I stayed away in Ghost Town until late that night, flipping back and forth between the empty, broken-down village and the little look-out point where everything looked so perfect, so familiar and calm that I couldn't help bet relax and think about the rafting and Sky with a leveller head.

Therefore, I was on a higher level when I returned to school on Monday. As usual, I leant on my bike with the boys, arms crossed, examining every face that walked past, looking for a challenging gaze – a fight. Then my eyes, if by some other power, lazily drooped to two orbs of forget-me-not blue fire. Sky. I looked her up and down – no stab wounds since the weekend – then dismissed her. She held no other interest for me. At least, that's what I told myself. I felt a jab in my ribs - a friend getting my attention - and looked up to see the angry blonde storming towards me. My lips quirked in amusement as heads swivelled to watch her progress.

"Just what is your problem?" she growled.

"Whoa, did I really just say that?"

I was doing it again. But her thoughts were just so there, so loud. It wasn't my fault.

"What?" I drawled, pulling out my sunglasses so she wouldn't see the emotion in my eyes. I would remain the cold, cool, unreachable Zed.

"I almost get drowned yesterday thanks to you and you made it sound like it was my fault." She snapped. I stared her down, waiting for her to continue.

"You were more to blame than I was for what happened in the raft." Her words seemed lees angry, more cautious now, but her eyes didn't break contact with mine. She was strong. But that didn't stop me.

"I was to blame?" I spluttered – how dare she talk to me like this?

"I knew zilch about rafting – you were the expert – go figure who was most in the wrong."

"Who's the angry chick, Zed?" Robbie, a fellow biker, smirked. I shrugged and said the thing I knew would hurt her the most.

"No one."

She flinched like I had punched her in the gut. I stood my ground.

"I am not 'no one'." She said with quiet fury, and somehow it was worse than if she had shouted "At least I'm not an arrogant pain-in-the-backside with a permanent sneer." Her lip curled in contempt at the last word.

"Shut up, Sky, shut up – do you have a death wish?" her inner voice berated herself and I almost smiled. In the background, my friends howled appreciatively.

"Zed, she's got you nailed," James hooted, looking Sky up and down with new eyes. I fought back a punch that would have him on sick leave for a week.

"Yeah, she's something else." I shrugged, hiding the truth in my words with nonchalance, and nodded to the main building "Run along, BoPeep."

She straightened proudly, clutching her books to her chest, and marched off, the student body parting to make a path for her. I heard Tina talking hurriedly with her and her mumbled, evasive replies and smiled. Yes, she was something else.

Last Friday of September. Soccer day. It was a good day – at least I could aim and kick the ball in the right direction, unlike some of the clutzy, brain-dead kids in the school – but I wasn't really paying attention, as had become the norm for me. Ever since Sky had ripped into me in front of the school, I couldn't think about anything else – about how right she was about me, about how she could see right through my attitude and outside mask to the selfish, hateful Zed inside. And I thought about how I used to be, before the weight of the world had been dumped on my shoulders. I was happy – I was innocent. And, most of all, one word kept on swirling around in my mind: Souldfinder. Who was she? When would I meet her? Would I ever meet her? What if it was already too late, and when – if – I find her she doesn't want to talk to me, or even look at me? All our lives, that one word, that possibility had been haunting us, taunting us. Not just the knowing of what our other half would be and would do for us – it was right in front of us, taunting us in the form of our loved-up parents. And it was getting harder to stand each day. As usual, I was assigned Captain of team A. Lucky, lucky me, guess who was Captain of team B? Sky-fricking-Bright. It seemed the universe wanted us to sort out our problems. Yeah right.

"OK, Zed," Mr Joe said "you win the toss. It's fifteen minutes each way. Good luck!" I was sure that last was for Sky and not for me. She had been at this school a month and she already had more friends in high places that I did. Typical.

Sky went for a defensive goal position. I shook my head – she was way too small, and obviously didn't know what she was doing – and got into my position: attacking. I was going to cu-rush her, and what's more i was going to enjoy it. A lot.

Ten minutes in and we were winning 5-0. Sky was having a hard time and I heard mutinous mutterings coming from her team. Despite myself, I felt bad for the little English Biscuit. She didn't have a hope in hell. The teams converged at half time, and I listened in on Team B. Just to check Sky wasn't getting too hard a time – people could get stabbed over matters of sport, couldn't they? It was for her safety.

"Tactics?" Sheena demanded. I could see Sky's helpless expression from half way across the pitch. I felt a stab of annoyance at Sheena for putting Sky on the spot like that.

"Um. . . well – well done, Nelson, great goal. Let's have more of those, please." Sky stumbled over her words.

"That's it?" sneered Sheena, inspecting her nails "Your tactics? More goals, please? Sheesh, look, I broke one. Do you think they'd let me retire injured?" Well, I thought reasonably, she hasn't got the best team in the world. It's not her fault they're losing miserably.

"I don't play football – I mean soccer – back home." She shrugged helplessly "I didn't want to be Captain. Sorry." Right then, I just wanted to hug her and tell her it was OK. That it wasn't her fault. To reassure her. Wait, what happened to wanting to crush her? I ran my hands through my hair - I needed to get my priorities sorted.

"This is so humiliating," grumbled Neil (says the boy who was on the cheerleading team, I thought dryly). You know what? No, I didn't want to reassure Sky – I wanted to punch Neil.

"Mr Joe promised you'd be great." Ok, now I wanted to kill him. Sky looked like she was going to burst into tears with one more harsh word.

"Then he was wrong, wasn't he? Expecting me to be good at football is like expecting all Welsh people to be able to sing." Her admission was met with blank faces – where was Wales again? "Just stop letting so many of them past you with the ball and then I wouldn't have save so many."

"Save!" shrieked Sheena incredulously "You've not saved a single one. And if you do, I'll eat my sneakers." The whistle blew and we swapped sides. For some reason, I grabbed Sky's arm and stopped her.

"What now?" she snapped "Gunna rub it in some more that I'm rubbish? No need, my team's done that already." I could hear the hurt in her voice loud and clear and was shocked at myself. Is that really all I've been doing? Well, I guess I deserved that anyway.

"No, Sky, I was going to tell you that you're down that end this half." I said gently. Her face crumbled again and then built back up quickly. Oh God, please don't cry, please don't cry. . . instead she rubbed her wrist to her face and spun around to get back in goal. The game continued and that bitch Sheena brought me down. Penalty for me. I made sure I broke another of her nails as I fell.

And here I was. Facing a terrified Sky, the whole school watching.

"Go on, Sky, you can do it!" Tina yelled from the sidelines. I put the ball down and glanced at Sky with not a little pity.

"Dive to your left." I whispered it in her mind. She would get the gist. She rubbed her head like she had a headache.

"Dive to your left." I held her gaze and repeated it. She shook her head and I ran up, kicking the ball to the left. She seemed to make up her mind in an instant, and dove to the left. The ball hit her right in the stomach and she curled around it in agony. Everyone cheered – even my team – as Sky remained curled on the floor, groaning. I ran up to her and waved my hand in front of her eyes.

"Are you OK?" I called.

"I saved it." She whimpered joyfully and I smiled.

"Yeah, we saw." I pulled her up onto her feet.

"Did you help me?" she said, her eyes hazy with pain yet sharp, and I retreated back into myself.

"Now why would I do that?" I turned my back on her, giving her the cold shoulder.

"Thank you very much, O Mighty one." That was when I heard it. Sky's voice, projected into my head. My world lit up like a lightning storm – colours were brighter, stronger, more vivid. And I knew, with a soul-shaking certainty, that this was it. This was her. This tiny, secretive, lost girl was my one, my other half:

My Soulfinder.