Crash

Amelia
The Past

“Lia…Lia get up it’s time for Peppa Pig!”

Groaning to myself at Isaac’s insistence I managed to quickly force my eyes open, which then lead me to realize that Peppa Pig was on at half 9 in the morning, half 9 on a Monday morning when I should be in Art. Shit!

“Isaac! Where are Mum and Dad?”

His innocent blue eyes looked at me intently while he focused on me as I ran around my room, frantically grabbing my school uniform off my desk chair.

“They haven’t come back yet”

Seriously? I know they liked to disappear on me and Isaac at the weekends, however they were never gone this long and they were always back by the end of the weekend, in order mainly to wake me up on school days. Ushering Isaac downstairs and placing him in front of the TV I picked up my mobile, waiting for the dial tones to cut out.

“Ello? Amelia sweetheart shouldn’t you be at school?”

“Hey Nan, yeah I should but Mum and Dad haven’t come back from their latest disappearing act, they’ve left Isaac with me too and I need to get to school as soon as. I don’t suppose –“

“I’m on my way right now”

“Thanks Nan”

Sighing heavily I pushed my bed hair back in aggravation, grasping my mobile tightly in my hand I took a glance over at Isaac contently watching Peppa Pig as if nothing was wrong.

“Isaac stay there Nanny Cartwright is on her way over okay?”

“Okay”

He flashed a pearly white grin, showing off the full set of baby teeth he had, clapping his hands together happily before chanting Nanny Cartwright over and over again. Rolling my eyes at him I quickly ran up the stairs and into my room, tossing my pajamas into a corner and swiftly changing into my school uniform. With the rush I was in I didn’t bother with straightening my hair, it would be in this state again at some point before lunchtime. I threw my hair into a quick ponytail and quickly swept some foundation to cover up my imperfections.

Hearing the front door open and shut downstairs and Isaac’s squeal of delight, I recognized my Nan’s voice surround the house. Making sure I had everything in my bag for the day, I took down the stairs two at a time, skidding across the laminate flooring and stopping mere centimeters from my Nan.

“Whoa slow down kiddo, you’ll land yourself an injury!”

“Thanks Nan for looking after Isaac I really don’t know what I would have done –“

“It’s no problem Amelia, I shall have a word with that Son of mine when he gets back”

With both of us laughing my baby blue eyes, much like my Nan’s, landed on the clock on the mantelpiece…10 o’clock. English.

“Oh damn Nan I’ve got to go bye!”

She didn’t even get a chance to respond as I was well out of the door by then, running down the street in my beaten up black chucks, the only thing the school really allowed us to chose was our shoes, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

Danny – Amelia where the hell are you? I am not presenting my presentation about you…without you ):

Me – Sorry! Overslept, don’t worry I’m running to school as we speak…just cover for me (:

In a little over 15 minutes I was extremely out of breath, out in front of me lay the dreaded stairs that led up to the English classes. Sucking in a big breath I immediately decided not to run up the stairs too and instead, began a slowed down pace and took my time getting up to Miss Brown’s class.

“Ah Amelia here you are eventually, how was the dentist?”

Confusion swept over my face as my eyebrows began to arch inwards.

“The dentist?”

Danny coughed from our desk and his piercing eyes almost grew twice their size, scratching the back of his neck nervously to disguise the obvious hint he had threw in my direction.

“Oh the dentist! Well you know same old same old”

I just pointed to my braces to emphasize the fact and play on my obvious lie some more, Danny sniggered as he watched on at my fail of an attempt to cover up my blunder. Miss Brown stared at me skeptically for what seemed like forever before she shook her head nonchalantly

“Fair enough take a stand at the front please you and Danny are next, because you two are the ONLY ones left”

Miss Brown announced sarcastically as the rest of the class laughed and whispered at her dig at me. Jess and Anna shot me an apologetic smile before Danny got out of his seat and joined me at the front – I hated doing class presentations, I didn’t like all the attention. Danny went first.

“Urm well my presentation is obviously about Amelia Cartwright, she is definitely kind of different –“

He was interrupted as his friends burst out into fits of laughter, nudging each other in the process. Danny cast a nervous glance there way before looking at me briefly, his baby blue eyes staring into my matching ones. Coughing to cover his nervousness and shush his ignorant friends in the corner, he continued.

“On the outside she seems so reserved and quiet, that’s how she appears to all of us here in this class…but that’s not who she is at all. On the inside she is caring, sweet and brave; she deals with shit that probably none of us go through”

My eyes widened abruptly when I heard the last sentence leave his lips, a small blush gracing my cheeks as I had no cover from my tied up hair. However what panicked me the most was the fact he mentioned “the shit” I went through, my mind raced as my thumbs twiddled with one another nervously. Danny wouldn’t tell them about my parents would he?

I guess I trusted him, but I’d only really know him for a weekend. That alone wasn’t enough to really solidify my trust; he could lose that trust very easily, he had a reputation. I just hoped he proved me wrong.

The whole class stared at me in great interest, Danny’s friends anxiously leaning on their elbows to hear what these so called problems were. Jess spluttered sharply from the back of the room, her chocolate brown eyes widened much like mine. Apart from Danny, Jess was the only one who knew about my parents disappearing now and then, leaving me to care for Isaac most of the time.

“That’s why I kind of admire her in that sense, because she just deals with it. She’s also pretty cool I guess…she likes Nirvana”

“I leant her all the albums! I have no shame, I am a proud duckling friend!”

Sniggering at Jess’ declaration from the back of the class, I shot here an appreciative smile. She certainly was a wild spirit Jess was, she dyed her hair different colors almost every week, she wasn’t ashamed to say the most absurd or random things, she was certainly straightforward and she was probably my best friend full stop.

Danny finished and I watched as his friends, along with the school gossips sunk back into their seats clearly disappointed with the lack of juicy news. Releasing a held in breath I allowed myself to relax as Miss Brown calmed down the class from Jess’ declaration, indicating for me – it was my turn. Danny and I swapped positions so now I was directly in front of the class as I passed Danny he whispered in my ear, sending shivers to involuntarily shoot down my spine.

“You have to trust me Amelia; I’m not the jackass that I may be perceived as”

“My presentation is about Danny Clifton, he likes Nirvana too although he may not admit it.”

Watching the class I noticed Danny’s friend scrunch their eyebrows at my presentation, they clearly didn’t know the Danny I knew, and that scared me. Turning my attention to Danny, scanning his face for any sign that I’d done the wrong thing, but he just shook his head and nodded for me to carry on.

“He seems like this completely different person in school, but in reality, he is the complete opposite. I learnt over the weekend that we both act like someone we’re not. We both have secrets and we both have problems to face, but I guess we’re both made to act like we’re not, just to fit in. That’s what I learnt about Danny and more importantly myself”

The whole class fell into a deathly silence, Jess staring at me with her mouth agape, almost as if she was catching flies. I was never one to personally express my thoughts, Jess knew this – hence I guess the shocked face which turned into a smirk, sending me a wink in the process, that’s Jess for you. Danny just smiled at me half- heartedly, seemingly convincing me I had done the right thing however I was unsure, the looks he got off his friends were ones of confusion and frustration – I think I had caused Danny more harm than good.



Taking my usual spot on the bench at lunch where we all hung out I watched as Jess attempted to balance her spoon on her nose, she managed for all about 2 minutes before her bright pink streak got stuck on the spoon and it dropped to the ground with a metallic crash.

“Jess take a fucking seat you mad bitch!”

Pointing to the space next to me on the bench, she frowned at my cussing shrugged her shoulders and then placed herself in the empty space. Jess nudged my ribs playfully before we both broke down into fits of laughter.

“Oooo Anna don’t look now but Loverboy is coming over”

Jess cooed and pointing off at something in the distance, following her gesture I noticed Jon making his way over, Danny trailing behind him. Anna spotted them her emerald eyes widening in panic before she tried to straighten out her already pin straight hair.

“Oh god do I look okay, Danny is coming over as well oh hell!”

We all knew if Jon wasn’t on the scene Anna would have been fussing over Danny instead, Anna however was extremely hyper, like all the time. It was her personality but as I said she had drop dead looks to match, she just needed someone who accepted her hyperactive personality and that just so happened to be Jon – not Danny.

“You look fine for god sake”

Jess mumbled before running her fingers through her pink streak, I had always been jealous of Jess truth be told, both her and Anna were pretty and unique in their own way – and then there was just me. Jon came over and started up a conversation with Anna, while Jess hugged Danny before rushing off to talk to some guy friends of hers. Danny stood awkwardly by Jon and Anna for a while before joining me on the bench.

“Hey”

“Hey”

I replied curtly it just felt awkward, I know Danny said he wanted for us to be friends an all, but in the school environment it just felt weird. Out of place almost, I felt out of place. Jon and Anna noticed Danny next to me and both shot skeptical glances our way.

“Did I get you in trouble with your friends?”

“Huh? Oh, who cares what they think besides I haven’t seen them yet anyway. How’s Isaac and stuff at home?”
“Urm okay I guess, well not really –“

I trailed off nervously, safe to say I did feel like I could trust Danny after our presentation today but that doesn’t mean I still didn’t feel embarrassed having to tell him. Well I mean I didn’t even have to tell him, but I don’t know…I just felt I could. Jess understood my situation but I mean, it’s just nice having someone else to turn to every now and then.

“Amelia what’s the matter? What happened?”

Danny asked as he gently placed his hand on top of mine resting in my lap, the contact immediately made me flinch and snap my eyes up to meet his concerned ones. He retracted his hand back and waited for me to continue – I couldn’t keep it from him.

“Well normally they come home at the end of each day, or if they do stay overnight somewhere they’re always back the next morning. They’re never gone an entire weekend! Danny they hadn’t come back by this morning, they normally wake me up on school mornings, Isaac woke me up this morning, late. Which was why I came into school late –“

“Wait so who is looking after Isaac?”

Danny interrupted as he looked at me solemnly, he pitied me and to be honest I pitied myself right now too. Absent parents and a 3 year old brother to look after, that was a full time job in its self.

“I called my Nan, she’s looking after him until I get home”

Danny nodded his head in response before turning to look at his group of friends that were approaching us, he held an expression on his chiseled face that nobody would be able to identify. Ben and Nath were the ones in particular that approached us and nervously I began to shift in my seat, subtly they nodded and indicated for Danny to join them for a minute, he obeyed.

Danny got up from beside me and walked over towards Ben and Nath who were standing awkwardly on the edge of our group, furthest away from everyone, especially me, as possible. Straining my ears I heard only hushed tones, however those tones soon became more audible and it was then, that I wished I hadn’t eavesdropped in the first place.

“Danny what the fuck are you doing sitting with her, she’s a reject man”

“She’s not too bad once you get to know her”

I smiled at his defense; he was sticking up for me – kind of.

“Oh dude don’t tell us you’re like best friends or something”

Danny froze in his position, his fingers running through his golden brown/blonde hair nervously. He dropped his volume to speak more quietly, however I managed to hear him fine.

“No don’t be stupid”

“Good man we thought we’d need to get you a girlfriend or something”

“Nah back the fuck off you know I got that sorted with Jade”

Danny countered back as I felt my heart get heavier by the second. Firstly because he completely lied to his friends when they asked whether we were best friends, now I know I only got to know him over the weekend but to be acknowledged as just a friend would have been nice, it made me seriously consider whether he meant all that bullshit at my house, or whether I was living in some dream world at the time. Secondly the reason why my heart was the heaviest was because of this Jade, I know her just from name association, she had platinum blonde hair, fake tan all over and dull blue eyes. She was nothing special in my opinion; obviously to Danny she meant a lot more. Which hurt, because I think, I think I was just about to start falling for Mr. Danny Cliffton but one thought swam around my mind, continually haunting me throughout the rest of lunch as I watched him walk off with Nath and Ben – not a single glance back in my direction.

I would never be what he wanted.