Dad had lowered his window to give Grace some fresh air, and by the time we reached the service station Bella’s hair, much to my delight, was sticking out in all directions. (Mine probably was too but I didn’t care.)
As we climbed out of the car Grace said she felt better.
‘Better as in you’re not going to hurl now?’ Bella said sarcastically as she took out her hairbrush.
Grace looked puzzled. ‘What’s hurl?’
‘It’s just a cooler way to say being sick,’ I explained.
Bella let out a dismissive snort. ‘What do you know about being cool, Libby? You’re certainly not!’
That comment got to me. I mean, I know I’m not cool, but I don’t need her to tell me that.
At least I didn’t have everyone at school texting horrible stuff about me, I felt like retaliating. But I couldn’t say it – not knowing just how bad those texts had been.
Bella’s problems at school had started six months earlier, though we hadn’t known about it at the time. She’d had a big row with Sam’s previous girlfriend, Andrea. That part was probably as much Bella’s fault as Andrea’s. But then Andrea started sending round nasty texts to all her mates, and also to Bella, accusing her of all sorts of things, including being unfaithful to Sam. The accusations and gossip became more and more vicious. Bella showed me some of the texts, but I knew there were also ones she deleted straight away because she said they were too disgusting to show anyone.
I didn’t know what was happening when it all started. Bella didn’t tell anyone at first, and at school the Year Sevens and Year Tens stayed pretty separate. But at home she was being really loud and mouthy, much more impatient than she’d ever been before, picking arguments with all of us, but especially with me. At the same time she started wanting to stay in all the time when she wasn’t with Sam, and she never wanted me to go up and speak to anyone I knew from school if we were ever out and about together.
She was spending loads of time with Sam, who knew a bit about what was happening. He’d been sworn to secrecy by Bella, who threatened never to confide in him ever again if he told anyone. So he didn’t tell, but instead he went round to Andrea’s house to confront her about it and ended up getting punched by her older brother.
The cyberbullying (because I know now that’s what it was) went on for a couple of months, until Mum saw a text one day and asked her about it. That was when Bella finally told our parents everything.
Mum and Dad were horrified and wanted to go to the school immediately, but they couldn’t get an appointment to see the head teacher for several days. Apparently, when they did see him he wasn’t that helpful, saying that the girls needed to sort it out themselves. Mum and Dad were furious with the school’s attitude, and that’s when they made up their minds to move Bella. But Dad was also furious with Sam for knowing about the texts and not telling him. He said that if Sam couldn’t make the right decisions where Bella was concerned then he didn’t want him seeing her any more. And when Bella told Dad defiantly that she was going to see Sam regardless, Dad grounded her for a fortnight.
Despite Bella being grounded, she and Sam were still texting all the time and facetiming each other loads. And as soon as she was free to go out again she carried on seeing Sam, though she was careful to do it behind Dad’s back this time.
‘Not seeing him just hurts too much,’ she told me one evening, hugging her middle tightly as she spoke. ‘But then I don’t suppose you get that, do you?’
‘Yes I do,’ I said, enjoying the feeling of being confided in for once. ‘It’s like when Sarah left. I still really miss her.’ Sarah had been my best friend since we’d started school together when we were five, but she moved away last year. We stayed in touch via email, but she quickly made another best friend at her new school. Not that I blamed her. I just wished that I’d been as quick to find someone else. Though now it didn’t matter, I guess. I wondered if I would make a new best friend now that I was moving away too. Mum says it’s better to have lots of different friends rather than one best one, because then if you fall out or they move away it doesn’t matter so much. I’m sure she’s right. In fact, I know from experience that she’s right. So what is it that still makes me want to replace Sarah?
‘It’s not the same at all,’ Bella had scoffed. ‘But then you’re such a baby. I should’ve known you wouldn’t understand!’
If she hadn’t had tears in her eyes as she spoke I might have argued back. Instead it struck me that she probably had a point. Yes, Sarah had been really important to me, but my family would always come first. Whereas if Bella had to choose between Sam and us at that moment … well, let’s just say I wasn’t so confident who would win.
By the start of July, Mum and Dad were having problems trying to find a new school for Bella. It didn’t help that she was sitting GCSEs next year and her predicted grades weren’t very good. That’s when Aunt Thecla stepped in and suggested we move to live near her and let her pay the fees for all three of us to go to the independent school she had attended herself. It was called St Clara’s and Aunt Thecla knew the headmistress there. Apparently they had places for all three of us for the coming school year.
‘Over my dead body!’ was Dad’s first response. ‘There’s no way on earth I’m going back to live in that village.’
‘Paul, let’s just go and have a look,’ Mum had said in her most persuasive voice. When Dad still refused to budge she’d said, ‘Think about it, Paul. It’s girls only. That means no boys to distract Bella. Or Libby and Grace when the time comes.’
That had sparked Dad’s interest a bit. Then Mum added, ‘We’d also be putting some distance between Bella and Sam.’
The following day Dad had called us all together. ‘Your mother and I have been thinking … we’re going to look at St Clara’s, and if we like it we’ll move. But we’re going to rent out our house here and rent a place in the village close to the school. A year will be long enough to get Bella through her GCSEs. Then if we decide not to stay we can just move back.’
I was about to protest that Bella wasn’t the only one in our family, and that just because I didn’t have any problems at school yet it didn’t mean I wouldn’t have if I had to keep moving around. But Mum gave me a look that promised she had no intention of moving back even if she wasn’t about to contradict Dad at this point. So I let it rest.
Everything happened super-fast after that. We went to visit St Clara’s, where we met with the headmistress, Mrs McLusky, and we were all offered places to start after the summer holiday. Mum managed to get herself some part-time work at the dental practice in the village, and Dad has his own business as a web designer working mainly from home, so that was fine.
I have to say that I’d half expected Bella to stage a sit-in at the last minute and totally refuse to leave our house. But after meeting Sam for lunch the day before we left she’d seemed surprisingly calm about things. Which just goes to show that Sam is actually a pretty good influence on her, rather than a disruptive one as Mum and Dad seem to think.