James hung over Carrie until the cold water dripped on her back; she screamed and whacked him with her sun hat.
Imogen, meanwhile, was taking it all in. She and Eve had chatted about school, Imogen’s new bikini and the possibility of doing a night out at some point while the boys had been swimming. Now, however, Eve seemed distracted and their conversation petered off into silence.
When Zach came to lay down on the towel next to hers, Imogen thought her heart might stop. She had no idea why her body kept betraying her like this every time he was near, but the sight of him with no top on, lounging next to her was almost too much for her to bear.
“How was the water?” she asked, in a tone she hoped sounded relaxed.
“Not too cold,” he answered. “You like to swim?”
Imogen shrugged. “I’ve never really had much opportunity,” she admitted. “I’ve not swum in years.” She rolled onto her side and propped her heading up on her hand so she could speak to him more easily.
“Since you lived with your parents?” he asked, he deep brown eyes holding her gaze steadily. Was he digging for information? Nosy or genuinely interested? It wasn’t something she liked to discuss - with anyone. Eve hadn’t asked her why she was living with the Kingsleys yet, and so there’d been no need to lie, or be deliberately vague.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”
Imogen pondered it for a second. Was there any reason to keep the basics from these new friends? Not give them the whole truth, of course, they’d run a mile if they heard that - but the bare facts? Although she dreaded their looks of pity, it might at least take away any awkwardness that arose when her living situation was mentioned.
“It’s okay,” she said softly. “My parents are both dead.”
Zach didn’t look particularly awkward, but he was quiet; their eyes met again and neither seemed to want to break the connection that stood there.
“I’m sorry,” Zach eventually said. “How long ago?”
“Four years.”
They were quiet for quite a while then, listening to - although not joining in with - the chatter around them.
“What do you think of the school, then?” Zach eventually asked, and Imogen was relieved to move on to a lighter topic.
“Well,” she said with a slight smirk. “It’s school - it’s never going to be the best place ever, is it?! But it’s an awful lot better than any I’ve been to previously.” She grinned as she said it and knew it to be true.
“It’s massively improved of late…” Zach agreed, and Imogen felt her body betraying her once more. Was that because of her? Or was he just making conversation?
“Well that’s good to know,” Imogen said. “I have to say, I’ve never actually spent as much time in school as I have this week!”
“Really?” Zach raised an eyebrow. “Such a rebel!”
Imogen laughed. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“I’d love you to enlighten me some time…”
“It might just shock you,” Imogen said feeling a delicious thrill as the flirtatious words were batted between them.
“I’m not so easy to shock, Imogen,” he said. “And I have not always spent this much time in school either, much to my parents’ disappointment!”
“Are you coming for a swim or just going to talk each other’s ears off?” Eve said with a grin. She stuck her tongue out at her brother who stuck his back at her.
“Go on then,” he said, jumping to his feet and offering Imogen a hand to stand up. She paused for a second before accepting it, and when she did the feel of his hands against hers made her hand, then her arm and then her whole body tingle. Once she was on her feet, he kept hold of it for a second, two seconds, until there was a wolf whistle from one of the group and Imogen quickly dropped his hand, feeling the blush hitting her cheeks.
“Come on!” Eve shouted from the edge of the pool. “It’s bloody freezing!”
Zach dived smoothly back in, not even seeming to wince from the cold. The girls got in more gingerly, threatening the boys if they dared to splash them. Eventually, with a few shrieks, they ducked their shoulders under and began to swim through the aqua blue water. Imogen revelled in how free she felt, floating in the water and doing a passable breast stroke from one end to the other. She was glad her ability to swim hadn’t disappeared in the many years since she had last had need to use it.
After three lengths she lay back lazily in the pool and squinted up at the sky, enjoying the weightlessness that the water gave her. Although the water was fairly cool, she got used to it quickly and enjoyed feeling free of the stuffy heat they had been living in for the past couple of weeks.
Moving to lean against the pool wall, she watched the others. Zach was swimming dedicated lengths, a rhythmic swish, swish, swish of his arms as he did front crawl up and back. James and Daryl were stood with Evangeline, Carrie and Violet, swishing water around themselves in the shallower end of the pool. Imogen envied them their easy conversation in some ways; she always felt she had to try, to think about what she was going to say and whether it would shock them.
Zach had said he wasn’t easily shocked…
“Hey, Imogen, come over here!” Eve called bossily (which Imogen was beginning to see was just the way Eve spoke to everyone). Imogen smiled and swam over, ducking her head under water as she did and feeling the cool water run over her head and down her neck.
“Who do you think would win in a swimming race? We need a deciding vote.”
“Out of who?”
“Zachary, Daryl and James,” Eve said. “I think Daryl, Carrie thinks James and Vi thinks Zachary.”
Imogen pretended to think about it for a moment, knowing full well who she thought would win. She’d seen those muscles, that dedication, that competitiveness in his eye. She was fairly sure, however, that they were already gossiping about the frisson between her and Zach - she didn’t need to add fire to the flames by answering too quickly.
“Hmm,” she said, looking at each boy in turn, including Zachary who had paused in his lengths and joined the group as she deliberated. “I think it will be… Zach.”
Zach grinned, a wide beam that made Imogen feel like her insides had turned to jelly.
“Come on then boys,” Eve said with a grin. “Go and show us what you’re made of!”
“And will the girls be racing too?” James asked.
“Maybe in a minute - we’ll see.”
The boys didn’t need much persuading and swam over to the side of the pool, holding onto the side and looking surprisingly serious. It was enough to make the girls laugh, although they tried to hide it.
“First one to the other side?” Eve said, and they nodded. “On your marks, get set… go!”
The girls moved back from the splashing of three pairs of arms, and watched as the boys sped their way to the other end of the pool. As Imogen had predicted, Zach was a good way in front, with Daryl coming in second and James touching the side last. They laughed as they reached the end, but Imogen could see the triumph in Zach’s eyes.
The girls climbed out, conveniently forgetting their race as they got chillier in the pool; the boys soon followed, finding the lure of the pool lessening without the girls there.
“Well done,” Imogen said quietly as Zach lay down on the towel next to her once more.
“I don’t like to let my supporters down,” he said with a smile.
It wasn’t long before the sun began to lose some of its intensity and thoughts turned to heading home. Imogen threw her dress back over her bikini and, as much as she was sad to see Zach’s chest being covered by his t-shirt, she thought it was probably best for her sanity that it was. When he lay there with no top on she had to use so much energy just to keep her eyes focused elsewhere that she found it exhausting to take part in conversation too.
As they drove home, Imogen sat behind Zach’s seat, squashed in next to Eve and Daryl, Imogen tried to sort through
whatever this feeling was that she had around Zach. She was attracted to him, she knew that - but then who wouldn’t be? Did he like her? Or was he just a flirt? Imogen was not in the habit of dating, but something casual with a guy like Zach was bound to end in heartbreak… right? Not to mention messing up this little group of friends she had somehow managed to fall in with.
But Imogen was certainly not girlfriend material. Girlfriends shared details of their lives - which Imogen never did - and had pet names for their boyfriends and met their parents. That was so far from Imogen’s frame of reference she could hardly even imagine it.
And he probably didn’t have any interest in her anyway. She was two years younger than him and friends with his little sister. Just because they were making him resit his GCSEs, didn’t mean he wanted to date GCSE students…
Oh, but the way his hand had felt when he’d helped her up from the side of the pool. Imogen wasn’t sure she hadn’t ever felt that way when someone had touched her. Like her whole body was electrified. Like her legs wouldn’t keep her upright on their own…
“Do you have to be back for dinner?” she heard Eve say next to her, and Imogen nodded. Not that Ella had given any specific time she needed to be home - but this was the longest she had left Abby for many years, school excepted, and it was beginning to weigh on her mind.
As Imogen climbed out of the car outside the Kingsleys’ home, the occupants of the car shouted their goodbyes and see you Mondays. Imogen turned to wave and caught Zach’s brown eyes; she held his gaze for a second, and then he was gone, taking her sanity with him.
Chapter Five
For the next week of school, Imogen fell into an enjoyable rhythm with her new group of friends. She would walk to school with Zach and Eve (and which other of their friends happened to be walking in the same direction at the same time), and enjoy the sparks that flew between her and Zach. Lessons could be a drag, but in most of them she was with one of her new group, and as she approached the end of her second full week of school (the most she’d been in the last three years), she was pleased she hadn’t just tried to skip school like she had planned originally.
It was on the way to biology - a lesson she only knew Daryl in - that she heard it. Three girls walked past her in the narrow corridor; two were taller than Imogen with blonde hair, the other a shorter redhead. As they passed, their heads turned and Imogen found herself under their scrutiny.
“That’s the one,” the redhead whispered none too quietly. “The newest Kingsley charity case.”
“I heard her mum was a druggy, that’s why she’s been adopted,” one blonde said.
“I heard suicide,” the other added.
They made to walk on, but Imogen stopped in her tracks. How dare they? What did they know about her life? If they knew the truth it would horrify them - in fact, they’d probably be more than a little scared of Imogen if they knew the full truth. But to spread mindless gossip about the death of her parents? That was below the belt.
“Do you have something to say to me?” she asked, and the three girls stopped and turned. The tallest blonde looked her up and down.
“No.”
Imogen took a few steps towards the girls, feeling anger welling up inside her. “The next time you decide to gossip about me and my family, you’d better watch your back. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
The redhead giggled nervously, but the others did not smile. The menacing glare Imogen was giving them seemed to convince them that she might not be joking…
“Everything all right?” a smooth, deep voice said from behind Imogen. She didn’t need to turn to see that it was Zach; she already recognised his voice. She was pleased to see the girls all look even more uncomfortable, and the smile was wiped off the redhead’s face. Zach, it seemed, was well known by the student population.
“I’ve just been letting these girls know how I feel about them gossiping about me and my family,” Imogen said, as the crowd of onlookers continued to grow.
The second bell for the lesson rang, and the girls took that as their cue to turn and speedily walk away from Imogen and Zach’s glares.
“Thanks for the back up,” Imogen said, knowing full well she could have scared them off on her own.
“No problem. I think you had it handled though. As you’ve probably realised, they’re the shit stirrers of the year.”
“Everywhere has them,” Imogen said, having been the subject of plenty of gossip even in schools she’d only sporadically attended.
As the teachers started to glare out of their windows at the two who were still not in class, they began to move towards their respective rooms.
“See you at lunch?” Imogen asked.
“Definitely,” Zach answered, with one his wide smiles.
Imogen didn’t even notice the biology teacher telling her off for being late.
***
The rest of the day’s lessons passed slowly, with an enjoyable lunchtime where Evangeline, much to Zach’s disgust, began talking about Zach when he was a little boy; after he had threatened not to let her have a sleepover she wanted if she didn’t shut up, she changed the subject to the sleepover, which was planned for the following weekend. Zach was clearly in charge, but Eve seemed to be able to get him round to her way of thinking most of the time, from what Imogen had seen in the last couple of days.
“Do you wanna come?” she asked. “Get away from that lovely new family of yours for a night?”
“Sure, sounds great!” she said, feeling relieved that she seemed to be making friends easily. There seemed to be more people she could get on with than there had been in past schools.
“That’s all right, isn’t it Zachary?” she asked in a sugar sweet voice. It seemed Evangeline was quite the spoilt princess; she always got her way.
“Sure…” Imogen blushed ever so slightly as she saw that it was her, not Evangeline, that Zach was looking at when he replied. As Zach, Danny and Daryl all left to go to a detention they’d received the previous week, Evangeline shuffled closer to Imogen.
“So. What’s the deal between you and my brother then?” she asked, not sounding annoyed, but merely interested and perhaps slightly protective.
“Me and Zach?” she repeated. “Nothing. I mean…” She trailed off. Evangeline gave a knowing smile.
“You’d make a good couple,” she said. “He clearly likes you.” Although it was difficult for the fifteen-year-old, she somehow managed to conceal her happiness at this news, and played it as cool as she knew how.
“What makes you say that? We only met last week…” she said, curiosity getting the better of her. Evangeline gave her a look that screamed, ‘Duh!’ and explained in a way that suggested the answer was extremely obvious.
“He walks with you, has spent almost every minute of the two weeks you’ve been here with you, the rest of the time probably thinking about you – he doesn’t act like that with all girls you know.” Girls often chased Zach – he was, after all, good looking. However, he rarely chased a girl – and had never chased a girl in the way he was Imogen. Eve knew her brother, and knew he had it bad, no matter how short a period of time he had known her. She would bet that they’d be a couple in the not-too-distant future.
Imogen smiled slightly, and changed the subject. Nevertheless, that smile didn’t go away for the rest of the day, not until she reached last lesson: Chemistry. That smile disappeared when she realised she had to sit next to Sara in that lesson. With their conflicting personalities, the two were never destined to get on. Imogen was everything that Sara didn’t like in a person, and Sara was everything that annoyed Imogen. Scowling at her, she took her seat, and Sara didn’t look best pleased either.
“I hear you’re going to Evangeline Monroe’s sleepover.”
“Well done. Do you want a gold star?”
“Aunty Ella won’t let you, you know,” Sara said, at the same time as their teacher, whose name tag informed Imogen she was called Miss Lechenson, shouted:
“Oh, get a grip Sara. No-one calls their aunt ‘aunty’.”
And with that, the two cousins sat in silence for the rest of the lesson – which was fine by Imogen.
Chapter Six
The problem with going to Evangeline’s sleepover was Abby; Imogen would have to leave her with the Kingsleys overnight. Imogen hated thinking of Abby as a problem, but she acted like an adult so much of the time, taking on every aspect of bringing up Abby that she possibly could; her ‘inner-teen’ was desperate to go to the sleepover.
Family Portrait (Kingsley Family Trilogy Book 1) Page 5
