Jezzabel by By Misha Kroon (accelerated reader books txt) 📕

friends name is Rayner, his hair is browny black and nearly reached his shoulders, his skin is deathly pale, and he’s just taller than me; and I don’t think he realises how much I love him.

Then there’s Holly; our ball of energy, Jessie; our pessimist, Callum; the crazy weirdo, Leo; the over confident prick that we all love, Kory; the fashionista, Amy-Lee; the major mood-swinger, and Jade; the guy we’re just waiting for to come out. I love them all to bits, okay maybe not so much Leo, but I do love them all. And I can’t wait to see them all today.

I hear the bell ring while I’m finishing doing my eyeliner. No one answers, so who ever it is at the door rings again. I look in the mirror, my eyeliner is only half done, but i think if someone is ringing this early it must be important. I run down the stairs and answer the door.

Standing there is one of the prettiest women I've ever seen. Her hair is strawberry blonde and styled perfectly in curls, she is wearing a black tailored suit and scarlet gloves. Her make up was dark, she has brown eyeshadow on her top lid, then her under lids are lined with black shadow and she has while highlight under her brows and along her water line. Her lipstick is a jammy red, and her blusher is a peachy colour that emphasises her cheek bone. She looks at me obviously amazed that I would let anyone see me only wearing half my make-up.

“Yes?” I asked her, she flicked her hair over her shoulder.

“My name is Felicity Jackside,” she put out her hand out for me to shake; I looked at it, but didn't shake it. She put her hand down “You can call me Flick.” She tried to walk in; I stood in front of her.

“So, Flick, what do you want?” She laughed,

“I’m here to see my daughter.” She said, I looked at her,

“Who’s your daughter?” I asked her. God she was annoying me, she just turns up and expects to see her daughter, and brag right in, when we didn't know who she is.

“My daughter is Jezzabel Jeckson.” She said, “Jez must always talk about me.” She tried to push past me. I stood directly in front of her,

“There’s no one called Jezzabel in this house.” She laughed again,

“Of course there is you just must not’ve been here long. Jezzabel has been here since she was a baby!” she pushed me out of the way, and walked into the hall, and turned around. “Where is the head care worker?” she asked

“Listen, I’ve been here since I was two days old. And no one called Jezzabel has ever lived here! So I think you should leave.” She opened her mouth to reply, when I heard a voice behind me.

“Pops, who’s that?” Paula came up behind me.

“This is Flick, She’s looking for some kid called Jezzabel, There aren’t any kid here called Jezzabel.” I turned to look at Paula, her face was pale. “Sup Paula?” I asked

“Pop, go to school, now please.” She pushed me towards the door.

“Hey, I’m not properly dressed yet, and I need my bags!” I turned to the stairs,

“Go then. Just move out of the hall!” I ran up the stairs to finish applying my make-up. When it looked as perfect as I could get it. I ran down the stairs and straight out the door without breakfast. The Flick woman had made me late. I ran down the road and spotted Rayner, Leo, Jessie and Kory waiting for me.

“Gah, take your time will you Poppy!” Leo shouted across the road. I gave him the finger,

“Some woman turned up at the home, so she made me late! So shut up, yeah!” I stopped in front of him and slapped him in the head.

“Poppppppppppy!” Holly came running up behind me and hugged me. When she let me go she turned to hug Leo,

“Lee, why don’t you moan at Holly? She’s later than me!” I pretended to whine. He laughed and kissed Holly.

“Cos I actually like her.” He said sarcastically. I slapped him again, “Control your dog Rayner!” he said to Rayner.

Rayner laughed, “Not my dog.” And began sprinting down the road, I shrieked and ran down the road after him pretending to beat him round the head. He put his hands above his head defensively until I stopped. And began my ‘first thing in the morning’ rant,

“So this woman turns up outside the Home this morning, and she’s like I’d like to see Jezzabel, she’s my daughter. I told her there no one here called Jezzabel, there never has been. So she pushes past me and walks in like ‘oh you’ve obviously not been here long.’ I mean excuse me, I’ve been in that shit hole since I was a baby. No one called Jezzabel has ever been there. So I told her I’d been here forever and just as she was about to say something Paula comes into the hall and starts poking her nose in, and I tell her that this woman wants to see some kid called Jezzabel, and she goes all pale and basically tells me to piss off!” I stop to draw breath, Rayner laughs. I hear Jessie and Kory behind me talking low to each other, and further behind I can hear the sound of two people playing tonsil tennis, Leo and Holly, not the most obvious match but for them it works.

“So do you know who this woman is?” he asked. One of the things I loved about him was the fact he listened and was at least very good at pretending he actually gave a crap about what I was saying. Why the hell haven’t I plucked up the courage to tell him I'm in love with him?

“Dunno who she was but you wanna know her name?” I bounced on the spot with glee. I don’t know why but I just found her name really funny. Rayner nodded, “Her name is Felicity Jackside, she said ‘but you can call me Flick.’” I put on a phoney ‘sexy’ voice, and then giggled madly. Rayner grabbed my arm to stop me physically rolling on the floor laughing. He kept hold and towed me to school which was just around the next corner. When we reached the gates we stopped and surrveyed the playground looking for a place to stop, when we found an empty spot we walked over, the rest of our group vaugly following behind, and we stopped. Callum and Jade wandered over detaching themselves from another group of not so close friends. I nodded at them both as a greeting, then slouched against the fence we'd stopped by. “Shit, I don’t even know what I got first!” I realised; I pulled my bag off my shoulder and rummaged around in it to find my time table,

P1: GCSE ICT Miss Jubal
BREAK 10:00
P2: GCSE History Mr Clemency
P3: GCSE Mathematics Mr West
LUNCH 12:30
P4: GCSE ICT Miss Jubal
P5: PSHE Miss Sanders

I groaned,
“Have you ever seen a crappier day?” I whinged. “Look I got Miss J twice and oh the joy of Mr West!” Rayner nudged me,

“Shut up moaning you have to joys of moi, in three of your classes!” he said. “Plus you get the extra joys of having Holly," i groaned, "In your History along with Callum and Kory and Jessie in your PSHE. And Amy-Lee is in your ICT too. So it’s not that bad.” I groaned. He was the only person to know that I really didn't like Holly. When I was round his, I’d have another rant about my annoyance and hate at her. He told me he only paid attention because he found my rants hilarious most of the time.

Holly popped up behind me, “Heard me name.” She said,
“Surprised you heard anything over the sound of you kissing Leo!” i replied casually, she dug into my rib right where she knew it really hurt. “Hey that hurt, bitch!” I said to her. She shrugged, I normally said what I liked to her how ever horrible, and if I added a laugh on the end, she’d think I was joking. I never was.

The bell rang. I walked away and spotted Amy-Lee sitting on the bench surrounded by a mob of guys, all of whom she had once liked but alas she was still single.

“Aym’s you coming, the bells just rang.” She looked at me only half listening,

“Ya-ha.” She said before turning back to a kid that looked half her age.

“Now!” she waved her hand at me dismissing me. I huffed and walked into the fleet of boys and grabbed her by the arm, “Hell no you did not just wave your hand at me bitch-features.” I started dragging her away from the boys.

# Now I know. That I can’t make you stay, but where’s you heart? But where’s your heart? But where’s your- #

My ringtone tinkled from my pocket, playing the beginning of Famous Last Word by My Chemical Romance. I let go of Amy-Lee’s arm and pulled my phone from my pocket and checked the caller ID. Rayner and Amy-Lee looked at me,

“It’s Paula.” I said. Rayner nodded and said,

“Good luck.” Before taking Amy-Lee’s wrist and pulling her toward the main school doors, I heard her say ‘What’s she need good luck for?’ before I answered my phone and tuned the playground bedlam out,

“Sup Paula?” I asked before she could say hello.

“No time to explain properly, you need to come home now.” Her voice was worried sounding. “Put on the hoodie I know you take to school with you even though their banned, put the hood up and walk directly home.” Okay weirdest instructions in history! Rayner and Amy-Lee began walking to the door; Miss Jubal was a push over but, be late to her class. You are dead meat!

“Why? What's happening?” I asked pulling my Bullet For My Valentine hoodie from my bag.

“Oh do as your told without asking for once, please Popsy.” She snapped. I sighed,

“Sure, but what about school?”

“I’m sure they’ll manage without you for one day. But hurry up!” she hung up on me. I put on my hoodie zipped it up and flicked the hood up. Swinging my bag back into my shoulders I started walking the opposite way to the students filing into school. Still with my phone in my hand I exited the school gate.

I pulled up the New Message icon on my phone,
Tell Miss J I felt ill and went home. Will talk to you later. Tidy your room, I’m coming round at 6 30.x
I sent it to Rayner. His reply was almost instant,
Why? What did Paula want?x
I laughed,
Wish I knew. First time I’ve been instructed to bunk.x
His reply took a while longer this time. I guessed he was thinking,
Instructed? I swear Paula just gets weirder by the day. Maybe it has something to do with that Flick woman? Text me when you know.x

I put my phone in my pocket and carried on walking, I was on my street.

I put the key in the lock and pushed the door open. Paula was perched at the bottom of the stairs biting her nails; when