Cloudwish (20 page)

chapter 44

No more than ten
minutes into lunchtime on Wednesday, Ms King came into the year eleven common room without knocking. It was raining outside, so the room was full. Pippa and Tiff flicked their cigarettes out the window and Holly swiped a saucer ashtray from the kitchen area table and dumped it in the bin.

‘Get that down,' Ms King said, referring to the tripod-and-stool arrangement. ‘And gather round.'

She wasn't looking amused.

‘Would anyone like to start?' she asked. ‘Or do we treat you like year eights and say,
Nobody's leaving this room until someone confesses
?'

Billy was entirely unperturbed. ‘It was me,' he said, sprawled on a sofa, with his mouth full.

Ms King gave him the unblinking arctic stare she saved for very special occasions.

Billy swallowed, stood up, and repeated the sentence in a more formal manner. ‘It was me, Ms King.'

‘And who are your henchmen?' She eyeballed a few of the guys she obviously considered to be the usual suspects.

Billy put up his hands, holding his wrists together. ‘Really, just me. Arrest me now. You didn't find it even a little bit amusing?'

‘This is deceptive behaviour, and we don't like it. It has led to further breaking of school rules, judging by the stench in here, and we don't like that. As well, it took security a few days to cotton on, so now we look as though our systems don't work particularly well, and we don't like that either. Who else is involved?'

Nobody said anything. Vân Ước wondered if she could swallow her fear and speak up. She was petrified by indecision. If the school decided to make a big deal out of this, it could jeopardise her scholarship. But despite Billy's offer to take the blame, she knew perfectly well what was required of her, because
what would Jane do?

‘Well? I've got all the time in the world,' said Ms King.

‘As if Billy could take a photo to save his life,' Holly muttered, staring at Vân Ước pointedly.

‘Do you have something to say, Holly?'

‘No, Ms King.'

‘Ms King,' Vân Ước started. ‘I –'

Michael jumped to his feet and spoke over her. ‘Ms King, I took the photograph.'

Billy and Vân Ước and Ms King all looked at him, surprised.

‘Are you sure, Michael?' Ms King asked.

Michael continued calmly, ‘I borrowed Vân Ước's camera, but she had no idea what I wanted to use it for.'

She was touched by how quickly Michael – thinking all the time that the scheme was stupid and her involvement in it risky – had come to her defence once he realised she was about to speak up.

Ben Capaldi stormed into the common room, pouring rain and sweat, saying, ‘Billy, where the fuck were you?' before he registered Ms King's presence and was also subjected to the snap-freeze gaze. ‘Apologies for the language, Ms King,' he said.

‘Where was Billy Gardiner supposed to be?'

‘We just had some lunchtime ergos; it's no big deal, we'll have another session after school.'

‘Well, immediately after school, he and Michael Cassidy will be in the principal's office with me, talking about appropriate discipline for this potentially dangerous prank,' said Ms King.

‘How's it dangerous?' Billy asked, incredulous.

‘You could have broken your neck setting it up. People have been smoking in here – which is a health risk that contravenes the school's clean air environment policy, and breaks the zero-tolerance smoking rule, and had there been a security problem with this room, no one would have known about it.'

Billy's face showed his contempt.

Leaving the room with a final stern look at Billy and a puzzled one at Michael, Ms King said, ‘Four-thirty in Dr Dryden's office, both of you.'

‘Big fucken deal,' said Billy. ‘Seriously.'

‘You better not get kicked off the first eight,' said Ben.

‘Or what? You sound just like my dad,' said Billy. He turned to Michael. ‘Thanks, man.'

‘It's for Vân Ước, not you,' said Michael.

‘You should have told the truth,' said Holly to Vân Ước. ‘Dishonesty isn't nice. But I guess it's what you'd expect from a thief.'

‘Shut up, Holly,' said Billy. ‘I told her not to. And stop saying she stole something.'

Vân Ước wanted to say,
I'm not a thief
, and,
I tried to speak up about the photos. I was prepared to own my part of the punishment.
But she said nothing.

She saw Michael's eyes flick over to Holly and glance around the room. He seemed satisfied to see it so crowded. He loathed bullies, and hypocrites, and Holly had clearly been in his sights ever since he'd been collateral damage of her betrayal of Sibylla. He put his book down, stood up and cleared his throat. ‘Dishonesty isn't nice, Holly. You're right.'

‘Thank you,' said Holly, in the tone of someone who has finally been heard.

‘In fact, it's despicable. But it's not Vân Ước who is dishonest. It's you, isn't it?'

Holly looked uncomfortable. ‘No.'

Michael pressed on, pinning Holly like an insect with the intensity of his look. ‘You stole the label Vân Ước told you about. You took the evidence that she was telling the truth. You set her up. You deliberately tried to make her look bad in front of everyone else.'

Because Michael so rarely spoke to the gathered masses, everyone was listening, just for the novelty value. So everyone saw Holly's face go pale under its tan and then flush bright red.

Michael smiled grimly. ‘The CCTV has its uses after all. Did you know there's one in the locker area?'

All eyes were still on Holly.

‘Why would you do that to Vân Ước?' asked Billy.

‘For a laugh,' Holly said.

‘You have a very ugly sense of humour,' someone said. It was Vân Ước. She'd said it out loud! She was gathering some looks of approval.

Holly walked out.

Michael wasn't looking happy, but grimly satisfied.

‘Thank you,' said Vân Ước.

‘Yeah, good work, man,' said Billy. ‘Did you hack the CCTV file?'

Michael smiled enigmatically. ‘I didn't need to.' He looked at Vân Ước. ‘Holly knew what was written on the label, but you never told her what it said. I was just waiting for the right opportunity to denounce her.'

Vân Ước wondered about the coincidence of weather; rain was the only reason Michael was putting up with the common room noise to eat his lunch on this particular day. What would she be feeling right now, and what would be the consequences, had the day been fine and her confession heard? Not only had he saved her from possible expulsion, he'd also managed to exonerate her from Holly's false charges in such a satisfyingly public way.

And for once, she'd managed to speak up.

She met Billy on the way out of school, after his session with the principal and Ms King, and he walked a little way with her, debriefing.

Michael had got off lightly. He had a perfect record. He wasn't a natural fit at school, but he put up with everything either stoically or, where possible, taking the absent-minded path of least resistance, not interested in exercising teenage rebellion, exerting his preference not to take part in certain activities in ways that were acceptable to the school. He was reprimanded. He apologised with apparent sincerity, and left. No punishment. She was touched that he had exploited his perfect record for her sake.

But Billy was another story. He was way down at the other end of the behaviour scale. In fact, he was Mr Final Warning. He was disrespectful to teachers. This wasn't his first elaborate prank, and, according to Dr Dryden, Billy had to learn that these pranks he considered to be so funny wasted valuable time, and upset people.

He had been late more than a few times to rowing training as well as missing the lunchtime ergo today, and had already been the subject of conversation between Dr Dryden and the rowing coach. They weren't prepared to be lenient anymore.

Billy's behaviour, according to Dr Dryden, was defiant, complacent and arrogant. Didn't Billy realise that there were other able rowers who were very motivated to make the first eight, who would turn up punctually, who would respect their fellow crew members?

‘I'm so fucking sick of everything,' said Billy. ‘I just want the world to go away so I can spend some time with you.'

This was not comforting, nor was it romantic, as he had perhaps intended it to be, and it made resolving the wish investigation even more pressing. What if his ‘fascination' with her was at the expense of all the things that were formerly and should perhaps still be really important to him, like rowing? Was she unwittingly warping his world view? Messing with his whole life trajectory? She didn't want that kind of power.

‘What did you say to Dr Dryden?'

‘Well – I probably shouldn't have said what I said.'

She had to push him.

‘Dryden threatened me – he said if I put even one hair out of place, I'd be off the crew.'

‘And?'

‘And I said,
Consider me off the crew, then, because odds are I'll have more than one hair out of place before too long
.'

‘And?'

‘And then I didn't say,
Fuck you and fuck school
– there's restraint for you. I just walked out.'

‘You didn't!'

‘It felt . . . great.'

‘But you
love
rowing.'

‘I have loved it, but I've been thinking about it since we talked on Friday – and, no kidding, this feels like a weight off. It's just got so intense. Too important. And the Brown thing – sure, kudos, but do I really want
years
more of it? Right now – no. So, stand back and wait for the shit to start pouring down.'

‘Did he ring your parents?'

‘He will have spoken to them by the time I get home.' Billy pulled his buzzing phone out of his pocket. ‘Yeah, right on cue: Mum, Dad and – no doubt they'll get Harry – my sister – to ring too, but she's in Boston, so I've got a few hours' reprieve. Full family disapproval coming my way.' Billy kissed Vân Ước. ‘Wish me luck.'

‘Luck. Will you call me?'

‘Yup.'

He walked off, looking back with a rueful smile. She blew him a quick kiss and walked home alone, chewing it all over. She, enthralled with Billy though she was, had no wish for the world to go away. She was just hoping he could be fitted into the few spaces she had between all her other commitments. Maybe there'd be a time, some time, when the other stuff would be finished and, sure, then she'd happily see the world disappear for a while.

chapter 45

She'd been memorising French
verbs out loud after dinner, so her parents wouldn't register when she answered her phone to talk through stage two of the Billy saga: The Family Disapproves.

Billy said his mother was mostly ‘very disappointed' and it was left to his father to use the heavy artillery:
Do you realise what you're giving up? Do you have any idea how many boys would kill for this opportunity? How dare you presume to walk away from a job half done! Are you a winner or a quitter? You'll never achieve anything in life if you're complacent about the head start you've had. How do you think this is going to look on your school record? If you had any strength of character, you'd stick with it. You made a commitment and now you're letting everyone down. You owe the principal, your coach and your crew an apology. It's hard to recognise you're my son.

‘That's all so . . . harsh, and critical.'

‘I've had versions of the talk before, but it's the angriest I've ever seen my father.'

‘What about your sister? What does she think?'

‘She was cranky because my mother's call woke her up too early. She thinks I should take the path of least resistance, put up with it till the end of school and decide then.'

‘That sounds like okay advice.'

‘Only I've already decided. Jeez, it's not like I'm dropping out of school, or using heroin.'

‘Your dad's reaction does sound extreme.'

‘Yeah, for someone so smart, he's really dumb. It just boils down to
why can't I control you anymore
?' He sounded tired. ‘They're so into me achieving
their
goals.'

‘They just want you to be successful, as they are. My parents want me to be successful, as they are not. When I tell them the artist plan there will be a tsunami of disapproval. They want me to study medicine too.'

She could hear Billy smile. ‘We could run a course.'

‘
Letting your parents down in ten easy steps
. Are they punishing you?'

‘My dad's giving me time to think it all over. He still thinks I'll fold. And that'll happen when – never.'

‘Wow, I don't get why it's hard for him to recognise you as his son.'

Billy laughed. ‘Okay, we're both stubborn arseholes. I'm guessing I'll be grounded for a while. So that'll make two of us who aren't allowed out.'

‘I was kind of joking with the whole, date night the final frontier, but . . .'

‘We'll find a way.'

The English portal, open on her screen, stepped up with a possible solution. ‘Do you know when we could do it? Maybe?'

‘When?'

‘That notice we got today – the film screening.'

‘Genius.'

‘Goodnight.'

‘Night.'

She smiled as she hung up. So long as she could get Jess on board for a little extra insurance, her parents should let her go on a school-sanctioned outing.

chapter 46

‘Just taking these into
Jess for her camp,' said Vân Ước the next morning as she walked past her mother, holding up a pair of hiking boots and a rain jacket.

‘Come back for some breakfast. I'm making bánh
ă
n s
á
ng.'

‘Is there one for Jess?'

‘Yes. Okay.'

Her stomach rumbled at the thought of her mother's egg bánh ăn sáng – yeasty buns from Liên Luu, filled with scrambled eggs with crispy shallots, chilli and heaps of fresh coriander.

Vân Ước knocked and walked in just as Jess's mother was leaving for work.

‘Thanks, Vân Ước,' she said, looking at the gear. ‘She's still asleep. Go in and get her to wake up!'

She walked into Jess's bedroom. ‘Hey, wake up – it's camp day.'

Jess groaned. She was never a morning person at the best of times, and on a day that her class was heading off for a two-day camp for bonding and hiking in the bush, she was even less enthusiastic than usual.

‘I need a favour,' Vân Ước said.

‘What?'

‘Come to see a film with me, so my parents feel okay about me going?'

‘What movie?'

‘It's a filmed National Theatre production of
King Lear
, screening at the Nova.'

Jess was awake properly now. She got up and headed for the kitchen as she processed the request.

‘I guess.'

‘Only, I won't be there for the actual film.'

‘Too early for mysterious talk.'

‘Because I'll be with Billy. Pleeease say yes.'

Jess thought about it. ‘I could really do with seeing a production of
Lear
– sure, I'll go.'

‘I love you.'

‘I know it. Do you want coffee?'

‘Come back with me, we've got eggy bánh ăn sáng.'

That woke Jess up properly. She went back to her room, grabbed dressing gown and slippers and keys, and followed Vân Ước back to her place for breakfast.