Heartache High - By Jon Jacks Page 0,2

look back at the building standing across from me on the other side of the lawns.

No, not a university – a boarding school.

A school with only one student – me.

*

Chapter 4

So, if this is a school, where’s mum and dad got to?

Where, for that matter, are all the other students?

I wander across the lawns, heading towards what I take is the main block of schoolrooms.

There are other buildings spreading out either side of me, like it’s a large complex.

Could be the students – if this is a school, of course – are in any of these other buildings. Could be the dormitory’s empty because we’re all supposed to be in class.

I check my wristwatch to see what time it is.

No watch.

Still, you’d think there would be somebody other than me wandering around between classes.

And I’ve still got to figure out why and how I happen to be here.

What, exactly, was I doing before I woke up here?

Dreaming of Iain.

Nothing unusual in that

And sure, as it’s my dreams rather than reality, he totally responded to what I consider are my considerable charms rather than completely ignoring them.

Nothing unusual there either.

But obviously, it’s not my dreams I should be focusing on; it’s whatever happened before I ended up in that ridiculously small bed.

Know what? There I draw a complete blank.

Last thing I can remember is talking to Cherry and Mary at school. Letting our imaginations and envy run wild as we tried to work out how Yvonne Gresham had managed to land a date with Darren Claudes.

Normally, I try and keep a wide berth between myself and Iain, seeing as how just a glimpse of him at school is enough to transform me into whatever the female version of the Marx Brothers would be.

At one and the same time, it’s both a blissful and an agonising experience.

I get all excited just hearing his name (making any excuse I can to bring him up in conversation, which is getting a bit irritating even for Cherry and Mary) let alone seeing him hanging around close by.

The agony comes from the way he’s always surrounded by giggling girls, none of whom fall around in his presence like I tend to do.

Today, Iain comes nonchalantly sailing past Cherry, Mary and me, carrying a pile of books like he’s on an errand for someone.

No giggling harem of girls in attendance.

No friends even.

My ears and brain immediately switch off whatever Cherry and Mary’s saying.

My eyes swivel painfully in their sockets as I try and watch Iain pass without noticeably turning my head.

My smile remains fixed, in the hope that my friends don’t notice they’ve no longer got my attention. (Yeah, some hope!)

When Iain finally passes out of view of eyeballs straining to see out of the side of my face, I’ve got no choice – I have to come up with some pathetic excuse to turn around.

Suddenly, I’m batting away at some non-existent fly that’s obviously irritating me so much I have to spin around just a little bit to try and get away from it.

(Yeah, okay, so it really is an unbelievably lame excuse; but I used up all the more believable ones long ago!)

Fortunately, Iain doesn’t seem to notice how pathetically I’m acting.

Unfortunately, that’s because he isn’t noticing me at all. As per usual.

He’s just striding past me like I’m every bit as invisible as the kids at this school.

And this is where things get a bit odd, because I can’t honestly recall what happened next.

Sure, I know what probably happened, what always happens; Iain kept on his merry way, heading off somewhere else where he’ll end up having lots of fun with his friends and the ever-attendant gaggle of excited girls.

That’s the rest of my day ruined.

I can’t help but spend the next few hours trying to work out exactly where he’s headed off to, who he might be meeting up with, which girl might be cunningly persuading him to take her out on a date.

Torture, yeah?

Then, later, when I’ve worked out nothing but the fact that I’m never going to figure it out, I retreat into a corner of my mind where I can wallow in my misery, or rant away at nobody but myself about how unfair life is.

School work ignored.

Friends ignored.

Yeah, that’s undoubtedly the way it all panned out, going by my recent history of being one of life’s failures.

But I don’t know for sure, see? Because, weirdly, that’s where my dream sort of seems to take over, blending reality with the