Evergreen

Chapter 9

You're a sky full of stars – Coldplay

*

It was a bright Monday morning; the birdsong was chirpy and cheerful. Everett's good mood didn't go unnoticed by his eagle-eyed friends.

"What's made you so happy?" asked Marty, noting with amusement that Everett had a literal spring in his step.

"Oh, nothing in particular," he said breezily, "just a nice day, that's all. No English, blackbirds singing, etc."

Jade raised an eyebrow. "How do you know it's a blackbird singing? Most people wouldn't have a clue."

"Amelia taught me." Suddenly, he broke into a crazy grin.

"Oh my God, are you blushing?" asked Marty, and Everett felt his cheeks heat up as hot as the surface of the sun. What on earth was going on?

"No, I mean, I don't know..."

"Do you like Amelia?"

Everett laughed nervously. "What? No! No, she's just a friend. Really," he added, seeing that none of his friends looked convinced. It was the truth - they had some things in common, enjoyed each other's company and were good friends. But there wasn't anything romantic in it at all. And he'd prove it to them when they hung out that evening at Jade's house.

*

At five minutes past 6, Everett turned up outside Jade's house wearing his usual grey jumper and dark grey jeans. To his surprise, it was Marty who answered the door.

"Hi, Everett, hi Amelia, come in!"

Everett turned his head to find Amelia next to him dressed in denim (not that he was noticing) and made his way into the house without looking at her again. He needed to get a grip on himself - it was because he was trying too hard to prove he didn't like Amelia romantically, that was it. His friends probably weren't even looking out for telltale signs.

Everything in the house was spick and span, almost too clean as if no one lived there. The pictures were arranged perfectly on the walls, showing pictures of Jade and her older brother Will from birth to the present day. There was also a picture of their mum, who had died three years ago, that seemed to shine as it was so clean. It was easy to forget that Jade's life was far from evergreen when she seemed to sail through school.

"These are nice pictures!" said Amelia, pointing at a picture of Jade from what looked like year 4. She'd had some goofy teeth back then before the braces.

"Thanks," replied Jade with a proud smile.

"Very cute, can we play Rocket League now?" said Marty, and everyone fished around for remotes. As there were only four remotes, Jade opted to play the game on her laptop. Soon, they were in the swing of the game.

"GOAL!" yelled Marty, raising his controller into the air to celebrate. "I scored!"

"We know," said Jade moodily. She would not let Marty's team win again, not a chance in hell.

Meanwhile, Amelia was passing the ball to Jade, who passed it to Hassan, who scored just as Marty stop his celebrating.

"You snooze, you lose," said Hassan smugly, smirking at Marty's expression of disbelief.

"Oh yeah? We'll see who's snoozing when I score the next goal!" retorted Marty, taking the ball from Hassan in the game.

Everett, who'd been in the middle of munching a packet of crisps, reacted a little too late to Marty passing the ball to him, letting it roll over to Jade. Typical!