Ginny and Georgia: The Younger Shadow

Chapter 40- Arranging To meet the Past and Present
"So, like, you just full on yanked her hair?" Aria laughed and nearly spat out the fizzy orange soda she had in her hand, and I had to stifle a flood of giggles because our sisters were revising for a series of tests they would have in a week, and even if it seemed like they were being dramatic, Abby had threatened to slit our throats and Max told us we would be sorry if we so much as made a sound next door. The walls were horribly thin, Ginny commented. I was in Madi's familiar room with Aria, Kara and of course Madi. The Willow Racist incident had been a few days ago, and everything that had followed made me want to throw up, and I felt nauseated and fatigued. Constantly drained. Leon and I had gone to Blue Farm to do our project on family trees together the day before, and I felt content with his soothing touch. I didn't know why I had gotten so emotional over a family tree project. Maybe just that I had to leave half the tree, and it felt so surreal to include Missy and Caleb. It didn't feel right. They were strangers! Or were they really? Everything was just a mass of blurs and fuzzy colours, and taking a break with my friends was about all I needed. Kara had caught up to me in the hallway and had a concerned, pitying look on her face as I told her what had happened with Willow. She saw me stumbling over my words haphazardly and avoiding her gaze. Truth be told, even though I had done nothing wrong, I still felt ashamed and dirty for allowing myself for being so hurt. Kara had apologised over getting upset over Jonathan, and even seemed to perk up at the though that Amaya had tracked him down and we could have a chance to talk to him and find my dad. And now we were in Madi's room, stuffing ourselves with candy and chips and anxiously trying to pass the time. Our sisters weren't the best with revision. I could hear frustrated sighs and gasps as they tried to grasp biology and math, and even a chair being brutally knocked over.
"What was that?" Ellen yelled from downstairs.
"Nothing, mom. I just knocked the chair over. Keep your hair on!" Max replied, but I could hear her trying to keep the laugh inside.
"God, how difficult is it to just study?" Kara hissed as she looked up from her phone, obviously annoyed.
"I know right? Abby's acting like the world is over or something. But then again, Mang can't do any revision together." Madi rolled her eyes and jumped onto the bed, as I chuckled and focused on my drawing. A few more minutes went by and our boredom just increased.
"God, let's do something interesting! Charlie, what're you doing?" Before I could protest or even try to speak, Aria's pale and nimble hands snatched my drawing book from me, cradling it to her chest as she scanned the contents.
"Oh my God, the drawing you're doing just now- is it-"
"Yeah, it's the photo of my mom, dad, Ginny and Jonathan." I explained, hitting her lightly on the head. Aria scrunched up her face, and asked,
"That looks so realistic. Like I just stepped into the photo. I've never seen you draw before, Char. Mads, Kara! C'mere!" Madi and Kara reluctantly got out of their plush chairs, but their faces lit up with intrigue as they saw my drawing.
"Wow! You can do that? Can you draw me?" Madi made a comical pose and I joked,
"Yeah, sure, Madi. I've always drawn in my spare time, but I don't make a big fuss of it. It's no big deal."
"No big deal? How did you even draw that when you don't have the photo with you?" Kara looked more closely at the drawing, cocking her head in different angles. Her golden brown hair seemed to light with sparkles as more sun filtered through the window, and I replied,
"I've looked at it so many times, it's just an a image in my mind I can kinda conjure up."
"Cool!" Aria rested her head on my lap and took the drawing book, which was filled with pretty random things. I'd always loved the creative parts of life, like writing and drawing, but always loathed phys ed, unless my friends were in it with me. But I never used to let anyone look at my art in school. I was much too timid, and constantly scared of what they would think. Back then, it mattered. But maybe now it didn't.
"Ok, ok... it's been weeks since Amaya told us she found Jonathan. Should I arrange a meeting with him at his house?" I asked, picking up my phone and scrolling to his Instagram.
"His house?" Kara screwed up her face, mirroring some dead fish, "won't he try and kill you or something?"
"He's got kids, Kar! I don't think he'll try to kill me with them there!" Kara nodded but still looked a little hesitant. I picked at my finger nails nervously and typed in a message into his DMs:
"Dear Jonathan Atley,
My name is Evie Blackheath, and I'm a student at Wellsbury High School. I recently made an interesting discovery that I believe would be of importance to your news articles, and that Wellsbury as a whole would be interested in. If we could arrange a meeting at your house so that I can discuss it in detail for your paper sometime soon, that would be great." Madi leaned over shoulder, her eyebrows raised as she read the message I was about to send.
"Char! Why are you making a fake name for yourself? And what do you mean, you have a news article for him? Aren't you gonna talk to him about your dad?"
"This is a mask, Madi. I'm not actually going to talk about this, but do you really think if I said to him,
'Oh hey, Jonathan Atley, you happened to be friends with my dad 15 years ago. He happened to be with my mother and sister and then my dad just disappeared to God knows where a few days before I was born and I was hoping you could give me his address because he's not on social media because my mom's a lying lunatic please and thank you." I gasped for air and Aria gave a slow, dramatic clap.
"Great. Now send the message, ya dumb blonde!" She mocked in a cowboy accent. I gave a nervous laugh and pressed send, praying Jonathan Atley actually took the time to check over his DMs, and that he would let me see him. We went down to Madi's living room, where her dad had a large newspaper covering his whole face, grunted as we played Karaoke.
"Hey Dad. Can you leave? We're kinda busy." She signed and talked at the same time, and Clint Baker heaved out of his chair, obviously irritated. Madi gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek and got out her karaoke set. I was almost lost in all the laughter and mocking we did as we all sang. Aria by far had the nicest, angelic voice out of all of us. It reached such high notes and we all clapped and whooped as her cheeks flushed a bright red.
"You try, Kara." Aria handed the large black microphone to Kara, who was perched on the end of the sofa, listening in fascination.
"No thanks, red. I sound like a dying cat! You carry on. Can you sing Past Lives?" She replied as she pushed the mic into her unresisting hands.
"Ok, ok. Mads, change the song to Past Lives if you can!" They broke out into a chorus of bickers but I was already exhausted enough. I was texting Ginny about when I would come home for dinner when a text message popped up on my screen. An Instagram Dm. My blood ran cold. Surely it wasn't- It couldn't be-
But it was. My breathing became panicked and I scuffled out of the room, and much to my relief the girls didn't notice, much too absorbed in their singing. The message from Anthony read:
'Hello, Miss Blackheath. Thank you very much for your message. It would be great to arrange a meeting to discuss any potential topics for a paper. If you could meet at my house next week at 2pm, when I am free, that would be great.' Goosebumps prickled up my arms as I hastily typed out,
'Thank you, Mr Atley. That would be great.' A week. I would be meeting my dad's best friend who I had never known existed, for the first time in my life, and maybe now I was closer than ever. It hadn't been impossible at all.
"Char? You ok?" A soft voice whispered. Ginny. She must've come from upstairs. But her voice scared me, and my phone flew out of my hands, landing with a hard BANG! on the wooden floor. Before I could get it, Ginny beat me to it.
"Who are you texting, Char?" She asked, and interest shone in her hazel eyes.
"Nothing you need to know about, Virginia." I snatched the phone out of her grip and as I walked away from her, she called out after me,
"I know you're keeping secrets from me, Charlie. And there's no point. The truth will come out eventually."