Completely Normal (and Other Lies) by Biffy James

Author:Biffy James [Biffy James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hardie Grant Children's Publishing
Published: 2022-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

TEN

With the memorial service behind them, everyone at school was getting their rhythm back – but guiltily. Any time anyone was at risk of actually moving on with their lives, something would happen to make everyone revert to showing the proper level of mournful respect. The first football game without their star player basically turned into a second memorial. The opposing team from McKennley College had no idea what to make of the multiple black-arm-banded huddles, the drops to one knee and arms pointed in the air fashioned into a teenage muscled ‘I’ after every goal, or the hoodies worn by half the student body with Isaac’s face tackily screen-printed on the back. The McKennley boys played tentatively, eyes darting to their coach on the sidelines every time they went for a tackle, like they were asking if it really was okay to body-slam a Floyd player into the mud or if that would be a bit out of line, given the circumstances. Floyd won but didn’t deserve to, and the sobs that followed and the kisses the players gave their fingers before thrusting them to the sky with shouts of ‘For you, mate’ and ‘Love youse, Calds’, were more theatrical than last year’s school performance of Starlight Express.

The chosen few stopped lurking in the corridors during class, and Reena stopped tearing up every five minutes and started to talk about how she thought Ollie Vass was into her. I went to school on autopilot, to the point that Sophie and Reena told me I was being really sweet lately and they were so happy that my issues seemed to be disappearing and I was turning back into the Stella they knew and loved – the Stella who listened to them talk about themselves and didn’t interrupt except to say ‘Oh cool!’ and ‘Yeah, you do look hot in that one!’ when they showed me their latest reels of selfies from a social event I didn’t go to.

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