The Gaps by Leanne Hall (young adult books to read .TXT) 📗

the right jeans. Like filth, like smudges on white surfaces. Tacky.

‘How dare you act like you even care.’ Natalia puts her face close to Petra’s. ‘You think you’re better than everyone else, always being so good and so holy, the way you sit back and judge everyone.’

‘I don’t.’ Petra’s voice trickles out.

‘Only a suck like you could have talked Mrs Christie into this. Did you get Daddy on the phone? I guess he does donate millions to the school. Everyone knows why you’re always dux, why you get so many prizes…’

Audrey finally gets the courage to look up. ‘That’s too much, Natalia.’

Natalia doesn’t listen. She pushes herself up and away. I stand there for a moment, waiting for more words to come, but when nothing happens I follow Natalia out.

No one can see you if you sit low on the banks of the oval, in the far corner of the school grounds, close to the outer fence. The grass is lush and soft there, and a cluster of tree ferns and wattles keep the sun at bay.

No one can see you let your face finally crumble, soften around the edges and slide off into misery.

No one can see you, but you can see others: the cars driving down the side street, student specks crossing from the main building to the PE centre, from the music building to the boarding house, back and forth.

You can hear the bells for the end of lunch and the beginning of fifth period.

You can text Katie in peace, begging her to bribe Tim to come pick you up after school so you don’t have to carry this thing on the tram or endure the stares or overhear the whispered gossip.

You can see Lisbeth’s progress as she power-walks across the oval, looking around like she’s committing high treason.

‘Oh, it’s true,’ she says, when she sees Someone’s Watching lying on the grass next to me, collected from one of the impassive secretaries in the main office. Mrs Christie has managed to execute her ban without even seeing me, or even asking me to explain my artwork, or give my side of the story.

‘I’m so sorry, Chloe.’ Lisbeth drops down next to me. ‘I think it’s very unfair to make you remove your photo.’

‘Thanks.’ She’s the first person to say a simple ‘sorry’.

‘Maybe you’re not in the mood for this, but I got you a spinach-and-cheese from the tuckshop.’ She hands me a paper bag. I don’t mind that Lisbeth sees my puffy eyes and red nose, but I don’t want Ms Nouri or Mrs Christie or any of the teachers or anyone else to see how much I care about this.

I peek at the pastry, but I can’t stomach it. ‘How did you know where I was?’

‘Sunita saw you walking this way.’

It’s impossible to keep a secret around here, apparently.

Lisbeth smoothes her school skirt over her knees. She wears her uniform extra long. ‘What happened?’

‘Petra complained about my photo and Mrs Christie banned it. Ms Nouri told me in second period.’

I think of our creative writing task in English class, and how Petra was right there next to me. She had every opportunity to say something, to talk about it with me, and she didn’t. I don’t understand why she would go against me, straight to a teacher.

‘What have you been doing since then? I didn’t see you at recess.’

‘Trying not to cry, mostly.’ I scrunch the napkin. ‘And getting into fights.’

Lisbeth’s eyebrows shoot up.

‘Natalia made me come with her to the common room to confront Petra, and then it got pretty heated. Natalia was practically yelling, saying that Petra’s dad gives all this money to the school and that’s why Mrs Christie took her side.’

Natalia’s twisted face sticks in my mind, making me uneasy. I would almost have sympathy for Petra, but then I think about how messed up it is that she could ruin everything for us so easily, with no regrets. I’m right in the middle of a giant pile of steaming Balmoral drama, which is exactly where I didn’t want to be.

‘It is actually true that Petra’s dad donates a lot of money to Balmoral’s building fund,’ Lisbeth says. ‘You know the Galbraith wing? Where the new science labs are?’

It never occurred to me to connect the name of the Galbraith wing with Petra. I’m beginning to wonder if I understand anything about this school.

I sigh. Part of me did want to slap Petra when we saw her in the common room, but the other part of me wanted to run away and hide.

Lisbeth picks the daisies around her feet, pulling them into a little bunch. ‘Has anyone told you yet about Natalia and Yin?’

‘What about them?’

‘They used to be best friends. The bestest friends you could imagine. In Junior School, like maybe in grades four, five and six, they did everything together.’

‘I didn’t know that.’

I try to remember if I ever saw Yin and Natalia even say hello to each other. Yin was in such a tight three with Claire and Milla, and so deep into senior orchestra, that it’s hard to imagine her and Natalia having anything in common.

‘They even had this special secret language they would use. No one could come between them.’

I don’t know what to do with this information. It puts a twist on everything I know about Natalia. I think about what it would be like if something happened to Katie or Liana. I don’t know how I would react. Maybe I would go around yelling at people and poking them in the eye.

‘It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?’ Lisbeth says. ‘In Junior School we’d always say YinandNatalia as one word, but as soon as they got to Year Seven…’

‘What happened in Year Seven?’

‘Everything changes when you get to Senior School. I mean, I used to be friends with Teaghan, can you believe it?’

I shake my head.

‘We used to do bible study together, but Teaghan strayed from the path. I did try to