Haunting of Lily Frost (11 page)

‘Do you not understand the material?'

I'd rather they thought I was daydreaming than stupid, but if I admit to not listening, Mrs Jarvis will make my life even more difficult.

‘No, sorry. Could you explain it for me please?'

‘I thought that's what I'd been doing for the past hour.'

‘Oh. Has an hour gone already?'

‘Would anyone else like to help Lily out?'

I hate moments like these. And I'm blaming Julia, because if I wasn't still thinking about her I might have actually concentrated enough to provide Mrs Jarvis with a scintillating comment. Of course it'll now be Julia who pops up her hand, waves her manicured nails and gives the perfect answer.

‘Maybe Lil hasn't read the book.'

That voice. Danny's beaten Julia to an answer and given me the perfect out.

‘But it's on the syllabus.' This from Julia who loves watching me get dumped in a hole.

‘Maybe not in the city?' Danny again. He's being rather argumentative with his girlfriend. But that doesn't make any sense at all. If Danny was with Tilly when she went missing, and Julia was her best friend, why are Julia and Danny together now? Surely you wouldn't take up with your missing best friend's boyfriend. That seems a bit rough. And why is he telling me I'm pretty if he's got a girlfriend?

‘Lil, we're discussing this book
The Watcher
and whether Rebecca is aware that her parents are lying to her.'

‘Oh.'

Julia stares at me likes she's waiting for me to put up a better fight. ‘Personally, Lil, I don't believe anybody could be that gullible. What do you think?' She's staring at me, like it's me she's talking about.

Mrs Jarvis clears her throat. ‘Have you read the book, Lil?'

That
book! I have read that book. I love it. I don't agree with Julia, but I can't get into that now, because my only defence is that I've got no idea what they're talking about. We actually studied the book last term, and I wish I could brag about that and prove to them that not everybody in the city is behind. I wrote a class paper on it and old Stinky Simon gave me an A. So I'm hoping now that they'll still be discussing the book tomorrow, because I'll wade in deep and impress them all with my literary knowledge.

‘No, Mrs Jarvis. I haven't. But I'll read it tonight.'

‘Tonight? You'll read a whole book in one night?' Julia snarls.

‘Yes.'

‘Well, then, if that's the case we can wait to discuss it tomorrow,' says Mrs Jarvis.

But Julia doesn't want the conversation to end, so she goes on a bit about what she thinks. Danny argues once, but basically it's Julia and Mrs Jarvis having a conversation and everybody else just sits there listening. I can't believe that hearing Julia put forward her annoying opinion has actually made me sit up and pay attention. For the first time today I'm not thinking about Tilly Rose; I'm actually engaged in Julia's point of view, and looking forward to tomorrow, when I can shoot it down.

If I didn't know that Danny already had a girlfriend, I'd think he was overly friendly to me for a reason. Particularly
as I leave school for the day, lugging my backpack over one shoulder (despite what Mum always says about dispersing
the weight evenly) and already texting Ruby with the free hand. Danny's suddenly there to open the gate.
He kicks it open with his foot, which I could have
managed myself, but there you go.

‘Thanks.'

‘No probs. Who are you texting?'

‘My best friend.'

‘Bet you miss her.' He falls in step with me as we walk and I keep waiting for Julia to appear and whisk him away.

‘Yeah.'

‘It's not that bad here.'

‘Really?'

‘Well, I'm friendly, aren't I?'

‘I guess, but your girlfriend isn't.'

‘Who?'

‘Julia.'

He stops walking long enough to laugh his head off, checks to see my reaction and then keeps laughing. Maybe I called it wrong.

‘What's so funny?'

‘She's my twin.'

‘Oh. Oops!'

‘Yeah, lucky, huh? I get to live in Gideon
and
have Julia as a sister. The world's a great place.'

‘I can't believe you're related.'

‘She's not always a bitch – just sometimes. When she feels threatened.'

‘By me?'

‘She knows everybody in this town. She knows everything about everybody. She doesn't like surprises.' As he smiles, I want to reach out and touch his cheek.

‘I can't believe you thought we were a couple.'

‘Well, you're always together.'

‘Everyone's always together in Gideon, Lil. It's a bit hard not to be.'

The idea of Danny and Julia not being together is starting to wriggle its way down into my brain, and I do feel a crazy, big fat urge to smile. It's not so perfect that they're related, but then Max is my brother and I can hack it, so I'm sure Danny can cope with Julia.

‘Danny – can I ask you something? What were you doing down at that river when I saw you?'

‘When I was with Julia? And you were spying on us?' He grins.

‘I wasn't spying.'

‘We were just mucking around.'

‘Tying ribbons on the bridge?'

‘Yeah, what's wrong with that?'

‘But why?'

‘For fun. You said it yourself. Gideon's boring.'

I look up and realise we're already outside my house. That's how close everything is here. A ten-second conversation and I'm home from school.

‘You must miss Tilly.' I don't know what makes me say it. Why can't I just leave things alone? I tell myself I'm trying to show I care, but that's not really why. I want to see how he reacts.

‘Course I do. But
she
ran away, not me.'

‘Is that what you think happened? She ran away?'

‘That's what we all think.'

‘Why would she do that?'

‘She was fighting with her mum. She wanted to go and find her dad. So she ran off.'

‘Have you heard from her?'

‘Nah.'

‘Has her mum?'

‘I don't know. Her mum moved to the next town, so I never see her. That's why you're living in the house,' he says.

‘It's just—'

Then he interrupts me. ‘Sorry, Lil. I'm late for football practice.' He obviously doesn't want to talk about Tilly, and I suppose it makes sense. He must be a bit hurt if she ran off without telling him where she was going. He nods at me, almost formally, like an old-fashioned man. ‘Well, this is you. See you tomorrow at school.'

I try not to watch him walk off down the street, but I can't help myself. He half walks, half skips, like he's happy to be leaving me. Of course when I go inside, Mum pretends she didn't realise I was home, but she was watching from the window. She saw me walk home with a boy she doesn't know and now she's totally itching to ask me about him. I give her five minutes.

‘How was school, Lil?'

‘Fine.'

‘Friends?'

‘Heaps. I'm so popular, you just wouldn't recognise me. I really can't thank you enough for moving us to Gideon.'

‘No need for sarcasm.'

‘Mum, I hope you're not suggesting that I don't have lots of friends?'

‘Well, you apparently have
one
.'

I can't help but smile. It took only two minutes. She realises her slip and turns away from me.

‘You should try and get a job, Lil.'

‘What?'

‘Just a couple of hours a week, like I did when I was your age.'

‘Okay, Mum.'

‘I'm not trying to tell you what to do.'

‘Aren't you?'

‘Well, I think it'd be good for you. You can some earn money and you might make some friends,' she says.

‘Sure. But I don't think Gideon's really the hub of teenage employment. I mean, you and Dad don't seem to have jobs to go to; why do you think it'll be easy for me?'

‘There's no need—'

‘Okay. Whatever.'

Mum and I used to have conversations without irritating each other. Bizarrely, we never used to fight. Now we seem to clash on everything. As I start to walk away and head upstairs, she stops me with a sentence that she knows will work. ‘I spoke to Kate today.'

‘Ruby's mum?'

‘Yes. She rang to see if Ruby could come and stay over the weekend.' Mum's doing that thing she does when she doesn't like the way I've just spoken to her. She introduces a subject she knows I'll want to hear about, and then drags it out as punishment. I still haven't found a good way to deal with it, or her.

‘And?'

She smiles at me, making me wait. ‘
And
I said it might be a bit early. I wanted you to settle in before Ruby came.'

‘What? Why? That's rubbish. I'm not going to settle in, Mum. I haven't got any friends.'

‘So who was that boy?' she says, a bit too quickly.

I want to roll my eyes and groan and slam something because she's being so pathetically transparent. But if I ever want Ruby to come, then I have to learn to play it differently. ‘His name's Danny and he's in my class. He's perfectly nice, but his sister's a bitch. Please let Ruby come.'

There. She made me say it.
Please
.

‘I'll talk to your father.'

I don't get what the big deal is. ‘Where is he anyway?'

‘Gone to a job interview,' she says.

‘That's great. Doing what?'

‘Um, not sure exactly.'

Is that parent code for a job that's beneath him? Of course she knows. She knows everything that goes on in this house.

‘By the way, Lil, your dad and I are out on Thursday night, so you'll have to make sure Max does his homework and goes to bed.'

‘Does that mean Ruby can come on Friday?'

‘You can't blackmail me. I said I'll talk to your father.'

*

I've sent four text messages to Ruby and she hasn't answered one. Either her phone's broken or she's found someone else to hang with. Now that I'm letting the whole ghost thing go, I'm feeling a bit bored here. I've got homework to do, but it's maths, so I'll leave it till the morning and probably get most of it wrong.

‘Where r u?' Text number five. How many more can I send before it seems tragic?

I can't believe I thought there was a ghost here. It's actually a bit funny. The attic is so not scary. It's just my queen size bed, my books that are still lying all over the floor, because I can't be bothered stacking them up again, and my clothes that are pushing their way out of the suitcases. I can see the carved letters from my bed and even they don't look frightening anymore. Why was I so sure that Tilly was a ghost? I'm glad she ran away, because at least that means she's alive and hopefully happy – although I can't understand why anyone would run away from Danny.

A girl from my old school ran away a few years ago. She was in Year 11 or something, so I didn't really know her, but it was all over school. There were so many rumours about why she did it: her father beating her, or her stepmother being a cow, or her boyfriend dumping her. I don't think anyone really knew why. Maybe she'd just had a bad day. The police came to school and questioned a whole bunch of people, but then she was back about a week later. She only came to our school for a few days and apparently left and went somewhere else. It must have been pretty intense coming back to a whole school of people talking about you and trying to guess where you'd been.

Out of the corner of my eye, something darts across
the room. I don't even bother turning, or feel the
least bit scared. It's probably Jasper come to say hello. When he jumps up purring onto my bed and rubs his back under my chin, I smile. It
is
just Jasper. I've saved
my heart from thumping, my skin from prickling and my
head from racing. There are no ghosts in this house.

My phone beeps and I grab it so quickly that poor Jasper darts off the bed and dashes away.

‘With Tom. L8R.'

Whoa. Ruby's with Tom.
That's
why I haven't heard from her. But how can she be with him? Where's Becka? Maybe he's finally dumped her and now Ruby's got a chance. But I'm here, I don't know everything that's happened, and that sucks. I really want to call her and ask her about it, but I can't, because there's no way she'll answer. Then I'll get even more upset. I'm happy for her. Sort of. But usually if something like that happens, she finds an excuse to text me so I know exactly what's going on, and today she's only texting me because I've sent so many messages. Maybe she's already moving on, because she wants a best friend who lives next door not one who lives 196 kays away. This is the sort of thing I was terrified would happen, and now it has and I've only been away six days. She was supposed to remember me for at least a year.

*

Waking up, it takes a while to work out that it's morning and I realise I'm still in my clothes from yesterday, and my phone's under my hip. That explains the uncomfortable feeling of being stabbed. There are five missed calls from Ruby and three text messages wondering why I don't answer, so I must have fallen asleep straight after dinner and not heard my phone go.

Jasper stretches out and rubs his tail along the length of my arm. He must have slept well, too. Maybe we've both stopped being preoccupied by the idea of a ghost and are now just getting on with it.

Ruby answers straightaway. ‘Finally.'

‘Sorry. I fell asleep.'

‘He kissed me, Lil.'

‘WHAT???'

‘Crazy. But he did.'

‘What about Becka?'