Chapter Three
That’d Better Be The End of Me
India
“Indie?”
She stood up. She had the answer in her head the moment Miss Bennett asked the question.
“Moby Dick,” she said, with an air of confidence.
Nothing could steal literature class away from her. She loved books, as much as that sounded lame.
The boys at the back of the class snickered.
“Good job, Indie,” Miss Bennett praised. India had always been one of her best and top students. Her signing up for the literature A Level class was nothing surprising to her.
India sat back down. She didn’t care if the hooligans thought she was a nerd for loving literature.
All she cared about was that she loved it.
Throughout all the damaging relationships and poor communications she and her mum’s boyfriends/husbands have been through, she felt as if books were the only things she could confide in, or at least talk to.
Miss Bennett wanted to say something before the bell rung and everybody moved to leave.
Miss Bennett sighed and shouted over the loud chatter her goodbyes.
India packed up her bag. She didn’t want to go home, her mother’s friends would be there again.
“India?” She looked up.
“Could you stay a moment?” She nodded.
She placed the last of her items into her backpack and moved to the front of the empty classroom.
“There’s a competition,” Miss Bennett told her. “It’s a very prestigious one.”
India’s eyes trailed Miss Bennett’s fiddling of the sheet of paper on her desk.
“Oh yeah?” India nudged her on.
“It’s a poetry writing competition. It’s held in Oxford University.” Wow.
She remembered the last time her mother drove her to Oxford and they bought slushies and stood outside the campus.
She suddenly felt so small.
They talked about going there. Her, Oxford University, English Literature.
That was her future. She wanted to go there, so badly, her toes curled in such that they started to ache.
“I’m putting you up for the competition.” Miss Bennett proclaimed proudly.
India didn’t know how to respond.
“I have had my eye on you, little one, for quite some time now.”
Miss Bennett passed the sheet of paper over to India. Her heart rate increased drastically. She felt herself smile.
“But, their age requirement of sixteen had me waiting until now.”
India mind raced to think of which poem to submit. She would have to let Miss Bennett look though them first, though. She was not very confident of the writings she did in secret.
“You up for the challenge?”
India had never felt more decisive. Nor, happy.
She beamed. She radiated. She looked somewhat golden.
“Yes, Miss Bennett. Definitely.”
* * *
Finn
YOU ARE READING
A Book About Love
Roman pour AdolescentsA Book About Love India and Finn are two extremely different people. India believes in love (even though her mother doesn't), and Finn doesn't. This book is not about love, or the definition of love. It is how two people endure the pains and hap...
