Erin The Fire Goddess: The Beginning (4 page)

“
I will write a list of events on the board and I want those of you who are interested to raise their hands, and on Monday we will get it down to the right amount.” She turned back to the black board as she starting to write down all the events. I knew there was no way I was raising my hand up to any of them.

Jessica
's hand, however, was raised for every running race, including the hurdles. I had heard the others saying that no-one stood a chance against Jessica; she was the fastest in the whole school and had won every race, every year.

“
Well, that's it!” Ms Forrester concluded. “I will see you all Monday morning and we can put it to a vote.” She headed to her desk as everyone started packing up to leave. I took my time, as I didn't want to hang around outside my classroom. I would rather take the allocated time between classes and get there just as the teacher was arriving to let us in.

“
Erin?” Ms Forrester called as I was just about to leave, “Do you have a minute?"

“Yes Miss
!” She could have as many minutes as she liked.

“I just wanted to see how you are. How
's your head?"”

“
It's fine. I caught it in my sleep on Wednesday night and had to have stitches, but it's fine now.”

“
Yes, I received the letter from your mother yesterday.” She looked at me thoughtfully. “Are you settling in okay? Making friends?”

“
Yes Miss!” She looked at me again like she was judging my reaction, but I wasn't going to tell her that I hated school, I hated the other students and most of the time I hated the fact I'd been born.

“
Well, if there's ever anything you want to discuss. I want you to know that I am always here to listen.” She smiled sweetly, covering her defeated expression.

“
Yes Miss, Thank you.”

“
Okay, you best get to your class.”

This morning I had Science, followed by French, then after lunch Maths followed by Art.

I really enjoyed Art. I loved how there was no right or wrong, I could express myself however I chose fit, without anyone criticising me.

Before I knew it, it was home time. I picked up my bag and headed towards the main doors to meet Kasey-
Ray. I was glad the day was over, and more relieved that Jessica hadn't said or done anything. She had acted like I didn't exist, this suited me fine.

Walking through the doors
, I spotted Kasey-Ray standing with her friend Claire; they were talking to a group of boys. She spotted me as soon as I walked through the doors.

“Gotta go,”
She quickly told them. “See ya Monday!” She called, “Claire, I'll call you tonight!” She gave Claire a quick wink as she linked arms with me. “He is so hot!” She drooled as she squeezed my arm.

“
Who?”

“
The tall one.” I looked past her towards the boy's she was just with, “Don't look!”

“
Nice.” I told her. He was no Sean, but he wasn't bad looking.

“
Was he looking?” I laughed at my sister as she blushed. So much for her not wanting me to look.

“
Yeah, he was!” She smiled a huge triumphant smile.

“
He is just so gorgeous.”

We walked in silence, arm in arm, as I left her
to her own thoughts. As we walked past the school car park, I kept my eyes looking straight ahead. I didn't want to catch a glimpse of Sean; I knew I could not deal with the consequences. I would just have to squash this little crush I had on him.

One guy shows a little bit of interest and I go all gooey,
I sighed and shook my head.

“You okay?” Kasey-Ray asked as we walked through the school gates.

“
Yeah fine,” I smiled. “Why wouldn't I be?”

“
Hmmmm...” She didn't look convinced.

“
What?"”

“
She didn't say anything to you today, did she?”

“
Nope, she didn't even look at me!” and that was the truth. I just hoped it would continue like this.

The problem with having no friends was that it gave me a lot of time to think, or rather day
-dream. I would often find myself thinking about Sean. I even, absent-mindedly, caught myself doodling his name and straight away I would screw up the piece of paper and throw it in the bin.

I had even thought about joining one of those social network sites that Kasey-
Ray was on, just to see if I could find him and see if he had any pictures, if he had a girlfriend, and anything else I could find out, but what was the point? Didn't you need to have friends for those websites? Who would I have as my friends? Kasey-Ray? My mum? Or maybe even my dad?

“
Pathetic!” I said out loud, screwing another doodle up and throwing it in the bin.

“
What's pathetic?” Kasey-Ray asked as she breezed through the door.

“
Oh nothing, just trying to draw something for Art, but it wasn't good enough,” I quickly said.

“
Let me have a look,” she walked towards the bin, but I quickly jumped up and blocked her.

“
No, no it's okay. What was it you wanted?”

“
Oh right, yes.” She was easily distracted. “Mum and dad are just going to grab some DVD's and pizza and asked if we wanted to go. I said yes, mainly because they will probably choose something totally lame."”

“
Okay,” I laughed as I switched off my lamp and followed her down the stairs.

Every Friday night my family and I always tried to have a movie night. Sometimes my dad was called to work or Kasey-
Ray had made plans, so it would end up being my mum and me, and my mum would watch anything I wanted to, which was great.

Grabbing my coat from the cupboard, I quickly jumped into the back seat of my parent
's car, next to Kasey-Ray.

“
Did your form teacher mention sport's day today?” Kasey-Ray asked as she fastened her seatbelt.

“
Yep, but I'm not taking part.”

“
Why not?” She scoffed without waiting for an answer, “I put my name down for everything.” She laughed, sounding really excited.

“
I'll just help selling drinks or something. That's the best my athletic ability will stretch."” I laughed as she rolled her eyes.

It didn
't take long before we arrived at the DVD shop. Kasey-Ray and I quickly jumped out and ran to the new releases as our parents headed off to a different section. Kasey-Ray was quick to decide what she wanted and went off to find our parents to show them what she had chosen, whilst I carried on looking. I must have looked for a good few minutes but there was nothing that I fancied. I'd seen most of them. I turned around, ready to go find my family but I wasn't looking where I was going and bumped into someone as I walked past.

“
Oh sorry.” I mumbled, not looking up as I quickly tried to hurry past.

“No worries.” It was the sound of his voice that stopped me, making me turn back, as my heart jumped to my mouth.

It was Sean, and from what I could tell, he was alone. I don
't think he realised it was me, or probably didn't even care. He didn't look back, as he walked out and climbed into the driver's seat of a bright orange Ford Focus ST. As soon as he was in he seemed to sense someone was watching him and he looked straight at me, making me panic and quickly turn away, knocking into my dad, making him drop the DVD's in his hands.

“
Sorry dad!” I took a deep breath trying to slow my heart rate down. He didn't seem to notice the panic in my face. “"Are we going now?"”

“
Yes why? You okay?” He raised an eyebrow and put a hand on my forehead like he was checking my temperature.

“
Yeah fine, just really hungry.” Forcing a smile. He laughed as he put his arm around me.

“
Just going to pay for these, then we'll go get a pizza.”

“
Mmmmm yum.” Forcing enthusiasm into my voice. I actually felt sick. I hoped Jessica and the others weren't with him. Oh god, I thought, starting to feel panicked.

“
Your mum and sister are just grabbing some popcorn, you can grab something to eat now if you're that hungry.”  My dad suggested.

“
No it's ok, I'll wait.”

***

By the time we
'd gotten home, I'd calmed down. I'd reasoned with myself that he probably didn't realise it was me.

I managed to force down four slices of ham, mushroom and pepperoni pizza as I sat curled up on the sofa.

By the time the second movie had finished I was tired and there was no way I could make it through the third.

“
I'm off to bed!” I yawned as I stretched.

“
But we have another one to watch!” Kasey-Ray looked wide awake. She could probably watch another two or three movies before she started to feel sleepy.

"
I'll watch it tomorrow, or you can tell me all about it." I laughed as I ruffled her hair. “Night.” I leaned over to give each of them a kiss. “I love you all!”

“
Love you too!” They chorused.

Once I climbed into bed, I fell straight asleep and it was not long before I was dreaming about him.

We were back in the DVD shop again, but this time when I knocked into him, he lifted his arms and placed them on me, stopping me from moving, then he leaned down to kiss me. His lips were mere centimetres away from mine when I heard a loud banging coming from the shop window.

“
I warned you!” I heard Jessica hiss, making me jump away from Sean. She was furious as she pounded on the glass. Everything around me slowly disappeared leaving me standing in a darkened room. Jessica was still pounding on the window. The banging noise was pulling me from the darkened room and dream. My eyes opened and the familiar surroundings of my bedroom came into view. Then I heard the banging again. It was coming from my window. I couldn't see who it was as my curtains were shut and I was too scared to go and look, because I knew it would be Jessica. She had found out that I'd seen Sean and come to deliver her warning.

Pulling my knees up to my chest, I rocked myself back and forth. I was so scared. I wanted to scream but there was no sound.

Then my bedroom door swung open, making me catch my voice and scream as the light switched on.

It was my dad and he stood there half asleep wearing just his boxer shorts and a t
-shirt.

“
What's going on?” He demanded, rubbing his eyes as he looked from me to the window, but all I could do was shake my head and start crying.

My mum wasn
't far behind him and she quickly came to sit beside me, placing an arm around my back.

Taking a deep breath, whilst shaking with nerves, my dad stepped towards my window and pulled my curtains open. Then he sighed and started to laugh nervously.

“Stupid tree!”

He slowly opened my window, carefully trying not to let the wind pull it from his hands, as he reached out and snapped a few branches off the tree and threw them to the
ground outside.

“
There!” He closed the window and shut my curtains, looking relieved. “I'll take off a few more branches tomorrow. You try and get some sleep.” He walked over and gave me a kiss, then left with my mum to go back to bed.

No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn
't get back to sleep. Rather than switching on my TV, I decided to go downstairs and watch TV there, and that's where my mum found me at 7:30am, fast asleep on the sofa.

“Morning,”
She cheerily said as she sat down to change the channel, after placing a blanket on me. "How long have you been down here for?"

“
Dunno,” I shrugged with a yawn.

“Your dad and I are going for a walk later, if you want to come?"”

“Maybe.” I was that tired, I didn't have the energy to talk.  The next thing I knew it was after 10am and Kasey-Ray was sat next to me.

“
You don't half snore.” She teased. She ducked out of the way, as I launched a pillow at her. I lazily got up off the sofa and padded up to the bathroom. After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I went to my room and straight to my window, to see where the noises were coming from. I didn't feel scared, maybe because it was daylight, but I needn't have worried, it was my dad and he was up the ladder, sawing at the tree.

He caught a glimpse of me waving and smiled
, I turned back to find some clothes.

The weekend went by pretty quickly. On Saturday I went for a walk with my parents and on Sunday, I spent most of my time in my room, finishing off my book for English.

On Monday morning we got to school 15 minutes earlier than normal, so Kasey-
Ray and I sat on the wall next to the car park, waiting for Claire. I could have just gone to my form-room when we got to school, but I decided I would rather be with my sister and get to my form-room at the last minute, just in case Jessica knew I'd bumped into Sean. If I got there just as Ms Forrester did, then I would buy myself more time. But she didn't bother me at all.

In for
m-room it was decided that I would sell programmes with Ms Forrester on sport's day, which suited me just fine. Jessica was going to take part in every event she wanted, which seemed to make her happy.

Sport
's day was only a month away; it was the day before school finished for the summer holidays. Everyone knew that it would soon fly by. I was looking forward to not having to come to school, as I always felt like I was walking on egg shells.

It wouldn
't be so bad if I ran into Sean, as I wouldn't have to face Jessica in school the next day. Not that I would run into him, I was just secretly hoping I would. It was harder to catch glimpses of him when I saw him on the school grounds, because I was sure someone would report back to Jessica, just because they loved the thrill of seeing someone being hurt by another.

After that day in the girl
's changing room, it was like I didn't exist. No one spoke to me, and most people stopped looking at me.

Even after school, when I saw Sean and his friends in the car park, waiting for Jessica, it was rare any of them would look in my direction.

By now I'd learnt all of their names. Justin Michaels was the tall, spiky, red haired boy. He was Jessica's 18 year old boyfriend.

Apparently, none of them attended Galladale High
School; they went to the community college next to the school. This would probably explain why I'd seen them come through the bushes.

The other two boys were Paul and James Hunter.
Identical twins who had just turned 18. I couldn't tell them apart, and apparently no one else could either, apart from Kelly Jackson. She was the girl who was always with them. She was a plain looking girl, but pretty at the same time. She had long brown hair with a stripe of purple on one side, and a stripe of blue on the other. I'd overheard someone saying she was going out with one of the twins, but no-one knew which. The most interesting thing I found out about her was that she is the older sister of Sean.

Sean was the youngest in the group, apart from Jessica.

The rumours were that when he was at high school, he was very popular. Captain of most sport's teams and always had a different girl each week. Then in his last year of high school, he had returned to school, after the Easter holiday and had changed.

He wasn
't really interested in sport's any more, and he wouldn't look at any of the girls, let alone talk to them. He would just sit still with the same group of friends he had grown up with. Instead of being the main one involved in the conversations, he would just sit there in silence.

It was his friends outside of school that intrigued everyone, Justin, Paul and James. They
'd been in the year above Sean, with his sister, and he'd never once spoken to any of them.

You see, Justin, Paul and James weren
't exactly popular, like Sean and Kelly. So no-one could figure out why they had become friends.

It was
only after a few weeks, when people started noticing Kelly with Paul and James, waiting for Sean.

No
-one was entirely sure how Jessica fitted into their little group. I had overheard people referring to her as their guard dog. Not that they would ever say that to her face.

The week seemed to fly by. There was a buzz in the air, about the upcoming sport
's day, with the general banter of who would beat who.

The form
-room in every year, which had the most points, would win a trophy and their form name would be put up in reception. Every year, my form-room had won it for our year, so I was glad I wasn't taking part. I didn't want to be the one responsible for letting the whole class down.

By Friday I was feeling happy. The buzz from the other students must have rubbed off on me. Plus, I hadn
't had any problems with Jessica.

As Kasey-
Ray and I walked home from school, I listened intently as Kasey-Ray told me that her form-room had never won the trophy.

Best they
'd ever done is second. But I reckon we can win it this year, because I've run against Sophie in P.E and I beat her every time”

Sophie Roberts was in a different form
-room from Kasey-Ray, and even though they sat at the same table for lunch and break, there seemed to be a bit of a rivalry forming.

“
I don't think she is used to being beaten.” Kasey-Ray laughed, “I wonder how she'll feel about losing in front of the whole school.”

“
She'll probably throw her teddies out of the cot, by the sound of it!” I laughed.

We were two streets from our house
when I spotted an orange car slowly drive past, going in the opposite direction, making my heart start to speed up. I would recognise that car anywhere.

Every time I saw his car, or caught a glimpse of him, it would set my pulse racing, and now it was going like the clappers, as it turned around and drove past again. I had no idea where he lived, so I didn
't know if he was heading home or not.
Why did he go one way, then turn and go in the direction we were headed?

Just before we turned into our street, I noticed he
'd pulled to the side of the road, the engine still running. If I had more courage, I would have walked over to see if he needed help or something.

As soon as we turned into our street, I heard the sound of his tyres squealing as he sped away.

Kasey-Ray had been oblivious to it all. She was still going on about sport's day. I smiled to myself. I should have felt frightened when I saw Sean's car, but it was only his car I'd seen. Jessica hadn't said anything about me not looking at his car.

She may, however, have mentioned that I couldn
't think about him, but I never stopped thinking about him and she'd never pulled me up on it. It wasn't like she was a mind reader. If she was, she wasn't very good at it.

I was still day-drea
ming about him when we got home. I sighed as my dad broke into my thoughts.

“
Do you have home-work girls?” He asked as soon as we stepped through the door.

“
I do.” I told him as I went to put my coat away.

“
Not me.” Kasey-Ray cheerily added. She probably did, but would only remember last minute, on Sunday night.

“We'll go grab some DVD's as soon as you're finished."  He informed me as he carried a pile of washing upstairs.

I only had maths to do and I was finished
in an hour.

“
Done!” I called as I ran down the stairs, almost tripping over Kasey-Ray's shoes that she had abandoned at the bottom.

On the way there, I was lost in my own thoughts, wondering if I
'd see him there again. As we pulled into an empty parking space, I quickly scanned the area, hoping to see his car. Unfortunately, I didn't. Sighing I followed my family inside and went straight to the new releases with Kasey-Ray. It didn't take long for Kasey-Ray to find something she wanted to watch, as she picked up a film called ‘Four Lions’.

“
This is supposed to be hilarious.” She exclaimed, as she flipped it over to look at the back. “You decided yet?”

“
No, still looking.” I said, shaking my head.

“
Okay, I'll go see what the olds are getting.” I nodded as I continued to look through the hundreds of new releases, then one jumped out at me. Maybe it was because I found the actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, to be quite good looking, but I liked the sound of the title. 'Love and other drugs.' Picking it up, I flipped it over and started reading the back.

“
Supposed to be good.” The sound of his voice made me freeze. “My sister watched it the other day."” I didn't know what to say. I managed to look up at him with a shy smile as I blushed. “Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude.” He looked away, looking slightly embarrassed.

“
Did you sister like it then?"” I managed a dry squeak. He looked pleased that I'd responded, as he turned back towards me.

“Yeah!” He smiled. “Something about having some gorgeous actor in it." I blushed again, knowing this was one of the reasons I was getting it. I was now in two minds, whether or not to get it. “Are you getting it then?” He seemed to sense my indecisiveness.

“
I don't know.” I was until he spoke.

“
You should, and then you can tell me if it's any good.” His smile was genuine. I liked the sound of that, but I had to think about Jessica.

Just then his phone
went; he pulled it out of his back pocket to read his message.

“
I've got to go.” He put his phone away. “I expect a full report next Friday!” Then he left. I was still standing there, staring after him, as Kasey-Ray came back over.

“
Are you getting that then?” I turned to smile at her as I nodded.

“
I think I am.”

***

That night when I dreamt of him, there was no Jessica to wake me. Sean and I had spent hours talking and laughing, in the DVD shop. It wasn
't until the manager had come over and told us it was closing time that I had noticed we were the only ones in there, which had made us laugh harder as we left the shop. I was still laughing when I woke up, and upon realising I had been dreaming, I was instantly sad. I didn't want to wake up.

In my dreams, I was a normal person. I didn
't have a birth-mark, and when Sean had looked at me, I'd felt like the most important person alive.

I did, however, have
a slightly anxious feeling in my stomach. I'd actually spoken to him this time, certainly Jessica would find out. But right now I didn't care. I would deal with whatever she had waiting for me on Monday. In the meantime, I was happy. He wanted to see me again, even if it was to tell him how the film was, which I really did enjoy.

I got out of bed, and after I had used the bathroom, I got dressed and headed downstairs.

My parents were in the kitchen, the back door was open, the sun was shining brightly, and if I strained my ears, I could hear the birds singing.

“
Morning.” I chirped, as I placed two slices of bread in the toaster.

“
Good morning!” My parents chorused.

“
You sleep well?” My mum asked, as she pulled one load of washing from the washing machine and put another load in.

“
Like a baby.” I smiled and started to hum as I pulled the butter and marmalade out of the cupboard. The look my parents gave each other didn't go unnoticed, but I chose to ignore it. “Kasey-Ray still in bed?”

“
No, she's gone for a run.” My dad told me, as my mum went to hang the washing out.

Kasey-
Ray had been harping on about training for sports day, as she wanted to be on top form when she won. As far as she was concerned, she was going to come first in every event, and I had to say I agreed with her. I'd already known that Kasey-Ray was fast, but with her determination she could do anything.

“
We're going for another walk later. Do you want to come?” I thought about this for a moment as I buttered my toast.

“Nah, I think I'm going to sunbathe.” My dad laughed. Normally this was something Kasey-Ray did.

“
Okay.” He replied, just as Kasey-Ray came in. She was all sweaty and out of breath, as she walked to the sink to get a glass of water.

“What's happening?” She asked as she leant back against the sink to look at my dad and me, as I went to sit at the kitchen table.

“
Nothing much. Your mum and I are going for a walk in a bit and Erin's going out back to sunbathe." He rolled his eyes at the last bit.

“
Cool.” She finished her water and rinsed her glass, placing it upside down on the draining board. "I'll grab a shower and come out and sunbathe with you." She said as she picked up my MP3 player and left the room. I'd wondered where it had gone, but I wasn't going to start screaming and shouting about it, I was still happy after speaking to Sean last night.

By the time I'd finished my breakfast my mum had come in and was grabbing her handbag when she turned to me.

“When the machine is finished, hang it out please?" I nodded as I gave her a kiss.”

“
Will do.” Then I carried my blanket outside to lie down. Not long after, Kasey-Ray came out, carrying a blanket under one arm, sun lotion in one hand, whilst using her free hand to hold her phone to her ear.