Faking Sweet by J.C. Burke Page A

sorry to tell you both, but I am going to set a detention for this afternoon. It’s important that the rest of the students understand that it is not acceptable under any circumstances to ever be out on that ledge – dying pigeons, harbour views or anything.’
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    I welcomed the detention. It was an hour on my own with Jess Flynn. Wouldn’t Calypso be impressed? The other bit that wasn’t bad was the circle of girls that crowded around us afterwards, asking what had happened.
    Detention was cleaning the Science lab. Mr Rufus, the St Clemmie’s maintenance man, gave us a scrubbing brush and a bucket of hot water bubbling with fumes that almost knocked me out with one sniff.
    â€˜And rubber gloves too,’ he said, chucking us both a pair. ‘One set of useless hands is enough for this school. I’ll be back in an hour.’
    â€˜He’s just trying to rub it in,’ Jess said to me. ‘He’s such a grump.’
    â€˜What’s the useless hands thing?’ It wasn’t like I wanted to make conversation with Jess, but two mysteries in one afternoon was too much. Dying pigeons and now this?
    â€˜Oh he’s talking about Sarah Finch,’ she said.
    â€˜Who’s that?’
    â€˜The girl who fell off the ledge.’
    â€˜The stunt princess?’ I blurted.
    â€˜Huh?’
    â€˜Well, someone told me she was a bit of a daredevil.’
    â€˜Sarah Finch?’
    I nodded knowingly. Maybe it was time to reveal I wasn’t just some dumb new girl.
    â€˜I don’t know where you got your information.’ Jess started to scrub the front bench. ‘But Sarah Finch is like the quietest girl in the school.’
    â€˜But, didn’t she …?’
    â€˜She tried to get a pigeon off the ledge,’ Jess explained. ‘It had hurt itself. I don’t know exactly what happened ’cause she’s in the year below us, but they reckon she was crouching down on the ledge and when she leaned over to pick up the bird it flapped a bit and she lost her balance and fell.’
    I sunk into a stool. ‘What?’
    â€˜We were okay ’cause we jumped.’ Jess’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘It’s not that high. I’ve jumped off there before in the holidays.’
    â€˜Oh?’
    â€˜Sarah fell badly. Her arms got tangled up underneath her. That’s how she broke them. She’s, she’s …’ Again Jess’s voice dropped to a whisper, and she looked around before saying the next bit. ‘She’s really, really fat. Get it?’
    â€˜Oh.’ Thoughts thick with confusion were swimming in my head.
    â€˜She crushed the bones in both wrists. Her hands don’t work so well now. That’s what grumpy bum was on about.’
    â€˜Is she …?’ Suddenly I remembered seeing a large girl at the canteen with a blue cast on both hands. ‘Does she have plaster on both hands?’
    â€˜Yeah, blue ones this time,’ Jess replied. ‘Poor thing; she’s just had her fifth operation. That’s why I panicked when I saw you up there. Sorry. I didn’t mean to get you into trouble.’
    I shrugged. Words just weren’t going to make any sense if they came out of my mouth.
    â€˜And I didn’t mean to freak you out either, Holly,’ she continued. ‘But I’ve seen you up there. I tried to warn you before. It was a pretty big deal in the school when Sarah fell.’ Jess went back to scrubbing the bench. ‘I don’t know where you got your info about her being a daredevil. I’d be checking up on your source if I was you.’
    â€˜Yeah.’ For a while I stared at my hands. They looked pretty useless covered in pink rubber gloves that were floppy at the fingertips. How had Calypso got the story so wrong? ‘I don’t get it,’ I said.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Nothing.’ I went to the back of the Science lab and started to