Dark Days at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

Holly didn’t get the chance to talk to Mav at interval, but was determined to catch up with him at lunch time when they all congregated to eat together. She headed towards E Block with her bag, but had only gone a few steps when a junior boy called her name and rushed up to her.

  ‘Hi Holly!’

  It was one of the boys from earlier that morning who had stopped her to ask questions about Vanessa. This one had introduced himself, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what he said his name was.

  ‘Oh, Hi,’ she said half-heartedly.

  ‘I’m Paul, remember?’

  ‘Oh yeah. That’s right.’

  ‘You congratulated me, remember?’ He chuckled.

  ‘Did I?’ She didn’t recall exactly, but she often congratulated people in a sarcastic manner when she wasn’t interested in what they had to say.

  ‘I live down the road from you.’

  She almost congratulated him again, but stopped herself at the last moment. ‘Good for you.’

  ‘Yeah, I see you, quite a lot, walking along the street.’

  ‘Maybe you should… you know… keep a video camera handy?’

  Paul hesitated for a moment, his eyes glazing over as if considering the idea.

  ‘I was only joking.’

  ‘Oh...’

  She examined his dazed expression for a moment. ‘Is there something else you wanted to say or are you done holding me up?’

  ‘Oh... ah, yes...’ He suddenly went quiet again.

  ‘Well come on then, out with it.’

  ‘I... ah...’ He flushed. ‘I think you’re a real babe.’ He reddened even more and quickly hurried away.

  Holly sighed and shook her head. ‘Stupid little year-nine.’

  She continued on to E Block where she met up with her friends. It was Andrew Jones, alias Ginge, due to his hair colour, who greeted her first. ‘Hey, Holl. I like what you’ve done with your hair.’

  ‘Thanks. Had it styled last week.’

  ‘It suits you.’

  ‘Thanks.’ Ginge was known for his positive attitude, but to get a complement like that from him was a special treat. She had always liked him and thought he was a hunk, but never made that fact known for fear of upsetting Jacqui who seemed to see Ginge as her personal property, even though most of the time she was drooling over Rex.

  Jacqui stepped up. ‘I think her hair looks awful that way. Doesn’t suit you at all.’

  ‘She looks great,’ Vanessa said. ‘Ginge is right. Her hotness level has gone through the roof.’

  Jacqui glared at Vanessa. Holly could imagine horrible words buzzing through her mind, but Jacqui had learnt to avoid taking Vanessa on in a war of words so had to bite her lip.

  ‘Mav, what do you think?’ Vanessa asked. ‘You like her hair don’t you?’

  ‘Huh?’ Mav glanced up from gazing over the roofs of the buildings. ‘Oh, yeah. Her hair is great.’

  ‘You people have no taste,’ Jacqui grumbled.

  Holly always valued Jacqui’s impressions and it bothered her that she didn’t like it. ‘I thought it looked really good, Jacqs. What’s wrong with it?’

  Jacqui huffed. ‘I already said... it just doesn’t suit you, that’s all.’

  ‘Boy, what’s with you today?’ Holly asked, taken back at her irritable tone.

  She made no effort to make eye contact. ‘Nothing. Why should anything be wrong?’

  Holly shrugged.

  Rex arrived on the scene with a smile on his face. ‘It seems that old Tucker might just have dug his own grave with the Reaper.’

  ‘Have you got my fags, Rex?’ Pete Cook asked.

  ‘The Reaper has them.’

  ‘What? He’s got my fags? I thought you were going to bring them back.’

  ‘I lied. You’re better off without them.’

  ‘But they cost me a heap!’ whined Pete.

  ‘What were you doing with all those packs of cigarettes anyway?’ Ginge asked. ‘I saw you going around confiscating them out of people’s bags.’

  ‘Just a little joke I was playing on the Reaper.’

  ‘So what’s this about Tucker?’ Mav asked. ‘You mentioned Tucker was digging his own grave. Must be taking him a few weeks. It would be like digging a hole to bury a whale.’

  Rex chuckled. ‘Believe it or not, Tucker has unwittingly verified Pete’s story. The Reaper mentioned there were three witnesses who had allegedly seen me smoking. That had me stumped for a few seconds. Who was the third witness? I figured it could only have been Tucker. That of course meant that Tucker must have accused me of smoking. Now knowing the Reaper, he wouldn’t have mentioned any names until he had got a confession. He’d want to try and find out whether their stories coincided. That means that Tucker must have dropped my name just to get me into trouble.’

  ‘That lousy, stinking creep.’ Holly shook her head.

  ‘In doing that, he pretty much confirmed Pete’s version of the story.’

  ‘So in other words he actually incriminated himself,’ Jacqui said.

  Pete burst out laughing. ‘Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I love it! So he gets in trouble even though he wasn’t smoking at all. What a classic!’

  ‘It seems that way…’ Rex nodded. ‘Unless Tucker really had been smoking that morning at a different time to you. It’s unlikely that Tucker would admit to smoking if he hadn’t. Unless of course he thought that the Reaper didn’t believe him. That even telling the truth wasn’t going to do any good.’

  ‘What a jerk!’ Jacqui screwed up her face. ‘You’re not going to let him get away with that, are you?’

  ‘No harm done.’

  ‘He tried to get you into trouble!’

  ‘Well in a sense, we were trying to get him into trouble. Well at least Pete was. I certainly wasn’t going to tell the Reaper that Tucker had been smoking. It just so happened that the Reaper believed that he had been. I’m not going to make an issue out of it. Tucker’s already in trouble with the Reaper as it is.’

  ‘But so are you!’ Holly said.

  Rex just chuckled. He strolled over to the side with Pete and continued to talk to him.

  Holly laughed. Rex was such a cool customer; he just didn’t care if he got into trouble. She turned her gaze towards Mav again who exchanged a smile with her. Now was as good a time as any to take him aside and ask him about the card. As she did, she noticed the junior boy, Paul standing off to the side, watching her like a hawk. She turned her head to ignore him and faced Mav. ‘Hey Rick, can I talk to you alone for a sec?’

  ‘Certainly, me lady.’ Mav rose to his feet. ‘All the lady has to do is ask and her wish shall be my command.’

  She took him by the hand and led him over to a more secluded spot along the walls of F Block. She couldn’t help but notice Paul still standing there, but this time with a sad look on his face. His eyes seemed transfixed on their interlinked hands. Just in case the junior had any doubts she was taken, as soon as they sat, she placed her lips on Mav’s and kissed him intimately. Mav took it as a cue and pulled her closer to him, kissing her at the same time. This was not really what she had intended, but at least it would send a message to the infatuated junior.

  ‘Mmmmm,’ said Mav coming up for air. ‘I’ve missed that.’

  ‘So have I.’

  ‘We need to do this more often. Just get alone, away from the others.’

  ‘I know.’ She reached for her bag. ‘I’ve got something here.’ She pulled the envelope from her bag. Her intention was to tell him it was found in the school bus on his seat, but she didn’t really know how to say anything without making herself seem suspicious of him.

  ‘Hey, what’s this? A card? But Valentine’s Day was two months ago.’

  ‘That’s what I thought,’ she said, waiting for him to open it.

  When he pulled the card out from the envelope, his eyes widened. His cheeks flushed and then his eyes flickered a few ti
mes. ‘I... wow.’ He hesitated and then opened it up to read the words inside. For a few seconds he just stared at them and didn’t speak.

  ‘It was found on the bus,’ Holly said. ‘Someone said you dropped it on your seat.’

  ‘Me?’ Mav said. ‘No. I’ve never seen this before. So you didn’t buy this for me?’

  ‘No... No!’ Holly said, realising she had left herself open for misunderstanding. ‘I thought you might have… you know… brought it for me.’

  ‘To a special friend? I kind of thought we were more than that, Holl.’

  ‘Well yes!’ Holly gushed. ‘Of course we are. That’s why I couldn’t understand why you would have bought such a card.’

  ‘Well I didn’t. Not mine. Someone else must have dropped it.’ He handed it back to her and peered off across the compound. ‘Oh, hey, Pete’s back. I gotta talk to him. We’ll continue where we left off later, ok?’

  ‘Ok,’ Holly said as he rose to his feet. She watched him jog across to where Pete stood. She then peered down at the card, still open, with the words imprinted inside it.

  So it wasn’t his.

  Well if it wasn’t, why did she have a horrible feeling that it was and that Mav had just lied to her? She shuddered. She hated the suspicious feeling, but she just couldn’t shake it. Something about his whole manner when he saw the card didn’t seem right. Then he took off to talk to Pete when normally he would have wanted to hang around and make out some more.

  Holly felt sick, and then scolded herself. She was letting her suspicious nature get the better of her. Mav had always proven himself loyal to her. There was no way he would have bought a card like that to give to someone else. It wasn’t his. She had to somehow convince herself of that.

  However, she couldn’t.

  ‘Hi, Holly.’

  Holly flinched and let loose a loud sigh. ‘What do you want, Paul?’

  The year-nine boy hesitated before speaking. ‘You looked sad. Is everything ok?’

  ‘It’s really none of your business.’

  ‘I just care about you, that’s all.’

  Holly recoiled and peered up at him. ‘Care about me? You hardly know me.’

  ‘I... I think I love you, Holly.’

  ‘Oh, my gosh!’ She rose to her feet. ‘Look, Paul. I have a boyfriend, ok? I’m not interested in you.’

  Paul lowered his head. ‘I just wanted you to know.’

  Holly cringed. She didn’t mean to sound so harsh. This boy had obviously had to pluck up a lot of courage to tell her this, so the least she could do was be pleasant about it. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I’ve just got some things on my mind, that’s all. Sorry, Paul, but I don’t even know you and you don’t even know me. You can’t possibly love me.’

  ‘But I do.’

  ‘Well it’s feelings that will never be returned, ok?’

  He lifted his eyes. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I just know, ok?’

  Paul lowered his head back down again.

  ‘Bye, Paul.’

  She strode across the compound to rejoin her friends. She noticed Jacqui peering in her direction, her eyes narrow. Did Holly’s new hairstyle really bother her that much? Perhaps she felt bitter because everyone else had gone against her opinion and that even Holly herself had not listened to her. Well Holly liked her new hairstyle and Jacqui would just have to get used to it.

  She didn’t want to talk to Jacqui right now, though. She wanted to talk to Vanessa. She drew her aside and sighed. ‘He says it’s not his.’

  ‘Well that’s fine.’ Vanessa radiated a smile, her big sapphire eyes sparkling. ‘It must belong to someone else then.’

  ‘I don’t know, Ness. I don’t think he’s telling me the truth.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘It’s… you know… the way he reacted. His manner. I know him pretty well, Ness and I’ve seen him when he lies. His eyes go all strange, like they did just before.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Nuh uh, there’s no way he bought that card for someone else. Surely?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Holly’s mind ticked over and the face of a very attractive year-thirteen girl came to mind. ‘What if... Oh no...’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Samantha Drysdale. He had a thing going with her when we met and then last year, when we split temporarily, he started seeing her. What if he’s back with her?’

  Vanessa placed her hand on Holly’s shoulder and her eyes softened. ‘Don’t go jumping to conclusions, Holl. If he did buy this card, there’s no reason to believe it was for anyone else but you.’

  ‘Well then, why not just say it was for me and then give me a reason why he chose that particular card? I’ll tell you why, because it would have been too difficult to come up with something believable off the cuff. It would be easier just to lie and say it wasn’t his.’

  Vanessa fell silent. Her eyes seemed sad and she rubbed Holly’s shoulder.

  Holly forced back tears. ‘He’s seeing Samantha. I just know it.’

  Vanessa shook her head. ‘Don’t go there. Just don’t go there.’

  ‘Then what do I do? Pretend that everything’s hunky dory and that this damn card doesn’t exist?’

  ‘Trust him.’

  ‘But what if he really is seeing someone else? Nessa, we don’t have an open relationship like you do with Rex. He couldn’t stand me seeing anyone else and I couldn’t stand him seeing anyone else either. We almost split because of one stupid mistake I made last year. Something like this would just tear us apart completely.’

  ‘Then you have to find out for sure he is seeing someone else.’

  ‘But how?’

  ‘I’m not sure. We’ll need to give it some thought.’

  ‘I’m gonna be worried sick about this. What if he’s innocent? Proving his innocence could be even harder than proving his guil...’ Her words trailed off when she noticed a head appear and disappear around the corner of the building only a few metres from where they sat. ‘Damn it! It’s that darn year-nine kid again. Paul! Get your ass around here!’

  The red face of the junior reappeared and he stepped out into the open.

  ‘Did you hear what we were talking about?’

  ‘N... no!’ Paul said, glancing from one girl to the next.

  Vanessa motioned with her finger for him to come nearer. Shakily he stepped out and advanced slowly as if expecting a whack around the face.

  ‘Paul. Is that your name?’ Vanessa asked.

  ‘Y... yes.’

  ‘Paul what?’

  ‘Paul Burgess.’

  ‘Well Paul Burgess. Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you. Anything you may have heard you will erase from your memory and promise never to recall ever again, ok?’

  Paul nodded vigorously.

  ‘Good boy.’

  Holly couldn’t help but hold back a laugh. Paul didn’t seem to mind the reference though. ‘I didn’t hear anything, honest.’

  ‘Good,’ said Vanessa. ‘And that’s exactly what you will say if anybody asks. Now scram. Leave us alone.’

  ‘Yes, goddess!’ He turned and hurried away.

  ‘Wow,’ Holly said. ‘You sure showed him... goddess.’

  The two burst out laughing.

  ‘Well let’s hope it did the trick.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure it will. He won’t want to risk facing the wrath of the Daughter of Aphrodite.’