All of the original situations in this story are mine, the rest is the intellectual property of Maddy. Cat is a fictional character, any similarities to anyone living or dead is purely my warped mind in action.

Catalyst

Part 13

Since everything had been so great for so long, it wasn't that much of a surprise when things started to go downhill.

First there was school, the teasing wasn't getting any better and then there was an incident after games where I almost revealed my secret to the whole changing room; it took me two days to recover my composure from that. Then to top it off I hadn't seen Eve around at all, I did get a chance to ask one of her classmates but all they could tell me was that she was off sick.

I also missed a couple of homework deadlines, though compared to the other stuff at school that was nothing.

Another disappointment was the cheerleading. The American football finals were in the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, so the team needed to hire a coach to get them there. Unfortunately that meant the trip was costing them so much that only the players got a free ride. Everyone else had to pay the going rate and that was just too much for me.

At least the weather wasn't so bad to stop me riding my bike. Even on the rainiest of days there was usually a dry spell in there somewhere and if it did catch me out most of the time I would still complete my ride, I would just head for the nearest towel when I got home.

Thursday arrived and there was still no sign of Eve, must have had more than a cold. There was nothing I could do at school, but when I got home I called her house.

"Hello, the Sansoms," said a voice I recognised.

"Hi Mrs Sansom, it's Cat," I said. "I haven't seen Eve all week, is she ok?"

"Hello Catrina, she's fine, just getting over a bout of flu. She should be back at school next week."

"Is it ok if I come over to see her?" I enquired.

"Not yet, she's still very tired and sleeping a lot of the time," she replied.

"I've picked up her homework," I added. When I'd next spotted the classmate who told me Eve was sick I had persuaded her to get me full details of what they had to do.

"Ok, if you give everything to me I'll see she gets to do it over the weekend."

"Right, I'll be over with it in a little while," I said.

It was some time later when I left the house to deliver the homework. I was hoping that the rain would have stopped by now but it was still coming down steadily. I walked along the road with the hood of my raincoat pulled up.

As I got near to their road I saw the familiar shape of their car driving past me. It must have been her mum going to pick her dad up from the station.

Time to go home was my first thought, then I realised if I went anyway I might get the chance to talk to Eve myself.

I carried on walking and it wasn't too long before I found myself standing outside their front door. I stood there for a couple of minutes deciding if I should try to get Eve to answer or just post everything through the letterbox, when I heard locks being turned I knew that the decision had been made for me.

The door opened a little, it was enough to see Eve standing there in a thick sweatshirt and sweatpants.

"Did you come here for a reason or are you studying our front door," Eve said while smiling weakly.

"You look terrible," I replied, which is definitely not the best way to start a conversation.

"You're not looking too hot yourself," she countered.

"I deserved that," I said. "Can I come in and talk?"

"Better not," she answered. "Mum and Dad could be back anytime now."

"Ok. I'll just give you these and be on my way," I said, not making any attempt to hide the feeling that I was unwelcome.

"Don't be like that," she said as she took the folder with everything in it. "When I'm ill they get all overprotective. At times it bugs me too, but I just have to live with it."

"Okay," I replied.

"Anyway, I'll see you at school on Monday. Thanks for bringing the homework, I need to do something."

I wasn't sure if she was serious about wanting to do the homework and I didn't have a chance to find out as she had shut the door. I made my way home thinking about everything and nothing.

Friday came and went; the weekend seemed to follow just as quickly. Normally weekends drag when you have nothing to do but for some reason this one just flew by.

When Monday rolled around it was cold and wet, so I once again took the bus into town and walked up the hill to school.

I spent most of my spare time looking for Eve to make sure that she really was back. By lunchtime I had spotted her, she was looking a lot healthier than she had last week. I had hoped to talk to her like she had said, but getting her to acknowledge me was all I managed to achieve all day. I was beginning to wonder if I had done something wrong.

Maybe she had told her parents about me coming to the door and now they had stopped her from having anything to do with me.

For the next couple of weeks nothing much happened, I just repeated the same pattern. I went to school, learned stuff, had my confidence chipped away by those individuals who thought name calling was a fun thing to do, tried and failed to get more than a few sentences out of Eve. Did homework, went to guides, did even more homework, rode my bike, finished the rest of my homework.

With everything that had been going on I had been looking forward to half-term. We had talked about visiting Gran so I would have been able to catch up with Karla and with all my friends in Warsop. Then Dad booked the car in for a service and by the time he had paid the bill there was nothing left for any kind of trip. Yet another disappointment.

When I called Karla to give her the bad news she commiserated with me and said she had the beginnings of a plan to make sure that it wouldn't happen again but she flat out refused to tell me what it was.

With no Gran, no Drew and Maddy and no Karla I just had to live off the memories of my summer adventures in the midlands. At least half-term gave me a break from being the subject of my classmates' jokes and more of a chance to avoid the wet weather when I was out on my bike.

Mum could sense my mood and tried to lift it with a shopping trip to London. Some girls would dread doing this with their mother in tow, I was just glad of the company.

In one department store I tried on a few formal dresses. I knew before I took them to the changing-rooms that I couldn't afford any of them, then again that is one of the joys of window shopping.

Apparently Carnaby Street is a shadow of its former self, although I managed to find some kitsch to tempt me. Then in Regent Street there was the cutest of kilts, I had to try it on, I found what should have been my size but it didn't fit - rats.

We found a nice little restaurant just off Leicester Square and had a good meal. The last stop was the cinema; I'd been hoping we would find somewhere showing 'Spirited Away' the latest Miyasake anime but no such luck. We settled for 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' which wasn't really Mum's cup of tea but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Overall it had been a great trip and definitely the highlight of what would have been a rubbish half-term holiday.

When I returned to school things had improved slightly, Eve wasn't quite as cold towards me as she had been before the break. I managed to recommend last week's film to her and not much more. I doubt that she would have invited me to go with her to any anime conventions, but it was better than nothing. I just wish I knew what I had done, I couldn't remember doing anything.

Hmmm conventions, I think Maddy mentioned wanting to take Drew to one in Sheffield, I decided I should call them and find out how they had got on.

The Saturday would have been a great time to call if, we hadn't got other plans. Eve's parents had invited my family over for a fireworks party. When I heard about it I had expected to see an embossed card with R.S.V.P. on it in fancy script so it came as a disappointment to discover that the invitation had been made verbally. I still wondered what kind of party it would be, what was the dress code, would the food be fancy, will we be the only people there who don't live in an expensive house?

I made an effort to get ready so I didn't see what Mum and Dad were wearing until it was almost time to go. Dad had a pair of black jeans and a casual shirt on while Mum was wearing some thick leggings and a chunky sweater.

“You can't go looking like that,” I said.

“Why ever not,” Dad replied. “It's a fireworks party not a fancy soiree.”

“But still....” I started.

“But nothing, there will be smoke and smuts from the fire, there is no way I'm wearing my good clothes and spending forever trying to get the smell out. There's no way they would expect us to be suited and booted so I suggest you change into something a little less formal and far more practical.”

I huffed and puffed and went upstairs to change. My khaki trousers were in the clean pile and I grabbed a dark t-shirt.

“That's better,” said Dad and he held the door open for Mum and me.

When we arrived at their house I was surprised to find that Dad's assessment had been spot-on. No one else was wearing anything fancy, in fact Eve's mum and dad had dressed pretty much the same as mine. It was an even bigger surprise to find Mr Sansom in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove, I would have thought they would have got someone in to do that. He didn't seem to mind though, he was leaning out of the kitchen window to join in the fun and the food was just awesome.

There were only a few kids there and Eve and I were the only teens. Before the firework display got going we got a chance to talk, she found me and lead me to a quiet part of the garden.

"I'm sorry about last week," she began. "There's just some stuff that I don't want to talk about... not with you anyway."

That was an apology? I suppose it was half of one anyway.

"Don't take it personally, that's just the way things are," she continued.

"Ok," I replied, trying hard not to take it personally. There were things I wouldn't talk about with her, it would have been nice if she had been a bit more tactful about it though.

Before we had a chance to continue the deep and meaningful conversation the fireworks started, so we fitted small talk in between the 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' and 'that's prettys'.

The display was pretty good for someone's back garden, most of the time all you get is air bombs. I've always preferred to see nice sparklies, and sparklies is what we got tonight. There were some sparklers left over too, so Eve and I got one each. I tried to act all mature, but there was something about it that brought out the child in me. I did attempt to set a good example to the little kids, which was difficult, especially with a veggie burger in the other hand.

By the way I'm not a vegetarian and I don't think Eve is either, she just persuaded me to try one. I'm not going to switch totally but I will admit that it made a surprisingly nice change.

I'm not sure what time we left their house, but it had to be late. I didn't even look at the clock when I got home; I just ran a glass of water and headed straight to bed.

On Sunday morning I had to be woken up, the late night had taken its' toll and I probably would have slept until lunchtime without Mum's intervention.

The day was a cool one but it was pretty dry so I got a short ride in. Even when I'm just riding for the hell of it, my trusty cycle computer tells me how I'm doing and today's time wasn't groundbreaking but it wasn't bad either. The first thing I thought about when I got back and changed was giving Drew a call. As well as finding out about the Anime thing he went to I wanted to find out how his cyclo-cross racing was going. (I guessed it would be going well as it involved him and bikes.) I glanced at the clock and realised he would still be out if he were racing so I left it until later and helped Dad get lunch ready.

It was much later when I actually called, I'd been multi tasking - watching the telly while doing some homework and before I knew it the afternoon had gone.

The first part of the call was really strange, mum would say it was like getting blood out of a stone. Okay so Drew isn't as talkative as Maddy but this was virtually one way traffic.

"How did the cross race go?" I asked.

"Fine," came the reply.

"Where did you come?"

"Third," he said.

"Great. Did Maddy go with you, how is she doing?" I said, desperately trying to get a conversation started.

"Yes, she's fine."

It was when I started asking about things closer to home that the alarm bells began to ring.

"How is your Mum, she's home now right?"

"Can we talk about something else please," he stated.

"Don't tell me she's still off with the team," I replied

"I don't want to talk about it."

When Drew isn't in the mood to talk about his Mum then something has to be seriously wrong. I knew that I should have backed off then, but for some reason I carried on.

"She will be back home soon enough, Drew."

"No she won't."

"Of course she will...."

"Cat, she's never coming home. She's found someone else, so she has left us."

"You're kidding," I said, although deep down I knew that he was deadly serious.

"I wish I was," he responded.

I could hear the hurt in his voice as he said those words. I wished that there was something that I could do but there wasn't, certainly not from here and probably not even if I was in Warsop right now.

"I'm sorry Drew, I know it doesn't really help but I truly am."

"Thanks."

"Is Maddy looking after you?" I enquired.

"Sort of, the rest of the gang are helping too. It's Jules and Dad that are the biggest help though. We're all going through it together."

I had no idea how they managed it. I mean I know lots of people split up and most of the time the kids are just fine, I knew I wouldn't if it happened to me. If my parents suddenly split up there is no way I could handle it, I'd have some kind of breakdown, I just know it.

"You still there Cat?"

"Yes Drew, was just thinking," I replied.

"Don't strain yourself," he said so I stuck my tongue out.

"Did you just stick your tongue out at me?" he enquired.

I checked for hidden cameras before I innocently said, "No, what made you think that?"

"Well it seemed like the sort of thing you would do and I probably would have done it if you had said that to me."

He sounded a bit more cheerful than when the phone call began so I kept the banter going for a few more minutes then left him to get on with the rest of his day.

That evening I was lying on my bed listening to the chart show. I glanced across my room and saw Jenny's poster. Yesterday she looked so strong and heroic on my wall crossing the line in Paris but today she seemed different.

When Lance left his family he went down in my estimation, it takes a lot to beat cancer, not that it gave him an excuse to walk out on his girls and hook up with a popstar girlfriend, not in my book anyway.

Thing is though Lance is a few thousand miles away (except when he rides the Tour) in a way he's just a successful American cyclist to me. Jenny Bond is more than that, she's very successful, she's British and she's female. She is everything that I want to be so I guess that she's my role model.

There was even a time when I dreamed that I could be her, that was before I met Drew though, after that the dream just seemed too weird.

I looked at the poster again and then found the clipping with the podium picture, the one with Jenny playing happy families with Mr Bond, Jules and 'Gaby'.

She left them - some hero.

As I crossed the room this week's number one was being announced - Fatman Scoop with Be Faithful, ironic or what. I took the poster down, calmly folded it up and placed it in the drawer full of bits and pieces. She can keep the poster of Lance company, especially as they seem to have so much in common.