Nature's Law

Harley had been in England for three days. Almost half way through her stay. I had become so used to her being around me again I wasn’t sure whether I could face Friday, when she was leaving again. Jeanne had been surprisingly nice to Harley, unlike she did to me, she looked up to Harley. Admired her. She always had done. I thought, given the significant changes in the both of them she wouldn’t look up to her as much. I was wrong.
“Haaarley?” She called as we were getting ready to leave. Mum hadn’t been able to get me any time off of school to show Harley around as she had originally lived here, and didn’t count as foreign visitor. Instead, she had to come into school with me for four days.
“What now, Jeanne?” She snapped.
“Oh, I wanted to know if were leaving yet,” Her voice echoed down the staircase. Harley looked at me, perplexed. I was pretty sure my eyes were bugging out. Jeanne walk to school with me? Something must be wrong up in that fumigated skull of hers.
“Urhh.....” Harley paused to stare at me, and when I shook my head she called back to Jeanne, letting her know we weren’t leaving yet.
“And you said she didn’t like you,”
“She doesn’t. It’s only ‘cause your here,” I muttered, pouring milk into our bowls of shreddies. Laughing, Harley passed me a spoon and picked up her bowl and went to sit at the breakfast bar. After placing the empty milk carton in the recycle bin outside I sat down next to her and began tipping spoonfuls of sugar onto the shreddies in my bowl.

Walking to school with Jeanne was an interesting affair. I wasn’t used to being stared at in an admiring way, although I knew it was Jeanne who was getting the stairs and whistles, I still felt out of my comfort zone. I could tell Harley was used to it, though. She just sighed at the boys, pitying them. I was half expecting Scott to suddenly appear beside me again, like he had done last Friday, but by the time we turned around the last corner so that we were facing HPA and just had to cross the last main road, I was forced to admit to myself that he wasn’t going to suddenly appear beside me, brushing leaves out of his hair and going on about his possible gang business.
Harley shook my arm and I looked up at her. “What are you doing, Lee? We could’ve totally crossed then if it wasn’t for you staring at the bug on the path,”
Looking up, I saw that Jeanne was on the other side of the road, animatedly talking to Rachel and Marie about something, but when she pointed towards me and they all burst out laughing I realised that once more they were laughing about me.
“Oh...sorry. I was...daydreaming I guess.” I gave a false chuckle.
“Yeah well, pay more attention,”
“Alright.” I sighed as we waited for a reasonable gap in the flow of traffic so that we could cross.

It was break before I first got to speak to Alice and Mollie. For the first hour, Harley and I had been in the head teacher’s office sorting out the weeks arrangements. Mr Collins was nearing retirement age and had a pink circle in the middle of his wispy silver hair. He had started off by being very interested in how Harley was finding New Zealand and then we finally got onto the topic of the weeks arrangements.
Harley was to attend each of my lessons, apart from when I had my mock RE exam, where she was to report to Mr Collins’ office instead. Harley seemed pretty happy with this, because like she said all she would have to do for that hour was talk about school in New Zealand, and say how it wasn’t as good as HPA.

“Lia! Where were you?” Shouted Alice as Harley and I made our way to the table they had found in the hall. “And who is that?” She added, looking at Harley with raised eyebrows as she realised that Harley wasn’t just some girl waiting till I had stopped so she could move past.
“Harley Stewart. Who are you?” Harley replied, her voice edging towards being sarcastic. Harley and Alice were so similar, they would clash. I could tell.
“Alice-Louise Hayes. Why are you here?”
“I’m with my best friend. Why are you here?” Harley continued childishly.
“Because I’m with my best friend. Where are you from?”
“Here.” She smiled mischievously. Alice frowned and turned her head to me, where I was slowly sinking into the floor.
“Lia? Is this true?” The cold tone. She had given me The cold tone.
“You guys remember Harley right? We-”
“Are best friends. I’ve been living in New Zealand.”
“Isn’t that were the sheep live?” asked Mollie excitedly.
We all turned and stared at her as her head popped up from the book which I was positive would have ‘Vampire Mythology’ scrawled in a fancy old English style across the cover if I flicked it over.
“Anyway,” Alice ignored Mollie’s statement “Back to my question; why are you here?”
“She’s on holiday,” I cut in, before Harley could say something to really annoy Alice. “Until Friday.” I leant to Alice’s ear and whispered “I haven’t seen her in three years, Alice. Please be nice to her.”
She sighed, obviously agitated and moved along a seat so Harley could sit down, Harley smiled sweetly at her and I could tell Alice wanted to retaliate, but she held back and instead turned her back on Harley and me and began to talk to Mollie.
Seeing the tension between Alice and Harley my idea of a fun outing with all four of us had died. They would kill each other, I was almost sure of that.

The next day filled me with dread, but as Harley, Mollie and I walked into the hall, we could see Alice engrossed in conversation with her SHAS partner, Lane, who was sat next to her, appearing to be as interested in her as Mollie was with her vampire books.
They didn’t even notice us as we sat down around the table opposite them.
“Really? Me too!”
“Oh, well I have a spare ticket, Forrest can’t make it.” Eugene Forrest was another Alpha student, who point blank refused to be called Eugene due to the fact he said it sounded like a dentist’s name. An old, wrinkly dentist who was from medieval England. “Would you like it?”
“Like it? I would die; just the idea of being within eyesight of them makes me want to faint right now!”
He looked at her, eyes wide with confusion and brow creased.
“Of happiness. Urm...so how much?”She asked quickly
“Consider it free if I can call it a date,” Her cheeks flushed bright red, and I turned my back on them. Privacy was something we should all be allowed to take for granted. As I looked over my companions, I saw that Mollie had her chin resting on her hand, staring at them as if they were in a movie and Harley was looking at me out of the corner of her eye, eyebrows raised.
I heard an outburst of giggles and whipped around to see Lane walking back to the opposite side of the hall, where Forrest, Ben and Gareth were all stood apparently waiting for news of how it went. Forrest opened his mouth and said something, to which Lane nodded something in response, rubbing his hand against the nape of his neck. Ben and Gareth cheered as Forrest slapped him on the back in one of the guy-hugs guys consider to make them look tougher than showing actual emotion and they exited the hall.
“Oh, urm hey guys. Harley” Alice said with a nervous giggle. Alice had giggled twice in the last two minutes, something I hadn’t heard in the two and a half years that I had been her friend.
“Hiii,” I elongated the word.
“What’s up?” Laughed Harley.
“What?” she asked and we pointed simultaneously to the door Lane had just exited through. “Oh...well, we’re going out on Saturday. Regrets of Renegades. I can’t wait!”
“Ohh...that new band you like. The one with the ‘gorgeous’ lead guitarist?”
“Regrets? I’ve heard of them,” Harley smiled happily “And you’re right. Casper Drew is gorgeous.”
Alice had a glint in her eye, as if she was prepared to battle it out over who loved Casper more, herself or Harley.
“When was he born?”
“26th August 1987,”
“Where?”
“Chicago,”
“To who?”
“Joshua and Marion Drew. Oh, and his little sister Brianna is the lead singer. She was born 11th December 1990.”
Alice glared at her. I guess that they would never be friends, even if they did have a common music taste. They would always compete to be the best.