Free The New Girl by Cathy Cole

fresh start,” her father continued.
    Lila closed her eyes. She knew what was coming next.
    â€œI think,” said her father seriously, “you need to spend some time thinking about why we moved here in the first place. We cannot have that happen again.”

THIRTEEN
    Lila kept to herself for the next couple of days. It wasn’t hard, because Polly, Ollie and, weirdly, Josh were the only people who spoke to her. Polly was acting like the whole thing at the Heartbeat Café had never happened, while Ollie gave her lots of flirty smiles, which Lila appreciated. Josh said hi when they saw each other in class, but still not much else. The rest of the school continued to ignore her in the classroom, corridor and canteen like she had a contagious disease. She heard a few whispers on Thursday afternoon about her dad being the new chief of police as she walked around with her head bowed over her books. The gossip hadn’t taken long to get around.
    After the Heartside Café disaster, her dad had told her to come straight home after school for the rest of the week. The weather was vile on Thursday, so she had been glad to trudge up the hill back to her cosy room. Now that everything was unpacked, it was starting to feel more like home. Lila sorted out her bookshelves and clothes cupboards, throwing out old Lil-style outfits and trying not to dream of Ollie. But Friday dawned bright and clear, and by lunchtime she was feeling stir crazy and craving a walk to the beach.
    It hadn’t taken long for the seaside to take hold of Lila’s heart. There was something about the wide horizon, the scudding waves, the gulls and the smell of salt and the sense of a huge world beyond the sea that made her feel better than anywhere else in Heartside. She took herself down to the beach as soon as she finished lunch. Polly would probably have come with her, she thought, but today she wanted to be alone.
    She stood with her feet in the sand and her hands deep in her pockets, the wind tugging at her hair and cheeks. There was a ship on the horizon, sending plumes of smoke from its stacks into the blue sky. Lila wished she was on it, and sailing far away from here, somewhere where the ocean and the clouds above were all she could see.
    Josh was sitting in his usual place by the pier, drawing in his sketchbook. An apple sat beside him. As if he felt her looking, he glanced up. Their eyes met.
    Lila wasn’t sure what to do. Should she call out? Go over and speak to him? She settled for lifting her hand awkwardly and waving. His pencil looked like a conductor’s baton as he waved it back.
    Her phone started buzzing. Still wondering about Josh, Lila answered it without thinking.
    The voice on the other end was deep, with a hint of an accent.
    â€œI thought you were never going to answer your phone, Lil.”
    Blood rushed into Lila’s cheeks. “Santiago?”
    â€œOf course it’s me. It’s so good to hear your voice. How are you?”
    What was she doing? Hang up! she told herself urgently. But her fingers wouldn’t obey.
    â€œI’m broken-hearted, baby,” he whispered. “I miss you so much, I am thinking of tattooing your initials on my left arm, to match the right. I need to talk to you.”
    She glanced at her own tattoo. It had seemed like such a romantic thing to do – to get each other’s initials etched on to their wrists. She’d been such an idiot. Now, even though the tattooist had reworked the initials so they looked like an abstract pattern, she could still see the SG threaded through the centre of the swirling heart. He was, quite literally, in her blood.
    â€œTalking’s not a crime, you know,” he said temptingly.
    His words reminded Lila of what she’d said to Eve in the Heartbeat Café. Talking to a guy wasn’t the same as seeing him, was it? She and Ollie were proof of that. In the midst of the mess that surrounded her in this strange