Benji Gray.
Jody cringed, feeling like a right creep for looking a kid up on social media but, these days, even three-year-olds had mobile phones and kids as young as seven had Instagram and Snapchat. She rolled her eyes as the results came up with the profiles of several full grown Benji Grays from all over the world instead of that annoying nine-year-old she'd knocked over in the local supermarket a couple of weeks ago. Her illicit searches were getting nowhere. Although she'd taken a break from searching for Kingsley Gray these last two weeks, having decided that she wouldn't be able to handle it if yet another family member shunned her, curiosity had suddenly got the better of her this morning and had led to her grabbing the household laptop before the others had even woken up.
Benjamin Gray.
Benji had to be short for Benjamin, right? Wrong. There were a million Benjamin Grays on the results page and they were all old like Mike. Gray seemed to be even more of a common surname than Jackson.
"Jody!" May-Li yelled from the other side of the door, alarming said girl. Jody squinted at the time on the bottom right corner of the screen to see that she'd exceeded her two hours of screen-time, and relaxed. For a second there, she thought she was busted.
"Yeah, hold on!" she called back, speedily signing out of her account and closing the laptop. Lodging the laptop under one arm, she hopped off her bed and ran up to the door, wondering who wanted the laptop. She opened the door with her free hand to reveal a very serious looking May-Li with the dressing gown-clad Charlie and Ella in tow and held the laptop out to both of the girls but neither took it. Odd.
"Office, now," May-Li more or less ordered, sounding awfully stern, and Jody felt her heart plummet into her gut, getting the distinct impression that she was in trouble. She glanced at Charlie who shrugged and then at Ella who simply rolled her eyes in response before looking back to their carer.
"But why?" she asked anxiously, wondering what she'd done to give herself away. She only used incognito windows so that even if someone managed to hack into her account, they'd only find boxing or homework-related searches in her search history. It was foolproof, wasn't it? Besides, the last time she'd done secret searches was two weeks ago. She pushed past the other girls to keep up with May-Li as said woman stormed down the corridor, her mind going a mile a minute. "What've I done?"
"I'll take that, thanks," Ryan announced, popping out of his room and effortlessly swiping the laptop from her.
Charlie and Ella overtook Jody as she stopped to give Ryan a dirty look but she didn't bother with a snarky response, too worried about what she'd done to warrant being called into the office. As he closed the door on her, she quickly resumed following the older girls down the stairs, trying to formulate an excuse for not telling Mike and May-Li about her run-in with Kingsley Gray.
But was that really what this was about? What did her absent father have to do with Ella and Charlie?
.:. QK .:.
As the four of them filed into the office, they found Candi-Rose standing in a corner, hiding her face with the hood of her pink (obviously) dressing gown.
"May-Li, why are we here? I haven't even put any make-up on yet," she whined childishly, drawing a snicker from Ella. Jody winced. It was too early in the morning—on a weekend, anyway—to bear witness to Candi-Rose's theatrics. "Can I go and put some on?"
"No," May-Li answered with a sigh, rummaging through her desk drawer.
"Not even some concealer?"
"No," their carer repeated shortly, holding up a thin rectangular cardboard box that said 'Clearblue' on it. "Would anyone care to explain this?"
"Erm, it's a pregnancy test?" Charlie guessed, sounding a little unsure.
Jody raised an eyebrow, her paranoia dying down. This was what May-Li wanted to talk to about at half eight on a Saturday morning? To think that she'd thought her secret was out... "May-Li, it's a little late for the talk," she pointed out, trying not to laugh. "We started sex ed in Year Six. Even Floss knows about the birds and the bees now..."
"This isn't funny, Jody!" May-Li snapped, surprising Jody with the gravity in her tone of voice. "I found this in the bathroom this morning. Which one of you took it?"
"What?!" Jody screeched, feeling her ears go red. How could May-Li even think this was possibly down to her? Gross! "I'm fourteen!"
"And I'm thirteen!" Candi-Rose piped up, apparently so pissed off that she threw her hood off and revealed her au naturel face. She looked okay, actually. Why was she so obsessed with make-up? "And I use Chloe's bathroom anyway!"
"Speaking of Chloe, why is she not here?" Ella demanded. "Does she get special privileges?!" Jody made a face. What a dumb thing to say.
"Her wheelchair can't fly her upstairs," Charlie deadpanned, appearing to be disgusted at Ella's stupid outburst.
"Girls, come on, don't shout. I called you in here so as not to embarrass you in front of the others," May-Li stated calmly, sitting down in her office chair. "Now, Jody, you went to the bathroom first this morning. Did you see this in there?"
"Well, no, because I'm not a weirdo who looks through bins!" Jody retorted, crossing her arms and dropping down onto the sofa. The assumption was like a slap in the face, especially considering the fact that as a starving kid, she was sometimes forced to look for food in the bins just to survive. Maybe that little tidbit of information wasn't in her file so May-Li wasn't aware of it but it stung all the same.
"Who said it was in the bin?" Ella questioned, raising an eyebrow at Jody. "Are you hiding something?"
Biting her lip, Jody stared at the floor with wide eyes. Why had she gone and mentioned the bin? May-Li hadn't mentioned it at all! She desperately racked her brain for something to say and remembered seeing Ella with a random boy a week ago. "Says the one who takes random boys upstairs!"
"Ella?" May-Li said, appearing to be surprised. "What boys?"
"There are no boys," Ella lied barefacedly, playing with the tie of her gown. "Why don't you ask her where she takes Tyler every day? Either her bedroom or his and they don't come back down for hours..."
Candi-Rose gasped for no reason whatsoever.
"Jody?!" May-Li exclaimed, seemingly so disappointed that Jody couldn't bear to look at her a moment longer.
"She's lying!" she shouted, closing her eyes as her cheeks burnt in shame. She wasn't going to be able to look these girls, May-Li or Tyler in the eyes ever again, not after this! But now she was the one who was lying and everybody knew it; she and Tyler violated the house rules regarding boys' and girls' rooms all the time—they always had—but they always left the door open. But how could she tell May-Li that without admitting that it was true?
"Don't be silly, Ella!" Charlie admonished. "They're just friends!"
"What, like you and Alex?" Ella countered.
Jody's eyes snapped open and she peered up at Charlie, who was visibly flustered, in shock. One, Charlie had just stood up for her even after what had happened at the supermarket a couple of weeks ago, and two, she had no idea Charlie and Alex were an item. Why didn't the whole school gossip about them rather than her and Tyler? It wasn't fair...
"Okay, girls, that's enough!" May-Li interrupted, holding her arms up. "I only found this packaging and not the test, so if one of you doesn't own up by lunch, I'm going to have to search rooms. I don't want to violate anyone's privacy but if this test was positive, I really need to know!"
"Someone please own up!" Candi-Rose pleaded. "I swear it wasn't me; I don't even have a boyfriend!"
Ella snorted. "Please... You don't need a boyfriend to have sex."
May-Li sighed. "Look, Ella, you're of age. You too, Charlie. If it was either of you, you're not in any trouble as long as you weren't doing any of those things here because, you know, we have small children living here. But like I said, if the test is positive, Mike and I need to know for your own safety."
"Look, it was not me!" Ella protested, "How could it have been? I asked you to get tampons for me the other day, remember?"
"That doesn't prove anything," Jody commented bitterly. She still couldn't believe that May-Li thought she was possibly having sex and that Ella had dared to imply that she was doing it with Tyler and was carrying his baby as a consequence. None of the girls in the short history of this children's home had ever got pregnant (while still in care) so why would she?!
"I understand that you might feel embarrassed to admit it in front of an audience so whoever it is, you can just drop me a text and we can go from there," May-Li offered with what was probably meant to be a reassuring smile. "Does that sound good?" No one responded. "Now, go and have some breakfast, all of you."
As the four of them trudged out of the office, Jody glared at Ella. It was obviously her. Why else would she lie about not having a boy over when she knew that Jody (and Tyler) had witnessed her doing exactly that?
.:. QK .:.
The boys were far more aware of their surroundings than the girls gave them credit for; as soon as the four girls walked into the kitchen to grab some breakfast, the boys, as well as Chloe, Taz and Floss, all fell silent. In an attempt to behave as normally as possible, Jody joined Tyler at the breakfast bar, muttering a 'good morning' to him. She proceeded to munch on a croissant, possessing little to no appetite because of 'the talk', and flared her nostrils at Ella when said girl suggestively wagged her eyebrows at them as she sauntered past them to get to the cereal cupboard.
"What's going on?" Tyler asked quietly, forcing Jody to tear her gaze away from their infuriating housemate. "Why did May-Li call you lot into the office?"
"What, you mean Ryan and Jay didn't hear everything from outside the door?" she questioned incredulously, having thought that everyone had gone silent because they knew.
"Oh, they definitely tried," he answered, stopping to sip some squash. She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "But Mike wouldn't let any of us go anywhere near the office or even the quiet room."
"Thank God," she breathed, looking up at the ceiling. Now she just hoped that the other girls, especially Candi-Rose, wouldn't spill the beans. She just knew that she would be the main culprit if everyone found out.
He regarded her with wide eyes. "That bad?"
"Worse," she replied, watching as he drank some more of the nasty stuff.
He grinned, pushing the half-full glass towards her. "Here, try some. It's good."
She pushed the glass back, giggling despite herself. "No thanks, traitor!"
Shaking her head in amusement, she remembered the time Mike let them go food shopping together last year and lived to regret it; they'd bought nothing but crisps and cola to last the entire household the whole week. Back then, Tyler used to dislike squash as much as she did but now... Well, at least the pair of them were back to normal—whatever normal was—after the little stumble in their friendship last week. The Monday after they'd patched up, the whole school had thought that they were 'back on' so that was something. She just hoped that this Monday, no one would catch wind of the pregnancy scandal via one of the DG kids.
"Do you want to go to the park today?"
She was about to say yes, craving some fresh air after that stifling confrontation with May-Li, but stopped herself when she recalled the room search. She knew she could easily get back home in time for the search but after Sasha had (unwittingly) framed her for nicking Archie's parcel last year, she wasn't going to take any chances. As it was, Ella seemed to have it out for her. She had no idea why—she'd tried to be as welcoming as she could be but the new girl appeared to prefer to keep to herself.
"Maybe after lunch, yeah?"
"Sure," Tyler responded, standing up and picking his glass and plate up. Jody watched him go to the sink before twisting around on her barstool to scrutinise those sitting at the table.
Ryan, Candi-Rose and Chloe all stared back at her.
.:. QK .:.
Right after May-Li had searched Jody's room and had come up with nothing, Jody felt enough at ease to race Tyler to the park. She laughed as she rode into the park ahead of him, the moderate breeze hitting her face and sifting through her long hair. Today, she felt oddly liberated, almost like a carefree child again which was ironic given the fact that just this morning, May-Li had suspected her of being sexually active and pregnant, two very grown-up things (or at least meant to be—they'd all seen 'Teen Mom').
"Beat you!" she boasted as he stopped his bike next to hers, taking her helmet off and placing it on her bike handle.
"For the first time ever," he claimed, leaning his bike against a metal fence and doing the same as her.
"No, I'm pretty sure I beat you loads of times when we were kids," she chimed, flipping her rarely unbound hair over her shoulder and sitting down on a nearby bench.
"Maybe once or twice," he relented, stopping next to the bench and just staring at her.
"What?" she asked, feeling a little shy under his gaze.
"Your hair!" he blurted out, suddenly finding the empty spot next to her on the bench rather interesting. "I mean, I'm not used to seeing it like that."
"You see it like this every morning," she stated, wondering if he didn't like seeing her hair out. She'd started wearing ponytails daily once she'd hit puberty. It'd made her feel more grown up, for some reason.
"You know what I mean," he said, taking a seat next to her and looking her in the eyes. His own eyes screamed hesitation but she couldn't tell exactly what it was that he was so unsure about. "You usually have it tied up by this time." He abruptly averted his gaze, clearing his throat. "So, what's going on in the DG? First May-Li called you into the office and then she checked all of the girls' rooms."
"Not all of ours," she corrected, rolling her eyes. "Floss and Taz's room was spared."
"But why?" he questioned curiously. "You know I won't tell anyone."
She blushed, looking down at her hands as she recalled what Ella had said about the two of them. "You won't want to."
"What do you mean?"
"May-Li found a pregnancy test in the bathroom this morning," she divulged, her eyes darting shiftily. "She thinks it was one of us."
"Oh," he let out nervously. He obviously knew what that meant for the both of them. "Does she... does she think...?"
"I don't know but Ella definitely does," she replied, saving him the trouble of voicing the awkward assumption that everyone who found out was inevitably going to make about them.
"What's her problem, anyway?" he asked, and she turned to him to see that he was annoyed. "I know she's new and everything but she seems to hate all of us. But then she goes and cries in her room like we're leaving her out or something. I don't get it."
What? This was news to her. "She cries?"
"Yeah," he answered as if it was obvious. "Mike asked me to get something for him from the attic last night—you know, when he was doing some DIY—and when I walked past Ella's room, I swear I heard her crying."
Jody scoffed. There was only one reason why Ella would've been crying the night before an unclaimed pregnancy test box was found in the bathroom. "I knew it!" she shouted, unable to control her frustration. How could someone who was nearly an adult do this and then blame it on a fourteen-year-old? That was totally out of order! "All this time it was her and she tried to blame me!" Their eyes met just then and they both looked away. "Us."
There was a pregnant pause as Jody thought about how this could possibly get any worse.
"What now?" Tyler questioned, leaning back on the bench. "I mean, did May-Li say what she was going to do next?"
"I don't know; I legged it out of there before she could say anything," she responded, sighing. She wasn't pregnant. At least two people knew that. But did May-Li? And the others? "You know, I think all the others have found out by now."
Chloe would've found out when May-Li checked her and Candi-Rose's room and would've told Ryan whereas Candi-Rose herself would've told Bird, her new friend, who would've told his brother who would've told Floss, his new partner in crime, who would've told Finn, her old best friend who would've told Alex, her current BFF, who would've asked Charlie for confirmation. At this rate, the only residents still in the dark would be Archie, Joseph and Taz, but only if Floss chose not to tell her roommate.
"Maybe we should stay out here until it gets dark," Tyler suggested wryly.
Jody huffed, feeling irritated. "So they can come up with more theories?" She wouldn't put it past them to start raving on about a Jyler elopement.
He sat back up, giving her a compassionate look. "Hey," he started softly, tentatively taking her hand. "It'll be okay. We know that we haven't... you know... and the truth'll come out anyway, won't it?" She looked down at their joint hands in surprise. "Oh, sorry," he mumbled, pulling his hand away.
"No, it's okay," she assured, wanting his hand back in hers but not quite having the guts to grab it. "Ella will eventually be found out."
She hoped.
A/N: Just in case you think there's no way an entire school would think that two friends are dating, it does happen. I'm a smaller scale example; my entire year thought that my guy friend and I were a couple even though we really were just friends (not the Jyler version of 'just friends').
I laughed while writing this one.