Ange (girlxgirl)

Chapter Forty-two

School has always been a good place for me to think, I will give it that, the only thing it has going for it. Teachers don't really try and get me involved anymore, they let me do my own thing in my corner and wonder how I pass top of the class each time. It is because even though I don't seem like it, I'm listening to what they say and Dad is and Mum was smart and it got passed down to Joan and I. Today, I think about how many lies I need to clear and how many things I need to sort out with myself. I come to a conclusion that I will sleep with Ryan, even though I don't want to sleep with another male after Nat, but I need who I tell Emma and Carol I'm sleeping with to be true so it isn't another thing I'm lying about. However, if I can't make myself sleep with him, I will tell Emma and Carol the truth as long as Natalie approves and I will talk to my sister. My brain throbs after all of this thinking.

I pass my driver's test and put up my P Plates with a sense of new found freedom. Only Emma, three others and I are 18 in year 11 making it even more exciting and thrilling. I drive around the town after I get my license, pumping music with my windows down on the backroads and singing along to the lyrics, I feel so excited for my night with Nat. My stomach starts to grumble and I look at the time to see it is already 1, driving around wasn't suppose to take three hours and I suppose it is too late to go to school now. I pull into a cafe parking lot and sit out the front by myself because most people are inside, in the warm. The waitress comes and takes my order and I wait there until she returns with my tea and focaccia. I sit there sipping it and looking out over the busy street.

"Angelina?" A curt voice cuts the silence.

I look up and push my sunglasses down, it is Mrs Denver.

"Oh, hello, Mrs Denver," I say politely.

Her sour expression doesn't change and she looks at me madly, probably for skipping school. She seems to have taken it personally. "Why aren't you at school, young lady?"

I take a sip of tea and eye her with satisfaction because I'm taking up her time.

"Well?" She says, raising her eyebrow like Nat does. I've never realised how pretty Mrs Denver is for her age, though she isn't that old.

I wave my arm around. "It is a beautiful day," I say in a ditzy sort of way.

Mrs Denver eyes my food and tea angrily. "Angelina, I don't think you understand. You are in specialist math because you are extremely intelligent. So use that brain and think about getting back to school, quick smart." And with that, she closes the road, gets into her car and drives off in a fury.

"Melodramatic much," I mutter.

Despite what Mrs Denver said to me, I don't return to school. Instead at 3:30 I drive back home and have a long shower, pondering all my thoughts and feelings. I smoke a small amount of weed and play a bit of guitar for about an hour. At 5, my vinyl spins to a stop and I get off my bed. Nat would be home now, it is a little early but I need to discuss a lot of things with her. So I get into my car and drive over to her house through the town way. I watch as shopkeepers wheel in clothes racks with grim faces mirroring the cloudy sky. As soon as I pull up outside her house, the sky rumbles with thunder and when it passes my phone vibrates in my jean pocket.

Hope you are inside, a storm just passed here. Good job on your license, your Dad told me.

It's from Katherine. I lock my phone and car and head up the garden path, knocking on the door for the first time sober.

"Hey, you." Nat says cheerfully as she opens the door and smiles at me.

"Hey." I say back and smiling at her, even though I'm a little agitated at all the things I have on my mind that I need to tell her.