SHIFTED.✔

8

I saw Katie at school the next day. We didn't speak to each other until we got off the bus. I heard her yell to her friends. "I'm gonna walk with Charlie."

Some of them groaned. "What the fuck...the weird chick?"

"Yeah you know Beach Ball?" I heard one of them say.

When Katie matched my pace she said. "Ignore them."

"I always do." I sneered and jerked my shoulders so she wouldn't know it upset me.

"Are you going to get your mum to buy you a smaller shirt?" She grinned sheepishly at me.

"I don't mind them like this. Besides it's not even half way through the year yet." I shrugged and looked at her seriously. "I'll grow into them."

Katie frowned at me then said, "Hey did you hear about Casey Steel?"

"No," I said shaking my head.

"Apparently she's pregnant," Katie raised her eyebrows. "True...Victoria Carter says it was the babe in year twelve." She looked at me to see if I knew who she was talking about. "He's the guy with the blonde hair...has a black stripe in it."

I nodded. I had noticed him around. Not because I thought he was hot but because I thought his hair looked stupid.

"Victoria says she's going to have an abortion," Katie rolled her eyes. "What an idiot. Why would you have sex and not use a condom?" She shoved a piece of gum in her mouth and offered me one. I shook my head because I didn't want to look like a freeloader. She shrugged and kept talking. "What about you, have you done it yet?"

"God no!" I stared at her in shock.

"What about being touched up?" Katie grinned and twinkled her eyebrows at me.

I didn't really understand what that meant so I gave her a curious look, "Touched up?"

"Yeah...you know. Have you let a boy feel your boobs?"

I shook my head horrified girls the same age as me were doing that. I decided I was way behind the rest of the girls my age. Well...in the boys and sex department anyway.

"It's no biggy," Katie shrugged. "I let Blake Keating do it. It wasn't great...you know, like you see in the movies. It just hurt because the dickhead squeezed too hard."

We had gotten to my house. Katie said, "Hey can I come in? Your house looks great."

Our house looked like every other house in the suburb. The amount of rooms varied and the shapes were slightly different but they were all made out of the same stuff. They were all housing commission houses. My parents were pretty fussy. They kept the house real clean and the yard and gardens neat.

"Okay," I said.

When we went inside she made a sighing sound, "Wow... Are you guy's rich?"

I laughed and thought, 'what is this chick on?' It was just an ordinary house.

But I realised what I thought was ordinary other people might have thought of as special. Or if I thought something was special, they might have thought it was crap.

I made us a drink of Milo while she gushed about, looking in all the rooms. There were only three bedrooms, a bathroom toilet combined, the lounge and kitchen, where the table sat in the middle.

"My place has only got two bedrooms," she said as she scooped up a spoonful of Milo. "You can come over tomorrow if you want. There's only me and my dad."

"Okay," I said. Then she added.

"You want to hang out with us at school? You don't have to if you don't want to, but it must get pretty boring going to the library all the time."

"Yeah," I laughed. "But hey! I get my homework done."

"Is that why you're smart? Because you study all the time?"

I pulled my mouth into a tight grin and shrugged, "That's what happens I guess. When you don't have any friends, you become a nerd."

"I knew you'd be funny," Katie laughed. "I said to the others if someone gave you the chance you'd be funny."

"People talk about me?" I grimaced and bit on my lip.

Katie laughed again, "Shit yeah...!" Then she stopped grinning because she could see I wasn't laughing. "I didn't mean to upset you. Of course people talk about you. You're different. Different people always get talked about."

"So they think I'm weird?"

Katie joggled her shoulders, "Some do, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of weird. It makes people curious. They talk because it means they're really interested to know about you...what makes you special."

"Weird is special," I said as I screwed up my nose.

Katie laughed again, stood up and slapped me on the back, "In my world."

She lifted up her bag, "Gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow. We always hang out near 'B' block."

I nodded and walked her to the door.

Katie skipped down the stairs and waved her hand, "Thanks for the Milo."

Copyright © 2017 by Donna Fieldhouse. All rights reserved.

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