Starting Over (22 page)

‘Yeah. Deffo.'

‘Really? Wow. Oh God, did they see my message in the church?'

Leela shook her head. ‘No, and I won't tell them if you don't want. But you ought to see some of the messages
they
have left in the church, like total blackmail material.'

‘Really?'

‘Uhuh,' said Leela. ‘Tell you about it tomorrow.'

‘OK, cool,' I said as she put Posh aside, got up and went to the door.

‘Thanks and ... um, do you think you and Brook and Zahrah might like to go to a movie one night? There's some good ones around at the mo.'

‘We like romantic comedies best.'

‘Me too. I hate horror and violent films.'

‘Me too. Rajiv loves them, but they do my head in.'

‘Me too. Give me nightmares.'

‘Me too.'

‘OK. So. Laters.'

Leela smiled. ‘Laters,' she said. ‘Deffo.'

Sometimes in life, when you give up and stop trying so hard, things slip into place. Boys or friends. If you try too hard or are desperate, they evade you,
I thought as I showed her out.
When you're cool and let go, they come and find you.

After she'd gone, I went down to Mum's workroom and drew a new self-portrait for my project. I did it in bright sunshine colours. And this time, there wasn't only me in it. This time, there was me and Posh and Becks and Dad and Dylan and Mum and Aunt Sarah and Kate and Lewis and Ethan and Jessica and Lara and Eleanor and Leela and Zahrah and Brook. And Erin. And Joe. It was the kind of drawing a five-year-old kid would do, with matchstick people with big heads, but everyone was smiling.

And suddenly, when I thought about school in the morning, instead of it being daunting, starting over was full of possibilities, just waiting to be explored.

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2. Starting Over
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