Tightrope

A Lake Full of Crocodiles

For the first time in my seventeen years of life, I was actually glad to be at school. Despite the rigid structure of lessons, the too-long skirt requirements and presence of Jace Hartley's face, I'd come to discover that any place was better than my bed; an opinion I definitely didn't hold a few months ago. It was a truly wild feeling. But after a month of hospitalization, broken bones and nothing but my bed, the familiar sight of the oppressing wire gates was welcome.

Maybe my parent's decision to limit my freedoms and keep me in bed with private tutors—instead of sending me to school in a wheelchair—was a good idea, considering the first thing I did with my freedom was climb a tree and trash Jace's bedroom. If they had tried to send me to school with a wheelchair, I probably would've broken more bones attempting to use it to commit vehicular manslaughter on Hartley's person. It still would've been worth it.

At least I could get a bunch of people to sign my cast today. It was already decorated in swirls of colour and the names of my cousins written in various messy scrawls. Hopefully someone could turn Alex's contribution—a penis, obviously—into an artistic creation.

"Oh my god, Lena?" Daria Larrson gasped as she spotted me standing at the gates, her bright eyes zeroing in on the cast wrapped around my leg. She was sitting on the small bench beside the doors of the school, a battered copy of Harry Potter on her lap. She had clearly been waiting for me to arrive.

I'd only seen her a handful of times since the accident. She'd come to visit me whenever she has the chance—she was considerate in that way—and she'd called me almost every day with updates on our friends and general school gossip.

But she was always busy. She was the type of girl who packed her schedule full of activities. She was always doing something, flitting from event to event; cheerleading or bake sales or volunteering at a soup kitchen, usually dragging Hartley along to accompany her. But she had a way of making you feel special when you were with her, because she'd made time for you.

It was kind of her to allocate so much of her time to me. Daria was Jace's best friend—they were so close they were practically siblings, though the same genes that produced Daria could hardly be responsible for creating Hartley—and I wasn't exactly Jace's bosom buddy. But despite my feud with her best friend, Daria had never shut me out. 

I didn't realise how much I'd missed her until I saw her.

Daria was fucking awesome.

I waved at her with my crutch, which was rather awkward. Kaelin snorted a laugh when I stumbled. Daria raced towards us, her sweet smile lighting up her face and her thin arms wrapped me in a careful embrace. Her head of chestnut brown, tumbling curls was tucked under my chin. She was shorter than me—most girls were—but Daria was tiny.

Daria had always been a hugger. She hugged every breathing thing she came across. When I first met her, it was disconcerting, but it was something you eventually became accustomed to. It merely added to her endless charm, as did her constant, genuine smile.

"Hey, Daria," was all I managed to say before she began rambling at a mile a minute.

"I can't believe you're back. We've all missed you so much! Even Jace missed you. He's actually been pretty down without you."

Doubtful.

"And Jonah has been more unresponsive than usual without you and Chance's mum friend thing has been on overdrive. He told Cadence to eat her greens at lunch. I'm sure you can imagine how that went down." She glanced down, worry furrowing her eyebrows. "Are you okay? How's your leg? Did you manage to climb the tree without hurting yourself? I was worried about you."