Stay Well Soon (9 page)

6

Two Horses

I am not in the mood for afternoon maths today. I am especially not in the mood for doing maths races. Mr Parks gives us a sheet of maths questions and we have to write down as many answers as we can in two minutes. It makes my head hurt from concentrating. I notice that Morgan keeps looking at her fingers while we're doing it.

At the end of the two minutes we have to mark each other's sheets. Morgan marks mine and I mark hers. Morgan got them all right but I got three wrong.

Miss Ellis walks past the classroom and Mr Parks has to go talk to her. He tells us to review the answers that we got wrong with each other.

I ask Morgan why she kept looking at her hands. She says she knows a trick for her 9 times tables. Morgan explains her trick to me. You hold out both your hands with your palms facing up and for 3x9 you put down your third finger. You have two fingers to the left of the finger that's down and seven fingers to the right so the answer is 27. It works with all your fingers up to ten. Then you only have to learn 11 and 12x9.

‘That's so great!' I say.

‘What's great?' asks Teegan.

I explain it to her and she passes it on to the next person.

When Mr Parks comes back in we are all talking. ‘I told you to review your answers; I did not tell you to descend into chaos,' he says.

‘We've been doing maths,' says Brendan. ‘I can do my 9 times tables now.'

‘Really?' says Mr Parks. Brendan usually doesn't even know his 6 times tables. ‘What's 9x7?'

Brendan looks at his hands. ‘Sixty-three,' he says.

‘Very good,' says Mr Parks. ‘How did you learn that?'

‘The others taught me,' says Brendan.

‘Well, well, well. I'm very proud of the way you've worked together today.'

And he puts
two
marbles in the jar!

That means we have twenty-nine marbles. There is only one marble to go. It is
awesome
.

The bell rings for the end of the day and we clean up in record time. There is no rubbish left on the floor. We stand behind our chairs and look at Mr Parks.

He walks slowly over to the marbles. He picks up the last marble from inside the coffee cup and puts it in the jar.

At the start of the day we only had twenty-seven marbles in the jar. There are now thirty marbles in the jar. We've made it!

Morgan's parents are running late again so we wait at the gate together after school. I really hope Morgan's parents pick her up before me. But then I see Mum's car. And I can see that there is a passenger. This is exactly what I didn't want to happen.

‘David's in your car again,' says Morgan while Mum does the U-turn.

‘Yeah, I know.'

‘Are you all going to the hospital to visit Rhys?'

‘Yes.'

‘Could I come to the hospital to visit one day?'

Morgan doesn't even know Rhys.

Mum has pulled up so I pretend I haven't heard Morgan and quickly get into the car. There is no way that I want Morgan to come to the hospital with me. She would think it was all a big fun adventure and it isn't.

David and I play car cricket on the way to Melbourne and that passes the time. Mum plays too and she even laughs once.

*

When I get to the Kidz Space Lara is lying in a beanbag with her iPad on her knees. She is asleep, unfortunately. I will have to wait for her to wake up.

I sit in a beanbag next to her and get out my drawing journal to draw about the day. It takes me a long time because I put a lot of individual detail into each marble. The good thing about this drawing is that I hardly use any black pencil.

Lara still hasn't woken up.

I stare at her as hard as I can. I imagine wake-up rays coming out of my eyes and drilling into Lara, but she still doesn't wake up. It's almost time for me to go back to Rhys's room or Mum will come looking for me.

I stand up. All of my pencils fall out of the box with a big clatter on the floor. It was an accident.

Lara sits up quickly and says, ‘What?'

I say, ‘I accidentally dropped my pencils.'

Lara sits up. ‘Sorry, you gave me a fright. I didn't mean to fall asleep. Have you been here long?'

‘A little while.'

‘Oh. Sorry. How was your day anyway?' She rubs her eyes.

‘
Awesome
,' I say.

‘What happened?'

‘We got thirty marbles in the jar!'

I can see I will have to explain. ‘When we have thirty marbles in the jar, we get to have a class treat.'

‘That's awesome,' Lara says. ‘What kind of treat will you have?'

‘We don't know yet. We're all going to make suggestions and then vote on them.'

‘Democracy in action. That's worrying.'

‘Why?'

‘Well, what if the rest of the class chooses a bad treat?'

I guess that is a risk I will have to take.

‘I wish our treat could be horse riding,' I say.

‘Could it be?'

‘Nah, it would be too expensive. It'll have to be something at school. It's hard to think of fun things for school.'

‘You may have a point.'

Lara and I are both quiet for a while. I am trying to think of ideas for the treat. Horse riding would be the best treat ever but it's not going to happen.

‘Hey, Lara?' I say.

‘Hey, Stevie?'

‘When I get my horse, Atta Girl, could we go riding together? You could ride Finnigan again.'

‘Maybe.'

‘It would be so great.'

‘Yeah, it would be.'

I imagine Atta Girl and Finnigan meeting each other. The two horses would complement each other perfectly, Finnigan black and Atta Girl grey with a silver mane and tail. Lara and I would go for a ride and stop at a dam for water. The two horses would drink together and then stand under a tree nuzzling each other. They would be best friends.

7

Mountains

Morgan and I discuss the treat options before school. Anonymous suggestions are due in the box on Mr Parks's desk by the start of recess.

‘We could watch a movie,' Morgan suggests.

‘Yeah, but Mr Parks will pick it,' I say. ‘And that will
be a nightmare
. You weren't here when we had to watch
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.'

‘We could have a party,' says Morgan.

‘Maybe.'

‘We could visit prisoners in jail.'

‘We've already had our excursions for this year,' I tell her.

‘Someone famous could come to the school,' says Morgan.

‘Would someone famous come?' I ask.

‘Probably not.'

Thinking of ideas for treats is harder than we thought.

After recess, Morgan and I walk into the classroom together.

‘Look!' says Morgan, pointing.

On the board Mr Parks has written up a list of our treat suggestions:

• •
  Party
  
• •
  Movie
  
• •
  Extra Sport
  
• •
  Free Time
  
• •
  SingStar
  

Morgan turns to me and I turn to her and we both say, ‘
SingSta
r
!'

I can't believe we didn't think of it ourselves. A
SingStar
day would be so much fun.

Charlotte is putting her lunch box in her bucket. ‘Are you going to vote for
SingStar
too?' she asks.

‘Yes,' we say.

‘Good,' she says. ‘That means us three and you two are definitely voting for
SingStar
. So that's five votes already.'

The vote is not until the end of the day, though, which seems like a long time to wait.

We do silent reading before lunch. Morgan leans over and whispers, ‘The waiting is
killing
me.'

Mr Parks shushes her. Morgan is always exaggerating.

At lunchtime Morgan and I talk about
SingStar
. Apparently, Morgan used to play it all the time at her cousin's house. I've only played it once, at April's.

Julian is walking towards us with his lunch box. Instead of going back into the portable like normal he stops in front of us.

‘All the boys want to have a movie day,' he says.

‘I'm voting for
SingStar
,' says Morgan.

‘Me too,' I say.

‘But we want the movie day.'

‘You can vote for the movie day,' says Morgan. ‘We're not stopping you.'

‘If we don't get the movie day, we're going to be
really
angry.' Julian kicks our bench. Then he limps up the portable steps.

We have art after lunch. Miss Ellis asks for volunteers to get paint from the storeroom. We all put up our hands but she chooses me and Teegan.

Teegan and I walk from the art portable to the main school building together.

‘Have you decided what to vote for?' I ask.

‘I don't think I'll vote,' Teegan says.

‘Why not?'

‘Well, the thing that I want to vote for isn't what everyone else wants. So I won't vote at all.'

‘What did you want to vote for?'

‘Extra sport.'

That makes sense. Teegan loves T-ball.

‘But I know that everyone else wants the movie day,' she says.

We are at the main building now, and you're not allowed to talk in the corridors. We go to the storeroom and collect the paint pots.

When we get back to the art room Miss Ellis tells us that we're doing Free Expression.

Morgan and I go to the supplies post together for paint.

I whisper to her, ‘Teegan's not going to vote because Julian told her not to.'

‘He can't do that!' says Morgan.

‘He's done it. Now Teegan's not going to vote for extra sport like she wanted to.'

Morgan and I go back to the tables with our paint. Morgan starts work straight away, but I don't know what to paint.

Miss Ellis comes over. ‘Stevie, there's not a lot of Free Expression on a blank piece of paper, is there?'

It is not a real question.

I dip my brush in the black paint and paint a tail.

Miss Ellis asks Morgan, ‘What are you working on?'

‘A sign,' says Morgan.

Morgan has painted alternate letters in green and purple to say, ‘
every vote counts'
.

I suddenly know what I should paint. I turn the tail I painted into the ‘
t'
in ‘
vote'
and write, ‘
your vote, your voice'
in different-coloured letters.

Morgan and I find bits of old cardboard and sticky-tape our pieces of paper to them to make them stronger. We stick the signs to two rulers and we are finished.

At afternoon recess we stick our signs into the space between the slats in our bench. Some people are not going to like this.

Julian and Tim come over and stare at us.

‘Freaks,' says Julian.

‘Sticks and stones,' says Morgan, but too quietly for them to hear.

‘What was that, freak?' asks Tim.

‘Nothing,' says Morgan.

They walk away.

Charlotte, April and Brianna see us when they come back to the classroom. They stop to look at our signs.

‘Have you heard about what Julian's been doing?' asks Morgan.

‘Yes,' says April. ‘It sucks.'

‘But don't worry,' says Charlotte. ‘We're going to tell all the girls that if they don't vote for
SingStar
, they can't come to my birthday.'

‘People should vote how they want,' says Morgan. ‘That's the whole point of voting.'

April rolls her eyes. Of course she doesn't understand democracy.

Mr Parks is on yard duty. He comes over to us, ‘Ah, so these are the placards Miss Ellis told me about?'

He does so too love Miss Ellis.

‘People should vote how they want,' says Morgan.

‘Who thinks they shouldn't?' Mr Parks asks.

He is trying to make us dob, but we are not falling for it.

‘Never mind,' he says. ‘Good luck, girls.'

When we go back into class it is time for the vote. Mr Parks does a big talk about how no-one should be pressured to vote for anything. Mr Parks has decided on a secret ballot to make sure there will be no pressure and the class treat will truly reflect the will of the students.

Mr Parks gives us all a piece of paper with the five options. We have to tick the item that we want.

I put my arms around the paper to hide what I'm ticking. I tick the box next to
SingStar
and fold the piece of paper over.

Mr Parks comes around and collects our ballots.

He says, ‘You can talk among yourselves.'

But we are all quiet.

Mr Parks takes the votes back to his desk, sorts them into piles and counts them. Then he stands up and walks over to the board.

‘The people have spoken,' he says.

Next to
Party
he writes:
2 votes
.

Next to
Movie
he writes:
7 votes
. There are ten boys in the class, so there should have been ten votes for the movie day.

‘Um-ah,' says Brianna, which is exactly what I was thinking. Mr Parks gives Brianna a look.

Next to
Extra Sport
Mr Parks writes:
6 votes
.

Next to
Free Time
he writes:
1 vote
.

Next to
SingStar
he writes:
8 votes
.

SingStar
has the most votes! We won!

Julian calls out, ‘We should vote again. Some people didn't vote properly.'

Mr Parks says the votes were fair and square and we will have our
SingStar
day next week on Friday!

I hope Mr Parks doesn't sing a song about loving Miss Ellis.

Lara isn't in the Kidz Space that afternoon. I go to the desk to speak to the nurse.

‘Can I help you?' she asks.

‘Do you know where Lara is? She usually comes to the Kidz Space with me.'

‘She's in her room today, Stevie. Do you want me to tell her you were looking for her?'

‘Yes please.'

‘Maybe you could visit her when she's feeling better.'

‘That would be good.' I really want to tell Lara that democracy can work. That even though we're not getting to go horse riding, which would be the best treat ever, we're still going to do something really fun.

I go to Rhys's room but he is asleep. Mum is reading her book but there's a newspaper on the windowsill.
I pick it up and look at the first page. A man had his arm bitten off by a shark but he still likes sharks. A girl died because her mum left her in the garage for three weeks. I'm glad my mum isn't like that. A kitten was saved from the top of an electricity pole by firemen in a cherry picker. I would like to know how it got up there in the first place.

Mum finally decides that it's time to go home. At the lift Lara's mum is waiting too.

‘Hello, Miranda. Hello, Stevie,' she says.

‘Hi, Sarah,' says Mum.

‘Rhys is due to go home soon, isn't he?' says Lara's mum as the lift door closes.

‘Hopefully in the next few days,' says Mum.

The lift doors open and heaps more people get in. I am being squashed. The doors start to close again. Then a leg sticks through the doorway. The doors open. It is a man carrying a big box of fruit. He manages to squeeze in and I'm even more squashed than before. The lady standing beside me is poking her bag into me.

I want to get out of here. I imagine riding Atta Girl through the mountains. We would ride along ridges, into gullies and through raging rivers until we finally reached the top of the mountain. We would look out on the view of the trees and valleys below with a great sense of achievement.

‘
For goodness sake
!' Lara's mum says to my mum. ‘Who brings a box of fruit into a crowded lift?'

‘Tell me about it,' says my mum.

The man with the box of fruit says, ‘If it wasn't for your fat arses there'd be plenty of room.'

Mum gets really mad. It is really loud if you shout in a lift. Atta Girl wouldn't like loud noises. That is what would be so great about being on the mountain. It would be so peaceful.

Finally, the doors open and everyone pushes getting out. I think the man with the box of fruit is scared of Mum because he won't look at her and he walks off really quickly.

We sit on a bench outside the lift. Mum starts crying and Lara's mum pats her shoulder. She says it's bound to get too much sometimes.

‘I feel like such a psycho,' says Mum.

‘Don't worry about it,' says Sarah. ‘It happens to all of us sometimes.'

Mum takes a deep breath and says, ‘I'm fine now.'

‘Are you sure you're right to drive?'

‘Sure. I'm okay, really. Thanks.'

‘Alright then. You look after yourself. Give me a call when you get home if you need to.'

We walk to the car together and Lara's mum waves as we drive away.

Mum bangs the steering wheel with her hand. ‘I am such an idiot, making a fuss in front of Sarah,' says Mum. ‘With everything that's going on.'

‘What to do you mean?' I say.

But Mum just shakes her head.

‘I didn't know you were friends with Lara's mum,' I say.

‘We have coffee together when you're at school,' says Mum. ‘How do you know Lara and her mum anyway?'

‘I see Lara in the Kidz Space sometimes. Isn't it funny how you're friends with her mum and I'm friends with Lara, but we didn't realise?!'

‘Yeah.'

At home I draw about the day. I think Rhys would like this drawing too.

That reminds me. I go to Rhys's room. I don't want to take all the gold coins, because that would be too obvious. So I take a handful of silver coins. When I get back to my room I count them: three dollars and fifteen cents. I put the money in my top drawer. But maybe that isn't safe enough. I find my favourite sock, which has a picture of a horse on it, and I put the money inside and tie a knot at the top. I push the sock to the back of the drawer.

It is good to be able to use my favourite sock again. I lost the other sock in the wash. Dad Ben says where lost socks go is one of the great mysteries of life.

I do my teeth and get into bed. I call out for Mum to come and say goodnight to me.

She sits on the side of the bed. ‘Stevie,' she says, ‘I was just talking to Lara's mum on the phone. She says you spend a lot of time with Lara in the Kidz Space.'

I shrug. ‘I guess so. I like her.'

‘The thing is, Stevie, I think Lara is too old for you.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘I mean, she's a teenager, and you're still in primary school. She's too mature for you, love. She's probably interested in things that you're not ready for.'

‘I don't think so. We both love horses and drawing.'

‘I don't want to argue about this, Stevie. Lara is too old for you. How about you concentrate on visiting Rhys at the hospital instead of Lara.'

Mum kisses me on the head and goes out.

I don't understand what Mum is going on about. I know some teenagers don't like primary school kids. Like how Rhys stopped playing with me when he went to high school and started being friends with stupid old Cameron. But Lara isn't like that. Anyway, we are friends because we have things in common, like loving horses.

I am not going to stop being friends with Lara, I don't care what Mum says.