Ecstasy

Chapter 23

 Calla:

 I sat next to Mum in the front office. I was so nervous I had almost chewed through my bottom lip. We were waiting to see the principal about me switching curriculum.

Mum was so uptight about it, she insisted she come and talk to the principal to get the whole story. I tried to convince her it could be done without a school visit, but she was adamant she was going to be included.

I just hoped she thought changing programs was a good idea. I enjoyed art, but Mum never understood creativity. She was a numbers and facts person.

"Calla Stevenson?" I heard Mr Pollock call from his office.

I stood up and motioned for Mum to follow me.

"Hi, you must be Calla's mother." Mr Pollock stood up from his desk and shook Mum's hand over the table top. A man I knew as Rodger, my tutor, stood in the corner drinking coffee from a foam cup. With four people in the room, the office seemed smaller than a matchbox.

Mum introduced herself and we all settled into conversation.

My focus faded when a small brown bird landed on the windowsill behind Mr Pollock. It twisted its head in a robotic way. Its black button eyes took in the glass pane. It pecked at the bricks for a moment, then jumped and flew away quickly. I wondered what it would be like to fly. To just have the world at your feet. The freedom to go anywhere you wanted at any time.

"Calla?" A voice interrupted my day dreaming.

"Hmm?" I looked up at my mother.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes, "Always away with the fairies. I asked if you're sure you want to change programs?"

I nodded.

"Good then, it's all sorted. Here's your new timetable." Mr Pollock pushed a sheet of paper across the desk to me.

"Are you sure this program will push her to work hard?" Mum's forehead creased. She looked older when she was anxious.

Rodger nodded, "A lot of learning difficulty students do this program. It's very effective."

"Yes," Mr Pollock interrupted. "Maybe Calla can be a good influence on some of them."

Mum stood up and smiled, revealing her younger face, an expression she rarely showed. "Thank you very much."

"My pleasure, Helen." He stood up to shake her hand again.

I followed my mother as she exited the small room and walked out into the corridor.

Before she left, she turned to me, and said sternly, "You make sure you work hard at this new opportunity. Okay?" She lifted her hand and pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear.

I nodded and gave her a smile.

"Good. I'll see you at home." She called as she turned and left. Her white medical sneakers squeaked on the polished concrete floor as I watched her retreating back.

"Bye."

***

"No way!" Mitchie said disbelievingly at the tiny bit of gossip I shared with her and Phoebe in class about Tyson and Cade fighting. I was feeling generous and the two boys slinging swear words at each other casually in the office yesterday was too good to keep to myself.

"Cade? As in blonde Cade?" Mitchie exhaled sharply her eyes widening.

I frowned, looking up from my charcoal mess of a drawing.

"What's the big surprise?" I asked.

The teacher lifted her head from the desk at the front of the class room, shushing us.

"They were, like, best friends at the beginning of high school but then they had a falling out and haven't spoken to each other since. Do you know what this fight was about?"

I bit my lip contemplating how I could make my drawn rose look any more realistic. "Well they mentioned the name Holly," I said absentmindedly.

Mitchie gasped, "Holly? As in Holly Penting? That's Cade's girlfriend."

"Not anymore it sounded like," I said turning my drawing upside down, before looking up at Mitchie's surprised expression.

"Why are you so surprised?" Phoebe spoke up. "Tyson's a player, you're always saying that. It's just because you like him!"

I frowned at that comment. Great I'm attracted to a player now! I looked up at Mitchie and caught her pouting in response.

"No I do not!" She denied and held steadfast under our patronising stares. "I don't. I like Sam! Tyson's hot." She shrugged. "And only that. Seriously, you know what I heard from Daniel the other day?"

I twitched at Daniel's name but they didn't notice. Phoebe leaned in, trying to hear Mitchie's suspenseful whispers.

"Tyson's uses drugs!"

I pressed too hard on my stick of charcoal and it broke.

"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked.

Mitchie put her pencil down. "I mean illegal drugs. Hard drugs."

Phoebe didn't look convinced. "I'm mean I know he drinks, who doesn't? But drugs? I doubt it. Who do we know who lives here, that does hard drugs?"

Mitchie shook her head. "Daniel says he saw Tyson buying something that looked suspiciously like cocaine of this shady figure at the carnival last weekend."

Phoebe scoffed and continued to deny what only I knew was the truth. I didn't comment, but just stared down at my drawing.

"Calla?" Mitchie queried, "What do you think? He walked you home, was he, like, high?"

I almost smirked at the memory of our conversation but I managed to contain myself, "No, I don't think so. But does it matter?"

Mitchie frowned, "Well – I don't know. Do you enjoy buying cocaine by the pound, from a shady looking dealer, at a children's carnival?" She said sarcastically and I looked up from my drawing. Her eyes locked with mine in an uncomfortable stare. "Why so defensive?"

I sat up straighter, "I am not!" Which caused both Mitchie and Phoebe to tilt their heads at me.

"Something happened last Friday night you're not telling us!" Mitchie pointed a pencil at me accusingly.

"Nothing happened! Seriously guys! We just talked. And he was sober." I looked back at my drawing and couldn't believe I was defending him. I reached over to grab another stick of charcoal but dropped it instantly when I remembered the hospital. I had to suppress my gag reflex.

Mitchie giggled, finally dropping the serious subject. "Pfft, more like flirted."
I couldn't help smiling, and they both laughed at me.

The teacher shushed us again and we all looked back at our work, forced into silence.

***

I walked into the music classroom wearily. Most of the class was there. I was a little late; just from walking across the entire campus from remedial English. I passed Phoebe, who I happily learned the other day did the arts program too, and she shot me an apologetic look about the now occupied seat beside her. I just shot her a reassuring smile and found an empty seat at the back.

Sitting down I eyed the near full classroom. I still wasn't familiar with it. It had been an entire week and the work was harder than I expected but I liked the subject. I pulled out my notebook and opened it to the page I was up to.

"Okay munchkins! Settle down," I heard a voice from the front of the class room and I looked up to see the teacher Mrs Wallace.

A really funny and eccentric woman, she was my favourite teacher by far. She made every lesson fun and she actually made an effort to help me without being entirely obvious or pointing things out to me in particular.

"Today unfortunately we have a pretty boring lesson. We're learning the D melodic minor scale, yay!" she said sarcastically, walking around in between the desks handing out work sheets.

I didn't hear the person enter the classroom but when someone thumped their books down onto my deserted table I looked up surprised to see Tyson pulling out the chair beside me. I frowned; Since when did he do music? He smirked at me as he silently pulled out his own workbook.

"Nice of you to visit us Tyson from the other side of suspension," Mrs Wallace spoke trying to hide her smile as she passed by our table and dropped a worksheet in front of him.

Realisation suddenly dawned on me as I remembered the confrontation a week ago in the office with him and that boy, Cade.

I looked over at him as he studied the sheet before him and groaned. "Have a problem with the work see me after class Tyson." Mrs Wallace continued as she walked back to the front of the class room.

I refused to be distracted by him sitting beside me and tried to focus on the example the teacher was giving up the front of the class room. When it came to actually trying to do the scale by myself on the sheet in front of me I found it harder than it was to follow to example.

I frowned trying to ignore the scratch of Tyson's pencil as he quickly filled in the simple worksheet and looked at the mess of shapes and lines on my paper.

This is impossible, I thought trying to make sense of the letters and symbols. From what I gathered I had to read the letter and then fill in the spot above it on the music lines where the notes sat. But I had trouble reading the letters.

I decided to just guess and I started to randomly fill in little circles above the letters. But then all of a sudden I felt the weight beside me shift and Tyson move closer to me. I turned to look at his face which was now only inches from mine. He was frowning as he looked at my page.

"Do your own work!" I whispered, my pencil pausing.

"I'm already finished," he mumbled, snatching the pencil out of my hand he twisted it to erase my fail attempt at completing the scale.

"Hey!" I protested.

"You're doing it wrong," He said trying to keep his voice low, "That's an A." He said redrawing my scale. "And that's a B," He continued to correct my scale until he thought it was right. And I wasn't complaining, I just sat there and watched him. I studied his handsome face as he concentrated on the notes. He wrote with his left hand and his jaw was clenched as he focused on the page. Then he looked up at me and I realised he had just said something, but I was too focused on his cerulean blue eyes and how they flicked around my face to respond.

I inwardly swore and told myself to remember to breathe.