Chapter 4

A week later, on a Saturday afternoon, she was back at Shawn's place. She'd been around three times since her first visit, preferring the Wheeler's busy house to her own. The weather had undergone several drastic changes in the week or so since she'd moved, culminating in the dry, oven-like heat that was set to continue across the weekend and well into next week, meaning her house was an oven itself and Shawn's was filled to the brim with the humming of air conditioners and fans.

She'd arrived pretty early in the morning, happy to text Shawn and then sit out on the doorstep until he or someone else let her in. They'd asked her why she came so early just to sit in the quickly rising heat for a few hours, but she'd just shrugged and told them her parents were out of town or something like that and sat down on the couch to watch the Wheelers compete in a series of championships in a range of video games. Occasionally, she'd join in, but they were all experienced players and she'd barely ever touched an x-box controller, meaning that she always lost, and she was happy to lie on the other couch and watch as they completed game after game.

Currently, the game of choice was car racing. "You're not going to get away from me this time, Shawny!" Wayne crowed as he drew up behind Shawn, eyes locked on the screen.

"As if Pop!"

"Come on Dad!" Kayne just about yelled over the trash talk going on between the two players. Izzy laughed as Wayne missed a turn and went barrelling off a cliff, leaving Shawn to pull away. Over the noise of the competitive boys, she heard a phone ringing in the kitchen behind her and instinctively glanced over in time to see Julie answering it. Feeling silly, she turned back to the game, just in time to witness Shawn's win.

"My turn, my turn!" Kayne shouted, grabbing at the controller in Wayne's hands, but his father put up his hands, fending off the redhead.

"No, I think its Izzy's turn now," Wayne said, offering her the controller. She stared at it for a moment, then shook her head.

"I have no idea how to play that game."

"Come on Izzy, just one game," Shawn said. "It's not that hard."

"We'll help you," Wayne added. She couldn't help but remember the last time they'd tried to help – it had ended in him and Kayne yelling the names of different buttons at her while Shawn sat there grinning like a maniac as her character flailed uselessly, getting beaten to a pulp by a computer. Still, she was tempted to have another go. Who knew, maybe she was good at this game.

Julie saved her from making the decision, waving her hands to catch their attention. "Oi, you lot!" she called. Izzy had to work hard to rein in her laughter at the way the three snapped to attention. "Bess just called asking if we'd like to come over for a swim, so if you're coming you'd better hurry up."

They were on their feet in seconds, game forgotten. "We'll get the noodles," Wayne declared, pushing Kayne in the direction of the garage.

"I'll go get Mum!" Shawn zoomed off across the backyard towards the bungalow he shared with his mum.

Izzy stood up and shoved her hands in the pockets of her shorts. "I guess that's my cue to leave," she said, making to move towards the front door.

Julie was in her way in an instant. "Oh no, no," She sounded offended at the idea of Izzy leaving. "You can come with us if you want, Bess won't mind."

"Okay." A thought occurred to her, and she looked down at her t-shirt, denim shorts and scuffed converse. "I don't have any bathers or anything."

"Oh that's fine, we can swing by your place on the way."

"No!" Izzy replied too fast, holding up her hands. Julie looked at her oddly, and she forced herself to take a deep breath before continuing. "I mean, I don't own any?" she offered weakly by way of explanation, though she knew Julie wouldn't buy it.

The older woman looked her up and down, sizing her up. "That's okay. You're pretty tall, we'll be able to find something that fits you. Brianna!" A moment later, the blonde appeared at the door, already in a bikini and halfway through pulling a see-through top over her head.

"Yeah Mum?" she asked, finishing dressing. Julie glanced between the two girls once or twice, then nodded to herself.

"There you go, you too are about the same size. See if you can find something for Izzy to wear." Before she even knew what was happening, Izzy was being dragged upstairs by Brianna, who was gushing about bikinis and tops and god knows what else.

Shawn came back a moment later. "Has Izzy left?" he asked. Julie shook her head.

"No, she's coming with us. I sent her upstairs with Brianna to find something to wear," she said, gesturing upwards. Shawn nodded and went to move past her but she caught his shoulder. "Shawn," she said, serious now. "You keep an eye on that girl, okay? Let her come over whenever she likes. See if you can find out what's going on at home for her."

"You think something's wrong?" Shawn asked with a frown.

"No, no," Julie hurried to reassure him. "I just think she needs a good friend or two."

Ten minutes later, Izzy finally fended off a crazed Brianna, who it turned out had just been waiting for a chance to play dress ups, and escaped downstairs to the garage in a blue bikini and dress-like covering. Shawn was there, like she'd thought, watching Kayne struggling comically with an armful of pool noodles. "Who's Bess?" she asked him, drawing up beside him.

"My other aunt," he replied, eyes not leaving the show in front of them.

"Why doesn't she live here, like the rest of your family?"

"Nan and Pop had her when they were teenagers and she was adopted out."

"Oh." Pool noodles suddenly went rolling everywhere as Kayne lost control, and Shawn erupted into laughter. "Shouldn't we be helping him?" Izzy asked, struggling to contain her own laughter.

Shawn shrugged, his answer cut off by the arrival of his mum. "Oh, for shits sake Kayne," she called as she stormed up, whacking him over the back of the head and throwing pool noodles into the back of the car.

"Mum's got it," Shawn added unnecessarily as the woman in question continued to throw insults at a whining Kayne.

Noodles and inflatables gathered, they all piled into a variety of cars for the drive down the freeway. It was the furthest Izzy had been from her new home, and she couldn't help but notice the different in this part of the city – the neighbourhood they ended up in was the complete opposite of her own street. There were no cheap, ramshackle houses here, or wildly overgrown gardens. This was a place of neat hedges and sturdy houses in pristine condition. The house they parked outside was no different; an old Victorian home with a neat garden and a pool out the back. Bess, she assumed, was the woman who answered the door and stood aside to let them all in, greeting everyone as they went. Izzy was last, following Shawn and Kayne with the noodles.

"Hello Shawn…who's this?" Bess asked as they entered.

"Oh," Shawn turned, hands buried in his pockets. "This is my friend Izzy. Nan said you'd be okay with her coming too." Izzy gave her most winning smile (admittedly, not one of her strong points) as Bess looked at her curiously.

"Oh yeah – not a problem," Bess answered, a little awkwardly, so Izzy couldn't quite tell if she really was okay with it or not. She didn't get to check or anything though as Shawn grabbed her arm and steered her in the direction of the rest of the house.

Out by the pool, Shawn had more people for her to meet; namely, two kids called Oscar and Edwina, one who reminded her strongly of Kayne, and the other too busy trying to uphold general pool rules to have an actual conversation with. Most of the Wheelers were already in the water, and immediately after introducing her to Edwina, Shawn jumped in himself, sending a faceful of water towards everyone in the general vicinity.

Izzy hung back for a while, unsure about joining the mayhem, however fun it looked. Eventually, sick of the burning hot pavement against her bare feet, she sat down on the edge of the pool, legs dangling in the cool water. As if he'd been waiting for that very moment, Shawn popped up next to her, long hair plastered to his head and water dripping from his nose.

"We're here to swim, you know," he said pointedly, clinging to the side of the pool as he talked.

Izzy leaned back, arms supporting her comfortably. "I'm good," she replied casually, resisting the urge to kick water in his face.

"As if, it's way too hot to not swim."

"I'll survive."

He looked at her for a second without speaking, a wicked grin that she didn't trust one bit creeping slowly across his face. "I bet you're just scared because you can't swim," he taunted.

"I'm not scared," she argued, though she couldn't deny the swimming part. She'd been swimming before, but usually she just clung to the edge or stayed where her feet could safely touch the bottom of the pool, having never been taught a single thing about swimming.

"Why don't you get in then?" he pressed, leaning back in the water as casually as ever.

Her shoulders slumped slightly. The water did look nice, especially now that she was aware of the heat pressing down around her. "I possibly might not know how to swim. Maybe."

"You seriously can't swim?" he asked almost immediately, coming back to the side of the pool with a splash.

"Nope," she replied a little hotly, ready to go on the defensive if he started laughing at her. The wicked grin was all that remained though, slowly replacing her anger with nervousness.

"You'll just have to learn now then," Shawn said suddenly. Her eyes widened as she realised what he was saying, but too late; before she could do much more than let out a short, surprised scream, he had grabbed her and pulled her into the pool. Fully submerged, she flailed wildly and somehow found her way back to the surface, gripping tightly to the side of the pool coughing and spluttering and wondering how much water she'd ingested while Shawn was almost eating water himself as he laughed at her. Without even thinking about what she was doing, she went for him, catching him by surprise and managing to shove him underwater for a few seconds, immediately grabbing at the side of the pool to stop herself from sinking afterwards. He came up laughing still, apparently none the worse for wear after his dunking.

Shawn, it turned out, wasn't a very good swimming instructor; in fact, she wasn't entirely convinced he wasn't just trying to drown her, though he swore he was helping. The few times he coaxed her away from the edge, she floundered immediately and found herself struggling back to where swimming made sense before she ended up with a mouthful of disgusting water again. Eventually, she point blank refused to leave the safety of the side again, and he resorted to bombing over her head into the water, so that she copped the worst of the splashback.

Once she saw people leaving the pool for the shaded table outside, Izzy decided she'd had enough and joined them, just in time for lunch. Before long, all of the Wheelers were there, always willing to devour free food, and it was gone in what felt like seconds. Izzy didn't know if she'd ever been so full, or if she'd ever appreciated the feeling so much before. She wasn't sure she'd ever felt so much a part of something as she did now either, surrounded by Wheelers and Brights, the sole Walker in the room. She wasn't sure if they all accepted her (she had a feeling that Shawn's mum wasn't completely sold on her presence here, but she was yet to say anything particularly hurtful), but she knew that she never wanted to leave.

"You coming over tomorrow?" Shawn asked her as they left the freeway.

"Of course," she replied, beaming.

Her smile stayed plastered on her face the entire way home, only fading as she walked up the cracked concrete path to her front door, trying to enter as quietly as she could. All her care was useless, it turned out, as both parents were slumped on the couch just to the left of the door, eyes glued on the TV and a drink in hand each. For a moment, she thought they were in such a drunken stupor that she could just slip past and into her room without trouble, but as she crossed in front of the TV screen they stirred, eyes moving to track her.

"Where have you been?" her mother asked in a voice that warned against argument.

"At a friend's place," Izzy replied, sidling towards her room. "I told you I was spending the day there yesterday. And I'm going back tomorrow."

A frown creased her mother's face, pulling the lines already there deeper in. "Why can I smell chlorine?"

Secretly, Izzy was impressed the woman even knew what chlorine was, let alone what it smelt like. "They have a pool, so we went swimming."

"Who's this friend of yours?" her father put in, waving his drink around in an attempt to gesture something.

"Just a friend from school." She shrugged, trying to play it off like it was no big deal. They were about to start yelling, she knew. The heat that was trapped in the house was pressing in, like two big hands sitting on her shoulders and trying to sink her into the floor. She could feel sweat gathering on her brow and making her hands clammy – not that she wasn't already soaked in sweat from the walk home in an evening that showed no signs of cooling past barely tolerable.

"Does this friend have a name?"

She swallowed hard. "Shawn Wheeler."

"Shawn?" In her head, she was repeating a long list of swear words over and over as her father rose and stumbled towards her. "So not only have you been wandering around town all day and night, you've been sneaking around with some boy too?"

"We haven't been 'sneaking around'," she protested. "I've just been over to his house a couple of times. His family is really nice."

"Oh, is it?" She nodded. "So you'd rather spend time with that family than your own?" In her head, she was nodding eagerly, but to his face, she just shrugged. He was almost beet red by now, voice rising to a shout.

"After everything we do for you, you'd still rather be a part of some other family. I don't know why we even bother!"

"Oh lay off Dave," her mother slurred. "She's allowed to have friends."

Izzy stared at the worn-looking woman on the couch. It was rare that anyone took her side in these arguments (and it was never her father). Gratitude for her mother rushed through her as her father rounded on the woman, leaving Izzy alone. "Shut up, Anne!" he roared. "I don't need your opinion on everything I do!"

As the argument between them built, Izzy slipped away to her room, heaving a sigh of relief as she shut the door and no one followed her, both of them completely distracted. They were already too drunk to remember she existed unless she was there in the room. They'd barely remember this argument in the morning.

Safe, she took out her iPod and collapsed on her bed, plugging in her headphones and blasting music. With the yelling from the next room over drowned out, she found her eyes drifting closed after just a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, the activity of the day catching up with her.

I really need to get some new music, she thought to herself as a song she'd listened to a hundred times started playing.