Will (14 page)

Yes, Mum. OK, Mum. Yeah, I’ll be waiting out the front of the hall
.

This was my chance.

The phone call was drawing to a close. I began to walk closer. She half watched my approach. Nearly there. I opened my mouth to speak when … 

Will?

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! That was the wrong voice and it was definitely coming from the wrong direction. Sighing, I turned around, still clutching the
St. Andrew’s Angles
. There standing in front of me was the Romeo to my Juliet, and Juliet was now walking out of the hall to meet her mother. Bloody typical! I felt the same intensity of heat from three minutes before start to radiate from my
body as I wondered if he’d been witness to everything I’d just done. It was then I became aware of the
St. Andrew’s Angles
newsletter I was clutching. I dropped it and watched as Mark’s eyes followed its path to the floor right in front of his feet. He decently made no comment, although I could have sworn he had a grin on his face.

Yeah … Hi
. I stared at him for a moment and then realized he was waiting for me to shake his hand.

Mark Newman
.

I shook his hand.

Yeah, I know
.

Look, I was at training on Thursday and Chris was telling me to come and introduce myself seeing as we seem to be the only seniors in the place
.

So this was all Chris’s fault!

Yeah, he mentioned something like that to me too
. Except I wasn’t having any of it.

Jock and Tim have been sharing some stories …

I could just imagine.

Don’t listen to Jock and Tim, they compete with one another to see how much shit they can talk
.

I noticed. You should hear the crap I get about being in the musical. Playing football and being in the musical are mutually exclusive activities according to Jock. He’s convinced I’m only doing it for the girls
.

For the first time in his life Jock may actually be right.

That’s why I introduced myself. They’ve just texted me to say they’re throwing the footy around at the park
.

I thought about it for about two seconds. I wasn’t in the mood to bond with the competition.

Thanks, mate, but I’ve got to get home
.

My first reaction was to be pissed off. Why would the boys text Newman and not me? Just then the phone beeped. It was Jock. I proceeded to text him where he could shove his football and felt just a little bit better.

I watched as Newman drove away and waved from his cozy, warm car as I put on my beanie and climbed onto my beaten-up old bike. Just once I would like a rehearsal to end with me coming out on top. Just once.

When I saw Chris at school on Monday I told him what happened. He cracked up laughing and gave me grief about not coming for a run. It turned out the boys went out for pizza and continued the bonding session. Then I had to put up with Tim and Jock carrying on during bio about how much of a good bloke Mark was.

Not that what Newman did was going to worry me anymore. I’d decided on another game plan for the Elizabeth, Mark and Will triangle … I was buying out completely. It was causing me way too much hassle for absolutely no gain. I wanted my life to go back to normal. It was too much energy and uptightness. I was determined to just turn up at rehearsals, do the band thing, yell at the geeks, save the Freak and go home. It wasn’t as if I was some social reject who needed to make more friends. I didn’t need to get hung up on a girl who didn’t even know I was a part of the cosmos, let alone the human race.

I couldn’t shake the Freak, but he was becoming bearable in an annoying kelpie cross fox terrier puppy type of way. I hadn’t had to save him from any nerd bashing since Wednesday. Brother Pat had insisted I attend the Wednesday band rehearsals instead of detention. He was all fired up about the excellent job I was doing with the geeks, and he carried on about it being unfair not to reward me by
canceling detention and allowing me to attend band, and he was going to make sure Waddlehead understood. What could I do, he thought he was doing me a favor.

Anyway, last Wednesday at band practice the geeks raided the Freak’s lunch box. His dad had taken to giving him afternoon tea as well as recess on Wednesdays and the geeks found out about it. I conducted my own investigation and applied some gentle encouragement for the goods to be returned at the next rehearsal. This week was like a food drive, there was so much of it. The Freak invited Brother Pat, any of the other teachers who came by to listen, and the geeks who had taken it in the first place, to have afternoon tea with him. I tried to tell him to leave out the guys who had stolen from him, but he said it didn’t matter. Maybe this kid was one of those Dalai Lama midgets that the Buddhists hadn’t found out about yet. Anyway it turned into a food fest. The Freak was at the center of it and he was stoked. Needless to say his lunch box hadn’t been touched since.

If I was really honest, I liked hanging out with the kid. He didn’t expect anything from me. He was happy and I was happy. I just wished he’d shut up more often.

On Saturday I rode in thinking that it wouldn’t be long before I would have my life back.

Hey, Freak!

Hey, Will!

He wasn’t doing his usual hello dance so I could tell something was up. I looked around quickly for any sign of the geek gang.

What’s up, mate? You’re usually pogoing all around the place at the beginning of rehearsals
.

I can’t stay. We have family commitments and Dad thinks it’s important we both go
.

I pointed out to him that this was also a commitment but he wouldn’t budge.

I thought of my mum and how family things like that were a big deal.

I know what it’s like, Freak, but your dad wouldn’t have said it was important if it wasn’t, right?

He nodded his head in agreement but still looked pretty tragic.

Cheer up, mate. I’d love to break out of here
.

But you’re not me
.

He had a point.

So how come you’re here then?

I told Dad it was important I explain why I can’t be here to Brother Patrick and Mr. Andrews
.

He paused. I wondered if he’d been given any trouble.

So have you let them know? I’ll walk in with you if you like
.

No, I’ve already seen them. I was waiting for you
.

Me?

I wanted to let you know we can’t have our breaks together. Sorry, Will
.

And the kid was genuinely sorry. That’s why you couldn’t help but like the little guy.

Hey, don’t you worry about me. I’m the one who has to watch your backside, not the other way round. But it’s going to be a really boring day without you
.

The Freak started to pogo again.

Really?

Well, yeah, who else am I going to flog all that great food from?

I looked at him quickly; you’ve got to be careful with the Freak.

It was a j—

I know, Will. I can tell when you’re joking now
.

Maybe the kid was going to turn out OK.

It looked like I’d have to deal with the love triangle on my own.

And that was more difficult than I thought. As much as I wished the Freak would be struck dumb when we were stuck all day in the pit, he did provide a constant source of distraction. In his absence I spent a lot of time listening to my MP3 player and mucking around with my guitar. And there’s only so many ways you can restring a guitar. By lunchtime I was getting desperate. I was about to bolt to Chris’s, even talking to Brother Pat was looking like a good option, but in the end it didn’t matter. I watched Mark and Elizabeth and some other people go off in Mark’s car. Fine by me. I scoffed Mum’s sandwiches and played really sad songs on my newly tuned, newly restrung guitar.

Brother Pat had to go somewhere after lunch, which meant I had to step in. Conducting meant that everything else went out of my head. The geeks were so full-on about their playing I had to take it halfway seriously. It was a quick finish to a bad day. I packed up as Andrews was doing his usual roundup, grabbed my stuff and bolted.

And then the day got even worse. What the …! I found myself sprawled facedown in a pile of St. Andrew’s festering rubbish—you know, the type that no one ever picks up when the teacher on playground duty asks.

What’s your problem?
I began as I removed my guitar case from the two-day-old squashed banana and tried to eyeball the dickhead who had just laid me out. I couldn’t quite make him out but I knew that voice. Bloody Romeo again!

Hey, Will, sorry
. I got to my feet and glared at him. He took my guitar case and began to clean it off on the grass.
I was keen to get out of there, if you know what I mean
.

I tried to get rid of my pissed-off tone but it didn’t work.

Yeah, right. Don’t worry about it, Mark. I’m used to ending up in shit. In fact I’m pretty good at it. You seem like you’re in a hurry, going anywhere special?

I’ve got an Economics assessment due tomorrow and I haven’t even started yet
.

Well, if he was that bloody worried, he should have worked during lunchtime and not gone off somewhere with Elizabeth, shouldn’t he! He offered me my guitar case, which now had banana and grass stuck all over it.

Thanks
. There was no point even trying to hide the sarcasm.

He just stood there looking uncomfortable. Not so smooth now, Romeo!

Look, I’m driving, can I give you a lift home? Apology and all that?

I weighed up whether I was going to get more pissed off by riding home or by spending time with Mark. It took about an eighth of a second to decide. Call me a hypocrite but he owed me. The bike could have another school sleepover.

That’d be good
.

You don’t live thirty k’s away, do you?

I was tempted to say yes and get him to drop me at a mate’s place just to make him suffer, but even I thought that was pretty sad.

About fifteen minutes by car. Down near the BP servo
.

I think I know the one
.

We arrived at an old Holden. I’m pretty sure it was an FJ or the next one out; whatever it was it was pretty cool. I had to give him that.

Nice car
.

Thanks
.

I bought it in Melbourne. Well, Dad did
.

Yeah, Chris said you were from there
.

Shit, did Chris tell me that or did I pick it up from Elizabeth and him in that conversation I wasn’t meant to hear? I tried to move on quickly.

How long have you been in Sydney?

We moved up at the end of last year
.

Big difference?

Yeah, I suppose it is. I don’t know, I haven’t really seen a lot of it. It’s been school and around here mainly with the footy boys. St. Andrew’s is different to the last school I was at. Girls make a real difference
.

I bet they do
.

Mark grinned at me.
No, I mean everybody just acts more normal, more natural
.

Could you imagine Jock and Tim in a coed school? They couldn’t cope
.

But that’s just it. They wouldn’t stand a chance. The girls would pull them into line straightaway. Most of the blokes don’t carry on with all that tough-man stuff because if they do there’s always someone to tell them to pull their head in
.

St. Andrew’s could do with a little more of that, just ask the Freak.

So how come you had to leave in your final year—that would be pretty hard, wouldn’t it?

Yep … but there was no way around it. Dad was retrenched and got this great payout but he … couldn’t get another job. He’s pretty old and I’m the youngest. He started stressing about everything: Mum, retirement, me, uni
.

He reached over to the glove box, opened it and rummaged around until he found a cigarette.

Don’t tell the boys, they’d give me shit on the field. I just
started again, but not for good
. He took a drag.
I watched Dad turn from a hotshot businessman to this major stress-head. That went on for six months and then the job in Sydney came up. It was Mum and me who convinced him to take it. I could put up with leaving more than I could see Dad crack up. He didn’t say anything but I reckon he bought the car to say thanks
.

That would suck. I changed the subject.
So you know what you want to do next year?

As soon as I asked I knew that he would. He was just one of those guys.

Law at ANU
.

That’d be right.

He stumped out the cigarette after three drags.
What about you?

I figure I’ve got at least another year and a half before I have to decide. Right now, I’m pretty happy just cruising
.

Let him know I don’t need to overachieve to be a success.

Right. So is the musical going on the CV?

Well, at least I didn’t volunteer to be involved! Sarcastic wanker!

I hear your audition was pretty special
.

I grinned in spite of myself.
Jock and Tim can never keep their mouths closed
.

Actually, it wasn’t them who told me
.

That shut me up.

What do you mean?

He looked over at me and grinned.

Come on, mate, not funny! Just tell me
.