“I wasn’t,” I answer. “I was paying attention.”
“It’s okay,” Ruby grins. “This is a depressing topic, anyway. Ugh, look at them. They’re as bad as Daisy and Howard.”
I follow her gaze to a table nearby the oval. Noah and his friends, Henry, Kaito and Declan, and Tiana’s friends, Alison and Sana, crowd around it. Tiana is sitting in Kaito’s lap, whispering in his ear.
I pretend to retch. “The worst part is that if Tiana was witnessing someone else do this, she’d be harsh as hell on them.”
“Yeah, it’s both the hypocrisy and PDA for me.”
Tiana and Kaito kiss and we look away.
“Remember when she told everybody that Daisy sucked off Howard on camp last year?” I ask.
“Or the time she said our substitute teacher was fired because he went to a bar with a student?”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know how she gets away with making up such ridiculous rumours.”
“People always believe them,” Ruby says. “Maybe because they’re so bored, they want drama. Though you’ve got to admit, drama is pretty entertaining.”
“I suppose.” I lean back, the breeze flicking my ponytail.
Ruby leans back too. “Did you ever end up talking to Noah?”
That’s right. I haven’t said a single word to Ruby about what happened in the sports shed, or that evening, or how we’ve been talking about the phone. Partly for obvious reasons — I don’t want to expose Noah — but also because I don’t want to suggest that we’re acquaintances when all we do is text occasionally.
“I did.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
I shrug. “It was anti-climactic. I ran into him at a bad time, and he seemed …” how much to lie, how much to tell the truth? “… annoyed. But he knew he was wrong and said he wouldn’t do it again.”
“Ha,” Ruby says.
“What?”
“He’ll do it again. You know how those people are,” Ruby says, narrowing her eyes at the group of them.
Irritation builds up in my heart, though I know Ruby’s right. Noah promised not to cheat offme, not never to cheat again.
I stop myself from defending him. “Yeah, you’re right,” I answer instead.
Ruby stares at the popular group while I survey the rest of the school grounds. All the buildings are the same shades of white, beige and brown, and the lawns are green year-round.
Nearby, a group of Year 7 girls giggle. A teacher on yard duty tells off a boy for not wearing his school hat. In the distance, I see Oliver walking with John towards the locker area. Sun is streaming through the clouds, casting him in light, turning his hair golden.
I make myself look away.
6
Noah: No Homo
Like every other Economics class, no work is getting done. Most of the time, we have a substitute teacher because of our usual teacher having pregnancy complications. Every substitute teacher either doesn’t know how to control the class or knows nothing about economics, which is concerning since the students are paying upwards of ten grand a year in tuition fees.
When today’s substitute teacher walked in, attractive and recently graduated from university, the class paid attention for about five minutes. Now, people chat while he writes notes on the board. In the front row, a group of boys play Minecraft, and girls browse through makeup websites.
At my table, there are enough seats for Tiana and Alison to join Henry, Kaito, Declan and me. The rest of the guys took Economics because their parents made them — their fathers are financial advisors and bankers, their mothers are accountants and businesswomen. Me? I took it because they were taking it.
Tiana and Kaito are holding hands as they chat to Declan about setting him up with Tiana’s friend from a local public school. Alison’s drawing a tattoo pattern on Henry’s arm with her pen, and I’m staring at the pair of them. I wish they weren’t sitting so close. I wish Alison wasn’t touching Henry. I could join in their conversation about Alison wanting to study Fine Arts at university, but I’m too annoyed.
