Friendship on Fire Page 3

  I arrived home to find Dad sitting in a car. Not that that was unusual. It’s that he didn’t wave at me as I walked up the driveway. And he was in a different car. I thought this needed a closer inspection. I tapped on the window a few times and smiled. He didn’t answer. His head was moving up and down and his eyes were closed, and his hands were using both his knees like a piano. Was he having a freak dream? No; he had the music as loud as an eighteen year old in his car and he was pretty much dancing like one too. I opened the passenger door and out escaped music that could have woken the dead. Not the kind an eighteen year old would listen to, but the shrill wails of an organ. It pierced my ears like a dying cat as I realised the sound system was being ruined by Handel’s Young Messiah.

  An awkward silence followed as I gently turned the music down and made myself comfortable in the passenger seat. Dad took one look at my hair and hid a smile behind his hand.

  ‘Dad, what’s with the new car? Mum’s going to freak,’ I groaned, turning the attention to him. Dad had this habit of changing cars like his underwear. I mean they were great cars, but I know it annoyed Mum. This time, looking at the features he’d acquired, he’d gone too far.

  Dad grinned. ‘Do you like my ride? It’s got all these crazy features. It’s an Audi TT, and it has all wheel drive, 3.2L V6, intelligent German engineering, air-conditioning, six speed manual, six disc stacker …’ His voice trailed off and he began stroking the steering wheel.

  ‘Dad, are you having a midlife crisis?’ I asked quite seriously. ‘Because you can tell me if you are. I’ll try to understand.’

  Dad laughed out loud. ‘Daisy, thank you for the concern, but the car isn’t mine. It’s on loan for a test drive. We don’t have a budget for it, but I will try to convince your mother that we do ‘til I die.’

  I sighed with relief. But there was a small piece of disappointment; it would have been nice to get my logbook hours finished in this car.

  ‘So, what happened?’ he asked, sombre for my sake.

  ‘You got me the wrong colour,’ I glared at him and tugged at my hair to prove it.

  ‘Did I? Well you shouldn’t have entrusted me with something so important. The colours look the same to men anyway,’ he said, and patted my arm sympathetically. ‘So that’s why I haven’t seen you since I gave you the box of colour?’

  I nodded miserably and sighed. ‘As if I was going to risk my brothers seeing my hair as it is. I needed one morning without torture.’

  ‘Yeah, you’d better get a large hat or something. They’re all home early today and I doubt you can sneak past without them noticing,’ he nodded at the red fluff splaying out of my scalp.

  Whoever said having older brothers was a special experience needs to have their shins kicked. Don’t get me wrong, I love all three of the monsters, but they are always doing things older brothers reserve as a ‘rite of passage’. They tell me how to live my life and what decisions to make, right down to what boy I should date. It’s like they can pick what a guy is like by hearing their name or where they work. Once my oldest brother Josh told me I shouldn’t date a guy because his name, Sebastian, was ‘too gay’.

  My second eldest, Treston, once warned me off his best friend because he was a player, but he would try to set him up with all of my friends at the same time. Treston said it was because I’m classy and his sister needed to have someone more suitable. But it’s all right for them to behave like the boy they are warning me off and not all right for me to date that type of boy. It’s hypocritical and annoying and I wish I didn’t care about their opinions.

  May as well suck it up. I swung the front door open boldly and made a grand entrance into the lounge room. The boys were sitting in front of the Wii playing Mario Kart, with sandwiches hanging out of their mouths and nothing but shorts on.

  I held out my arms and said, ‘Give me everything you’ve got. I can take it.’

  Without pausing the game, Josh said, ‘Great look, Dais. An improvement in fact.’ I stuck out my tongue.

  Treston flicked his eyes from his kart and nodded in approval. ‘Well, my friends are safe.’

  Shane, the brother closest in age to me, said, like a typical lazy surfer, ‘Sweet as’, and winked at me.

  I was shocked. I was expecting such a ripping off that I was muted by their indifference. This was upsetting the natural balance of my life as I knew it.

  ‘So what, you guys don’t care about me now, is that it? Wouldn’t care if I came home wearing rags or have a broken leg, right? Thanks a lot.’ I stormed into the kitchen.

  Treston called out, ‘Aww Dais it’s not like that. Dad told us to be nice to you ‘cos you’ve been all weird and shit about starting year twelve and finding a life. So we’re trying to go easy on ya.’

  So tactful. I stopped in my tracks and plodded back to the lounge room. Sticking my head around the wall, I said in a small voice, ‘Weird?’

  ‘Well, yeah. And stressing out about school captain. Why’d you think you had to dye your hair anyway? It was an awesome colour by itself.’ He smiled in reassurance.

  ‘We can tease you if you want though, ranga. We don’t like faking.’ That was Shane.

  ‘Yes, please. Be normal. It’s the one thing I can count on.’

  I ran in front of the screen so I had their full attention when I said it. They tried to see around me and protested, pushing me out of the way.

  Josh paused the game and said, ‘Oh hey, why’d you tell Mum we ate all the salt and vinegar chips? That’s dog.’ The others murmured in agreement.

  ‘I didn’t.’

  ‘She says she won’t buy any more, but don’t worry, we’ll find her stash. She’s useless at hiding anything,’ Treston grinned widely.

  February

  Dear Diary,

  The first day of year twelve — my very last lifeline to the world I want to hold on to and never let go.

  It sounds dramatic but there are so many things I will miss in thirty-five weeks time. My friends, familiar cracked hallways, and some of the teachers. I can’t bear to move on and be expected to make a new life elsewhere. It’s ridiculous. Who made the rules of life anyway? I’m quite happy where I am.

  Surely others felt this way too? And I’m not the only sentimental old fool who will miss even the antics of the Blonde Brigade and their following of brain dead, horny young guys. You know what, I probably am. Everyone else is making plans for next year and I’m stuck in a rut. I’m torn between staying at Maccas, then saving up to travel around Europe, or going to uni without a break. Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll have something permanent planned.

  On the bright side, hot new guy spotted today. Well he doesn’t actually go to my school; he just drops off this girl. Wish I could talk to him, he seems so confident and interesting.

  Going to bed — after planning my five million new assignments.

  Dais xx

  ied onion, tomato and scrambled eggs filled my nostrils. Mum was in a good mood. And feeling generous too; she’d made enough for the whole family. I lumbered out of bed and wandered sleepily into the kitchen. She kissed me on the ear and I frowned at her. I hate it when she does that.

  As I was spreading my toast on the bench, I remembered my conversation with Roman the afternoon before.

  ‘Hey, Mum.’

  ‘Mmm?’ she murmured with a full mouth of food.

  ‘Are we doing anything special for Easter?’

  I sat down with her at the table and started cutting up my food. The boys came out and began serving themselves. While Shane’s hands were occupied with utensils, Treston hit him in the balls and ran away laughing. Shane wasn’t far behind.

  ‘Boys, hurry up and eat your breakfast before it gets cold,’

  Mum yelled, not annoyed. To me, she replied, ‘Nah, probably not this year, Dais. Can’t afford it with your grad stuff coming up.’ As an afterthought, she added, ‘Don’t want to make you feel bad though; we had to do it with the boys. It will be tight this year. Why do
you ask?’ She took a swig of Milo.

  ‘Roman asked me yesterday if I’d like to come up the coast to Marion Bay with their family. Apparently his mum asked for me specifically, because I like the beach.’

  Mum smiled. I frowned.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Are you sure his mum knows how much you like the beach? How well does she know you?’ I stared blankly at her. She went on, ‘Come on, Daisy; do you reckon Roman’s mum wants you to come, or Roman?’

  She looked at me like I was stupid.

  ‘What? No. That’s not how it is,’ I said, shaking the idea out of my head. That was all I was willing to say before the boys sat down and latched on to the conversation.

  ‘Yeah why don’t you go for someone like Roman? You’ve gone for idiots in the past, and Roman seems to dig you.

  Even if his name is weird,’ said Josh, chewing through a mouthful of egg.

  ‘Soooo not having this discussion right now,’ I said, pushing my chair back. I picked up my plate. Shane was too fast.

  ‘No you don’t,’ as he stole the plate from my hands. ‘If you’re not going to finish it, let me have the joy of being the garbage bin,’ he grinned.

  I shrugged and walked towards the bathroom to get ready for school.

  It wasn’t the first time people had claimed there was a ‘thing’ between Roman and me, and it wasn’t the first time I’d thought about it either. It was … easy, I guess. Like we got along too well and he was so perfect for me in so many ways that there didn’t seem to be any challenge, any chemistry. I couldn’t make it magically appear.

  A couple of summers ago, in a crazy flirty moment close to sunset at South Beach, he’d tried to kiss me. But when you get back to reality, everything changes, or goes back to normal, whichever comes first. I know both of us value our friendship way too much to ruin it over one little fling. I adore him. I really do. And I admire him. He’s so much smarter than me, and better looking. I don’t see what he would see in me at all.

  My blue eyes stared back at me in the mirror before I stepped into the steaming shower. The freckles on my nose still showed after the warm summer and endless hours of sunbaking at the beach. I looked myself up and down critically. I wasn’t skinny, but I wasn’t large or really tall either. At five foot eight inches, I was convinced I was quite average all over. I don’t think there is anything particularly special about me. I pictured myself with honey blonde regrowth blending with flaming red hair and rolled my eyes.

  Pushing thoughts of Roman and body image to the back of my mind, I relaxed to enjoy my hot shower. I remembered the boy we saw in the Addison Grammar uniform. Who was the girl? Niece? Cousin? Friend? I would have to find out, and fast. He seemed to have an air about him, maybe danger. Definitely charm. I could see it burning in his eyes. He knew he was hot, and I bet he knew how to use it, too.

  Loud banging startled me from my daydream. I frowned a silent protest at Josh’s muffled voice. I didn’t have time to straighten my hair most mornings. This was ridiculous.

  I arrived at school to a balmy reception. It was still summer and I craved the beach more than ever. I knew it was a hopeless farce to dream about keeping my tan; school would win soon, and free time would be non-existent until my life finally began at the end of year twelve. I found Rach making herself a hot chocolate in the common room.

  ‘Sunshine, now,’ I said, and dragged her outside for a walk to the canteen. It was one of our oldest rituals and completely dorky but we didn’t care.

  This morning there was an unusually big line up so we happily chatted about movies. I overheard a few year ten and eleven girls talking about the mysterious ‘hotty’ from yesterday and they were trying to conjure up a way to accidentally meet him on his way to Addison Grammar school.

  I smiled. They’d be pretty lucky to officially meet anyone from Addison Grammar, let alone a wayward new boy outside the golden gates of the most expensive private school in Twin Rocks. Their uniform alone stank of French Revolution soldiers’ garb and their bright green scarves and top hats in winter gave us endless things to laugh about. OK, so our uniform wasn’t much better. Navy blue summer dresses, but us girls got to wear pants in winter if we wanted to. And normal coloured scarves.

  Still, the girls’ discussion humoured me. I kept listening. The boy from yesterday sounded like a movie star, the way they carried on about him.

  Suddenly, they noticed me in line behind them and looked at each other with communal telepathy.

  ‘Daisy.’ A year eleven girl named Bree looked at me, her eyelids batting with well-practiced innocence.

  I pretended not to hear her and kept talking to Rach. Rach pinched my arm. I glared at her.

  ‘Yes?’ I turned to face Bree and raised my eyebrows.

  ‘How are the school captain duties going?’ she purred. Her white blonde hair was perfectly styled and secured with hair spray, although with a few tugs I was pretty sure it would fall out.

  ‘Considering it’s only the second day of term, pretty sweet actually,’ I replied before thinking.

  Wrong answer.

  They smiled and closed ranks. ‘Well, if you’re not busy, we have something we’d like to bring up with you. That is your job, right? To help fellow students with important information?’ asked a year ten girl, Cadence, from the Blonde Brigade. Her hair, too, was bleached so blonde it made my eyes hurt to look at it.

  I glanced at Rachael for support but she was too amused to be involved.

  ‘Yeah, sure, what is it?’ I said, trying to act like I wasn’t nervous about what they were about to suggest.

  ‘We know you’ve seen the new hotty at school. If someone is going to make a regular appearance on campus, we need to know more about them. For safety reasons, you understand,’ breathed Bree’s husky voice. The others giggled with excitement.

  Before I could reply, the leader of the Blonde Brigade, ironically the most skanky girl in the school, barged into our discussion. Her name was Skye, and she was a total cow. Skye made trouble for everyone she possibly could. She broke up relationships and stopped at nothing to get her claws into everyone else’s business. Worst of all, she was unapologetic about her conquests. Words can’t express how much I loathe her, so, to have her standing right in front of me with that smug, conniving look on her face made me want to rip her blonde hair out of her head. And scratch.

  ‘Girls, girls, why are you asking her to do a job instead of a pro? Clearly this girl can’t hold down a boyfriend, let alone read English on a packet of hair dye.’ She laughed like a high-pitched chipmunk.

  ‘At least I think about what I’m doing before I get with a boyfriend, not anyone who’ll have me,’ I spat back.

  Her eyes flashed at me not so much with anger; but more with pleasure that her reputation had preceded her.

  ‘A little jealous, are we?’ she purred. ‘Feeling deprived?’

  I bit my tongue while anger rose inside me.

  She continued, ‘If you think you can do the job properly, prove it.’

  I felt my face go hot under her challenge, but I wasn’t about to let her win.

  ‘Fine,’ I snapped, setting my jaw into a stubborn line.

  The whole group of us left the canteen like a pack of hyenas in search of unsuspecting prey. Students cleared a path for us and joined the end of our group in curiosity. As we rounded the corner towards the front gates of the school, we saw the same scene as yesterday. The soldier’s uniform, the gorgeous hair and smile, the pat on the shoulder and the wave goodbye.

  Still no PDA.

  Skye pointed at his retreating back.

  ‘Well? Do I have to do it for you, sweetheart?’ she mocked.

  Rach nudged me gently.

  I quickly trotted after the gorgeous figure and coughed a few times so I didn’t look like I was stalking him across the front oval. He didn’t hear me. He’d put in his iPod earphones already.

  So, I’d have to touch him on first meeting. How embarrassing. I poked him a little t
oo hard in the back. The boy stumbled forward and spun around. With a quizzical look, he raised his eyebrows.

  ‘Yo,’ he said, and folded his arms.

  ‘Uh, hi,’ I said, checking behind me as a damsel in distress would for my cavalry. No one came.

  He flicked a look at his shiny watch and oozed impatience. I nearly faltered.

  ‘Uh, my name is Daisy and I’m the captain of this school.’ I pointed to my badge at the same time and immediately wanted to kick myself for it.

  ‘Cool.’ He put his earphones back in and turned to go.

  ‘No wait,’ I said, not knowing at all how to continue this awkward conversation.

  ‘Look, I’m going to be late for school. Can you hurry this up? Get to the point?’ He pulled one earphone out long enough to finish his sentence.

  ‘Well.’ I rubbed my hands together nervously. ‘On behalf of the senior girls at St Dominic’s college, I would like to welcome you as a visitor to our campus,’ I said officially, spreading my hands wide in welcome. And it still didn’t come out right.

  He smiled arrogantly and walked away. Skye was already shaking her head and smiling with glee when I returned.

  ‘Useless,’ she waved her hand at me. ‘Now he’ll think all of us are as deathly boring as you. Thanks a lot, loser.’ Her entire posse turned on cue to follow her, leaving only Rach and me.

  Rach smiled. ‘Don’t worry about it,’ she said. ‘He looks like a tosser, anyway.’ She put her right arm through my left and we walked to the locker bay.

  The aftershock hit me hard. I kept playing the scene over and over in my head like a skipping record. It’s like, fine, I don’t know the guy, so the first meeting would always be strange, but he didn’t have to be so arrogant. Does he get girls coming up to him so often introducing themselves that he can afford to fob them off?

  Rach bore the brunt of my exasperation at lunchtime until she got sick of hearing about it. ‘Daisy, either try again tomorrow, or ignore him. Don’t let him get to you, or the other girls for that matter. Why not step back and let them embarrass themselves next time and we can laugh at them, mm? Would that cheer you up?’