttered Harry, grabbing my hand and forcing it in the air.
I struggled against his grip but it was too late, Rachel had already jotted down my name and I knew better than to try and change it. Rachel was nice enough but if you got in the way of her plans… look out.
"I hate you," I grumbled, crossing my arms.
"Oh, you love us," grinned Georgia.
I shoved my notebook in my backpack and followed my friends on their way out of the gym, snatching the newsletter from the table as we went. I just wanted to go straight home – hopefully in Georgia's car… after all, she owed me something – and try not to worry about the upcoming decorations meeting.
But of course, things generally don't turn out the way I want.
"Oh my God, do you remember the last time Amber Jones was on the decorations committee? She fell off her ladder and squashed Danny Jenkins flat, the poor guy. She was so fat."
I froze at the sound of the bitchy stage-whisper. Ashley Everton… just my luck.
"Come on, Amber, don't worry about it," Georgia muttered, tugging at my arm.
"Oh, and there's that Georgia person. Did you hear that she is, like, in love with Craig Anderson. You know, you're ex-boyfriend, Shelly."
Even though Georgia's cheeks burned bright red, she kept her eyes downcast and continued to drag me along toward the school's front doors, muttering, "Ignore it. Just ignore it." Her grip tightened painfully on my arm.
"No," I said, shaking her hand off me and causing my group to stop.
