Falling - Paige Cunningham (read book .TXT) 📗

was still no comparison to my baby. It was the perfect car for me, cute, fast, compact and I could spot it from a mile away (a very helpful feature when you go to a school with a car park so big it could take a hour to find the right car). The fact that its colour exactly matched my glasses was just a coincidence but I kind of loved it. Its strong body was so hard it felt indestructible and, as recently demonstrated, it had great brakes.
Finally reaching the end of the car park, I stopped in disbelief at the sight in front of me. My sister’s car, parked in the best spot. I couldn’t believe it; she’d left after I did so how did she manage to get this space? Then I remembered the tons of boys that would gladly get up at the crack of dawn to reserve this space for her. Don’t get me wrong, Rose isn’t spoiled or stuck up enough to ask any of these love struck teenagers to do this for her but, luckily for her, she didn’t have to. These boys would do just about anything to get her attention. Rose was the kind of girl who was naturally stunning, even without make up. The kind of girl that grabbed the attention of every boy in school without even trying. She was loud enough to be heard over a screaming crowd (seriously, no exaggeration, you could hear her before you could see her). She oozed confidence and nobody messed with her, not only because nobody wanted to but because she wouldn’t take any crap from anyone and was prepared to deal with those who gave it to her. She was incredibly thick skinned and didn’t care what people thought of her. We were complete opposites. She was rock, hard as stone and nothing anyone said could wear her down. I, however, was chalk, I gave the impression of being hard but the little digs and snide comments people said wore me away and with it my confidence and self esteem.
I walked past the car still feeling sorry for the delusional boy who thought he had a chance with my sister. Reaching the gate, I tried to see past the crowds of students; little groups of friends surrounded me, all of them gossiping about what they did on their holidays. Getting up on to my tip-toes, I looked over the mob. At first I saw nothing but a sea of navy blue blazers and bobbing heads. Looking at those awful blazers, I was extremely thankful that year thirteens didn’t have to wear uniform. Then, looking to the back of the mob I finally saw what I was looking for. There, standing at the other side of the sea of students was Rose and her boyfriend Michael.
I was surprised not to see them straight away. Michael’s hair was like a shining beacon of light, so blond it was almost white. It was almost the same colour as mine except mine wasn’t quite so light. Both of our hair colours completely contrasted with Rose’s dark brunet locks. Michael was the popular boy in our school. He’d only moved to Heatherfield about a year ago but already his name was known by everyone. He was the football team captain, rugby team captain, head boy, had the best grades in our year and, quoting most of the girls in our school, ‘unbelievably fit’. Of course I didn’t think of him as ‘fit’. I mean, I acknowledged that he was good looking but he was going out with my sister and it was slightly disturbed if I referred to my sisters boyfriend as ’fit’.
After fighting my way through the crowd, I eventually got to where Rose and Michael were standing.
“Hi,” I said, half really happy to see them and half extremely glad to be out of that mob. Rose glared at me, clearly annoyed that I had kept her waiting. I felt like shouting at her “We can’t all have our parking spaces reserved for us” but then that would be followed by her saying “What is that supposed to mean?” then I would have to explain the whole “every boy in school fancies you and they save that space for you everyday so that you don’t have to drive around for ten minutes trying to find one,” and I wouldn’t feel very comfortable saying that with Michael standing right next to me. So instead I bit my tong and ignored the glare.
“Hey Angela. Did you have a good break?” Michael asked oblivious to the tension between Rose and me. I opened my mouth to answer him but before I could, Rose interrupted,
“Where the hell have you been? We’ve been standing here like idiots for nearly twenty minutes!”
“Sorry” I answered as solemnly as I could, trying to get her to calm down “This guy jumped in front of my car, then I couldn’t find a parking space and when I finally did, it was the furthest one away and then I had to fight my way through this” I gestured towards the students who were blocking the gate. I watched Roses face, hoping it would give an indication that she had forgiven me but, although she stopped glaring at me, I couldn’t tell what she was feeling. Her eyes widened, I braced myself for a big lecture about how I should leave earlier and then they wouldn’t have to wait so long for me.
“Oh my god, are you alright? Did you hit him? Is he alright? Where did it happen? Why did he jump out at you? Do we know him? Oh my god he’s dead isn’t he?” Rose asked. This was just like her. One little thing happens and she turns it into this big deal. She was such a drama queen. I knew she would never let this go with a simple “Oh it was nothing”. So I had no choice
“Yes. No. Yes. Just outside the car park. I don’t know. No, I think he’s new and no, he is definitely not dead”
“Oh, OK, that’s good” She said it in a disappointed tone. It was as if she wanted something to have happened. However, I couldn’t blame her, in this town nothing exiting ever happened. Not that that was a bad thing, it’s just that after living in this town your whole life, it can get pretty boring here.
“Come on” Michael said in an assertive tone, knowing that my answers hadn’t quite satisfied Rose and if we didn’t act fast then all she would be talking about all day would be my almost car accident. ”If we don’t go now we’ll be late.”
Michael took Roses hand and the three of us walked into school together. I felt a bit like a third wheel, to everyone else I must have looked like the tag-along that wouldn’t get the hint but Rose and Michael didn’t mind and neither did I. I quite liked being by myself. I realise that tagging-along with the schools ‘It’ couple didn’t really count as being by myself but it was close enough. Being by myself gave me a chance to think, really think about things. I wasn’t a talkative person, not like Rose. I was quiet, I kept to myself and that’s how I liked it. Being alone let me do that, I didn’t feel obliged to keep up a conversation with someone and I was free just to think. I still had friends though; I still enjoyed people’s company. I wasn’t some loner who spent all of her time by herself. I had great friends. We were all so different and we all bought something special to our group. Some of them were loud and kept the conversation flowing, some of them were comedians and had everyone in tears with their jokes, some of them, like me, were quiet and trustworthy and helped everyone out with their problems and secrets. Together we made the perfect friendship group. Then there was my best friend Evelyn. She didn’t really hang around my group of friends but we still hung out with each other. Describing Evelyn and hyperactive and insane would be putting it mildly. We’d known each other since we were about one year old, the only people I’m closer to than Evelyn would be my mum and Rose so were nearly inseparable. Although, sadly the only lessons we had together were psychology and science. We both had separate friendship groups so we didn’t often spend break or lunch together so I suppose, during school, we were, in fact, separable.
Walking towards the main building, I realized how different the school looked. The grass looked greener than usual and it was no longer overgrown like it had been before we broke up for the holidays. I guess the school had finally made room in their budget for a lawnmower. It was weird how this subtle change would make such a difference in the appearance of the school. Looking at the school in a different light, taking the time to notice the small things, I realised that there was a lot of improvements. The loose tiles that made the pathway leading from the gate to the main building were no longer loose; the gate that was turning orange with rust was now a glossy black where they had repainted it, even the school building itself had transformed from a dull, dingy, depressing grey into a clean, bright magnolia. Now, instead of a detention centre for the offenders of the law, the school actually looked like a sanctuary of learning. I think that I was the only student in the whole school that had noticed these small changes because I think that I was the only one who cared. To be honest I don’t think that ninety nine percent of this school’s students cared that the school looked terrible in the first place; the only thing they cared about was the fifth period bell.
“Ang, what lessons have you got first and second period?” Rose turned to me, away from Michael but their hands were still linked
“Umm,” I searched my brain for the answer to her question but I couldn’t remember. It was the first day back, how could she have expected me to learn my whole schedule of by heart already? Conveniently, just before I was about to go rummaging through my huge school bag for my class schedule, I remembered “First I have English then I have Maths.”
“Second we have Maths so we’ll just meet you at the stairs.” By ‘we’ I immediately recognised that she was talking about Michael and herself. They nearly had the same class schedule except for English, Maths and Science where he was taking the advanced courses. Michael had tried to get Rose to take the advanced classes with him, as she did have the grades but she didn’t want to do an extra hour of each of the three subjects every week. So instead she chose a hair and beauty course. When she said ‘meet you by the stairs’, yes, she literally did mean stairs. In the summer our group would go and sit on the field and bask in the warmth of the sunlight whilst we have the short run of good weather but for the rest