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?’
‘Yeah. It was fun.’
‘Was Connor there?’
Ryan nodded. ‘I had no idea astronomy was so popular over here. The club was packed.’
‘Really? Connor’s always given me the impression that it’s three nerds and Mr Chinn. No offence.’
He laughed. ‘Do you think I’m a nerd?’
We had reached the turn-off from the main road that led down to Penpol Cove. Ryan shifted quickly down through the gears, making the engine roar.
‘Sorry. I haven’t got the hang of these gears yet,’ he said as we passed the small shop at the edge of the village. ‘Whereabouts exactly do you live?’
‘The other side of the village,’ I said, giving him directions.
‘I’m just further down the lane. In the farmhouse by the cove.’
‘That place has been for sale for ever,’ I said.
Ryan shrugged one shoulder. ‘My dad likes it. It’s quiet.’
I knew the house in question. It was a large granite building right at the end of Trenoweth Lane with views over the cove. Once it had been part of a working farm, but now it was just a big house with a very large garden. No one had lived there for years.
Ryan pulled up in front of my house and switched off the engine. My heart began to thud. Why had he switched off the engine? I could feel the redness begin to blossom across my chest. It would only be a minute or so before it crept up my neck and on to my face, like a flower blooming in a time-lapse photo. I wondered if I could say goodbye and escape before that happened.
‘Thank you for driving me home, Ryan,’ I said. The words came out all wrong. I sounded like an old-fashioned girl who’d been for a drive with her beau. It must be obvious that I didn’t usually do things like this.
He shrugged. ‘You’re welcome. I had to pass you anyway.’
I opened my door and then paused. ‘Are you going to the party tomorrow?’
‘I haven’t been invited.’ He looked at me. ‘Unless you’re inviting me now?’
I nodded. ‘It’s Amy’s birthday. She’s invited everyone.’
‘What do I need to bring?’
‘I’m taking a load of food. You don’t need to bring anything. She’s holding it on Perran Towans, the beach just outside town. At two o’clock.’
‘Shall I pick you up at a quarter of two?’
He was offering to pick me up? My heart repeated the squeeze from earlier, and yet I knew I couldn’t accept.
‘You’re too young to drive.’
‘Apparently I’m not.’
‘Miranda – she’s my aunt, I live with her – there’s no way she’ll ever let me get into a car with a sixteen-year-old driver,’ I said. ‘We could take the bus?’
Ryan shook his head. ‘You just said you’re taking lots of food. My sister Cassie can drive us. She’s seventeen.’
I shrugged. ‘OK. See you tomorrow.’
I slammed the car door and walked up to the house, trying not to skip. Ryan Westland was going to the beach with me tomorrow. OK, it wasn’t exactly a date, but still, we would be going together and I wouldn’t have to wait until Monday to see him again.