Oliver stood below my window, looking up at me and gesturing with his hands.
I cracked the window. “What do you want?” I whispered down to him. My mum’s room was at the back of the house, but it wasn’t like we lived in a big house with five bedrooms. She’d hear Oliver if he wasn’t careful.
“I wanted to check on you.”
“You could have tried the front door.”
“It’s too late for that. I couldn’t sleep. Can I come up?”
“To my bedroom?” I checked what he meant, because my mum, asleep in the room next to mine, would have a fit if she found Oliver in my room at eleven at night.
“Yeah.”
“No. Hang on. I’ll come to you.” I closed the window and looked around the room for an idea. The only way I could see this working was if I went to him. And after earlier, I wasn’t standing outside in the middle of the night.
I crept out of the room and tiptoed down the stairs. The under-stairs cupboard had a couple of old sleeping bags, so I grabbed them and opened up the front door, throwing one at Oliver.
“What are these for?” he whispered back through the night.
“So we don’t get cold.”
The green would still be soaked from all the rain, so I sat down and wriggled into the sleeping bag and lay down on the drive. With the padding from the covers, it wasn’t bad. Oliver followed my lead, and we both lay, our heads nearly touching, staring up at the sky.
Silence fell between us as if we were waiting to see if the coast was really clear. With only the gentle and rhythmic rustle from the nearby trees, everything else was peaceful.
“You didn’t need to check on me,” I said, keeping my eyes gazing up at the sky.
“You looked upset. And when you didn’t come around when it cleared up, I got worried.”
“It took a while to warm up. I was frozen when we came home.”
“I know. We were, too. Mum wasn’t too impressed. She stopped us from coming to see you. Which is why I had to sneak out.”
“I’m sorry you got into trouble because of me.” I felt like the silly girl who couldn’t keep up with the boys again.
“We’re not in trouble. Well, I’m not. Maddison got mad and is grounded for a few days. But we’ll be back out and playing in no time.”
Our conversation quietened, and I was happy just to stay snuggled in the sleeping bag and look up at the stars.
“There’s so many of them.”
“You see that one with the brighter stars? It looks like a saucepan. It’s called the big dipper.”
“Really?” I traced the line of stars with my finger to the sky.
“Yeah. We learned it at Scouts on a camping trip.”
“Maybe there are worlds like the ones we read about with dragons and elves and wizards on the stars.”
“Maybe,” Oliver said.
We grew silent again, happy with our stargazing. A calm filled me as the time ticked on. Like resetting the mood of the day by simply being with Oliver.
“I should go before Mum notices I’m missing.”
“Be careful. I don’t want both of you grounded.” I turned to look at Oliver and met his eyes.
“I promise I’ll be careful. Will you come out tomorrow?”
“If it’s not raining.”
“Deal.”
I watched Oliver’s shadow slink off into the dark and dumped the sleeping bags in the front room. They could wait. By the time I got back to my bed, exhaustion greeted me and helped me fall straight to sleep.
Chapter 6
Grace Eleven Years Old
After the storm and the week of rain, summer finally arrived. But it went by in a flash. One minute, we were praying for sun, and then next, after it finally came out to play, it was the final few days before the start of secondary school. I was being dragged from shop to shop to complete my uniform list and getting more nervous by the day.
I hadn’t seen any of the other people from my class all summer. I didn’t need to because all I wanted was Oliver and Maddison. And soon, there wouldn’t even be school to get in our way. It would be all of us together again. But as I thought the words, the truth to them seemed feeble and weak.
The brothers were my best friends in the whole world, but their tolerance for each other was fragile. The spats had continued, and a handful of fights had occurred, each one more vicious and more drawn-out than the last. And with each one, it forced a fracture down my heart because I didn’t want to have to divide the time I had between them. We did a little of that when it rained, and it never ended well.
I wanted us to all get along. Happy to have each other’s company and enjoy it without fights. I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle, playing the referee, or worse, choosing between which one I’d spend time with.
When we made that pact to be best friends, I believed it meant our friendship was ironclad and would be strong enough to withstand anything we’d face next year. That’s how I’ve always felt about us, but now the time was nearly here to put that theory to the test, doubt began to creep into my faith.
The morning of the first day came around, and I said goodbye to Bob as if I might never come back. The welcome knock on the front door made me forget my fears because I opened it to see both Oliver and Maddison waiting for me.
“Ready?” Maddison asked, with a grin on his face. Oliver was waiting just behind him. It seemed as if Maddison had grown another foot overnight. He towered over Oliver now, despite Oliver being two years older.
All I could do was nod and grasp the strap of my bag a little tighter. Maddison put his hand out for me, and I reached out to clasp it. The moment we touched, my body flooded with his confidence. It warmed me from the inside and instilled a strength within me that I needed today. He all but pulled me out of the house, and we walked along the road towards the bus stop. Not once did he let go of my hand. I risked a glance at Oliver, who kept his eyes downcast.
It wasn’t the same for him. He was going back to his friends and teachers he knew. All of this was new to us, and at that moment, I couldn’t help but feel closer to Maddison.
Amongst the flood of other kids arriving at school, the three of us made a stand and entered together. In the swarm, I recognised a couple of the girls from our class at primary school. They offered timid smiles, and I twitched my lips in response. Maddison had held my hand tightly in his grip the whole way here, and I’d anticipated he’d drop the contact as soon as we were in sight of the school gates, but he didn’t, and now I could feel the hum of everyone’s eyes on us.
Oliver veered off towards a group of older, and much bigger students. They offered him smiles and handclasps, and it struck me then, that Oliver had his own set of friends that wouldn’t be ours. That our bubble of three, which we’d lived in for the summer, wouldn’t last in school and would be well and truly popped.
The first day went by in a blur of conflicting emotions. And it wasn’t just coping with the start of a new school. It was overwhelming, all the new people, teachers, and possible friends.
As those first days passed, the new routines became a distraction from the war that waged inside of my head. One minute I was happy that Oliver had friends he wanted to be with, the next, I hated that he’d moved on without Maddison or me. And I yo-yoed similarly with my feelings towards Maddison. He was happy to be my saviour on the first day, but when he realised that his popularity could reach an all-time high here, he soon found himself the centre of attention, and there was little room for me beside him.