Monday, September 4th

I've not really had much time to write this for over a month, I spent the rest of the summer break outside with either Lottie and Justin, or Emily and Travis, or all of them, or a mix of a few of them. I slept over at Lottie's a few times, or she slept over mine. I stayed at Emily's a couple of times, but because my Daddy was still staying there then there was only room if Amelia was out. Daddy moves at the weekend.

School started back up today. I didn't want to get up, I'd got used to sleeping in. I sat next to Emily on the bus, because we both get on at the same stop. Lottie was already on the bus, but she was sat next to Holly, a girl who lives near her and is in our class, Justin didn't get the bus, and I wondered if he was coming in to school at all, but he told me later that he walked in because he can see the school from his front porch. I guess that makes sense really.

We have a seating plan now. A boy-girl one. Emily and Travis are sitting together, I guess nobody told the teacher that they're boyfriend and girlfriend, and usually the one to do that is Dahlia, but obviously they're best friends. Justin has to sit next to Dahlia. She kept talking to him all morning, and he'd keep looking back at me with this desperate 'help me' look on his face. I know it's mean, but I couldn't help but laugh.

I hate where I'm sat. I'm second from the back, Whitney, the loudest girl in the class is behind me, next to Jared, who used to bully me when we first started school, and I'm next to Whitney's twin brother Gavin. Whitney and Gavin kept arguing with each other, and Whitney kept asking me questions and telling me to 'tell him' whenever Gavin was winning the argument. Jared seemed to enjoy their arguments, and kept grinning at me whenever I'd turn around to tell them to be quiet. The teacher didn't seem to notice any of this. I don't know how I'll learn anything this year. We start high-school next year! I hoped to get good grades to look good when we started, but I don't see that happening now.

At lunch break, I met up with Justin and Lottie, and Emily, Travis and Dahlia soon found us too. I don't even remember what we were talking about, but Jared came out of nowhere and started saying all this weird stuff to me about my parents. Like he thought he knew something. He's never even met them, and none of us like him because he does nothing but wander around teasing people. I just ignored him, and we all did the same, except Justin.

I looked around when I heard him practically growling under his breath like a dog, and he was glaring at Jared. I asked him what was up, but apparently Jared had seen his expression and was laughing at him now.
"Sorry, am I offending you?" He laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not after your girlfriend." I think we were all a bit surprised by the girlfriend comment. I mean, yeah, I've hung around with Justin more than the others, but that's mainly just because neither of us had any summer clubs like the others did.

But anyway, we didn't really have time to think about it or defend ourselves, because before I knew it Justin had pounced on Jared and had him on the ground. That was when I remembered how strong Justin was. He carried me almost all the way across town before, even though he's skinny as ever. He was just punching him, and I could hear Emily and Lottie gasping while Dahlia was laughing about it and cheering him on. Travis looked a bit like he was in shock, and it was obvious then that none of them were going to be any help.

So I went in there and started pulling Justin back. Jared spat on the ground before laughing and saying "And your girlfriend saves the day." Justin looked like he was about to say something back, so I pulled harder on his arm.
"Justin! Leave it!" I shouted at him, I was suprised by how angry I sounded. He seemed to calm a little, and for a split-second I wondered if what I said had some how calmed him down.

"Come with me, young man." That was when I realised a teacher had come over. He took Justin and Jared off to the principals office. None of us had a lot to say after that, and there wasn't long left of lunch anyway. On the way back to class, Emily told me to stop worrying, and I was surprised when Justin wasn't already in the classroom when we sat down.

Whitney spent most of the afternoon asking me about the fight. Jared hadn't come back into class either. Gavin kept telling Whitney to shut up, but I didn't need him to. I was ignoring her anyway. A note was passed back to me about half past two, it said 'Come round mine after school? From Dahlia x' Dahlia?! Dahlia invited me to her house after school. I thought back over the day and she'd been really nice to me all day. Infact, every time I'd seen her over the summer she wasn't too unbearable. I looked up and she was looking at me, so I nodded my head yes. She smiled before turning back to her work. Then it sunk in. Dahlia 'Teachers Pet' Jones had invited me to her house.

I didn't see Justin after school, either. I had guessed he must've been sent home before that, but I still kind of hoped he'd be there. Being sent home from school for fighting on your first day isn't a good start, and I don't know what his Mum would say. Probably nothing, she doesn't seem like the type to shout much, and from what Justin has said, she doesn't really care much what he does.

Emily lent me her phone on the bus, as mine is still secret, and I told my mum that I was going to Dahlias. She seemed as surprised as I was, but fine about it. Emily came back with us too. Dahlia's mum seemed nice, we didn't see much of her. She was playing with Dahlia's half-brother, Brandon. He's really cute!

We sat in the garden in the sun, and talked about nothing much. Until Dahlia suddenly changed the subject.
"I know what you're going through, April." I had no idea what she was on about. Literally none. I looked at her a bit blank for a while before she carried on. "With your parents. Mine split up when I was six, my dad cheated on my mum." I was a bit surprised that she knew why they'd split. I mean, I had my theories, but my parents won't tell me anything. I wonder if that's partly because of the amount of time that's passed? I didn't say anything, and she carried on. "Did they tell you or did you work it out for yourself?"
"What?" I asked, confused again.

"About the affair. My dad told me after it happened, to you, I mean. My mum told me about my dad cheating when I was ten and I asked."
"What affair?" I sort of knew. I worked out something like that had happened by the things they were shouting that night, but I didn't want to believe it. I looked at Emily and she was staring at Dahlia with a 'shut up' look on her face. Dahlia looked almost embarrassed. "And why did your dad tell you? How did he know?" She was biting her lip now. I wanted to cry. That's why her dad was all pally with me at the beach earlier in the summer. It seemed so obvious, but I didn't know. How could I have known? I don't even know. I stood up, ready to walk off. I just wanted to be alone, but Dahlia stood quickly as I did, and Emily wasn't far behind.

"April, wait. I'm sorry-" She started, but I didn't let her finish.
"Shut up. Just shut up, Dahlia! You never know when to stop talking and when to mind your own business." I shouted. I didn't really know what to say after that, and I do feel bad for shouting because none of this is her fault. It's my mums fault, and her dads fault. Grown ups always mess things up.
"Excuse me, April, but it is my business!" She replied angrily. She raised her voice a little, but not too much. "If my dad and your mum get married-"
"Our parents won't get married, and we won't be sisters." I knew that's what she was going to say. I didn't want to hear anymore, and ran round the side of her house and down the road.

I turned to look back at the house. I couldn't work out what just happened, but most of all, why I didn't seem to care. Why don't I care that my mother is sleeping with Dahlia's father? Why don't I care that that's the reason my daddy is moving to Bridgeport in four days? It just doesn't matter anymore for some reason.

I wondered what to do. There was no way I was going home, I can't look at my mum the same ever again. So, I headed to my second home, Lottie's house. Lottie lives on completely the other end of town to Dahlia, but if you cut through the fields it doesn't take too long.

Justin was at the park. Maybe I knew he would be. Maybe that's why I cut through the park rather than walk down the pathway around it. He was just sitting on the bench, staring at the ground and swinging his legs, and I made him jump when I stood infront of him and spoke.
"What happened?" I demanded. I was still angry about the fight, and the argument with Dahlia. He looked up at me and stopped kicking his legs.
"I got suspended." He said it like it didn't bother him at all. Well, maybe it doesn't bother me either. Maybe I don't care if he fails school. It's his own stupid fault for fighting.
"How long?"
"Three days. Including today. I'm back Thursday."
"What did your mum say?" He just shrugged and went back to swinging his legs and looking at the ground. I knew he didn't want to talk about whatever happened between him and his mum, so we just stayed silent for a while. "My mum's having sex with Dahlia's dad." My voice broke as I finally admitted it to myself.

His eyes almost fell out of his head as he looked up at me. My stupid bottom lip started to wobble like it does when I try not to cry, and he jumped up and pulled me into a hug.
"I'm sorry." He said. I'll never understand that saying. Why should he be sorry? He didn't do anything. "Did she tell you?" He asked, pulling away. I shook my head no.
"Dahlia did. I just came from her house."
"Well, I wouldn't trust a word that comes out of that girls mouth." He frowned, I shrugged, and we fell silent again for a few minutes.

"I'm going to see if I can spend the night at Lottie's." I spoke up finally. "I don't want to see my mum right now." He nodded his head, agreeing with my idea.
"Do you want me to walk with you?" He offered.
"No thank you. I want to be alone for a bit." He nodded again, and we said our goodbyes before I headed to Lotties.

When I told Lotties mum about what Dahlia said, she hugged me and said she'd talk to my mum. They've set me up in the spare room so we can all sleep in a bed, and get some sleep. Usually when I stay over and it's not a school night, I either top-and-tail with Lottie, or sleep on the floor in her room, but they wanted us to sleep properly.



I'm baaaaack!
Wow. Sorry for the wait. :| Basically, I wrote the chapter literally months ago, as in, this could have been ready two weeks after the last one if I'd just got on with it. Then I realised I had to make almost every pose, then I procrastinated for about a month, because it's what I do best, then I finished all the poses and went to double-check I had all I needed, and ended up re-writing half of it, and needing different poses to the ones I'd made... And then, to top it all off, I finally went to shoot about 2 weeks ago, and my game suddenly decided it hated me, so I spent the last two weeks fixing that (still a WIP, btw), then shot for this, then of course, procrastinated for another few days on fixing the pics and dropping them in... And now here we are. Finally. :p
So, sorry, hopefully I'll give myself a kick up the backside and get the next one out in two weeks or so! When we get to three weeks, you may all start poking me with long sticks. I need it sometimes...