Gift wrap the Globe

Chapter Two

I was back at the one place I'd tried to rid myself of for my whole life, only now I was not myself. It was Holly's bruised up form that stood outside the building with my spirit was residing in it, intruding to an extent but the trespass was now on my own property. It was my body, my life and my second chance.

"Are you sure you want to go back so soon, you can always take another week off."

Mum's worried voice floated out the car and became tangled amongst my own troubled thoughts, but despite myself I shook my head.

"No, I'm bored of just sitting at home all day. I have to come back some time."

This was only partially true, I was bored but I wasn't sitting at home all day, normally I was a pysio trying to get rid of my limp, or at the doctors for regular checkups. It all reminded me too much of my old life in its final moments, most of my time was spent at the hospital where I only got sicker. It wasn't just this though, there'd been something nagging my thoughts since Charlie's visit, I was thoroughly convinced that something suspicious was going on involving Holly's death. It didn't seem probable that Holly had any enemies; she seemed like one of those girls who was loved by everybody and hated by girls like me. For me to really know if she was hated I'd have to experience the world of school… again, God help me.

"I'll see you later mum," I called, starting off in a stunted stride.

"Be back here for three!" she called after me, but her words were lost on me as I sized up my enemy.

It smelt just like how high school should smell, like paper, adolescents and learning. I shuddered, clutching my new bag even tighter. Mum and Bonnie had insisted that I should get a whole new wardrobe for my first day back at school, I guess it was there way of accounting for the fact that 'I' had almost died. To say they were surprised by my choice of attire was an understatement, their eyes just about popped out of their heads when I picked up some tight dresses, jeans and super short skirts as well as the very revealing tops and heeled shoes. Now that I had the body for it, I'd wear the clothes I'd always stare at in the shop windows and salivate, they were the kind of clothes that you'd have to have the body and money for. Donned in a pair of tight jeans, open toed sandals, a low cut top and my bright purple bag I did my best to exude confidence as I looked upon the dreaded lockers and grim faced teenagers. I wasn't halfway down the hallway, searching for my form room that was apparently room 427 according to my map, when I was stopped by a very surprised female voice.

"Holly?"

I turned around instantly, used to being called Holly and not Kathleen. My eyes landed on a girl with long, blonde curly hair, a long thin, freckle covered face and a rather large nose that didn't seem to fit it. Despite her unusual appearance, and rather dowdy clothing, she was quite pretty in a quirky way.

"Hi?" I shot her my best smile, trying to convey recognition even though her face was completely new in my minds eye.

"Wow, erm… you look different. I like your clothes," she indicated to my attire with widened eyes. "Your parents let you out like that?"

"Yeah," I shrugged feeling uncomfortable under the girl's scrutiny; I wasn't used to the attention.

"Oh right…" she nodded once and then for the first time took a look at my face, "the bruises are healing nicely."

I nodded, agreeing with her although I was wearing just a bit of foundation to cover them good and properly.

"Sorry I didn't visit you much but your phone was switched off and I called but your parents said you needed time."

"Right," I nodded, "well thanks for the effort I guess."

The girl simply quirked a brow, "okay Holly, you're really starting to freak me out now. What's up with you? You're acting as if we're not best friends or something."

So Holly and this girl were best friends, it all made sense now seeing that Holly's wardrobe seemed to reflect exactly what this girl was wearing… well not anymore.

"I'm just tired really, sorry. Walk me to my form room?"

The girl nodded eagerly, falling in step with me and my slight limp. As we walked I noticed that all eyes were on us, well really all eyes were on me to be precise. It was if every person in the hallway was optically stalking me, and openly at that.

"Why is everyone staring at me?" I demanded, glaring at a passerby who had found it completely okay to stare right into my face.

"Well, erm you look a little different for starters," the girl did a once over on my clothes again, "and since the accident you're all that anyone ever talks about these days."

I sighed audibly, the last thing I needed was everyone to be watching my every last move. Was it too much to ask that I have a quiet second life? I guess so. Suddenly, the girl stopped and it took me a while to realise that we were standing outside room 427.

"Well I guess I'll see you at lunch then?" the girl nodded.

I nodded back, silently wondering what her name was. I couldn't well ask her, alarm bells would go off in her head.

"See you then." I waved her off and then hurried into the classroom.

I was expecting everyone to be staring but I wasn't quite ready for it. As quickly as I could, I power walked to a desk at the back of the class and threw myself down. There was a girl sitting at the back also, she was just about the only person who didn't look up when I entered the room, instead she was scribbling something in a book, her black hair covering her face and her tanned hands working at a pace. Being the noisy soul I am, I attempted to catch a glimpse of her drawing by leaning over as much as I could and straining my eyes. At that moment the girl looked up at me, her bright blue, heavily made up eyes burning into my own and her mouth set in a tight scowl.

"Hey," I nodded, my mouth stretched into a genuine smile, "what are you drawing?"

I could relate to this girl because in my old life I had been the one who sat at the back of the classroom, trying to make myself invisible, hiding from the world. It took dying to make me realise that no-one, should theoretically sit at the back of the classroom, life needed to be grasped with two hands because you never know how long it's going to last.

"What am I drawing?" the girl uttered through tight lips.

I nodded enthusiastically, not at all put off by her negativity.

"None of your fucking business Hepburn," she snapped, then went back to drawing.

I was a little surprised by the reply to say the least, but I made myself get over it and quickly noted creepy, grungy girl as numero uno suspect for Holly's murder. I pursed my lips, shooting a withering look to the girl beside me, before shifting in my seat and facing the front. Just then, a dishevelled, bored and angry looking teacher came storming through the door, his undone tie wiping around his throat and his bloodshot eyes gazing up at all of us.

"Good morning," he growled, "welcome back from the weekend. I hope you've got your thinking caps on because we're going to do an impromptu test."

Oh God, today was going to be a long day.

It was by lunchtime that I fully regretted not taking up my mum's offer of just staying at home for another week, after the first half of the day I wanted to stay at home for eternity. I dragged myself out of the English class, wondering why on earth Holly would decide to take the class whilst wishing that Shakespeare never even existed. The only thing that I did learn in that lesson was the Holly was more popular than I thought. She literally had everyone in the palm of her hand, which was an odd sensation for me because in my old life I'd never experienced the life of the beautiful. As I walked down the halls on my way to the canteen, I learnt that when you're beautiful everyone knows your name and says hi to you. Back when I was Kathleen everyone avoided me and called me Katherine. By the time I reached the lunchroom my face was aching from all the smiling and my stomach was growling angrily at me. I patted my middle and hurried my way over to the lunch line. I was greeted by a smiling girl ahead of me, who went on blabbing about History and how she hadn't done the coursework, and in turn asking me if I'd done the coursework that I hadn't even known existed until that moment. Smiling politely, I pretended to listen whilst my eyes roamed over the canteen in search for any familiar faces. As I looked a thought popped into my head, well it was more like a name- Ryder, did he go to this school? My heart leapt at that, which was peculiar as not only had I never met the boy but my heart leapt for nobody. Maybe it was the body, maybe it remembered him somehow, I'd just have to find out why.

I bought a sandwich, a can of coke and two chocolate bars, I'd always had a love for chocolate and it didn't seem to die with me and my old self. Once again I found myself scanning the room for someone I'd recognise, remembering the feeling of not having anyone to sit with at lunch. Only this time around, instead of eating outside on the bench by myself like I used to, I'd find somewhere and make friends.

"Holly!"

I felt a warm, heavy arm wrap itself around my shoulder and pull me towards them. The smell of aftershave and sea salt hit me and I recognised at once who it was.

"Charlie," I smiled, actually genuinely relieved to see him.

He beamed down at me with his pearly white teeth, looking quite dapper with his tousled blonde hair and polo shirt. I took this in and realised I still wasn't attracted to him.

"Hey babes," he pressed a kiss to my forehead and grabbed my hand, "let's go and sit down."

Charlie dragged me to an empty table and sat down opposite me, his smile still planted on his face. I wondered to myself if he ever stopped smiling, but the thought was dashed away with the growl of my stomach and I dug into my food.

"How's your first day back been then?"

I shrugged, shovelling tuna and bread into my mouth, "pretty fucking boring if you ask me."

Charlie flinched at my profanity and shot me an odd look but stayed silent.

"I mean," I chewed hastily and swallowed, "what the hell kind of evil spirit tricked me into taking English literature." I scrunched my nose and took another healthy bite out of my sandwich.

"But… that's your favourite," Charlie was really staring at me with worried eyes now.

"Really?" I quirked a brow, "we'll let's just say, both the play 'Macbeth' AND Eng lit are my most hated things in the world," and then I added for good measure, "and cats."

Charlie chuckled softly and I grinned triumphantly at being able to make him laugh.

"Cats are quite creepy," Charlie admitted, "one tried to scratch Tobe the other day, me and Samuel had to chase it off with Frisbees."

I nodded, not knowing the hell Tobe was, or who Samuel was for that matter. I just 'ummed' and 'aahhed' focusing mainly on finishing my sandwich. However, something stopped me from enjoying the last morsel of my lunch, because out of the corner of my eye I watched Charlie reach for my coke, pop it open and guzzle it. I was lost for words. I just sat there with my jaw slackened, thinking 'did this boy really just drink my coke?'

"What do you think you're doing?" I snapped, grabbing my drink from his hands.

"Don't worry, I left you some" he simply said, as if it was nothing, "hmmm, that's weird; I thought you only drink diet."

"That's not the problem here," I snapped, shooting daggers at him, "you just drank my drink."

Charlie nodded slowly as if it were I who was the dumb one in the situation. I inhaled slowly, trying to calm my anger and ultimately prevent myself from smacking the sense into his head.

"Look, there's something you need to know about me," I look pointedly at him, indicating to my Coke, "I don't share toothbrushes and I don't share food. If you asked me for a kidney, I would give it to you. I'd even take it out myself and perform the whole operation- that's no problem, but if you asked me for some food the answer would be no, no matter what."

"No matter what?" he reiterated.

I nodded once and stared down at my Coke can forlornly.

"Not even if I was dying and needed Coke to save my life?"

"No matter what," I gritted out.

"But you always share your drink with me Holly."

"Yeah well not anymore," I glared up at Charlie, clutching the Coke with force.

"Hey guys... oh wait, am I interrupting something?"

Charlie was the first to look up and instantly his expression softened. "No you're not Betha, Holly and I were just talking about how she doesn't share food."

I looked up then, recognising the blonde girl from earlier this morning and shot her a curt nod.

She smiled in return, sliding in seat beside me and proceeded to take out her lunch. "But you always share Holly."

"Yeah well I'm not Holly," I muttered under my breath.

"What?" Betha screwed up her brows and pursed her lips.

"Nothing," I muttered and took a quick sip of my Coke.

"Hmmm," I looked up and saw Charlie staring at me intently. I felt myself blush but hid it by lowering my head and fiddling with my chocolate bar. I really needed to learn how to keep my mouth shut because there were some rules that came with having a new life. One, you could never come in contact with a fellow 'bodyjacker' and two, you could never let anyone know that you're a 'bodyjacker' because it would mean certain death for both parties. The only thing that I knew for absolute certain, without a shadow or slight glimpse of doubt, was that there was no way I would die before I lived… again.

It was the end of the day and all I wanted to do was hightail it out of there and go home. When the last bell sounded, I found myself being one of the first to head for the exit. Unfortunately, the rude grungy girl from form had been in my last lesson and was also amongst the handful rushing for the door. Out in the hallway she was ahead of me, but I kept at a fast pace tempted to catch up with her and give her a piece of my mind. She burst through the doors of the school and I hurried after her, following her to the car park with a burning intent in my chest. I needed to know her name and know what she was about, she could well be a murder for all anybody knew. I opened my mouth to call out for her but I stopped in my tracks both vocally and physically as my eyes honed in on the one person that made the heart, that wasn't quite mine, skip a beat. The grunge girl was making her way towards a guy, who was leaning against a car, sucking on a roll up cigarette and looking bored. I took in his shoulder length, jet black hair bright blue eyes and the dark stubble lining his gorgeous jaw line and decided, with a leaping heart, that I didn't like him. Just who the hell did this guy think he was, wearing run down jeans, a ratty black t-shirt and a torn leather jacket? I knew the answer before I'd even asked myself the question. This was the infamous Ryder, and by the looks of it numero doce on my suspect list. I watched as his features transformed as grunge girl made her way over to him; his face lit up into a smile and he embraced her in a hug.

"Skyla."

I caught her name in the wind and almost screamed at the fact that, of course, his voice was deep and sexy. I was just about to turn on my heel and begin my cursing tirade when his bright eyes snapped up to my own and fixed themselves on me. His stare was unwavering and it made me shiver with something I can only describe as fear. Fear of what? Of Ryder most likely, maybe this body knew him well, knew what he was capable of. I shivered again, taking one last look at his hateful stare before raking up the nerve to leave, to runaway. With a deep breath I spun on my heel and hobbled off to the other side of the school where I'd wait for mum.

But God, if I'd stayed for one moment longer I would've heard Skyla, I would've heard what she said to Ryder. They were only words, but they were words that would've made life and death a whole lot easier.

Read and Review please, I need it :)

Akadrama- Yeah I know what you mean, I was reading over the other chapters and noticed that the style was quite americanised but I just generally think that's the tone of the story and Kathleen's character but yeah, thanks for reviewing!