Golden Birds

Chapter four

The coming week was exams and me being in year 11 meant it was GCSEs ; which for any one who doesn't know what they are, basically, they're these big exams you take when you are aged 15/16 in the UK. I was 15 since my birthday was June the 17th. It didn't matter that much cause it doesn't really make a difference, well for me any way. News from the doctors had been looking bright, in fact my mum's breast cancer was practically, completely gone, however the doctors had still yet to find what was making my mum nauseous; after all she had finished all her chemotherapy. So as I study for my exams my mum was still laid in hospital but I was relaxed, her results so far, had been great. For my GCSEs, I took maths, English and all 3 sciences of course because everyone has to take those, then 1 humanity (geography), 1 language (French) and 3 free choices (food, art and drama). In year 10 everyone did 3.5 hours of maths and 3 ours of English, then 4.5 of science and 2.5 hours of every other subject we selected, except we had to do 1 hour of P.E as well; then year 11 we had to all do 3 hours of maths and 3.5 of English, then the rest was the same as year 10.

~•~

I was on my way to English when I bumped into Him again. "Oh. Um. Sorry Kayla." he said in the same dreamy voice that he spoke in when we last talked and this time there was no annoying brothers to give me weird looks. He gave me my folder that had dropped when I bumped into him and carried on walking. Which was unlike him, normally he would stop to tease me and ask about my mum; however this time he seemed tense and stressed. Maybe the exams were getting to him.

It wasn't till later that day that I realised something was really wrong; he had sat behind me and Dakota on the bus, which was a sign because if he were ok he would of sat with his mates at the back of the bus. We were about 1/4 of way through the journey when I turned around because I heard faint crying noises from behind and sure enough it was someone crying. He was staring blankly out the window with tears falling down his face and dripping of his chin, both headphones firmly in his ears and his hand pressed against his face propping him up. I quickly span back round to face Dakota, "We have to do something!" I said in a panic.

"About what?"

"About Tyler, of course?" my voice shrank to a whisper.

"Whats wrong with him..." she goes quiet and turns to look at him. "Oh. Right. Ok, what should we do? I mean you could ask him if he is ok?"

"Why would I do that? You know what I am like!"

"I also know who you like!"

My facing going red, I think of my best 'get out of this' statement; "You're just taking advantage of his situation."

"Oh, come on really. If this my crush you'd be saying the same thing."

She had a fair point, "Ok." I get out of my seat and sit on the empty one next to Tyler, "Ummm, Tyler are you ok?" I start to feel flustered and hot; what a stupid thing to ask, of course he's not ok. He wiped his face then turned to face me, he tried so hard to avoid eye contact. It took him a little while to loosen up but eventually he told me that his grandpa had just died of skin cancer and that he was really close to him. He also mentioned to me that he now felt really pressured that he had to do outstanding in his exams because that's what his grandpa would have wanted. I told him his grandpa would of wanted him to try his best and that he would of been proud with what ever he got as long as he had tried his hardest. Tyler was just about to mention something else when we reached my stop and we had to get off, I grabbed my bag which was still next to Dakota, said good bye to both her and Tyler (even though Tyler got off at the same stop as me, but his house was the opposite way to mine anyway) and got off the bus. Dakota gave me a wink as the bus drove away, I had to walk home alone today as my brother had gone home early for the dentist but I didn't mind.

~•~

The next morning I nearly missed the bus, me and my brother both had to leg it to the stop where the bus was just about to drive off. Getting on my brother thanked the driver and went straight to the back, I just smiled and went to my normal seat, roughly in the middle section of the bus. As I looked around I realised Tyler wasn't there, I peered through the window to notice a small figure running towards us yelling something, I call to the driver to stop but with my pathetic voice he didn't hear me. Luckily for Tyler he saw him and pulled over to let him on, Tyler looks at me and then sits behind me again, I couldn't help but smile.

"Kayla, I wanted to ask you something yesterday." he said over the top of the seat.

"Hold up one second." I replied "First, is it try and miss the school bus day or something because me and my brother also nearly missed it. And secondly how are you today?"

He looks at me with a smile across his face, "Right, but you weren't as late as me."

"If we had been as late as you I think we would of missed it completely." we laugh.

His face drops and quite suddenly we are both serious again; "Oh it turns out my grandpa's tumour was successfully removed and that he actually died of an infection."

"I am so sorry Tyler."

We both went silent up until Dakota got on, she pulled a face in confusion; I mean what to be confused about, I suppose my face probably did look like I had just seen a ghost and the fact Tyler sat behind us again but altogether nothing to be confused about. I leant over the back of my seat, "You wanted to ask me something earlier!"

"Oh yeah doesn't matter, I will ask you some other time it's not important." that was it we didn't talk for the rest of the journey. Dakota joked that if he asked me out that her and Lizzie would always come before him and that if he hurt me that he would be beaten up by Dakota's younger sister since she does kick boxing and Dakota doesn't.

First period came along and it was French I sat behind Tyler, Dakota sat the other side of the room and poor Lizzie wasn't even in the same class. We were all allowed to move around as long as we got on with our revision, and as Tyler got up to move away he dropped a note on my desk, thinking it was part of his revision at first, I tried to tell him he dropped. After realising he wouldn't be able to hear me even if I tried to 'shout', I opened to see if it was important and it read;

Kayla,

The question I wanted to ask you was: will you go out with me?

Tyler .W

I was so shocked, I sat there for about 5 minutes in amazement, staring towards the front of the class. When Dakota sat next to me she saw the note in my hand and said "Told you so."

Of course after class I told him 'yes'.

On the bus home I sat behind Dakota and next to Tyler all we did was talk and talk. Dakota didn't mind.