Spurt (5 page)

The chemist’s assistant looked up at him, blank-faced. ‘My second cousin was in an ad for Sultana World when she was in Grade 2. She got paid, like, two hundred dollars.’

Jack looked apologetic. ‘Um, my thing was kind of a bigger deal than an ad for Sultana World, actually.’

‘Avocado World? That is a pretty big deal, I guess.’ She handed Jack a white paper bag.

Jack pulled out the $50 note his gran had given him that morning. ‘Ten thousand dollars. That’s how much I won.’

The assistant stopped chewing her gum. ‘Wow. You could buy our entire shelf of muscle powder with that.’

Jack headed straight for his gran’s bungalow when he got home.

Jack’s gran, Marlene, had moved into the bungalow behind the house two years ago. Her unit on the other side of Upland had been slowly falling to pieces ever since Jack’s step-granddad, Clive, had run off with all of Marlene’s savings. Jack had wanted to do something useful with his
Bigwigs
winnings (or ‘losings’, as he called them), so he’d put the prize money towards renovating the bungalow for his gran to live in. For a while there, he’d felt like he was doing his bit. Like he really was the man of the house.

‘Knock, knock,’ he shouted. He waited a moment, then pushed open the door.

Marlene was lounging on her bed, an old-generation iPhone with a turquoise case in one hand and a clunky grey dumbphone resting on the bedspread next to her.

Hallie had handed the iPhone down to her a few weeks ago. ‘Just because I don’t have thousands of dollars to give away,’ she’d said, ‘doesn’t mean I can’t be generous if I want to.’

Marlene squinted at one phone and then the other through her glasses. The radio (loud) and TV (muted) were both playing in the background.

‘Gran?’

Marlene looked up. ‘Jack!’ She tossed the iPhone aside as though she’d been caught shoplifting. ‘Home already? Gosh, time flies.’

‘I’ve got your stuff from the chemist,’ he said, handing her the white paper bag. ‘Is everything okay with the phone?’

‘What phone, dear?’

Jack paused. ‘Hallie’s old phone. The one you
just
had in your hand.’

‘Oh!’ said Marlene, glancing down at the iPhone in surprise. ‘Yes. I’ve just been copying my numbers over.’

‘Do you need a hand – ?’

‘No,’ said Marlene sharply. ‘No, I’ll manage, dear. Thank you.’

Jack felt his phone buzz in his pocket. The noise sent Marlene lunging for the iPhone she’d just tossed aside.

‘Um, I think that was me,’ said Jack.

‘Right,’ said Marlene, nodding casually and edging back across the bed. ‘Good-o.’

Jack’s phone buzzed a second time. Marlene eyed the iPhone on the bed nervously.

‘I guess I’ll find out who that is,’ said Jack.

‘What?’ said Marlene, ashen-faced.

‘I mean, I’ll … find out who’s texting me.’

‘Oh,’ said Marlene. ‘Yes, that’s a better idea.’

Jack turned to leave, but found himself lingering at the doorway.

‘Wait,’ he said, turning around, ‘so what did you – ?’

Marlene quickly crossed her arms and jammed the iPhone – which she appeared to have picked up again the moment Jack had turned his back – into her left armpit. ‘What now?’

Jack paused. ‘Never mind.’

Jack dumped his backpack by the kitchen door, grabbed a Sultana World grape juice from the fridge, then checked the messages on his phone.

It was Vivi who’d texted him.

Where were u after school? said the first text.

U didn’t wait for us, said the second.

Jack turned his phone off and went to grab his laptop from his backpack. Of course he hadn’t waited. Why remind them yet again of the several anatomically significant reasons why he completely failed to fit in with them anymore?

And anyway, there was somewhere else he’d decided he needed to be. A place he’d never dared go before.

Jack put his laptop on the kitchen bench. He opened a new browser window and navigated to the page he wanted, wondering if this was really a good idea.

Before he knew it, his fingers were on the keyboard. He glanced at his switched-off phone, took a deep breath and typed three words.

Bring back Jack.

‘We think Jack stands a very good chance of getting onto the program,’ Ms Aria said to Jack’s mum. ‘He’s got a lot of charisma. He’s very popular here at Upland West. And he’s clever, obviously. He has an excellent head for solving problems within a team and bringing out the best in others.’ Ms Aria smiled. ‘I really do think this would be a terrific opportunity for him.’

Ms Aria opened up her laptop and played a clip from a mock quiz show they’d filmed during the school camp the year before. ‘Remember this, Jack?’

‘Yes, Ms Aria.’

‘Jack played the quizmaster,’ Ms Aria explained. ‘You can see what a natural he is. The producers have been asking local schools to suggest candidates who tick all the boxes, who might be good ambassadors for Upland. They’re looking for someone quick-thinking as well as someone who comes across well on camera. We think Jack’s a good bet.’

Jack’s mum, Adele, leant forward in her chair, leafing through the forms. Her eyes flicked up and down each page. It was a relief for
Jack to see something other than an abandoned, empty look in her eyes. She looked up at him. ‘What do you think, Jack?’

‘It sounds … totally awesome,’ said Jack, trying to sound enthusiastic. It hadn’t been his first thought, when Ms Aria had started talking about this
Bigwigs
thing. But he would’ve done or said anything to keep that sad look from his mum’s face.

Jack turned to Ms Aria. ‘Is there prize money?’

His mum looked embarrassed. ‘Don’t do it for money, Jack!
We’re not that desperate!’

‘There’s prize money for the finalists, yes,’ said Ms Aria. ‘But I think it’s the experience – the opportunity to use your talents – that you’ll find most rewarding. It’s a competition, there’s no denying that, but I think you’ll find it’s best not to focus on that side of things.’

Adele nodded. ‘I’ll be proud of you no matter how far you get.
And … your dad would have said the same.’

Even after three years, Jack still wasn’t used to hearing ‘your dad’ in the past tense. He looked at Ms Aria. ‘Everyone would still treat me like normal, right? It wouldn’t be … weird afterwards?’

‘People might treat you a little differently at first,’ said Ms Aria.
‘But of anyone in our Grade 6 group, Jack, you’re the one I think is most likely to handle whatever … recognition might come from being on the program.’

‘You mean, he’s not some ego-crazed maniac,’ said Adele.

Ms Aria smiled. ‘Jack is definitely not an ego-crazed maniac, no.’

Jack took a swig from his Sultana World juice and scanned the search results.

Even as a contestant he’d fought the urge to take a peek at the
Bigwigs
forums. He remembered Mickey Santini having some sort of mini nervous breakdown after reading what the fans had said about his make-it-up-as-you-go-along approach to the week three pet food commercial challenge, when Yellow Team had been sent to work at the Normington-Price advertising agency. Jack mentally high-fived his Grade 6 self for exercising superior self-restraint.

It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for.

Me and my friends go to school with Jack Sprigley and he’s super hot!
wrote ^kitty^cat on the ‘Next Season News’ thread.
Nobody knows anything about him and he’s all mysterious. Not like Piers Blain who’s in all the magazines all the time. Boring! BRING BACK JACK!

Jack had never thought of himself as mysterious. It wasn’t like he’d been deliberately secretive or enigmatic or anything. Sometimes you just couldn’t control how other people saw you.

BRING BACK JACK!
wrote {e-girrl}.
Piers Blain is boring and also gross. He has little bits of hair in his armpits and even some on his chest. O__o.

Immediately after that, Urchn weighed in.

Yeah, we like Jack because he’s super huggy and you could have him for a sleepover and not have to worry because he’s like a little teddy bear or something. But not hairy like a teddy bear. Not hairy at all! BRING BACK JACK!

Jack nearly spat out his juice. He was about to close the laptop when the title of one of the other forum posts caught his eye.

Reality TV Champion Blain Scores $1m Luxury Apartment

One of the forum members – obviously more of a fan of Piers Blain than ^kitty^cat, {e-girrl} or Urchn – had posted a link to a recent news article.

Former
Bigwigs
star Piers Blain spent his holidays approving the finishing touches on a harbour-side apartment, which he’ll take occupancy of next month.

‘The main thing was fine-tuning the self-dimming lights in the X-box room,’ said Blain, 14. ‘And choosing the right beanbags. These ones are designed by the guy who invented Shane Warne’s latest skin tone.’

Blain will have his own live-in chaperone and tutor, and has said he intends to ‘party responsibly’ while also focusing on ‘blitzing’ his final few years of high school, reviewing games for the Byteface videoblog, and continuing his appearances as the public face of the ‘Be Cool To Each Other’ anti-bullying campaign.