FROM
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
I'd been carefully shading the drawing that I'd spent a week working on when Mark elbowed me, knocking my arm across the paper and sending the charcoal skittering onto the floor. A thick black streak ruined my still-life.
'You bloody - '
'Ro - temper temper!' Ms O'Connell's voice, cool and delicious, smoothed its way past my outburst. I looked up at her, a bit embarrassed, and suddenly realised why Mark had jabbed me with his stupid bony arm.
Standing next to Ms O'Connell was one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen. She was tall. Not just tall for a kid, but tall in almost anyone's language. About 180 centimetres, so she dwarfed Ms O'Connell, who's only as tall as I am. And she had that kind of long-limbed slenderness that makes most girls (but not her) look really awkward and gawky until they grow into it and turn into supermodels. Sun-streaked, honey-coloured hair swung in a thick, wavy sheet halfway down her back, and her eyes were green, I was sure of it. Proper green - not hazel. She really was stunning. Selina Adamson would scratch her eyes out.
'Ro, you don't want to give our new student a bad impression do you?' Even when Ms O'Connell said the dorkiest, most cliched things you couldn't groan or poke fun at her. She had a voice that would melt butter and the face of a Botticelli angel. Every boy at Lennard High was in Love with her - and quite a few of the girls.
'Year 9, this is Jodie Waters.' There were one or two whistles and a low ripple of laughter. Jodie slouched a bit, as if to make herself smaller (as if you could miss seeing someone like her!) but kept her eyes defiantly on a Kandinsky print at the back of the room, waiting for the ordeal to finish. Ms O'Connell never makes a big deal of anything, though, and kept the embarrassing introduction to a minimum. Jodie looked relieved and slid onto the stool next to mine.
Mark was fast.
'Don't sit next to Ro - she bites.' He flashed her the heart-melting grin that had practically every girl in New South Wales panting over him.
Jodie was just as fast. She eyed Mark coolly, green eyes - yes, they were green - travelling lazily over his teen idol features and registering a total lack of interest.
'At least she doesn't drool,' she murmured, her voice smooth and low.
Woohoo! At last! A girl who wouldn't trip over her own tongue every time she saw Mark. A girl who wouldn't go out of her way to get rid of me and have Mark to herself! A girl immune to his charms. A girl like me!
In case you're wondering what sort of girl I actually am, I suppose I can tell you some of the more important facts about me. I have good days and bad days, a lot like every other kid my age - I'm nearly sixteen. I think I have more than my fair share of bad days, but that's probably because I've had a hard life.
If I sound facetious, it's just that I act that way to cover up what's inside. We all have things to hide, and learn different ways of doing it.
Mark's my best friend. When I first started at Lennard, towards the end of first term this year, Mr Richards, our English teacher, sat me at a single desk across the aisle from Mark, who was sitting next to Selina Adamson. When Mark whispered something at me - I didn't even hear what it was - she put her arm through his and glared at me. You know how it is when you're a new kid - you don't want to put anyone offside - so I just kept my eyes on the exercise book in front of me.
Selina couldn't leave it alone though, stupid cow. At changeover, she offered to show me where my Maths class was. Fluttering mascaraed lashes at Mark, she said, 'I won't be long, okay? I'll just show Rowena where she belongs. See you in class!'
She glanced at my timetable and sniffed. You know that sort of put-down sniff you do when you really want to get up someone's nose?
'Advanced, eh?' She looked coldly at me, wrinkling her nose as though I were a bad smell. 'I suppose you think you're pretty good. Well, Rowena Preston, stay away from Mark and you'll be okay. Okay?'
I know it's dumb to get on the wrong side of people on your first day, before you even know which way the wind blows, but I couldn't help it. She was so smug, so two-faced, so wrong - I don't know what came over me.
'The name's Rowanna, you moron, I hissed, 'and I'll make the friends I want - okay?'
I really didn't mean to knock her over when I stalked past her. These schoolbags are just so heavy and bulky.
•
So now you think I'm a thug as well as. a smart-arse. Well, I'm not. I stand up for myself, though. It's a skill I learned at my old school, a place where it was sink or swim, and I learned it very well.
Selina wasn't stupid enough to try it on again - not alone, at least. She really blew it, though, by getting her "gang" to bail me up after school on the first day There were five or six of them following me, giggling and dropping insults - "slag", "bitch" - the usual brainless, totally unoriginal stuff.
I don't mind having a verbal blue, and more than once or twice in the past I've traded blows when I've had to - I told you I've had a hard life - but it's always been strictly one-on-one. Selina's scraggy friends jumped me all at once - a whole dog-pack, apart from a fat one who was a bit slower off the mark - so I ended up with a gouge on one cheek, a bloody nose, some bruises and grazes and a monster headache from the way they'd grabbed handfuls of my hair and yanked at it.
I did the smart thing when I lost my balance and realised I didn't have a hope. I just curled up in a ball and pulled my head in. I was waiting for one of them to put the boot into my back when there was an almighty yell.
'You gutless bitches!' I didn't recognise the male voice.
When a surprisingly gentle hand pulled me to my feet and started straightening me up a bit I just wanted to curl up in a little ball again and disappear. My rescuer was Mark.
I've never been the damsel in distress type, so I have to admit I was pretty cut about the whole thing. As embarrassing moments go, it was about a two hundred on a scale of one to ten, and I don't want to dwell on it. But it signalled the end of the Selina-Mark twosome (although Mark insists that was a one-sided thing anyway, with Selina doing some extraordinary things to attract his attention) and the beginning of a beautiful friendship for me. Mark's a bit like the brother I never had - corny, I know, but true. Selina hates my guts and would probably kill me if she could. Every girl in the school probably hates me because they all think I'm on with Mark and they're dying of jealousy
That's why I felt drawn to Jodie straight away She was different.