My Life As An Ex-Cheerleader

Chapter 16 - Keys, Keys, Keys

I shoved my text book in my rucksack. How dare he? To me, fine. To his brother? What a douche!-

The phone rang, The volume seemed to increase. Louder and louder. The simple tune began to irritate me.... It wasnt my house, so in theory I shouldnt pick the phone up.... But it is my home now... Even though I'd be late for school. I picked the phone up, hopefully the caller would have stopped calling.

"Hello!" He gretted me urgently.

"Hi," I replied uneasily. Why did he sound so famalir? There was a moment of silence.

"Please, who's calling?" I asked, although I was ready to leave Jay was still fumbling around upstairs so I sat down. "It's Ray... Is Blake in?"

"Sorry, he's not. He's at work." I fiddled with my keys. "Can I take a message?" A moment of silence passed. Then another. "Can I take a message?" Another moment. "You there?"

"Why'd you sound so famaliar? May I ask who this is? You're not Nathan are you? He'll kill me if I didn't recognise his voice." He chuckled. I frowned, Nathan was friend's with this Ray; but not me. "I'm Charlie. Or if we're being formal, its Charlotte Parke-"

"Charlie Parke! Jake's kid. Wow! Its been a while, bet you dont remember me. Me and your pa, used be buddies when we were kids. Bet you've grown up now." Couldn't stay a fetous forever now could I? "When did you move back? I forgot to check up on him"

"A couple of weeks ago," I confirmed. I was egearly watching the clock; I was hesitanting whether or not to abruptlyend the call, but Jay still wasnt finished. We only had 20 minutes to get school and it took 20 minutes to get school from this house. "I must come and see you and your dad. Oh, and mom too, of course."

"They're not here, they had a family emergency to attend to," Ray interrupted, "Are they okay?"

"Oh, yeah. No need for any concern they've got to help my auntie out." I smiled, unware I was doing so. I frowned at the time. 19 minutes left. Common Jay, hurry up.

"Reena or Judy." Ray, questioned. I frowned at the amount of information he knew about my family. "Reena," I replied abruptly. "Like I said, she'll be fine - I assure you." A moment passed, and Jay came stumbling down the stairs, still putting his sneakers on.

I rolled my eyes, Christ! "Sorry Ray but I got to get to school." I laughed awkwardly. "I'll tell Uncle Blake you phoned."

"Okay, bye." He replied, blankly. All the excitement in his voice had disappeared. He'd hung up. I didnt trust him. Maybe I was watching too many soaps but he knew too much, but not once had I ever heard his name.

Jay was not waiting at the door. "Common we'll be late!" He began jogging to my car.

"You took 5 years to get downsatirs!" I shouted to him locking the door, "It didnt help that Nathan, bloody, left us." I sat in the car, and adjusted my seat, so I'd was closer to the sterring wheel.

"You have a $hit car, charlie." Jay grinned knowingly at me. My face dropped, I was tired my eye's were dropping slowly. I cant even recollect what I'd said in that phone call. My body was so weak, that I'd just wanted to head up to my unfamilar bed. I started the ignition, "Why? Please, Jay shower me with your wisdom."

"It's old and creaky." Jay shrugged.

I rolled my eyes. "Jay, Micheal Jackson - God bless his soul - was old didn't mean he wasnt any good? Am I right?" He nodded, I smiled. "This car isnt old. Its antique. Vintage. Has this quirkiness about it. All the new cars just look good, make you look rich, this car is just a great car god dammit! And I like it!"

Jay glanced over at me. "Thank you for the lecture, Charlie. I learnt a lot."

I grinned, "You didnt hear a word of what I said-" Jay cut me off, "Not a word."