Keep the Faith (20 page)

What the hell? Does he even realise how soon ‘that speech thing’ is? We’ve got to stand up in front of a room full of people and do it the day after tomorrow. Why does my
boyfriend think that clambering up some plastic rocks, when there are perfectly good stairs available, is more important than helping me win my bet with Icky?

I am seriously annoyed.

Poor Megs had to listen to me ranting and I’m afraid that I was a bit snappy with Toady too. When he asked me if I had any sweets, I said, ‘Do you want all your teeth to turn black
and fall out of your head?’

Fortunately, Toady seemed to think that would be hilarious, but Megs said, ‘Steady on, Faith. I thought you said that you have to be positive with small children.’

I scowled. ‘Yeah, I think my mother may have been whispering hippy thoughts to me as I slept. I’ve changed my mind. Tough love, Megs, that’s the only way to ensure that Toady
doesn’t end up in prison.’

‘Prison? He’s not three yet.’

‘Refusing Brussel sprouts at three. Truancy at six. Knife crime at nine. We’ve got to protect this boy.’

If nothing else, Toady enjoyed me stomping about the house. He put on Skye’s Doc Martin boots and copied me.

I am still cross with Finn. He totally ditched me last night. I have tried to appreciate our differing views and complementary skills, but I just don’t understand
him. He clearly doesn’t understand me either. He sent me a picture of him hanging off the stupid climbing wall. I hardly even noticed how gorgeous he looks in it. There is nothing more
cross-making than the person you are cross with not even noticing you are cross. It’s our debate tomorrow. Finn had better have a good speech ready.

I am not happy. I am not happy at all. This should have been a brilliant day where I impressed everyone with my amazing debating skills (and made Icky look like the loser
she is), but instead I am so angry and sad that I’ve barely touched this second packet of HobNobs.

Three minutes after the last bell rang I was sitting in debating headquarters (Mrs Lloyd-Winterson’s room) totally prepared and looking utterly irresistible. When the boys arrived ten
minutes later, my boyfriend was not with them.

‘Where’s Finn?’ I asked Westy.

‘Dunno,’ he said, pulling a rather crushed piece of banoffee pie wrapped in a napkin out of his pocket.

‘Didn’t he walk over with the rest of you?’

Westy put half of the pie in his mouth in one go, sending crumbs flying. He shook his head and swallowed. ‘We don’t exactly hold hands and walk in a crocodile. He’s probably
here somewhere.’

But Finn isn’t the kind of person that you lose track of in a room. He wasn’t there and I was starting to panic.

‘Don’t worry, Faith,’ Westy said. ‘You don’t need him to win a fight.’

I scowled. ‘Of course I don’t, but that’s not the point.’

Westy offered me the other half of his pie, but I declined. I could feel Icky’s eyes on me. I knew she’d be delighted if Finn didn’t turn up.

She oozed her way over as I was hissing to Megs, ‘I’ll look like an idiot if I have to go up there by myself.’

‘You look like an idiot anyway,’ Icky said. ‘Don’t forget our bet.’ And she waggled one of her revolting trotters at me.

Before I could snap her spindly ankle, Ethan appeared beside me. He pretended to elbow Icky in the stomach and then swung up the fist of the same arm as if he was going to smack her in the
mouth, but actually he just left his hand a few centimetres from her face, blocking her smarmy chops from my sight. Which was considerate. I don’t really want Ethan to do me any favours, but
it was nice to hear Icky squealing.

She said, ‘Get your filthy hands away from me!’ and tried to step past him.

Without acknowledging her, Ethan stepped in front of Icky again, obscuring my view of her malevolent pixie face once more.

‘Listen,’ Ethan said to me in a low voice. ‘If he doesn’t show, I’ll take his place if you like.’

I was not expecting that. Things have been so funny between us recently that I was starting to think that Ethan really didn’t like me. Half of me wanted to say I didn’t need his
help, but the other half was so relieved that I said, ‘Are you sure? You haven’t practised.’

He flashed me a smile. A proper one. It’s been a while since he’s done that. ‘I’ll make it up as I go along,’ he said. ‘It’s what I usually do when I
speak.’

I was so happy that I wouldn’t have to go up there alone that I just nodded.

‘You should probably remind me what we’re talking about though,’ he said.

‘It’s “Nurses should be paid more than footballers”. We’re opposing.’

His forehead creased and I could see that he was making rapid plans about what he was going to say. There’s no denying that Ethan is pretty quick. And he does know how to talk circles
round most people.

‘Got it,’ he said.

And I knew he had.

‘Phew,’ Megs said. ‘That was lucky.’

But I didn’t feel very lucky. I just felt furious. Miss Ramsbottom chose this moment to stalk in through the door and give me a pointed look before sitting down. I wanted to kill Finn. I
really needed the debate to go well in front of Miss R, so that she’d give me a good report.

Mrs Lloyd-Winterson clapped her hands for quiet and called the debaters up to the front. Ethan gave my arm a reassuring squeeze. How does he manage to be such a confusing blend of rude and nice?
I tried to ignore Icky’s smug looks and to get my rage under control. Before I knew it, Mrs L-W was introducing me.

Miss Ramsbottom’s beady eyes were fixed on me. Icky was on perma-sneer. But it takes more than the scorn of a vampire lady or the poor punctuality of a surfer to stop me from talking a
good talk, so I took a deep breath and launched into my hilarious and deeply convincing speech. I was halfway through explaining why you can’t put a price on the national pride footballers
stir up, not to mention the laughs we get from their girlfriends’ outfits, when the door opened and Finn slipped in. It almost completely put me off. Where the monkey had he been?

Fortunately, at that point, I caught sight of Icky’s gloating face. There’s nothing like the fuel of hatred to power you through something, so I swept the audience along with me to
the triumphant end. There was a lot of clapping. While some people (mostly Westy) were making whooping noises, Finn and Ethan swapped places. I was so cross that I wished Finn hadn’t even
bothered to turn up.

It was Icky’s turn to speak. She made some OK points, but she had the easy side of the argument and personally I found it hard to concentrate with her shrill voice squeaking away. She kept
throwing her scrawny little arms out, which I think was supposed to emphasise what she was saying, but she nearly had her teammate’s eye out with her nails at least twice.

Then it was Finn. He was pretty bad. I suppose I should be grateful that he took my hints to heart, but I hadn’t really intended for him to just read them out as a list. At the end he
said, ‘This is so important. Footballers and nurses both do brilliant jobs.’ Which suggests that he didn’t really understand what it was that he was arguing for in the first
place.

Icky’s teammate was good. He spoke clearly and made sense and didn’t employ any dangerous arm movements. When it was all over, I felt that Icky’s team had been consistently
competent, whereas on my side I had been brilliant, but Finn was lame. I honestly didn’t know how it was going to go. I held my breath during the voting. When the hands were up for my team, I
could see that it was close, but even as Mrs Lloyd-Winterson was saying, ‘You can only vote with one hand, young man,’ to Westy, I knew we’d lost.

Mrs Lloyd-Winterson drew things to a close and I really wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I didn’t want to talk to Finn, I didn’t want to hear Miss
Ramsbottom’s verdict and I definitely didn’t want Icky telling me to kiss her feet. Unfortunately, we were on the far side of the classroom and there was a bit of a jam at the door. I
busied myself with my bag and said to Megs under my breath, ‘Just keep talking to me. I don’t want to talk to anyone else.’

Megs looked at me with an open mouth, which is ridiculous because ordinarily I can’t get her to shut up.

‘Erm . . .’ she said. ‘I thought you were very good.’

‘Not about the debate. Anything else but that.’

She scrunched her face in concentration. ‘Mrs L-W is completely taking up Miss Ramsbottom’s attention with some exciting chat, probably about chin-hair removal, which neither of them
are skilled at. If we’re quick, we might get out without Miss R cornering you.’

I looked up at the teachers and saw Finn coming towards us; before he reached me, Ethan tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘You should have been here.’

Even though Ethan said it in quite an unpleasant tone, Finn smiled at him and said, ‘Yeah, thanks for covering for me, bro.’

Ethan stiffened. ‘I’m not your bro; I would have thought that it was obvious from my superior genetic make-up that we are in no way related, and I didn’t cover for you, I
covered for Faith. Because you stuffed up.’

Finn blinked a bit at that.

Who does Ethan think he is? What business was it of his? ‘Leave it, Ethan,’ I said.

Ethan looked at me. His shoulders were tensed up. ‘I’m just saying that the least he could manage is attendance; no one was expecting him to contribute much else.’

Just because he’s clever he thinks that he can tell everyone what he thinks of them. He’s so arrogant. ‘Stop it!’ I snapped. ‘Stop being horrible to
Finn.’

Ethan’s face hardened. ‘Oh, come on, Faith, he would have to understand what I’m saying to be insulted.’

Finn looked between us. He obviously didn’t know what to say. ‘Sorry I was late?’ he hazarded. It was clear that Ethan was right and that Finn didn’t really know what was
going on.

‘Just forget it,’ I said. ‘It’s all fine.’ And I stalked out of the classroom with my head high.

Then I had to walk back in again to pick up my bag and a gawping Megs.

I’m furious. I know I sound like I’m having a tantrum just because I didn’t win, but that’s not really why I’m so upset. I can’t believe
that Ethan did that. As if things weren’t bad enough. Why did he have to draw more attention to the fact my boyfriend let me down? Sometimes I think he likes watching things go wrong for
me.

As for Finn, it was really important to me to win that bet, but he just didn’t care. He didn’t want to practise; he didn’t want to turn up. He’d rather be climbing walls
or surfing, or anything where he doesn’t have to think or disagree with anyone.

And the person that I’m crossest with is myself because I’ve known that about him all along and have just been kidding myself that things were fine.

And what am I supposed to do about Icky’s feet?

What a rubbish day. I’m still angry. Miss Ramsbottom spoke to me at registration.

‘You performed well yesterday, Faith.’

There was a pause here where I think she expected me to be all super grateful, but I wasn’t in the mood to pretend to be paying her attention.

‘It’s nice to see you applying yourself to something worthwhile,’ she said. ‘I look forward to seeing more from the debating club. Although next time you might want to
reconsider your choice of partner. He was woefully underprepared.’

I ignored that and asked, ‘Does this mean that I’ll get a good report?’

‘If you keep up the hard work and good behaviour for the rest of the term.’

Honestly. What a con. You behave well for adults once and they just keep wanting more. They’re never satisfied.

On top of Miss R’s insatiable appetite for unrealistically perfect conduct, I had to put up with Icky popping up and asking, ‘When are you going to kiss my feet?’

‘Fine,’ I said, ‘let’s get it over with.’

‘Not here. I want a big audience.’ She contorted her face in a horrible way, which I assume meant she was thinking. ‘Save it for the next party so I can really enjoy your
humiliation.’

I gave her my daggers look.

She just sniffed. ‘I’d have thought you’d be good at arguing, Faith, what with your gigantic gob.’

So I said, ‘Whereas no one expects you to be good at anything, Vicky, what with you being a gigantic idiot.’

It’s unfortunate that Mrs Baxter happened to overhear that last remark. ‘Faith!’ she snapped. ‘Don’t insult your classmates.’

So the next time I called Icky a gigantic something I whispered it.

Then I had to suffer assembly with the blank-faced Student Council. They were going on about their stupid suggestion box again. They said they were looking for ideas to combat bullying. Well,
you know me; I always like to help, or at the very least say what I think, so I popped in a new suggestion. It said, ‘Sack Miss Ramsbottom.’ That should wipe out about 95 per cent of
the bullying in this school.

I went shopping with the girls today. Angharad was shining like a sunbeam when she opened the door to me this morning.

‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘It’s Elliot!’

‘Have you two kissed?’ I could hardly begin to imagine how incredibly cute that would be. Like two little puppies rubbing noses.

‘No!’ Angharad said. ‘No kissing, but he asked Cam to ask Megs to find out if I wanted to meet up to sort out our debate!’

That is practically a marriage proposal considering how slow those two are. I am so pleased for her.

But I’m not sure that a shopping trip with three loved-up friends was the best place for me today.

I need to see Finn to sort things out. I’ve arranged to meet him tomorrow.

Urgh
. Part of me hoped that when I saw Finn today it would be awful and that we’d have a row and that my mind would be made up about him, but he was exactly
the same as usual. He apologised about the debate, even though it’s obvious that he doesn’t understand why it’s a big deal. He was sweet and spacey, just like he was on our first
date. But something has changed. I think it’s the way that I look at him. I could forgive him for letting me down, but the whole thing has made me realise that I can’t ignore the fact
that Finn and I are very different and I don’t just mean we’re not into the same things. We
feel
differently about stuff.