spoken to her properly. I’m pretty sure it was just English we had together. I try to remember the projects Gerber gave us that year, if Autumn and I were ever grouped together. I think I remember her being Miss Maudie when we did our read-through of
To Kill a Mockingbird
, and us reading a scene together, me as Jem, with another girl, Katie Jupe, narrating as Scout. I try to picture Lizziethere too, head bent over her book, hair tumbling forwards.
how’s your weekend?
She
does
seems nice enough. But maybe I shouldn’t really be talking to some random girl right now, especially when there’s every chance she’s just fishing for gossip about Lizzie.
yeah, good thanks, I write, and I don’t add anything else.
I click onto her profile. She has 302 friends, most of them from herschool in Clapton. I look at the little box which says we’re friends with each other, and the one next to it, with a tick and the word ‘Following’, and a chill runs through me. It’s such a creepy word, especially now, especially with Lizzie… It was so easy for her to let strangers follow her, to let them look at everything she did and thought. Just like I’ve done with this girl, even though I barelyremember her.
There are loads of photos of her; some from a beach holiday somewhere, a few parties. Lots of her horse-riding. I flick through them and start to relax a little bit. Seems like Autumn has a nice enough life; friends, a happy family, potentially her own horse – which is not that unusual for a girl from Aggers. She’s always smiling, never doing that annoying pout girls like Laurenand Cheska do every time they see a camera. She seems sweet. Friendly. Like the kind of person who maybe
would
add someone just because they went to school with them once.
I have to go quite far back to find any of her in Abbots Grey, and I’m shocked when I do at how young everybody looks. Funny how much people can change in two years. Scary, really.
The photos from Aggers are mostly justnormal stuff; lots of girls from our year hanging around by the basketball courts, one of them on a bus on a school trip somewhere. There’s a couple of her and Lizzie, and my heart stalls in my chest. Lizzie, in her school blazer, beaming, her arm round Autumn. Lizzie, in her shirt and tie at their desk in English, and there, in the corner of the photo, just the edge of my face, caught in shadow.I click away quickly, look through more of the boring school trip ones.
But then I find one of Autumn and Lauren Choosken, arms linked as they grin at the camera. And then another, both of them in pyjamas on someone’s sofa. And another, the two of them on a skiing trip somewhere, pink-cheeked and laughing, their jackets zipped up high. Suddenly I’m suspicious. So she’s friends with Lauren, thegirlfriend of the person who hates me most in this town. That
can’t
be a good sign.
I go back to Autumn’s profile page and scan down it. Lots of messages from a couple of girls – friends from her school, I guess – posting funny links or saying hi, or commenting on her photos. Her status updates are the same as most of the girls in our year:
Autumn Thomas is soooo bored. Autumn Thomas is lookingforward to the weekend.
One about a week ago catches my eye:
Autumn Thomas is worried about an old friend
She must have meant Lizzie. I look at it for a while. It’s weirdly touching, that little sad face, and the fact that she doesn’t mention Lizzie by name. So many of the girls at school are desperate to pretend that they were best friends with Lizzie,just to get attention. Maybe Autumn really
is
just worried about an old friend. And maybe she really
is
just talking to me because we went to school together, not because she wants the gossip on Lizzie, or because Deacon Honeycutt is somehow trying to get at me through one of Lauren’s friends – and thinking that through, it
does
sound totally ridiculous.
So how’s life in Abbots Grey? she writes,and I think you know
To Kill a Mockingbird
, and us reading a scene together, me as Jem, with another girl, Katie Jupe, narrating as Scout. I try to picture Lizziethere too, head bent over her book, hair tumbling forwards.
how’s your weekend?
She
does
seems nice enough. But maybe I shouldn’t really be talking to some random girl right now, especially when there’s every chance she’s just fishing for gossip about Lizzie.
yeah, good thanks, I write, and I don’t add anything else.
I click onto her profile. She has 302 friends, most of them from herschool in Clapton. I look at the little box which says we’re friends with each other, and the one next to it, with a tick and the word ‘Following’, and a chill runs through me. It’s such a creepy word, especially now, especially with Lizzie… It was so easy for her to let strangers follow her, to let them look at everything she did and thought. Just like I’ve done with this girl, even though I barelyremember her.
There are loads of photos of her; some from a beach holiday somewhere, a few parties. Lots of her horse-riding. I flick through them and start to relax a little bit. Seems like Autumn has a nice enough life; friends, a happy family, potentially her own horse – which is not that unusual for a girl from Aggers. She’s always smiling, never doing that annoying pout girls like Laurenand Cheska do every time they see a camera. She seems sweet. Friendly. Like the kind of person who maybe
would
add someone just because they went to school with them once.
I have to go quite far back to find any of her in Abbots Grey, and I’m shocked when I do at how young everybody looks. Funny how much people can change in two years. Scary, really.
The photos from Aggers are mostly justnormal stuff; lots of girls from our year hanging around by the basketball courts, one of them on a bus on a school trip somewhere. There’s a couple of her and Lizzie, and my heart stalls in my chest. Lizzie, in her school blazer, beaming, her arm round Autumn. Lizzie, in her shirt and tie at their desk in English, and there, in the corner of the photo, just the edge of my face, caught in shadow.I click away quickly, look through more of the boring school trip ones.
But then I find one of Autumn and Lauren Choosken, arms linked as they grin at the camera. And then another, both of them in pyjamas on someone’s sofa. And another, the two of them on a skiing trip somewhere, pink-cheeked and laughing, their jackets zipped up high. Suddenly I’m suspicious. So she’s friends with Lauren, thegirlfriend of the person who hates me most in this town. That
can’t
be a good sign.
I go back to Autumn’s profile page and scan down it. Lots of messages from a couple of girls – friends from her school, I guess – posting funny links or saying hi, or commenting on her photos. Her status updates are the same as most of the girls in our year:
Autumn Thomas is soooo bored. Autumn Thomas is lookingforward to the weekend.
One about a week ago catches my eye:
Autumn Thomas is worried about an old friend
She must have meant Lizzie. I look at it for a while. It’s weirdly touching, that little sad face, and the fact that she doesn’t mention Lizzie by name. So many of the girls at school are desperate to pretend that they were best friends with Lizzie,just to get attention. Maybe Autumn really
is
just worried about an old friend. And maybe she really
is
just talking to me because we went to school together, not because she wants the gossip on Lizzie, or because Deacon Honeycutt is somehow trying to get at me through one of Lauren’s friends – and thinking that through, it
does
sound totally ridiculous.
So how’s life in Abbots Grey? she writes,and I think you know
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