Jaffa Cakes: Chapter One

Jade 26th August 2011

When most people hear "best friend" I guess they think of good things. How pretty, kind, funny their best friends are. My best friend? She is beautiful. She is capable of being kind. She can be absoloutly hilarious when she wants to be. But I don't like her. Not really. The trouble is, she likes to think that she controls me, owns me. She decides my friends, my boyfriends, how I dress and have my hair. Everything. She goes by the name of Taylor.

I have one friend in the whole world who I have chosen myself, Liam. I secretly consider him my best friend, but of course, Taylor doesn't know that. She can't really split up our friendship anyway, we go back so far. My mum and his mum, Julie, went to university together and shared a flat for several years after that. They met our dad's at a local pub, and they all became best friends. Mum married dad, before Julie and Brian even started dating, with Julie as the maid of honour. Soon after, my mum found she was pregnant with my oldest sibling, Anna. On the day after Anna was born, Liam's parents went on their first date, and got married a year later. Soon after that, Julie announced that she was pregnant with Liam.

Two months before Liam was born, Brian died of a severe heart attack. My mum always gets sniffly whenever we mention him. My dad literally cries his eyes out. Brian was like a brother to him. Julie never remarried, because she believes that she will never love another man in that way.
Liam was born on the 5th of November 1995. My mum discovered she was due to have twins a month after, in other words, me and my twinny, Charlie were supposed to be born around August. However, we were born a month prematurely, on the 8th of July 1996. Julie and Liam came to the hospital half and hour after we was born to visit me and mum.

Mum told me that in our toddler years, Julie visited a lot because she was lonely, and while she had long talks with my parents, Charlie, Liam and I would sit together in the garden for hours, singing nursery rhymes and eating chocolate cookies. When I was six, Julie and Liam moved out their little flat into the house two doors down. Over the years we grew up, made other friends, had petty arguments over silly things, then made up again. We found new hobbies and talents. I became intersested in running and science, and discovered my ability to sing. Liam took refuge in art and books, and learnt to play piano, guitar and clarinet. Charlie became the best boy at sports in the whole year, and drifted apart from Liam and I, but it was OK because Charlie still cared, he just wanted to be more independant.

At the end of primary school, Liam and I won the year six talent show, Liam playing piano and me singing Don't Stop Me Now. Then we headed off to high school. That's where we met Taylor.

She walked into English fifteen minutes late, her sleek blonde hair tied in a complicated knot, her sparkly blue eyes rimmed with black khol. The boys in the class stared as she put her hand on her hip and thrust her body forward. I remember how Liam had nudged me and Charlie raised his eyebrows in disaproval, but the other boys were almost drooling. Her skirt was so short that day, you could practically see her knickers and the top buttons of her white shirt were undone. She had fashioned her tie into a headband and stuck a few black feathers from it. She was different, alien even, but immediatly, everyone stared at her in total awe.

The teacher began to lecture her on her uniform. If it had been me, on the first day of school, I think I might have cried, but she looked so normal, almost bored. She sighed now and then, examining her nails carefully. She knew she had everybody's attention, and she was enjoying it. When the teacher finished, she arched an eyebrow and got out some pink sparkly lipgloss, slicking it on.

"OK. Whatever. I guess you've finished your lecture now, so can I sit down? Your wasting everybody's time," she said coldly.

She was sent straight to the headmaster's office in disgrace. I hoped I would never see her again as long as I lived. But later that day, she waltzed into the middle of our music lesson. Miss Whitehall was our music teacher at the time. She was lovely, with soft brown eyes and brown hair, and she always wore long flowing dresses or skirts. She didn't tell Taylor off, she just told her to come and join us.

"Now, you've missed the start of the class, but now we are going to assess everybody's musical talents. I want you each to show me what you can do, if you can do anything. Who wants to go first?"

Naturally, bubbling with year seven confidence, Liam and I volunteered to perform. Liam did a short piece on the piano, guitar and clarinet, then he sat back at the piano and I sang Edelweiss from the Sound of Music. I can remember the way that Taylor looked at me right then. She had her eyes narrowed, like she was trying to figure me out. Her gaze made me uncomfortable and I couldn't concentrate as Miss Whitehall complimented me on my singing. I stared back at Taylor until Liam nudged me.

"Jade...Jade! Miss Whitehall is asking if you would like to join the school choir."
The other kids tittered and I saw Charlie roll his eyes. I blushed.
"Yes Miss Whitehall. That would be lovely."

After class, Taylor grabbed my arm. I swallowed nervously.
"Hey, you, Jane."
"It's Jade actually-"
"Whatever. Your really pretty. Yeah, and your a good singer. I think we should be friends. By the way your friend, Liam, he's really cute. And don't get me started on your brother."
So that's what our "friendship" is built on. Looks and my ability to sing. In other words, I make Taylor look good. And yes, Liam is very good looking, with his intense green eyes and floppy brown hair, as is my brother in most peoples eyes, but that shouldn't be the base of a friendship.

"I should be getting to class..." I stammered.
"Lighten up! It's the first day, we won't be doing any proper work. Lets explore!"
That was the very first time I bunked off lesson, and not the last. I've done it several times now, never wanting to, but having to. Taylor is a very clever girl, and she could get fantastic grades if she wanted to, but she doesn't seem to care.
By the end of that day, Liam and I became Jade-Liam-Taylor. It's been like that ever since, because we don't have a choice. Nobody says no to Taylor.

I went over to Liam's house today. His house is practically a second home to me. Julie works as an artist, and so they don't always have much money, but their house is beautiful. As soon as you enter, the smell of baking bread or paint wafts under your nose, followed closely by a cheery greeting. All the walls in the house are plain white, but there are canvases dotted everywhere, some by Liam, some by Julie and some by Brian before he died. The wooden floorings are very old, they have been there since the house was built about fifty years ago, but they are in good condition, and many have beautiful rugs that my mum and Julie made together years ago. There is a spiral staircase that leads to Liam and Julie's bedrooms and a small attic room that they use as a place to study, play music and paint. They have a spacious living room, with shelf after shelf of books. There is no TV in the whole house, but this doesn't matter at all. We spend many an hour raiding charity shops and hauling bags of books, old and new, to read. There are so many, some are piled up on the floor. There is a proper coal fire, and even now, we take great delight in lighting it, and spend the bitter cold winters huddled in front of it while the flames dance.

I go to Liam's house so often, his mum has given me a key, so I let myself in.
"Morning, Jade!" Julie called, "I've made cookies!"
"Great!" I was grinning from ear to ear. Julie is a seriously good cook.
"Come through to the kitchen dear, and help me ice them."

When Julie ices cakes or biscuits, it is a work of art. She helped me to pipe Liam's name on one biscuit, my parents names and Charlie's on some others and of course, one for me!
"There, take those home for everyone. I'll get a tray and you can takes your cookies and some milk out to Liam. He's struggling with some maths homework."
I laughed. "Nothing new there. I would help, but I'm not so great either. Science is more my thing."
"Ahh well. He's useless when it comes to academic stuff. Well, apart from english. He paints beautifully, can play his piano and guitar and clarinet perfectly, writes plays, songs and stories like it's second nature, but give him some maths or science and he hasn't got a clue. He's just like me. How's Charlie?"
"He's great. He's playing football today, but he said he'll probably pop by later and say hello."
"That would be lovely."

She had run out of milk, and so poured us some of her special homemade lemonade, plopping several ice cubes in each cup. They bobbed back up and floated like mini ice bergs. She handed me the tray and I headed outside. It has been a lovely hot day, and Liam had fallen asleep on the swinging bench at the end of their garden. I smiled. He has his head in the clouds. I shook him gently and he woke up with a sleepy smile.

"Hey there. Sorry about that. Maths is tiring."
"Tell me about it," I laughed. I sat beside him and we tucked into our snacks.
"Taylor giving you grief again?" asked Liam, sipping his lemonade. I sighed.
"Nothing new really. I'm going shopping with her on Monday, so thats she can pick me a dress for her party. I already have one that I bought myself, but she called it ugly and unflattering. In her opinion it needs to be ten times shorter, ten times tighter and at least one of my boobs needs to be popping out," I complained. Liam groaned sympatheticly. I laughed dryly.
"It get's worse. She says I need a guy to go with so she doesn't have to stay with me through the whole party. So she says if I don't have a date by the end of the holidays, she will choose one for me."

Boys generally fall at Taylor's feet, but quite a few go for me too. Maybe it's my pale white skin, my glossy dark hair that falls in waves to my waist, my eyes that Liam says are like a pair of emeralds. I honestly don't think looks matter at all. I would rather have a funny kind boyfriend that some uninteresting guy with a pretty face. But to Taylor looks are everything. She doesn't understand why I don't take advantage of my looks.

"Honestly, why don't you just have some fun, Jade? Pick a guy and go out with him," I mimick to Liam in a high pitched voice that sounds nothing like Taylor.
"I would offer to take you, but obviously Taylor knows we don't like each other like that and never will. Besides, I'm going with Isabella."

Isabella is Liam's girlfriend, and one of my closest friends, because Taylor approves of her, and she often hangs out with us at school. She is a lovely girl, with coffee coloured skin and eyes like melting chocolate, and long black hair to that many girls would die for. She offered to ask her brother, Sam, if he would go with me, because apparently he has quite a big crush on me, which makes sense as last time I spoke to him, he spilt Coke all down himself, then ran off in embarresment. However, I turned her offer down because although he is a nice, good looking boy, and even though he is shy, Taylor approves, I would rather go with some one I like at least a tiny bit. And there is only one guy I can think of that has ever made my heart beat a little faster.

"I'm thinking of asking Dylan."
Dylan. How do you describe Dylan? Funny. Good natured. Friendly. There isn't a single bad thing I can think of about him, except maybe his tendancy to be over-sensetive. I'm not sure how he feels about me, but I have always liked him, and more recently have had a crush on him. He is another of my close friends, and Taylor likes him because he is cute. Liam nodded.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Everyone knows he adores you."
"He does? Well it's news to me."
"Really? I thought that's why you where going to ask him."
"No, I was going to ask him because he's the only guy I've ever felt anything for in that way, even though not a lot."

I have had boyfriends. I've had quite a few really, but only because Taylor set us up. I remember my last boyfriend, Harry. He was what a lot of girls would think perfect, with his sandy blonde hair, athletes body and blue eyes. He had an annoying habit of pouting and winking, which might be very attractive to some, but certainly not to me. I think Taylor chose him for me because we both like running, but to be honest, he was dullest boy I think I have ever met, always talking about his exercise routines or the fact he had been picked for captain of the football team. Luckily for me, after a week or so of boring conversation about his boring life, and him ramming his tongue down my throat, he dumped me for an equally boring girl who looked like a sumo wrestler her muscles were so big.

"Well anyway, good choice. Maybe you could ask him tomorrow at Layla's party."
"Ugh. Another party. I completly forgot. Well there's no way I'm dressing up for this one. I'm sick of going round like a tart, and quite frankly, I will enjoy seeing the look of disgust on Taylor's face when I turn up in jeans," I said huffily. Liam laughed.

"You do that."

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing under the sun, and I soon forgot about Taylor and Dylan and parties. I had a lot of fun, but at about five o'clock, I went home to help mum with dinner.

"Hey, mum!" I called, going through to the kitchen to cut up some vegetables.
"Hello, Jade. Oh, did I tell you this morning? There is someone moving in to Mrs Hatchet's house tomorrow.

Mrs Hatchet used to live in the house opposite us. She was a nice woman, though she always smelt a little of cheese, but she must have been in her nineties, and a while ago she moved into an old folks home. Her house has been up for sale since then, but nobody really wanted it because it's not in a brilliant state. However, about a month or two ago, the "For Sale" sign changed to "Sold," so some one slightly mad must have bought it.

"I've heard there is a woman and her son. I think he might be around your age."
"Great," I said, but secretly, I was thinking if he's anything like most kids my age, I would rather he wasn't coming.
I let mum babble on about the new neighbours, saying how the boy would be in my classes at school and how she hopes they will be nice. Then Dad arrived home with Charlie.

"Hello, all!"
"Hey, Dad! Hey, Charlie! Tea's ready!"
Dad quickly set the table and Charlie and I slapped fives then we sat down to eat. I love tea time. It's when I get to spend some time with my parents, and see what's going on with them. I can't understand people who don't get on with their parents, and I think it's sad, so I'm glad I have a good relationship with mine. Plus, I hardly see Charlie these days. He's always doing something. Normally, everyone is dead chatty at the table. Today, though, they were quite quiet. I realised half way through my meal that my parents were mouthing something at each other.

"Shall we tell them? Do you think they're ready," Mum asked Dad silently. I put down my knife and fork.
"Tell us what?" I asked. They looked shifty. But one glare from Charlie and they gulped uneasily.
"We have some important news...we're not sure how you are going to take it."
Mum took a deep breath.
"I'm pregnant."