Misplaced (COMPLETED)

the signs

"I still don't understand this," I whined.

"Relax, it's not that hard. You're forgetting to take the square root at the end." Lucy leaned over my open maths book to correct my flawed attempt of calculating the area of a circle via the Sine Rule.

Exams would begin in less than twenty-four hours and I had less than half of my semester's mathematics work memorised. I thanked Lucy for her help and stared at the next question on the page but my head was a million miles away. I was meant to be having dinner at my Dad's that night with, for the first time, the addition of Cornelius - a silky King Charles Spaniel with the tendency to, on occasion, eat his own excrement. The dog itself was really very sweet and adorable, but it was what he symbolised that bothered me. Dad left our family and, within a month, had replaced us with the one species of animal Mum was allergic to.

Absentmindedly, I clicked my pen a few times and allowed my eyes to wander out the window towards the oval where a football was being kicked amongst a group of boys. I wondered if Michael was amongst them. Like me, my younger brother was not my father's greatest fan. Unlike me, the lure of a muddy footy being kicked on a Sunday morning with dear old Dad would likely to heal their damaged bond within a few weeks.

As for Sadie, she was older than us and had adopted the infinitely annoying maturity all adults were meant to display towards such matters. She lived alone and didn't see either of our parents all that regularly from the beginning. Therefore, her personal involvement with our parents' divorce was of a relatively low level to her. She could accuse me for being childish about the divorce all she wanted, but she hadn't lived it second hand like I had. Safe to say, she would not be attending the oncoming evening.

Across the footy field, my gaze zeroed in on the back of one dark-haired, lanky guy. He ran beneath the soaring projectile ball, arms outstretched to catch it. Just before Zach could get his arms around it, Oliver Parks appeared and caught the ball in a dramatic mid-air catch sending a cheer up from his team. Zach was good at football, but I knew him well enough to know his passion lied more in the quiet corners and the spaces where attention from strangers couldn't reach him. We had that in common and, if I was being honest, that aspect of his personality had been a big influence on my falling for him.

"Hey," a pair of skinny fingers snapped under my nose, "Stop staring at Lover Boy and start gazing at the algebra."

I flicked a grin towards Lucy's own joking smile before deliberately staring at my boyfriend. He moved to a spot further from Oliver's pushy presence but stepped to the side as the team of laughing cheerleaders skipped to the side of the field for practice.

"Ehh, I hate cheerleaders," Lucy commented blatantly.

I didn't bother responding. They had never done anything to me and - unlike the stereotype - most of them seemed to be genuinely nice people. But a part of my gut squeezed uncomfortably as they shuffled past Zach. They knew he was in a relationship and none of them would trying anything on with him. I guess a part of me was only jealous of their perfection, their long legs and flawless high pony tails. And apart from a small glance at Sasha McDonnell that may or may not have just been out of politeness, Zach acted around them the way a perfect boyfriend should - disinterested. I trusted him near other girls, I did. But why had my stomach suddenly rolled into a tight ball of knots? Was I just an insecure person in general? Or was it the stress of tonight that was getting to me?

A second football propelled down from the sky in what had been one powerful kick. Zach, running to meet it, caught it perfectly. As the near-by spectators cheered for him, Zach's milky smile stretched a little further than I had expected it to. He was beginning to fit in with the high school crowd more then. He started playing more football during his lunch breaks. As for me? I began spending my breaks studying algebra.

"Kales? You alright?" Lucy looked at me questioningly.

Shrugging off the feeling I smiled at Lucy, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking about this maths test tomorrow."

"You'll be fine. Don't even worry about it."

"Thanks," I smiled at her. But it wasn't the maths I had been thinking about.

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A/N:

Jealousy's got to be one of the worst feelings, especially when there's no real cause for it.

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