How The Geeks Got Invaded

Anna Part 3

Over the next week, there were more changes. Mostly with Anna.

The next day, when she came into school, her normally pale face was stark white. Like, Draco Malfoy's hair shade of white. There were dark shadows around her eyes that Mrs French actually thought was smokey eye. I watched as Anna accepted the mark on her Infringement Card without a word. 

I caught up with her later, when all the others had gone ahead. "Is it really makeup?" I asked. She shushed me violently, but, realizing no one else was there, shook her head. I didn't ask any more, but I saw the bangle on her arm again.

Her lips turned darker too. They used to be a really bright red, but they were fading to brown. It reminded me of  her telling us about her vampire heritage in Year 7. 

I tried to talk to her twice more. The first time, she just shushed me. The second time, she snapped.

"I told you I was trying to figure it out! Can't you just leave me alone!" she hissed at me. I flushed, mumbling an apology under my breath that she probably couldn't hear. After that, I didn't speak to her for the rest of the week. But I still kept an eye out.

Another thing: Edie was changing too. She was getting more and more tanned. Her hair got blonder and blonder. It was also getting shorter. She stopped falling over things. And then, one day, she successfully stole Maria's cookie. 

And she didn't even share it.

The worrying was really getting to me. I started taking my knitting to school with  me every day, not just Tuesdays. I even did it under the table in Maths. I had started on my first jumper, which was growing rapidly. 

It was a few days later that I noticed Anna seemed to be drifting apart from the rest of the group. She didn't talk about Irish dancing or horse riding anymore. She disappeared at lunch times. And I worried, and I knitted, and I kept my nose out.

 But one day that week, I decided I couldn't ignore it anymore. It was a cover lesson for Geography, so we all got there early to get the best seats. Usually Bella, Anna and Maria would sit on the back row whilst Blessing, Edie and I would sit in front. But that day, Maria came and sat next to me. 

"Aren't you sitting with Anna?" I asked. 

"No."Maria said. "I'm not sitting next to her. She wouldn't talk to me anyway."

"Um." I said. My usual response in an awkward situation. "Ah." 

"Is she talking to you?" Maria asked.

I bit my lip, wondering. I didn't want to gossip about Anna. But Maria had no such qualms apparently.

"She won't talk to anyone." Maria carried on. "And she's never there. And then you try to talk to her about it and she just yells at you!" 

"Ah." I said again. I hadn't been in the same lesson before as those two, so there seemed to be new tensions I didn't know about. I fiddled with my little finger. 

"Do you want a hug?" I asked. 

"No, I'm fine." Maria said, setting down her water bottle rather hard on the table. "But if she's going to be like that then I'm not sitting with her." 

I glanced at Anna behind us, swallowing. She was sitting on the end of the row, a big empty seat between her and Bella. I felt a horrible knot of bad emotions begin to build in my stomach, a poisonous bubble of worry and guilt and fear and panic. And I knew that if whatever was happening was going to separate Anna from the rest of the group, I wasn't just going to sit there and let it happen.

Hello my lovely readers! I am back! As you may have noticed, there have been some minor renovations...all will become clear in the fullness of time...
Anyway, do you remember @depressedhaikus, my fabulous friend who designed the cover of this book? Well, it was her birthday yesterday, and it would be a lovely present if you were to maybe go and follow her...or read her books...*cough cough hint hint*
See you next Thursday!