The Alien Within Read online

  Published by Bennett Lane Press 2017

  Copyright © 2017 Robin Martin

  All rights reserved.

  www.robinmartinthomas.com

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher.

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

  Book cover design and formatting services by bookcovercafe.com

  ISBN:

  978-0-9946465-2-1 (pbk)

  978-0-9946465-3-8 (e-bk)

  To Auntie Jess:

  A good friend and a much better driving instructor than Zoe’s dad!

  Chapter One

  Oops, so sorry, Zoe. Was that your lunch?’

  I looked from where my books had tumbled over the school steps, to my squashed lunch in its brown paper bag, to the black shoe next to it, and finally up to where she stood. Jas’s highlighted, blonde hair hardly stirred in the breeze, and her tanned face broke into a phoney smile. Once we’d been friends, but that was ancient history now.

  ‘Yeah, thanks for standing on it, Jas.’ I picked up everything and straightened, giving her a scathing look.

  She never even batted a fake eyelash. Instead, she just shrugged. ‘Total accident. Didn’t even see it until it was too late. Never mind. Think of all the carbs I’ve saved you from. Seriously, I didn’t think people ate sandwiches any more. All that bread … but I guess you don’t worry about that sort of thing,’ she said, laughing.

  Behind her, Chad Everett grinned. Funny, I’d even liked him, too, once.

  Then Jas leaned in closer, and I held my books tightly. I didn’t want any more ‘accidents’. Her blue eyes had that look in them that I remembered so well.

  She whispered in my ear, ‘Zoe, honey, some friendly advice. When you have long hair, you really need to straighten it, especially if it’s frizzy. Personally, I thought you looked cute with a bob last year and it’s so much easier to take care of if you have difficult hair. Oh, there’s the bell. Catch up later. Byeee!’ She turned her back and walked away with a jaunty step.

  I gritted my teeth to stop from calling out a totally inappropriate word, which would only have added to her amusement. I wasn’t going to give her that satisfaction. As if the first day of year twelve didn’t already suck.

  I was alone, totally. I’d been alone since the day Rion left last September, but now that I was back at school after a long, unhappy summer, it hit me again. There was no one getting crazily excited about the new stuff we would learn, or how great it would be to plan our university courses for next year. There was no one to lecture me about the benefits of a healthy breakfast or rising early. No one was there to tell me not to worry about my looks, my friends, or who I was going to eat lunch with.

  That didn’t matter, Rion would say, and besides, we would eat lunch together. In fact, that’s how we had done everything—together.

  If anyone had told me seven months ago that Rion and I no longer had to be linked, that we could live our separate lives without getting ill (literally) every time we were more than a hundred metres apart, I’d have turned cartwheels. I’d have thought it was better than getting tickets to a Seven Seconds of Summer concert. I’d even have traded in my new learner driver’s permit. In short, I would have been ecstatic.

  How things change.

  Funny to think how much I had hated Rion at first, especially after I found out we were linked for life. But then I got to know him and I discovered he wasn’t so bad. Even when we argued, somehow we managed to become closer. And then, just as things were looking promising … he’d left.

  I was shattered. It had taken a long time to get over that (along with a lot of tears, litres of chocolate-honeycomb ice cream and several kilometres of red liquorice strips). Finally I had, at least I thought I had. Now, I wasn’t so sure.

  I was back at school, where Jas and her group hated me, and Harry and his group tolerated me. And even Harry … I hadn’t seen him in the months since he’d been sick. I didn’t know if we’d still be friends, especially after what happened last year. I didn’t know where I stood with anyone anymore. Rion would’ve helped me work it out, because that’s what he did best—help me. But now I was on my own.

  I headed for class, and had just reached the door to go in when I collided with a guy who looked vaguely familiar.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said, stepping back.

  ‘No worries … oh, hi, Zoe.’

  I looked up, recognised who it was and nearly dropped my books again. Jas might be the same, but here was one person who definitely wasn’t.

  He’d grown a couple of centimetres and all his puppy chubbiness had been replaced by muscle. He had the same smile, and yeah, his eyes and hair were still brown, but other than that, nothing else was familiar. Even his voice had dropped an octave or something.

  All I could think was: what had happened to Harry Crosby over the summer? For the first time ever, he was hot, seriously hot.

  ‘Harry?’ It was hard for me to believe my eyes. ‘You look … different.’

  ‘Yeah, I lost some weight when I was sick last year and then I grew over the summer.’ He gave me a tiny smile and added, ‘I’m finally taller than you.’

  Still finding words difficult, I looked up at his now broad shoulders.

  ‘Anyway, we better get into class. I think we’re blocking the door,’ he said.

  He needn’t have worried, because even the people behind us had stopped to look at Harry. In the past they would have brushed past him, but not today. I think there were a couple of open mouths.

  He just ignored them as he went inside the classroom. I trailed after him.

  ‘See you at lunch maybe,’ he said as he slipped into a seat. ‘That is, if you still want to eat with our group.’

  Hmm, subtle dig. Very unlike Harry.

  Harry and I used to be mates and we had known each other since forever. Our mums even taught at the same primary school. Harry had been short and definitely nerdy. He had often been the butt of the cool kids’ jokes, when he was noticed at all. He hadn’t cared, much, and that was what I’d liked about him, plus he was really nice. We used to feel so comfortable with each other. Past tense.

  Slipping into a seat at the back, I looked again at the transformation that was Harry. Gosh, he even had cheekbones now, and his hair was styled, and just slightly longer. He was like one of those people on a makeover show, and if I hadn’t known him so well I would hardly have recognised him.

  Last year he’d caught glandular fever and was off school for most of term four. And then it had been the summer holidays. Who would have thought that sickness and a growth spurt could change a person so much? I wondered if he’d still be the same nice guy I used to know, or whether his personality had had a change, too.

  At first break, I wandered over to the seats under the shade shelter where Harry and his group sat. Pasting on a smile, I sat down next to them.

  ‘Hey,’ I said. I took out the apple, which was now all that was left of my squashed lunch.

  Harry looked at me, nodded and then concentrated on taking the lid off his water bottle.

  Last year, after Jas’s group dropped me, I used to sit with Rion. And it hadn’t seemed to matter about anyone else. Then, after Harry had left, I’d started to sit with this group and they’d been too polite to exclude me. It wasn’t like I was best buddies with any of them, them, not like I’d been with Harry anyway. But at one time,
before Rion and even before Jas, we’d been friends-ish and I’d been in their group.

  Lou Kennedy looked at me with her pale blue eyes and moved over a little to give me more room. She gave me a half smile. ‘Hi,’ she said.

  Lou was a girl of few words and I think the only boy she’d ever talked to in her life was Harry. To say she was shy was like saying Taylor Swift was a singer, or that Master Chef was a cooking program. She was one of those people that no one ever noticed. Her brown hair often covered her face and her words were mumbled, unless she was speaking to someone she knew well. With us, she was as normal as she ever got.

  Kerri, who had an open book beside her, looked up and nodded. She wore a sensible school broad-brimmed hat, even here under the shade because, as she often told us, Queensland had the highest incidences of skin cancer in the world. And with her pale, freckled skin, she said she couldn’t take any chances. Kerri and risk taking were not a match.

  Harry still said nothing. Yup, looked like the awkwardness between us hadn’t disappeared over the summer, even though that fateful family barbecue had been a long time ago.

  ‘So, how was everyone’s summer?’ I asked, determined to make an effort.

  Kerri shrugged. ‘I read some of the books on our English list, as well as Zumdahl’s Introductory Chemistry, and of course Basic Physics by Karl Kuhn.

  What could I say to that? ‘Of course,’ I said.

  If Rion had been there he would’ve launched into an in-depth discussion with her. Nothing like that ever had happened between him and me, apart from him nagging me to do my science homework and me flipping him off. Rion and I had had our moments—good and bad.

  Harry still said nothing. His silence had seemed to affect everyone.

  Finally Lou asked me, ‘How was your summer?’

  ‘Okay. I went to visit my gran in Sydney.’

  ‘Sydney, cool,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, it was, especially the Bondi Beach part. What about you?’

  ‘Nothing much, I started tennis lessons …’ Her voice trailed off. Lou hated talking about herself.

  ‘Great,’ I said politely. ‘Tennis sounds like a lot of fun.’

  ‘Mum says it’s a great way to meet people.’ She flicked her brown hair over her shoulder and went back to her lunch.

  Another long stretch of silence.

  Kerri returned to her book, and Lou had evidently decided she’d made enough of a contribution to the conversation, but I decided to give it one more try. After all, Harry did suggest I join them.

  ‘So, Harry, what did you do over the holidays?’

  ‘I had a pretty quiet summer,’ he said. ‘It took me a while to recover from my illness. Then my uncle came back from his holiday in the States and we worked out together for a while. He said it would help me build up my strength again.’ He shrugged as if it was no big deal.

  He definitely didn’t realise how hot he looked. More than one girl had checked him out that morning, but he obviously hadn’t noticed. Even Jas had done a double take when she saw him.

  And he was eating a salad, of all things. The only time I’d ever seen him eat greens was when they were on a big Mac. Despite his mum’s best efforts, Harry had been a confirmed junk-food addict.

  ‘Your uncle, eh? Would that be Adrian, your mum’s youngest brother?’ I knew Harry’s family almost as well as I knew my own.

  ‘Yeah, that’s right. He stayed with us over the summer while he was looking for his own place. He’s really into fitness and is going to be a personal trainer. He said he would start with me and help me get fit. So we trained together.’ He gave me a shy smile, and for a microsecond I glimpsed the old Harry again.

  ‘Well, he did a good job,’ I said and smiled back at him. At least we were talking again, even if it was a bit awkward.

  ‘Harry looks great, doesn’t he?’ Lou said.

  I could almost see those stars in her eyes. Oh dear. I hoped Harry would be kind to her. The old Harry would’ve been, but I wondered about the new one.

  ‘It’s really quite simple, isn’t it?’ Kerri said, speaking at last. She pushed up the glasses that had fallen down her nose. ‘If you combine a healthy diet and an exercise program, you’re bound to get results. Add to that a growth spurt, which often happens to young males as they mature, and Harry’s voice finally breaking, and you have a perfectly logical explanation as to why he looks and sounds different.’

  It could have been Rion talking, without the charm. I thought Kerri was headed for a brilliant career in a top university as either a doctor or a scientist. Sadly, her social skills were not quite in the same league, and she had no filters whatsoever.

  Harry just smiled. ‘You’re right, Kerri,’ he said.

  ‘I usually am,’ she said, and then took another bite of her chicken wrap.

  ‘You look different too, Zoe,’ Harry said. ‘Your hair …’

  ‘I decided to grow it,’ I said.

  ‘It looks … nice.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  He was starting to sound like the old Harry again. I wondered if he was finally over what had happened last year. Could we possibly be friends again? I really hoped so.

  ‘Although in this hot weather short hair is more practical,’ Kerri said. ‘Much cooler.’ She pointed to her own red hair peaking out from under her hat. ‘You should cut it.’

  ‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ I said.

  Although Kerri and fashion sense were not words I would usually put in the same sentence, I thought she might have a point. Why bother looking good if no one was going to notice? Well, it was true that Jas had noticed my hair, but not in a good way. And Harry had, too, but he was probably just being polite and couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  ‘You know, we should go to McDonald’s this afternoon,’ Lou said out of the blue.

  We all looked at her in surprise. That was something this group never did. Lou was usually too shy, Kerri always wanted to go home and study, and Harry hated going places where he might be made fun of. Last year I had mostly been with Rion, and he disapproved of fast food.

  ‘Why?’ Kerrie said, her brow furrowing.

  Lou shrugged. ‘Why not? It’s the first day of our last year at school. It might be good to celebrate or something.’

  I was beginning to think Harry wasn’t the only one who had changed over the summer.

  Harry shrugged. ‘I guess.’

  Lou beamed.

  ‘Aren’t you afraid you might get into bad habits and start to eat junk food again? It’s a lot easier to put on weight than take it off, you know,’ the ever-diplomatic Kerri said.

  ‘I think I’ll be safe with a diet cola or a coffee,’ Harry said, trying not to smile. ‘What about you, Zoe?’

  ‘Sure,’ I said. I was curious about how this new Harry would interact with the others now that he was, had to say it, hot.

  So the afternoon went by a little quicker than the morning. I actually had something to look forward to—at least I hoped I did, anyway. I knew Jas, Chad, Chelsea and the rest of that group would probably be at Macca’s. Would they still pay Harry out? Or maybe I’d be the new target.

  Macca’s was a short walk from our school. It was well placed; it got most of its customers, as well as its staff, from the students at our high school. Not me, though. I wasn’t allowed to work there, or anywhere else, while I was at school. My parents (ever optimistic) wanted me to concentrate on my studies. My pocket money usually came from babysitting jobs and odd chores I did around the house, so I didn’t have heaps of money, but it would stretch to a cheeseburger. And today I was feeling hungry; after all, someone had stepped on my lunch.

  Jas and her groupies were sitting at the corner table as usual. It had a prime view of who was coming and going, and it was in the best position to feel the full effect of the air-conditioning. Chad had his arm around Jas, and Chelsea was leaning in close to talk to her.

  Their table erupted with laughter and several glances were directed my
way. I had a pretty good idea what they were talking about. And who.

  Ignoring them, I scanned the room and saw Lou with an outstretched arm, waving to me. Beside her were Harry and Kerri. I guessed Kerri thought she could forego studying for once, since it was the first day back. I went over to join them.

  ‘Hey, this is cool, isn’t it?’ Lou said, giggling.

  ‘Yeah, literally.’ I sat down, enjoying the air-conditioning after the thirty-plus degrees outside.

  Lou just looked at me blankly, but Harry grinned. Good to know we were still on the same wavelength at times.

  Seeing their drinks on the table, I realised they’d already ordered. ‘I might get a burger, I didn’t have much lunch today,’ I said, getting up again.

  Harry said, ‘I’ll come, too. I could do with another coffee.’

  We walked over to the queue, which wasn’t far from Jas’s table. As we waited to order, she got up and, swinging her blonde hair over her shoulders, headed towards us. I tried not to let my jaw drop.

  Ignoring me, she smiled sweetly at Harry and said, ‘Wow, Harry, look at you, all grown up and everything.’

  Harry said nothing. I could tell he was as surprised as me.

  Jas laid a hand on his arm. ‘You know, whatever it was you did this summer, you should keep on doing it because it’s working. Chelsea is just dying to find out all about it. Why don’t you come over and join us?’

  If someone had told me last year that Jas would ever invite Harry Crosby over to her group, I would’ve thought they were insane or pulling my leg. No way would it have happened, ever. It would be like winning Gold Lotto or something, the chances were that slim. I looked up at Harry, wondering what he would say.

  ‘Thanks, Jas, but I’m sitting with Zoe and some of our other friends. However, Chelsea is welcome to join us, if she wants to—and you.’

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I wished I could whip out my phone and take a picture of Jas’s face. There was a swirl of emotions that went from disbelief, to anger and then a serious attempt at recovery, something she was very good at.

  ‘That’s so sweet of you, Harry, but we’re with friends, too. Maybe some other time, when you’re not so … busy, you can join us. But don’t leave it too long.’