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She looked down at her hands, which were clutching and unclutching the hem of her shirt. He wanted to say, “Look me in the eye,” but he didn’t. He waited instead.
Finally, after a silence he wanted to fill with Reasons Why We Aren’t Rude to People, she said, “It’s just so awful here.”
He blinked. “It is? How? You’ve seemed to make friends and all that.”
She jumped up like a jack-in-the-box. “Iknewyou wouldn’t understand! Why do you ask me if you don’t even want to listen?”
He stayed where he was, breathed, and said, “Tell me, then, and I’ll know. What’s awful?”
“School,”she said. “Going to Mrs. Hobarts.Everything.”
“One thing at a time,” he said, hoping he wasn’t trapping Quinn up there. “What’s wrong with school?”
“I’m meant to know about American history, for one thing, and I don’t. Obviously, and why do Ineedto know it? I’m not going to live here forever, so who cares? And the maths is different, even though there should only be one way you do maths, because the answer’s either right or it’s wrong, but I don’t do it the right way, so I keep getting lower marks, and I don’t seewhy.And Angel Leeming makes fun of my accent.”
“Angel Leeming can go hang, then,” he said.
“You don’tunderstand.She’s a cheerleader, which means she’s in the popular group, and all the boys like her. Especially Micah. He’s her …” She looked down and picked at the edge of her shoe. The rubber was separating from the canvas there, which meant she needed new shoes. How had he missed that? “He’s her boyfriend,” Janey finally went on, and he had to take a moment to remember what they’d been talking about. “She has shiny dark hair, like Quinn, and shehatesme, because I talk wrong and I spell things wrong and I don’t fitin.I try not to talk, but sometimes I have to, and every time I do, she whispers things and laughs. She sits behind me in English, and she’s always whispering, and the others all laugh at me, too!”
He wanted to laugh himself, it was so ridiculous to think that Janey wasn’t up to standard, but he didn’t. “You do realize,” he said, “that you have the kind of hair most girls want, and boys like it, too. If we’re talking about boys, which I think we are. That’s probably why Angel hates you, because she’s been the prettiest girl in school and now she may not be, which doesn’t say much for her character. I’m fairly sure Micah’s noticed you’re pretty, though.”
“Theydon’t,though,” Janey said.“Nobodythinks I’m pretty. You don’t understand! I lookhideous.My hair isn’t tidy like Angel’s, and I don’t have the right clothes atall.It was easy at home, because you wore a uniform, but there’s no uniform here, and what I have is justwrong.And I don’t have a …” She took a breath. “A good enoughbra,not for middle school, or the right underwear, and I don’t know how to get them, and you never … you never evenask.”
“Right.” He put his hands on his knees and exhaled. “Then we’ll buy you the right things.”
“But I don’t evenknow.”It was a wail. “And the cheerleaders are going to keeplaughingat me, and …”
“No,” he said. “They’re not. Not once we get you sorted. Or maybe they will, but you won’t care, because you’ll know they’re just jealous. Besides, you’re on the volleyball team now, right? With, uh …” He couldn’t remember her name. “Micah’s sister,” he finished.
“Violet,” she said. “See? You don’t even remember! Mum would have remembered, and Mum knew how to shop for things, but she’s not here, and I …” She was crying now, and trying not to. Fully breaking down in a way he hadn’t seen, not since her mum had died.
Bloody hell. He put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. “I’m guessing Violet knows how to shop for clothes,” he said. “Alexis, too, for that matter. Both those girls have opinions to spare, from what I’ve seen.”
“But they don’t like each other,” Janey said miserably. “When I got on the team, Alexis said it looked like I was trying to be a popular girl, so I should choose if I really want to join that clique. I didn’t know it was a clique, or that I’d have to choose.”
He’d always been a pretty capable bloke, and as far as he could remember, that was mostly how he’d felt at school, too. He’d never worried whether he was popular, either. He had no clue here.
Help.
20
NOT A FAMILY
There was only so long you could hang out in an empty attic with a five-year-old. Finally, Quinn said, “Let’s go downstairs and check out the cookie situation.”
“Do youhavecookies?” Troy asked. “Mrs. Hobarts says kids shouldn’t eat cookies, only fruit, and she doesn’t like kids to watch telly, either. She says telly is noise, and it rots your brain and cookies rot your teeth. And Dad doesn’t ever buy cookies, either.” He heaved a sigh.
“Cookies are my secret weakness,” she told him. “We’ll ask your dad if it’s OK, though.” Oh. She should’ve done that first.
Troy charged down the stairs ahead of her, saying, “I like the sound your stairs make.”
Ha,she thought.Take that, Joel Leeming.When she rounded the corner at the landing, though, she saw Beckett and Janey and slowed a moment, then thought,It’s my house. If they want privacy, they can go out on the sun porch.
“Hi,” she said. “We were going to get cookies and milk, if cookies are allowed. Apparently your house is a cookie-free zone. Could be an issue.” Breezy, that was the ticket.
Beckett was already standing up. Also looking flustered, and Janey was crying and trying to look like she wasn’t. He said, “Cookies are OK.”
“He doesn’t buy cookies,” Janey said, clearly trying to rally, shoving with the heel of her hand at her eyes and nose, “because he says American cookies are rubbish.”
