Page 17 of The Sweetest Cruelty: Hudson
My heart sank, it was my father. OMG, he’d come to check on me during school hours. How fucking embarrassing. Luckily, most of the kids I had class with had left.
“How’s your morning so far? I was passing and so thought I’d say hi.”
Sliding my arms into my backpack, I looked up at him.
“It’s fine and I’m good. I’m just going to meet my guide again, and so can we catch up later?” I replied, pushing back my hair, and shooting him a brief, please pretend that you don’t know me look. I knew I couldn’t hide from it forever, but I didn’t want everyone to know I was the principal’s kid from the get-go.
My father smiled in understanding, but still followed me into the corridor.
Unfortunately, Storm stood outside by the window, looking at her phone. Before I could move away, she caught us, glancing up, her eyes swaying between me and my dad. Didn’t she say something about meeting at the bubbler thing?
I glanced across at her, and she gave me an uncomfortable smile and a fingertip wave.
“Ah, I see you’ve made friends already. Good,” my dad said, but he didn’t seem happy about who it was with. I shook off the thought.
As Storm placed her phone down the front of her shirt, I turned back to my father. Willing him to go away.
The way he looked down into my eyes so tenderly forced a lump into my throat.
“I’ll see you out front after three, then. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
Giving him a tight-lipped nod, I set off towards Storm, who had a big grin on her face.
“So, Daddy came to check up on you. That’s got to suck right?”
“I suppose,” I replied, feeling my father watching us.
I didn’t know what she expected me to say. I couldn’t choose who my parents were. It was at that point that I realised I hadn’t thought about my mother all morning, and awave of sadness spiralled through me. It caused me to turn and wave towards my dad. As I did so, his face lit up and he shyly did the same.
And then I did it. I smiled at him before turning away.
Storm slid her arm through mine. “Come on, I’ll show you where the true magic happens.”
And she did.
She took me out of the back of the school and up to a large field where boys were playing football and by that, I mean American football, not English football which they called soccer in the States. It was like all the shows set in American high schools rolled into one.
The pitch, or field as I knew they called it, was marked out with large H-shaped goals at each end. The area was huge, much bigger than our sports field at my school back home. Home, there it was, that word again.
This is now home, Molly.
I spied the bleachers towards one side where the boys were warming up. They wore their football uniforms with bulky body protection. Their sports tops showed a different number, and their surnames were printed above it on the back.
A tall teacher, clearly one of the coaches, was aggressively blowing his whistle and barking out instructions.
On the other side of the field, a group of girls were waving their pom poms. It was very energetic, and I winced as the huddle threw a smaller girl into the air and then caught her.
Cheerleaders.My stomach dipped as we headed straight towards them.
“I’m captain of the squad. We cheer the school football team. Can you dance?” Storm asked.
Once they had placed their team member safely on the ground, they all started high-fiving each other. Each girl was caked in makeup, with big boobs and big hair. Their uniforms, if you could call them that, left little to the imagination; grey and gold short dresses with The Heights emblazed across their chests.
“In a fashion,” I replied honestly.
And then, we wereswamped. I felt like the new shiny penny as the girls fussed around us.
“You’re so gorgeous, is this natural?” One girl said, playing with my hair. I was inspected, prodded and poked.
