by Cathy Cole
Josh had sat a couple of tables away with an apple and a well-thumbed book. He didn’t look in her direction once. Not even to ask if she was OK after her fall in the corridor.
Clearly he didn’t actually want to be friends, she thought crossly. Ollie’s description of Josh as a pompous idiot was right.
A pair of goggles had hidden Eve’s steel-grey eyes for most of science that afternoon, but Lila had still felt her cold gaze boring through her shoulder blades. IT hadn’t been much better. She now had a blinding headache and her new school shoes were rubbing her heels. And on top of everything else, she dreaded what she would find when she turned on her phone again after school. She couldn’t wait to get out of here and hide in her bedroom for a while.
She gloomily spun the combination lock on her locker. Part of her was bracing herself for a box of eggs or something to come tumbling out. Even someone as all-powerful as Eve Somerstown can’t open locked doors, she reminded herself. Still, she flinched as something fluttered out and drifted to her feet.
Bending down, she picked up the piece of paper and smoothed it out. Someone had stuffed it through the vent on the front of her locker. She stared at the words.
Take heart. First impressions are misleading.
You’re a cool person with a clever head. Things will get better.
She studied the writing curiously, then turned the note over. There was no signature.
A funny warm feeling spread through her belly. Someone had bothered to write this for her. Someone knew how she was feeling. How was that possible?
She looked up and down the corridor. Other Year Tens were moving around the lockers, talking and joking. None of them were looking at her, or at the note in her hand.
She stared again at the writing. It was the nicest thing that had happened all day. In one swoop, she didn’t feel alone any more.
“Ready to go?”
Polly was standing by her locker, clutching her bag to her chest. Lila saw that she’d put her zigzag earrings back on.
“Did you write this?” She waved the note. It seemed like something Polly might do.
“Nothing to do with me.” Polly took the note from Lila’s fingers and read it. “That’s really cute!” she said with pleasure. “He’s right, you know. Things will get better.”
Lila snatched the note back. “How do you know it’s a he?”
“I don’t,” said Polly gleefully. “But it’s a safe guess. After the day you just had, it looks like you’ve got a secret admirer!”
Lila studied the note again. A secret admirer? Was this some sort of practical joke?
She gripped Polly’s arm. “Swear to me that this isn’t a wind-up.”
“I swear!”
“Then it’s some kind of weird Heartside Valentine’s Day tradition,” Lila said suspiciously. “You take Valentine’s Day pretty seriously in this town.”
“We do parades, not mystery notes. Stop looking so worried. It’s exciting! Maybe it’s a really hot guy who saw you in the canteen and couldn’t bring himself to talk to you.”
Lila felt a little thrill at the thought of this mystery guy.
Her mood was abruptly punctured by the sight of Eve heading towards the lockers, flanked by Rhi and two other girls.
“Let’s get out of here before the queen bee ruins your buzz,” said Polly. “Do you want a tour of your new town?”
Lila thought of her half-unpacked bedroom. Heartside Bay was her home now – it would be good to explore it a little. And with Polly for company, a tour could be nice.
“Sure,” she said with a grateful smile.
They headed out into weak sunlight and a stiff breeze blowing in from the sea. Kids withdrew as Lila and Polly walked down the steps, and whispered together in groups. Lila’s stomach clenched again.
“You would tell me if I smelled, wouldn’t you?” she muttered.
Polly sighed. “Eve’s word is law around here. Ignore them. I’ll take you to the beach to take your mind off things. I often go to the sea when I’m feeling down. It’s really soothing.”
The walk to the beach took Lila’s mind off her problems. The houses by the sea were all different sizes and shapes, with several old fisherman’s cottages that had been turned into boutique bed and breakfasts and cute holiday cottages for couples who came to Heartside Bay to get married and enjoy themselves in Britain’s most romantic town.
“The Old Town is cute,” Polly said, noticing Lila’s gaze, “but no one really lives here full time. It can flood during bad winter storms. You live up by the cliffs, right?”
“How did you know?” said Lila in surprise.
Polly shrugged. “Everyone lives up here. Let’s take these steps. They go down to the beach.”
Seaside towns in winter felt a little sad, Lila thought. Even tourist traps like Heartside Bay had a February melancholy about them. It matched her mood. Most of the ice-cream parlours and arcades along the front were closed for the winter. The pier was shuttered up as well. The Grand Hotel loomed over everything, its Regency walls and windows as pink and white as a frosted cupcake.
Lila’s eyes were drawn to the fine white sand stretching out into the grey sea, gently ruffled by the outgoing tide. Gulls wheeled overhead in the chilly air.
“Welcome to Bottom Bay,” Polly joked.
Lila laughed. “You think it looks like a bum too? I felt bad for thinking that!”
“You have to be blind not to see the similarity,” Polly grinned.
Lila noticed someone perched on a wall by the foot of the pier. Josh Taylor’s chestnut-coloured head was bent over a sketchbook, his chin tucked into a scarf that he wore tightly wound round his neck to keep out the cold. He was alone.
“Doesn’t that guy ever stop drawing?” she asked a little waspishly.
Polly followed Lila’s gaze. “Josh Taylor is our local mystery. He’s perfectly nice, and clever too, as you’ve probably figured out. But he’s really private. No one knows much about him. He lives with his grandfather somewhere in the Old Town. He’s always down here by himself, sketching.”
Lila felt a reluctant glimmer of kinship with Josh Taylor. It sounded like he was as much of an outsider as she was.
“I thought you said no one lived in the Old Town,” she said.
“That’s typical of Josh. Doing stuff no one else does.”
Lila remembered Ollie’s remarks in the corridor earlier. “Ollie thinks he’s pompous.”
“Don’t take anything Ollie says too seriously,” said Polly. “Now I’m going to show you something to cheer you up.”
She pointed out of the curving harbour, to a tiny island. Lila stared at it.
“What’s so special about a lump of rock?” she asked curiously.
“That lump of rock is called Kissing Island. You can only walk to it when the tides are just right. It’s Heartside legend that if you kiss your true love on Kissing Island at midnight of a full moon, you will be together for ever.”
How romantic, Lila thought, jolted out of herself.
She had loved Santiago, or thought she had, but he had never felt like a true love – not like the kind that Polly was describing. She gazed at the little island with fresh eyes, and imagined a full moon, the light shining on the sea, and a gorgeous guy’s lips coming in for the ultimate kiss. Ollie’s, maybe. She put her hand into her pocket, feeling the mystery note lying snuggled up against the lining.
“Imagine,” Polly sighed.
“I am,” Lila sighed back.
A shaft of sunlight broke through the winter clouds overhead. The ray of light caught the white sand of the beach, making the grains sparkle and shine beneath Lila’s feet, and the waves looked bright blue instead of grey. In that moment, Heartside Bay felt like the most beautiful, romantic place in the entire world, a place where anything could happen. Lila held her breath
, not wanting to break the spell.
Then the sun went in again and everything returned to normal. Lila sighed and shivered a little inside her blazer. The wind coming off the sea was cold. Feeling in her pocket for her phone, she turned it on. Ten texts and two missed calls from Santiago. She couldn’t face reading the texts.
“Do you want to come back to my house?” she asked, shoving her phone back into her pocket. “Hang out for a bit? When I say ‘hang out’, by the way, I basically mean ‘help me unpack’.”
Polly beamed. “I’d love to.”
“We have to find it first,” Lila warned jokingly. “I think it’s that way.”
They headed away from the beach and towards the cliff road. Polly chatted beside Lila as they walked, and the journey – which had felt like miles that morning – went by in a flash.
“This is it,” said Lila, stopping outside the white gate of her house. “No one will be in yet – Mum and Dad are both still at work. But I have a key, and. . .”
Her voice trailed away.
The front door was wide open.
SIX
“I thought you said no one was in,” said Polly, looking warily at the door.
“I did,” said Lila. She moved slowly up the path.
“Come back!” Polly sounded frightened. “You don’t know who might be in there!”
Lila’s heart was pounding in her chest, but she kept moving. Different scenarios flew through her mind. Burglars, was her first thought. Most of their valuable possessions – TV, laptops – were still in handy carry-out boxes. Talk about a burglar’s dream!
“You’re not going in there alone,” said Polly bravely behind her. “If we need it, I have the loudest scream in Heartside Bay.”
Santiago, was Lila’s second thought. Feeling a little hysterical as she tiptoed on towards the door, she pictured Santiago’s wild black hair and moody black eyes as he ran towards her, holding out his arms and demanding to know why she wasn’t answering his texts or calls.
The tiled hall was still and quiet. Lila cocked her head and listened carefully for movement. Polly crept inside behind her.
Before they could react, two guys came thundering down the stairs towards them. Polly screamed and tugged Lila back towards the front door as the figures jumped on Lila and wrapped her up in a huge hug.
“All right?” said the taller one cheerfully.
“Loving the uniform,” said the other, giving Lila a dig in the ribs.
“GET OFF HER!” Polly shrieked, still trying to heave at Lila’s arm. “WE’LL CALL THE POLICE!”
“It’s OK, Polly,” Lila said breathlessly. “These are my brothers, Tim and Alex. You scared the life out of us! Why didn’t you say you were coming down? Mum’s not expecting you until the weekend!”
“We thought we’d surprise you,” said Alex.
Lila pressed her hand to her heart and sank down on the bottom stair. “Well, you succeeded!”
“I just grew older by twenty years,” Polly groaned.
“Cool,” said Tim. “I like older women.”
“Tim is rubbish with girls,” Lila informed Polly. The shock was starting to wear off. “He thinks he has all these amazing lines that girls go mad for—”
“They do,” Tim added, winking and smoothing his green hoodie down over his stomach.
“—when in fact they just think he’s a massive idiot,” Lila finished.
“Lil’s right,” said Alex as Tim started protesting. “When was your last date again? Was it last year, or the year before?”
“Ha ha,” said Tim, pushing his older brother in the shoulder. He winked at Polly again. “So do you fancy a date, Lil’s friend? As you can hear, I’m a bit out of practice.”
“You could take her dancing at the Grand Hotel on the front,” Alex grinned. “I hear the waltz is the latest thing.”
He grabbed Tim around the waist and started dancing around the hall with him.
“Get off!” Tim shouted.
Polly was standing by the front door and looking like she wanted to bolt. Lila felt anxious. It would be typical if her brothers scared off the only friend she had in this place.
“It’s Lila now, by the way,” she said, waving to get Tim and Alex’s attention. “Not Lil.”
“You’ll always be Lil to us,” said Alex, dropping Tim.
“Ickle Lilzy-wilzy,” Tim snorted.
“Just remember, OK?” Lila said. She dragged Polly up the stairs. Tim and Alex were still laughing behind them about the “Ickle Lilzy-wilzy” thing, but at least they didn’t follow them up.
“Sorry.” Lila showed Polly into her airy room with its cardboard boxes piled to the ceiling. “They’re fools, but they’re harmless. They won’t be around much – Tim’s at college in London and Alex is at uni.”
Polly seemed different here to how she was at school, Lila realized. Quieter, and less confident.
“It was just a shock,” Polly confessed. She hesitated. “Are they always like that?”
“Pretty much,” Lila said.
They settled down to unpack Lila’s boxes. Clothes, books, make-up, ornaments, magazines – everything came tumbling out. Before long the room was a tip, without a millimetre of carpet to be seen.
Polly put a magazine on top of a pile near the wardrobe, and straightened the edges so the magazines all lined up. “Why did you change your name?” she asked.
Halfway through packing her chest of drawers, Lila hesitated. She was still unsure how much of her past she wanted to share.
“I did . . . some bad stuff in London. I want to leave it behind, you know? Changing my name feels like a clean start.”
Polly eyed the magazine stack again, and straightened it minutely. “The guy who texted you,” she said. “Is he part of it?”
Lila nodded.
“With Eve’s behaviour today, you probably wish you were still in London.”
“Believe me, I don’t,” Lila said firmly.
Polly stopped playing with the magazine at the sound of a car drawing up outside. She peeked through the curtains.
“It’s the police!” she said, wide-eyed. “Someone must have heard me scream earlier and called them. What do we do?”
Lila saw a police officer getting out of the squad car parked by the kerb. Her tummy did its usual jumpy thing. It’s stupid to feel this nervous every time, she thought a little hopelessly. She hadn’t even done anything! But old habits died hard.
“What are we going to say?” Polly gabbled in panic. “It’s a crime if you call the police for no reason!”
“Don’t worry, it’s just my dad,” Lila said, dropping the curtain back into place. “He’s a police officer.” She decided not to explain that her dad was the new chief of police in Heartside. It was too embarrassing. “Come and say hi.”
Polly straightened the edge of the curtain so it hung better. Her new friend was clearly a bit of a neat freak, Lila thought. No wonder Lila’s house had spooked her.
Lila’s dad looked sharply at Polly as the girls came downstairs.
“Dad, this is Polly,” said Lila, waving her hand in introduction.
“Pleased to meet you,” said Polly.
Lila’s dad put his peaked cap on the hall table, and wiped a bit of dust off the brim. The braiding on his shoulders caught the light.
“The official title is Chief Murray,” he said. Then he smiled. It reminded Lila of the flash of sunlight they’d seen on Heartside beach earlier. “But you can call me Greg.”
Lila wanted to cringe. That was typical of her dad. Unnerving you one minute, and turning friendly the next. Polly smiled back uncertainly.
“How was your first day, Lil?” asked her dad. “Not in trouble yet, I hope.”
Why did he have to embarrass her with a question like that? It wasn’t much of a morale boost.
She was trying her best. At some point he had to forgive her.
“I was a model student,” she said shortly. “And I’m calling myself Lila now.”
“Oh yes, your mum told me,” said her dad in a jovial voice. “Talking of which, is your mum back yet? I’m starving.”
The front door opened on cue. The smell of heavily vinegared fish and chips wafted down the hall, bringing Tim and Alex tumbling out of the living room and adding to the general squeeze at the foot of the stairs.
Lila’s mum peered over a stack of greasy paper bags at the crowd in the hallway. “Boys!” she protested as Tim and Alex peppered her cheeks with kisses. “You should have let me know you were coming. I’ve only got fish and chips for three.” She caught sight of Polly. “Oh, hello. . .”
“I’d better be going,” said Polly, backing towards the front door.
Lila felt dismayed. Her family was a nightmare. “You don’t have to,” she said, starting after her friend.
“I do,” Polly muttered, holding her bag tightly against her. “See you at school tomorrow, OK? Nice to meet you all.”
She squeezed out of the front door and was gone.
“Polly!” Lila hurried through the front door. What had happened? Had she done something to annoy her? Had her dad? Her brothers? She felt panicky at the thought of school tomorrow, Polly ignoring her along with everyone else. But Polly had already vanished into the gloom.
“It’s probably best, Lil,” said her dad, in his bossy family-time voice as Lila came slowly back inside.
“It’s Lila now, Greg,” her mum scolded. She gave Lila an encouraging smile. “She seemed nice, love. Sorry I wasn’t able to say a proper hello. Boys, get the plates out.”
“First things first,” said Lila’s dad. He held out his hand. “Phones.”
