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  “Sophia’s having a party,” Lola suggested, shrugging. “It might be fun.”

  I weighed up my options. Would my parents allow me to go to a party where they didn’t know the girl or her parents? The chances were pretty slim. Sneaking out, on the other hand, that was probably something normal teenagers did to fit in, right? Surely I was just following orders to fit in.

  “I think Sophia’s party sounds perfect,” I replied, grinning. “Do you have her address?”

  Lola didn’t get a chance to answer before we were cast into a shadow. We looked up simultaneously, although I already knew what was causing it. He was like a shadow on my entire life.

  “What do you want, Lochie?” Apparently the lecture I received hadn’t had any impact on me. Dad may as well have saved his breath.

  Lochie was taken aback, but it was all just an act. “Is that how you speak with your partner?”

  “My project partner, and yes. What do you want?”

  Lola watched on, I could already sense her judging me. She was probably studying us, just waiting to get more fodder for teasing me later on.

  “I want to get our project done,” Lochie finally answered. “Considering you’re such a pleasure to work with and all, I thought we should get it over and done with.”

  “I agree.”

  “Good,” he nodded, pursing his lips in thought. He always did that when he was thinking about something, it was incredibly annoying. I bet he moved his mouth when he read too. “How about we meet in the library after school? A few hours and our project can be all finished and we’ll never have to speak to each other again.”

  “If only that were true,” I sighed. If completing our English project was all it took to make him vanish from my life, I would have done it ten years ago when I first met him. Unfortunately, he would probably be around for another ten more.

  “Just be there and prepared to work.” He turned and left, not waiting around while I thought of a witty retort. It was probably a good thing, I couldn’t think about anything other than how insufferable he was when he was around.

  “Can you believe that guy?” I asked when he was out of earshot and I could concentrate again.

  “I like him,” Lola shrugged. “He’s cute, funny, smart. I still don’t understand why you hate him so much.”

  “You saw him, he’s irritating.” I was getting frustrated, surely I wasn’t the only one who could see it? It was as plain as day to me.

  “I have a theory.”

  I groaned, I never liked Lola’s theories yet I had to hear them anyway. “Go ahead, what is it?”

  “All those buttons he presses, they’re the good buttons. The ones you liked pressed.”

  I wondered if I looked confused enough, I know I felt it. “What are you talking about?”

  “Come on, Amery, you like him. It’s the reason he gets to you. If you didn’t, then he wouldn’t bug you so much. Just admit that you want him.”

  I stood up, wanting to get away from the entire conversation and concept. “I don’t like Lochie. It’s the exact opposite of liking him. I loathe him, you know, the other L word?”

  She stood too and we started walking towards class. I desperately hoped she would drop the subject. She was so far wrong that she was in a whole different universe. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my wish.

  “If you don’t like him, then it should be easy to get your English project done today. But I don’t think you will,” Lola continually nattered in my ear. I wanted to shake some sense into her but it wouldn’t have worked. She knew how to press all my buttons too. I tried to tune her out instead of taking the bait.

  At the end of the corridor were three men, they didn’t look like teachers. Their black suits and ties were way too expensive to be brought on a teacher’s salary.

  “Who are those guys?” I asked.

  She didn’t even look. “Seriously? You can’t distract me here, we need to get to the bottom of this thing.”

  “No, really, those three guys.” I pointed to the men to get Lola’s attention. She finally rolled her eyes and looked.

  “They’re probably just from the school board or something. Oh, maybe they’re going to close down our school because of contaminated cafeteria food. That would be sweet, I could use some time off.”

  “They send people out to check on schools?”

  Lola shrugged. “I guess. Someone’s got to keep an eye on all those shady principals. Right?”

  I nodded, she was probably right. There were a thousand reasons why guys in suits would be at the school and Lola’s theory was definitely the most likely. I tried to put them out of my mind, even if that did mean listening to Lola again.

  Thankfully, the bell rang and gave me a sweet reprise from her relentlessness. We had separate classes all morning and by lunchtime she had changed the channel.

  Neither of us had seen Lochie so she wasn’t reminded of our conversation from that morning. After lunch I had physical education, one of my least favorite classes. I changed reluctantly and was the last one out of the change rooms. I made sure a sweatband covered the triangle mark on the inside of my left wrist before joining the others.

  It wasn’t so much the education side I didn’t like, it was the physical side of things that haunted me. I was terribly clumsy, no matter what I did my body refused to cooperate. When my mind was screaming to catch the damn ball, my arms and legs would just ignore the signals and react weirdly. Sometimes I would actually lunge for the ball, but it was normally way too late. I didn’t know what it was, but I could never get coordinated.

  As a result, I was always picked last for everything in gym class. Having grown up with most of these kids, they all knew how terrible I was. And to be honest, I didn’t blame them. I wouldn’t want me on their team either. It didn’t stop the sting of rejection though, no matter how much I expected it.

  “Amery, I guess.” One of the two appointed team captains of the day said. Today was no exception, I was the only one left standing. Her name was Sarah, an overachiever if I ever saw one. She had to be the winner of everything – Mathletes, the Science Fair, the school play, everything. Me being in her team was going to severely impact on her winning streak.

  Still, I tried hard. We played volleyball in the gymnasium and I tried to stay out of the way of the ball. Unfortunately, everyone on the other team knew how much I sucked so they always tried to aim the ball my way. I had three other girls trying to block me but the occasional one would still slip through.

  I considered it a good game, I never made actual contact with the ball and only fell over four times. That was a win in my book, even though we all technically lost as a team. Whatever, it wasn’t like we were curing cancer or anything.

  I ignored the dirty looks I got in the locker room and changed, slipping bracelets over my triangle mark. It had to be covered at all times, otherwise someone would notice it. It was the only physical feature that set me apart from the others. I made the mistake of letting it slip once before and the questions I got were uncomfortable to say the least.

  I was running late to meet with Lochie in the library but somehow I couldn’t find the want to care. I dawdled, picturing him waiting and getting annoyed. Perhaps he might even think I was going to stand him up. I would have loved to have ditched him, but I knew I couldn’t.

  Not only were my parent’s voices echoing in my head to be nice and have everyone love me, but I knew we really did have to do our project. The sooner we did the work, the sooner I wouldn’t have to speak with him again. I couldn’t believe Mr. Moore would be so cruel to pair us together. He was obviously a closet sadist.

  Stepping into the library, I couldn’t see Lochie anywhere. So he had stood me up, great. At least I had only thought about it instead of actually doing it. It was so typical of him to make plans and then just break them without telling me. I had called my mom and let her know I would be late too.

  I threw my backpack onto an empty table and flopped into the seat. I was
going to be there for a few hours until Mom picked me up, I may as well do my homework. I wanted to throttle Lochie so bad, I didn’t care about my duties and responsibilities. At least it would be something interesting to report to the Department next week. I wondered if they would kick me out of the project or whether I could convince them it was justified? It was something worth considering.

  “You finally made it,” Lochie said, making me jump with the sudden noise. He took the seat opposite me, pulling his textbooks out of his bag. “I was waiting for ages.”

  “Yeah right, you weren’t even here.”

  “Did you think to look at the tables in the English section of the library?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “You know, near the books we’re going to need for our project? Saves on walking time?”

  Damn, I hadn’t actually thought of that. Perhaps I could have looked a little harder for him, I just assumed he had bailed on me. But it wasn’t my fault I instantly jumped to that conclusion, fifteen years of knowing him had done that. He had set the precedence, not me.

  “Can we just get on with it?” I answered, not trying to hide the contempt from my voice.

  “Yes, princess, of course.” He opened his book with more force than needed, I could tell he was just as angry as I was. Even that was annoying. “You know, you could have been on time. It’s only polite. You’re always on time for everything else.”

  “I had gym class, I had to change.”

  “For twenty minutes?”

  “Yeah, you got a problem with that?” I stared at him, silently challenging him for a retort. He just shrugged and looked down at his book. One point, me.

  “Let’s just get on with this.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more. The next hour of my life was worse than having needles stuck in my eyeballs. No matter what I said, Lochie didn’t agree. To thank him, I didn’t agree with anything he said either. Working through our project was like doing laps in quicksand. In other words, we weren’t getting anywhere – slowly.

  “Ugh, perhaps we should do half by ourselves and combine them at the end or something,” I suggested, frustrated with the whole thing.

  “It’s an essay, how are we meant to do that?” Lochie looked at me with distain. He didn’t have a right to. After all, I didn’t see him coming up with any big ideas on how we would survive this project.

  “I don’t know, we’ll just make it work.”

  “Like we’ve ever done that in the past?” I didn’t know what he was implying but he was wrong whatever it was. I was completely over the whole thing.

  “I’ll do it all then. You’re absolved from doing any of the work. I’ll get us full marks,” I offered. Doing the project on my own would have been much quicker and easier. I didn’t need his input, he probably wouldn’t add anything worthwhile anyway.

  “Oh and you just know you’ll do it the best?” He looked at me with skepticism written all over his face from the set of his jaw to his arched eyebrow.

  “You can do it all if you’re so protective of it.”

  “I don’t want to do it all. It’s a joint project, we’re supposed to equally contribute.”

  “What Mr. Moore doesn’t know, won’t hurt him,” I pointed out. Why did everything have to be such a mission with him? I doubted whether we would agree on anything before the project was even due. “You know I always get top marks.”

  “And you know, I always get top marks.”

  “Second to mine.”

  He laughed, I wanted to hit him. “Yours are always second to mine.” Damn it, I knew he was right for many of our classes. We always seemed to battle it out for top of the class. Every time I got my results and I was ranked second, all I would have to do was look over at him and he would be snickering back at me. I would just know who came first without even having to hazard a guess.

  “So do it all then.” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice. He probably thought I was hooked on the grades thing but I wasn’t, I just wanted the entire conversation to be over and done with.

  Lochie started to say something but I tuned him out, I was momentarily distracted by the men standing by the doors to the library. It was the same three men from earlier, the ones Lola had said were probably from the school board. Something felt odd about them. No matter how much I could logically explain their presence, it still bugged me. Something was just off.

  “Are you even listening to me?” Lochie demanded. It was a fair question, I knew I wasn’t listening to him.

  “Say something worth listening to and I will,” I shot back. I actually kind of felt bad about that comment but I instantly got over it. “Perhaps we should try again tomorrow when we’ve had more of a chance to think about the project?”

  “We agreed we’d get it done today.”

  “I know but clearly we’re not going to.” I tried to focus on Lochie but my eyes kept drifting over his shoulder to the men. They were talking amongst themselves, not taking any notice of anyone else in the library. I didn’t care about the project anymore, I just wanted to get out of there and away from them. Convincing Lochie of the same was proving difficult.

  “Let’s start from the beginning and really try this time,” he suggested. I didn’t want to, I couldn’t sit there with those men so close.

  “I want to leave,” I said bluntly. Subtle wasn’t working.

  “So do I, but this needs to get done. Why do you have to be so difficult all the time?”

  Suddenly the men looked my way. There was something in their eyes, a threatening gaze that spoke so much more than their appearance. I had to get out of there, something was seriously wrong.

  I stood up and started gathering my books. I tried not to panic, my actions becoming deliberately precise. “We need to go, now.”

  Lochie’s brow crinkled in confusion. “What are you doing?”

  The three men started crossing the library, heading directly for me. If I was anyone else, I wouldn’t have cared. But despite all the lectures I had about fitting in, I wasn’t like everyone else. I was different and there were plenty of people that had a problem with that.

  I abandoned my things and looked around for another exit. A green neon sign told me there was one at the back of the library. I hurried after it.

  “Where are you going?” Lochie had followed me, his voice coming from the side. I guess it was for the better, I wouldn’t want to leave him there to be in danger. I may loathe his very essence, but I wouldn’t want him hurt. Not unless I was the one doing it, anyway.

  “I told you, I need to leave.”

  “Why? Is there a shoe sale somewhere?”

  I ignored him, bursting through the doorway outside. Now there wasn’t anyone else around, I started running. Lochie kept up with me easily as he finally had the sense to shut up already. I didn’t have a destination in mind but I needed to get away. I would try to find a hiding place, somewhere I could call my parents.

  The door we had used slammed closed again. Footsteps hurried in the same direction we were going in. I picked up my pace, urging my feet to go faster than they ever had before.

  CHAPTER 3

  I had two options: cross the sports field and head for the line of thick trees on the other side, or go into the school and find a hiding place. Neither would guarantee my safety and now I was responsible for Lochie too. If I let him get hurt, I could only imagine what my parents would say. The lecture would go on for hours.

  Deciding on the school option because of the hiding opportunities, I ran through the doors.

  “Where are we going? What’s going on?” Lochie panted beside me. His incessant questions would have to wait, his curiosity was the least of my concerns.

  Our feet pounded on the ground, echoing around the walls. They were quickly joined by three more sets. I turned a corner, hoping Lochie would follow. I led him through the corridors, trying to go in as many different directions as I could to lose the men.

  Finally, I couldn’t run anymore. My lungs screamed from the
exertion and I was sure I was starting to slow down. I needed to hide and it had to be somewhere good.

  Lochie must have read my mind, he pushed me into the janitor’s closet and closed the door. It didn’t have a lock on the inside, but we might have been able to hold it closed if the suited men worked out where we were hiding.

  I gasped for air, trying to refill my starved lungs. My ears strained to hear the footsteps but the solid cement bricks of the room barely let in any noise.

  Looking around for the first time, the room was tiny. Shelves of cleaning solutions, mops, and buckets surrounded us. There was barely any room to move, my linen cupboard at home was bigger than the room.

  What was more disturbing was the fact I couldn’t get away from Lochie. Our bodies were pressed together, the room not built for two people. There was no way I could avoid him.

  “Tell me why we’re hiding from three men in black suits,” Lochie demanded. I had been waiting for it, I knew he wouldn’t just accept the fact that we were running for our lives for no good reason.

  “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I replied honestly. More likely, he would think I was crazy and just making fun of him or avoiding the question all together.

  “Try me.”

  Up close I could see how crystal blue his eyes were. I could also inhale the scent of his aftershave. Why was I even noticing those things? I scolded myself for not focusing. “Maybe another time.”

  “Seriously?” He looked at me in disbelief. “We just ran through the school, being pursued by three people, and you just blow me off? This is so typical of you.”

  “And it’s not typical of you to question every little thing? You can’t just accept it?”

  “Not when I’m hiding in a janitor’s closet.”

  “Shh, keep your voice down,” I warned him. If my arms weren’t pinned to my side, I would have pushed him too. “Nobody asked you to come with me. I tried to get you to leave and you wouldn’t. So it’s your fault you’re in this situation, not mine.”

  “Fine. So I’ll just leave then.” He made a sideways shuffle toward the door. I panicked.