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Chapter 17 - Sky

After the long and arduous task of rounding Daryll and Brookie up - it astonished Sky how much energy children could have - the four of them began the walk home. Once again, Sky’s head became filled with images of the war, and the barren landscape that this area had become, and she found it hard to imagine that that was potentially her future.

“Zinnie! You need... Teagan... Hospital...” Corrine’s voice shouted as they rounded the corner and the caravan came into sight.

Sky glanced at her friend, only to find that her hazel eyes that were once full of happiness were now full of fear. Zinnie quickened her pace to reach her adoptive mother faster, turning her face - and Sky wondered whether that was because she didn’t want to scare the younger two or appear scared to Sky.

“What happened?” Zinnie gripped Corrine’s arms tightly blocking the doorway as Sky stood outside awkwardly.

“She couldn’t breathe... She started coughing and was wheezing... We need to go...” Corrine said to Sky’s friend, who was about to run out of the caravan again before she noticed that Sky was still there. She looked pained, but she spoke to Sky despite being in such a hurry to leave.

“Sky, you need to go home now. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” And with that, Zinnie was gone.

The walk from Zinnie’s to Sky’s house gave the redhead a lot of time to think. She realised that Zinnie was the type of person to bottle things up and not share with you how she was feeling. She pondered ways in which she could get Zinnie to feel better, but thought that Zinnie would act like there was nothing wrong.

Sky entered her own house, not even realising how deep in thought she had gotten and completely blanked her mother as she walked up the stairs and into her own room, where she felt she hadn’t been in a long time.

 

***

 

“Hey, you left this at mine.” Those were the first words Zinnie said to Sky the next morning as a plastic bag was thrust into Sky’s face. She generously took the bag, and realised that it was the dress they’d stolen.

“Thanks. Um, about yesterday...” Sky started, but Zinnie cut her off.

“Yeah, sorry for making it out like you were the best singer in the world. I get that you’re shy and stuff.” Sky frowned.

“No, I meant about Teagan...” Zinnie appeared to take a deep breath before she replied.

“Sky, don’t... Please.” Sky couldn’t even be surprised that Zinnie had actually said please, but heartbroken at the expression that was on Zinnie’s face for a second before it was replaced by a mischievous one.

“I wonder if Oliver would like you more if he heard you sing...” Sky’s mouth fell open at Zinnie’s comment. She was going to respond but the teacher entered the classroom and ended the conversation.

Sky couldn’t get Zinnie to talk to her much after that, and it was only when they met back up again in the history classroom that Sky realised they hadn’t done their history project.

She was going to tell Zinnie, but the brunette was already in a conversation with Dakota so she left it, hoping that Mr Wool would run out of time this lesson and run over into the next one, which was on Friday. That didn’t happen.

“Zinnia and Sky, you’re next.” An awkward silence followed Mr Wool’s voice before Sky spoke.

“Sorry sir, we haven’t got our project at the moment...” Sky trailed off, looking down at her hands in her lap.

“But we can do it at lunch sir, and show it first thing on Friday.” Zinnie joined in, quickly, she stared down at her desk.

Mr Wool stood, his lips pursed and his every movement purposeful. He strode towards Sky and Zinnie, the entire class was silent, waiting for his verdict. He gazed down at the pair, his face turning red before he boomed: “WHAT!?”

“Sir,” Zinnie stood up, “I’m sorry, it was my fault, I just wasted tons of time and Sky tried to get it done but-”

“That’s not true!” Sky called out, “Zinnie couldn’t because…” Sky glanced at Zinnie, and she could see that deep in her hazel eyes she didn’t want anyone to know about Teagan, so Sky lied and said, “because her her mum… took her to see her grandmother on the weekend. She’s very ill, you know.”

Mr Wool nodded gravely, “Ah, my own mother is in terrible health, I’m afraid my children won’t be able to learn of her wonderful personality.” The look on Mr Wool’s face was surprising and sad whilst he regarded the two girls.

“Umm, so would it be possible to work on it at lunch time?” Zinnie asked.

“Very well, but I expect it to be excellent.” Sky exchanged a glance with Zinnie; excellent? They still had no idea what they were doing it on!

 

“Right, what are we going to do?” Zinnie asked Sky as they met up in the history classroom with permission from Mr Wool. Sky stopped time to give them as long as they wanted before speaking.

“Well, I think it would be silly to just do something that we have no knowledge about...” Sky mused. A pause followed before Zinnie appeared to have a brainwave.

“Why don’t we just do it about the fifties? We’ve got costumes, and can talk about how they spoke...”

“You’re a genius, Zinnie!” Sky cried, a smile on her face as she almost skipped over to the computer and logged it on.

“I know.” Zinnie replied before joining her friend and collecting a variety of information that they then turned into a project. If all went well, a show would be set up, with Zinnie as the male lead role, Sky the female one and puppets as the extras. It involved a lot of dancing, and Sky was almost convinced to sing in it.

“Hey, when did you start time again?” Zinnie asked a while later. Sky didn’t look up from the history book she was reading, but said,

“Oh, about ten minutes ago when we nearly finished. It would’ve been weird if Mr Wool came in a minute after we were supposed to have started and we claimed we were done. He would have thought we just didn’t want to do it today.”

“You know what, we’re both geniuses.”

“That we are.” Sky muttered, as they finally finished their history project and could get back to time travelling for the fun of it and not for researching their school work.

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Heya,

Sorry this chapter is, like, really short and rubbish; life's been hectic!

But, on the plus side, I got my GCSE result for maths back, and I got an A*!! I'm so thrilled and over the moon, it's unreal, but I'mtrying to contain myself!

As always, thanks for reading!!