A life in the Dark

C h a p t e r T h i r t e e n

W e d n e s d a y 2 5 t h S e p t e m b e r
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"Hey," I smiled as I returned to the cage for the sixth time this week. It still seems unreal to me.

"Hey," Finley beamed over at me from his place in the goal.

"Lettice! You're on our team!" Logan ordered, jogging over after having the ball stolen from him rather easily, if I may say so. As sweet as he's seeming to be, I'm still expecting an apology for kissing me all those weeks ago; surely he hasn't forgotten that like all the homeworks from over the years. Then again, I wouldn't put it past him.

"Sorry to disappoint," I began with an over exaggerated apologetic flourish, relishing the moment when the corners of his mouth dropped at the idea that their team would lose. "But I am just gonna watch from the sidelines-or at least for now. I need to eat and I have extra-credit-worthy maths problems to solve. I might join in later."

"Oh, okay," he let out a disappointed sigh and returned to the game; I headed towards the fence that was protected by the shade of a tree the other side, where I had a perfect view of the match. Unzipping my bag, I sought out my maths book, lunch box and black-ink pen. As my mind absorbed the initial problem printed on the sheet, I grabbed my plastic spork and stabbed at the salad I'd made earlier that morning; the tomato, cucumber, lettuce and the dressing all swirled together in a healthy blend of flavours. I tried to strategically process the mass of lines, numbers and letters stretched across the top half of the A4 page. Angle A-B-C is allied to B-C-D, so if the first is sixty-three, the latter is one-hundred and seventeen. Then that plus twelve is one-hundred and twenty-nine. One-hundred and eighty minus that...

Two minutes later, I had found the alternate angle to that and then used Pythagorus' theorem to find a length, leaving me a simple trigonometry question. Question two looked the same. As I put my pen down to swap for the spork, I looked up across the pitch to watch as Tom curled the ball towards the goal; Finley brushing it with his fingertips and causing the ball to narrowly miss the net. He retrieved the ball and booted it up the field where Logan was waiting, and controlled before weaving in and out of defenders, twisting round them and passing across to one of the others who passed back immediately, but a few metres closer to the goal for Logan to run on to. Then he shot at the goal, however-unfortunately-he clipped the ball with the wrong part of the foot and consequently sent the ball way over the crossbar. He let out a frustrated grunt as he turned round and jogged back past the halfway line.

Suddenly, there way a sharp pain in between my shoulder blades as the wire of the fence dug into my back. I whipped my head around and looked up to the person there, a silhouette against the sun streaking through the leaves: Jadyn. "Hey, Lettuce!" she sung, her sinister voice twisting the last word into an evil sneer. Nevertheless I kept my sarcasm level high, because it was her.

"Yes, that is lettuce, well done. I didn't expect you to know that!" Her smirk turned into a puzzled expression, which I let her keep for a few seconds before inclining my head to my lunch. "You know, the lettuce leaves? That you eat? In salads?"

She scowls. "Oh pl-ease. Did you really think that was what ai was talking about?"

"What other types of lettuce are there?" I replied, raising my eyebrow, playing dumb. "Well you could've been talking about a specific type, I suppose. I didn't take you for a gardener."

"Oh, shut up-at least I don't have to force myself on the guys to feel validated, or hide behind them like a scaredy-cat.

"You shut up," an angry voice came from behind, surprising me. I turned to see Finley storming over, the game behind him paused and Logan only a few steps behind him.

Jadyn spoke, but her tone had changed completely; instead of being all spiteful and harsh it was now reduced to a sickly sweet, calm one which made me want to puke. This alternate persona was so not her style, and frankly I preferred the old Jadyn. Who knew she could be nice? "Oh, hey Finley. How are you?" I gagged at the new horror. But then it hit me: she was jealous of me-that was why she'd bugged me even more lately-because she liked Finley. And I don't just mean as a friend-if they were even friends. I have my doubts that she has even had a conversation with him.

"Oh piss off, Jadyn, do you really think I don't know what you're doing here?" He crossed his arms across his chest and adjusted his stance so that his feet were shoulder width apart.

"What?" she wined in that overly girly way. "I was just checking the homework with Lettuce he-I mean Lettice here."

"Uh-huh, yeah, totally believe you."

"I knew you would-"

"It's called sarcasm, something you usually excel at." Her face fell; I felt a slight pang of satisfaction.

By now, Logan was also by my side, and now took his chance to pounce. "You're calling Lettice a coward, when it's really you. You're the one hiding behind that fence; you're the one that has never set foot in here. And, of course, you're the one who needs to be validated by us-just look at your face!"

She went to talk but Finley wouldn't let her start. "Just leave Lettice the fuck alone and fuck off, Jadyn." Without another word, she spun on her heel, her face trying to cover up her tears with anger as she stormed-slash-ran across the field.

"Thank you," I turned to the guys. "You didn't have to-"

"No problem," they smiled in unison.

Then they began to return to the game while I sat back down. From the corner of my eye, I saw a figure. A girl with red hair. Staring...

At me.

~~~~~~~

Hey guys, I'm back!

I know I've not been updating much and I am so sorry-I am just plain lazy and I've just started GCSE years so that's part of it.

Btw, I am currently OBSESSED with Bulgarian singer Kristian Kostov-he's soooooooo fucking amazing.

#TeamKris <333

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