Chapter Nine
The next morning, much of the excitement from the night before had been forgotten. William had returned at some time past eleven, and Ella had brought Daisy home from the A & E department at around two in the morning, with a bright pink plaster cast to commemorate their evening out.
When the doorbell rang, Imogen left it to the tired but relieved Ella to answer it, as she scraped her hair up and swiftly drank a mug of coffee, getting ready to leave for school. She wouldn’t even have bothered listening to what was being said, had it not been for the mention of her name, which set her ears burning. Wondering who it could be, and not allowing her head to hope it would be – could be – who she wanted it to be, she inched towards the nearest door leading to the hallway.
“Imogen?” her ‘mother’s’ confused voice could be heard questioning, “Can I ask who wants to know?” Her voice was a little frosty, clearly none too pleased with whoever wanted her ‘daughter’, and she was not her usual, welcoming self. This wasn’t what set Imogen’s heart racing, however; she couldn’t care less how rude her new family were, even if it was to her friends (as her new friends would certainly be rude back.) No, it was the deep, resounding voice that answered back, in a tone that just screamed out that he was smiling, that made the fifteen-year-old’s heart race.
“Zach. I’m sure you know me, Miss Kingsley-” He was doing the perfect, polite, gentleman act, and if you hadn’t known him, it would be hard to tell that it wasn’t sincere – but Imogen could tell. And so, she was sure, could Ella. “-I live just round the corner. So, is Imogen here? Only I thought I might walk her to school.” She entered the hallway just in time to see him flash a heart-melting, heart-racing smile that was clearly meant to wind Ella up, but had a completely different effect on Imogen, who answered with a smile of her own that hadn’t seen this early in the morning in a long time.
“Ah, Zach Monroe then, I presume?” Ella’s tone was still icy, but with a sigh, she turned as if to shout Imogen. “Well, Imogen, your friend was just asking about you.” She laboured over the word ‘friend’, as though she wanted to know if there was anything more to this boy suddenly turning up to walk Imogen to school, but Imogen was giving nothing away.
“I can see that, thanks,” she answered, her voice every bit as icy as Ella’s just had been. “Come in, Zach.” she said. “I’ll be ready in a minute.” Leaving him in the hallway, she ran up the stairs to collect her bag, and check her appearance in the mirror, a feeling building in her gut that she knew was joy at him coming round – braving her family! – to walk with her to school. She didn’t really want to feel quite so happy about it, as she wasn’t the type of girl who fell head-over-heels and allowed a guy to take over her life, but there was certainly something about Zach…
Despite not knowing him for very long, he was rarely off her mind.
Pausing at the top of the stairs, Imogen listened out to see if anyone was speaking downstairs. In the hallway, however, all was silent: it seemed that Zach and Ella didn’t have much in common to fill the time. After the first morning that Imogen had chosen to walk to school by herself, Sara had not waited around for her before leaving, so Sara was always early, and Imogen always a little late.
She waited for a second to calm her hammering heart, before joining Zach at the bottom. Calming her heart had been pointless, for the smile Zach gave her – which was halfway between his charming persona and the cheeky guy she knew him to be – started it pounding away again. Ella had disappeared, obviously not wishing to stay to entertain Imogen’s ‘friend’, but Abby had joined him in the hallway instead. She hadn’t noticed immediately, and was now unsure how the situation might go: this was meeting the family, she was sure of it – and the four-year-old was more like her daughter than her sister.
“You Immy’s friend?” the little girl asked. Imogen was about to jump in – she thought that it was easier to keep those two sides of her life separate, for the minute – when Zach knelt down, so he was on her level, and nodded.
“Yeah, Immy and me are in the same class,” he said, using Abby’s nickname for her. “And I think you must be Immy’s little sister. Right?” The girl nodded shyly, but the little smile on her face showed she liked Zach, despite her sudden shyness. “Immy my best friend too,” she added quietly.
If Imogen hadn’t already fallen as hard as she thought she could for this guy, despite the short amount of time, this scene would have made her fall even harder. As it was, it merely made her heart melt; was there anything about this guy that she wouldn’t like? He was good looking, had the same sense of humour as she did, was horrible to Sara, was a great kisser and on top of it all, took the time to speak to her little sister, the most important person in her life.
With a hug for her little sister, and a shouted goodbye for her ‘mum’, Imogen and Zach exited the house. She didn’t wait for him to slip his hand into hers, as she slipped hers into his before he had a chance. Perhaps he would never know what that little scene had meant to her, but this was the closest she would come to showing him. She gave his hand a squeeze, before they began their jokey banter once more,
“I thought your new family could do with worrying a little bit about the company you’re keeping.” He grinned. “And the look on your mother’s face was priceless. She’ll be questioning you about whether we’re just friends tonight, I bet!”
She pulled her hand from his, not quite as angry with him as she seemed, but knowing she would only get angrier – she found it very hard to hear an outsider refer to Ella as her mother. She walked a little ahead, trying to clear her thoughts of irrational anger, but her head only cleared when she felt him touch her arm.
“Hey. Hey! What did I do?” He laughed; “You sure blow hot and cold. Hey, stop!” Imogen hadn’t realised she was storming so far ahead, and as he tugged on her arm one last time, she turned, and stopped. What the hell was she doing? Destroying this new thing between them by being all moody, only a couple of days after they’d actually got together. She must be the stupidest girl around – she’d only just listed to herself how amazing he was.
“What’s with the reaction?” asked Zach, with an unusual hint of concern in his voice. “I’m sorry for reminding you about the misfits from hell over there…” He jerked his head in the direction of Kingsley Mansion, hoping the insult would raise a smile, and sure enough, it did. She fought back against the wave of negative emotions, until she was calm, and suppressing a smile. The only problem was that Zach’s question was still hanging in the air, unanswered: and she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer it just yet. Well, not completely.
“It’s a long story,” she said, with a sigh, “Can we leave it at that? For now, anyway?” But Zach wasn’t accepting that.
“A long story will just mean we’re late to school, and as we’ve got double maths first, I’m not too worried.”
Taking a deep breath, Imogen somehow felt calmer still as he slipped his hand in hers once more. It was amazing how quickly that felt completely natural. “How about the abridged version?” she said, hoping he would accept this. “I don’t want to really go into it right now. I’ll tell you some time, but for now, can I just give you the basics? Besides, we probably shouldn’t miss too much of maths…” Zach considered this for a moment, and seemed to accept just the simple version, for now. It was blatant that Imogen wasn’t bothered about maths, but she was thankful that he didn’t push it.
“All right. But I’ll hold you to expanding it later.”
“Fine. I don’t like anyone referring to Ella as my mother. I’m with the ‘misfits from hell’ because I don’t have anywhere else to go. You know my parents are both dead. And, if you’ll believe it, being with the Kingsleys is better than staying in a care home. But she’s not my mother.” She realised she hadn’t actually been looking at him whilst she’d been talking, looking instead at the ground and trusting his tight grip on her hand to lead her in the right direction. It was only when she realised this that she
looked up, and saw the look that explained why she never admitted things like this to people. True, there was much more to the story than she told, but this look was enough to stop her telling even the simplified version.
“See, that’s why I don’t say it. I get that stupid look of sympathy, and I don’t want sympathy from anyone, okay?”
To be fair, Zach wasn’t going as far with the sympathy thing as other people did; but, the same look of shock and sympathy that occurred whenever she told someone she was an orphan with nowhere else to go was definitely there.
He snapped out of it pretty quickly, however, and this made her feel a little better; maybe he would be able to handle the full truth, some day.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “For being an insensitive ass.”
A grin spread across his face, the serious moment forgotten. That was Zach all over, it seemed; not letting much bother him, and not staying too serious for too long.
“Ok then. Ready for double maths?” And that was it. No awkwardness, no more sympathy, nothing. With a grin, she put it to the back of her mind, and leaned up, initiating a kiss with him for the first time, letting her lips brush gently against his and feeling the same rush of excitement as the first couple of times they had kissed. The kiss was only brief – they really did need to get to maths – but the emotions conveyed in it were clear: they had an understanding of each other’s feelings.
***
School continued in much the same manner as it had done the previous weeks: lessons were as dull as normal, and were broken up by the much more enjoyable break and lunchtimes with her friends and – she barely dared to think the word, it seemed too good to be true – boyfriend. There were, of course, a few comments at their lunch table (Zach had been discussing late coursework during break time) when it was observed that Imogen and Zach were holding hands. Once again, Imogen hadn’t been sure what to expect: he’d said that they were ‘official’, as he’d put it, but would he want everyone to know they were together at school? Did he want to be seen with a girl two years younger than him? It appeared that he did, because right after fourth period (games – another pointless subject) she couldn’t get to her locker to dump her PE kit; Zach was blocking it, leaning against the door.
“Hey.” It was a simple, innocent greeting – one that somehow managed to set Imogen’s heart racing once more, and managed to trigger a smile without any conscious effort.
“Hey.” Her response was greeted with a smile, too. “Any chance of me getting into my locker?” she asked, attempting to bring the usual jokey quality that their conversations usually had to this one, in order to cover up the thudding of her heart, the quickening of her pulse. What was going on? Imogen didn’t fall for people like this – she didn’t ever let anyone close enough that she could, and she had never felt like this before. It made her mind spin, which didn’t help with the feeling that she was losing control. She was losing control – that much was definite – but she liked it.
“Well, that depends.” There it was, that cheeky grin again. “Because access to this locker will cost you. One kiss.” Imogen wouldn’t have been able to resist that grin even if she wanted to – and she stood on her tiptoes in order to brush her lips lightly against his.
So, after having paid the price and got rid of her stuff into her locker, it was off to lunch – and after their all-too-brief kiss, Imogen was in a lot less doubt about how their relationship in school was going to pan out. Any questions were completely erased when he slipped his hand into hers, and they entered the cafeteria together, hands entwined. A wolf whistle from their table of friends was the first acknowledgment of this fact, followed by numerous comments.
“Looks like you win, Eve!”
“Yep, pay up – I said it’d be less than three weeks!”
“Didn’t take you long, Zach!”
Imogen’s blushes just fed their laughter, but there was a part of her that didn’t really mind: for once, she was happy. Happy for herself, not for her little sister. What difference did a couple of wolf whistles and comments make?
“Betting, Eve?” Zach asked, shaking his head in mock disappointment, as money exchanged between Eve, Violet and Carrie. “What were you all betting against then?” His grin suggested that he had an idea; Imogen thought she too had an inkling, but she sat silently, not eating. Despite the food sat in front of her, she just wasn’t hungry.
“How long it would take you two to end up together. That’s assuming that the fact that you don’t seem able to let go of her hand means you’re together,” Eve responded, with a smirk. “I bet under three weeks – clearly I know you the best. These two were going as far out as a term – clearly haven’t been reading the signs.”
Zach didn’t comment, but a contented smile, very similar to Imogen’s, adorned his face – although he made it look a lot more casual than Imogen managed.
***
After starting back in September, the week looked forward to by every student was the October Half Term - and soon enough, Imogen found that the coveted week off was just one week away. Imogen was looking forward to that week off more than she’d looked forward to – well, anything lately. Was that because she had time off school? Partly. But she wanted to spend that week with Zach – things were going so well with him during school, and she hoped that would continue into the holidays. Then they could spend time together, uninterrupted. They could go out, spend some time making out without Eve around rolling her eyes or being called home for dinner. She had a week off school coming up, she had a boyfriend, and she had friends. She could hardly believe it, but she had been at the Kingsleys’ for six weeks now – and she’d survived much better than she’d expected. So what if she was living with a goody-two-shoes and her family. And her past – she was in control of her feelings on that. What might have messed people up for life, Imogen put in a little box in her mind, locked away tight, not to ruin anything or mess anything ever again. And especially not this – she planned to have fun, and act like a regular fifteen-year-old girl.
Chapter Ten
“Imogen, can you babysit tonight please?” Ella called up the stairs, hope in her voice. The first night of the holidays, and, typically, Imogen was being asked to stay in.
“Um. Why?” she shouted back, annoyed at her ‘mum’s’ request, but not feeling like an argument. If Ella was going out and needed a babysitter, her plans were already ruined – someone needed to take care of Abby, and she wasn’t entrusting her to any possible babysitter – especially not if Sara was next on the list to be asked.
“I don’t wanna shout, can you come down so I can explain?” With a sigh, Imogen ran down the stairs two at a time, her hair half-straightened in preparation for her original plans for the evening, catching her foot on the last two and jumping in order to avoid falling flat on her face.
“Ah, here you are. Yeah, I’m sorry to ask – I didn’t realise earlier, but the rest of us have already made plans. It would only be Abby, and Dana. Sara’s taking Daisy to see a film, some comedy cartoon thing she’s been going on about for weeks. And Millie and William have dinner reservations, and I-” she paused for a second “-I’ve got plans too. Well, a date, sort of,” she said, shyly, and Imogen couldn’t help but grin at her slight embarrassment at having a date. “I would say Sara could take them all to the cinema, but I really don’t think the little ones would enjoy it, and Sara’s not sure she can cope if they start getting difficult in the cinema.”
“Well, she wouldn’t be able to, would she,” Imogen murmured under her breath, in annoyance with Sara for ruining her night, but knowing that she wouldn’t have trusted Sara with her sister anyway. “No, it’s fine, I’ll take care of them.” She sighed ever so slightly, but not so that Ella could hear – she wouldn’t have had it any other way. It wouldn’t matter how much she had to give up, Abby was, and would always be, her main priority. She trusted Ella, and – to some extent – Millie, but she would not be leaving Abby in anyone else’s care.
“Is it all right if I just use the phone? I need to make a quick call, and my mobile’s dead.” With a nod and a smile, Ella rushed away, presumably to get ready for her date, with a hurried thank-you shouted down the stairs.
“Hello? Hi, is Zach there? Please?” A hostile voice greeted her – someone who clearly had limited English, as they answered with just one word.
“No.” Imogen sighed – where was he? And why did this person – presumably the ‘staff’ that she’d never spoken to before – have to be so bloody rude?
“Can I leave a message then, please?” Imogen asked through gritted teeth, continuing without waiting for a response. “Can you let him know I won’t be able to make tonight, as I’ve been roped into babysitting, and that I’ll see him Tuesday? Ok then, bye.” She didn’t wait for much of a response, or thank the rude answerer, before hanging up. Tuesday. She sighed; the next time they’d planned to meet up was a whole three days away, but she couldn’t bring herself to suggest an earlier day. After all, they’d made plans; bringing them forward might make him think she was clingy, or desperate. No, she would stick to their plans, and see if he rang – although she was already annoyed that their evening out had been ruined. They’d planned to go out with their whole ‘canteen crowd’ – and she’d known that they’d have fun. Still, it couldn’t be helped, and so she tried to force her annoyance to dissipate.
Family Portrait (Kingsley Family Trilogy Book 1) Page 8
