Page 17 of People Change

She gripped her iPod tighter. ‘This and that.’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Blink-182,’ she said. ‘And Mary J. Blige. I have varied taste, before you say anything.’

‘I wasn’t going to say anything.’

‘Keep it that way,’ she said. ‘You’re new here, aren’t you?’

He nodded. ‘Yeah.’

She wrapped her headphones around her iPod and tucked it back into the waistband of her shorts. ‘So, how do you like North Oak so far?’

‘It’s a bit shit,’ he said. ‘I liked my other school.’

‘Oh. Why’d you come here, anyway?’

He shrugged. ‘My parents thought it would be better.’

He somehow knew she knew about his brother. There was something in her eyes, in the way she looked down when he said this and didn’t push it further. ‘Don’t you all wear proper suits at Foxview? Like, a tie and everything,’ she said.

‘Yeah.’ He couldn’t stop the small smile from growing on his face.

‘I think your parents were right. It’s too posh there. Why are they making you dress like you’re businessmen or something?’ she said, smiling back.

‘There were more people like us there,’ he said.

Her head tilted to the right, and her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. ‘Like us?’

‘You know what I mean: Asian. But I didn’t know any Iranians there. You are Iranian, right?’

‘How did you guess?’ she asked.

‘Your eyes,’ he said.

They looked at each other a beat longer than was normal, and then Shirin looked away, cleared her throat. ‘Yeah, well, North Oak is pretty white and racist. So, welcome.’

‘I heard you were in hospital after something someone did?’ he asked slowly.

She was quiet for a moment, frowning. ‘Jordan thinks it’s hilarious to throw mud balls at some of us. He said he does itto everyone, but he only got me in the face, and there was a piece of metal in it. I’m fine now, so it’s like, whatever …’

‘Jesus.’

They could hear a whistle in the distance and a teacher shouting, ‘One lap left!’

‘Okay, give it a minute, and when Miss Kemp is out of view we need to run,’ Shirin said.

‘I was really good at running at my old school,’ Kian said, because it was true and he wanted her to impress her. What he didn’t realise, though, was that this was not information that would impress her.

‘Do you want me to give you a round of applause?’ she said, and then her face lit up. ‘Okay, I’ll race you the last stretch, and whoever wins has to give the other a quid.’

‘I mean,’ he began, ‘I’m obviously going to win.’

‘Well, let’s see.’

Shirin looked ahead, saw the coast was clear and began to run. He didn’t realise she meant right now, so he was a little behind her. He had to really leap as he ran to catch up with her; she was quick. In the end, she completed the run two seconds ahead of him. At the finish line she had her hands on her thighs for support, her face a tomato red. In front of everyone who had already finished, she didn’t acknowledge him. In fact she turned her body away from him while she caught her breath, and then went over to Phoebe, presumably to find out why she hadn’t met her as planned. Phoebe had her blonde hair in a high ponytail and was about three inches taller than Shirin. He thought he heard Phoebe say that Miss Kemp wouldn’t bloody leave her alone.

When Connor had completed the run, he said to Kian that he hadn’t seen him on the course for ages. ‘You must have been quick,’ Connor said. Kian mumbled something about him not kidding when he said he was good at running, deciding to keep what he and Shirin had done between them.

Once everyone had finished, the boys and girls started to make their way back to their changing rooms. As Shirin passed Kian to go into the girls’ room she whispered, ‘You owe me one pound.’

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