Page 23 of Role Model
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Chapter Eleven
There are even more photographers waiting outside of the school gates now. Ilya curses at the sight of them and ushers me to the school entrance with swift speed. They call my name and yell questions, but I’ve learned to ignore them. What I can’t ignore, however, are the looks and (sometimes) glares from the other students.
I see Ana and her mother, Naomi, in reception. She turns and, upon seeing me, breaks into a wide smile.
“Aeriel, darling!”
I stop. This woman’s dislike of me has never been hidden, yet suddenly she is smiling at me and reaching out her hands.
“This silly receptionist is saying she can’t phone your mum to tell her you’re coming back to ours this afternoon,” Naomi says. The phrase ‘silly receptionist’ comes out very icily, and the woman in question looks87very put out.
“I can’t get permission from her mother with such little notice,” Miss Bates, the receptionist, says wearily. “She’s the Prime Minister.”
I realise what’s happening. Ana’s mum has finally decided that it’s okay for me to come back to Ana’s house after school. Sable and Jaya go all of the time. It seems that I’ve been accepted at last.
“Phone my dad,” I hear myself say to Miss Bates.
She frowns. “It’s school policy to call the first point of contact, who is always the mother.”
I frown just as hard. “Mine isn’t.”
Miss Bates shakes her head. “It won’t be, Aeriel.”
“Can you please check?” I ask and I hate how desperate I sound. So needy to be a part of the group.
Miss Bates sighs but after a prickly glance from Ana’s mother, she looks back to her computer screen. She clicks and scrolls, while clucking her tongue and then her expression freezes. I feel slightly smug at the sight. She gives me a cursory glance before dialling a number.
After four or five rings, she speaks into the phone. “Is that Mr Sharpe? Yes, hello, this is the upper school receptionist at St. Catherine’s. I’m calling about a pickup for Aeriel after school today?”
88While Miss Bates speaks to Dad, Naomi turns to me and beams. Ana looks uncomfortable and I don’t understand why.
“I’m making my famous macaroni and cheese tonight,” Ana’s mother tells me, in a tone of voice that would suggest we’re friends, even though she’s always refused to let me come over before. “So, fingers crossed he says yes.”
She cartoonishly does just that, crossing her fingers in an exaggerated fashion. She has had an expensive manicure and her hair is as yellow as a lemon.
“He wants to talk to you,” Miss Bates suddenly says and for a moment I think she’s speaking to me, but Ilya moves from behind me to take the phone. He murmurs quietly into the mouthpiece, clearly discussing the whole matter with dad.
When the call is over, Ilya hands back the phone and gives Naomi a cursory nod of consent.
“Yay!” she shrieks, clapping her hands like a little girl. “Excellent. See you after school then, girls!”
I feel like I’m glowing all throughout the day. When I go to lunch, the girls let me sit with them. Sable only makes one passive-aggressive comment. Jaya even says she’s watched some of my videos and they’re ‘really interesting’. When Ana talks about plans for her house89after school, she says ‘we’ and ‘us’ and for the first time, that includes me.
It feels amazing.
It’s pizza for lunch, we each get one large slice with a really thick crust. Ana and Jaya gently make fun of Sable for eating hers with a knife and fork and I feel myself relaxing. I’m usually so stressed around the three of them, constantly worrying about what to say and how to say it. Also what not to say. Now it feels almost okay.
I’m practicing my laugh while Jaya tells a story about Mr Hely in the maths department when Txai suddenly appears by the table.
“Hey,” he says, smiling broadly at me.
I feel my own smile slip as the rest of the girls stare at us both. “Hi, Txai.”
“You’re not coming to the workshop?”
“What’s the workshop?” Ana asks flatly.
