Steadman Under two Moons

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-3-7412-4807-8
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 504 Seiten

Reihe: Choices

Organised and level-headed Leah wakes up on a distant planet called Minvela. The questions of how she got there and how she can get back home to Earth fade into insignificance when encountering an enormous problem. All her emotions are amplified to extraordinary levels and have taken over her normally calm and analytical mind. There are some familiar faces among all the strangers. It seems she didn't come here alone. A group of fellow students from Earth have come too and are already settled in their new surroundings. There is, however, a catch - she despises and distrusts all of them. After all they have more than a little bad history together. School wasn't a picnic. Her questionable and unwanted ally turns out to be Ben. Together they have to figure out how to fulfil a calling that is a far cry from what she thought her life would ever be. But how much can she trust this guy who saved her life if she cannot trust herself?

Sandra Steadman decided that once she had learned how to read she could not stop. That has lead over the years to a rather extensive personal library, which in turn caused some moving company employees to grumble during her frequent moves throughout Europe. She reckons it was inevitable that all that varied reading would lead to her writing her own books one day. Where does the inspiration come from? Who knows. It was there one day and didn't go away again, so she started putting pen to paper until she discovered that writing on computers is much easier. You can press delete - much neater than crossing out and scribbling over the top. She mainly writes for herself and hopes that other will enjoy the stories too.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Steadman, Sandra

Leseproben

Chapter 1

A night to remember

S he should have said no – no, thank you; nice of you to ask, but I have better things to do with my time. She should have let him go all by himself. Should have told him that he was a big boy now and if he wanted to pursue this stupid girl, then he could do it alone.

Yeah, she should have said all that, but she hadn’t. She’d said yes instead and now she was going to a bonfire evening with the in-crowd from her old school. It was, as things go, pretty high on her list of things not to do. Actually, getting bamboo splinters pushed under her fingernails sounded like fun in comparison. Leah sighed deeply.

“We shouldn’t have come. I don’t think they want us here,” she said as they got out of the car. It was her last attempt to prevent the inevitable.

“Nonsense, Nora invited me. She texted me only today to remind me. I’m her hero after all. Remember, I fixed her laptop and saved all her precious data.” Jason grinned broadly. “You need to loosen up, Leah. Come on, school is over, live a little.”

“Easy for you to say. You know I wasn’t really invited.”

“What are you afraid of? You’re my wingman – sorry, wing woman, so of course you can come too. It’ll be fun.” He mock punched her on the arm and gave her a confident smile.

Her best friend’s boundless enthusiasm and endless positivity was really mind boggling. No matter how many times he struck out with the girls he admired he carried on, hoping against hope that one day one of them would say yes.

He was one of life’s eternal optimists. She normally liked this about him. Today – not so much.

They made their way over to a large bonfire in a clearing. A group of teenagers was already there. This was going to be so much fun! Yeah, as if.

Leah had spent most of her years at school being either totally ignored or tortured by this particular group. Now that school was over she had finally drawn a line under this dark chapter in her life. And then Jason had phoned her up with his request. It sucked to have a best friend who called in favours like this one.

“So, what exactly do you want me to do? I mean what are my duties as your wing person.”

“You have to make me look good, laugh when I tell a joke, you know? If Nora should ask, tell her what a great guy I am. That sort of thing.”

“Right, okay. So I should tell her the story about the picnic at the beach when you were seven and couldn’t find a loo,” she said innocently.

“Ha, ha, very funny, Leah. If you do, I’ll start talking about your year six project for book day,” he threatened.

Leah was really going to miss him. In a couple of days he would leave for sunny California to be an intern at some giant software company before going to college there. It would probably spell the end of their close friendship.

Ever since she could remember, they had stuck together through thick and thin. Especially the thin parts. It hadn’t been fun going to an elite grammar school where the average monthly income of the student’s parents was about as much as her mum made in a year. Without Jason by her side she wouldn’t have survived it.

They were close enough now to see who was there. She spotted Finn Taylor, the rowing team captain, the star. He was popular with the girls and always the centre of attention. Rumour had it that he’d slept with most girls in their year - the good-looking ones anyway. If arrogance had a face, it would be his. He was as always surrounded by a posse of his friends. Just now, he and Tom Brown were having a drinking competition with Tyler Graham cheering them on.

So, it was that kind of party. Double yeah!

A bit to the side sat Ben Lawson, Finn’s best friend and the fourth member of this year’s most successful rowing team. Here was one who had developed the air of being indifferent to the people around him into an art form. Leah knew, from overhearing bathroom gossip, that the girls thought him deep and therefore interesting, not that she cared.

However, she did care about his academic success. Surprisingly, for one of the sporty types, he was a good student as well. Through the years at St Vincent’s Grammar School, he and Leah had often competed for the top marks in tests. If she was honest, he had been the benchmark against which she had measured her own achievements.

“Ah, there is Nora.” Jason interrupted her thoughts. “Hi, Nora!” he shouted and sped up while Leah came to a halt.

Why the hell did he have to fancy Nora Masters? In Leah’s opinion, Nora was a real piece of work. From the first day of school, Leah had been the target of Nora’s little jokes. They had never been funny.

Jennifer Summer, Nora’s best friend, was waving at Jason as he approached. Nora and her were dressed the same, as usual. They could have been twins if their hair colour hadn’t been different. Jenny was peroxide blond while Nora was naturally dark.

Leah watched as Jason stopped in front of them and Nora smiled. She patted the space between her and Jenny invitingly. It didn’t look like he would be needing her help after all. Unbelievable as it was, it really seemed that Nora was interested in him. She was listening in rapt attention to him talking, playing with her long hair. Who would have thought it?

Leah found it hard to accept that one saved hard drive could lead to such a dramatic turnaround. Last she’d heard Finn and Nora were still an item. Looking over to him and his mates, she caught him staring at Jason with a shrewd expression, and then he grinned slowly, nudging Tyler, who grinned as well. Something didn’t feel quite right here. When Leah saw Nora wink at Jenny, her suspicions were confirmed. Jason wasn’t going to be as lucky as he hoped to be. Yet again. Fantastic! Even if she wanted to, there was nothing she could do about it now.

Because the wind was getting up a bit and she was only wearing a thin top she drew closer to the bonfire, looking for a place to sit that was out of everybody’s way. Stupid, stupid, stupid. She should have stayed home. If she could have, she would have left. Unfortunately, it was out of the question. It would mean walking back through the darkening forest and then forever along a hedge-lined country road. Not an inviting prospect. She would have to hang in there and wait until the bitter, bitter end.

“Hi, what the hell are you doing here?” Leah looked up to see Nika Miller standing in front of her. In the firelight Nika’s gothic ensemble of black lace and heavy eyeliner made her look like a vampire.

She shrugged and pointed over to Jason. “Moral support.”

“Doesn’t look like he needs it,” Nika observed.

“I know.”

“They are having him on, of course. Kind of their end of school joke.” Nika sat down on the edge of Leah’s log and watched her friends.

“I know that, too. But he wouldn’t listen to me if I told him. So, I’ll have to sit tight. What other choice do I have?” Sometimes life sucked. Boys could be so stupid and so easily manipulated.

“Boys,” Nika shook her head sadly, echoing Leah’s own thoughts. “The good news for you; I don’t think they are going to waste their time on him all evening, so it shouldn’t take that long.” It sounded harsh but it was probably true enough.

“You never told me how you did in maths.” Leah decided to change the subject.

“Sorry, I suppose I should have phoned. It actually went great, thanks to all your help. I think I passed with a reasonable margin. Thank God, I don’t have to look another equation in the eye for as long as I live. My dad was so happy I passed he bought me a car to celebrate,” Nika snorted.

“Mind you, I would have preferred some concert tickets for the rock festival in New York.”

Despite the fact that Leah had got on well with Nika during their study sessions, she still couldn’t get over the fact how differently they saw life. Her own reward for years of hard work was a bursary in Cambridge. Her mum hadn’t actually cared enough to ask how she had done in her exams.

“Well, I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks. There are drinks over there. Do you want one?” Nika offered.

“No, I’m good, thanks anyway.” Leah wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue talking. There wasn’t much they could talk about and commenting on the weather was beneath her.

“Oh, okay. I just thought it would take the edge of waiting. Well, if you change your mind, help yourself,” and with that Nika got up and walked back to the others.

Yep, this was going to be a really fun night. Everybody was getting drunk, Jason was going to have his heart broken and she had a ringside seat for the whole show. The only thing missing to make it perfect would be a nice little downpour. Go British weather!

“I’m going to get a bit more firewood with Nora. She says it is her turn but she doesn’t like to go alone because it’s getting dark.” Jason interrupted her cheerful musings. He waggled his eyebrows at her and grinned in a meaningful manner. Obviously he still hadn’t figured out what was going on. Great!

Before she could reply, he had already rushed off...