Brendan’s voice came from the bus stop. ‘Look, we need to be careful,’ he was muttering to someone. ‘If anyone sees us together . . .’
“Us”? Ivy’s heartbeat pulsed hard against her skin as she started towards the bus stop. She couldn’t see Brendan yet, or hear any response from whoever he was talking to. Is he having another secret call on his cellphone?
Then Brendan said, ‘Come on. Don’t look at me like that.’
Aha! Ivy sped up until she was almost running. Mystery Person is right there with him!
She hurtled through the school gates and raced towards the bus stop . . .
Only to find Brendan standing by himself, his shoulders hunched, staring into space.
Panting, Ivy slowed down. ‘Are you OK?’
His head jerked up as he seemed to notice her for the first time. ‘Yeah! Of course . . . Why wouldn’t I be?’
‘Uh . . .’ Because that’s the second time today you’ve blurted three answers to a simple question? But the words dried up in Ivy’s throat, swallowed by sick dread.
She and Brendan had been so happy together for so long. What could be going wrong now? And why?
The school bus ground to a halt in front of them, and Brendan started through the doors with what sounded like a sigh of relief. Ivy followed, her eyes widening as she saw just how crowded it already was from the last school’s pick up.
‘Hey, kids.’ Mrs Henderson, the bunny driver, smiled sympathetically. ‘Just take whichever spare seat you can find, OK?’
But there aren’t any pairs of seats together! Ivy realised.
Brendan didn’t even seem to notice as he sank down next to a stranger. He just turned to stare out the window, oblivious to Ivy’s gaze.
Biting her lip, Ivy made her way to an open space on the bench at the very back of the bus.
‘Hey, where’s your boyfriend?’ an older goth girl called out as she passed. ‘You guys have a fight?’
Gritting her teeth, Ivy ignored the question. The bus started up with a lurch just as she reached the back, and she was half thrown into the empty seat. With no space to move, she found herself crunched between a set of happily talking bunny girls and two goths busy arguing about whether the Pall Bearers’ new album was better than the one before. For once, she was too distracted to even join in.
As the bus pulled away from Franklin Grove High, she turned to look back at the school through the window. Her gaze caught on an all-too-familiar figure.
Maya stood at the bus stop, staring right at the school bus as it passed her.
No, Ivy realised, her eyes narrowing. Maya wasn’t just staring at the bus. She was staring straight at Brendan, right in the front of the bus. Her head swivelled to follow him as the bus moved, and she lifted one hand in a half-hearted wave.
Suddenly, Ivy had a horrible certainty that she knew exactly who Brendan had been talking to. But how did he even know the new girl?
And why was he keeping it secret from her?
Chapter Three
‘Cut!’ Camilla yelled. ‘Let’s try one more . . .’
As everyone around them in the FoodMart turned to stare, Olivia stifled a groan. Sometimes it isn’t easy to be best friends with a budding movie director!
‘What went wrong this time?’ she asked.
Camilla frowned intently under her plum-coloured beret. Her blonde curls sprang out around her face, looking wilder than ever after forty-five minutes of tugging at them with every failed take. ‘You need to walk normally,’ she said.
Olivia blinked. ‘I thought I was.’
‘No.’ Camilla shook her head. ‘Your “normal” walk is too graceful.’
‘Ohhh-kay.’ Olivia let out a soft sigh as she hurried back to take her place at the end of the Newspapers & Magazines aisle.