Innocence

Chapter Eight - Lost Mouse

We didn't speak for 3 weeks. Tyler didn't even show up for school; and people were talking about him again. And me.

"Don't worry Emma, this is normal behaviour from him. Before you arrived he used to turn up once a month - if we were lucky." Amanda said to me as she took a bite out of her sandwich during lunch.

"Yeah, maybe he's just going back into his old routine or needs some space or something..." Kelly trailed off.

"Everyone thinks it's my fault. Everywhere I go, all I hear are whispers and I get weird looks. It's frustrating because I don't like it when people talk about my friends and doesn't let me concentrate in class." I frowned. Jessica was the main big mouth in all of this. She made a rumour that I slept with Tyler and that he didn't like it so he was moving schools and James and Damien were following just so they didn't have to confront me. None of it was true, because I was still a virgin and Damien and James texted me occasionally.

And even through all that and the rest of the rumours that were circling the whole student population; I was still thinking about that kiss. Was I bad at kissing? Was that why he's been avoiding me this whole time? It had felt incredible to me... Better then when a boy named John kissed my cheek in 3rd Grade when I was in Australia. But then again, that pretty much had been my only other kiss.

"Earth to Emma! You always zone out with us!" Alice exclaimed as she snapped a finger in front of my eyes.

"Yeah I'll do it, don't worry!" I replied straight away, earning myself 5 blank faces before they all broke into laughter.

"Are you telling me that if I asked you to murder someone right this second, that's what you'll reply with?! Now we know who to turn too to do our dirty work." Daniel said with a wink.

"What? I wouldn't kill anyone! What were you saying?"

"We were saying that we should go shopping this afternoon to get your mind off things! It'll be worth it and don't even think about using your sister and making dinner for your mum as an excuse; Daniel and Amanda are going to pick her up and take her home and sort everything out for you. What do you say?" Alice said with a grin.

I bit my lip while thinking about it. A shopping trip wouldn't hurt... I could finally buy Courtney that crayon set she's been pestering me about for the past 6 days, and I needed to buy more correction tape for school... "Okay, but are you sure you guys want to take care of my sister? I mean, she's a handful, and you have to be a really good cook to satisfy her or she'll criticize you like those judges on cooking shows."

"Are you doubting me cooking skills Ms. Emma Peters?! I'll have you know that I am the best cook in the whole south continent!" Daniel said, acting offended. Amanda rolled her eyes and wacked his head. "We'll be fine. Plus, we already checked with your mum as well, she said she finishes work early today, so she'll be home before you'll get there and if Courtney doesn't like our cooking your mum said that she'd take care of it. Now, stop thinking about it - you're going to have fun today." Amanda grinned.

"Ditto!" Kelly and Katie said in unison.

I looked at all 5 of them and smiled. "You guys are the best. Thank you so much."

Alice clapped and grinned. "Anytime!"

*

"I can't believe they kicked me out! I wasn't even doing anything wrong! I was just testing the toy to see if it was fun!" Alice exclaimed as we walked out of the toy store laughing.

"Alice - you opened the box that the toy was in and started playing with it!" Katie said while giggling.

"Then you decided to tell the kid next to you to do the same thing and you started playing with him on the floor!" Kelly added.