Dark Days at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

CHAPTER 2:

  Holly Does the Rounds

  Holly Robinson sat with her friends at their usual congregation point in the seated area, under the trees, outside E-Block. There was still twenty minutes before the bell rang for assembly and it was a chance to catch up with those she hadn’t seen over the holidays.

  ‘I’m so glad we don’t have those stupid guards on duty anymore,’ she said to her boyfriend, Rick who sat next to her. ‘At least Mr Luxton will… you know… be back as principal now and we won’t have to put up with Mr Harris’s Boot Camp anymore.’

  Rick Maverick, who everyone referred to as Mav smiled at her and his playful green eyes sparkled. ‘You never know, Mr Luxton might decide it was a good initiative and keep it going.’

  ‘What, the Boot Camp or the guards?’

  ‘Both!’

  ‘If he does, I’m officially going on strike.’

  ‘Can’t see it happening, though. Mr Harris has apparently riled up a lot of people. I doubt he’ll ever be made interim principal ever again.’

  ‘Sweet! That God for that.’ She clutched his hand and gazed into his eyes. ‘I’ve missed you.’

  ‘I know, you told me on the phone last night.’

  ‘I can’t believe I didn’t get to see you for two whole weeks. I thought about you a lot.’

  ‘I would have thought you would have been glad to get rid of me.’ Mav delivered her a cheeky smile. ‘You got to live in a world of sanity for two weeks.’

  ‘And meanwhile Rotorua had to put up with you, huh?’ She giggled.

  ‘It managed to cope somehow.’

  Holly glanced over at Chelsea Brown, arguably her best friend since some time in the middle of the previous year. She wasn’t talking to anyone and gazed away into the distance. She turned her head in the direction of Mav and Holly and seeing Holly watching her, smiled, but it didn’t seem to be the slim blonde’s usual cheery smile.

  Holly rose to her feet, strolled over to Chelsea and sat down next to her. ‘You ok?’

  Chelsea’s perked up. ‘Sure. No problems.’

  ‘You looked kind of distant.’

  ‘Was I?’

  ‘Yeah. I thought… you know… maybe something was bothering you.’

  ‘No, I’m fine.’ She smiled and ran her fingers through her shoulder length hair.

  ‘Did you have a good holiday?’

  ‘Oh yeah, it was fine.’ Her tone didn’t really seem to match her words.

  ‘Did you do anything?’

  Chelsea paused for a moment and she appeared distant again, as if pondering something. ‘We went to the Bay of Islands,’ she finally said. ‘It was quite a holiday.’

  ‘Awesome. So tell me, did you meet any hot guys up there?’

  Chelsea’s eyes flickered and for a second she glanced down at the ground, but then back at Holly with a smile on her face. ‘Yes, I did.’

  ‘Oh sweet, Chels, that’s great! Tell me about him.’ She turned to call to Jacqui Donaldson and Mandy Evans. ‘Hey you two, did you hear? Chelsea met this guy in the Bay of Islands. Come on Chels, tell us all about him.’

  Chelsea’s eyes darted around from one face to the next.

  ‘Was he hot?’ Mandy asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Chelsea replied, shuffling on her seat a little.

  ‘Well come on, tell us about him,’ Jacqui ordered, flicking her long dark hair to the side.

  ‘What do you want to know?’

  ‘Oh pulease! Just tell us everything. What was his name for a start?’

  ‘His name was Brandon. Real cute. Tall, dark hair, funny, intelligent...’

  ‘Where’s he from?’

  ‘Auckland.’

  ‘Oh bummer,’ Holly said, finally seeing a reason for Chelsea’s apparent sombreness. ‘He’s so far away. That must suck.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Chelsea sighed. ‘He might as well be in an entirely different country.’

  Jacqui’s eyes softened. ‘I guess you really want to be with him now, huh?’

  ‘Yes. I do, but instead I have to study Maths and English and constantly think about being with him, but not being able to.’

  ‘So come on, Chels. Tell us more. Is he romantic?’

  ‘He is so sweet. I never realised... I mean it’s funny you can see a guy you never would have thought you’d ever be with and then something just clicks.’

  ‘So you didn’t really fancy the guy at first?’ Mandy asked, crossing her long smooth legs and flicking her wavy dark hair out of her innocent looking brown eyes.

  ‘It wasn’t until I’d spent some time with him that I really noticed just how hot he really was.’

  ‘Sweet!’ Holly imagined them walking along the beach together holding hands and even perhaps going swimming with each other. ‘Does he look good in a swim suit?’

  ‘The odd time it was warm enough to swim, not too shabby.’ She smiled for a second, but then the smile vanished. ‘But we knew it could never be.’

  ‘Ohhhh, bitter sweet,’ Mandy said. ‘You both knew that afterwards you’d never get to see each other ever again.’

  ‘Something like that.’

  ‘It was all sweet though, right?’ Holly asked.

  ‘It was magical.’

  The girls all sighed in unison.

  Rog Shepard, one of their male friends piped up. ‘I think it’s about now that someone starts singing “Summer Lovers” isn’t it?’

  ‘Ahh no, Sheep,’ Holly said. ‘Summer was officially over a month ago.’

  ‘Change “summer” to “autumn”. No biggie.

  ‘Shut up, Sheep!’ Mandy scolded him. ‘This was a good story. No need to ruin it.’

  ‘Sorreeeee.’

  ‘Not a romantic bone in his body,’ Mandy said.

  ‘So, Chels,’ Holly said. ‘Did you get his phone number? Are you going to at least try to keep in contact?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Is he online? You can keep in contact that way. You can be in constant contact with him through email or a website like FaceLink.’

  ‘He’s not on-line.’

  ‘Oh, bummer. Got any photographs?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ Jacqui said. ‘You spent two weeks with the guy and never got one photograph of him?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Not even on your cell phone?’

  ‘No. I didn’t even think about it. We were just having too good a time.’

  Jacqui shook her head and let out a long breath. ‘Silly girl. Now you’ve got nothing to look at to remind you of those two weeks.’

  Chelsea said nothing.

  ‘You better write to him and get him to send you some pics.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘And ones with him in swimming trunks so we can see how hot he is.’

  ‘Oh leave her alone,’ Mandy said. ‘Can’t you see she’s pining? Hey Mav, what about you, did you have any romantic liaisons at the Blue Lake?’

  ‘As if!’ Mav chuckled. ‘For one thing, no one would have given me a second glance. For another thing I wouldn’t want to suffer the wrath of my lovely Holly.’

  ‘Damn right, you don’t,’ Holly said shaking her finger in unison with her head.

  They all laughed.

  Mr Reaper marched up to the group and stretched his head to view around the seating area. ‘Anyone seen Rex or Tucker?’

  Nobody had. Not yet, anyway. Holly had no desire to see the obese Tucker, but always looked forward to seeing Rex. Even though she was loyal to Mav, Rex supplied the type of eye candy that was very hard not to want to sample.

  The Reaper’s eyes stopped at Holly. ‘Holly can I get you to do a quick search and see if you can find them?’

  Holly groaned. ‘Do I have to?’

  ‘Yes!’

  She sighed and rose to her feet. ‘I’ll see you guys at assembly.’

  Holly trotted along the path, peering in every direction hoping to see Rex and not Tucker. She hadn’t gone far before a group of junior boys accost
ed her.

  ‘Hey Holly, you’re friends of Vanessa!’ said one.

  Holly wasn’t really in the mood to talking to juniors, so made no effort to be civil. She decided to use a Rick-style joke, but put a little more causticity into it. ‘Oh gee, thanks I didn’t actually realise she was my friend. I’m so glad you… you know… reminded me of that fact.’

  ‘We’re Nessanists,’ said one.

  Holly groaned. She was so sick of hearing about the stupid little cult Tucker Pyles had started last term. It seemed to have grown quite a following amongst the junior boys and Vanessa had adopted the nickname of “the goddess”. Even a lot of the older boys were starting to call her that now too. The whole thing had become a bit of a fad, but it was starting to go too far, at least from Holly’s perspective.

  ‘We want to know what Vanessa’s favourite colour is.’

  ‘Well how should I know that?’

  ‘Well we thought you might.’

  ‘Why don’t you ask her?’

  ‘Talk to the goddess?’ one of them gasped. ‘You don’t just go up and talk to the Daughter of Aphrodite!’

  ‘I do!’

  ‘But you’re her friend.’

  ‘Yes, we’ve already established that fact. Please! Leave me alone.’

  She was about to walk on when one of the junior boys called to her. ‘Holly.’

  She paused, not in the mood for more silly questions. ‘What?’

  ‘My name’s Paul.’

  ‘Congratulations Paul. Should I be impressed?’

  ‘I... I just wanted to say, Hi.’

  ‘Well you did, but I’ve gotta go.’ She continued on, shaking her head in despair. Even Tucker had dropped the whole “Church of the Goddess” nonsense, but it seemed these juniors were a little slow to do the same.

  She came across “the goddess” herself, a minute later at one of the locker blocks. Holly could definitely understand why they treated her the way she did. With her long shiny black hair, flawless skin and perfect body, she was definitely a sight to behold. Holly couldn’t help but envy her some times, even though she had plenty of guys going gaga over her too.

  ‘Hey, Holly, love what you’ve done to your hair.’ Vanessa smiled.

  ‘Thanks. Had it done last week. Decided it was time for a change.’ She flicked her shoulder length locks allowing them to billow. ‘A few extra waves and curls. I love it.’

  ‘So do I. You look even better than ever. Ooh la la. Anyway, have a good break?’

  ‘Yes, I did. Have you seen Rex?’

  ‘Nuh uh. Not yet.’

  ‘Well if you see him, let him know that Mr Reaper is looking for him.’

  Vanessa clicked her tongue a few times. ‘Don’t you just love him? He’s hardly been at school five minutes and he’s already in trouble with the Reaper.’

  ‘That’s Rex for you. Although I don’t think he’s even arrived yet, so it would be an amazing feat to be in trouble already.’

  ‘Rex is an amazing guy.’

  Holly laughed. ‘You don’t need to tell me that. Oh, by the way there’s a group of creepy stalker guys going around asking what your favourite colour is.’

  ‘Why don’t they just ask me?’

  ‘Because you’re the goddess and for some reason it’s an unpardonable sin to dare address you directly.’

  ‘Oh, please don’t tell me they’re still going on with all that crap? I would have thought the holiday break would have ended it all.’

  ‘You’re… you know… underestimating your own powers of entrancement, Nessa. You unwittingly have them all under your spell.’

  ‘Well if I could wave my wand and have them all regain sanity, I would.’ Vanessa held back laughter.

  ‘How was your break, anyway, Ness?’

  ‘Awesome. Rex, Maggie and I spent a few days up no the mountain together. All three of us were crammed in one little tent. Nice and cosy. Oooh la la.’

  ‘I bet,’ Holly said, wishing that she could have been there too, although she had her doubts about the sleeping arrangements. ‘I don’t think I want to ask about too many of the details of that trip.’

  ‘I’m sure Maggie will tell you all about it.’

  ‘That’s what I’m worried about. She doesn’t tend to… you know… exercise a lot of restraint when it comes to details others don’t need or even want to hear about. Do I dare ask what else you did?’

  ‘Oh, we did lots of stuff, joining up with some of the others and going to the beach and stuff. You know, hanging out, having laughs, fooling around. You were in Wellington, weren’t you?’

  ‘Yeah, and it was deadly dull.’

  ‘That’s probably not surprising considering it was Wellington.’ Vanessa smiled, her bright sapphire blue eyes twinkling.

  ‘Ahhh Wellington’s ok, but I spent most of my time at Granny’s place and that IS deadly dull, sitting around talking about gardening and her weak knees and watching her knit.’

  ‘Oh what fun.’

  ‘Sounds like you guys had all the fun here in Te Arawa.’

  ‘With Rex around, there’s always fun to be had.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘How are things with you and Mav? I take it you didn’t see him at all?’

  ‘No, he was at the Blue Lake. Even he had more fun than me. Wish I had been there.’

  ‘I figured you as more of a beach girl.’

  ‘I am, but at least at lakes there’s no worries about getting caught in rips. I had a bad experience last year at one of the beaches here. Nearly drowned.’

  ‘Oh my God.’

  ‘When you’re my diminutive height, you don’t have to go out very deep to get in trouble.’

  ‘I should imagine not.’

  ‘But still, I do love beaches. If I was tall as you and looked as great in a bikini, perhaps I’d be a surfer girl.’

  ‘You look fantastic in a bikini. Trust me on that.’

  ‘No way!’

  ‘Yeah huh!’

  ‘I’ll take your word for it.’ Holly laughed.

  ‘Oh come on, you know it. The guys can’t keep their eyes off you.’

  ‘Whatever you say.’

  ‘I certainly can’t.’

  Holly could feel her cheeks flush. It was the first time Vanessa had made any comment like that about her. She thought she’d feel uncomfortable if she did, but instead she felt flattered.

  ‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to put you in a socially awkward situation.’

  ‘Sweet. I guess if I can get used to guys ogling me, I can get used to females too.’

  ‘See, you know you’re hot. You’re just modest.’

  A younger girl ran up to them before she could reply. ‘Hey, Holl. I found this in the bus this morning. I think it’s for you.’ She handed her an envelope that seemed to have a card inside of it. There was nothing written on the cover.

  ‘What makes you think it’s for me?’

  ‘Well it was on Rick Maverick’s seat and I opened it to find out for sure. I definitely think it’s for you.’ With that, she flashed a smile and walked on.

  Holly examined the envelope not sure if she should open it. Nevertheless, the girl seemed very certain, so with curiosity getting the better of her, Holly opened it up and pulled out the card. It appeared to be a romantic one as it had flowers on the front of it and the embossed words, “To a special friend”.

  ‘Special friend?’ Vanessa asked. ‘Is that how he sees you?’

  Holly did find it a little strange as cards she had received from him in the past always had hearts or the word “love” or “sweetheart” or something similar on them. She slowly opened it and found it hadn’t been written on yet and the words imprinted inside the card read:

  There’s just something about you I can’t seem to shake

  My feelings for you are stronger than I ever imagined.

  You are more than just a friend to me.

  Holly gazed at the words for a few moments. None of them accurately represented
their relationship at all. They had long since gone from feelings they couldn’t shake, feelings that were stronger than they imagined, more than just friends, to full-blown love for one another, love that they both acknowledged was real.

  Holly shook her head. ‘No, this can’t be from Mav. That girl must have messed up. Perhaps it was a… you know… different seat or someone dropped it there when they left the bus. This just isn’t Rick.’

  ‘Well you know him better than I do. You’re probably right. It doesn’t belong to him. A coincidence, that’s all.’

  ‘Yeah.’ She was about to drop it into a bin, but something made her keep hold of it. Even if it wasn’t Rick’s, perhaps he might have an idea as to whom it belonged. There was a fair chance it may have even belonged to whomever he was sitting beside in the bus. Yes. That had to be the answer. After all, why would Rick have a card like that at all?