Friendship on Fire Page 4

  But my sense of determination surprised me. I had to fix this. I needed to show him that I was his equal and could get anyone as good looking as him. Whether it was true or not was irrelevant. I would show him. I wasn’t sure how, mind you, but I’d figure it out.

  I used the rest of the day wisely. I plotted revenge and death in as many ways I could think of, without getting caught. I was on a mission to bring this guy down, and it would be tomorrow.

  As Roman walked me home I couldn’t help but be distracted. I had thought about ‘rude boy’ so much that I changed his name from ‘mysterious hotty’. I couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come so I could display my brazen fury. I figured I needed a second opinion, so I asked Roman’s advice, indirectly.

  ‘Hey Roman, you know when a girl tries to talk to you and you don’t technically know her but you don’t want to be rude but you end up being rude anyway because you don’t know her?’ I tried to act like I was asking for a friend instead of myself.

  He looked totally confused but supportive. ‘Yeah sure. But no. Why?’

  ‘So what should a girl do if the guy is really rude? Should she ignore him or give him a chance to explain himself later? If there is a later?’ I asked that way too quickly.

  ‘Wait wait wait. I need to have this in context. What’s happened?’ He gave me that what have you done? look.

  ‘Oh nothing. Just this guy …’ My voice trailed off as I glanced up at him sheepishly.

  ‘If we’re being secretive that’s up to you. Just make sure you remember what you’re worth.’ He smiled at me before turning into his street.

  Mum was driving me to work that night when she brought up the Easter thing again. Given my preoccupation, I hadn’t given it much thought, but was still keen on the idea of hitting up the beach for a few days if I had the opportunity.

  ‘How badly do you want to go, Daisy?’ Mum tried to read my face. ‘Is it life or death?’

  ‘No Mum. I don’t care if I go or not. Why?’ Now I tried to read her face.

  ‘It’s just that, remember how I said yesterday we didn’t have the money for a family trip? Well, we don’t have the money for a ‘Daisy trip’, either,’ she said, looking apologetic. ‘Sorry, sweet.’ I didn’t realise things were so bad.

  ‘It’s OK Mum. I’ll tell Roman tomorrow and he’ll understand,’ I reassured her. ‘Seriously, you guys need to kick one of the boys out. They eat everything and never put money into the bills or food.’ I was disappointed, but my parents came first and I would have other holiday chances.

  She nodded and smiled. ‘Have a good shift. See you in four hours.’ I kissed her on the cheek and walked into the golden arches, bracing myself for certain persecution.

  As soon as the manager on shift saw me, he burst out laughing.

  ‘Nice one,’ Tom said.

  ‘Not you, too,’ I moaned, covering my hair with my hands.

  He stopped me as I walked past him. ‘Hey, I have another job for you. Ronald is out getting cleaned and repainted. The kids will be sad if they can’t cuddle him tonight. How would you like to be Ronald instead?’ He grinned at me, eyes wide with amusement.

  I pursed my lips. Suck it up, Daisy, I told myself sternly. And so the ranga and Ronald jokes rolled on all night.

  Working at McDonald’s was fun. It was hard work for not enough pay, but the time went fast and working with Shane when he was on shift with me was highly entertaining. He was one of the managers of the store, but not full time. He said once he only needed enough money for surfing, then takeaway after surfing. On this alone he could survive quite happily. I told him he needed to get a life. Shane told me I needed to get a boyfriend.

  Tonight I ignored the pain from the hard cardboard cup trays and spent my time rewording witty sentences in my head ready for tomorrow’s clash. Deep down, I was disappointed my life had come to this; humiliation in front of my peers, not to mention the effects of open confrontation with a stranger, but I would do what was necessary to preserve justice. I nodded to myself in approval and kept folding.

  At 9 pm faithful Mum arrived to collect me. Twin Rocks was small enough that most important places were within fifteen to twenty minutes drive. That’s what we loved about the place; a beach city without the rat race and traffic hassles.

  At home I had a quick snack and climbed into bed with some music on. I slumped in exhaustion. Sometimes I hated having to work. It gave me enough pocket money for weekend activities and clothes shopping, but other than that it was a part of life I wasn’t ready to acknowledge yet. Not to mention I seemed to get behind on my assignments after working most of the night.

  I slept solidly and dreamt of fighting whole battalions of brown haired models until the sun rose to wake me for another day.

  achael and I waited for him on the front steps of the school. Having her there helped heaps. I didn’t want to lose my nerve. When I saw him coming with the girl, I stood up and moved so I was right in his line of vision and he couldn’t ignore me. After waving to the girl, he turned to go as usual. I pounced.

  ‘Hey, you.’ I watched him turn back to look at me with complete superiority. ‘Don’t you know it’s against the law to trespass? I could report you for constantly being here without permission and harassing girls much younger than yourself.’

  I raised my chin in defiance and folded my arms. Unnecessarily, I added, ‘And as school captain, it would be my pleasure to do so, to protect the integrity of the female students on this campus.’

  He steadily met my gaze. Was that an eye roll I saw? Arrogant prick. First he snobs me off and then he has the nerve to act like I’m melodramatic.

  ‘Well now what’s this about, angry little redhead?’

  He looked amused, but miffed enough to be up for an argument. ‘Can’t a brother drop his sister off at school in the mornings? Make sure she gets in safely?’ Rude Boy folded his arms too.

  I tried to ignore his brown arms.

  Back up. His sister.

  The answer to all life’s questions was finally here.

  My heart leapt and I squashed it back. Behave.

  He is rude. He is egotistical. He is completely disagreeable.

  But.

  This means he technically is available.

  I shouldn’t care. I didn’t care. I hated him. Didn’t I?

  ‘And if we’re speaking of integrity, young lady, I saw your girlfriends watching you try to pick me up yesterday,’ he said, almost playfully.

  I flinched at the insinuation that I was trying to pick him up, but I let it slide. Would I have turned down the offer?

  He added, ‘What do you think I am? Just a piece of meat you can throw around? I’m a person, you know. With feelings.’

  I withered under the weight of his brown-eyed gaze. Was there a slight twinkle amidst the wall of arrogance?

  I knew he was right. We had set him up and I should have known he could see the other girls behind me. I had come to tell him off but it was somewhat my fault in the first place.

  I started to wring my hands together. ‘Fine, I know it was the wrong thing to do. It was a stupid dare and I was too proud to turn them down. Truce?’ I glanced up at him, wanting to make things right.

  His eyes softened and his voice became light. ‘Who am I kidding? I would have done the same thing if my mates had dared me.’ He flashed a grin at me. ‘Look, how about we get these girls back?’

  Before I could answer yes or no, he took out a scrap of paper and a pen and was writing his name and number on it. ‘Tell them we’re going out on a date sometime. Rub it in. Whether we do or not is entirely up to you.’

  He winked and walked off with a wave behind his head. My previous hate dissolving, I wanted to chase him and find out more about his enticing personality.

  My hand burnt where he left the scrunched up piece of paper, heart nearly leaping out of my chest. I still didn’t know his name. I looked down. ‘Nate.’ Was that a model’s name? A king’s name? An actor’s name? It was the sexi
est name I’d ever heard, that’s for sure. And a date? I couldn’t tell the girls.

  How could I not?

  Every Wednesday at four-thirty Twin Rocks Soccer Club meets for training. Soccer happens to be the one thing Treston and I have in common. He is the captain of our side. He has been for a couple of years and the role suits his no nonsense, black and white personality. We have won cup matches in the past because of his determination to win and constantly improve.

  Yes, soccer is something that we do together with no one else in our broader friendship group or family.

  That is, until today.

  Running around the oval, I noticed him detour off the field to meet someone new. The person was dressed from head to toe in designer soccer gear. I smirked to myself. Probably some rich kid trying to join our team. We had a full side and Treston wouldn’t be stupid enough to allow someone else to march in and take away our hard earned field time.

  My brother can be very stupid sometimes.

  I nearly tripped over my feet when I realised who was running, gazelle-like, behind Treston to catch up with the team.

  It was Nate. Dressed like a pro, running like a pro and probably handled a ball like a pro too. Was this guy good at everything? I searched his face to catch his eyes but I couldn’t get his attention. He had given me his number today, so I was confident he would talk to me here. And excited.

  We started stretching to prepare for our proper drills. After a half field scratch match, training was over before I knew it. We all had turns in goals, shooting at each other, and passing. Nate didn’t say one word to me, nor did he acknowledge to Treston or the team that he knew me. In fact, it seemed like he was avoiding a direct gaze.

  Was this some type of weird boy politics? I slammed the cones on top of each other, helped drag off the nets and threw the balls hard into the training bags. I didn’t speak to Treston the whole way home and antisocially ate dinner in my room. It was unusual for me, but I avoided company for the rest of the night. Mum and Dad didn’t say anything, but I bet they were wondering what on earth happened at soccer to put me in a mood like this.

  Grabbing my towel, I headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Closer this time, I watched my own blue eyes give my body a thorough once over. I stood on my side, stared at my front, and tried to look at my back in the mirror. Was there something wrong with me? Was I not attractive enough for this super human guy? Why did he ignore me in public but give me his phone number in person?

  The only thing that kept me from going insane was letting all my thoughts out in my diary while my iPod was in my ears. I was furiously scratching away at a page with my pen when Mum came in to say goodnight. I waited for the routine kiss on the ear.

  She frowned at me and asked if I was feeling better.

  ‘I’m fine. Tired.’ Slamming my diary shut, I murmured, ‘Turn the light off, please.’

  I didn’t want to be rude, but the rejection that burnt deep in my chest was unbearable.

  When she left I tapped on my touch lamp and opened my bedside drawer. I found the special little piece of paper with Nate’s number on it and let it fall gently into my bin.

  That’s the last I wanted to hear from Nate.

  I was nearly late for school because I couldn’t seem to wake up. As it always turned out, my body wanted real sleep just as it was time to get up. I waited until everyone else had left the house before dragging my sorry butt into the kitchen to pack my lunch and bolt to school.

  First period was history. Having only ten students in our class helped to keep it informal and close knit. Miss Shaw looked me square in the eyes as I walked in late but let me off the hook. After she had set everyone working on a source reading, she came to sit next to me.

  ‘How are you settling into year twelve, Daisy?’ She smiled at me with genuine interest.

  ‘Fine. I mean it will take a while to get used to, but everything is sweet,’ I lied.

  ‘Good. What about assignment wise? I bet you have heaps already,’ she said, eyes annoyingly kind.

  ‘Yeah I do, actually. I’m going to be flat out pretty soon.’

  ‘Some teachers forget what it’s like to be studying. Don’t worry. It’ll be over before you know it,’ she assured me, and moved on to other students.

  I appreciated her special attention. It didn’t necessarily fix my problems, but it showed she cared, which was what other teachers apparently found hard.

  I told Rach what happened at training last night through a note in human biology. I watched her reaction and she quietly gasped in sympathy. She wrote back straight away:

  Told you he was a tosser. Will you give up on him now? He isn’t interested. There won’t be a date. Give your attention to someone else who deserves it.

  Good advice. I caught her eye and nodded soberly. I knew it was a waste of time to pursue anything after this, not if he was always this moody. Nate was just one big disappointment.

  That night, Treston invited a guest home for dinner. I heard commotion at the front door. A new girlfriend perhaps? I intended to embarrass him as much as I humanly could in front of her. I bounced out of my room with a cheeky smile on my face. As it so happened, I was just in time to bump into none other than Nate. Of course. We both quickly stepped back and I couldn’t help but show my revulsion.

  ‘Oh, it’s just you,’ I said coldly, and walked past him to the fridge. My knees shook.

  Nate, surprised by my impolite tirade, chose to be polite in his new friend’s house, so he didn’t say anything.

  Treston didn’t bat an eyelid.

  ‘Sweet. You know each other, that saves me the effort,’ he said, and handed Nate a drink.

  ‘I never got your name, though.’ Nate’s brown eyes watched me briefly before he took the drink.

  Treston waved a hand in my general direction. ‘That’s Daisy,’ he said, dragging Nate into the lounge room. Nate glanced over his shoulder at me and shrugged slightly. Spineless loser.

  I ran through the house to find Mum. She was getting changed out of her work clothes as I burst in and rallied her attention. I was going right off about Nate being here when she shushed me and asked what was really the matter. What did she mean, what was really the matter? He was the matter.

  She asked how I knew this boy in the first place. I told her a watered down version of the story of what happened at school and she listened intently. Then she said, ever so logically, ‘Daisy, sometimes boys are undecided with their intentions. You have to give them more time than a few days. There are things going on in their heads that we don’t know about. He has to establish his friendship with Treston too. Maybe he doesn’t know how you feel about him?’

  ‘I don’t feel anything for him in that way, if that’s what you’re implying,’ I answered hotly.

  ‘OK sweetheart, I’m just asking. Things always seem much larger when you’re young. Relax. It will work itself out. Come help me with dinner,’ she said, and I nodded grumpily. Stupid boys should cook their own food, I thought.

  Mum and I ate at the table, while the boys ate in front of the TV. No big surprise there. After dinner, I studied history with my earphones in and munched on some sour snakes. It was continuously hard to drown out the noise of the television, and life that I didn’t see much of, coming from the lounge room. I felt, rather than heard, a loud knock on my door.

  I was cranky enough as it was without the disturbance of unwanted company in the middle of planning an extended response.

  ‘What?’ I called out.

  ‘Can I come in?’ a muffled voice called.

  My music was conveniently too loud, so I shouted, ‘ I can’t hear you’ to the anonymous person.

  The door opened a crack. A head popped round it. ‘It’s Nate, can I come in now?’

  My heart leapt through my chest. ‘No. Shut the door.’ I snapped, without turning around.

  ‘Please, Daisy,’ he asked gently.

  I stopped typing. For some reason I liked the sound of my name
in his voice. He hadn’t said it before to me. I wanted to hear it again.

  My resolve softened slightly. I spun around in my computer chair, eyes narrowed. ‘Right. What could you possibly have to say to me? You clearly have issues with your tongue when more important people are around,’ I spat, folding my arms for effect.

  ‘What would you know about my tongue?’ he mocked.

  I glared at him.

  ‘You never called me,’ he said quickly, as if grasping for a new argument.

  I smirked. ‘Why would I bother when you keep snobbing me off in public and then you’re nice to me when it suits you? Anyway, I should never have been asked to call you in the first place. You’re backward. Boys are supposed to do the calling. Or aren’t you experienced enough to know that?’

  I half hoped my sharp words would shrink him until he disappeared.

  He was barely fazed. ‘Whoa, sorry, I’m a little unconventional. If I’d known you’d be so uptight about it, I would have got your number and done it myself.’ He put his hand out. ‘Give it to me then and we’ll try this again.’

  He finished his coaxing with a cocky, crooked smile that made me want to slap him. Then kiss him.

  I stared at his open hand and weighed up the consequences of both courses of action in my head. It was tempting, but so easy for him. I said nothing. So he tried a different tack.

  ‘Come on Daisy. I didn’t want your brother to go all over-protective on you. I had to suss out what he’s like first.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘Can you please trust me? Let me get my footing first and it will all work out.’

  Back up for a minute. ‘What will work out exactly?’ I demanded.

  ‘Stuff. Look, let’s wait and see what happens. Life isn’t meant to be perfectly planned out. I like to go with the flow. I think you’re interesting, even if you’re kind of cranky. I want to get to know you.’