Jealousy at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

Maggie marvelled at the sleek black car that sat in her driveway ready to take her to the Aquatic Centre in New Plymouth. ‘Wow. Like I’m saying, Wow!’

  Vanessa stood next to her. 'Ooh la la!'

  ‘Not bad, huh?’ asked Rex.

  ‘What sort of car is it?’ asked Maggie

  Vanessa replied, ‘A Lamborghini Estoque. Is it brand new?’

  ‘No,’ Rex said. ‘Second-hand. But still, pretty damn fantastic.’

  ‘Oh man, I just can’t wait to ride in it.’

  Nadia, who had stayed over at Vanessa’s place the night before, shook her head. ‘My God. You just get better all the time, Rex. Not only are you sweltering hot and drop dead gorgeous… not only do you scare away gang members, but you’re rich too?’

  Rex just grinned.

  ‘Maggs, check out my tattoo I had done last night,’ Vanessa said. She lifted up her leg to show her bare ankle, revealing a small butterfly tattoo. ‘I love it.’

  ‘Wow, that’s so sexy.’

  ‘Tell me about it,’ Rex said. ‘Hey, we need to get some shots of you girls posing on the car. You can show off that tattoo, Ness.’

  Rex pressed a button on his key ring and immediately all four doors tilted upwards and opened.

  ‘Wow,’ Maggie stared. ‘That is sooo cool!’

  Rex pulled out his cell phone. All three girls had fun posing on, in and around the car, sometimes one of them at a time, sometimes two at a time and sometimes all three.

  ‘Wow, this would make a great magazine spread,’ Rex said. ‘Perhaps for the next school magazine?’

  ‘Rex,’ Vanessa said as she sat on the bonnet with Maggie. ‘I know you want to get some shots of this.’ She grabbed Maggie, pulled her close and began to kiss her on the mouth. Maggie froze for a second, shocked by Vanessa’s brazen display out in the open, but it felt so good, so she allowed it to happen, while Rex clicked away on his camera.

  ‘Oh, God,’ Nadia said after close to a minute. ‘Will you girls please stop?’

  Vanessa finally let Maggie go, turned and smiled. 'How was that Rexy?’

  Rex had a broad smile on his face. ‘Bloody awesome.’

  ‘Please don’t let anyone see those,’ Maggie begged. ‘Don’t have them printed in the school magazine. I’d die.’

  ‘Don’t worry.’ Rex laughed. ‘Nobody else will see them, I promise.’

  ‘Oh we have to put them in our restrict galleries on Facelink, we have to!’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Noooooooo,’ Maggie pleaded.

  ‘Oh come on, it will only be our trusted friends who get to see them.’

  Maggie wanted to please both Rex and Vanessa so reluctantly agreed. ‘Ok… I guess.’

  Vanessa jumped down from the bonnet of the car. ‘Let’s ride, Dollbaby.’

  Maggie couldn’t help but feel a thrill at being in such a car. She sat in the back seat with Nadia and peered out onto the road as they drove by, turning almost every head.

  ‘You sure know how to get noticed, Rex,’ Nadia said.

  ‘I’m not worried about that. I just wanted to have a really cool car.’

  ‘I’ll be lucky if my mum buys me a Toyota.’

  ‘My mum would probably never buy me a car at all,’ Maggie said. ‘She’d be worried I might crash it. Hey, Holly’s coming, right?’

  ‘Yep,’ Rex said.

  ‘And Mav?’

  ‘Him too.’

  ‘That’s gonna be awkward,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Why is that?’ asked Nadia.

  ‘They used to be a couple, but they split up. This will be the first activity we’ve done as a group that will have them both there.’

  ‘Oh no, is there bad blood between them?’

  ‘No. Not really. Just a lot of pain.’

  ‘So sad.’

  ‘Yeah. Amazing they still hang out in the same circle of friends.’

  ‘Just as well Chelsea isn’t going to be there,’ Maggie said. ‘Otherwise that would be triple the awkwardness.’

  ‘Why,’ asked Nadia. ‘How does she fit in?’

  ‘She kind of had an affair with Mav.’

  ‘Kind of?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘No wonder they split then. If I was her I’d be furious with him. I wouldn’t want to ever see his face again.’

  ‘Why isn’t Chelsea coming, Rex?’ Vanessa asked.

  ‘For that very reason. She doesn’t want to have to see the both of them.’

  ‘She hasn’t even been hanging out with us at school,’ Maggie said.

  ‘Yeah, she’s feeling so bad about it all and feels that if she’s around she’ll just cause more troubles for Mav and Holly.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Nadia said. ‘Maybe if they learnt to share, right Vanessa?’

  Vanessa laughed. ‘Yeah huh, maybe.’

  Around half an hour later they arrived at the Aquatic Centre in New Plymouth. It was a huge domed building with indoor and outdoor pools. The outdoor pools and hydro slides were closed at this time of the year, but the heated indoor wave pool was always popular throughout the entire year. Maggie was very pleased as it would mean she’d get to see Rex in a swimsuit again and she loved that. As far as she was concerned, he was an Adonis.

  She pushed thoughts of Rex’s muscular chest out of the way though when she saw Shawn awaiting them, along with a group of their friends. All eyes popped out of their heads when they saw Rex’s new car. Maggie ignored all the questions that came flying at Rex and ran over to Shawn and hugged him.

  Shawn didn’t stay in the hug long because he too seemed keen to get a closer look at the car. ‘Whoa, baby! That’s nice.’

  Maggie came up beside him, eager to introduce him to her friends. ‘Hey, everybody, this is Shawn.’

  Shawn stepped up to Vanessa and smiled. ‘Hello again. This is some car.’

  ‘Yeah huh, it belongs to Rex. Rexy, say hi to Maggie’s boyfriend, Shawn.’

  Rex stepped over and extended his hand. Shawn hesitated at first and eyed him coldly, but then shook.

  ‘Ready to hit the indoor surf?’ Rex asked.

  ‘Yeah. It’ll be cool.’ His eyes didn’t meet Rex’s though as they were transfixed on Vanessa.

  ‘Not that the waves ever get big enough in there.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Mav said. ‘You’d also have problems with people stealing your waves and risk conking a lot of heads with your surfboard.’

  ‘Did someone bring their surfboard?’ Maggie asked.

  ‘Yeah, me. Should be cool.’

  ‘Mav! Are you serious?’

  ‘Yes.’

  She laughed. ‘You’re nuts, you know that?’

  ‘Well, they do say you are what you eat... All though I hate peanuts, so I guess that saying is about as rational as a cricketing batsman taking a sweep shot at a bouncer.’ He chuckled. ‘Actually no, I was only joking about the surfboard. I brought a jet ski instead.’

  Maggie introduced Shawn around to a few more people. ‘This is Jacqui. She’s the one who helped me get settled in to Te Arawa College.’

  ‘Helped you?’ the tall brunette said. ‘As far as I can remember, Margaret, you were hanging around pestering me all the time, thanks to Ms Groucher the senior mistress. Oh, no, look who’s here. Pete Cook. Why did that loser have to come?’

  Pete stepped up to some of the guys with a smile on his face and started talking to them.

  ‘Ah, he’s not so bad,’ Maggie said.

  ‘He’s an idiot! He cramps our style whenever he’s around.’

  ‘You should be used to him by now.’ Holly stepped up with Jaspy beside her.

  ‘I’ll never get used to him.’

  ‘He’s a hard case,’ Maggie said.

  ‘He’s a total dork!’ Jacqui growled. ‘There must be something wrong if you can’t see that. Holly, he’s a dork, isn’t he?’

  'He is a bit of a Wally I guess.’

  ‘You bet your bottom dollar he is.’

  Holly laughed. ‘Ah, the things we have to put u
p with just to be around Rex, eh?’

  ‘It’s worth it though.’

  ‘Hey girls, talking about me?’ Wal stepped up, with another couple of guys beside them. One of them was Rog Shepherd, better known as Sheep.

  ‘Now why would he think that?’ Holly asked. ‘Oh, of course, we were all laughing. He’s… you know… obviously getting used to being a laughing stock. You’re becoming observant in your old age, Wal.’

  ‘Well it’s nice to know that you’re all obsessed with me anyway.’ Wal winked. ‘You obviously can’t get me out of your minds.’

  ‘Dream on, Ullman!’ scowled Jacqui. ‘The only time we think about you is when we’re fantasising about wringing your neck!’

  ‘Or any other lethal form of torture,’ Holly added.

  Maggie turned her head to Shawn. His body was turned and he gazed in the direction of the car.

  ‘Sure is something, isn’t she?’ Maggie asked.

  ‘Huh? What?’ He spun his head around. ‘Who?’

  ‘The car!’

  ‘Oh, yeah. Right. The car. Yep, she’s a beauty alright. I just can’t believe how hot she is.’ He smirked.

  ‘I know. I can’t believe I’ve just been for a drive in it.’

  ‘Oh yeah, I’d like to drive that baby myself.’

  ‘Hey guys!’ Pete said, wandering up to their group. ‘We’re all here!’

  Sheep snickered. ‘Give the guy a knighthood for his spectacular powers of observation.’

  ‘No, don’t do that,’ Mav intervened. ‘That wouldn’t mean a thing. Any old Joe Bloggs can get a knighthood these days.’

  ‘Oh yeah?’

  ‘Of course. Modern society has completely forgotten what being a knight is all about. A knight is supposed to be someone who goes out to battle to fight for his king and country. He was knighted for acts of heroism and great deeds in battle. To call some of our modern day knights, knights is a complete insult to those from medieval times. There used to be certain standards. In them days, knights were usually young and in their prime, but now it’s generally a prerequisite that they be old and of no further use to society. Bards would never have even been considered for a knighthood back then, but now they’re giving them to pop stars. Sir Mark Todd might have been up there with the best of them when it came to equestrian skills, but then again he’s never had an enemy charging at him with a lance, has he? And Sir Richard Hadlee might have been pretty handy with a cricket bat in his hand, but how long would he last if it was replaced by a sword? Funnily enough, knights today have to act cultured and live up to a certain image. Sir Richard once said that if he went into a pub he was expected to order a G & T rather than a beer. Somehow I couldn’t imagine that olden day’s knights would have drunk anything but ale and it wouldn’t have been in a crystal wineglass. As much as I respect Sir Richard, I think this knighthood thing has become a complete farce.’

  ‘Gee, who cares?’ Jacqui said in an irritable manner. ‘We’re not going to stand around here all day talking about the Knights of the Round Table are we? Let’s go have some fun.’

  ‘Hey, I could do a whole stand up routine on that subject if you like.’

  ‘I’ll give that a miss.’

  ‘Yeah, well, it would probably be about as much fun as pulling out your own teeth with a pair of pliers.’

  Jacqui rolled her eyes. ‘Someone should use pliers to remove your brain, that’s what they should do. And replace it with a new one.

  ‘No that’s already been tried I’m afraid. Unfortunately the new one was worse than the first.’

  They all headed into the pools and soon after Maggie swam around in the warm water. She managed to get hold of a floating mat and paddled over to where some of her friends were. ‘Anyone seen Shawn?’

  ‘Yeah, he’s over there talking to Rex, Vanessa and Nadia.’ Holly pointed to them. They were in the deep end holding onto some ropes. Jaspy hovered a few meters away watching them intently. Maggie couldn’t help but laugh. The poor girl was besotted with Rex, but then again it seemed that was the state of most of the girls in school.

  ‘Oh, my God!’ Jacqui said. ‘Look who’s here. Ruddy Tucker Pyles.’

  ‘Oh great,’ Holly said. ‘As if we don’t see enough of him at school.’

  ‘Just our luck he had to be here the day we were,’ added Maggie.

  ‘Makes me wonder whether he found out somehow,’ Holly said. ‘He has a habit of… you know… turning up uninvited to our social events.’

  ‘I’m going over to Shawn,’ announced Maggie and paddled over to them. ‘Hey Shawn! Wanna share a mat with me?’

  ‘Nah, it’s ok,’ Shawn said. ‘Happy just to stay here for a while.’ He turned back to Vanessa. ‘So how long have you been living in Te Arawa?’

  ‘Only since the beginning of the year.’

  Nadia cuddled up into Rex. Maggie couldn’t help but notice that Vanessa kept glancing at them. Perhaps it bothered her that her sister was so friendly with Rex? Maggie knew that if she was in Vanessa’s situation she would be.

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want to come out on the mat with me?’ Maggie asked, thinking it might be best to take Shawn away so that Vanessa could go back to her man.

  ‘No!’ Shawn snapped. ‘I’m happy here at the moment, just talking.’

  Maggie was taken back by his harsh reply. It had never been like that with him before as he was normally eager to spend time with her. She began to wonder if perhaps she had said something to annoy him.

  Vanessa glanced back at Nadia and Rex again. Nadia was nibbling on his ear.

  ‘I thought he was your boyfriend,’ Shawn said.

  ‘He is,’ Vanessa replied.

  ‘You don’t mind your sister doing that do him?’

  Vanessa hesitated for a moment before replying. ‘Just as long as I get to do it later.’ She smiled.

  Shawn laughed. ‘You like to share, do you?’

  ‘It depends who I’m sharing with.’

  He laughed again and shook his head. ‘Man, Maggie, your friend is alright.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ Maggie thought. ‘If only you know just how alright she was.’