After Forever Ends (14 page)

Sandra grinned, “It was nothing. Gor blimey, it's windy today! Can we get our bags yet? I packed my jumper.”

“No,” Alexander answered, sauntering up from behind, “Hello, Sandy. You’ve changed your hair. I like it. If you’re cold, you can borrow my jacket.” He removed his Bennington jacket and slipped it over her shoulders. He didn’t seem to notice when she went stiff and pink. Instead, he continued as if it was something that might have happened a million times, “They always start with the first years. It makes them less edgy if they get to their room and their stuff is there.”

Sandra put her hand on the shoulder of the coat and looked at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Oh, my God!” She mouthed at me and I nodded in equal amazement.

“They were still checking bags last I knew,” Lance mumbled, still noticeably miserable.

“I don’t know why they do that,” Oliver shook his head, “No one carries their drugs and liquor here in their bags. Everybody knows that.”

“Drugs and liquor at Bennington?” Merlyn pretended to be aghast.

“Oh, yeah,” Oliver knocked himself on the head, “Those here at Bennington! What was I thinking? Like that would ever happen!”

“Has orientation started?” I asked, suddenly remembering my sister.

“Yeah, they’re all in the dining hall meeting their dorm mates.” Oliver slipped his arm around me. “Don’t worry about Lucy. She’ll find her place.”

“I hope they still have biscuits in there when they’re done,” Sandra rubbed her stomach, “I’m starved. I love those ones with the caramel bits.”

Alexander leaned toward Sandy and reached into his jacket pocket. He produced a serviette and held it out to her, “Haven’t you learned to get into the hall before orientation? Silly girl! You’ve been here how many years?”

“Oh, I don’t want to eat your biscuit!” She seemed even more shocked. On a normal day he grunted at her and maybe asked her to pass him the salt. “You keep it!”

“Are you joking?” He grinned, “I nicked about twenty of them!”

She took it from him as if it were a great treasure, “Thank you, Alexander! You’re being so nice to me today!”

He gave her a funny look. “It’s just a biscuit, Sandy. I have been known occasionally to share with my friends.”

“Well, thank you all the same!” Sandra went deep crimson and tucked the biscuit into her purse.

“You’re welcome, Bach,” He gave her a grin, but turned away when Meredith Ainsworth called his name.

Oliver and I looked at each other in mutual shock. He called Sandy “Bach”? Alexander had obviously been harbouring an affection for the girl he’d never let on to before. For someone who possessed the capacity to spew venom at any random victim, Alexander could be a darling when you caught him in the right mood. And a shameless flirt.

“I still have about five,” Oliver grinned, “If you want another later.”

“Well, give me one then!” I held out my hand. “I missed the pillaging of the first-year biscuit table extravaganza!”

“Of course!” Oliver produced his own serviette and handed it to me.

“Thank you, Bach.” I said as I squished my face up at him.

“Anything for you, Bach.” He replied as he squished his face back.

Alexander had turned away from us and was talking with Meredith.

“I’m sorry I didn’t ring you back last night,” He was saying, “I ended up watching that film with Ollie and I fell asleep.”

“Oh,” She pushed a dark curl away from her bright blue eyes and flashed a devastating, if not calculated smile, “That’s OK. I needed to pack anyway. Your face doesn’t look so bad, not as bad as I thought it was going to. Not that your gorgeous face could ever look bad. Is Sandra wearing your jacket?”

Alex looked over his shoulder at Sandra for a second, and then turned back casually, “Yeah, she’s cold,” He said with little intonation in his voice.

“Oh.”

“You don’t mind, do you, Mere?” Sandra asked sincerely, acting as if she were about to remove the jacket.

Meredith smiled again, “No, no! Not at all!” She replied sweetly, “Why would I mind?”

“He was really just being nice,” Sandra explained apologetically.

“Yeah,” Oliver said suddenly, his eyes bright, “Sometimes I wear it, too!”

Everyone laughed. Alexander and Oliver exchanged glances. Another silent conversation that lasted only seconds. Alex shrugged his shoulders. A second later Oliver did the same. Then they both turned their attention back to whom they had been speaking before.

I pulled away from Ollie and took Sandra aside. “She’s been ringing him all summer. I think they‘re together…”

“She can have him!” She whispered back. “What happened to his face?”

“He had a fight. Are you serious about Meredith? He was just flirting with you!”

“No, he was not!” She insisted. “He was just being nice!”

“When is Alexander ever nice?”

“Sometimes,” She said before pausing. “Once in a while! I’ve seen him be!”

I shook my head, “And anyway,” Sandra continued, glancing at the two of them, “I can’t go crossing Meredith!”

“Why not?”

“Because!” She pulled me further away by my arm. “You don’t realise anything that goes on here, do you?” She paused, pushing up her glasses from the side, “Meredith Ainsworth’s a princess, Silvia! No! No, she’s not a princess! She’s a bloody queen! Her parents are on the board here at Bennington and not only that, but her father works with my father in Parliament! He’s my father’s superior!”

“So?”

“So, believe me, he sees to it that Meredith gets everything she wants! We both had birthdays this summer and my parents got me a very nice BMW sedan. They could have got me a more expensive one, but this one’s got an excellent safety rating. Her parents found out that I’d gotten the same they were buying for Meredith and they went back and got a Mercedes instead!”

“So?”

“So, I can’t compete! Plus, look at her! She’s gorgeous!” That was true. Meredith Ainsworth was quite striking. Thin, long legged, always with the perfect hair and makeup, and a ton of money to boot. Alexander seemed to have forgotten all about Sandra and was standing on the quad with Meredith as if they’d arrived together. “They make a fabulous couple,” Sandra muttered. I hated to do it, but I had to agree. They were quite handsome together. “I’m giving him back the jacket,” She said firmly as she took it off.

“Why?” She didn’t answer me. Sandra was about to hand it back to him when I yanked it from her hand. “I’m freezing, Xan,” I lied, using the nickname that only his closest friends and family called him, “May I borrow it for a while?”

He started to reply, but Meredith interrupted him, “Why not borrow Ollie’s, Silvia?”

“Because he’s wearing his,” I replied matter-of-factly, but asked Alex in a sweet voice, “May I, Xander? Please?”

Alexander looked at me as if I were mad or stupid. “Of course, Sil. Anything for you.”

Meredith may have been able to intimidate Sandra, but she wasn’t going to intimidate me. There was no way in Hell I was going to allow her to wear that jacket. She may have been a queen among princesses to other people, but to me, she was little more than another girl who had just been condescending to my best girl friend. I'll tolerate many things. Snootiness, sarcasm, pretence, you name it, but in all my life I have never been able to tolerate outright rudeness.

Headmistress Pennyweather’s voice rang out over the intercom, “Good morning, Students, and welcome to a new year at Bennington! First years are to report to the dining hall at this time for orientation. The staff expects any veteran students who see a lost first year to assist them in anything that they may need. Second through seventh year students are to report to the common room that correlates with their year of study. There they will find their class schedules and details of this year’s dormitory arrangements. After doing so, all of you may be at your leisure. Lunch, dinner and curfew bells are to be observed. Classes begin tomorrow morning. Have a lovely day!”

“I have to go help organize the assembly,” Sandra told me as Headmistress’ voice faded, “I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“We’ll see you there!” Ollie smiled at her as she walked away. He glanced at his brother, who was engrossed in a conversation with Meredith, shook his head and looked back at me. He shuddered dramatically.

I nodded in complete agreement.

I don’t think that anyone aside from Oliver and me was as happy as us that the summer had ended. It wasn't that we were back to school. Oh, Lord, no that had nothing to do with it! We were just excited that we were back in a place where we could see each other every day instead of only weekends. For us, it was like life had righted itself into its proper position. We were more together than we'd been in months and we quickly set about as we always had on our quick kisses between classes and long walks around the lake. We'd sit in the grass and talk for hours when the weather was good, both of us laughing so hard at times it echoed across campus and people would turn to look. It was the same in our common room, him and me cuddling on the sofa while we chatted with our friends. We'd become a staple.

“I thought for sure they’d break up over holiday,” I heard Peggy McGhee tell Molly Weathersby in the common room. They both turned to look at me, not realising I was within earshot.

“No, Dustin McGregor says that Oliver’s parents practically let her live there. He’s a neighbour and he saw her in Welshpool with them all the time.” Molly replied in a low voice.

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. Her and her sister both, all summer long.” She paused to look at me again and then turned back to Peggy, “Well, you know that she stayed with him at his house last year all through Easter. My parents think it sets a very bad example.”

Peggy gasped. “What about her parents? Don’t they care at all what she’s doing?”

Molly shook her head, “My mum’s talked to Oliver’s mum and from what I heard, Silvia’s mum’s dead. Obviously her dad doesn’t care much about her reputation.”

Peggy seemed to ponder this for a moment, “Wow. I can’t figure it out. She's low class, you know? She has no mother, her father doesn't care about her. She's here on scholarship, I'm told. I bet she doesn't even pay for her own uniforms,” She looked over at me again with a cross of disdain and confusion on her pale face, “What’s she got that makes Ollie want her so badly?”

Molly seemed to be becoming annoyed with the conversation, “Well, Oliver's always been a weird one, hasn't he? Maybe he enjoys the novelty,” She glanced at me again and then back to Peggy just as quickly, “But she is pretty, isn’t she? And you have to hand it to her, she’s quite clever. Maybe she helps him with his coursework. My guess, though, is that it’s her chest. Men love women with large breasts.”

“She’s got those!” Peggy looked down at her own, which weren't much to speak of, “Do you think hers are real?”

“They're real,” Molly sighed, “I saw her in her bra once.”

It hurt my feelings to hear them contemplate how great a mystery it was that Oliver could even consider me as an option to love. But that's the way it was with girls like Molly and Peggy. They didn't have any real concept of what people were about. All they saw was where people came from, what people had, and what they could gain from them. Everything sought was for an advantage or to increase their position. They'd been raised in privilege, in giant houses and been driven around in big cars. They'd been born with a sense of entitlement to the best things in life. The world was theirs for the taking. Well, everything but Oliver Dickinson, which made them all bitchcakes because he should have chosen one of them. They were simply better than the filth that was allowed in on scholarship. It was the first time in their lives they'd been denied. And I’d been the one to deny them.

Yes, their attitude was hurtful, but it made it all the more enjoyable to watch them chew on the fact that I had what they never would.

So I let them talk. It's not like I could have stopped them anyway. The rumour mill at Bennington never rested, but unlike the year before I was used to the chatter. I was more interested in overseeing my little sister into a smooth transition. I found out shortly that it was not just me doing it, but Alexander and Oliver as well had set about pointing Lucy out to people and telling them all to give her a hand up. Because of that, Lucy Cotton was being treated just short of royalty by the upperclassmen while she found her place in the social hierarchy of the first years.

I had never seen Lucy interact with people. We were very different indeed. Where I had always been the quiet, studious type, my sister was a chatter hound who dreaded to touch a book. Until I met Oliver and was thrust into the limelight, I had been a wallflower. But not Lucy. No, Lucy was in the middle of it all, in charge and being the boss. She commanded a certain authority without effort, it seemed, and it was not a long time before it became obvious that my little sister no longer needed my assistance at her new school. I was free to look after my own business, except for when she would show up and talk non-stop while I was trying to study.

“I don’t know what the problem is with Michelle,” She followed me into the library, “We used to be friends and now all she does is try to get me into trouble! She’s angry because of Trevor! I don’t even like Trevor! I can’t help it that he likes me! Trevor is just my friend, Silvia! But she goes and tells everyone that I like him and I don’t!”

I tried to listen to her sympathetically, “Lucy, shush. You can’t speak so loudly in here. Missus Cronin is very strict.”

That was true, but the other truth was that I didn’t want to deal with Missus Cronin because she held a grudge against me from the year before. What had happened had not actually had a thing to do with me, but with Oliver and Alexander, who had both gotten detention for having a row that got out of hand in the library. They then spent that extra time collaborating on drawing a very nasty, but hilariously funny depiction of Missus Cronin wearing fur lined boots under her floral dress with a crown on her head and a fur stole. Brandishing a giant pen like a double-sided axe over her head and sporting a murderous snarl, the caption below her read, “Cronin the Librarian”.