Dedicated to PurplePencils for her lovely comment on Chapter Three, and for analysing some of the things I'd written to have some kind of deeper meaning when I hadn't even thought of them myself. (Carry on doing that, you're making me look smart.)

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            “Nice English weather, huh?”

            Daniel smiled wryly as he flicked the windscreen wiper setting up a notch. The rain was hitting the glass with battering sound effects, and what of it had come down on me was now seeping unpleasantly through the fabric of my top.

            “Very.” I paused, the question frozen on the tip of my tongue. “So, um… who’s Collette?”

            He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, keeping his eyes fixed on the road ahead. “A friend,” he told me plainly, but I could’ve sworn there was a hint of hesitance in his tone. “She’s nice. We all are. I promise.”

            A breathy laugh escaped me. “How modest.”

            “Well, I wouldn’t want to scare you off,” he said, shooting a grin in my direction that pushed my heart into overdrive. “It’s not often we get anyone new around here. I mean, it’s really just been the five of us since Scott moved here a couple of years ago. There are very few others our age – ones that stay longer than week, that is.” The end of the beach emerged on the horizon as the car continued along the road; a few moments later, Daniel hit the indicator and took a left. We were soon moving through a residential part of town I’d yet to venture into. “Walden’s not exactly a happening place for teens, believe it or not.”

            I quirked an eyebrow. “Did you just say ‘happening’?”

            He groaned. “See what I mean? That’s what spending too much time with your mum does to you. This is exactly why I pounce on anybody our age who moves here.”

            “I feel like I should be scared.”

            To this, he laughed. “Nah, you’re alright. You’ll get used to the Walden bubble soon enough.”

            “You’ve lived here all your life?”

            “Yup. My mum and dad, too. My whole family’s been here ages.”

            “I see.” My gaze trailed back to the windscreen. I watched as droplets of water hit the glass, as quickly as the wipers removed them. “Well, this place is different to London, I can tell you that.”

            “Oh, I can imagine.”

            We were already beginning to slow down, though we’d barely been driving two minutes. I gathered Collette’s house was not a distant destination. Rolling up to the end of the road, we finally pulled up outside a large detached house that seemed to subtly dominate its neighbours. Maybe it was the large front door, or the iron fence that marked the perimeter of the garden, or the way the lawn was mowed in a perfect vertical line pattern. Needless to say, it was a far cry from the quirky cottages in Gram’s neighbourhood.

            “I think the other guys are here already,” Daniel said, shutting off the engine and pulling the key from the ignition.

            “Oh, okay.” I was sure my quiet response was barely audible, but I couldn’t help it. A clenching feeling had started up in my stomach, my palms already sweating. It’s just a party, Flo, I told myself as I followed Daniel’s lead and got out of the car. The rain was showing no signs of letting up, still beating down as ferociously as ever, leaving little time for admiration as we hurried up the front path and dived under the house’s porch.

            Daniel seemed to catch sight of my apprehensive expression, offering me a sympathetic smile. “You don’t need to look so worried,” he assured me, pressing hard on the doorbell. “They don’t bite, I swear.”

            “I’m holding you to that.”

            I was joking, of course, but the moment the door swung open the doubt swept in like the tide. The girl who stood before us was strikingly pretty – so much so that she would’ve looked more in place on some kind of Walden reality show. Her chocolate brown hair was cropped into a short style, finishing above her collarbone, and the jeans that hung from her hips gave her a better figure than I could ever dream of. An array of gold bracelets on her left wrist jangled with every movement. “Look who finally showed,” she said, her lips twitching upward into a smile at the sight of Daniel. Then, she noticed me. “And, um… who’s this?”

            “This is Flo,” he responded smoothly, as I tried not to go dithery at his use of my name. “She just moved here, and I invited her along. Flo, Collette. Collette, Flo.”

            I smiled shyly, shrinking under the intensity of the brunette’s gaze. “Nice to meet you.”

            “You too,” she said slowly, but there was a blaze behind her eyes that I didn’t like the look of. Though only having met her acquaintance for thirty seconds, I got the impression Collette was not a girl you wanted to get on the wrong side of. “Well, come in. The guys are in the lounge.”

            She moved aside to let us in, and I stepped across the threshold onto the cream carpet. Daniel kicked off his shoes so I did the same, hoping this would at least do something to stop Collette staring so intensely. Making a mental note to limit my interaction with her as much as possible, I followed Daniel through a door to the right and emerged beside him in the living room.

            It was expensive; that much I gathered from the décor. Though not supersize, the house had a certain extravagance that seemed a running theme throughout the entire place. The lounge was painted a deep burgundy, its furniture decked out in matching shades of red and cream. A collection of sofas and armchairs were angled towards a large TV; onscreen, a music channel was playing.

            “Look who it is!”

            It took me longer than it should’ve to register there were people in the room, their presence suddenly strikingly obvious. One sat on the cream two-seater, one was perched on the edge of an armchair, while another was lounging on the plush rug in the centre of the room. Each had a can in their hand, and there were two unopened beer packets on the coffee table.

            The guy who had spoken was the one on the sofa. His jet black hair contained way too much product, making it stick up in all directions in a way that completely defied the laws of gravity. “Alright, mate?” he said. Then, his eyes flickered towards me, about the same time as everybody else’s in the room did the same. I could feel my cheeks warming under their scrutiny. “Who are you?”

            “Jay!” The girl on the rug shot him a stern look. She probably would’ve looked normal, if it hadn’t been for the fact that her hair was a violent shade of purple. “Don’t be so rude!”

            “I was just asking,” he mumbled.

            Daniel moved forward, snatching up a beer from the packet and gesturing towards me. “Guys, this is Flo,” he announced for the second time. “She just moved to Walden yesterday.”

            I gave a little wave, which, I realised afterward, probably looked incredibly awkward. “Um… hi.”

            Daniel gestured toward the purple-haired girl sprawled on the rug. “This is Erin,” he told me. “My sister. Twin sister. Unfortunately.” Erin stuck out her tongue, scowling at him. As she did so, I caught sight of a glinting silver stud I guessed was an act of rebellion. “Then there’s Jay,” he pointed at the guy on the sofa, “and Scott.” The guy sitting in the armchair was a brunet, with a gangly look about him. Even whilst sitting, it was easy to tell he towered over the rest of the group.

            Daniel cracked open his can and sunk into the second armchair, Collette moving to perch on the arm of Scott’s seat. Indifference was still painted across her pretty features, and I silently wondered how long it would be before any of us saw her crack a smile. There was definitely something off about her; she seemed to radiate tension, its quivering waves diffracting into every corner of the room.

            When I returned to the present a beat later, I realised I was still stood awkwardly by the door, faced by the rest of the group’s expectant stares. “You know,” Erin started, “you can sit down.”

            “Yeah,” Jay chipped in, patting the seat beside him, “come sit next to me.”

            His smile was flirtatious, and may have worked on some girls, but it just made me feel awkward. I briefly scanned the room for another space, but came up short; the empty spot next to him looked like my only option. So, praying I wouldn’t trip and make a fool of myself, I made my way over and lowered myself tentatively onto the sofa.

            They were all looking at me.

            Daniel obviously hadn’t been kidding when he said newbies were something of a rarity in Walden. I felt as if I belonged behind a polished glass screen in a museum, instead of perched on a cream sofa in somebody called Collette’s house.

            “So where did you come from?” Jay asked.

            Erin, whose can was pressed to her lips, suddenly choked. She suffered a few spates of coughing before finally managing to compose herself, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Weren’t your parents supposed to have had that talk with you a while back, Jay?” she said, smirking.

            He shook his head, while I wondered exactly how much gel was required to ensure total prevention of movement of his hair. “Don’t worry. I’m completely clued up on the facts of life,” he assured me with a wink. In my peripheral vision, I noticed Collette rolling her eyes. “But anyway. Where did you move from?”

            They were all still looking at me, intrigued. I wished it hadn’t become so difficult to form a coherent sentence. “London.”

            “That’s so cool,” Erin sighed wistfully. “God, I wish I lived in London. It’d be way more exciting than this stupid place. Well, actually, anywhere’s more exciting than this place.”

            “Amen to that,” I heard Collette mutter.

            All of a sudden, noisy footsteps clattered from somewhere outside the living room door. Regular and fast-paced, they were undoubtedly the sound of someone making their hurried way down the stairs. A wave of silence fell across the room, leaving only the upbeat tempo of the pop song playing in the background to fill the empty space. But it was soon cut short by the door swinging open, thrust with so much force that it almost bounced off the wall behind it.

            “Collette!” The high-pitched screech bounced off all four walls, its sound unpleasantly amplified.

            I looked up to identify its owner; in doing so, I had to consciously stop myself from drawing a sharp breath. A girl stood in the doorframe, her tall stature emphasised by the sky-scraping heels that stood between her feet and the floor. Her features were unmistakably from the same gene pool as Collette’s, but somehow hers were more strikingly defined and framed by honey-coloured curls instead of a cropped brunette style.

            She was the type of girl who commanded immediately the attention of any room, and this one proved to be no exception.

            “Alright, Beth?” Jay said.

            She cast him a look that verged on tolerance before turning her attention toward what I assumed was her sister. “Collette, have you seen my keys?”

            “I haven’t touched your keys,” she shot back instantly, tongue sharper than Erin’s piercing.

            “Well, I’m pretty sure I left them in my handbag, and now they’re not there. You must have moved them. Didn’t you take my car out the other day?”

            Collette narrowed her eyes. “No.”

            “Oh, come on. It’s pretty obvious you’ve moved them,” Beth said impatiently, placing a hand on her hip. “Let’s just hurry this up and cut to the chase. I’m late for this party as it is – they’ll be wondering where I’ve got to.”

            “I told you. I haven’t seen them.”

            “Jesus, Collette, are you trying to make my life harder than it already is?” she exclaimed, tone accelerating through a good few octaves. “You know how important these social events are. Not just for me, but for my career. What are people going to think of me when I can’t even show up on time? I’ll never get booked!”

            “Hey.” Daniel cut in, his voice an oasis of calm amongst the arguing pair. “Is it these you’re looking for?” His hand had reached over, extracting a set of keys from the table beside him. The room’s atmosphere shifted tangibly, but it was obvious that speaking was still very much out of the question.

            Beth blinked. “Yeah,” she said eventually. “That’s them.”

            She stalked across the living room, her sharp stilettos digging into the carpet, before snatching the keys from Daniel and heading straight back out again.

            “Have fun at your party!” Jay called, but Beth didn’t spare him so much as a fleeting glance; with her, his attempts at flirting clearly fell flat.

            “Well,” said Erin loudly, once the front door had slammed shut, “isn’t she just a ray of sunshine?”

            “Don’t even go there.” Collette’s warning was final: something not to be questioned. Her expression had intensified, passing through the stages of sulkiness into one of just anger. “She’s only been home from uni a week and I’m already sick of her. We’ve still got another two months yet.

            “I’m fed up of her thinking she’s it all the time, just because she’s doing a law degree and a tiny bit of modelling on the side. God, with the way she goes on you’d think she was the next Naomi Campbell or something. She’s only done a couple of fucking catalogues.”

            An uneasy silence descended upon us; no one seemed to know quite what to say next. Collette was oblivious, taking an angry sip of her drink.

            “So…” Scott said slowly.

            “What now?” asked Erin.

            “How about a game of Spin the Bottle?” Jay suggested.

            The purple-haired girl just rolled her eyes. “We’re not twelve.”

            “What? There’s nothing wrong with Spin the Bottle.”

            “Oh, of course not,” she countered sarcastically. “Because it’s just a coincidence that every time you play it, you end up snogging every girl in the room.”

            “What can I say?” He shrugged. “I’m lucky.” It was then that he turned to me, a mischievous grin forming across his impish face. “What do you say, Flo? Fancy a game? Maybe just me and you, if no one else wants to play…”

            A collective groan resounded across the room. I could feel my cheeks darkening, although it was clear Jay would flirt with anything that moved. “Uh, I think I’m good,” I told him.

            To tell the truth, I was more than relieved by the others’ opposition to the idea. I’d never freely admit it, but I’d never even played the game before. My experience was limited to Year Eight gossip I’d overheard in the school toilets: about who had ended up kissing who and had they really used tongue? It wasn’t so much the game that made me nervous – more the fact that when the bottle landed on me (which, if Jay was involved, it undoubtedly would) it would become spectacularly obvious to everyone that I didn’t have the faintest idea how to kiss.

            It was shameful, I knew, at seventeen. But true.

            “You might as well give up,” Daniel said from across the room. “She’s not interested.”

            “And your flirting technique seriously needs some work,” Erin muttered.

            An arm suddenly wrapped around my shoulder as Jay squeezed me into his side. Pressed against him, I got a strong whiff of hair gel and way too much Lynx. “Flo loves it,” he announced, though my expression was very much contrary. Seconds later, I felt his grip loosen. “Hey, you know you’re all wet, don’t you?”

            I wriggled away, wondering if it was my imagination or if the room really was shrinking in size. “Well, it was raining outside.”

            “And you were silly enough to go out in it.” He shook his head, tutting. “Couldn’t you have just got your parents to drop you off, or something?”

            I froze; every muscle in my body seemed to simultaneously cease function. “What?”

            “Your parents,” he repeated, slower this time, as if I was hard of hearing. But of course I’d heard it perfectly, and the second time too; every drawn-out syllable was another stab in the gut. “What, they just leave you to walk places on your own in the pouring rain? That’s kind of harsh.”

            I could feel the nausea rising inside of me, pooling in my stomach and throat, even though I hadn’t touched any of the beer on the table. Jay’s arm around my shoulder had turned unpleasant and restricting; I pushed it away, rising, somewhat unsteadily, to my feet. Five pairs of curious eyes were all trained on me, and I could feel my chances of a good first impression disintegrating with every movement, but I didn’t care.

            I just had to get out of there. If I didn’t, I felt as if I might explode.

            I could vaguely make out someone’s voice from across the room, asking me where I was going. It sounded like Daniel’s, but I couldn’t be sure; only a fraction of my attention remained on them, the rest fixated on escaping by any possible means.

            I think I mumbled something along the lines of Toilet, back in a sec. At least that’s what I intended to do. The room was the size of a cupboard now, its walls squeezing together and trapping me hopelessly in the middle. There was no air – or maybe it just refused to enter my lungs.

            I finally wrenched the door open and emerged in the hallway, my head reeling.

            And, standing there amongst the painful emptiness, I wondered why it suddenly felt so hard to breathe.

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So there you go, an introduction to the Walden clan (I was reading some of the comments back and some people seemed to think it sounded like some sort of gang, haha). I have a little bit of a soft spot for Jay and Erin. They're hilarious to write.

I really hope you guys like it, and I hope you had a good Christmas :-)