Author's Note
Previously on Boy Meets Girl Meets Skins: Emily and Cook have spent contrasting first evenings in their respective new homes. Emily is all alone and depressed whilst Cook has taken advantage of sharing a bedroom with Katie to 'check her out'.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As hordes of students were slowly making their way over towards the college building on a pleasant, late Autumn, Monday morning, Naomi was sitting on a wall a little to one side of the main entrance, smoking a cigarette. Emily noticed her straight away as she approached the college and was now furiously debating in her head whether or not she dared go over and speak to her.
Part of her was desperate to approach the blonde girl because she just loved being with her and talking to her, despite the abrupt way Naomi had left her at the party a couple of nights ago. However she couldn't ignore the fact that Naomi hadn't exactly hit it off with Cook since the start of term and she was afraid that Naomi wouldn't particularly welcome her attentions now that she had been forced to take on his identity. She weighed up these contrasting arguments in her mind for a short while before deciding to take the plunge and dive in the deep end. Sometimes you have to allow your heart to rule your head, she told herself.
'Hi, Naomi,' she called out to the blonde who looked up and immediately scowled at the sight of Cook approaching her. She continued puffing on her cigarette as Emily came and sat down next to her.
'What do you want, Cook?' Emily's worst fears were realised as Naomi made it perfectly clear from the tone of her voice that he was the last person she wanted to have sitting down in such close proximity to her.
'Nothing. I just wanted to know how you were, that's all.'
Naomi arched her eyebrows in mild surprise to hear Cook actually asking after someone's general health and wellbeing for a change. Normally his first remark would be an insult or a piss-take at the other person's expense. This was definitely a first, she thought, and because of that she was highly suspicious and defensive with her response.
'Bloody hell! What do you care how I am? You haven't before.'
Emily was well aware that she had already started acting out of character for Cook by showing concern for someone but she just couldn't bring herself to talk and act like he would have done. Not with Naomi, at any rate. She just couldn't force herself to make the kind of cutting, chauvinistic, sexist comments that were Cook's trademark towards the one person whom she truly liked. Such remarks would have felt ugly and dishonest coming out of her mouth, even if they would have sounded just like the real James Cook.
'I know. I'm sorry. We haven't got off to the best of starts, have we? I'd like to change that…. if you'll let me?' Emily was worried that she was coming across a bit too weak and feeble for Cook but the sentiments she expressed were exactly how she felt about Naomi as Emily, and not just as the 'new' Cook and Emily wanted to be as honest as possible.
Naomi was shocked to hear such words of apology coming from Cook and, more to the point, delivered with what to her had the appearance of genuine sincerity and authenticity. She felt somewhat disorientated and taken aback for a brief moment and so she cleared her throat and took a final puff on her cigarette to buy herself a little extra time before replying.
'OK. I'm…..fine, I suppose.' She wanted to see if Cook would keep up this new approach so she was still a bit on her guard and declined to be any more expansive than that simple response to his initial question.
'It was a real shame you left the party so early. It got ….quite interesting later on. Why did you go?'
Emily's heart started pounding so loudly in anticipation of the reply that she was terrified Naomi would be able to hear it. She tried to ask the question with an air of complete casualness but she was unsure if she had succeeded. She was bursting to know the reason why Naomi had walked out on her that night. Yes, she knew the blonde had walked out on all of them at the party, but to Emily it felt like Naomi's sudden departure had been directed at her personally.
'I was bored, if you must know. Plus, you were beginning to act like a complete dick. I could see things might start kicking off with that gangster guy so I decided I didn't need to be around for that. '
Emily's heart lifted with barely concealed joy at Naomi's answer. No mention of her being the real reason for her abrupt departure. But no sooner had she been given that small ray of hope and optimism than it was immediately shot down in flames by Naomi's next few words.
'Besides, Emily was beginning to creep me out a bit?' Naomi gazed off in to the distance as she dropped this bombshell, as if she couldn't quite bring herself to look Cook directly in the eyes whilst making this revealing confession.
Emily's heart sunk, indeed plummeted to the bottom of her shoes like an object being thrown from the twentieth floor of a high rise building. It was all she could do not to let out a cry of anguish and despair. She fought 'manfully' to regain her composure before steeling herself to ask the obvious question. 'How?'
'She's just weird. I can't quite explain it, but she makes me feel a bit, I don't know, uncomfortable, I guess, to be around her.' Naomi turned her head to look at Cook this time and was puzzled to see what looked like sadness and sorrow etched all over his face.
'Oh. I thought you liked her. She seems to like you. I thought you two would get on well.' Emily hadn't meant to blurt out her true feelings about Naomi like that but the words just came out almost involuntarily, as if beyond her control. She felt so upset and low after what Naomi had said that all she really wanted was to find a quiet corner to curl up in and cry but she forced herself to stay there and carry on talking.
'I don't dislike her. It's just that she seems a bit…..I don't know, too desperate for a friend and she seems to have picked on me, for some reason. I think her sister might make her feel inadequate, or something. She seems a right bossy little madam, really full of herself. Maybe that doesn't help Emily to make her own friends easily.'
Emily's mood suddenly improved as she recognised that Naomi had somewhat qualified her initial harsh judgement. Naomi had offered some much kinder and more sympathetic comments which made her feel instantly better about herself. Emily was impressed at how accurately Naomi had summed up Katie and the effect her twin had always had on her.
'I think she seems quite nice, you know. Maybe she's just a bit shy and lacking in self-confidence.'
'Not like you then, Cook. Not really something you could ever be accused of, is it?'
Naomi reprised her expression of mild contempt and scorn as she boldly challenged the boy over what she saw as his excessively arrogant and overbearing personality. Nonetheless she had to admit that he was coming across right there and then as a slightly more pleasant, appreciably less disgusting guy than the one she had encountered at close quarters in the first few weeks of term. She couldn't work out why there should have been such a noticeable change unless it was a cynical and deliberate plan on his part to pretend to be a decent guy just so as to get into her knickers. Well, if that was his plan, then he had made a huge mistake if he reckoned that she would be that naïve and easy to play! She still thought he was a dickhead, only possibly not quite as big a dickhead as he seemed to be previously.
Emily didn't know what to say to Naomi's comment about Cook so she just gave a smile and a nervous laugh. She fell silent and watched the rest of the college students making their way over to the entrance to the building. She felt she had probably made as much progress as she was likely to with Naomi this morning so she jumped down from the wall and said 'Come on, let's go in or we'll be late for class.'
Naomi nodded and followed suit, again noting a totally out of character concern on the part of Cook on the issue of timekeeping. Maybe he was still out of it from the stuff he'd taken at the party, she wondered. Mind you, he'd have had to have taken a right shitload for it to be affecting him still this much, surely? She shook her head in mild amusement and followed hard on the heels of the enigmatic Cook who was already beating a measured path towards the college entrance.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cook was leaning nonchalantly against a wall in the corridor, waiting for Effy to emerge from the classroom at the end of the morning's lessons. This was going to be his first chance to speak to her since the extraordinary events of the weekend and he was intrigued to see how things might pan out with her. He knew Emily hadn't yet been bestowed the honour of being one her close friends but even so he thought he could still persuade the cool and enigmatic brunette to hang out with him for a while. He thought he would give it a try anyway - Cook was always up for a challenge, no matter what the odds were like. In fact having already nailed her on the very first day of term, it appealed to his sense of humour and inflated male pride to attempt to score with her a second time from a very different perspective!
He watched the classroom door open and waited for Effy to appear with the other students. He soon spotted her, apparently listening to Katie who was talking to her in very animated fashion. However the look of utter boredom on Effy's face suggested that she wasn't really paying much attention to Katie and certainly wasn't being entertained by her non-stop wittering.
'Whoa! Effy! 'Cook called over to her and smiled at the hint of surprise that was just about detectable on the girl's outwardly expressionless face.
'Emily. Hi!' said Effy in a mildly interested tone as she and Katie made their way slowly over to Cook. He couldn't help but clock the firmly closed mouth and blazing eyes that Katie instantly turned on him when she saw him.
'How's things? I haven't seen you since the night of the party. Did you enjoy it? '
Effy looked at Katie who pulled a face to indicate she had no idea what her sister might be getting at and said she had to go off somewhere, happy to leave Effy alone with her pervy, sick, twisted sister.
'Yeah. It was… interesting,' said Effy in her habitually understated way.
'Cook was pretty outrageous, wasn't he? He's quite an amazing guy, don't you think?' He couldn't help himself fishing for compliments, trying to find out what Effy thought about him but he might have guessed she'd be too smart to let anyone else in on what she really felt.
'He's OK, I suppose. He's amusing ….occasionally.' Cook suspected that summary probably amounted to unusually high praise from the cool, emotionally detached and controlled brunette.
'Do you fancy going for a drink and something to eat?' Cook had come to the conclusion that he had to compromise a certain amount in the way he was going to behave towards Effy if he wanted to entertain any hopes of getting it on with her. He knew that Effy would find it extremely odd if Emily started acting like Cook and would in all probability turn him down. He had to attempt to be more like Emily even though that would be a tough one to pull off – Cook wasn't exactly renowned for doing 'sweet, shy and reserved.'
Effy looked at the redhead with a half smile hovering over her lips. She had been fascinated by Emily since she witnessed her arrival at college, tagging along behind in her sister's shadow, very much the put upon doormat to Katie's dominatrix role. She thought she was really sweet and yet terribly shy and lacking in confidence but these apparent character drawbacks intrigued her and increased her interest in Emily all the more. She wanted to find out if there burned deep down within the meek young girl a passion for rebellion and resistance to the dominance exercised by her twin sister.
'Sure,' she replied, curious to find out what had prompted such an unexpected show of forwardness on Emily's part.
'Great,' said Cook. 'Let's go then.' They made their way out of the college building in complete silence but as soon as they were outside Effy started to probe 'Emily' about her motives for wanting to hang out with her.
'So what is it you wanted to speak to me about, Emily?'
'Nothing. I mean, I just wanted to….get to know you, I suppose.' Cook gave a cheeky grin to Effy who looked back at the redhead with a concentrated stare and a thoughtful expression.
'There do seem to be an awful lot of people round here who want to get to know me. I wonder why that is.' Effy wondered if Emily had been talking to Freddie about her – surely her using that very same expression couldn't be just a coincidence?
'Well, you've obviously got a lot of admirers. You seem to be very popular with everyone already. I really like you. I think you're great, honestly.' Cook thought that this excessively gushing piece of flattery was bound to provoke some sort of reaction from Effy.
'I can't help it if people are drawn to me. I don't go out of my way to encourage them. It just seems to happen.' Effy wasn't sure if Emily was actually trying to flirt with her or was just trying desperately hard to become her friend. Either way, she was amused and intrigued to explore some of the hitherto unspoken issues concerning the redhead..
'So tell me, what's all this about you and Naomi in junior school? Is it true what Katie said about Naomi hitting on you?'
Cook thought he could now see a possible way in to Effy and decided he had to take a chance and just go for it. 'What would you think if I said it was true? Would it put you off being friends with Naomi……or me, even?'
'No. Why should it? It's the person that counts, not their sexuality. So, what did happen then? Who kissed who?'
'She kissed me. Well, sort of, anyway. It was all over pretty quickly.'
Effy nodded and smiled a warm gentle smile at 'Emily' to show her that she understood. 'Did you like it?' Has it happened again since then?'
Cook was getting increasingly turned on by the direction this conversation seemed to be taking. He wondered if Effy's question about whether Emily liked kissing Naomi was a very subtle hint that Effy herself wouldn't be against the idea of snogging either of the two girls. She was smiling when she asked him the question, he had noticed. Could she be testing the water with him to see what sort of response he came out with?
'It was okay, actually. I mean, it wasn't something I'd thought about much before but after it happened I suppose I kind of ……liked it.' He paused for a few seconds before launching into the leading question he had been building up to since the start of their conversation. 'How about you, Effy? Have you ever thought about kissing another girl? '
Effy raised her eyebrows the tiniest amount to indicate the question had registered with her but otherwise her face betrayed no other discernible emotion or reaction to such a bold and personal question.
'Maybe. Would you like me to have thought about it, Emily? Is kissing me something that you've been thinking about recently?' She stopped dead in her tracks and turned slowly round towards Cook, deliberately bringing her face right up close to his so that their noses were almost touching.
Cook could sense the excitement rising within him, could feel the same tingling sensation down in his groin that he had experienced the previous day with Katie. Effy's s hot breath and the sweet scent of her perfume filled his nostrils and made him quiver with anticipation as her big eyes bore right into his own with heavy intent and loaded implication. He made the smallest of forward movements with his face to bring his lips up to Effy's. His hands were already on the point of reaching out to grab hold of Effy's waist and pull her into his side when they heard the sound of Effy's name being shouted out at full volume.
They both turned their heads round in a sudden, jerky motion to see Pandora running towards them and waving excitedly in a typically demented and frenetic manner. She was alongside the two of them in seconds, grinning from ear to ear and talking nineteen to the dozen.
'Hi, Ef! Hi, Emily! Where've you been, Ef? I've been looking all over the place for you? I've had another crap morning in Hair and Beauty, I've just got to change subjects pdq or I'm seriously going to have to kill myself. I can't face being stuck with the teeth and hair brigade a minute longer. You've gotta help me, guys, please!'
Even though Panda's timing was as impeccable as ever she didn't seem to have really taken in the scene that she had just interrupted. Her wide-eyed innocence and the deadly serious expression she was pulling about her own personal crisis made Effy burst out laughing. Cook also couldn't hide a genuine smile at Panda's daffiness although he was inwardly cursing her for having turned up with such frustrating precision at exactly the wrong moment as far as he was concerned.
'Come on, Panda. Emily and I were on our way to get some lunch. Come and join us and we can work out what you're going to have to do.'
'Wizard! I am so hungry I could eat twenty doughnuts and still have room for a triple strawberry milkshake!' Panda linked arms with Effy and the 'three' girls walked off down the road as Panda continued with her latest lament about the Hair and Beauty set.
.
.
