“Nothing,” I say, waving a hand, then take a closer look at him. “You alright?” Since term started, Curtis has been acting kind of weird. It’s probably to do with Kennedy, his ex-girlfriend. They broke up during the holidays.
“Yeah,” Curtis says, pulling a tight smile. “All good.”
I drop the topic, even though it’s clear he’s lying. I’m not close enough to him anymore to demand the truth, not since I made everything weird last year.
Aiden arrives, taking a seat on the other side of me. “So tired,” he mumbles, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. “At least I can sleep in assembly.”
Mrs Burke arrives and reads out the notices before we all walk to the hall where assembly is held. Aiden, Curtis and I walk together, talking about people’s eighteenth birthdays that are coming up. I turned eighteen during the Easter holidays and ended up not having a party. Instead, Senior and Juliet took me out for dinner and Mum and Dad video-called me that night. It wasn’t bad.
At the hall, Aiden and Curtis join the rest of the Year 12s to sit in their designated area, while I go to the front stage, where I join Trinity, Imogen and Fin. As school captains, we have to sit by the front stage for every assembly and make introductions, sometimes giving speeches about school values.
“Ugh, I can’t be bothered to do this shit,” Fin says as we wait.
“Mm-hmm,” I say. Fin can rarely be bothered to do anything.
His eyes go past me. “Look, the idiot forgot to bring his blazer. How stupid can you get?”
I follow his gaze to Kieran, his white shirt jarring against an ocean of navy. “That’s what I said,” I say, though having Fin agree with me isn’t as satisfying as I thought it’d be.
“You know what I heard?” Fin says. “He got expelled from his last school. It was one of those shitty public ones.”
I try to look surprised.
“Yeah, you know why? He was dealing drugs and then he went mental. He beat up a heap of kids and then he got expelled.”
I watch Kieran sit down. “Oh,” I say.
“It doesn’t make sense why the school let him in. Maybe his parents are really influential…”
I nod, though nervous energy creeps up my limbs. It was Senior who did the influencing, but there’s no way in hell I want Fin to know that. My peers don’t know that Kieran is living with Senior, and I want to keep it that way.
“Although, if his parents are powerful and stuff, that doesn’t explain why he was at a povvo school…” Fin continues, before changing topic and telling me about some nudes he got from a chick last night.
When it’s time for assembly to begin, I let out a subtle sigh of relief. My mind wanders. Drugs? Fights? Surely Fin’s making crap up. But if it’s true, does Senior know about it? Surely. Yet he still invited Kieran into his home.
I groan internally, though part of me is excited to rant about all of this to Juliet, because now I have another reason why Kieran sucks.
*
“I want you to get him involved,” Mrs Ferguson says. I had just come back from physics class and was putting my books away in my locker when she appeared in front of me, her arms full of paperwork. “Kieran will have a better experience here if he gets involved with everything we have to offer,” she continues.
“He is involved,” I argue, even though I don’t know that it’s true. Probably not. He doesn’t seem like the type to join clubs or volunteer. “He’ll be running in cross-country in a few weeks.”
Mrs Ferguson fixes me with a stare. “Jasper, it’s compulsory for every student to run cross-country. Now, your grandfather called me and requested Kieran get some leadership experience —”
Oh god.
“ — and I said I’d talk to you. It’s not that much work, just involve him with the Sustainability Day committee. You still need people to help, right?”
“I guess,” I say.
“Fantastic. Find him, and fill him in.” Mrs Ferguson walks away, though not before yelling at Daniel Ellington, another Year 12, to fix his tie.
Trinity and Imogen walk over to me from their lockers, wearing sympathetic smiles. “Bad news from Ferguson?”
“The worst,” I say. “I’m guessing you two wouldn’t know where Kieran Phillips hangs out at lunchtime?”
“He’s in uniform detention today,” Trinity says.
