The Mad Scorpion

33.
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I have something completely different for you this week. In an effort to salvage my Dark Valley tv series idea, I have tried turning it into a... we'll say Story for now, but The Beginning Of A Novel would be the desired result.

Here is the first 5000 words

Enjoy

Here's to Friendship.

P.s.

For those of you who read this yesterday;

For those of you that noticed certain characters were named after you;

In the interest of artisanship;

And in fairness to changing everybody's name and not just a few -

I have drafted new names for my characters.

If you didn't mind me using your name, and you don't like the one I've replaced it with, let me know and we'll talk.

CHAPTER ONE:

.

“HAVE A GOOD DAY BACK AT SCHOOL!”

.

Baxter Black opened his eyes. And groaned. The holidays were officially over – today was Monday and it was time to go back to school. A prospect Baxter was not at all enthused by.

His mother, who’s banging on the bedroom door had woken him, was saying “Bax! Wakey wakey, school today!”
“I’m up, I’m up” He called in response, forcing himself to roll out of bed.

As he pulled back the curtains the weather offered no escape from his mood – it was as gray and bleak out there as he felt.

“Great.” He muttered to himself.

As he stood there staring at the weather, a fantail suddenly came to rest on his windowsill.

"Huh." said Baxter. "Hello birdie."

The fantail cocked his head at him.

"Baxter!" called his mother again.

"I'M UP!" he called back, and when he turned back to the window the fantail had gone.

Baxter showered, got into his uniform, ate his breakfast, got his books ready... It all started as any other normal school day would.

But little did he know that today would be far from normal.

*

Baxter and his mother Carol drove the old country road to Riverton in relative silence. Baxter being 16, there wasn’t a lot of flowing conversations on these routine drives to school. He didn’t feel like he could talk to his mother about much these days anyway… He mostly just liked to look out at the fields and the mountains, though today they were shrouded in cloud and fog.

Fern Valley, the valley in which Baxter was born and bred, was one of the most dreary and dismal places to live in the whole country. It was pretty, with its rolling farmlands that spread to the coast, but it was also at the bottom, and on the sunless side, of Black Mountain, and the mountain kept the valley in an almost eternal shadow. The weather was overcast 99% of the time anyway – you could count on both hands the number of sunny days Fern Valley saw in a year. Baxter often wondered why people lived in this place at all, and fantasised about the day he could leave this place. He couldn’t wait to get out of here, and dreamed about the day he’d be living in a big city like London, or New York...

Baxter had been fascinated with New York ever since he'd learned that that’s where Madonna had started out. Baxter was a Madonna fanatic – it didn’t earn him cool points, but he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, Madonna was the shit. He couldn’t wait to go to vibrant and creative New York one day, and follow in her footsteps…But for now, he was trapped in a depressing, gray little hole, where people’s minds were simple, and closed, and prejudiced, and racist, and classist, and moralistic, and stoopid…

Even though he was born and raised in the valley, Baxter did not feel at home here. Nor, to Baxter’s mind, did Fern Valley feel it was Baxter’s home. To Baxter, the place had been screaming at him to Get Out since he was 5.

Yes, indeedy, Baxter couldn’t wait ‘til he was old enough to flee this dark valley.

Right now though, it was back to school. Baxter sighed at the thought of it.

“Alright?” asked Carol.

“Mmm. Just… looking forward to another exciting day at school!” he quipped.

Carol rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything else. Baxter was thankful – a speech about knuckling down was the last thing he was in the mood for.

The car was quiet, bar the radio, for the rest of the trip, and soon they were pulling up to the corner of Isabelle’s street.

“Seeya later!” said Carol cheerily. “Have a good day back at school!”

“Oh I’m sure I will Mother.” Said Baxter flatly as he got out of the car.

“Kiss!” said Carol, sticking her cheek out.

God, thought Baxter wearily as he obliged her with a quick peck, praying none of the guys from school were around to witness this.

“Seeya.” He said, closing the door and flicking a half wave at his mother.

Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he made his way down the street to Isabelle’s house.

Isabelle was Baxter’s best friend, and they had known each other since they were at kindergarten. They were very close, like brother and sister – which also meant that, on occasion, they fought like brother and sister. Neither were inclined to hold back on the other if they felt the other needed a good arse kicking. But, for the majority of the time, Isabelle and Baxter got on like a house on fire and practically lived in each others pockets.…

At least, they used to. But ever since Isabelle had starting going out with Jared Miller four months ago, she had less and less spare time to spend with Baxter.

This bothered Baxter. A lot. Primarily because Jared despised Baxter, as most of the guys his age at school did. Baxter was a bit of an anomaly in this region, in that he was a male that didn’t play rugby, or build cars, or hang out with guys and talk about girls… Baxter hung out with the Girls, and was into Drama, and liked Madonna… Baxter, for all intentions and purposes, was, to the general male population of Fern Valley High, a Fag.

Jared and his best mate Jai Kahu – Jai was also the boyfriend of Baxter’s other good friend Raya – were just two of the many that were more than happy to apply the term Fag to Baxter. It was mostly shrugged off by him – he did, after all, have bigger things to deal with – but it certainly didn’t make life any funner.

Baxter felt more than a little ripped off that two of his best friends were now going out with two of his biggest bullies. Sure, they were both nice to Baxter in front of their girlfriends, but given an unseen chance, Jai and Jared were the first to kick Baxter in the guts. And once or twice, literally. But after some stern words from their girlfriends they had backed off a bit to keep the peace, though the tension still definitely hung around. It was pretty routine these days though for Baxter to ignore them, and them to ignore Baxter. This seemed to work for all parties involved.

It’s not as if Baxter wanted Izzy or Raya for himself, as he found it very hard to sexualise a girl if they were already his friend. And he did want them to be happy, which they seemed to be.

But in Baxter’s mind, and he knew the girls knew this deep down also, those boys were nowhere near good enough for his friends. They were arseholes, pure and simple, and he would relish the day his friends ditched them, and he thought about that day often. Thoughts usually accompanied with a dumb grin.

In the meantime Baxter took what little time he could get with them, and that included the walk to school. Baxter walked to school half of the time with Isabelle, but sometimes with other friends, like Kalista, or Kendall. He was looking forward to seeing Isabelle this morning though, as he hadn’t seen her much over these holidays.

As he knocked on the sliding door and slid it open, the usual O’Shale household chaos greeted him.Isabelle’s stepmother, Justine, was going about the morning routine, attending to the two girls Alice and Delaney, Izzy’s little half-sisters, themselves up to their elbows in a mess of breakfast.

“Good morning Justy!” Baxter chimed cheerily, ditching his car brood for a more family-friendly face.

“Morning Baxter!” said Justine. “Izzy’s in her room, go on through.”

Baxter pulled funny faces at the girls as he passed them and into the hallway, knocking on Isabelle’s door.

“Come in!” he heard her say. Baxter swung open the door to see Isabelle sitting on her floor mattress.

She was drying her wet, curly, matted red mop with a towel in one hand, and holding the phone to her ear on the other. Her face was kinda grim and so was her tone. Baxter was instantly unsettled.

“Uh huh… uh huh… Yeah, I know… No, come… It’ll be alright… Promise?... Ok, I’ll see you there, we’ll wait outside the gates for you… Ok… Love You… Byee.”

“Who was that?” Baxter asked as Izzy hung up the phone, knowing full well it was probably Jared.

“Cindy” said Isabelle.

“Oh.” Said Baxter. “Is she alright, what was that about?”

Isabelle looked up at him with a strange look on her face… was that worry? Or confusion?

“I’m not sure if I can tell you,” she said, then added as an afterthought “Though I guess… you’re gonna find out anyway.”

“What?” said Baxter, now kind of alarmed. “What’s going on?”

Isabelle sighed. “It’s Kate… She died yesterday.”

“Kate Taylor?” asked Baxter.

“Yeah.” Said Isabelle.

Baxter stood there in shock for a moment, his mouth agape… before he said the only thing he could think to say.

“FUCK!”

*

It was almost Christmas, 1981, and Baxter and Kate Taylor had been four years old when they’d first met. They had both been taken by their Grandparents to the Retired Servicemen’s Association Christmas show, and had found themselves sitting next to one another in the front. It was instant friendship, and the two had been thrilled to find themselves at school with each other two months later.

Their closeness however hadn’t lasted long, and their friendship became… intermittent.

It wasn’t that they didn’t like each other, it was just that they had both been pre-occupied with the problems they were having at home.

Kate had been adopted, and as soon as she could talk she was arguing with her adoptive parents. By the time she was 8 Kate had suddenly vanished from school, and Baxter learnt months later when he saw her on the street one day that she had been sent to boarding school. She then got expelled from said boarding school and was sent to another, far up north. She was then expelled from that boarding school too, and not long after, expelled from the Taylor family period and was put into foster care. All this by the time she was 11. From there Kate had pretty much been bounced from family to family, and even though she had been tentatively accepted into Fern Valley High last year, had stopped going to class long ago. She went out with Men, not guys her own age but Men. Men who seemed like mean bastards to Baxter, who hardly ever talked to Kate nicely, and who loved having a young girl to fuck, and yell at…

Every time Baxter talked to her over those broken years, the black rings under her eyes got another shade darker, her face a little less happier…

The last time Baxter had hung out with Kate was just a few months ago. He’d gotten to school late, having driven his own car that day – a navy blue Vauxhall Viva, affectionately dubbed Dolores The Vivasaurus – and was walking toward the school gates when he heard his name from across the road.

“Baxter!” He turned and saw a large SUV parked across the road, its window slightly down with a hand beckoning from the darkness. He crossed the road to investigate. Kate’s face grinned at him through the smoky air.

“Wanna puff?”Baxter did a quick scan to see if a teacher was around before jumping into the car.

“Hello Miss Taylor!” Baxter said. “I would Love one, Thanks!”

He took the joint from Kate and took a deep puff. Aaah, just the thing to kill the boredom of all the hours that lay ahead.

“What are you doing here anyway?” he asked her as he passed the joint back.

“Not a lot.” She said. “I’ve got the car ‘til Matt finishes work so I thought I’d go for a drive and sorta ended up here.”

“What, outside school? Don’t worry, you’re not missing much.” Said Baxter. Kate passed the joint back.

“Do you remember when we met?” she said, looking at Baxter with a cocked head.

“Sure do.” He said. “The RSA Christmas Show. And they sang that song that we used to sing at school as kids, remember?”

“That’s right.” She said, smiling. “That song, remember how it went?”

“Pfft, do I remember…” said Baxter sarcastically. And then in unison they’d both burst into song.

“Kiss me, Honey Honey, Kiss me,

Thrill me, Honey Honey, thrill me,

Don’t care even if I blow my top

But Honey Honey

–Uh huh? –

Don’t Stop!”

The pair of them then burst into laughter, and Baxter had a coughing fit from his smoke.

He’d then decided he’d better get into school, and they’d said their goodbyes…

Little had Baxter known then, that talking about the first time he’d met Kate, would also be the last time he would ever see her alive…

*

Baxter and Isabelle walked to school in relative silence. Baxter was dumbstruck. Isabelle was puffing her cigarette anxiously.

“O.k. Hit me.” Said Baxter. “How did it happen?”

“Well… No one’s really sure.”

“What do you mean, was she murdered or something?” gasped Baxter. This was horrible, THIS CHANGED EVERYTHING!

“Well No… not exactly.” Isabelle said.

“Izzy, you’re not making this easier, just spit it out.” Said Baxter.

“Well… she was drinking yesterday… with Jared. And Jai. And Raya.”

“Oh my god.” Said Baxter. “Where were they?”

“At Raya’s house.”

“Noooooooo.” Said Baxter, stunned. “She didn’t die at Raya’s house, did she?”

Isabelle nodded.

“Oh my god.” Said Baxter. “Her Mother. Is Going. To KILL her when she gets back!”

Isabelle nodded emphatically.

“So how did she…” Baxter couldn’t bring himself to say ‘die’.

“Well… she drank herself to death. They think.”

“What? They think? Who, the Cops think??”

“Yeah.”

Baxter shook his head. This was information overload. “Hold up, ok, start at the beginning.”

“Ok.” Said Isabelle, taking a deep breath. “Yesterday Raya, Jai, Jared, and Kate were hanging out at Jared’s. She’d gone round to score weed off Jai, and then they decided to get drunk. Kate bought a bottle of whiskey, they all went back round to Raya’s, and then Kate drank the whole thing in three gulps... And then she was wasted. Apparently she was tryna walk and kept smacking her head into the wall and shit.”

Isabelle stopped to take a quick drag on her cigarette, making sure no cars were driving past that might contain a teacher, spitting into the gutter.

“Umm, so then she was wasted and Jared and Jai put her into the bathtub. They were checking on her every now and then, but then later, just after the guys had gone, Raya went in and Kate’s face was blue.”

Baxter gasped, his hand flying up to his mouth. Poor Raya, having to find Kate like that… He shuddered at the thought.

“She called the ambulance, and they came, but… Kate was dead.”

“So… it was alcohol poisoning, yeah?”

“Well… probably, yeah. But her body has all these bruises from when she was falling around so… the Police sorta think that it was…”

“Murder.” Baxter finished. “The cops think Jared and Jai and Raya murdered her, is that it?”

Isabelle shrugged. “Yeah.” She said. “Well… more the boys really. They’re both down at the station being questioned now.”

“WHAT???” Baxter could scarcely believe what he was hearing. Isabelle could only shrug in response.

“This is bad. This is really really bad.” He said.

“Yup.” Agreed Isabelle.

“How long… when will they get out?” Baxter asked.

Isabelle shrugged again. “Dunno.”

Although he hated to admit it, Baxter inherently knew that neither Jared nor Jai were Murderers. Arseholes, sure, but not murderers…

*

As the two of them rounded the corner they could see Cindy and Raya waiting for them at the school gates. Baxter’s heart jumped for a moment. He wasn’t at all sure what he was going to say to Raya.

“Hi guys.” Said Isabelle, hugging a red-eyed and teary Cindy. Baxter stood for a moment uncomfortably, him and Raya looking at each other. But on seeing her face – her forlorn, tired looking face – Baxter remembered that Raya was just not that person, and that she was innocent in all this. He moved forward and gave her a hug. Raya returned it.

“Are you ok?” he asked her.

Raya rolled her eyes, stepping back and wrapping her arms around herself, exhaling a long deep breath.

“I don’t blame you.” He said, not taking his arm from her shoulder.

“It was horrible Bax.” She said softly.

“It’ll be ok.” Said Baxter, not really believing this. He happened to glance up and noticed the school flag in between the turrets above the grand entrance. The reality of this hit him like a brick.

“The flags flying at half-mast.” He said.

“What does that mean?” said Raya.

“It means somebody died.”

“…oh.” Said Raya.

Cindy and Isabelle turned to look at this two, and for a few seconds the four of them stood in a stunned trance, staring at the flag. Raya took Cindy’s hand, and they stood, connected…

As Baxter thought about the coming day, a thick feeling of dread began to fill him, and he suddenly found himself panicking.

“Oh my god, I dunno about this guys.” He said.

“What do you mean?” said Isabelle.

“I don’t wanna go in there.”

“Yeah, me either!.” Said Cindy, even more upset than Baxter.

“No, come on guys, let’s get this over with.” Said Izzy.

“It’s all anyone’s gonna be talking about all day! I don’t know if I can do it!” said Baxter, noticing his voice was slightly higher than usual. He started to take deep breaths.
“It’ll be ok, I promise.” Said Isabelle, in her most convincing voice.

“You don’t know that.” Said Baxter, shooting her down.

“It will be!” said Isabelle firmly. “Now, let’s get this over this.” And without another word she hooked Baxter by the arm, still holding Cindy in the other, and started walking. Raya, still hooked on Baxter’s other arm, was forced to move too.

The entrance loomed uninvitingly as they approached. Before Raya opened the doors, Baxter took a deep breath.

Inside, the main corridor was buzzing with students. The first bell had not rung yet, and the students were loading their lockers, talking about their holidays, picking on the geeks…

Baxter looked around at the normalcy of it all, knowing full well that very soon Kate’s death would be the subject of every conversation for the rest of the week. He felt kinda jealous that he was not in their position, cheerful, and oblivious…

As they made their way to their home room Baxter saw Kalista, Fern, Kendall and Bailey approaching them. Isabelle saw this also.

“Ugh.” She sighed. “Look Baxter, it’s your friends!” she said brightly and sarcastically.

“Aw yeah, Please! Make today harder Isabelle, thanks!” Baxter shot back.

Isabelle shut her mouth, but didn’t apologise. There was no fixing that bad blood.

Kalista, Fern, Kendall, and Bailey were Baxter’s other group of girl friends, and the divide between the two groups could not be bigger.

The divide was mostly a class thing. Kalista, Fern, Kendall and Bailey were the daughters of locally important, wealthy academics. Kalista’s father Vincent Steel was an insurance magnate who had carried on his father’s business, while her mother Susan was a lady of leisure; Fern Jones’s parents were both teachers at the High School – her father Dave was head of the social studies department, and her mother Shirley was head of the English department; Kendall’s father Sam Douglas was the judge down at the courthouse while her mother Jan was an occasional lawyer but mostly a lady of leisure with Mrs. Steel; and Bailey Rossi-Dodds’ father John was the Doctor of the region, while her mother, Sally, took care of the Rossi-Dodd’s brood. Bailey was currently the oldest child at home, but was the fifth child of Nine, with two brothers and two sisters older then her, and two brothers and two sisters younger – only a Doctor could possibly support that many children.

Isabelle, Raya, and Cindy, however, were the daughters of working class, down-to-earth families. Isabelle’s father Bryan was a music teacher at the primary school, while her step-mother Justine looked after her younger sisters; Raya’s mother Eyvette was a receptionist at the courthouse (Raya’s father was not in the picture, nor did she have any idea who he was); and Cindy’s dad Pete, a truck driver, and her mother Penny, had recently moved down south to live, leaving Cindy behind at the school boarding house.

One would think that in such a small place like Fern Valley, there wouldn’t be much room for social divides, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The social attitudes and divides were perceptibly concentrated… and, to an observant outsider like Baxter, garishly comical.

Baxter, who liked to spend as much time away from home as possible, and who was personally connected with every one of the girls, had long ago mastered the art of blending into any degree of social standing – one of his mother’s teachings, that Good Manners Will Get You Anywhere, had basically become his mantra. Every Single One of his friends’ parents LOVED him, and he was welcome in all their homes.

The fact that his friends did not get along often drove Baxter insane, but he simply refused to pick a side of the fence. He loved all his friends, but was often frustrated by their varying degrees of hatred for one another – especially between Isabelle and Kalista. While Kalista saved her caustic tongue for less public occasions (usually), and out of respect for Baxter, Isabelle, having known Baxter longer, didn’t really feel the need to edit her mouth for Baxter’s sake.

Despite the tension between the groups, all the girls seemed to recognise Baxter’s loyalty and love for each of them, and therefore they all remained friends with him. Baxter, however, had long ago given up trying to mesh the two groups together.

Isabelle, Raya and Cindy sidled past the other girls silently and went into home room. Baxter smiled meekly at his friends.

“Hi!” chirped the girls cheerily.

“Hi.” Said Baxter forlornly.

“What’s wrong?” said Kendall.

Baxter sighed. “A lot.”

“Hey, I heard Kate Taylor died!” said Bailey, excitedly. This was typical – Bailey was the biggest gossip Baxter knew, and he knew she would be THRIVING on this juicy steak of a rumour.

“Yeah do you know anything about that?” asked Kendall, in the same bright, excited manner.

He couldn’t blame them for being inquisitive – Baxter knew he’d be asking about it too had he not already known. The difference was he had known Kate personally. But he also knew that none of these girls really knew this – in fact, most people would never have guessed that Kate and Baxter even talked to each other. But despite this, their questions bothered him. All four girls were staring at him expectantly.

“It’s true. She’s dead.” Said Baxter.

“I heard she was murdered.” Fed Bailey to the group.

“She wasn’t murdered.” Said Baxter, although he knew he did not know this for sure. “She died of alcohol poisoning at Raya’s.” That last part kinda slipped out.

The girls all gasped at this tidbit, their eyes growing wide, and greedy for more. This irritated Baxter to the extreme.

“Oh my god, tell us!” said Bailey clapping, absolutely delighted to be hearing such juicy treats. But her tone stopped Baxter dead. He was done talking about this.

“Look… I don’t wanna talk about it.” Said Baxter flatly, and started to walk off.

The four girls were slightly perplexed by this reaction, but only Fern was astute enough not to be offended, and she grabbed Baxter’s arm.
“Hey wait. Are you ok?” she asked.
“No, not really.” He said.Fern gave him a hug. The other three girls looked at each sheepishly.“I… I’m sorry!” said Bailey, realising her mistake.
“It’s Ok” said Baxter.
“I didn’t realise you two were friends.” Said Kalista.

“Me either.” Said Bailey.

“I know.” Said Baxter. “No one did. But I’ve known her since we were four, ya know?” Even as he said it, Baxter felt himself getting teary. This was dangerous – he knew being seen crying in the very public main corridor would be enough ammo to get him teased for the rest of the year. He immediately wiped his eyes. The girls exchanged looks – they were suddenly feeling very awkward.

Bailey lunged forward to get in on Fern’s hug. “I’m sorry!” she said.
“It’s ok. Really.” Said Baxter. “I’ll see you guys later.” And with that he went into home room.

The girls watched him leave as the first bell rang.

Fern turned to Kalista. “Did you know he was friends with Kate?”

Kalista shook her head. “It’s news to me!”

“Yeah, I’D never seen them talking!” added Kendall.
“Well… Baxter is a bit of drama queen.” Said Kalista.

*

Baxter sat down next to Raya, who immediately noticed his wet eyes.

“You ok?” Raya asked.

Baxter shrugged. “How ‘bout you?” he asked.

Raya shrugged back. Baxter put his arm round her shoulder. Their fellow students began to fill the room and soon their home room teacher Mr. Wallace joined them. The sight of him turned Baxter’s butterflies into bats. He knew that even though he knew already, the Official School Announcement of Kate’s death was going to hit the news home like a mallet.

“Alright everyone, quiet down please, quiet down!” called Mr. Wallace. The students slowly silenced.

“Good morning everyone, and welcome back!” said Mr. Wallace, in his usual, constantly jubilant manner. “Now don’t get comfortable because the whole school is heading over to the gym for a special assembly, so come on everyone! Off we go!”

While the rest of the class gathered their bags and proceeded to leave, Baxter, Raya, and Cindy remained glued to their seats. Only Isabelle stood up.

“Come on guys, we have to.” She said to the others. The others, however, were extremely reluctant to move.

Mr. Wallace, holding the door open and having ushered everyone out, now noticed his four remaining students.

“Come on guys, quickly!” he chirped.

“Mr. Wallace, do we have to go?” asked Baxter.

“Yes, of course, come on!” said Mr. Wallace, waving them toward the door.

“But we already know what the assembly’s about!” said Baxter.

“Oh rubbish, come on!” said Mr. Wallace, clearly Never going to let them stay. Isabelle looked at the others.

“Come on guys.” She said quietly. “In ten minutes the worst will be over.”

Baxter sighed as he stood. Raya and Cindy slowly followed.

The four of them walked to the gym in a thick bubble of silence, while all around them the buzz of other students was deafening.

They entered the gym, found themselves a spot on the floor, and waited for the axe to fall…

After a few minutes, when all the students had finally filed into the gym, the Principal, Mr. Masters, stood up in front of them all. A hush fell over the crowd.

“Good morning everyone, and welcome back to the new school term” he said, in his most sterile and official voice. “I’m sorry to tell you that I have some bad news for you this morning.”

The tears were welling in Baxter’s eyes already, and he started to feel slightly sick.

“A student of this school, Kate Taylor, passed away yesterday, and we are very saddened to hear of this loss.”

And there they were… the words Baxter had been dreading to hear. They crashed in his ears like bricks, and their weight pierced his heart. The tears began to flow freely, and he let them. Fuck everyone.

In the back of his mind he heard Cindy begin blubbering too. He tried to block it out. He felt Raya’s arm slide around his shoulder, and he let himself lean into it.

Mr. Masters continued. “The school offers its deepest condolences to her family and friends. There will be victim support counseling available all day in Mr. Bain’s office for any students who feel they need it.”

Thank god, thought Baxter. Going to actual class was definitely Not on the menu today.

“But I would also like to remind students that end of year exams are coming up, and I hope that you all can keep focused, and move past this sad event.”

‘Sad Event? A Sad Event? Really? Is that the best he can come up with?’ thought Baxter.
Mr. Masters then began to read from a poem, something about angels and flying free, Baxter wasn’t really listening. But then, to Baxter’s amazement, Mr. Masters exited the gym, and, just like that, it was over. The students were already beginning to stand and were being ushered out by the other teachers. The whole thing had lasted less than two minutes.

Baxter was flabbergasted. As were the other three girls.

“Is... that it?” asked Baxter, confused.

“I think so.” Said Isabelle.

“I don’t believe it.” Said Raya.

“That was nothing!” cried Cindy.

“It really, really was” agreed Baxter. And just like that, his sadness turned into anger. “That Fucking Arsehole!”
“What a cunt” muttered Raya.

“He barely even mentioned her, that makes me SO MAD!” yelled Cindy, enraged, loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to turn and look.
“If it had been one of the First Fifteen or a Netball girl," said Baxter, absolutely seething with fury, "they’d be building a gold fucking statue at the gates!”

“I reckon!” said Raya.
“Come on.” Said Izzy, standing. “NOW we can do what we want.”

It was the first agreeable statement Isabelle had said all morning.

*

Within a minute the four of them were sitting outside the Art room, chain smoking cigarettes. Smoking was in no way allowed on school grounds, but right now, none of them cared about getting detention.

Nor did any teacher or prefect that walked past them seem to care about giving it to them. In light of the news that had just been delivered, it seemed that, for now at least, they had a free pass.

*