Things are looking up
Disclaimer: You know the drill. Delilah and Debbie are mine. The rest belong to Kate Andrews.
Delilah held her breath. "Come on," she muttered. "I can't believe how slow 15 seconds can go by." She held her breath. This is it. Yes!
"Don't forget to read up on Inertia tonight for tomorrow's quiz!" Miss Walter, the Physics teacher cried out to the class that was suddenly been brought to life by the liberating sound of the dismissal bell.
Delilah finished packing her bag and was about to rush out of the classroom when a familiar voice called her name.
"Amy," Delilah said when she turned to face Amy and her friends, Mel Eng and Aimee Stewart.
"Where were you during lunch?" Amy asked as she took a seat at the empty chair by the door where Delilah was standing.
"Yeah," Mel chimed in. "We were looking for you."
"You were?" Delilah asked in surprise. She wondered what was so important that they had to look for her. They had Biology before lunch. Once the bell rang for lunch, Delilah darted out of the classroom just like she did for her other classes. However, she always made a point to listen to any special announcements before leaving.
Then panic rose in her.
"Oh no," Delilah cried. "Did I miss out some important homework assignment after Bio?"
Aimee rolled her eyes. "No silly."
"Who cares about Bio?" Mel added.
"I do." Delilah whispered to herself.
"Look," Amy said as she leaned forward toward Delilah. "We just wanted to know whether you wanted to have lunch with us just now. But we couldn't find you anywhere."
Delilah was clearly shocked by what Amy said. If she wanted to be honest, she much rather wanted to hear that she missed an important Biology homework.
"I... um, I was at Principal Cashen's office." Delilah said in a small voice. She avoided eye contact with the three girls by staring out of the window.
"You were WHAT?" Aimee asked, her eyes wide in shocked.
"What did you do?" Amy got up to stand next to her.
"Nothing!" Delilah quickly answered. "This morning when I came to school, he just said he wanted to see me. You know," she added. "Admin stuffs."
Delilah didn't tell them that "admin stuffs" was actually Principal Cashen asking Delilah whether things were alright at home what with the divorce and all. Delilah didn't want anybody to know that her parents were divorced.
"Well, tomorrow then." Amy said as she folded her arms across her chest. "Have lunch with us."
"Sure." Delilah smiled. "I have to run. Or I'll miss the bus."
Once she sorted out whatever she needed to bring back from her locker, she rushed to board the school bus. She found a spot at the back row of the bus and settled herself down.
Delilah propped a rather large and heavy book on her lap. It was a picture book on wildlife photography. After her talk with Principal Cashen, she managed to find the school library and decided to borrow a book.
Before she could open the cover of the book, someone called out. "Hey, someone's seating at our seat!"
Delilah looked up. Her face reddened when she realised that the source of the noise was referring to her. She was even more embarrassed when she realised these people were Jordan, Sam, Sky and their friends Carrie and Alex.
"Sorry." Delilah muttered as she grabbed her bags and book to move to the seat in front of her.
"Hey," Carrie stood in front of her and smiled. "Don't worry about it. We were just playing with ya."
Despite what she said, Delilah smiled. 'No problem. It was getting hot back there anyway." She made herself comfortable at her new seat.
"Tell me about it," Alex said as she slide behind Delilah into the right most corner of the back row. Her skateboard was propped right in front of her. "I can feel the heat right up my a-"
"Ok, Alex..." Jordan laughed as he sat next to her. 'We get the idea."
"Hey, what is that?" Sam pointed to Delilah's book. He was seated in the middle between the five of them.
"Oh no, get that book away!" Sky said from her seat at the opposite end of the row. "You've encouraged the geek inside him to surface."
"And we thought our Sam was doing so well today," Carrie sighed while she patted Sam's head.
Sam ignored them and asked Delilah. "It looks interesting."
"It is," Delilah said as she turned the cover towards Sam.
"Wildlife in Film," Sam read aloud. "Hey, I didn't know we have books on Photography in the library!"
"Here we go again," Jordan rolled his eyes at Alex, who just snickered away.
"I don't think they do," Delilah said. "But this was what Mdm Stern gave to me when I asked her for a book on animal photography."
"Mdm Stern?!" the five of them exclaimed.
Delilah winced. The five of them were so loud that she thought she was going deaf.
The bus driver finally got into his seat and turned to wave at them. 'Hey guys, how was school today?"
"Great, Brick!" Sky waved back. The rest of them gave him a smile and some thumbs up. Brick looked at Delilah and gave her a small nod.
"Glad to see you've made new friends."
"Thanks," Delilah smiled.
When Brick drove the bus out the school driveway, Jordan leaned forward and rested his arms on the back of Delilah's seat. "Are we talking about the same Mdm Stern?"
"Unless you have a great-aunt that goes by the same name," Delilah said as she turned in her seat. "No, I don't think so."
Delilah heard Sky chuckled. "Got ya there, Jor-dumb."
"Shut up, Granola brain." Jordan snapped.
"Can I have a look at that?" Sam asked Delilah.
"Sure."
He went forward and sat next to her. Delilah handed him the large book. "It's just that," Sam explained as he turned the cover. "Mdm Stern has a character that well... lives up to her name."
"She doesn't allow us to even yawn in the library, let alone bother to help us find a book." Alex added from behind Delilah.
"What did you do to her to make her human like that?" Carrie asked.
Jordan sniggered. "Maybe you had her at gunpoint." He held out his arms as though he was holding a gun and said in a gruff voice. "Give me the damn book or I'll blow your big fluffy hair out!!"
A few kids turned to look at him.
Sky groaned. "Way to go, Jor-dumb. Good way to make us look cool."
The bus pulled up in front of a large, white modern house. "My stop." Carrie said as she got out of her seat. 'See you guys tomorrow!" She made her way toward down the bus, her big combat boots clomping loudly on each steps. When she reached her driveway, she turned to wave goodbye.
"That, is her house?" Delilah asked in disbelief once Brick drove off. "It's monstrous! Did you see how many floors there are?"
"She may look rough, but there are surprises lying underneath that disturbing appearance of hers." Jordan said.
"Wow, look at this." Sam said pointing a picture of an aerial view of a blue whale swimming underwater. He was too busy flipping through the book to even bother about their conversations.
Alex shook her head. "Wait till you see him in front of a computer, he looks like he's having a seizure."
The bus stopped a few more times as it began to slowly empty out.
Delilah smiled. "I have many other books on animal photography." She said to Sam. "But they're being shipped here from New York. They will get here by the end of the week, I guess."
"I take it you have an interest in photography?" Sam asked while admiring a magnificent shot of two cheetahs fighting it out on the savannah.
"That is nice," Delilah said as she pointed at the picture. "Look at how focused the quality of the shot is." She added. "I can see granules of sand in the air around the two cheetahs. It's as though he was just right in front of them when this happened."
"Maybe he really is right in front." Jordan said.
"He'd be dead then." Delilah laughed. "Not exactly worth it if you're going to end up dead, right?"
"You should try for the school paper." Sky offered.
"Yeah!" Jordan, Alex and Sam (who quickly went to back to admire a photo of a polar bear and her cubs) said.
"I want to but," Delilah shrugged. "I may not be good enough."
"Listen," Alex said. She looked out of the window. "Oh no, my stop's here soon. I'll make this quick." She grabbed her skateboard and swung it across her shoulder missing Jordan's head by a few centimeters.
"Hey!" Jordan scolded.
Alex ignored him. "Carrie writes for the paper, she can help you with it. Out of the way," she shoved Jordan's legs aside with her own.
"We'll help you with it, don't worry." Sky smiled.
Sam who finally gave Delilah back the book, said that he will talk to Carrie about it later that night. "You must bring along your portfolio, though. You have one, right?"
Delilah nodded. "But they're just careless shots."
Sky nudged Delilah's shoulder. "Have faith in yourself."
"Yeah," Sam said. "That's mine." He pointed to a comfortable looking brown house.
Sky and Delilah were one of the lasts to alight from the bus after Jordan because their house was right up north of Ocean's View. "Your house looks really cool," Delilah said when she saw Sky's houseboat from her seat.
Sky snorted. "Try living in it all your life. Then you tell me whether it's cool." Before she made her way down the bus, she said. "You should come by to visit then. I can show you around."
Delilah nodded and smiled. "Definitely!"
When Brick finally got to her stop, she made her way down as she passed a few rows of kids left on the bus.
"Bye, Brick!" she said as she stepped down the steps.
"I shall see you tomorrow then!" he said good-naturedly.
Much later, Delilah was reading her Physics textbook when Debbie entered her room.
"What exactly are you doing?" Delilah asked without looking up from her book. Debbie was rummaging into her closet and then moved onto looking for something under her bed.
"Good." Debbie said when she finally decided she couldn't find what she was looking for. "No pom poms. There's still hope for you yet."
Delilah rolled her eyes and threw a pillow at her sister to drive her out of the room since she needed to study.