Blue Water High (16 page)

But the rules were the rules, and even though Vince wanted to drop the whole thing the police had certain procedures to follow. Fly and Heath would have to go into the local station in the morning and give a full statement. Then
they would decide what should happen.

By the time they came out of the office, the house was looking slightly less like a war zone. The police officers nodded to Deb and Simmo and headed out of there.

Deb stared hard at them all. One by one.

‘Frankly, I don't have the words to describe how disappointed I am. With all of you.'

Anna stood up. The party had been her idea and she'd decided to take the fall. ‘It's not their fault, it's mine. I promised Simmo the party wouldn't get out of hand.' She looked down at her hands. ‘But then I got nervous it wouldn't be any good and so I just kept inviting people – and then we couldn't get rid of them.'

Deb wasn't listening anymore. She'd stopped listening right after the part where Anna had said she'd promised Simmo. She was glaring at him like she was going to pop a valve. ‘You knew about this?'

It was only then that everyone realised that Deb hadn't known about the party at all. Simmo let out a long, whistling kind of breath. He hadn't told Deb about the party because he knew she wouldn't have come at it. No way, no day. So, foolishly, he'd told her he was inviting her out to dinner and a movie as a way to try and get their working relationship onto a better level.

Deb took some deep breaths, stared back at the mess. ‘I don't want to see anyone in bed until this place is spick and span.' She turned to Simmo. ‘We need to talk.
Now
.' Fly cleaned like it was an Olympic sport. While the others tackled the backyard Fly lingered as close as she could to
Simmo's office. She knew she shouldn't be there, but she couldn't help it, she needed to know.

‘We sit through a whole meal, and a movie, and I talk about being worried about leaving the kids alone and you don't mention they're having a party?'

Fly could tell that Deb was angry because Simmo had lied to her, but that wasn't what she was angriest about. She was talking about something in her contract which meant she had to report all ‘major incidents' to Solar Blue. If Heath and Fly were charged with vandalism or wilful destruction of property there would be no way of hiding it …

‘And now, because you're too busy being “friends” with the kids, I have to make a call in the morning that will, in all likelihood, lose you your job.'

Fly stood there dumbfounded. Simmo could lose his job?

She turned around and moved towards the couch, her head reeling. She absent-mindedly reached down and picked up a cushion with half a container of dip dripping off the sides. It was then that she saw the cake. It was a mud cake with hot pink writing across it. She peered down at the smeared letters and finally she was able to make out the words: H
APPY
B
IRTHDAY
F
LY
…

She looked up and found Heath in the doorway.

‘The party was for me?' she asked.

Heath nodded.

‘That's why you got off the bus to come back and get me.'

Heath nodded again.

‘My mission was to make sure the guest of honour didn't miss her own party.'

Fly wished she hadn't gotten up that morning at all.

At 3.30 am Deb decided the house was in reasonable enough shape for them to go to bed. They could finish it off in the morning. The truth was she was sick of the sight of them.

Fly didn't sleep. She sat on her bed desperately trying to think of something to do. She told the others about Simmo at breakfast, but they couldn't think of anything either.

Just when things seemed to be at their worst, Edge appeared in the doorway holding an antique rocking chair. One of the arms had been smashed to pieces and the bend in one of the legs now made it rock like a horse with three of its legs tied together. The chair had been Jilly's grandmother's and it was Jilly's pride and joy.

‘Please, someone slap me if I ever suggest having a party again,' said Anna.

‘What are we going to do?' asked Perri.

‘I thought about fixing it, but it's pretty trashed,'said Edge. ‘Maybe we can try and find another one.'

Anna lifted her head from the table.

‘No,' she said. ‘As uncomfortable as it will be, I think Jilly deserves the truth.'

The simplicity of what she said nearly floored Fly. This was what she needed to hear. This was why she had sat up half the night. Finally, she knew what she had to do.

The conference room at the police station had six chairs set up when they arrived. They were the most uncomfortable chairs Fly had ever sat in, but she guessed they weren't meant to make you feel relaxed. Two uniformed constables
sat on one side of the table, and Fly, Heath, Deb and Simmo sat on the other. It'd been horribly silent in the car on the way there. Simmo's driving was worse than ever.

One of the police officers got their note-taking gear ready, but Fly interrupted. ‘Can I say something before you start taking notes?'

Everyone stared in surprise. Fly took a deep breath and launched into that big scary space people like school counsellors called ‘owning stuff'.

She looked first to Deb and Simmo.

‘The only reason they had the party in the first place was because I made a fuss about being treated like a kid. I'm the reason Anna asked Simmo to bend the rules, so I could feel like I was having a grown-up party without adult supervision. So that bit's definitely my fault.'

She took a breath and pushed on. ‘And we only missed the bus because … because I didn't want to …' She took another breath. ‘I didn't want to be alone with Heath.'

Heath's head shot up. ‘What?'

Brave as it was to have said it, Fly wasn't up to looking at Heath yet.

The policewoman cleared her throat. ‘Fiona, I'm not sure how all this is relevant to the incident with the caravan.'

Fly took yet another breath. Now for the really crunchy bit. She closed her eyes and plunged on in. ‘Believe me, I wish it wasn't, but it is … I had a dream. An … inappropriate dream where Heath – well, he kissed me and so all day I was trying to avoid him, ‘cause it made me feel …
confused, and that's why we missed the bus, and that's when everything started to go wrong.'

Without even seeing it, Fly felt the look pass between Deb and Simmo.

‘If I was half as grown up as I thought I was, I would've gotten over myself, and we'd've gone to the movies for my birthday, we wouldn't have missed the bus in the first place and Simmo wouldn't have to lose his job.'

It would be fair to say there was stunned silence all round.

The police asked Heath and Fly to wait outside so they could talk to Deb and Simmo in private. They sat on another pair of hard chairs in the waiting room, surrounded by posters warning about the dangers of drink driving and smuggling birds. Fly thought they should have one about reckless emotions. A great big one with her face on it.

After a long time, Heath looked up at her. ‘So I was just wondering … how the real kiss stacked up to the dream one. Or whether maybe it wasn't so good, and that's why you freaked out.'

Fly didn't know what to say. She felt like she'd run out of puff on the adult stuff and here he was, asking for more. ‘I don't know,' she mumbled.

Heath nodded, but Fly could see he was actually hurt. He suddenly seemed unusually interested in the finer details of bird smuggling.

At home, the rest of the crew were following Jilly around as she wandered through the house. They were definitely going to tell her, they just hadn't nailed down when.

‘Neat as a pin,' said Jilly. ‘Which can only mean one thing. You had a party.'

Bec complained. ‘Oh, Jilly. You didn't even give us a chance to confess.'

‘We did have a party, Jilly.' Anna bit the bullet. ‘And your beautiful chair was broken.'

Jilly didn't look so friendly anymore. ‘How broken?'

‘Think smithereens,' said Matt.

Jilly thought on smithereens for a moment.

‘I wish we could turn back the clock and make it right, but we can't. All we can do is say how sorry we are,' Anna said.

Jilly let out a sigh. ‘If one of you had come into my room and sat on it yesterday, it would've broken then too. It was on its way out …' Jilly picked up the odd cushion, double-checking on their cleaning job.

‘But given it was broken in less than honest circumstances … You all do woodwork – you can make me a new one.'

Edge was the first to protest. ‘But it was all curved and curly and stuff!'

‘I don't care how it looks, Edge – I'm interested in effort. And you've all got off very lightly, if you ask me.'

They did all, in fact, know this to be true.

‘Yeah, well, Deb hasn't even started with us yet.' Anna grimaced.

Right on cue, Deb, Simmo, Fly and Heath walked through the door. Everyone stared, waiting for a verdict.

‘The jails are all full apparently,' said Simmo, ‘so we were allowed to bring them home.'

There was relief all round, but it still left one question unanswered, and Fly was the only one brave enough to ask it.

‘What about you, Simmo?'

When he didn't give her an answer, Fly looked to Deb. She didn't look happy. She stared at Fly and then at Simmo.

‘When would I have had the chance to report him, Fly, given that I've been up half the night dealing with all this?'

Which, in Deb's hardcore way, meant Simmo was off the hook too. Fly could've jumped up on the lounge and sung at the top of her lungs. Jilly would possibly have stabbed her but she felt so relieved she almost did it anyway. She was getting the hang of this ‘meet stuff in the face' business. Just one face left to meet; better do it before the courage deserted her. ‘Can I talk to you for a minute, Heath?'

She led him out to the lawn and waited for him to sit. A couple of deep breaths and then on with the truth. Now they were alone she could feel the shakes creeping up her legs.

‘Um, Heath? It was – it was as good as in the dream.'

There! She'd said it.

Heath stared at her. ‘Beg yours?'

She said it again. ‘It was as good as in the dream.'

‘What was as good?'

Why was he making her say it so many times?

‘The kiss. The kiss was as good as in the dream. Just so you know.'

Heath allowed himself a small smile. ‘Cool.'

And then, because she hadn't thought it through, and because this conversation was supposed to be about tidying things up and she could feel the whole thing threatening to go messy again, she pushed on.

‘Not that I'd know. Having had no experience or anything. Who knows? It might've been terrible.'

It sounded worse than she'd meant it to, but now it was out, she couldn't reel it back in.

Heath swallowed hard on the kick in the kisser. He nodded and gave her one of those sad half-smiles, the kind that only makes it up one side of your face. He stood there hunting for the kind of wisecrack which would bring things back to normal. Fly held her breath, willing him to find the line, but it didn't come.