Six (13 page)

‘Quick,’ Finn muttered.

Virginia dived under the bed. Finn smoothed the bedclothes around him and grabbed the textbook from the ground, then switched on the TV with the remote control.

Finn’s bedroom door opened and his brother, Aaron, stood in the doorway.

‘Fish,’ said Aaron. ‘You’re up late.’

Finn relaxed, a grin splitting his face. ‘Thought it was Mum,’ he said. ‘How was your night?’

‘Yeah, good. And yours?’

‘Just hitting the books.’

‘Uh huh. Hello Virginia.’

Virginia poked her head out from beneath the bed.

‘Hiya, As.’

‘How did you know she was here?’ Finn demanded.

Aaron pointed to the silver bag on the TV.

‘Oh,’ said Finn.

‘I thought you two had split up,’ said Aaron as he watched Virginia wriggle out from under the bed.

‘We’re just friends,’ she said.

‘Friends?’

Finn nodded in the direction of his mother’s bedroom. ‘Can we keep this just between us?’

‘Well if this is a secret, you’d better be quieter about it. I could hear you two all the way from the front door.’

‘Sorry, Aaron,’ said Virginia meekly.

‘Maybe you should go,’ he suggested.

‘Maybe you should mind your own—’ said Finn.

‘No, he’s right.’ Virginia planted a kiss on Finn’s cheek. ‘I’ll let you get your beauty sleep. See you tomorrow. Night night.’ She grabbed her bag. ‘Night, Aaron.’ She threw her bag out the window, then climbed through, careful to keep her dress pulled down at the back.

Aaron shook his head as he closed the window after her.

‘Mum can’t know,’ said Finn. ‘Don’t tell her.’

Aaron shook his head again. ‘What are you, six?’

Finn shrugged, turning off the TV. ‘Fine. I don’t care if you do tell her. There’s nothing she can do about it. I’ll go and live with Dad.’

Aaron closed the door quietly behind him as he left.

Finn got up and paced around the bedroom. He kicked the books on the floor then opened the window to see if Virginia was waiting for Aaron to leave, but she had gone. Finn grabbed his laptop and scrolled through the emails in his inbox until he found what he was looking for.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Hi Finn

Unfortunately, Eric Cashin is no longer in our employment and cannot be contacted at this email address
.

He has not left us with any forwarding details so I am unable to help you with any leads in this regard
.

Yours sincerely
,

Tim Shevellton

Finn clicked onto Facebook, not expecting anyone to be awake, however the last message had been posted just thirty minutes before. It was from Virginia’s friend, Loz.

‘Awesome night, peeps. Nice dress, Virginia. Some pics for those who missed out!’

Finn clicked onto Virginia’s Facebook page and saw that she’d been tagged in the album ‘Loz Piper’. He opened up the album and flicked through some grainy night shots, then flicked back to re-read a tag.

‘Coops and his harem.’

A couple of girls were hanging off Cooper’s arms and Virginia was leaning in, frozen mid-pucker, her lips aiming for Cooper’s cheek. Finn studied the photo. What did Virginia say? He couldn’t remember, but she definitely didn’t say she talked with Cooper. What did she say?

Finn’s mobile beeped. It was a message from Virginia.

‘Nite,’ it read.

Finn frowned and deleted the message. Then he switched to the contacts list on his mobile and scrolled down to his father’s phone number. Even accounting for the time difference, it was still too late to call. He tapped his thumb on the side of the phone for a moment, then pressed the connect button. He listened and waited for the phone to ring. Instead a recorded message told him that the person he had called was unavailable.

Finn left his bedroom and quietly made his way down to Evan’s room. He slipped inside and groped his way in the dark over to the bedside light, switching it on before sinking to the floor and leaning up against the single bed. The room didn’t smell of Evan anymore. It was just musty, overlaid with a tinge of cleaning product that his mother had probably used. A memory of Evan flashed into his head. A much younger Finn jumping off a bed into his older brother’s safe arms. Finn banged at the floor with his fist.

If only his father would come back home. Finn knew things could be better again.

He slipped back into his room and rang his father’s mobile one more time. And somehow just the sound of the operator’s message gave him some comfort.

Did you ever see

such a thing

in your life?

THE MONDAY MORNING gossip in Year 7 was always the same thing. For the sporty kids, it was about which team had smashed which other team over the weekend or which player was carried off the ground/court/field. Anyone who suffered concussion received admiration, but a broken limb was the highest badge of courage. Then there were the birthday parties — speculation about who had kissed whom, who hadn’t been invited and who was wearing what.

The Monday morning gossip in Year 12 still centred on sport for the sporty kids and socialising for the party kids, but now the birthday parties were bigger and there were other parties — small gatherings or getting your licence celebrations or parties just for parties-sake. There was always talk of alcohol smuggled in backpacks and couples who had hooked up that night and sometimes even the police being called when a party got out of control.

I never went to a party alone, but sometimes I felt like the third wheel when Poppy, Nico and I went out together. Finn would sometimes come along, which made things a little easier, but he wasn’t much into crowds and he wouldn’t stay long. Later I would wonder if this was the real reason why I lost sight of him after we got to a party.

Sometimes Poppy and I would be threading our way through the crowd, heading for the dance floor, (not even Poppy could get Nico to dance) when I’d catch sight of Virginia and her crew, larger than life. I squeezed past her once in a bathroom and she nodded at me before turning her attention back to the mirror.

I had been dismissed.

Little Polly Flinders

sat among the cinders

warming her pretty little toes

VIRGINIA SLOAN HAD a headache the size of an elephant. She perched on the edge of her bed, one leg extended to her dressing table, as she carefully applied Pie in the Sky to each toe. No matter how much nail polish she put on, she thought, there was no disguising that she had ugly feet. Virginia examined the bunion on her right foot and calluses on her left that made buying nice shoes such a chore. They were strong feet. Dancer’s feet. She noted the beginnings of a blister on the back of her heel as she carefully fanned the polish on her toes before applying another coat.

It had been a hard morning. She’d woken up with the headache — just a dull throb then — at the base of her skull. She’d been late to dance class and missed out on stretch warm-ups. Her teacher had snapped that Virginia’s footwork was sloppy and her turns looked like something from a kindergarten playground.

‘Where is your spot, Virginia? Focus on your spot! Relax your neck. Relax! Now, again.’

Virginia’s head made it impossible to relax. She’d been out and it had been a dud — a total waste of time. Sparrow’s parties were getting boring — the same old people, same old music, nothing much exciting happening there.

It’s true that she’d vowed to the girls she’d stay away from Sparrow’s for a while. And it’s true that if she hadn’t had a fight with Finn, she would never have gone to Sparrow’s on Friday night, so technically her headache was Finn’s fault. Stupid Loz for putting that photo of her and Cooper on Facebook. Stupid Finn for looking.

Finn had rung her mobile early Friday morning. ‘Nice photo of you and Cooper.’

‘I told you I talked to Cooper,’ said Virginia, knowing that wasn’t quite true. ‘Let’s meet at the tunnel before school.’

‘No.’

‘Can I come around tonight?’

‘Boys’ poker night,’ said Finn.

‘Then I’ll see you at school—’

But Finn had hung up.

At school it was hard to know if Finn wasn’t talking to her because he was pretending or wasn’t talking to her because he really wasn’t talking to her. That’s when she’d decided to go to Sparrow’s that night, even though Loz had pointed out that it was social suicide.

Virginia caught sight of herself in the dressing table mirror as she fanned her toenails. She watched the way her long blonde hair hung in a silky curtain past her shoulders. She liked the lighter colour, courtesy of her last appointment at Slinky, and thought she’d keep it that way. She smoothed the frown lines between her brows and tilted her chin upwards to achieve a better jaw line silhouette. Was eighteen too young to have plastic surgery? She pushed the tip of her nose slightly so that it tilted upwards.

Her phone beeped and she grabbed it, sure it was Finn, but it was only Loz complaining of a hangover and wondering what Virginia was up to.

She checked her messages, but there was nothing from Finn.

Meanwhile, the throbbing in her head was stronger than ever. But no… Virginia looked out her window and saw the noise was actually Cooper using the whipper snipper around the garden beds. The lawn didn’t need going over with a mower every week at this time of year, but somehow Cooper was still here every weekend. He looked towards her window, as if he sensed her watching him, and Virginia shrank back against the curtains.

‘Where U?’ she texted Finn.

The noise outside stopped and moments later she heard the front door slam shut. She checked her phone once more, then threw it on the bed. She looked in the mirror, then changed her top, grabbed her drink bottle and moved to the kitchen. Sure enough, Cooper was sitting on a stool at the kitchen island bench while her mother was plying him with food and making a general fuss. He smelled like cheap deodorant, wet vegetation and sweat.

‘Oh, hi, Cooper,’ said Virginia, filling up her drink bottle with cold water from the fridge.

‘Virginia.’ Cooper didn’t look up at her.

‘Would you like something to eat, sweetheart?’ said her mother, and just for a split second Virginia thought that things had got really out of hand and that her mother was addressing Cooper.

‘No thanks,’ said Virginia with a frown.

‘Tom was just telling me he’s hiring a Jaguar to go to the Year 12 Formal.’

Virginia tilted her water bottle to her mouth and took a sip of water. ‘Cool.’

‘Have you organised to go with anyone yet?’ Virginia’s mother was making meaningful faces at her daughter while Cooper tucked into his toasted sandwiches. If it weren’t so pathetic it would have been funny.

‘I thought I’d go with Loz and some of the other girls,’ said Virginia.

‘Well, that’s not really a date…’ Her mother trailed off.

Virginia took another sip of water.

‘It’s not like the olden days, Mum. You don’t need a date to go to the Formal.’

Her mother bustled around the kitchen, tidying up, although there was nothing out of place. ‘Well, I don’t know, Virginia. Obviously I don’t know anything. Obviously I’m just a dinosaur. Although, your sister Nicole had a date for the Formal and that wasn’t so long ago.’

‘That’s because she had a boyfriend,’ said Virginia coolly.

‘Well, she had time to have a boyfriend,’ said her mother. ‘What with your dancing and voice training and now this acting thing—’

‘It’s not a
thing
, Mum. And I
did
have a boyfriend, but you wrecked that.’

Cooper looked up from his plate. ‘Have you got a ride?’ he asked.

Virginia looked at him sharply, but his face was a mask of innocence. She shook her head. ‘I left that to Loz, but she is useless. She keeps promising—’

Cooper ducked his head. ‘There’s less than a month to go. You might not get anything special at short notice.’

Virginia laughed. ‘Just my luck, I’ll have to get there in a regular taxi.’