from me, gazing at the lone palm tree outside the art room window. He had taken off his jumper and rolled up his sleeves and I noticed the golden hair on his forearms. His arms were slightly clenched and his hands in fists. The muscles stood out, like taut rope. I followed his body upwards. The shape of his chest was clearly defined through his shirt. It looked hard and muscular.
‘Do you work out?’ I asked.
‘No,’ he said, sounding a little confused. I saw him notice me looking at his chest.
‘You seem pretty muscular.’ The words slipped out before my internal censor had a chance to stop them.
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that good?’
I blushed. ‘It doesn’t make a difference. I won’t be able to draw it. Art is my weakest subject.’
‘Can I see what you’ve done?’
‘Absolutely not.’
All too quickly the minutes passed and it was time for us to peer-assess our portraits. Mrs Link wanted us to identify what had gone well, and a target for development.
‘Here you go,’ Ryan said, pushing his sketch towards me.
It was good. The girl in the picture was biting her lower lip while gazing into the middle distance. Her long wavy hair was unruly and her eyes were intense. The shading on her cheeks suggested a slight blush of embarrassment. It was me all right. A much more attractive version of me.
‘So what went well?’ Ryan asked, smiling crookedly.
‘I like the movement in her hair,’ I said. ‘You’ve captured that really well.’
He smiled and thanked me. ‘So what’s my target?’
‘I don’t know. She looks too perfect. She doesn’t look real.’
‘I draw what I see.’
I bit my lip, unsure how to respond. ‘I wish I looked that good,’ I said eventually, shrugging my shoulders and smiling in what I hoped was a self-deprecating way.
‘Let’s see your sketch then.’
I pushed my sketch pad in front of him. ‘I’ll be happy with two targets for improvement. I’m well aware that nothing went well.’
Ryan smiled and met my eye. ‘Evidently human. But I must do something with my hair.’
‘Next week,’ Mrs Link told us at the end of class, ‘we’ll be taking a field trip to the Eden Project to sketch plant life. You will be excused from your morning classes and we’ll be back in time for the buses at three thirty.’
‘What’s the Eden Project?’ Ryan asked.
‘These large domes, like greenhouses, built in abandoned clay pits in St Austell. Each of them houses plants from a different biome. It’s cool.’
‘And it’s called Eden?’
I nodded. ‘As in the garden of Eden.’
‘I got the reference.’
The bell went and I put my sketch pad in my bag. Ryan slid off his stool quickly and began to walk out. He hesitated at the door and turned to look at me.
‘Thanks, partner,’ he said with a smile.
Chapter 2
Megan walked me to the bus stop at the edge of town. After school we’d been to see a film and then grabbed some chips. Now it was horribly dark and cold. ‘I’ll wait with you.’
‘I’m fine. Go home. I’ll see you at the beach tomorrow.’
‘Text me when you’re home safely,’ she called when she was halfway down the street. I waved back, suddenly feeling very alone.
In summer Perran was always busy with tourists but in winter it was desolate. A ghost town. You could walk in the middle of the seafront road because the shops were closed and cars had no reason to drive along there.
I didn’t usually hang around after school in the winter, because of the cold and the dark and the fact that there weren’t many buses, but this Friday I didn’t feel like going home to watch Miranda and Travis canoodling in the kitchen while he prepared some gourmet meal for two.
The seafront was empty. There was no sign of life except for the lights shining through the window of the Fisherman’s Arms. I stamped my feet and clapped my hands to get my circulation moving. The next bus wasn’t due for another twenty-five minutes.
For a second I thought about calling Miranda and asking her to drive into town to get me, but I knew she wouldn’t be happy if I disturbed her Friday night date. I thought about a taxi, but I didn’t have enough money for the fare. In the end I decided to walk a couple of miles and pick the bus up further along the route. It would be a lot less cold than standing around in the draughty bus shelter.
I was only five minutes out of town when a car slowed alongside me. I put my head down and increased my pace. This had been a mistake. I should have stayed at the bus stop. Out here on the coast road, no one would hear me scream. The car pulled up against the kerb, then a door opened and slammed behind me. I reached inside my school bag for my mobile phone.
‘Eden!’
I turned. It was Ryan.
‘You want a ride home?’ he said with a smile.
‘You don’t know where I live.’
‘You go to Perran School. How far can it be?’
‘About five miles. I live in Penpol Cove.’
‘I live there myself.’
Something occurred to me. ‘You have to be seventeen to drive in this country.’
‘I know.’
‘And you’re sixteen.’
He grinned. ‘I know that too.’
I hesitated. But the night was cold and the next bus a twenty-minute wait.
Ryan opened the passenger-side door. ‘Jump in.’
Wondering if I would live to regret this, I climbed inside.
He turned the ignition and pulled on to the road. The car lurched and jerked until it gained speed. He turned the heater up high and warm air blew over me. What a sudden change in circumstance I thought. One moment I was cold, on my own, and a little anxious, and now I was warm, with Ryan, and very anxious.
‘So the rumours are true,’ I said.
‘Which rumours would they be?’
‘The ones about you driving around town.’
Ryan frowned. ‘People have noticed? That’s not good.’
Of course they’d noticed. Every girl in the school had him on their radar. Perran was a small town.
‘Is that a problem?’ I asked.
‘Like you said, I’m not old enough for a licence. I don’t really want to attract too much attention.’
‘So how come you drive?’
He looked away from the road and met my eyes. ‘I don’t like walking in the dark on cold nights.’ He turned back to the road. ‘What are you doing walking in the dark on your own anyway?’
‘I hung out with my friends in town after school,’ I said. ‘And there’s no bus for ages, so I decided to walk.’
He smiled but, mercifully, kept his eyes on the road.
‘Did you go to astronomy club?’
