More Flirting Games (The Flirting Series - Young Adult) (2 page)

“You’re so
lucky,” sighed Grace. “No parents, no schoolwork, just total freedom.” Her own
parents were pretty strict and made her study several hours a day, even during
the holidays.

And two
weeks with Jack
,
thought Sophie, though she didn’t say it aloud. “I can’t believe the school are
just letting Jack come and stay.” She said.

“Yeah,
well, it
is
Jack. You know how much the head teacher thinks of him. I
think she probably cried when he left last term.” Rose rolled her eyes.

She
wasn’t the only one
,
thought Sophie. “When is he arriving?”

“Sometime
tomorrow, you might see him before you leave, do you want me to ring and ask
him?” Rose said.

Sophie
shook her head. She didn’t want Jack to know she was bothered.

“So, who
else is staying?” She asked.

“I’m not
sure.” Rose’s eyes traveled back to where Leo and Diana were sitting. She had
heard a rumor that they were both staying, though she couldn’t think why.

“Definitely
Anne-Marie, the head girl, and I think a boy in Toby’s year, which will be nice
for him.” Toby was thirteen and had not taken the news of his parents’ absence
this coming Christmas at all well.

“So no one
particularly interesting. No cute boys?” Said Grace.

Rose let
her gaze linger on Leo for a second more. “No. No-one interesting.” She
confirmed.

It was the
first night of the Christmas holidays and Sophie Jones was settling back into
her bedroom at home.

Her mother
had attended Compass Court when she was a girl and had been enthusiastic about
Sophie attending the same school. It was a two hour drive from school back to
their family home in Wiltshire and her mother had been full of constant
questions all the way. Sophie had tried to fill her in on everything that had happened
in the Autumn term, but the truth was she wasn’t in the mood to chat to her.
All she really wanted to do was ring Grace for some advice.

Now,
finally, her mother had left her to unpack and she had some time alone. She
pulled out her phone and looked again at the text message Jack had sent her.
She called Grace.

“Hi Soph.
Where are you? Are you home now? How are your parents?” Grace sounded pleased
to hear from her.

“Yes, I’m
home and they’re fine, but listen, something happened after you left today.”
Sophie felt impatient to tell her everything.

“Oh?”

“Jack
arrived just before my mum picked me up and he came over and spoke to me!” She
imparted dramatically.

“Whoa! How
did it go?” Grace was clearly eager to hear more.

“I’m not
sure, good I think. He said ‘Hi,’ then told me he was sorry again for taking
advantage of me and that he didn’t want a girlfriend.”

“That
doesn’t sound so good?” Sophie could hear the frown in Grace’s voice.

“No, but
then he asked me if I was seeing anyone, and sort of looked pleased when I said
I wasn’t.” Sophie struggled to recall word for word. “Then I asked him if
he
was seeing anyone and he said he was seeing a couple of girls at Uni but
nothing serious.”

“Okay.”
Grace drew out the word, showing she wasn’t committing yet to any thoughts.

“Then I
asked him if he still had my phone number and he said he did,” Sophie
continued, “and then I said he should call or text me sometime, and then my mum
arrived and I left.”

Grace was
silent for a moment thinking it over.

“Do you
think you walked away looking cool or did you come across all pathetic and
needy?” She asked warily.

“I’m not
sure. Cool, I think. I haven’t told you the best bit yet.” Sophie said. “About
ten minutes after we drove away I got a text from him.”

“You’re
kidding! What did it say?” Grace was suddenly sounding much more excited.

“It says:
I
like your new hairstyle
. That’s it.”

“Oh for
goodness sake! That’s not much to go on. Why does he have to be so cryptic?
Mind you, on a positive note, at least he
does
like your hair cut.”
Grace laughed.

“I know
right? What on Earth does it mean? Is he just trying to be nice? Or is he
trying to start something? I wondered if maybe it was sort of something in
between. Like he’s making a point of giving me his number but still being cautious
not to sound keen?” Sophie poured out all her thoughts.

She badly
wanted Grace to tell her that it sounded like Jack was interested, yet at the
same time she was worried Grace would say he clearly wasn’t. Grace wasn’t the
biggest fan of Jack, since he had slept with her friend and then not called
her.

“Hmmm, I
don’t know.” Grace said unhelpfully. “Have you replied?”

“No. I
don’t know what to say. I need your help.” Sophie doodled on a pad in front of
her, ready to write down anything useful Grace might come up with. “I want to
reply with something really funny and clever, yet at the same time I want to
send something that he has to respond to.”

“I don’t
know, Soph. Maybe you would look cooler if you didn’t reply at all?” Grace knew
Sophie wouldn’t go for it, but she personally thought it was all Jack deserved.
She was proved right as Sophie yelped in distress.

“Alright,
alright!” Grace continued with a smile. “I know you want to text him back, but
at least wait a few days?”

“I guess.”
Sophie sounded depressed. “How many days do you think?”

“At least
two. It will give us time to think up the perfect witty reply.”

“Yes.
That’s exactly what I want.” Sophie was relieved to have Grace on board. Best
friends really were your best asset when it came to playing the game with boys.

***

Rose lay in
bed that night thinking how weird it was being in the dormitory with just
Diana.

 
Sophie and Grace had both left earlier in the
afternoon, and it had transpired that both Diana and Leo
were
staying at
school for the Christmas holidays.

It was bad
enough that she had to be stuck on her own with Diana at night time, but Rose
was particularly worried that things could get very awkward with Leo.

The history
between her family and his dated back to half way through her first year.
Rose’s parents were journalists. Or more precisely, her mother was an
investigative reporter and her father was her cameraman and producer.

Their
career had started long before Rose was born. Her mother had been a weather
girl for the BBC, sent to the Greek Islands to cover an unusual tropical storm.
Her father had been a young freelance cameraman, working with a different
station, desperately trying to make a name for himself in a competitive
industry. What happened next had totally changed their lives. A freak hurricane
had ravaged the South of Greece, destroying islands and causing mass loss of
life and wide spread panic. The two of them had been trapped right in the eye
of it. They did however have the only broadcasting equipment to survive the hurricane
and capture
d
images
that were then transmitted all around the globe. Her mother was able to give
the only on-site reports of what was happening. In the few days immediately
after the devastation, before anyone else was able to fly into the area, they
had become world famous and had also fallen in love.

After that,
they went on to cover all the big stories together, braving war zones and
exposing corruption at the highest levels. They tried to curtail it after Rose
and then Toby were born, but they had been drawn back in, which was why they
had sent their children to boarding school.

It was just
an unlucky coincidence that when Rose was eleven they had done a piece on a
London Crime Lord that resulted in two men going to prison for life. One of
those men had been Leo’s uncle.

When her
father had discovered that she was at the same school as the nephew of the
infamous Brian Flanagan, he had wanted to pull Rose out of the school. She had
kicked up one hell of a fuss. They had chosen Compass Court because it was
where her cousins were, and Rose had been adamant that if she couldn’t stay
with her parents then she didn’t want to be separated from the only family she
had around her. Her dad had reluctantly agreed to leave her there, after all it
couldn’t have been planned by the Flanagans seeing as both Leo and herself were
already at the school before it happened. But he had been firm on the point
that she must not become friendly with Leo Flanagan. He was scared that somehow
she might become a pawn his family would try to use for revenge.

Not wanting
to risk being taken away from school, she had agreed. No one at the school,
apart her family, knew what had happened. Except she supposed Leo must know. He
had avoided her as much as she had him. She knew he felt the same way she did.
They might be in the same school house, but he hardly ever spoke to her
directly, and didn’t look her in the eye when he did have to speak to her. They
ate at opposite ends of the house table and relaxed at opposite ends of West Tower
Common Room. They had a lot of the same friends though, and comments had been
made. Rose just laughed them off and faked confusion if asked why she didn’t
like him.

“What are
you talking about? I don’t dislike him, we’re just not close friends.” She assumed
he said something similar.

Unfortunately
Sophie and Grace both seemed to fancy him. They always sat in the sofa group at
one end of the Common Room with Rose, but there was no doubt that both their
heads lifted whenever his laughter was heard across the room. When he wasn’t
studying with Diana, he and some of his friends had become regulars in the
armchairs at the far end and enjoyed loud games of cards and laddish banter.

In the end,
she had confided in Sophie and Grace. Their constant discussions around boys
had too often been centered on Leo in recent years, and her excuse that she had
nothing in common with him had been too easily dismissed.

It was true
that Leo was extremely fanciable. He wasn’t particularly tall, probably around
5 ft 10 or 11, but his jet black hair, coupled with his blue Irish eyes, made
his looks striking. He was lean and moved with a confident grace, and spoke
with a gorgeous Dublin accent. He might have been just her type if not for the
history that kept them apart. That and Diana Carmel.

Toby was
really upset about not going home for Christmas. Rose had pointed out that
Christmas would be great fun at Compass Court, but Toby wasn’t comforted.

“But it’s
Christmas
!”
Toby had whined.

At that
moment Alex and Ellie had come in, full of excitement at spending Christmas at
School and Toby hadn’t said another word. At least not to her, though she was
fairly sure he had given their parents a hard time for abandoning him.

Determined
to ensure he wouldn’t feel too sad on Christmas day, Rose had gone a bit mad on
presents and bought some for everyone staying in the school over the Christmas
holidays, including handkerchiefs for the teachers and even some chocolate
snowmen for Leo and Diana. For Toby she bought about ten small presents, even
though he already had a mountain to open from their guilt-ridden parents.

She had
been very surprised to find the rumors were true and Leo was staying for
Christmas. Last year Diana had stayed at Compass Court, Rose wasn’t sure why,
but Leo had gone home. This year, his parents had been going skiing and he had
asked if he could stay and study instead. Rose was pretty sure that Diana was
the real reason he was staying.

She was
confused because Leo and Diana didn’t seem to be a couple, yet it seemed they
preferred to be together than apart. Sophie and Grace often discussed what kind
of relationship Leo and Diana had. Were they like brother and sister? Were they
just best friends? Were they in love but hadn’t told each other? Were they waiting
until they were older before taking their relationship to the next level?

Rose
listened to her friends debating it but she never joined in, just saying “Who
cares?” if asked for an opinion, but secretly she did wonder. She didn’t think
it was like her relationship with Alex. She and Alex really were ‘just
friends,’ more like brother and sister. In fact, as first cousins of the same
age, they were better friends than she was with her actual brother. But then,
Leo and Diana didn’t seem to have that easy friendship like she had with Alex.
They seemed more intense somehow. Rose tried to analyze why she was so
interested in their friendship. It was fine for Sophie and Grace; they were
both openly interested in Leo, not to mention half a dozen other boys too. But
Rose wasn’t even supposed to be allowing herself to register him. She had
reached this point without any problems, so why was she thinking about him now?
She could blame the girls for talking about him a lot; it had made her curious,
she reasoned. Then again, Sophie and Grace talked about all boys a lot. Not
just Leo. They had both been interested in lots of different boys over the
years. Plus Sophie had that massive crush on Jack, and in their second year,
Grace had even tried to get Rose to ask out Alex for her. Rose was less
interested in boys than they were. She’d had that flirting thing going on with
Ben Castle for years now, but just didn’t have very strong feelings for him.