Running Shoes (The Shades of Northwood)

  The party was themed – SAVE ME, the banner hung over the door read. It was all about saving. Jaye and Dina dragged Katie to the Levenson Academy’s swimming pool by the leisure centre. There were lifeguard uniforms there.

  “I’m not sure we should be in here.”

  “The door was open.” Yes. Yes it had been… after Dina had slipped the lock. She had obviously done this before. The lock was just a simple slip latch, Katie could have flipped it if she had not been so worried about getting caught. She needn’t have fretted though because discarded fast food wrappers dotted the floor and some poor soul was walking around with only one flip flop.

  “The public pool is in the centre and this is just ours. Kids use it as a hang out.”

  Jaye opened the door to a closet of floats, foam lane markers and lifeguard outfits. “Everyone comes here. I’m a guard here so I give you permission to be here.”

  “That makes me feel better.” Katie hung back by the door and let the other two girls start rummaging around for enough stuff to make three outfits. “It just doesn’t feel right. I mean, some-one has to come in to clean up, right?”

  “You would think so. But not ‘til term starts in two weeks. No-one’s going to even notice this stuff’s missing.”

  Dina held out a bundle of clothes and shoved her towards the changing room door. “These should fit.”

  Katie opened the door and stood in the opening. It was not a huge changing room but it was cool, echoey and banks of lockers split the room in three. The lockers blinded you to the rest of the room. Anything could be in the room and sneaking up on a person before they even saw it. “It’s too cold in there. I’ll change by the pool.” The windows were shuttered just enough to let light in but prying eyes out. Katie hoped it was enough to stop passers-by from seeing her but considering she was not changing completely and so many people had seen most of her body one more wouldn’t matter. “I look like I’m drowning in these clothes.”

  “Don’t worry, they have to be loose so you can strip them off easier.”

  “There’s gonna be stripping?”

  “Don’t stress,” Jaye assured her. ”You don’t have to. It’s just what we have to do when we dive in.”

  Katie changed back into her ordinary clothes, went back into the guard room and added a smaller t-shirt to her pile – she was bound to spill something during the party. The three of them walked back to the old house and dumped their clothes in their rooms. Lainy had laid iced drinks out and the three of them downed them before Katie offered to help Lainy decorate while the other two excused themselves to slink off again. The day was a hot one and it seemed even hotter once she started rushing around. There were precious few decorations to be put up – just the banner over the door and a few streamers and strips of brightly coloured paper. Katie ripped a piece off and scribbled bathroom on it in thick black marker. Then she tore another load off and wrote KEEP OUT on them, intending to stick them on all the bedroom doors. After that, she helped Lainy fetch some drinks and set them out with chips and dips. By all accounts, most people had been instructed to bring their own drinks. Then it was time for Katie to go have a shower and get ready for the party. Amazingly, she was looking forward to it. Being in a room with so many people she didn’t know should have scared her – would have scared her just a day or two ago, only now Katie was almost excited. Nervously excited because of the uncertainty, but excited nonetheless.

  As she was changing into the lifeguard uniform the girls had picked for her,, Katie heard whispering voices and something large and heavy being dragged up the front garden path. It wasn’t even dark yet and partiers had already arrived. A quick check of her watch said it was only 5 in the afternoon. The party started at seven and no-one ever turned up on time. Coming two hours early was unheard of. That meant someone was creeping around. Again. Having people skulking around outside was getting boring. She decided to ignore it. Let someone else worry about an intruder. There was a party to get ready for and she wanted to have plenty of time to grill her housemates about the people who would be coming. No-one could really tell her anything, though, because it was just pot-lock who had gotten wind of it and decided to come along.

  As the sun dipped towards the horizon, Jaye grabbed Katie by the shoulders and propelled her out of the front door. By the front door was a tall lifeguards chair, the like of which she had only seen on TV when guards were keeping watch over a beach. This was what the noise must have been. “Please tell me you’re not planning to climb that thing.”

  “I do it every day.” Jaye was half dressed in her shorts and a t-shirt so tight and short it was definitely not regulation uniform. She climbed the rungs to the seat and gazed around. “Your shift starts at eight. One hour, then it’s Adam and them me again until midnight. It was meant to be Dina but she’s scared of heights.”

  “You didn’t know that?” The pair had given the impression they were best friends.

  “She never used to be,” Jaye shrugged. “I think the Grand Canyon did things to her. Maybe I shouldn’t threaten to throw her over.”

  “Probably not. We do an hour each, right, so what happens at midnight?”

  “It’s a free for all for those who haven’t flaked.”

  Jaye gave a short blast on her whistle and ordered Katie inside. She went and not long after, the first few people arrived. Adam stole a few dances with her before her shift on the tower. It was her job to make sure she only let the sober ones in – drunk students tended to wreck the place – but she couldn’t quite keep track of who was going in and out since everyone had also dressed up. There were doctors and nurses, more lifeguards and drowning victims, even a couple of people in suits with a sticker that read GOD. Well, he was the ultimate saviour she supposed. One poor sod had gotten completely the wrong end of the stick and turned up completely kitted out as a piggy bank. At least he was a memorable one.

  “Hey, guardy guard. Girl,” some-one hollered up at Katie, slurring words and so well-costumed she couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. “Come down. I’ll buy a drink.”

  “I’m fine, thanks.”

  “Okay.” Suddenly swept away by a group of friends or maybe other random drunk people, the person wandered happily away.

  Drunk people were best happy. Katie spent quite a while just sittingon her tower and watching people whooping and wailing. A party was happening a few streets away too, nearer the academy, she had heard a few people talking about it down at the pool. No doubt there were quite a few students there but there seemed to be plenty here too. Definitely many more than she would remember in the morning.

  “Hey. Time to clock off.” Adam was climbing up the wooden slats, squeezing into the guard seat with her and looking suitably idiotic in a Superman costume, complete with underpants on the outside.

  “Already? I was kind of enjoying it up here just looking at everything. I guess I felt like I was in charge.”

  “Must be the uniform. Scoot over.”

  Katie shifted over s far as she could on the platform, breathed in, watched him trying to figure out if he could get into the space without hurting something vital. He couldn’t. “I really don’t think this is made for two.”

  “Sure it is.” He moved so quickly that Katie was perched on his lap before she knew what was going on. “See? Perfect fit.”

  “Adam!”

  “Hey, I’m just being Clark to your Lois and stopping you from falling.”

  “I don’t like falling.” Katie peeled his hands from her waist with a smile she prayed would stay there just long enough for her to make her escape. “But ladders I like.” Adam had let go of her easily enough and she knew he had only been messing with her but the experience had shaken her to her roots. Back in the house, a hand held out a plastic cup filled with something fizzy and sweet looking. She downed the drink in three long gulps, concentrating so hard on keeping her happy face on that she did n
ot recognise what the drink was or the person holding it. If she had, a lot of the coming events might have made sense.

  Or not.

  “She was never told?” the person in front of her was saying as she drank. “Man, I knew after a few weeks but I was older.”

  “We can’t say anything yet. Not ‘til she’s old enough,” said her friend.

  “It just doesn’t seem right.”

  “That’s just the way it is. The orders are to keep shtum and…”

  “Really sucks for the new girl.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wonder if she’s worked anything out yet.”

  Katie scrunched the cup and threw it in the nearest bin and headed for the stairs, pushing past the two girls who were speaking by them. They both had their backs to Katie and she tried to work her way between them. “Sorry,” she apologised as she knocked the dark haired one but the girl seemed not to have felt it or even moved. It was almost as if she had walked through the girl not past her. Apart from a rough line of people stood outside the bathroom the top floor of the house was quiet. Katie .kicked a plastic cup off the top step and forced herself to sit down. It was tempting to just carry on down and spend the rest of the night hiding outing her room but that would be like admitting defeat. Plus she was starting to feel funny. Adam grabbing for her had shaken her a bit – she just needed to calm down for a minute. Take some time to breathe. Everything was fine, the party was fun, life was looking good. At least, those were the things Katie kept telling herself to stop from panicking. Something bad had happened a long time ago but that was all over now. And still she couldn’t let herself relax and just enjoy her new life.

  “Not exactly a social butterfly are you?”

  “More of a moth.”

  “Gotcha.” Jaye slotted her titchy backside into the gap between Katie and the wall. “But you’re up for a laugh, I give you that. Last year’s girl wouldn’t get on the tower so yay you.”

  “Yay me,” she echoed, not entirely sure what she was cheering for.

  “Adam said you pulled a Roadrunner when he got up. I don’t know why – that’s your business – but he’s a good guy. A little crazy but, trust me, that helps around here. He’d never let anything happen to you if he could stop it.”

  “I know.” And she really did. “Ad’s a sweetie. I just have this gut reaction when men grab me. Especially if I don’t know them that well.”

  “I was in a relationship recently. Maybe last winter. Or autumn. I forget. Anyway, that ended…abruptly. Everything was going great and then suddenly he stopped talking to me. I thought he’d just snap out of it and start loving me but one day I woke up and there was no-one in bed beside me. All his stuff was there but no him. I waited and waited but…”

  “He just up and left you there?”

  Jaye nodded sadly and Katie saw a hint of shadow cross her face and then it was gone, a moment so brief it might well have been a trick of the light. Katie didn’t think so. Katie thought she had seen that look somewhere before. “I heard a rumour he’s in prison. Point is, I never thought I’d trust a man again.”

  “But you don’t run screaming from them.”

  “There was screaming? Well, the dirty bugger didn’t tell me that bit,” Jaye said and waggled her eyebrows. “A little bird tells me you copped an eyeful last night.”

  It took her a few seconds to send her memory that far back – 24 hours or 24 months. “Oh, yeah. He came into the kitchen with no shirt on.”

  “Lucky you. Bet that’ll keep you warm this winter.”

  “Jaye!” Katie ran a finger around the collar of her t-shirt. She’d never realised before that the phrase ‘hot under the collar’ was so literal.

  “Seriously, there are good men out there. Just don’t go looking for one. He’ll find you when the time’s right.” With that Jaye got up and elbowed her way through the crowd to the bathroom with more strength than seemed quite natural for a girl her size. Lifeguards probably had to do loads of weight training to drag people through water. Maybe she’d go speak to someone about a job guarding the pool. Katie got up and stepped down every step slowly, preparing to lose herself in the crowd. Which she did for over an hour. An hour of dancing, chatting and hollering at Dina to put some clothes on. Dina had decided to go as the person Katie and Jaye should be saving and had plumped for a bikini and wet hair. Strangely she was not getting much attention. After a while, when Adam and Jaye had tagged each other by the front door, he came over to Katie and tried to apologise for scaring her. “It’s not your fault.”

  “I feel like I crossed some sort of line.”

  “Most girls would say no but since my line is about here…” she drew a finger line inn the air between them. “Don’t worry.”

  “Dance with me?” When she hesitated, Adam promised “no touching.”

  They danced, or something vaguely resembling it, to something repetitive and dull and then he wandered off to find Lainy. Half an hour more of being touched and leered at by guys with breath that could light gas fires was her limit. She finished the drink she’d left on the table as she danced and slapped away a final hand away, which sent her scurrying for the place she now thought of, for some reason, as her happy place.

  Her safe place.

  CHAPTER SIX