THE WHOLE DAY I didn't see David. I thought perhaps he was angry at me for mentioning his family and wondered why the subject was so touchy feely to him. First time having an actual friend and I managed to ruin it. Classic Jade.

But I did see Grace again. I overheard her talking with her friends about a soccer match between our girls' team and another school out of town. She seemed really confident of them winning and I just stood there listening in until I heard a voice say,

"Right Jade?"

I snapped into reality and realized that they had caught me eavesdropping. I couldn't have felt more embarrassed.

"If you wanted to listen in you could have just asked us," Grace said.

"I'm sorry. I d-didn't mean to eavesdrop," I apologized.

"That's alright and I'm really sorry about my brothers. They tend to get overprotective sometimes."

I just smiled at her and watched as she and her friends walked away.

Why were the twins overprotective of Grace when I was around? Could they have figured it out?

This could mean that I was in much deeper trouble than I thought.

▃

After detention, I went to the school park and saw the girls team training. Sitting at the bleachers, I watched them and they were pretty great. I thought a soccer team of girls playing would be them just chasing the ball round and round.

Obviously I was very wrong.

"Hey punk," I turned around and saw David standing next to me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I was waiting for you. I thought detention was long over." He sat down and continued, "Unless this is detention then sign me up," he pointed to the field and whistled.

"And who's the pervert now?" I punched him.

"Why is that girl staring at you?"

I turned and my eyes went directly into Grace's. There was a look of surprise and then she got over it and waved me. I waved back.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her left ear and went back to training. I must have been floating on air.

"Someone's in love," David teased.

"Come on and let's go," I pulled him as he was reluctant and kept staring at the girls.

▃

A few weeks later and I'd made little changes to my life. They were those changes that unless someone really knew you, they would never figure it out.

I'd managed to not screw up my friendship with David and he helped me with my stuttering.

He was almost like the brother I never had and my brother did die at childbirth. It just felt really good to have someone you could talk to who would just listen.

Grace and I had also become friends. Sort of. We'd moved from 'hello and hi' to 'how are you and how's everything.'

They'd won their match and she hugged me that day and afterwards, things were a little bit awkward.

Dad was also constantly on my neck to learn how to play other music instruments because according to him, I was a music prodigy. I thought I was too old to be a prodigy and that just because I could play the flute didn't mean that I was musically gifted.

He'd gone back to work so I hardly saw him these days and I missed those days when he was always at home.

David had told me he was coming over since it was a Saturday and he had no assignments.

I was practicing with the flute when I heard a knock on our front door. I went to open it prepared to tease David but to my surprise when I opened the door, it wasn't David. It was Grace.

"Sorry to bother you but my brothers and their friends are making a lot of noise in the house and it's really getting on my nerves so I was wondering if I could come here and finish my novel in peace."

I couldn't stop staring. I didn't know why but for some reason, I couldn't stop staring.

▃