The Not So Chosen One by Kate Emery

Author:Kate Emery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Text Publishing Company
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

THE TEXT ARRIVES later that night, when I’m sprawled on my bed reading Wikipedia’s summary of Tess of thed’Urbervilles: not my finest moment academically speaking, but also I dodged a bullet because even the summary makes me angry at everyone in this dumb book.

My phone beeps and I pick it up. Help at school please come

It’s from Andrea and contains even less punctuation than usual. Her phone goes straight to voicemail when I call and I leave her a babbly one, then a series of text messages that start with ??? and escalate to capitalised requests that she PLEASE CALL ME BACK because I’m GETTING REALLY WORRIED. I sit on the bed with my phone in my hands and wonder what to do and who I can call. I don’t have a number for Mr Horster, and even if I did I’m not sure he’s the go-to person here. Particularly if there’s a chance Andrea is breaking school rules, which she probably is if she’s still on campus at eight p.m.

Mum’s voice from the other room tells me dinner is ready, and through my rising panic I can see three options. The first is that I ignore the message, go downstairs and sit through dinner with Mum and Bea, forcing down forkfuls of risotto and making small talk about the US election. The prospect is thinkable. The second is that I tell Mum everything, ask her advice and hope I don’t wind up in a mental-health facility. And the third…well, the third I just plain don’t like.

Mum and Bea are already sitting at the table, a steaming pink casserole dish between them and wine glasses smudged with their respective shades of lipstick.

‘Sit down,’ Mum says as I walk in, her voice already blunted by wine. ‘Fill us in on your day. How was school?’

I make a face that’s a bit like the one Dr Kerr gave me right before she told me the pregnancy test was positive and started shoving pamphlets across the table.

‘It smells amazing but I’m really sorry, I can’t stay. I completely forgot I’m supposed to be having dinner at Jack’s tonight. Sorry, Mum, is that okay?’

‘Jack?’ Mum looks sideways at Bea, who only raises her eyebrows. ‘You didn’t tell me.’

‘I forgot. I’m really sorry. It’s sort of a family dinner with his parents while they’re in town.’

I’m improvising madly and that little lie is no doubt going to cause problems later, like the very next time Jack sees Mum and she decides to mention this exciting, if entirely fictional, step forward in our non-existent relationship. But I know Mum liked Jack and also that she’s always wanted me to have a boyfriend in high school, the way she did, so I think she might go for it.

‘That sounds pretty serious.’ But Mum is smiling and I know I have her.

‘It’s dinner, not marriage. Pretty sure his dad won’t be dropping off some cows later in payment.’

‘What are their names?’

‘Mum, I don’t know—they’re parents. And I’m running really late.

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