Jealousy at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

Two days later and Maggie arrived at school feeling heavy hearted, but at the same time some relief. When she met Vanessa though, she couldn’t help but feel a lot better at seeing her glorious smile.

  ‘Maggs, how you doing?’

  ‘Great, now that I’ve seen you.’

  Vanessa laughed. ‘Hey, Maggs, something’s wrong isn’t it? You seemed fine when I spoke to you on the phone last night.’

  ‘Shawn turned up again after that.’

  ‘Oh no.’

  ‘Said he was sorry.’

  ‘Well that’s good, right?’

  ‘At first I thought so.’ Maggie sighed. ‘Then he started going on about how hot it was, what you and I were doing when he walked in on us.’

  ‘Wow, that’s a turnabout.’

  ‘I told him to get lost.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘He’s two-faced. That’s what he is. I figure that the main reason he thought it was so hot was because you were involved. I told him we were finished.’

  ‘Alright, Maggie!’ Vanessa slapped her on the back. ‘You so did the right thing.’

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘Yeah huh. He’s a creep. You can do so much better than that jerk.’

  ‘Yeah…’ Maggie laughed. ‘He was a jerk, wasn’t he?’

  ‘Most definitely!’

  The two made their way to the locker block and met up with Holly. Maggie definitely felt better now, having a friend’s seal approval on her dumping of Shawn. It actually made her smile.

  ‘Hey, Holly, guess what,’ Vanessa said. ‘Maggie’s dumped Shawn.’

  ‘Sweet! Good for her.’

  ‘I can go on the prowl, now,’ Maggie said. ‘Hunt for a new guy.’

  ‘Ooh la la!’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Who shall I chase, Ness?’

  ‘Maybe Wal?’

  ‘Not likely!’

  ‘Pete?’ suggested Holly.

  ‘Ummmm, nah, I’ll pass.’

  ‘Ginge!’ said Vanessa.

  ‘Jacqui already hates me enough as it is. She’ll hate me even more if I go after him. Hey, I know, maybe I won’t look for a guy. Maybe I’ll look for a girl.’

  ‘Why not? That's what I'd be doing.’

  ‘I know. Hey, would you be interested? I’d love to be able to write Matthews vs Danté on desks and toilet walls.’ She burst out laughing. ‘Only kidding.’

  ‘Tempting offer though.’

  ‘Hey, what’s this all about?’ Holly gave both of them a questioning glance. ‘Am I missing something here?’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Vanessa laughed.

  Holly’s eyes appeared glazed. ‘If you say so.’

  ‘No,’ Maggie said. ‘If I’m hunting for a new love, it’s definitely gotta be a guy.’

  ‘Hey, babe!’ Dwayne Davidson sidled up next to her. ‘If you’re looking for a new guy, I’m your man.’

  Maggie pulled to a halt, spun around and faced him. ‘Don’t you ever give up? You are unbelievable! When you are going to get it through your thick head that I’m not interested?’

  ‘Yah, come on babe, you know you want me.’

  Vanessa stepped up to him and jabbed her finger into his chest. ‘Davidson! I’ve heard all about how you’ve been hassling Maggie recently.’ Her face darkened. ‘She’s told you already to lay off! Now I’m telling you as Maggie’s friend that if you don’t get your annoying ugly face out of her sight and stay the hell out of it, you’re gonna have to deal with me. You got that?’

  Maggie figured that Dwayne would just laugh the threat off, but was quite surprised to see Dwayne’s face pale and his eyes widen. ‘Sorry,’ he muttered.

  ‘Don’t apologise to me. Apologise to Maggie. She should never have to put up with such a jerk bugging her all the time, don’t you agree?’

  Dwayne turned his eyes to Maggie. ‘S…sorry Maggie.’

  ‘Now kiss her shoes!’ Vanessa ordered.

  Maggie laughed. ‘What?’ She thought here was no way that Dwayne would ever obey that command, however he quickly got down on the ground and kissed her shoe. Maggie could only stare, flabbergasted.

  ‘Oh my gosh!’ Holly stared.

  ‘Now sod off,’ Vanessa said.

  Dwayne leapt to his feet and hurried away.

  ‘My God…’ Maggie stared. ‘I can’t believe that. He’s terrified of you.’

  Vanessa laughed. ‘Nuh uh. He’s not terrified of me. He’s terrified of Rex. Rexy nearly cracked his skull a couple of months back after he started spreading false stories about himself getting it on with me. Now he’s afraid to even talk to me in case he riles up Rex.’

  ‘Sweet!’ Holly said.

  Maggie shook her head and laughed. ‘That is so cool. That’s one way to keep annoying jerks off your back I suppose. Have a boyfriend who scares the bejesus out of people.’

  ‘It definitely has its advantages, that’s for sure. He won’t be bothering you again.’

  ‘Speaking of Sexy Rexy, here he comes.’ Maggie pointed him out as he made his way over to them.

  ‘Dollbaby,’ Vanessa greeted him by jumping on him, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him on the lips. ‘How is the hunkiest guy in the world this morning?’

  ‘I don’t know, I don’t believe I’ve ever met him.’

  She laughed. ‘Too modest. So I hear Reverend Flanders is back?’

  ‘Unfortunately yes. Good thing he changed his story, otherwise he probably wouldn’t be. Katy has left him.’

  ‘Good for her,’ Vanessa said. ‘Hey, I notice that Jaspy hasn’t been hanging around anymore.’

  ‘No, she hasn’t. I guess she gave up.’

  Vanessa ran her fingers through her hair and smiled.

  ‘Ah, now I know that look,’ Rex said. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘Well… It was that day I left the school upset. I kind of let her have it and told her to stay away from you or else. I feel really awful because I was really harsh.’

  Rex grinned. ‘Well it seemed to do the trick. So thanks.’

  Her eyes sparkled. ‘You’re welcome.’

  ‘Ha ha. I love it,’ Holly said. ‘Rex scares the creeps for Vanessa and Vanessa scares the stalker chicks for Rex.’

  ‘That’s one of the million reasons we’re so perfect for each other.’ Vanessa beamed.

  Maggie spoke up, ‘Seems like we’ve sorted out a lot of people this week. I think the best thing is that Nadia’s no longer with us.’

  Vanessa sighed. ‘That’s the one thing that bugs me out of all this. A sister I never knew I had, turns up out of the blue. She was so cool at first, but then she did what she did. But still, I kind of feel sorry for her because she was never as fortunate as me.’

  ‘Now she’s gone back to live with he mother, right?’ Holly asked.

  ‘Yes. I don’t expect I’ll be seeing her again.’

  ‘Probably a good thing. Now all you have to do is teach Tucker Pyles a lesson, right?’

  Vanessa smirked. ‘Already have. Last night.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I set Tucker up on a mystery date.’

  ‘What sort of mystery date?’

  ‘I invited Cheeky Cherry to dinner in New Plymouth. He went there last night and Rex and I got some great pictures of him with his dream date. As we speak, we’ve got Wal going around the school pinning them up around the locker blocks. Tucker is going to be so humiliated, he’ll never ever dream of pretending to be someone he’s not, ever again.’

  Holly giggled. ‘I’ve gotta see one of those pictures.’