‘We’re just on our way to my place,’ said Finn, though neither Poppy nor I had asked what they were doing there. ‘Took a short cut.’ He pointed to another track, to the east of where we had come from, which led out into the clearing. ‘Too hot to walk the long way.’
Nico nodded in agreement.
‘Great,’ said Virginia. ‘You can be our escort out of here.’
Virginia seemed comfortable talking to Finn and I wondered if this was the first time they’d met since the great Christmas bust-up. I was pleased to see how coolly he treated her, like she was just another girl, and I felt my shoulders drop with relief at the thought of Finn and Nico escorting us out.
The boys took the lead and plunged back into the denseness of The Woods. This time there was no discernible track that I could make out as I carefully picked my way over rocks and larger rotting branches. I found myself third in line, for Virginia had fallen back behind me. I could hear her encouraging murmurs to Poppy, who was as skittish as a kitten in a dog kennel. The sound of thunder rumbled in the distance and the wind was stronger now, whipping my hair about my face. It was hard to know how long we’d been in The Woods but it felt like an eternity, when suddenly there was a shout from up ahead and Nico fell back, nearly knocking me over.
‘What? What is it?’ I said.
Finn was now facing us, his eyes wild, his arms stretched out wide as if to shield us. Virginia pushed past all of us and ducked under Finn’s arms, only to let out a strangled cry.
‘What is it?’ I demanded again, although I didn’t want to know, didn’t want to see. Then suddenly I was standing next to Virginia, looking down at a pile of pine needles that had been scraped together into a large mound.
‘What—?’
I looked again. The wind whipped strongly around us now, pushing at the needles on the ground, revealing what lay beneath. Pink skin. A hand. I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. Thunder cracked over us and jolted my brain into action, as Nico pushed past me and knelt down at the mound, sweeping the pine needles away to reveal the face of a girl, our age, her hazel eyes wide and staring. Nico fell back, sitting down abruptly on the ground.
‘Is she dead?’ asked Virginia.
An inappropriate response flitted through my head. She’s not well, I thought.
Poppy moved forward and peered at the body.
‘I should have known,’ she said.
The others looked puzzled, but I knew she was talking about her Power and I refused to buy into that discussion.
‘Wow, a real dead body,’ said Virginia. ‘Does anyone know her? I wonder what happened.’
‘Is it a girl?’ asked Nico.
We all agreed it was. From what I could see of her face, she wore eye makeup and was pretty, in a lifeless manequin kind of way. I was dimly aware of Poppy moaning, but it was like my senses had shut down. Like I was sitting at home watching TV and any minute we’d cut to a commercial. I desperately wanted that commercial to kick in, but the wind gusted again and suddenly it felt real.
With shaking hands I pulled out my mobile but there was no reception.
‘Does anyone else have reception?’ I asked.
They looked at me blankly.
‘We have to ring someone. The police. Someone.’
Virginia pulled out her phone, checked it and shook her head. Then — and at this I was nearly sick — she took a photo of the girl. I reasoned it was probably a good idea — something to show the police. Poppy checked her phone but had no reception either and Finn announced his battery was dead. Nico sat staring at the girl and I figured he didn’t have a phone on him to check.
‘Let’s just get out of here,’ said Virginia.
‘What do you mean? We have to ring someone. We can’t leave her here,’ Poppy insisted. ‘It’s a crime scene.’
‘This place gives me the creeps,’ said Virginia. ‘We’ll get phone reception once we leave The Woods. We can ring from there.’
‘Well… someone has to stay with her,’ said Poppy.
‘Why?’ Virginia stared, her cold blue eyes daring Poppy to challenge her.
‘Because… because.’
‘I guess she’s not going anywhere,’ said Finn. He ran his fingers through his hair. ‘It’s not like she’s feeling any pain. I don’t want to stay here. Who does?’
It was wrong. Every fibre in my body was telling me it was wrong to leave this girl, leave her to The Woods and the approaching storm, but my fear was greater and I looked to the ground and said nothing.
‘I say we get out of here and ring the police when we get phone reception,’ said Finn. He started to head off as if we had all agreed with him. Virginia followed.
‘Someone should stay,’ protested Poppy before a clap of thunder saw her hurry after the others.
Plump raindrops made their way through the tree canopy and hit the ground. Nico removed his shirt and placed it over the girl, as if to shelter her, then he too left. I covered her hand once more with a layer of pine needles as if this would keep her warm.
‘Sorry,’ I whispered.
Then I stumbled after Nico as the rain fell down.
4
SARAH
It’s raining, it’s pouring
the old man is snoring
He went to bed and bumped his head
and couldn’t get up in the morning
BY THE TIME we made it to the edge of The Woods, the rain was heavy. We ran across the road and down a block until we reached a weatherboard house with a neat front garden. I shivered as we waited for Finn to open the front door. The temperature had dropped with the onset of rain, but it wasn’t the cool wind that was making my body shake. We left our shoes at the door as Finn ushered us inside, down a hallway, to a large kitchen and family room.
So this was Finn’s home. It was only a block away from my own house, I’d been past it a million times, but this was the first time I’d been inside. It was modern without being over-the-top. Tidy without being sterile. A corkboard held a shopping list and a phone message from someone called Jenny. Magazines were scattered haphazardly on the coffee table and a toy robot was poking out from underneath a chair. Finn’s youngest brother, Cody, was in the same grade as my brother Jefri and he sometimes came to play at our house. But Jefri had never been here.
‘No one’s home,’ said Finn. ‘Mum and Cody went to the beach. Don’t know where Aaron is. I’ll find some towels.’
Nico turned on the TV, as if there might already be news about the girl in The Woods. Virginia dug into her bag, then finally tipped the contents onto the coffee table.
‘Does anyone have a tissue?’ she asked.
I shook my head. Nico and Poppy both seemed glued to the TV.
I sat on a stool at the breakfast bar and imagined Finn having breakfast here. Maybe just wearing an old T-shirt and shorts for PJs. Probably getting through a large bowl of cereal and checking out morning TV. I thought of the girl in The Woods, so still and alone, and pressed my hand against my chest to feel the steady beat of my heart. Still pumping precious blood around my body. Clever heart.
I stood up and noticed that the bar stool was wet from my clothes. I went off in search of Finn, down a hallway off from the family room. I stopped at the first door I came to and opened it.
It was the mustiness of the room that first hit me. The air was stale. The room was neat, a single bed with a striped blue doona against one wall. A couple of sports trophies dotted the tallboy on the opposite side of the room and a desk sat under the window, pens neatly stacked in a cylindrical container, a pile of car magazines to one side. The window blind was pulled halfway down.
‘You can’t go in there.’ Finn’s voice came from out of nowhere, as he reached around me and shut the door firmly in my face.
‘Sorry… I thought you might need help…’
He hustled me back into the family room and handed out the towels. I watched the storm create havoc outside as the trees and bushes were pushed first one way th
en another.
Virginia filled the kettle, looking quite at home as she pulled out some mugs from a cupboard. I wondered how many times she’d done that.
‘Who’s going to make the call?’ I asked finally.
Finn grabbed the cordless phone and started to punch at some buttons.
‘Wait!’ said Virginia.
Finn lowered the phone. All eyes looked to Virginia.
‘We need to think about this,’ she said slowly. ‘We just need to get our story straight.’ She measured instant coffee into the mugs and poured the hot water.
‘Story?’ I repeated.
‘You know how these things go,’ she said. ‘The police will want to know how we found her — the girl. My parents will kill me when they find out I went into The Woods.’
‘We were hot,’ said Poppy. ‘So we took a shortcut.’
Virginia nodded. ‘Who has milk?’
We answered her and she continued. ‘So we took a shortcut to Sarah’s house because we were hot…’
‘And we met up with Finn and Nico,’ said Poppy.
‘And we met up with Finn and… where’s your shirt, Nico?’ asked Virginia. She slammed a mug down onto the counter and its contents sloshed over the sides.
I watched realisation dawn on his face as Nico looked down at his dark blue singlet.
‘I… I put it over her before I left,’ he said quietly.
‘Well that was stupid,’ Finn said, though not unkindly. He put the phone back on its cradle. ‘Looks like no ringing the cops.’
Virginia shook her head as she returned the milk to the fridge and mopped up the mess.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘We have to ring the police. It’s the right thing to do.’
‘Let me think,’ said Virginia.
‘No cops,’ said Finn. ‘Not now. Nico’s on a good-behaviour bond. His shirt’s at the scene of a crime—’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Poppy. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Nico had a little trouble last year,’ explained Virginia. ‘In that game against Griffin Bears. He busted some kid’s cheekbone—’
‘That was bullshit!’ said Nico. ‘He was pushing me all game—’
‘Assault,’ said Virginia. ‘Was that the charge?’
‘No one’s going to think you killed her,’ said Poppy. ‘I mean, we were all there. We all found her at the same time.’
‘All there,’ Virginia repeated. ‘My dad is not going to be happy if he thinks I was meeting up with Finn.’
‘But you were with us,’ I said.
‘You don’t know how my dad thinks.’ Virginia nibbled at her lip. ‘This is just getting too hard. Let’s just leave it.’
‘Leave it?’ I repeated. I held out my hand to Finn. ‘Give me the phone,’ I said. ‘I’m ringing. It’s the right thing to do.’
Virginia stomped her foot. ‘Sarah, you’re so… proper!’ She spat out the last word as if it were a nasty taste in her mouth. ‘You’re so… so Ms Dux.’
‘We can’t just leave her there,’ said Poppy. ‘Alone. In The Woods. Someone will be missing her. We just can’t. My mum would kill me. What if I ring her?’
‘She’s a cop, isn’t she?’ asked Finn.
‘Police officer,’ corrected Poppy primly.
‘Same thing,’ said Finn, shaking his head.
‘We can’t not ring the police,’ I said, though even I could hear the hesitation in my voice.
‘Nico has a record of assault,’ said Virginia. ‘And now his shirt is at the scene of the crime.’
‘We don’t know it was a crime…’ I hated the way I sounded like a little kid.
‘No, you’re right. The girl just lay down and died and the forest covered her neatly in pine needles,’ said Virginia sarcastically.
Poppy moved closer to me. ‘There’s no need to be a bitch,’ she said hotly.
‘I can go back and get my shirt,’ suggested Nico.
‘And what if someone sees you?’ said Virginia.
‘So someone else could get the shirt,’ I said, but just the thought of going back into The Woods made my blood freeze. What if the murderer was still there?
‘Who?’ demanded Virginia. ‘You? I’m not going. Who else wants to go and get the shirt?’
The wind turned again outside, forcing the rain to rattle against the family room windows that looked out over the garden.
‘That’s what I thought,’ she said smugly.
I wanted to be brave. I wanted to be the one to go back through The Woods. But I knew I couldn’t.
‘I’ll get it,’ said Poppy calmly.
‘No—’ I said.
‘Listen.’ She grabbed my shoulder and it reminded me of the first day we met. ‘I’m not afraid. That poor girl can’t hurt me. And if anyone sees me… well, it’s a boy’s shirt. They won’t think I had anything to do with it.’
‘Poppy, I don’t want—’
‘I’ll meet you back at your house.’ She gave me a quick hug, and before I could say anything else, she had left.
‘All right. I’ll wait for an hour then I’ll ring the police,’ said Finn firmly. ‘I’ll go to The Mall and ring from the public phones there. I’ll just give them the tip-off. Won’t tell them any more than that. No names. Nothing.’
Virginia pursed her lips then finally nodded. She seemed disappointed.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘Does everyone else agree?’
I said nothing, staring out at the storm. Poppy was going to get soaked. I didn’t know these people, not really, and now my only ally had left me alone with them. Three against one. Those were bad odds.
Everyone else agreed with Virginia’s plan.
‘Sarah?’ Virginia came and stood next to me. ‘This will just save us a whole lot of bother. It’s not like we’ve done anything wrong.’ Her voice was sweet and low and I found myself agreeing with her as a door slammed somewhere in the house.
‘Who’s done something wrong?’ A tall guy, looking a lot like Finn, had appeared from nowhere.
‘Hey, Aaron,’ said Virginia brightly.
‘What’s she doing here?’ Aaron asked Finn.
‘Sarah and I were caught in the rain,’ said Virginia, making a show of drying off her hair with a towel. ‘Your brother rescued us.’
Aaron didn’t look convinced.
‘Anyway, we’d better go. Thanks for the towels, Finn. See you Nico. Aaron.’
‘It’s still raining,’ said Aaron.
‘Hardly at all,’ said Virginia, rinsing her mug in the sink.
I looked outside and saw it was true. The wind had dropped and the rain was reduced to a light sprinkle. The dark clouds scudded across the sky, as if in a hurry to be somewhere else, and the garden was looking sodden.
WE WERE A LITTLE late for dinner but Mum didn’t even mention it, so excited was she to have Virginia as a guest. Dad had managed to make it home on time for once and Poppy turned up for main course. She was chatty, giving Mum some excuse about having to go home first to check on her sisters, but I could tell there was something wrong. I don’t remember what we ate.
I finally got the chance to talk with Poppy in private when we cleared the dishes into the kitchen.
‘What’s wrong?’ I demanded, making sure the door was shut behind us.
‘It wasn’t there,’ she said.
For a moment I thought she meant the body.
‘The shirt wasn’t there,’ she said.
‘Maybe the wind blew it away,’ I said. ‘Did you check—’
‘I checked. That’s what took me so long,’ hissed Poppy. ‘That and the fact that I had to retrace our steps, which wasn’t easy. The shirt wasn’t anywhere. What am I going to do?’
‘You’ve got to tell Nico,’ I said.
Poppy was shoving the dishes into the dishwasher.
‘Poppy… Poppy you have to.’
‘I know. It’s just… I should have known,’ she said. ‘That’s why I was feeling sick. I should have kno
wn there was something wrong. The closer I got to those woods the worse I felt.’
‘Poppy! Don’t. This isn’t some game.’ I slammed the dishwasher door shut and left her alone in the kitchen.
POPPY RANG ME the next morning to say that her mum had been called in to work the night before because the body had been found in The Woods. Nothing much happened in the way of crime in Silver Valley, so a murder was big news. Two days later, on our first day back at school, it was still all over the TV and newspapers. The girl was an out-of-towner so no one at school could claim first-hand grief at knowing her, although I was sure it was killing Virginia not to mention her role in the drama. Parents reminded their kids about not taking short cuts through The Woods. There was talk about policing the area more. Poppy texted Virginia about the shirt and Virginia said she’d pass on the message to Nico. A day later I passed Virginia, flanked by Loz and Tamara, in the corridor outside the science lab. Virginia held my gaze for a split second then we just nodded and moved on.
The status quo of our intersecting lives had returned to its former state. We weren’t to speak again properly until the night of the Year 12 Formal.
5
SARAH
He loves me
He loves me not
THE FIRST TERM of Year 12 we hit the ground running. I was doing German Language for extra credit, but that didn’t stop me from taking on other things like organising the Formal and the Year 12 Year Book. Classes were easy, and at home my parents were giving me a lot of space for a change. So home and school were under control.
What wasn’t under control was my obsession with Finn Cashin. There were days when I’d convince myself that he was still lusting over Virginia, then he’d flirt with me and my hopes would soar. Up and down. Down and up. It was like our secret day in The Woods had forged a connection between us. Poppy kept telling me to go for what I wanted, but I just felt stupid. What if Finn thought I was pathetic? Why would he think it was all right for me to ask him out? I’d always thought having boyfriends was just messy — a waste of time. Yet whenever I saw Finn talk to another girl, I would nearly faint with jealousy.
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