Kitabı oxu: «Gemini Falling»

Chapter One: Amie

First of all, let’s get something straight. This is not going to be one of those stories where the school bitch turns out to have a heart of gold, or you learn all about the tragic, shocking reasons why she’s the way she is. My mum is not an alcoholic. My dad doesn’t beat me. I’m blonde, I’m a size ten with decent boobs, and I do just fine across the board at school. I may not be the smartest girl in the class – but, seriously, who would want to be?

I know some people think I’m a bitch, but I’m not – not really. I’m just making the most of things. It’s not my fault that I look OK and boys like me, and girls seem to listen to what I say. I’m just doing my thing – which happens to involve hanging out with my equally cool girlfriends, attracting boys and occasionally laughing at the misfortune of others.

That last one isn’t as bad as it sounds; we all do it. It’s just that I usually happen to be on the winning team. Are you honestly trying to tell me that the class music geek Emily Waldron wouldn’t do the same given half a chance? Even that drip Nathalie Al-Omar – the biggest loser in the whole year, with her frizzy hair, pathetic persona and various random phobias – would. Anyway, I refuse to feel sorry for her no matter what, because her parents are, like, Arab billionaires or something.

Hey, I know most of my friends would turn on me if they could. Even Lexy. In fact – especially Lexy. Everyone assumes she must be nicer than me, just because I’m the one in charge, and she works hard at school and has this ‘cute’ little crush on Josh Green. I suspect that Lexy’s the real bitch. I’m always careful to keep her onside, mostly just because I dread to think what would happen if she did ever turn on me.

I focus my attention back on her, taking a sip of my coffee and adjusting my position next to her on the common-room sofa – trying to look like I was listening all along.

‘I know,’ I reply, making my eyes big. ‘That’s just…ridiculous.’

‘Exactly! It’s not even so much Josh going round to another girl’s house that pisses me off… It’s just that it was her.’

Lexy lowers her voice and casts an oh-so-subtle evil over at Sorana Salem. Sorana’s just sitting there, reading her book like she does every morning, but even that seems somehow inflammatory. She’s the most annoying girl in the class, possibly the universe – like, she’s so mousy and bookish on the surface, but you can just tell that she secretly thinks she’s awesome. It’s as if she goes out of her way to be a freak, just to spite people. I have no idea what point she is trying to prove, but for some reason it really irritates me. Would it really be so hard for her to wear normal clothes and brush her hair once in a while? No. So it’s just blatant awkwardness. I’m secretly convinced she’s so sure she’s going to be this big success one day that she’s determined to be able to say she was bullied at school.

That would be practically impossible, anyway – because we go to this small, strict girls’ school where nothing ever happens. We all have our little gangs and mostly we keep to ourselves. It’s not exactly drama central around here. I have to hang out with boys and go out with my girlfriends every chance I get, or else I’d probably die of boredom. As far as it goes, though, school is pretty relaxing – at least you know where you stand.

‘She’s so annoying,’ I mutter under my breath.

‘Not only annoying,’ Lexy replies, not quite quietly enough. ‘She’s also ugly, freakish and has permanently greasy hair. Oh, and don’t forget no tits.’

Lexy counts these points off on her fingers, looking smugger with each one. She’s right, which must make it all the more gutting that Josh Green has some weird lifelong friendship thing going on with her. Sorana would never be invited to all the parties and nights out with our crowd, but she and Josh always have all these family events together, so she has her own sneaky way in – even though according to social politics he should really have nothing to do with her, ever. Unfortunately for Sorana, Lexy is so crazily crushed-out on Josh that she would be prepared to kill – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. Underneath her semi-wholesome exterior, I sometimes think Lexy might actually be a proper psycho. I do genuinely worry about her sometimes, when I let myself.

However, she’s so hot that Josh – or any other boy – would never suspect a thing. I have blonde hair and all the bits in the right places, so I’m quite good at giving out a general impression of hotness. I’m popular, so everyone assumes I’m pretty. I’m OK, nothing that special – a solid seven-and-a-half. I’m fine with that, by the way. Lexy, at first glance, is way more of a hot mess – bleached hair, slightly feral face with tiny teeth; however, if you look at her closely, you actually start to notice that she’s got the bones of a French movie star under there. Damn her.

Anyway, Lexy can be as bitchy as she likes today. I’ve got a secret, and she’d be furious if she knew.

* * *

In the short time I’ve known her, I’ve learned that the great thing about Elyse is that she just doesn’t care.

I learned early on that the clever thing to do is to pretend not to care about anything – that way no one can ever get you. I’ve got pretty good at it over the years. Hardly anyone except Lexy knows that underneath it all I do care about quite a few things, so I always make sure that I stay just on the right side of the line so as not to risk too much – my parents, my friends, my beautiful Siamese cat Lila Grace, dance classes… Let’s pretend this little list never happened, OK?

But as far as I can tell, Elyse genuinely doesn’t care about anyone or anything. Between us it feels like we’re invincible. I’ve always enjoyed being the most-admired fish in the small, polluted pond that is St Therese’s, but it’s gone up a notch since the twins started in our class a few weeks ago in the middle of term and immediately joined the gang.

Still, all day today, I find myself worrying in a way that is most unlike me. It was Elyse’s idea not to invite Lexy or any of the others tonight – usually with my parents away I’d be having a full-on house party with half of Facebook turning up, but I’m actually looking forward to a night hanging out with just the twins, Elyse and her sister Melanie. I’m glad Elyse is too, but I wish she would be a tiny bit more subtle about it.

‘Hey, Amie – I brought some special supplies for tonight.’ Elyse turns up in the common room with a suitcase-sized bag and sits down on my other side, ignoring Lexy.

If Lexy is annoyed at being left out, she refuses to show it, even though she’s still sitting there right next to me; so I just about manage to smile awkwardly and shrug it off. Like I said, it wouldn’t kill Lexy to be reminded of her place in the social pecking order, but I still have to keep the peace. Watch my back, more like.

It continues like this all day.

‘Ready to go?’ Elyse asks as she grabs me back in the common room as soon as lessons finish.

‘Yep, right behind you. Um, Lex, we’re just…’

By this point, Lexy doesn’t bother to say anything. She just rolls her eyes and huffs off. I watch her make a big point of leaving with Alice, no doubt taking every opportunity to slag me off behind my back. Even though I’m happy that Elyse chose me, I’m surprised that it hurts just a tiny bit to see my other friends gang up on me so quickly.

‘Is Lexy all right?’ Elyse asks. ‘She looks kind of…bitch-faced.’

I laugh in spite of myself, instantly feeling better. ‘Yeah, that sounds about right. She’ll be fine. If we’re busy tonight, it will give her more precious time to obsess over Josh bloody Green. Come on, we can walk round to mine.’

As if by magic, within seconds, Lexy and everything else in the world stops mattering. Elyse and I talk non-stop for the entire walk home, just about totally random stuff, and we laugh so much that my stomach actually hurts.