Gracie Faltrain Gets it Right (Finally) (16 page)

Mrs Young walks over to me at the start of English. What she says is, ‘Principal Yoosta would like to see you, Gracie.' What I hear is, ‘You've stuffed up again.' I just don't know how.

‘Come in and sit down.' He folds his hands. ‘I had a call from Andrew Flemming's parents this morning.' For a second I imagine Flemming dead and me feeling guilty at his funeral.

‘He's okay, right?'

‘He admitted to being the one who circulated the English answers. He also admitted to storing the test without permission in your locker, which he claims is mostly empty anyway.'

‘I like to keep my books close, in my bag.'

‘I'm sure that's true.' He unfolds his hands. ‘Protecting Mr Flemming was foolish, Gracie. The boy is clearly not your friend.'

No kidding, I think. Ten points for keeping up with the narrative.

‘But in the light of this development I've spoken to your school coach. You're back on the team and released from Friday detention. Although, Mrs Young would like me to pass on that she is happy to continue tutoring you in that time slot.'

‘Thank you,' I say. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

‘So, are you going to see Andrew now?' Alyce asks.

‘He only confessed because he'd lost soccer, anyway. I bet he's trying to get kicked out of school because his parents won't let him quit.'

‘You don't really think that?'

‘I think if he hadn't lost his chance he would never have come forward.'

‘He had too much to lose,' she says.

‘Yeah, well,' I say. ‘So did I.'

Hi, Mrs Flemming, is Andrew there?

I'm sorry, dear; he can't come to the phone right now. He says he'll call you after
Oprah
.

Hi, Mrs Flemming, it's Alyce again. Andrew didn't call me back. Can I talk to him?

He says to call after
The Bold and the Beautiful
, dear.

Hello, Mrs Flemming. It's Alyce Fuller. Can I speak to Andrew?

Tell her I'm washing my hair.

‘It's just me again, Mrs Flemming.'

‘I'm sorry, dear. I don't think he'd come to the phone even if I told him you were
Oprah
. Give him a bit of time. He has the operation this Friday. He'll be back at school three weeks after that.'

‘Can you tell him I called to see if he was okay?'

‘I will, Alyce.'

It's a silly question. Of course he's not okay. There's just nothing that anyone can do about it.

I visit Flemming tonight. His mum says he's not up for visitors but I talk her into it. She's known me for thirteen years so I play the old-friend card. I wasn't planning on going but Alyce called me. I can't say no to her.

Flemming acts like he wants to punch me. I dodge his eyes and walk around; looking at all the things we've won playing soccer over the years. His room smells of leather and dirt and sweaty shoes. ‘Mind if I open a window?'

‘Go ahead.'

I stare into his backyard. Flemming's dad used to play kick-to-kick with us out there. One afternoon he spun the ball over the fence and smashed the neighbour's window. ‘Go inside,' he said, before he walked next door. We followed and watched, though, laughing at this old lady in her curlers yelling at him.

‘Get out,' Flemming says.

‘What?'

‘I don't need you feeling sorry for me.' He always talks like this when he's angry: quick jabs that force you into a corner. He keeps going till you hit back.

‘Andrew?' His mum puts her head into the room. ‘Is everything all right?'

‘Everything's fine. Knight's leaving.'

‘I came because we're mates.'

‘You've been pretty quiet for a mate. I've been calling for weeks.'

His mum's eyes are on her son's hands, all knuckles, now. ‘I think you should leave, Martin.'

Flemming looks like he's made it one metre from the end of a marathon and someone's stepped out and said, ‘Sorry, mate. Road closed.' It's not like he can take another path to get to the end. He's bricked in on all sides.

‘Call if you need me.'

‘Sure,' Flemming says. ‘Because that worked so well before.'

‘Flemming's out for the season,' I say to Annabelle. ‘He'll miss selection.'

‘He's got Friday detentions for a month when he gets back to school,' she says. ‘He owned up to cheating. Gracie's off the hook.'

‘I can't believe she took the fall for him.'

‘She's loyal.'

‘That's weird, coming from you.'

‘Okay, loyal like a pit bull. I'm not saying I want to be her best friend. But Kally wouldn't have time for her if she wasn't okay. Neither would you. She was your closest friend,
Martin. You have to tell her about us soon. It's going to hurt if she finds out some other way.'

‘I don't even see her anymore.'

She shakes her head. ‘You can't cut someone out because they're not who you want them to be.'

A part of me knows that, but the bigger part of me doesn't care. Last year things were so hard I didn't think I'd make it – with Faltrain lying to me about Mum. Things are easy now. Things are good.

‘What are you thinking?' Annabelle asks.

‘I'm thinking that I'm happy where I am. Right now.'

Kally's taking Flemming's place as centre forward on the school team now and I'm back in my old position. I like having another girl on the side. There's someone to make jokes with. ‘Francavilla keeps staring at you,' I said, at the last practice session.

‘I noticed.'

‘I was serious when I said he's a Wookie.'

‘Won't be an issue after the practice match, will it? He'll be smooth and shiny. Just like new.' And she gave him a little wave.

There's no waving at the guys across the field at training Friday afternoon. ‘I don't think I'm ready for this,' Char says. Dan's brought the toughest players he could find just like I wanted. ‘Give me guys who'll play like Truck did last year,' I told him.

‘Okay, does anyone else feel like they've wandered onto the set of
Jurassic Park
?' Kally asks.

‘You are ready for this,' I say. ‘And if you're not, it's time you got ready. Char, Esther and Natalie, you're strikers. Brianne, Beth and Rachel, you're in defence. Joanna, you're goalie. Alex and Sophia, you're with Kally and me in the midfield. Remember: they're rougher, you're faster. Protect your chest at all times, trust me on that one. Trust your instinct on everything else.'

I walk across to the guys. ‘Play like you need to win. But if any of you go for the boobs, I'll kick you in the balls.'

‘Does anyone else hear the
Charlie's Angels
theme music?' one of them asks as I signal to the girls, and one by one they walk onto the field.

‘Okay, that hurt,' Char says. ‘We scored one goal to their five.'

‘They break the rules,' Esther says.

‘They play close to the edge but they wouldn't have got carded for anything they did this afternoon,' I say. ‘So do you want to call off the bet?'

They look at each other. They look at me.

‘I want to train harder,' Esther says. And everyone there nods.

It's dark when Dan pulls up to Kally and Annabelle's house. I see the shadows of two people sitting on her step. One is definitely Annabelle. My heart bicycle-kicks at the shape of the other. ‘Is that Martin?'

‘Why would it be Martin?' Kally asks. ‘Get a good night's sleep before tomorrow. I need you watching my back out there.' She looks nervous when she mentions the school game.

‘I've got your back,' I say. ‘You don't need to worry.'

‘And I've got yours.'

After she's gone inside, Dan drives me home. ‘I'm glad you and Kally are my friends. All this stuff with Flemming, how he lied to save himself, it hurts.'

‘Yeah, I know. He's an idiot.' Dan can't make things better. But it helps to have someone here to hold my hand. That's why what I say next surprises me. As soon as the words leave my mouth, though, I know I'm right.

‘I can't hang out with you so much anymore. I have to study for the mid-year exams and I have to focus on the state trials. I have to get my head in the game.'

‘Are you breaking up with me?'

‘No. Absolutely, one hundred per cent, no. But I can't study with you anymore and I can only go for dates on Friday nights. Are you mad?'

‘Nah. I like that you think I'm too cool to concentrate around. You still want a lift to your school game tomorrow, though, right?'

‘Yeah. And the trials Sunday. I don't think you're too cool to drive me places.' He laughs. And for a while the world stays where it should: rushing past the outside of his car.

I try to call Andrew again before I start at the neighbourhood house this afternoon. He's watching
The Bold and the Beautiful
so unless my name is Brooke, I don't think I'll have a chance of talking to him. I hope Martin had more luck.

‘Foster's in trouble at school, again,' Janet says.

I look at him throwing chips at David's head. ‘He reminds me of someone,' I say, and walk across to them with my Monopoly board. ‘Who wants to play?'

‘I own the board,' Foster says after an hour.

‘You're good,' I tell him. ‘So, why does a smart person get into trouble at school?'

‘Not everyone can be a nerd.'

‘I've been in trouble before.' I roll the dice. ‘I got sent home from camp this year.' He looks at me as though I'm lying so I tell him the story. I tell it Gracie-style, with a
few chainsaw-wielding men thrown in to make it more interesting.

‘Remember that time we went on camp?' Foster asks David. ‘Mr Cliff made you stand in the corridor even though it was freezing.'

‘You were the one who was talking.'

‘Yeah, but I wasn't stupid enough to get caught.'

‘Alyce,' Janet says. ‘That was Roberta on the phone. She needs someone to stop by her unit. She has a mouse. Would you help her?'

‘I want to see Alyce kill the mouse,' Foster says.

‘I wouldn't mind seeing that.' Tracy closes her book.

‘Actually, it might not be a bad idea to take them. You could walk Foster home after you finish, he's not far from there. Hang on; let me call his mum.' She's back in a minute. ‘All okay.' Foster claps like I'm about to take him to the zoo.

‘So do you know how to trap a mouse?' I ask him on the way.

‘No problems. Don't be such a girl, Alyce.'

‘You know, patterns of behaviour aren't always gender based.'

‘What?'

‘Girls can do anything that boys can do but they've been told they can't.'

‘Not everything,' Tracy says.

‘Yeah. Girls don't play AFL or rugby or cricket.' Foster kicks at stones on the path as he talks.

‘Yes they do,' I say.

‘Not in the real league. You never see them on the telly.'

‘The best soccer player I know is a girl and she plays on a boys' team.'

‘As if,' Foster says.

‘It's true. I'll ask Janet if I can take you to watch her one day.'

Instead of arguing he says, ‘Really?' in a way that makes me glad I asked. ‘Really. This is Roberta's unit.' I knock on the door and while we wait I take a chance. I look Tracy in her perfectly lined eyes. ‘You could come too.'

‘Maybe,' she says, as Roberta opens the door a crack to check who's there.

‘It stinks in here,' Foster says, covering his mouth with his sleeve. They all walk outside and leave me with the smell.

‘I thought you were the best at catching mice,' I call to Foster.

‘Yeah, but live ones. Not dead ones that smell like that.'

Who's braver now, I think as I walk into Roberta's kitchen. I tie one of her scarves around my nose and mouth and slide on some rubber gloves. I'm not scared of a mouse. ‘Hey,' Tracy says, and I stifle a scream.

‘Relax. I thought I'd help. Nice outfit. You got one for me?' She puts it on and we keep searching. ‘They always die in the kitchen,' she says, opening a cupboard. ‘Clear.'

I check under the fridge. ‘Clear.'

We find it in the end, lying flat on its back near a half-eaten chocolate biscuit. ‘At least he died happy,' Tracy says.

‘Do we flush it down the toilet?'

‘Sure. If you want Roberta to call you next week to fix her backed-up sewage. You flush fish. Mice you burn or bury.'
We look at it. ‘Strictly speaking, you're the one on the clock here. I'm not a volunteer.'

‘Right.' I pick it up by the tail.

‘Why don't you swing it at boys-are-better-than-girls Foster on the way past? It'd be fun to hear him scream.'

‘We can't do that.' But the idea makes me smile.

‘Why are you always at the neighbourhood house?' I ask as we dig a hole in the yard that Roberta shares with the other units.

‘It's too cold to read at my place. I don't hang out there as much in the summer.'

‘Why don't you go to your friends' houses?'

‘Well, mainly because I don't have that many friends.'

I assumed Tracy was popular. Maybe because the first thing I see in girls' faces are Susan or Annabelle's eyes. Janet's words make sense today. Why would Tracy want to speak to me when I look like I'd rather be a million miles away?

I take another chance. ‘I love the book you're reading at the moment, I have a crush on a boy who reminds me of the main character. The boy I have a crush on isn't my boyfriend.'

‘Maybe you're not as boring as I thought.' She pats down the dirt. ‘Sorry I made that crack about your skirt.'

‘That's okay,' I say as the man next door calls at us to leave.

‘Hey,' Tracy yells. ‘A little respect, buddy. Alyce and I are burying something here.'

This reminds me of how Gracie and I became friends. I always seem to make things harder than they are, I think, as I pat the ground with her.

*

‘So why did you get in trouble at school today?' I ask Foster on the walk home.

‘I was mucking around when I should have been listening.'

‘Why weren't you listening?'

‘Because my teacher was talking too quick and I couldn't understand what she was saying.'

‘Does that happen a lot? Getting confused in class?'

‘What do you reckon?'

‘I reckon it does,' I say.

‘Then you'd reckon right.'

‘Would you let me help you?'

‘Maybe. Take me to see that friend play soccer and I'll see.'

‘That's fair,' I say, and this time when I say goodbye he waves.