Ell's POV:
"Hey Ell! We're over here!" I heard someone shout above all the noise of the canteen. I followed the voices over to the group of guys who always sat in the corner, the group of guys who were my friends. "Hey," I sighed, sitting down at one of the spare seats, starting up a conversation with them about our day so far. "Is Danny meeting us outside today?" I asked, and Josh, my best friend out of the group, looked up to reply to my question. "He should be, I think he's going to be out there in about fifteen minutes so we can hang out." I started pulling apart the sandwich I had made as my lunch, not feeling hungry and definitely not be swayed by the appearance of it. I looked over a couple of tables to Ash and the others, watching her sit there enveloped in her own little world as everyone talked around her, apart from Gee who just looked at her, a mixture of curiosity and worry strewn across his face. "Hey, you coming mate?" I snapped out of my daze as Josh pushed my slightly as everyone started to slowly get up and start walking out of the canteen. "Oh, yeah, sorry," I mumbled as I got up and walked with them. We walked out into the bright sunlight of the outside world, the shouts and shrieks of people louder as we got out into the open. "Hey man! How's it goin'? I heard the recognisable shout of Danny as he ran up to us, again managing to get into school without any questions and just passing as an average student. He reached me with a grin on his face, giving me a quick hug. I smiled back at him, still slightly baffled by just who he was, but hoping to find that out today. "I'm good thanks," I said, joining the others on a bench which had been stolen off a group of people a few years younger than us. "Cool," he said, settling next to me as if we had been best friends for months.
It took over an hour to find out everything I wanted to about Danny, but at least now I knew he was cool, plus, skipping a lesson was no big deal… If anything it was just another bonus. He told me that he'd been friends with Ash when she went to St James High in London when I was over here, but he only knew her for about a year until he came over to New Jersey. He moved in with his mum over here and he'd been living there for just about a year now. I still wanted to know why he had chosen to be my friend and not Ash's, but I still thought that if he had hung out with her before, then he must be cool, because otherwise he would have had at least his nose broken by now. I thought about all of this as I walked home, trailing behind the group of everyone who always seemed to spilt themselves into groups of two – Ray and Mikey usually talking about music or boring lessons, then there was Gerard and Ash, either walking along silently with him looking worried, or every so often she would make the effort to try and have a regular conversation with him, which would usually end in an argument which they tried to keep quiet. Behind them there would usually be Lauren and Frank, who seemed to be almost like the perfect couple. I had never seen them argue or anything, they just seemed so strong together. Then at the back there was usually me and Luke, usually spending our time talking about anything from dad to Star Wars. We finally got to the turning of our street where Mikey and Ray left us, walking straight on back to Ray's rather than turning. We walked past as few of the big white houses and finally reached Frank's, where the usual thing of him and Lauren turning up the path happened, just leaving Gerard, Luke, me and my sister. I knew that she was always going to be a mystery to everyone, just because of the fact that she never let anyone in, and no one ever knew half of what had gone on with her in her life. I mean, none of us even knew why she had decided to move over here, apart from the fact that she had been kicked out by mum, although she seemed like she had been pretty happy staying with friends. I looked at her as we made our way into our house, thinking about all the stories written across her face in another language that possibly no one but her understood, and the fables which accompanied the hidden scars which ran up her arms in straight, horizontal lines. Her eyes caught mine for a brief second and I noticed for the first time all the pain and secrets hidden there, and I realised that my sister would always be a mystery. That was just her. She was never going to change for anyone, no matter how hard anyone wished.