Paintshark (2 page)

“I guess your stomach thought it was real then.”

Cassandra gave her friend a double take at her wry reply. “Very funny, you should be on the TV.”

Kimberley bit at one of her nails. “Last night was a blur, so we went clubbing, got doused in funny water and drank water that made us fall asleep, maybe? And then some girl walks in front of us with a perm full of snakes.”

Cassandra looks to the sky for a few moments. “I know something else that happened last night…I got short changed at the bar, I only bought a bottle of water too, and it’s all coming back to me.”

Kimberley scowled. “Can you take this serious?”

“I am serious…those water bottles are expensive for a student.”

Kimberley playfully punched her friend on the arm and sighed. “Why are we still going to school anyway? The Network has closed most of the schools in the area including our one. It’s illegal still to be open.”

Cassandra replied immediately. “We’re going to school or what’s left of it because our headmaster, Mr Glaucas, he’s the one still fighting against the network, he’s the one still trying to give kids an education instead of watching that reality TV crap twenty-four seven, and even if he is the only teacher in school, then I’m still going.”

Kimberley was still picking at her fingernail. “I only asked.”

Cassandra smiled and then looked at her friend with her eyebrows raised as she watched her take something out of her bag. Kimberley smiled back. “I’ve got something for you, I saw them and thought they were just up your street.”

Kimberley handed her a small box, Cassandra took it and opened it slowly to reveal a pair of earrings.

“Oh thank you so much, Kim, I love them.”

“Well hope you do, but I’ve kept the receipt so you can take them back if you want, girlfriend.”

“No, you can take them back, if I didn’t like them.”

Kimberley rolled her eyes. “God, what did your last slave die of?”

“A severe beating, so take note…and don’t call me ‘girlfriend’.”

As they strode onwards towards their school, there was a rustling in some bushes they were passing.

“What’s that noise?” Cassandra asked.

Kimberley wriggled her nose again as she thought. “I don’t know; let’s take a little look shall we?”

Cassandra protested. “Wait, you don’t know what’s in there.” But it was too late as her friend went to peer into the bush.

Kimberley brushed the hedge aside and slipped through the gap. She had always been adventurous and a bit of a tom-boy, she had liked to run around with the boys in her street and climb trees, but it was only when she reached her teens she found her beauty blossoming, and even though she was very unassuming, Kimberley did have some inkling of how pretty she was.

“Can you see anything?” called Cassandra, waiting patiently with her books on the ground and her arms folded.

“No,” said Kimberley without turning around, she was in such a trance of her own curiosity that her friend’s words failed to move her.

It had been a long hot morning and Kimberley wanted to find out what was in the bushes and get back to school to cool down but she still couldn’t find anything.

She was about to head out the way she came until she heard more rustling, and a slight dull moan.

Kimberley took a deep breath and walked towards the strange sounds and at this point she was little nervous.

“Hello? Is there anybody there?” The rustling continued. “If there’s someone in there than cut it out, it’s not funny.” Her voice sounded annoyed more than frightened. But instead of coming out of the bush, Kimberley kept heading further towards the noise, her heart beating quicker by the moment.

As the intrepid girl made her move, two eyes focused on her from a safe distance, she couldn’t see what was spying on her but ‘it’ could see her and watched her every step with intrigue.

It wiped its eyes as she turned her head over her shoulder to check her position and to see if anything else was behind her; nothing was, but the watcher in the bush licked its lips and waited.

Cassandra was still calling out to Kimberley to come back but she didn’t listen, she just simply called out again.

“Come on, I know somebody’s in there.” She stepped gingerly forward. “This isn’t funny anymore.”

The eyes from within the bushes were still locked onto Kimberley and would not let her from its sight.

It studied her slender frame from top to bottom and it liked what it saw, again licking its lips eagerly, it was almost upon her now as it got ready to make its move and pounce on her, the poor girl never stood a chance, it thought, and serves her right for being so stupid to crawl through some bushes all alone. It saw the opportunity to get her…and took it.

Whirling through the air it pounced onto Kimberley, knocking her back before rolling off the ground and righting itself.

The girl screamed as she heavily hit the ground, momentarily stunned, she saw her assailant and reacted with anger, picking herself and throwing herself at it, slapping at it wildly.

Her scream had finally bought Cassandra running into the bush and she saw her friend beating at the hider in the hedge, shouting wildly, “YOU STUPID IDIOT, YOU SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH!”

She carried on slapping her hands against its chest before it grabbed her by the waist and gently spun her around; by the time they had stopped spinning she had calmed down.

She paused and looked imploringly into its eyes and pressed her mouth to its own kissing it passionately, their mouths were still locked together by the time Cassandra said sternly, “What’s HE doing here?”

Kimberley pulled her lips away and giggled. “What are you doing here anyway, you scared me?”

It smiled and walked over to Cassandra, draping its right arm over her shoulders. She shrugged off its arm, repeating her question. “I said what are you doing here?”

The figure was a stocky boy about who looked about a year older than the girls. He wore big black boots and his jet-black hair was greasy and unwashed, his skin was smooth, but very white unlike Kimberley’s, which was a tanned golden brown. This figure had not seen too much sun in his days, other people loved sitting out in it, but he couldn’t really be bothered about working up on his tan, he wasn’t a sun kind of guy.

He had green eyes that did gleam in the sunlight, this was Denton, Kimberley’s boyfriend, a juvenile delinquent in every way, he was a loner and a bad boy which was the reason Kimberley felt so strongly for him, she loved the rough type, He took out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a huge drag and stared at Cassandra.

“Boo,” he grinned through yellow teeth, the only imperfection on his face.

“Moron,” huffed Cassandra.

She didn’t like Denton at first, she thought he was a waste of space and not good enough for her best friend, but as the weeks went by she was slowly starting to warm to him, just slowly.

“You girls weren’t in school this morning, now why was that?”

There was a hint of smugness in his voice as Denton’s school attendance record was terrible, he was held back a year for his terrible punctuality and failure to complete his end of year exams, and he just went to school to pick up his messages and to socialise without working too hard, but on one of the hottest afternoons in the year and to the girls’ surprise, Denton was in school whereas the two girls weren’t.

Kimberley glanced suspiciously at Cassandra and then back to Denton. “What do you mean we weren’t in school?” Kimberley’s quavering voice asked. “It’s first thing in the morning…we’re not late.”

Denton grinned. “I would check your watch if I were you, ladies…it’s the middle of the afternoon.”

Cassandra dismissed the notion in an instant. “No it isn’t, it’s 8.30am.”

“No it’s 1.00pm, look at the sky, have you ever seen the sun out that early in the morning? Face it, ladies, you both slept in and on the day of Mr Glaucas’s rally as well, thought you’d be helping out on that.”

Kimberley was worried now. “The rally is not until tomorrow though.”

“Wrong answer, babes, the closing down rally is today…you two have missed a whole day.”

Cassandra’s hand reached automatically for her stomach and rubbed it nervously.

“You’re lying.”

Denton’s grin stayed. “Am I? Check your watches, check your phones.” Both girls scrambled into their bags to check for themselves. Cassandra pulled hers out first. “My watch is saying 8.35am?”

“Well it’s wrong.”

Kimberley snapped. “DON’T LIE!” Denton begun to lose his patience. “Because I was there, I went to school for once and you two had done a disappearing act, I went in because I had some business to sort out; I’d thought I’d wait until Mr Davis had finished the register and then do the off. When he didn’t call your name out, Hun, I thought you might be ill so I was going to go round your house and check up on you but we’ve got sports all day so I stayed at school all day.”

“Charming,” Kimberley tutted.

“In fact quite a few people weren’t in school yesterday.”

Cassandra cut him short. “OK, WE GET IT, we missed some classes yesterday, big deal.”

Denton loved winding up Cassandra up and teased her even more. “Wait a minute, little miss bookworm fails to turn up to school and it’s not a big deal? Were you ill?”

“No.”

“Then where were you?”

Kimberley tried to intervene. “Just leave her alone, Denton.”

“No seriously, she’s always on my case about how we should never skip school for our studies and she doesn’t even turn up yesterday, what’s that about, eh? I wouldn’t mind but I’m not even going out with her.”

Cassandra sounded frustrated. “Could we just leave it please?”

Denton still pressed on. “Not until you tell me.”

Cassandra sighed; her best friend’s selfish and useless boyfriend had got the better of her.

“We went clubbing the other night and they sprayed us with some green water stuff and plus the drinking water was infected that knocked us out for a bit.”

“A day,” Denton added.

“Yes, a day and it’s given us a rash, there I said it, you satisfied now?”

Denton shrugged. “Couldn’t be bothered really, I was just winding you up…was Aphrodite there by any chance?”

Unimpressed, Kimberley poked him hard in his stomach with her elbow. Denton used to date Aphrodite before her and sometimes her insecurities got to the better of her and thought that there was something still going on between them, there wasn’t…but Aphrodite still revelled in the fact that it still played on Kimberley’s mind.

Denton rubbed his aching stomach, open-mouthed. “What was that for?”

Kimberley was genuinely hurt that he still hadn’t asked if she was ok. “Thanks for asking, I’m fine by the way…your concern for me is extremely touching.”

Denton went in to kiss her, but she pulled away. “Too late, you’ve ruined it.”

Sensing that he had really upset her, Denton moved in on her again. “Baby, I was just about to ask you but you’re always asking how ‘I should be nicer’ to Cassandra as she hasn’t got many friends.”

Denton caught another elbow in his stomach.

“God you are so tactless.”

Kimberley fluttered her eyes apologetically at Cassandra. “Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it, it’s just I know how you get bored sometimes when me and Denton are together.”

Cassandra didn’t even look up. “Listen, can we get back to school now? I don’t want to be late.”

She went to leave, muttering under her breath, “This place is boring anyway.”

As Cassandra headed out back into the hedge clearing, Kimberley and Denton followed with embarrassing reluctance; the look on their faces knew that they had unintentionally upset their friend.

As they got back on to the pathway to school Kimberley broke free from Denton and trotted up ahead to try and make peace with her friend, whispering in her ear, worriedly, “We missed a whole day.”

Cassandra nodded. “I know.”

“Do you think it was the water?”

“I don’t know.”

Kimberley was agitated. “Do you think we’ve caught a sleeping bug?”

Cassandra snapped. “I DON’T KNOW, KIMBERLEY!”

Denton knew if Kimberley was to fall out with Cassandra, that’s all she’d be talking about all afternoon and moaning in his ear.

He sighed heavily and gave his face a long wipe with his bare white hands, he picked his nose with his long forefinger probing around for the stuck crust, it came out slowly and with a pleasurable feeling, Denton blew his nose to clear out any more blockages before popping the bogey in his mouth and now could see the girls had made up from their simultaneously laughing on the path ahead, he sighed again and started to run to catch up with them, shaking his head in bemusement with his first few strides. “Women.”

Another boy from a short distance behind watched as Denton threw both arms over the girls shoulders and began laughing and joking with them, he saw how the girls were relaxed in the company of Denton and how he could effortlessly speak to girls and make them feel at ease, a twinge of jealously hit the other boy as he wiped his runny nose upwards with the flat of his palm, it was one of the hottest days of the year and he had a summer cold.

This was Felcey, a boy who was in the same class as the three people he looked upon, he had scraggly black hair which he had to constantly flick back and a polka dot acne-filled face, his clothes hung too long on his very skinny body, he wasn’t wearing shorts like every other male, he did that last summer as was ridiculed on his thin legs, even a few teachers had a laugh at his expense.

He bent down to tie up his laces, coughed and cleared his throat then hurried along briskly to catch up with the others in front.

Kimberley had let Denton carry both hers and Cassandra’s books, the girls chatted along while Denton begrudgingly hung behind, and he was the first one to turn around when he heard a very quivering voice behind them.

“Kimberley? Hello Kimberley?”

The girls turned around now and Kimberley gave a warm smile, unlike most of the other girls in the school she was genuinely nice to him and her eyes didn’t lie as they smiled at him too.

“Hey Felcey, how are you?