Gone Phishing

by Bowes, K T

  “It broke us,” Calli repeated in her mind’s eye, face serious and the warning filled with the taste of bitter experience. “Don’t do it.”

  Chapter 10

  Loneliness

  “Oh, crap!” Sophia slipped her feet out of her trainers, arriving home too late to do an assignment and muttering to herself.

  “What’s wrong?” Edgar sat on the top step, watching her face with uncharacteristic intensity. Sophia jumped, not expecting him to be there.

  She shook her head. “Oh, nothing important. I forgot to tell Calli about her kid brother and sister last night. I’ll do it tomorrow.” She sat on the bottom step, anticipating their promised chat about moving and wondering how to change his mind without telling him she knew the truth.

  “What about them? What’s up with the kids?” Edgar scratched his fingers through his hair and left dark spikes sticking upright. Sophia’s eyes narrowed as she saw him as other women might, rugged, handsome and available. She chided herself for never noticing before. She climbed eight steps and sat on the one below him, leaning her back against the wall and viewing him sideways.

  “They didn’t go to school yesterday. I think her mum’s sick again and her dad’s not coping.”

  “Poor bugger.” Edgar’s eyes flicked to the stair carpet and he sighed. “I dunno what’s worse, your wife leaving you physically or just in her head.”

  Sophia cocked her head and put her hand on his knee. “You’re gorgeous, Dad,” she said, her voice low and sincere. “You’ll meet someone else one day and she’ll appreciate everything about you. She’ll ride on the back of your Harley and enjoy having to eat her cornflakes around bits of motorbike on the dining table.”

  Edgar wrinkled his nose. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve ordered some spark plugs for the Harley. I can chuck those parts out when the new ones arrive. It’s time for a tidy around, anyway; I need you to straighten your room before school tomorrow.”

  “I don’t care about bike parts and mess, Dad.” She reached for his fingers, gratified when he gripped hold of them. “Please don’t move to Palmy; you know I can’t come.”

  Edgar closed his eyes and when he opened them, hard resolve sparkled in his irises. He set his jaw and Sophia felt his volitional mind harden against her. “I’ve landed a good job and I’m going,” he said.

  “When did you visit Palmy?” Sophia demanded. “You haven’t even gone for an interview.”

  “It happened over the phone and email.” Edgar swallowed. “I sent my CV to a few garages months ago and the owner wrote back and said I’m a good fit. I’ll sell this place and rid myself of the loan I took out to buy Sal’s half, then I’ll start again.”

  “You’re selling the house.” Sophia snatched her hand away. “Why do you need to do that?”

  Edgar sighed. “There’s an option to buy into this garage if I like it. I can be a business owner instead of a monkey for once. That’s why Sal left me; she said I had no ambition.”

  Sophia swallowed and her throat still felt dry. “You’re gonna commit everything you have to a business you don’t know and people you’ve never met?”

  “Yeah.” Edgar rose and straightened his trousers as though brushing off Sophia’s fingerprints. “You gotta speculate to accumulate. Don’t forget to tidy your room before tomorrow. It’s important.”

  “No. My room’s how I want it; I know where everything is. Dad, please don’t do this?” Sophia stood up, hearing herself beg and watching Edgar’s face harden.

  “You can come with me,” he said, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “Or not. The choice is yours.”

  “That’s not a choice,” Sophia cried, her voice cracking and the tendons standing out on her neck. “That’s not a choice!”

  Chapter 11

  Love and Rugby

  “He said he’s leaving; Edgar’s moving to Palmerston North.” Sophia leaned her back against the locker and kept her voice low. Dane moved closer to hear, watching her lips with intensity. She shook her head. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Dane glanced behind her and waited while a group of younger students moved past. Sophia’s status as head girl made her a prime target for them, as though she wore a sign around her neck declaring her public property. Two slight girls smiled and waved, stopping in concern at the distress on Sophia’s face. She composed herself long enough to wave back and give a fortifying smile. “Will you be at reading club today?” one asked and she nodded.

  “Yep, sure,” she replied, the effort of looking composed costing her. The girls allowed their eyes to stray to the imposing male at her side, looking Dane over as a farmer would a prized cow. He dwarfed them in height and muscle and they whispered, hiding covetous lips behind their hands and ogling the beautiful specimen of masculinity.

  “He’s hot,” a girl behind them hissed and Dane looked down and bit his lip. Sophia’s brows knitted and she darted a glance his way, looking for any sign of pleasure at their hero worship. “Do you think he’s her boyfriend?” the same girl asked and caught up to the first two, whispering between their bowed heads.

  “At least if I go with Edgar, you’ll have ready replacements.” Sophia slammed her locker door closed and whirled away. Dane didn’t follow but when she glanced back their eyes met, his steady and serious and hers filling with tears.

  “Hey.” Calli joined her in biology and the girls sat together working on a shared assignment. Sophia used the tongs to part a defrosted rat from its innards and Calli made notes. As the teacher returned to the front of the class and seated himself at a wide desk, Calli lowered her voice and stopped reciting details about intestines and bowel contents. “What’s up?”

  Sophia shook her head and lost concentration. A piece of partially frozen rat liver pinged from the scalpel in her hand and shot forward, landing in another student’s bag. She swore and Calli snorted. “Do I say something?” Sophia hissed and Calli shrugged.

  “Whose was it?”

  “Leighton’s,” Sophia replied, peering at the familiar bag next to the bench filled with raucous boys. Testosterone dictated the results of their anatomy study even before the rat appeared on the table, pinned to its board like a sacrifice. Plans for a drunken Saturday night over-talked the teacher’s directions and they chopped at the body with neither regard nor direction. One boy made an intestinal jigsaw on the wooden board while another nicked the bowel sack and released an oozing mess of remnant faeces and defrosting rat water.

  Calli shook her head. “Leave it.” She grinned. “His bag will stink in a few days and cramp his style. That poor girl in Year 12 he’s been stalking will smell him sneaking up on her.”

  Sophia bit her bottom lip and laid the scalpel on the board. “Edgar’s planning to go to Palmy whether I’m with him or not. He made it clear last night.” She swallowed and collected herself, shoving her emotions deeper inside her battered soul. “And I just bit poor Dane’s head off because a Year 9 called him hot.”

  Calli nodded. “You’re second guessing yourself.” She turned an attractive face in Sophia’s direction, her gaze forthright and sincere. “You feel powerless and whichever scenario you play out in your head, you and Dane are finished. If you pick a fight with him and break up, your subconscious tells you it will be less painful when you leave.”

  Sophia’s jaw hung slack and a pain began in her heart and radiated out across her chest. Chewing on her bottom lip to distract her from the brewing sob, Sophia tasted blood and turned away. Calli’s expression held sympathy and she nudged Sophia’s shoulder with hers. “Popplewell’s coming back. Grab the ruler and measure the intestines, quick!”

  Grant Popplewell’s eyes bugged like saucers as he observed the rat mess on the boys’ table. “Bloody hell!” he exclaimed. “Did I tell you to butcher the poor thing? No! This was dissection experience, not a post mortem.” He cuffed Leighton around the back of the head with a giant hand and the boy ducked, ensuring the jigsaw maker took the full force. “Clean it up!” the teacher yelle
d. “Then you can write my assistant a letter explaining why we can’t reassemble that rat and use it for the other class. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.”

  “You’re not allowed to hit us!” Leighton complained under his breath. The teacher turned back towards him and leaned in close.

  “No. And I’m not meant to flunk you completely either. Watch me.”

  Calli and Sophia took the hint and worked for the rest of the lesson, measuring, inspecting and then replacing the organs back inside the tiny cadaver. They cleared up their work space and readied themselves to leave as the bell rang for lunchtime. Calli slung her bag over her shoulder. “Wanna come and watch Declan practice?” she asked, tossing her ponytail behind her.

  Sophia nodded and they wandered out to the rugby pitch, seeing the squad already there in the distance. “What are they doing?” Sophia asked, aghast as groups of three boys formed pyramids and projected the uppermost player into the air.

  “Working on their lifts,” Calli answered and when they reached the sideline, collapsed onto the warm grass with a sigh. “This weather’s gorgeous.” She flopped backwards and lay on the grass, eyes closed and her forearm shading her eyes.

  “Harris!” The coach yelled close by and Sophia jumped. A sports teacher pointed towards Declan who lay sprawled on the grass face down. “Stop watching the chicks and do your job!” the coach yelled and Declan flushed pink to the roots of his hair. Two team mates picked him up and waited while he dusted himself down. Sophia snorted.

  “Declan just face planted,” she sniggered. “I think you distracted him; did you realise you flashed your knickers when you laid down?”

  “No.” Calli scooped her skirt between her legs like a diaper and cursed. “Great. Now the first fifteen knows what my undies look like.”

  “Only Declan. The other two threw him up into the air and he splatted on the grass.”

  Calli mustered a laugh and turned on her side. “What will you do, Soph? Is your dad serious about shifting south?”

  “He seems it.” Calli sighed. “He said I’ve got two choices; go with him or don’t go.”

  “Can you stay here? Do you have family or someone you could board with for the rest of this year?”

  Sophia shrugged. “My mother lives quite close, but I’d rather sleep under a bridge. Uncle Bob would’ve taken me in but he lets Dane board with him and I know he’d struggle with both of us living with him.”

  Calli nodded. “Is he like Dec’s mum; over-protective and super involved?”

  “No, not at all. But he’s a busy lawyer with big cases in the crown court and won’t have time to make sure I’m not sneaking into Dane’s bed while he’s out. Aunty Ellen volunteers with refugees and doesn’t work to a schedule. It just opens up a world of problems for them and I’m afraid they’ll ask Dane to leave.”

  “Why would they do that?” Calli turned her dark eyes on Sophia, brow knitted in confusion.

  “They’re my Godparents.”

  “Oh.” Calli winced. “And Dane doesn’t have an alternative but you at least have your mum.”

  Sophia nodded. “Only I don’t have my mum. When I refused to see her she withdrew any financial assistance as a penalty. Edgar bought out her half of our house with a loan so we could stay there, but it’s been really hard to survive. I work casual shifts at a cafe in Rototuna so I can pay my way but Dad’s drowning in debt. He said she’s waiting for me to cave in and beg for help.”

  Calli shaded her eyes against the sun. “You can’t then. Geez, what will you do?”

  “No idea.” Sophia pursed her lips. “When I reach eighteen, there’s an allowance for still being in school but that’s months away.”

  “You could disenfranchise yourself.” Calli shifted in discomfort. “Disassociate yourself from both parents and declare yourself a ward of state.”

  “Dane mentioned that. He didn’t think it would be possible? How do I make that happen?”

  “Talk to Child, Youth and Family Services. But your parents need to agree not to help you and sign away responsibility to the care system. Would they do that?”

  The hope in Sophia’s eyes faded. “No. One or other is bound to insist I go with them. Like Dane said, I can’t win.”

  Calli nodded. “It feels that way.”

  Sophia felt the question bud on her tongue, curiosity making her want to ask how Calli lived in state care when her parents lived in a nice house with two other children. Something stopped her; perhaps the pain in the other girl’s face. Then she remembered. “Oh, I saw Sadie yesterday, playing outside with Jason. They weren’t at school.” She winced at the look of fear on Calli’s face.

  “Did you talk to them?” Her voice sounded stilted.

  Sophia nodded. “Yes. The excuses sounded lame but your dad arrived home and followed them indoors. It might be nothing but Sadie asked me to tell you that Mummy was crying and eating pills again.”

  “Thank you.” Calli’s voice dropped to a low hush. “I’ll visit this week; maybe take Allen with me.” Avoiding the root of her own agony, Calli focussed on Sophia’s. “How will you work all this out? Do you have a plan?”

  Sophia shook her head. “Dane said he’ll sort it for me.” She chewed her lip. “I’m not sure what that means.”

  Calli turned away and closed her eyes, dropping her voice to a lazy murmur. “That means he’s organising a hit on your dad.”

  Sophia’s eyes widened and she looked appalled. “He wouldn’t, would he?”

  Her friend sniggered and shrugged. “Dunno. Does he still associate with any of his stepfather’s cronies?”

  “I’m not sure.” Sophia gnawed on her lower lip and her heart sank lower. Dane’s dubious past hovered above her head throwing unpleasant possibilities within range and she pushed them away. “He’d need to pay them and he’s broke, like me.”

  Calli nodded. “Figures.”

  The sound of grunting and the vibration of bones hitting the ground came to the girls and they looked across at the rugby squad. Declan lay beneath a pile of bodies groaning. The coach stormed across, looked, shouted and then made a bee line for Calli and Sophia. “Don’t come near my bloody training sessions again!” he yelled.

  “What are we doing wrong?” Calli jumped to her feet and faced the man, her eyes flashing with anger. Sophia scrambled up and stood next to the other girl.

  “We didn’t do anything,” she said, glancing across at the testosterone fuelled pile to see Declan being extricated by his arms.

  “You turn my team captain into a pussy!” the coach screamed into Calli’s face. He jabbed his arm backwards towards the boy sitting on the grass with his head between his knees. “He can’t concentrate with you here. Go away!” The irate man jabbed the air with a sharp finger to punctuate his sentence and strode back to the group. “Again!” he screeched. “And no more looking over there!”

  The girls retrieved their bags and turned their backs on the boys, strolling towards the school. “It’s nearly time for class anyway,” Calli sighed. “I’m starving.”

  “Do you want to go to the cafeteria?” Sophia asked and the other girl shook her head.

  “No money.”

  “Me neither.” Sophia sighed. “And I forgot to bring lunch because of my argument with Edgar.”

  “I ate mine at interval.” A small smile played on Calli’s lips. “Alison’s crippled with the MS and yet she still makes my sandwiches every morning.”

  “That’s so gorgeous.” Sophia sounded wistful and Calli caught the jealousy in her voice, touching her lightly on the arm in response.

  She nodded. “Every day she gives me cheese because I once told her how much I liked it.” Her face creased in agony. “After she’s gone I’ll never eat cheese again. It’ll be too painful.”

  Sophia’s brow creased with compassion and she took Calli’s arm. The girls wandered to Sophia’s next class and Calli sat on the deck with her until the teacher arrived to unlock. “Physics now,” she said, picking up her bag
as the bell rang. “See you in English.”

  Sophia nodded and stood to follow the elderly teacher into the history classroom, stopping as a strange expression crossed her face. Calli watched the smile break out and waited. “You know what?” Sophia said, her eyes mischievous. “That coach just told you something and you missed it.”

  “What? To never go near his rugby boys again?” Calli’s lips curled back in a defiant snarl.

  Sophia shook her head, the smile brighter than she’d shown in days. “No. He told you that even rugby can’t compete against you in Declan’s affections.” She waved her arms. “Rugby is everything to Declan. That means he’s in love with you, Cal. And he’s got it bad.”

  Chapter 12

  Children Don’t Bounce

  Dane reappeared to walk Sophia to English but as usual, couldn’t behave conventionally like other semi-adults. Sophia gasped as he grabbed her from behind and swung her into a broom cupboard, closing the door behind them and shooting the catch to lock it. Crushed against his hard chest she sighed as his arms wrapped around her. “This should be locked,” she said, catching her breath.

  “Who said it wasn’t?” Dane bit her neck and she giggled. “I’ve got skills you don’t know about.”

  “Where did you go?” she whispered, tilting her head back to read his face in the dim light. “You disappeared before interval.”

  “Sorting some stuff out.” Dane chewed his lower lip and then bent his head, pressing soft lips against Sophia’s. She closed her eyes and let his confidence wash over her.

  “Are you trying to get me expelled?” she murmured between kisses, studying the vibrant blue eyes behind stunning dark eyelashes. “I can see the wording on the stand-down sheet now. Head girl caught necking in broom cupboard with hot, male student.”

  “At least I’m the opposite sex.” Dane smiled and a dimple appeared in his right cheek. “They might be grateful; I’m sure they’ve discovered worse.”