Dances With Petals

Chapter 4: Holly Carminè

‘And I hope you all welcome back Brooke Durden as he has taken some time out of school recently.’
Brooke was thankful an explanation had been omitted, although the searing awareness that people had been treading about him all morning as if he were made of egg shells suggested that this was to no real avail. It appeared that he was probably the talk of the class behind his back. It’s none of their business anyway, he was not a spectacle.

The dull familiar smell of School had already nested in Brooke’s nose and the comprehension of general future stress was brought with it, for Brooke had gotten completely used to staying off school by now. Seeing his friends again was probably a given plus, but not if they were going to treat him like he had a terminal illness. The pursuit of ‘normality’ promised by school was definitely elusive right now.

‘Welcome back, Brooke, mate’ was the acknowledgement from John.
It came accompanied by a pat on the shoulder and a nod as if to say ‘Chin up, Brooke’. Brooke brushed his hand away and proceeded to his next lesson. He felt a sense of achievement when he noticed that John had been standing motionless after he had been rejected. He couldn’t care less how John would take it; he wasn’t prepared to be treated by one of his closest friends like he had something mentally unstable in him waiting to attack everybody.

Actually, maybe that was uncalled for. He meant to be welcoming. Maybe he really had just been malicious to him. He would give himself time to cool down, and then, perhaps after his physics lesson, approach him with some sort of apology. It wouldn’t be too sympathetic, but just enough to be understood.

‘Actually the term –‘More Massive’, is the proper phrase to describe the mass of an object if it were bigger than another.’ Mr. Higgs spoke through his bushy moustache.
Mr. Higgs was certainly the more enthusiastic of his teachers. The few bushy patches of white hairs he had were all centralized either at the back of his head, amongst his bushy eyebrows, or between his upper lip and his bulbous nose. His large glasses gave the impression that his eyes were huge which was complementary to his enthused character.

‘Like, so I could say Jess is more massive than me?’
Fishing for laughter at the expense of others was basically Jade Skewer’s way of establishing herself at the top of the food-chain when it came to school. Oh god, he hated her so much. Her obvious hostility towards members of the class who had stood up to her malevolent ways was publicized at every opportunity, and being opinionated and socially developed, Brooke often played the victim to her flippant criticisms. He hated her so much. In fact …

‘If you wanted to be a heartless bitch and be hated by everybody, yes.’
The class fell harmoniously silent at this sudden outburst, Jade’s smile uncurled into blankness as Brooke said it. He wanted her to respond and say something characteristically stupid so he could destroy her even more, but it seemed that his recent Fatherlessness sheltered him from any sardonic remarks for the moment.
‘Brooke, would you like to see me at the end of the lesson please?’ There was a practiced composure marinated in Mr.Higgs’ voice that needn’t had made itself any more transparent. It was like being a 4 year old all over again.
‘Sure.’ He hadn’t raised his head in acknowledgement.
Great, now everyone thought he was an angst-blinded nutcase. It didn’t help that he had spent most of the lesson drowning in reclusiveness, either. Although before submerging himself again, he did notice that Jess had shot him a smile.

∆

‘Now, Brooke…’ Mr. Higgs began, before taking in a breath. Here it comes. ‘I know that you’re perhaps going through a rough time right now.’
Nailed it. It was embellished with empathy, understanding, sympathy, the whole lot. Brooke could practically feel himself simmering to boiling point as he continued.
‘But surely, the classroom isn’t a sanctuary for such dislike, to any student, no matter how reckless or …’ Drawing in another sharp and considered breath, ‘”Bitchy”, for want of a less impudent phrasing, I’m sure you understand, yes?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Great! Well then, off to your next lesson!’
‘Is that it?’
Apparently thinking that the conversation was over, Mr. Higgs’ face sank into shock at this reply.
It was something about the way Brooke had said it, which triggered a mutual silence as the eye contact between them burned in the atmosphere, sizzling at one end, tepid at the other.
Without another word, Brooke left the classroom, leaving the tension behind to fester.

‘Brooke, haven’t seen you in ages, man. What’s kept you from me?’
Finally, sanity came in the form of his wingman, his best friend.
‘I’m so relieved to see you, Joel.’
‘Hah, I figured. How’s the day been?’
‘Slow,’ which was the best description actually.
‘Tsch. Heard about you and Jade by the way,’
‘Wow. Got around quick, that one.’ Did everyone feel the need to gossip about him?
‘Nah man, nice one. With you gone, she’s been gaining momentum; nobody stands up to her much right now.’
Walking into the school yard brought with it the sun and the sound of birds, and the smell of grass.
‘Actually, here she is now.’
Surely enough, Jade Skewer had taken up camp amongst her usual cronies around a bench. She shot Joel and Brooke a practiced, malicious look as they walked past her.
‘’Sup jade,’ Joel smirked, before turning to Brooke and continuing, ‘we’re going out to the cinema after school, are you in?’
Structure and plans had eluded Brooke for the past 2 weeks. It was nice to have something to do.
‘Sure.’
He didn’t care what they were watching, so long as he wasn’t decaying at home.

The school bell sounded great. A looming sense of imprisonment was lifted from Brooke’s shoulders as he made his way from the school gate. Joel Smith was waiting around the corner for him, along with John Fulton, Carl Sampson, Jess Anderson, and Sophie Jones.

‘’Bout time you got here,’ came Sophie’s voice. She beamed at Brooke as he approached.
‘Hey Brooke.’ Said John. His apprehension was littered amongst the tonality of the words he spoke.
‘Hey John,’ Brooke began, ‘I never meant that before –‘
‘Don’t mention it,’ John said, smiling, apparently relieved.
‘What’re we watching?’ Said Jess.
‘I have no idea, nor do I care, we’re basically just going there and seeing what’s on and making a decision from there.’ Carl was the most officious of the group. He was self-important and full of himself, but nobody seemed to care. He had a good heart.
‘We’re not watching another drama, I don’t care what we watch so long as it doesn’t leave us all depressed,’ Said Joel.

Going to the cinema was often the way days would end. Especially the long, drawn-out school days.
It was perhaps a sign of their lack of originality that they never really did anything else together on school days, but it didn’t particularly matter.

The sun was glowing pink in the distance as it began to settle beneath the horizon. It set the sky alight a scarlet-red behind the pink candy-floss clouds. The park they walked through to get to the Cinema was unusually deserted and silent. The sound of the water from the small pond, trickling about the rocks, was all that could be heard amongst the traipsing of feet. And there, on the periphery of the pond, at the other side, he saw her.
He was sure it was her, absolutely sure of it. Even from a distance. She was wearing a school shirt and a tartan skirt. Her cherry-red hair accentuating her creamy white skin. It was definitely her. Sitting on the bench, looking towards the ground.

‘Hey you! What the hell are you doing?’ Sophie said.
Brooke realized that he had been standing motionless for a few seconds now as he turned and saw that the others were about 20 feet ahead. When he turned back around, the girl had gone.
‘Hey Soph, guys, I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?’
Joel paused before saying, ‘Alright, yeah, you’re going to miss out though.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about missing out, Joel. I’ll tell you later.’ And with that, Brooke broke into a run, tracing the circumference of the pond until he got to the other side. Gasping for air and looking around momentarily, he noticed that in front of him stood the end of the park, and the beginning of the forest. Red petals danced about its entrance. She’s in there.

Brooke began to run again, mercilessly ignoring the pain in his chest as he ventured into the abyss of the forest. The trees began to enclose all natural light. Only seemingly glowing themselves in their pinks and reds. Where did she go so quickly?! If only he knew whether the direction he was going was the right one. Actually, why was he running? Wouldn’t that throw her off a bit? He didn’t even have anything planned to say. Wow, he was such a moron. And then, suddenly, he found himself flying flat on his face.

‘Enjoying yourself?’ Came the sound of the Girl’s voice. His head hurt, and things were blurring in and out of focus. Above him was the obscure face of the girl who had stuck her foot out to trip him up. It could have been the sun behind her, but she seemed to glow in a transcendental aura.
‘Sorry about that.’ She said. Now that things began to focus, Brooke could see that she was straining not to laugh – Oh God. He’d done it. Made an absolute ass of himself.
She lowered her hand, to help him up. He took it. Her skin was soft against his.
‘Where were you off in such a hurry, Brooke?’
‘You know my name?’
‘I did kind of go to the funeral, you know?’
‘Oh.’ (Any chance of even trying to sound interesting, Brooke?’) He thought to himself.
She beamed at him, looking up to him with her wide and captivating eyes as his brain began to get a hold of itself.
‘I’m Holly Carminè,’ she said, ‘I’ve got something to show you.’
She took his hand, and he followed her deeper into the forest.