Thyla - Kate Gordon [13]
Exclusive. That word seemed perfect for Charlotte and her friends. They were exclusive. They were important. And they seemed to be keenly aware of it. I wanted to like them. I promised myself I would try to like them. But as we walked away from the oak tree and the thoroughbred girls, I found myself feeling slightly, secretly, relieved.
Then Charlotte introduced me to Rhiannah.
Rhiannah’s hair was jet black, and her skin was as white as the sheets on my hospital bed. Her eyes were dark, too. Nearly black. And when Charlotte introduced us, Rhiannah’s dark pink lips curled upwards and her eyes smiled too.
‘This is Tessa,’ Charlotte said, for perhaps the twentieth time. It felt like the millionth and I was growing tired of the sound of my own name. ‘She’s new. Tessa, this is Rhiannah.’
Rhiannah wrinkled up her nose and sniffed at the air.
‘Is there a problem, Rhiannah?’ asked Charlotte testily.
‘No, no, not at all,’ said Rhiannah. ‘I just thought I smelled … something. Don’t mind me.’
Rhiannah held out her hand and took mine. She shook it up and down. Her grip was strong, but I matched it. ‘Lovely hands,’ she said, still smiling.
I looked down at them. To my eyes, the fingers look stubby and the fingernails were too short and remained dirty, no matter how many times you and I scrubbed at them. Remember, Connolly? You said they looked like farmers’ fingernails.
‘Why are they lovely?’ I asked.
Rhiannah just shrugged and smiled again. ‘They look like they’re used for great things. You can tell a lot about a person from their hands.’
I examined my hands more closely. They had wide, square palms, and the fingernails looked tough – as if they could claw through anything. Rhiannah’s were a bit like that, too: long and slightly pointed and dark. I looked at Charlotte’s fingernails. They were pearly pink and they sparkled in the sun.
I liked mine better.
‘That’s a very charming bangle,’ I said, looking at the metal circle around her wrist. I said it partly because I felt as though I should compliment her back after she had been so nice to me, and partly because I really did like it.
The bangle was made from flat, shiny copper. It looked like she polished it every day. Carved into its surface were intricate patterns that looked somehow like … animal tracks?
A word tried to push its way into the group of words inside my mind.
It started with a ‘P’.
Poor … Purr …
Purinin …
I could not draw my eyes away from the bangle. It seemed, strangely, as though as I was looking at it, the patterns began to move – the footprints began to leap and dance. Almost as though my brain were not in control of my limbs, I reached out. I wanted to touch it. I just wanted to find out what it would feel like. It was as if I was under some strange sort of spell.
Rihannah jerked her hand away, breaking the enchantment. ‘Don’t touch that … please,’ she said. I looked up at her eyes. They seemed fearful. I wondered why. All I had wanted was to touch the bangle. I looked back down at it again now. The footprints were standing still. The magic was over.
‘Tessa?’
‘Yes?’ I said, looking up at Charlotte.
‘Time to move on,’ she said. ‘See you later, Rhiannah.’
‘Yeah, I gotta go too. My brother’s waiting for me,’ said Rhiannah. Her voice was back to normal now. ‘Great to meet you, Tessa!’
I watched Rhiannah walk towards the school gates. As they opened, I saw a boy standing on the other side. His hair was dark, like