The New Girl (6 page)

TEN

The rusty spiral steps up to the roof garden looked a lot more dangerous now that Lila was thinking of climbing them. Shivering a little in the cold, she set her foot on the bottom step and started to climb. The steps squealed and groaned as she passed. She held on to the handrail as tightly as she could.

And then suddenly the handrail wasn't there. It had rusted away to nothing, leaving a big drop to the concrete below. Lila felt sick. If she fell, she would break her neck! Focusing on thoughts of Ollie's bright blue eyes and mischievous smile waiting for her, she forced herself onwards, keeping as far away from the yawning gap as she could.

She caught her breath at the top, willed her legs to stop shaking – and felt a punch of horrible disappointment.

The garden was halfway through a makeover, dotted with bags of compost, old pots, chicken wire and garden tools. There was a beautiful view: the town's old roofs spread out like a patchwork blanket below her, and Lila could see the sweeping bay with its bracketing cliffs. But Ollie wasn't there.

The wind from the sea blew her hair around her face. She could feel it getting tangled and curly. What was going on? Was this one of Eve's tricks? Suddenly she didn't feel safe up here. The wind was strong, and the walls around the edges of the garden weren't very high. Eve would love it if she fell off the roof.

There was no way she was going back down those rusty outside steps. Lila tried the handle on the rooftop door, which opened on to a dark, twisting staircase. She was shaken as she held on to the banister and made her way down.

She could hear voices now, drifting up from the café below her feet. She paused for breath on a tiny patch of landing beside a door, which suddenly flew open.

“Sorry,” said Ollie as Lila staggered backwards, almost tumbling down the second twisting flight of stairs. “I didn't see—
Lila!
Where were you?”

“
Where were
you
?” Lila accused, trying to straighten her skirt and flatten her windblown hair.

“Waiting for you. I didn't see you come up the stairs.”

“I thought you meant the roof garden.” Her cheeks were heating up as usual. “I went up the fire escape.”

Ollie's eyebrows shot up. “You're mad. That thing's a death trap!”

“I know that
now
,” Lila said.

Several people were coming up the stairs. In the squash and squeeze of the narrow landing, Lila was pushed right into Ollie. She froze as his hands came around her back.

“I like your hair mussed up like that,” he said, looking down at her with those deep blue eyes. “It suits you.”

Their faces were so close. His mouth was inches away from hers. He was about to kiss her, she was sure of it. And she knew that she would kiss him back. . .

You hardly know him!
she told herself desperately. Her thoughts were in chaos.
Don't make the same mistakes you made in London!
But she didn't seem able to stop herself. Something was drawing her towards him.

He seized her hand. It felt warm in hers. “Listen,” he said. “I really want to tell you something. Can we find a quiet place to talk?”

“About what?”

He dragged her all the way downstairs, away from the bar area and into a corridor ending at a disabled toilet.

“Perfect,” he said in relief. He pushed open the door, ushering Lila inside, then locked it behind them.

Lila looked round the dingy little room with its buzzing overhead light. What was going on? Why were they hiding in here?

“I've known Eve a long time,” Ollie began. “We were at primary school together. We don't live far apart, our parents are friends, and I know she wants to go out with me. The trouble is, I don't like her. Not in that way.” His eyes softened. “But I do like you. I really like you. Eve just makes it impossible for me to go out with anyone else. I need to straighten things out with her before taking things any further, OK? I don't want anyone getting hurt. Can you be patient? Can you trust me?”

He ran his hands through his hair and gazed beseechingly at her. Lila felt a hopeless tug in her gut. She couldn't help herself. Even in a smelly toilet she felt herself falling for him. His gaze was smouldering. She leaned towards him. . . There was a hammering at the door. Lila and Ollie sprang apart.

“I know you're in there,” Eve said furiously, hammering again. “Open the door!”

ELEVEN

Lila felt the blood draining from her face. Of all the people. . . How could she possibly explain that they had only been talking? OK, so they had nearly kissed. But it wouldn't look that way. It wouldn't look that way when she opened the door and faced the one person she really, really didn't want to see.

“I said, open it!” Eve shouted, banging on the door again.

Ollie looked as worried as Lila felt. “This is going to be nasty,” he said. “But we can handle it. Right?”

You've had worse than this!
Lil whispered in Lila's head.
Face her and get it over with! Unlike in the past, you have nothing to be ashamed of.
“I can if you can,” she said shakily. An even nastier thought struck her. “Are you going to tell her what you just told me?”

Ollie looked uncomfortable. “It's not really a good time, is it?”

“There's never a good time for things like this.” Wisdom was coming from somewhere and pulling Lila's scattered thoughts together.

He stared at her. “So I should do it now?”

“No!” Lila said quickly. She cringed at the thought of witnessing the conversation. “Don't do it where I can see it. OK?”

“Open the door,” Eve bawled.

“Promise me,” Lila begged.

There was more banging. Ollie flinched and rubbed his hands through his hair. “We'd better open the door before Eve kicks it in.”

Lila reached out her hand and slowly turned the lock.

The door crashed open at once. A crowd of people were standing outside in the corridor. Eve's arms were tightly folded across her body, her face burning with anger. Rhi looked uncomfortable. Max was openly laughing. In the background, Lila couldn't make out Polly's expression at all.

“Eve,” Ollie began, raising his hands. “This isn't what it looks like. I swear we weren't doing what you think we were doing.”

“Don't lie to me,” Eve spat. The look she gave Lila was incendiary. “Who locks themselves in a toilet just to
talk
? How long has this been going on?”

“Nothing happened!” Ollie repeated.

“I don't believe you,” Eve raged.

Ollie's shoulders slumped. “OK, it's like this. Lila and I—”

Lila felt panicky. He was going to do it right here and now, she realized, with a swoop in her stomach.

She didn't like Eve, but being rejected by a boy in front of your friends? She wouldn't wish that on anyone. Despite herself, Lila felt a little rush of pleasure mixed in with the horror. Ollie
liked
her. Her heart fluttered just thinking about it. But rejecting Eve like this, out in public for everyone to see. . . Something told her that the Heartbeat Café grapevine would love it. The word was probably already spreading about her and Ollie being locked in the toilet together. A public humiliation like this would be one more reason for Eve Somerstown to hate her.

“Ollie,” she began in warning.

Suddenly, the air split open. Rhi screamed and covered her ears as the fire alarm by her head started shrilling at full volume. A cry went up from somewhere.

“Fire!”

Doors burst open on all sides. Empty moments before, the corridor was suddenly full of running people. The cry passed among them, loud and fearful.

“Fire! There's a fire!”

The alarm wailed on like a banshee. Frozen to the spot, Lila thought of the old building they stood in: the old timbers, and the dry, threadbare carpets, the wooden stairs and the plush curtains that hung on either side of the stage. It didn't take much imagination to picture the whole place burning to the ground.

Ollie abandoned whatever he had been going to say. “We have to get out of here,” he said urgently. “Where's the closest exit?”

Lila felt someone grab her arm. As she was pulled down the corridor, pushed and shoved on all sides by people trying to reach the exit, she noticed the fire alarm on the wall beside the disabled toilet door. The handle pointed downwards. Someone had pulled it. But . . . that didn't make sense! There was no fire
here
.

“No need to panic! Everyone this way!” said a boy Lila recognized from behind the café counter. He stood calmly by the door into the bar, ushering frightened people past. “Exit through the kitchen.”

Then it hit her. Eve had pulled the alarm to save face. She wasn't stupid. She knew Ollie had been about to dump her in public. She had created the perfect diversion.

Lila wanted to tell someone what Eve had done. But no one was looking at her or listening to her as she tried to speak. The alarm screamed on above her head, making it hard to think straight as she was pushed and jostled onwards.

The hand was still firmly on her arm. As she stumbled into the kitchens on a wave of people, she looked down – and recognized the silver watch on the wrist that held her.

Eve shoved her sideways, vicious and determined. Lila stumbled and almost fell through a half-open door to the left of the exit.

Eve's grey eyes drilled into her. Lila realized with a kick of adrenaline that this was the first time she and Eve had been alone.

“Let me put this really simply, new girl, so that even a lowlife like you can understand.” Eve advanced towards Lila. “Leave. Ollie. Alone.”

“We were just talking,” Lila gasped, steadying herself against a nearby shelf. They were in a walk-in pantry, among shelves stacked with huge tubs of mayonnaise and ketchup. “There's no law against talking.”

Eve curled her lip into a sneer. “Oh dear. Still not listening, are you? You think it's been bad so far? You have no idea what I can do to you. I can make your life hell. You can't waltz into Heartside and help yourself to my cookie jar.”

“Ollie's not a cookie,” Lila snapped, finding the courage from somewhere. “I know you pulled the fire alarm, Eve. You could get into a lot of trouble for that. I could tell someone.”

Eve flicked the threat away like a fly. “Maybe it worked like that back in London, but it's not going to work here. I know about you, you see. I know you're a nasty piece of work. Rhi's little stories were very . . . illuminating on the subject of your past.”

Lila squirmed helplessly. “Eve, you—”

“If you don't leave him alone, I will tell Ollie everything.” Eve gave a giggle, relishing her power. “Every nasty little detail. When everyone hears what you're really like, you won't last five minutes in Heartside. But of course, they'll have to find you first. Won't they?”

With a smile and a little wave, Eve backed out of the pantry, shut the door – and locked Lila inside.

TWELVE

Lila ran to the door and pounded on it. A quick scan of it told her the bad news. No handle.

“Let me out!” she hollered. “Let me out of here!”

Eve wasn't there. No one was listening. Lila's heart jumped frantically in her chest. She pressed her ear to the door and listened, doing her best to keep calm. Feet were rushing past, trying to get outside. They hadn't realized there was no fire. No one knew Eve had set off the alarm, or that Lila was locked in here.

“Please!” she yelled.

No one came.

Soon even the muffled sound of running feet faded to nothing. Defeated, Lila sank on to the floor with her head in her hands. The room was small and dark, and the floor tiles were cold beneath her. Until someone opened the door from the outside, there was no escape. She shivered, and pulled her blazer more tightly around herself. It was cold in here, and likely to get colder. Outside it was getting dark. What if no one came back for hours? She could freeze to death.

Overwhelmed by everything, Lila felt the tears squeezing from the corners of her eyes. She didn't want to cry but she couldn't help it. She didn't deserve any of this. She was so tired of everything. Never before had the thought of London felt so appealing. She leaned her face into her knees and closed her eyes.

When she felt uncomfortably numb and cold, she got to her feet again. If she spread out her hands, she could almost touch the walls of her prison. The frosted glass in the tiny window looked thick and unbreakable. Fear gripped her round the throat. Food kept better in airtight conditions. How long before the oxygen ran out?

Stop terrifying yourself,
Lila commanded.
Do something!

She walked back to the door, folded her fingers into a fist and started pounding again. Someone was bound to come eventually. Weren't they?

“Let me out!
Let me out!
”

She shouted until her throat felt raw, and hammered until her hands felt bruised.

Finally, the door opened.

“Lila?”

Lila gaped at her dad, standing there in his full police uniform. She felt a strange mixture of relief and apprehension.

“What are you doing here, Dad?”

Her father sighed. “I was going to ask you the same question! We've been looking for you everywhere. What happened?”

A hundred accusations jumped through Lila's head, quicker than lightning. The urge to get Eve Somerstown into trouble was overwhelming. But why would he believe her?

“Why were you hiding in here?” her dad asked with a frown.

He thought she'd been
hiding
? Lila wanted to groan. He didn't trust her any more than he had in London.

“I was . . . locked in,” she managed.

“But what were you doing in here in the first place?” Still frowning, he looked around at the tins of beans, the huge plastic bottles of mustard and barbecue sauce. He snapped his gaze back towards at her. “I hope you weren't up to anything.”

“I got locked in,” Lila repeated numbly. She couldn't say it was Eve. Her father would only lecture her about blaming other people for your own mistakes. She'd heard that lecture a hundred times. And even if, by some miracle, he did believe her, Eve would make her life in Heartside Bay even more difficult than it already was. It wasn't worth it.

Her father fixed her with a hard stare. “Do you know who set off the fire alarm?”

“The person who found the fire, I guess,” Lila said.

She hated herself for lying. Her first lie in Heartside Bay. So much for a new start.

“It was a false alarm,” her father said, watching her closely. “Someone tripped it on purpose.”

“Oh?”

Her father waited for her to say something else. Lila kept her mouth shut. He sighed, a familiar mix of disappointment and disbelief.

“Come on, then,” he said impatiently. He held open the pantry door. “Your friends have been worrying about you.”

Lila followed him slowly out of the kitchen, towards the open back door. She was almost knocked over by Eve, who came racing towards her.

“Lila!” Eve's eyes were wide and anxious. “Are you OK? We've all been going crazy with worry! One minute you were with us as we left the building – and the next minute we couldn't see you anywhere! You scared the life out of us!”

Lila's whole body went rigid as Eve pulled her into a tight hug. Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't this! Over Eve's shoulder she could see the others gathered in the Heartbeat Café's back garden: Rhi and Max, Ollie and Polly. They were all looking as surprised as Lila.

“How are you?” Eve insisted, as if she hugged Lila every day.

“Aren't you going to answer your friend?” said her father.

“I'm . . . fine,” Lila said at last.

Being hugged by Eve felt like being choked by a poisonous jungle vine. After several seconds, Eve gave the appearance of reluctantly letting go.

“However can we thank you for finding her, Officer?” Eve said, looking up through her long eyelashes at Lila's dad.

“It's Chief Murray,” he said. “I'm Lila's father.”

Polly was the only one of the group whose face wasn't a picture of shock. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so embarrassing. Now she wasn't just the new girl trying to steal Ollie, but the daughter of Heartside's new police chief as well.
Can you be a double pariah?
Lila wondered in despair.

“Wow,” said Eve, recovering first. “I'm very pleased to meet you, Chief Murray. I'm Eve, Eve Somerstown. My father has already told me a lot about you. I had no idea you were Lila's father!”

Lila was pleased to see that Eve's charm offensive totally failed. Her dad simply nodded, patted his pocket and pulled out a notebook.

“Can any of you tell me what happened in here this afternoon?” he asked, looking round at everyone.

“There was a fire,” said Eve. She looked sweetly confused. “Wasn't there?”

“Someone pulled the alarm under false pretences. It has caused a great deal of confusion, and has lost the Heartside Café valuable business. They are understandably angry, and would like to discover the culprit.”

Was she imagining it, Lila wondered unhappily, or did her dad shoot her a particular glance when he said that?

“None of us would do something like that on purpose,” said Rhi.

The others looked just as shocked at the suggestion that someone had set the alarm off for fun. Lila had a feeling she was the only one who knew the truth.

“Lila?” her father rapped. “Have you remembered anything useful yet?”

Lila knew she should tell him the truth. Her dad hadn't risen through the ranks of the police for nothing. He could spot a lie a mile off.

“No,” she said. “Nothing.”

Her father raised his eyebrows. “You don't remember who locked the pantry door on you either, I suppose?”

Lila could feel Eve's gaze boring into her. She shook her head. Perhaps her silence would make Eve like her a bit more. She hated herself for wanting Eve to like her.

With a sigh, her father put his notebook away. “Time to go home, everyone. Lila, I'll give you a lift.”

Eve towed Ollie away. Rhi did the same with Max. Lingering briefly, Polly gave Lila a look that was part sympathy, part something else. Before Lila could put her finger on it, her father had taken her firmly by the arm.

“The car's out the front.”

Lila had barely settled herself in the front seat of her dad's squad car before it began.

“I don't like the crowd you've got involved with, Lila,” her father began, turning the car around and heading out of the town centre. “How can you expect me to trust you when something like this happens and you lie to me?”

Lila wanted to say she hadn't lied. But she had. So she stayed quiet.

“Heartside Bay is supposed to be a fresh start,” her father continued.

Lila closed her eyes. She knew what was coming next.

“I think,” said her father seriously, “you need to spend some time thinking about why we moved here in the first place. We cannot have that happen again.”