We were just a few metres from the school after I had agreed to help my new friends with helping the theatre club when my phone started to ring. Slightly surprised, because I talked to my home town friends just the day before, I looked at the screen. Dad.
I slowed my walk a little so I was at the back of the group and could focus on the call, which I accepted with a casual greeting, "Hi."
"Hi, sweetheart, can you talk now or—"
"Yeah, sure… just, what's goin' on? Shouldn't you be at work?" I asked, interrupting him.
As I looked up from the pavement to the group in front of me, I saw Leah glancing at me. Did I sound worried? I had no idea and hoped that it wasn't the case. He could just have a day off and talk to me about… Christmas or something.
"Can we FaceTime?" Dad asked, making me curious.
"Yeah."
Just as we both turned the call into a video one, I heard someone next to me speak up, "Who's that?"
Turning my head to the side, I saw Leah looking curiously at my phone's display where my dad could be seen. I shifted my gaze back to the man on the phone and smiled, "My dad."
"Hello, Sidney's dad," Leah politely greeted him, to which I heard another voice from my other side.
"Hello, Mr Sanders."
At that moment, I realised that the call wasn't private anymore as my friends surrounded me, stopping at the side of the pavement. Nosy people. I shook my head and was prepared to speak, but Dad was faster.
"Nice to meet you, kids. I see Sidney made a couple of new friends."
This time, I just rolled my eyes and took a better look at the caller. It didn't look like he was at his workplace or a shopping centre or anything like that, which made me a bit interested, maybe a little worried when I saw his bit too white surroudings.
"Why are you in the hospital?"
From the corner of my eye, I saw Amani furrowing her brows at my words. She might have been also concerned, however, we hadn't been friends for long. Just a couple of weeks. Or I didn't even know if I could call them my friends yet. Could I?
"Don't worry," Dad laughed, which made me confused. Why is he laughing? He was in a bloody hospital. "I have only good news."
Just as he said that, I could see him opening some doors. There must have been someone in the hospital room with him. He was only telling me not to worry, but didn't tell me anything else. What am I supposed to think?
"Sidney," Dad called me back into reality, to which he looked over at someone there. "Say 'Hi' to your sister," he smiled, turning the phone so I could see the other person.
Sister? Widening my eyes in a late realisation, I laughed as my gaze fell on his wife, Daphné, on a hospital bed with a baby in her arms. I didn't know why I did not think about this scenario. I could be so dumb sometimes.
"You told us you didn't have any siblings."
Turning my gaze to Jade, I shrugged, "I didn't…. until now."
It still didn't even feel real. This whole time, it was only a pregnant belly of my stepmother on my phone's screen, and now it was just a baby on said screen. I was probably going to believe it when Christmas was here and I could see that little human in person.
"Her name is Zoé," Daphné smiled, looking at her newborn.
"That's a beautiful name," exclaimed Jade, which made me realise that I was video-calling my family while I was surrounded by a group of people who were supposed to go home or something. Although, for some reason, they didn't. Maybe they were just curious. I would be, too, probably. They didn't know almost anything about me, after all.
"Thank you," Daphné smiled at the front camera as Dad sat down next to her, looking at his younger kid. Watching my family that was now pretty far away—not that much, but still—I realised something.
"Won't travelling be a little too much for her?" I asked as I looked up at my friends. Jude and Leah were watching the little human on my phone while Henry and Liam were talking about something. And Amani was just there on her phone.
"Don't worry 'bout that, sweetheart," Dad said before I heard someone opening a door. Probably some doctor or nurse coming to check on the newfound mother and her baby. "So, that was all from me. Do you need anything?"
"No," I shook my head, watching as my dad stood up from the hospital bed and went to a window. "Bye."
"See ya."
After the call ended, I put my phone back into my pocket and looked at the group again. Now all the attention was on me. Raising my eyebrows, I was waiting for whatever they had to say.
"Your parents seem nice," Amani smiled at me, to which the others nodded.
"Yeah, your mum is really pretty."
I chuckled at Leah's statement, "That's not my mum. Just step-mum, y'know."
Some of them looked a little surprised, which surprised me because I had never seen any similarity between Daphné and myself. And she was a redhead while I had light brown hair on top of that. People really were saying anything just to sound nice.
"Oh, so your mum…?"
I chuckled at Jude's worried expression, shrugging, "My parents are divorced. I live with my mum here and dad's with my step-mother in Paris."
Jade nodded as a sign of understanding before she looked around us. People had to go around as six teenagers stood like a barricade on the pavement. Even though we were on the side.
"So," Henry started, also looking around, "wanna get some coffee?"
We all then made our way into one of the cafés around as we turned a corner into a side aisle. It seemed like the others knew very well where they were heading. I couldn't argue as it looked like a very nice place to spend some time in as we entered the small business.
We settled down on the seats in one of the corners, some of us on a orange couch and others in the dark green chairs. As I then looked around, I realised this place really seemed like a place for this group. There were even shelves with books.
I turned my gaze back to the table, where others were choosing their orders, and so I took the paper with offers in my hands, too. To be honest, I didn't know what to get as I wasn't a coffee freak. I pretty much drank only tea most of the time. Or juice.
"Whatcha gettin'?" Leah asked, looking at the offer. I just shrugged. I was thinking about Cafè latte or something else with milk, as I wasn't a fan of the bitter taste of black coffee.
Seconds later, Henry was heading to the counter with our orders, to which he started a conversation with one of the workers there. It seemed like they knew each other, which wasn't very surprising if they were regulars.
"He's working here," Jade exclaimed next to me, making me glance at her. I was probably staring a little too long at the boy.
Later, Amani and Jade were talking about some homework and actually started working on it, Leah was on her phone, and Liam was reading The Hobbit while Henry was coming back with a tray with our drinks. This situation somehow reminded me of my friend group back in Luton. We all, at some point, ended up talking in pairs or were on our phones for a while, looking through memes. How sad it actually is? Society and everything.
"So, how's the play preparation?" Leah asked, looking up from her phone at Henry.
"It's alright," he shrugged, a smile appearing on his face right after. "I got the lead role."
Leah snorted, "Of course you did."
I smiled at their conversation. I was going to watch that play because, for some reason, I was interested, or perhaps just curious. New place, new theatre kids, new view of things. And I was also curious about Henry's so-called legendary acting skills.
"Sid?" I turned my attention to Jade, who just used Leah's new nickname for me. "Are you ready for tomorrow's test?"
"Maths?" I asked, furrowing my brows. I should probably go through the bunch of equations in my notebook later. "Yeah, I'll just review and hope for a good grade."
Hearing someone snort, I turned my attention to Liam, who was actually laughing. I hadn't seen him doing that often. This was probably only the second time. And so, furrowing my brows, I gave him a questioning look.
"Wish it could be that easy," he sighed, "which it's not. You can't just pray for it without givin' any effort."
Staring back at the usually quiet guy, I didn't know what to say. Of course, he was somehow right, though it wasn't really what I was talking about. What was he saying anyway? Making the conversation into a dramatic one.
"I put some effort by goin' through the solved problems," I shrugged, hoping he wouldn't say many critiques on my method of studying. Thankfully, he just kept staring right back at me. "It's just a test; it can't be that hard anyway."
At least, that was how it was for me. I tried, but not too much. I knew I should put in some effort if I wanted to go to a good school and actually be a part of some law firm in the future. However, everyone had their methods and brains. Liam making fun of mine wouldn't help him in any way. That was just proof of how most people—our society—thought about how much studying students should do, even though there were many smarter ways to ace the tests and exams.