Starting Over (13 page)

‘So you did say it?'

I shrugged. ‘I can't remember what I said. Yes, we were talking about you the other day, but neither of us said anything in a negative way. We love you, you know we do. Come on, Ruby. You can't believe that I would be ganging up on you behind your back.'

Ruby pouted. ‘That's what Nicole seemed to be insinuating.'

‘No way. She must have read it the wrong way. Maybe she's feeling insecure. I mean, it was just the two of you and now I've arrived on the scene. I wouldn't blame her.'

Ruby nodded. ‘Yeah. She can be Queen of Paranoia some days.'

‘We all can,' I said. ‘But honestly, I promise you one thing: I will always say what I think to your face.'

Ruby regarded me for a while. ‘That's what I thought. I thought you were on the level. Pff. Nicole. Jesus, it's probably PMT or something.'

‘Probably,' I said. ‘I turn into psycho woman some months and think that the whole world is plotting against me.'

Minutes later, we were chatting happily again and Ruby seemed to have forgotten what Nicole had said, but I felt that part of me had closed up a fraction. Like an inner wall had gone up. A feeling that was backed up later when Ruby went home and Lewis came out of hiding in Dylan's room.

‘Has Spider Woman gone?' he asked.

I nodded. ‘Spider Woman? Why? Don't you like her?'

‘Stunning,' he said. ‘Sexy. But I find predatory girls like that
way
scary. High maintenance. Not my type. Like she's weaving a web to draw you in and then once you're hooked, she'd destroy you.'

I laughed at him. ‘You've watched too many sci-fi movies. Anyhow, she's like four years younger than you. How can she be scary?'

‘She'd eat me for breakfast and spit out the bones,' he said. ‘I like girls who are easier to be around. You watch yourself with her, India.'

I laughed, but I would take on board what he said, to a degree.

A couple of hours later, Nicole phoned. She sounded upset. ‘Ruby said she'd been round.'

I felt the queasy feeling in my stomach again. ‘Yeah.'
Oh, here we go again,
I thought.

‘And she told me what you said.'

‘What? I didn't say anything.'

‘Not what Ruby said.'

‘OK. So what did Ruby say?'

‘That you said that I was psycho woman and stirring it because you thought I felt insecure. How could you, India? I took you into my confidence and you've turned it against me.'

‘Wha . . .? Na . . .? But Nicole . . .'

‘I thought we were friends.'

‘We
are
.' I thought she was going to hang up, but she didn't and I went through exactly what I'd said. And what Ruby had said. And what I'd said in reply. Over and over until finally Nicole sounded OK.

‘So, mates?' I said.

‘Mates,' she said.

Bollards,
I thought after we'd hung up.
And I thought
I
was over-sensitive!
I was going to have to tread carefully with both of
them. I decided to go back to the market to buy a present for each of them, to show that there were no hard feelings. I bought a couple of make-up bags for them that were covered with tiny buttons and shells. As I was about to leave, I saw some fab-looking chocolates.
Maybe I'd better buy a stash for emergencies,
I thought as I handed over the last of my pocket money. I had a feeling I was going to need them, with my two new friends.

‘Ah nam my oho renge kyo. Nam my oho renge kyo. NAM MYOHO RENGE KYOOOOOOOO. NAAAAAAAAM...'

‘Dad!
It's six-thirty in the morning! People are trying to sleep,' I called into the living room, where Dad was sitting cross-legged in front of the fireplace.

‘Then they're missing the day,' he said and beckoned me into the room. ‘Come on, join me. I'm doing a new meditation.'

‘Sensei said that while prayer is talking to God, meditation is listening,' I said. ‘With that din you're making, he's probably left the universe.'

‘Meditation is listening to God? Hmm,' said Dad and, for a moment, I thought I might have made him see sense, but no, a second later, he shook his head. ‘So I guess this is singing to God. Probably makes a change for him.
EEEEE NAM
MYOHO RENGE KYOOOOOOOO.'

Grrrrr,
I thought as I went back up to take a shower. The novelty of having Dad back had soon lost its appeal. I had forgotten what a totally
loud
person he can be. He was lucky that Aunt Sarah was away in Greece, closing up her centre for the winter. Like me, she wasn't a morning person. Neither was Kate, by the look of the angry face that appeared on the first floor.

‘Can somebody please shoot him?'

‘I'll look in the Yellow Pages,' I said, ‘and see if I can book someone in. Someone from pest control ought to do it.'

‘See if they do early-morning calls. Puhleese.'

‘So what's happening with lover boy?' asked Dylan as we strolled into school later that same morning. Joe had just overtaken us on his bike and waved.

‘None of your business,' I replied. I was still feeling tired and irritated from the rude awakening from Big Chief Umpalumpa, aka my father.

‘Ah. Then you won't be interested in the fact that he's split up with his girlfriend?'

That
stopped me in my tracks. ‘What do you mean? Joe has? You mean Joe Donahue? How do you know? What do you know?'

Dylan tapped the side of his nose and grinned in an unbelievably annoying way. ‘None of my business. Yes. You're quite right. Won't mention it again.'

Sometimes having a younger brother can be
really
frustrating.

‘If you don't tell me, I will have to beat you.'

Dylan laughed and pointed at the swarm of pupils heading in through the gates. ‘What? Like here on the pavement? In front of half the school?'

‘Yeah, I will. You know I will. Just dish the dirt, will you? And how do you know anything about Joe Donahue anyhow?'

‘My mate Gareth lives next door to Mia and ... No, none of my business. La la la la laaaaaah.' He looked positively gleeful about having something that I wanted. I grabbed his neck with both hands and pretended to strangle him.

‘Tell me, or you're a dead man.'

A couple of Sixth-Form girls ahead of us saw what I was doing and one of them looked alarmed and rushed over.

‘It's OK, he's my little brother,' I said through gritted teeth. ‘And he's being a
total
eejit.'

‘What's he done?' she asked.

‘Important
boy information that he
won't
tell me,' I said as I continued to strangle.

The girl nodded. ‘Hmm. That's bad. I have an annoying brother too. Go right ahead. Batter him for me,' she said over her shoulder as she went to rejoin her friend.

Dylan looked indignant. It was great. ‘Oi! You older ones are supposed to
protect
us younger ones,' he called after her.

The girl turned and raised an eyebrow. ‘You look like you can look after yourself, squirt.'

Dylan looked as if he was about to explode. ‘Squirt?
Squirt!
I
hate girls. Life can be so, so unjust some days.'

‘Tell me about it,' I said as I let him go. ‘Now give me the gossip or prepare to die.'

Dylan pouted. ‘OK, but under duress. And I get the remote control on the big telly in the living room this weekend.'

Nothing was ever simple with Dylan. ‘OK. Fine. Deal.'

‘Well . . . my mate Gareth said he overheard Mia talking to her mate on the bus home and she said that her and Joe had finished . . .'

‘Who dumped who?'

‘Joe. Said he wasn't ready for commitment.'

I punched the air. ‘Yesss!'

‘Er, dork-brain? Not ready for commitment. That would probably mean you too.'

At that moment, a black Mercedes drew up beside us and Callum Hesketh got out of the passenger seat and waved goodbye to the woman driving. He spotted me and came straight over. ‘Ah the lovely India Jane,' he said. ‘I've been waiting for your call.'

‘Call? Oh. Was I supposed to call you?' I asked as I gave him a mysterious smile. I was pleased that I'd remembered to say exactly what Erin had told me. Cool, cool, cool, that was me.

Dylan elbowed his way in between us. ‘Yeah. You were,' he said. ‘You told Erin about it remember? On email? And later I heard you again on the hall phone.'

Callum burst out laughing while I felt myself blush. I gave
Dylan a ‘get lost' look but he just stood there between us, grinning. I wanted to kill him. Not mock-strangle. Kill. I also wanted the ground to open up and swallow me. ‘You shouldn't read other people's emails,' I said, then turned back to Callum. ‘I must have been telling my mate about the play and who was in it, you know . . .'

‘Yeah. Good. I like to hear that I'm being talked about,' said Callum with a smirk.

‘You weren't. At least you were, but only because . . . Oh never mind . . .' My cool act had dissolved like an ice cube in a microwave. Luckily, Callum didn't seem to care. He was staring at my mouth like he wanted to eat it, and it gave me goosebumps all over. Suddenly I didn't care what Dylan had said.

‘So, coaching lessons. Remember?' asked Callum with a lopsided grin.

The fact that Dylan was standing between us like a midget chaperone didn't matter one bit. Callum's mouth was like magnet, drawing me towards him. I made myself look away and take a breath.

I got the feeling that he was feeling the same as I was.

‘OK, for heaven's
sake,
get a
room,'
said Dylan and he slouched off towards the school gates.

Callum and I both laughed. ‘So, when?' he persisted. ‘How about we meet here after school and we go and get a cappuccino.'

‘Er . . . yeah. OK.'

‘Excellent,' said Callum. ‘I've got a quick meeting so I'll be like, fifteen minutes after the bell — is that OK?'

‘I guess.'

‘OK. I'll meet you ...' He pointed to the church at the corner of the road on the opposite side. ‘Outside St Cuthbert's. OK?'

I nodded.

‘OK. It's a date,' said Callum and, with a last twinkle, he hooked his rucksack up on to his shoulder and headed inside.

I caught up with Dylan, who was waiting by the gate.

‘India Jane Ruspoli,' he said in a prim voice. ‘One minute it's all “Oh Joe Donahue, I love him with a love that's true” and
two
seconds later, you're falling over some other guy. Honestly, you're a . . . you're a . . .
slut.'

My skin was still tingling from the vibe between Callum and me. ‘Yeah. That's me. Great isn't it?'
If this is how I feel just looking at Callum,
I thought,
what's it going to be like kissing him? So what if he's got a reputation as a Casanova? I can handle it.

Dylan gave me a withering look like I was dog poo, but that only made me laugh even more, then he flounced off like a girl. I headed inside too and as I rounded the corner near where people park their bikes, I bumped into Joe.

‘Oops, sorry,' I blurted.

‘My fault and .. . actually, India, I wanted to .. . that is, about the set design meeting, I . . . er . . .'

‘You've been ignoring me. Yeah, I got it.'

Joe smiled. ‘I know . . . well, not exactly ignoring you. It's been a weird few weeks and I know ... I could have been more
supportive. Sorry. Been going through some stuff lately . . .'

‘Oh, like what? I asked, knowing perfectly well what, thanks to my own personal gossip columnist, Dylan the dirt ditcher.

‘Oh nothing, you know, stuff.'

I nodded. Stuff. Boys are such crap at communicating sometimes.

‘So any more ideas for Barry?' he asked.

I shook my head. ‘I've given him loads, but he just says no, find me something else, something no one has ever done before.'

‘He's a cheeky bugger putting it all on you,' said Joe. ‘He's the director.'

‘That's what I thought.'

Behind us, I noticed Mia and Andrea come through the double doors into the playground. Mia clocked us and swerved to the right, taking Andrea with her. She didn't look pleased to see Joe with me.

Joe hadn't seen her and carried on chatting. ‘And I . . . er . . . I noticed you were gassing with Callum before.'

‘Yeah.'

‘OK. Just, India . . . can I say something about him?'

‘Sure.'

‘Be careful about him. He has a reputation for messing girls about.'

‘You're one to talk.'

‘Me? Since when?'

‘Oh ... I heard you were a player, in fact you told me yourself
that you were a bad boy before you starting dating Mia.'