Page 105 of Seven Letters

‘Merci– I mean, thank you so much, Mrs Moloney,’ Zoë gushed. ‘I’m so touched by this gesture. I have to thank Mr Green, our sports teacher, for encouraging me and also I have to especially thank Zach for all the extra hours he put in, helping me to push harder and aim higher. Zach, you’re amazing.’

All the boys around Zach began to whistle. He smiled and blushed bright red.

In a second Riley went from angry to devastated. He really liked her. He was into Zoë. It was over. She might as wellaccept it. Zach loved Zoë and Riley was never going to get him back.

Mr Warren raised his voice to get their attention. ‘Class, I need everyone to really focus. This assignment needs to be in next week so I want to see some serious progress today. I’ll be coming around to each pair to see how far you’ve progressed.’

Zach tapped his pen against his teeth. ‘We need to get moving on this.’

Riley sat back in her chair and shrugged. She was done making an effort. She hadn’t even put on lip gloss before class. What was the point? He wasn’t into her. Zach wasn’t going to scoop her into his arms and console her about Sarah. He wasn’t going to tell her she was great and her dad would get a job and her mum would stop looking so heartbroken and that everything would go back to normal.

‘Do you want to talk about our different points of view, then write some stuff down?’ Zach suggested.

‘Sure, whatever.’ Riley bit her thumbnail.

‘Psst, Zach,’ Harry hissed, from the desk beside them. ‘Does Frank Green know your extra training with Zoë includes a lot of horizontal jogging?’ He sniggered.

‘Shut up, Harry.’ Zach frowned and turned back to Riley.

Riley concentrated really hard on her notes and not crying.

‘I haven’t had sex with Zoë,’ Zach said quietly.

‘What you do with Zoë is your own business.’

‘Yeah, but I just wanted you to … Well, we haven’t.’

Riley looked up. ‘OK.’

Zach fiddled with his pen. ‘So, I read the book.’

‘Did you? Or did you watch the movie?’

‘No, Riley, I read the book. I liked it.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah, really. It’s a bit slow to start and the mother is a bit too much of a saint to be real, but I liked the girls and Laurie and the granddad.’

‘Which of the sisters did you like best?’ Riley asked.

‘Which do you think?’

‘Amy.’

‘Why?’

‘Because she’s pretty and fun and uncomplicated.’

‘Selfish and conceited, too.’

Riley looked at him. ‘Did you just say conceited?’

He grinned. ‘Yeah, I had to look it up. But she is, she’s really into herself.’

Riley nodded. ‘But so are lots of girls. Half the girls in this school are obsessed with make-up and hair extensions.’

‘You can be into how you look without being selfish. You wear make-up.’

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