Calling Carter.

On my first day back to school, three full days after my fall, I got a surprising welcome. Everyone wanted to know where I had been, how I got the gash on my cheek, was I in a fight, a car accident, or an abusive relationship. I was grilled incessantly until Kala suddenly stood up, to her full height of five foot two, and told everyone to shut up and leave me alone. I smiled gratefully at her.

“Do you want to tell them?” She asked me quietly.

“Okay,” I said resignedly. “Otherwise they’ll just make up stupid rumours.”

So I told a simple story – how I was sitting on the edge of View Hill when suddenly something gave me a fright and I slipped off the edge of the cliff. That drew gasps from all around, and a quiet “wow.” I grinned and mentioned how cool Kala’s mum was. “She stitched my cheek up in the middle of the lounge. It was awesome.” I finished with a one-sided smile, careful not to pull my stitching.

“That’s a neat story,” a new voice said. The deep resonance belonged to a guy I had never seen before, with incredibly bright green eyes and spiky dark-blonde hair. He was lanky and thin, and even sitting down I could tell that he was really tall. He stared at me, almost smirking, but not quite. He was good looking in that jock way, except his face was a little too long for it.

I looked at him quizzically. He didn’t tell me his name, just kept staring at me. I glanced at Kala and she just shrugged. “His name’s Caidan,” she mouthed when he finally looked away. “He’s… unusual.” Unusual was Kala’s word for “I don’t like him, and he creeps me out, but I’m too nice to say it.”

I nodded in understanding. I had only a few more questions about my accident after that, and I was relieved that the pressure had eased off. As soon as I got a moment alone with Kala, I ushered her aside and asked quietly, “Where is Carter?” I hadn’t really seen him

“Oh… He’s wagging today.” She explained. “He met Caidan and, well… They almost had a fight.” Her eyes widened. “I don’t know what it was about, but Carter was really angry. And Caidan, he looked… Really… I don’t know. Triumphant.” She looked troubled. I gave her a quick hug, and then we had to hurry to maths.

Mr Louis grilled me for not getting the homework from Kala while I was away. For once I didn’t bite back my sarcastic remark.

“You know, Mr Louis, homework isn’t the most important thing in the world. I hope it doesn’t take you falling off a cliff to realise that.” His shocked face was almost worth the detention he gave me when he had recovered.

“Sorry about that,” Kala whispered as I sat down next to her. “I should have given you the homework.”

“Naw, it’s okay. He pisses me off sometimes.” I answered with my strange half new grin.

We ran full-tilt out of maths as soon as the bell rang. I was glad we didn’t live too far from school, so the bus ride was really short. Carter wasn’t there – he didn’t sit with the two of us anyway – but Caidan was. He sat a few rows behind us, and I could feel him watching us.

It was really weird.

As he got off the bus before us, he gave Kala a strange smile as he made his way off. We shared a glance.

Carter was at View Hill when we arrived. We brought some food with us, having stopped off at my house before making our way up. Kala and I had found out early on that we caught the same bus and lived about five minutes walk from each other, if you took a short-cut through the bush. I was pleased, because I’d never had a real friend, not one this close by.

“Carter,” Kala called softly as we came to the top of the incline. He was there, and he turned to watch us arrive.

“Hey,” he said as we sat down.

“Here,” I said, pulling my bag off and putting it in my lap. “Kala said you don’t usually eat when you wag, so we grabbed you some stuff.” I explained a bit shyly. He watched me for a second, then grinned.

“I’m starving.” He announced quietly, I laughed and handed him my whole bag so he could rifle through it and find what he wanted.

“Carter,” Kala asked as he happily munched on an apple, “what was the fight between you and that Caidan guy about?”

He froze in mid-chew, the good-humoured light fading from his eyes. “Nothing,” he shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes at him, then turned to me and declared, “Stupid boy stuff. Probably over who the bigger man was,” she scoffed. I laughed softly into my own apple, but stopped abruptly when it hurt, and when I saw Carter’s face before he looked away. The fight had not been about nothing, and it was almost certainly about Kala, judging from the fierce protective look on his face.

I would have asked if we had been alone, but I didn’t want Kala to see how creepy I thought Caidan really was. I had a feeling Carter would agree with me, and neither of us wanted to see Kala hurt. It wasn’t just her tiny size that made her seem so fragile, it was her attitude on life, her innocence. Those big grey eyes she viewed the world through held so must trust in them, and I did not want to see that trust shattered.

But I was soon to find out that sometimes, trust wasn’t the only thing that could be shattered irreparably.