Misplaced (Completed)

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

It’s safe to say that the heart to heart between Mum and myself did the world of good. We patched things up, talked things through, and she even promised to let me have a go at working. On my side, I just had to remember why she sometimes acts the way she does. Freedom traded for understanding. I could do that. It probably wasn’t going to be easy, but I had to at least try, that’s what we both agreed to.

I felt a million times happier walking down the school hallway than I usually did, and that’s saying something, because I’m already normally quite a perky person.

“Rosie!” I turned, hearing someone shout my name and looked over my shoulder, blinking in surprise. Callum jogged the last few steps before stopping at my side.

“I text you,” he said, almost sounding accusatory.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah and you didn’t answer me. Just because I beat you, doesn’t mean you have to get all shy and embarrassed.”

“Na, just admit it, you missed me!”

“Whatever,” he said, avoiding the question. “So, did you get into a lot of crap with your family? Your mum looked pretty pissed the other day.”

“No, I was fine.” The look on his face told me that he knew that was utter bull. “Well, maybe I did get into a tad bit of trouble, but it’s nothing bad, everything’s sorted now, so it’s all good.”

“Good.”

“Yeah.”

We both nodded at each other, following the lull in conversation. Everyone else was chattering away around us, yet here we were, just looking at each other. And now…it was beginning to get awkward. Typical of a conversation with Callum, really it is to be expected.

“So, I’m going to head off now, got a lesson in a couple of minutes, I guess I’ll see you later?”

“When?”

“When I’m babysitting your sister. Guess your mum didn’t tell you huh?”

I wonder why? Still with the sarcastic thought in my mind, I walked away with a smile, thinking that for once, Callum had been the once to start the conversation with me. Somebody wants to make friends!

But that had been in the morning, bright and early. Not at eleven o’clock when I texted him. No, then it seemed perfectly fine to ignore me. I had a niggling feeling that he was only ignoring me because I didn’t answer his text. I figured that after twenty four hours, he didn’t expect, nor want, a reply, so I didn’t. Callum striked me as the ‘eye for an eye’ kind of person. Don’t get mad, but most certainly get even.

However, a whole hour and a half of being utterly bored made me feel a little unloved. Having successfully caught up on all work, school was back to its normal pace, plodding along until the rushed exams at the end of the year. I needed something to keep me occupied during the ‘study periods’. Most people chose to go home, or go out of school, but to me, that was too much effort. I really need to up my work ethic, or just stop being lazy.

However, instead of doing something productive I decided it’s much more fun to annoy and distract other people. I had already wasted one hour doing such things, and was not prepared to do so with another. Thankfully, lunch time had arrived, and with it, a cafeteria full of loud, busy people. We didn’t usually eat in the cafeteria, most of my friends decided to stay in our sixth form area. In fact most of the post sixteen students preferred to stay in our common room. It was just easier. This time though, our dinner ladies were serving jacket potatoes, and according to Tasha: ‘they are, like, the only edible food our school ever produces.’ So, naturally, we had to: ‘savor the opportunity, make the most of it’, and now we’re sitting here; Tasha shoveling food into her mouth like it’s going out of fashion, and me, practically buzzing from caffeine. This is why I usually drink decaf coffee at home.