All the next day Razz wasn’t quite himself. That meant he was sort of quiet and serious and merged into the background. A bit like a normal person. It was scary. But by the time our second-round debate was due to get under way that night, Razz had gone from ‘sort of quiet’ to hyper-jumpy.
He was sitting in the audience on the lookout for Sally. From out the front I could see his head bobbing around like a prairie dog on a caffeine high. Sally didn’t arrive till after the debate had started. Jess was with her. They slipped in quietly between speakers and grabbed a seat right by the door. Sally shot a tight smile at Razz and then a not-so-tight smile at Scobie, Ignatius and me out the front. My hopes for Razz were fading fast.
Just for the record, we ended up winning. That made it two from two. At the end there was the usual congratulating and commiserating and everyone milled around chatting for a while before heading off. When Scobie, Bill and Ignatius left to support our Year Eight team there was just me, Razz, Sally and Jess in the room.
Sally’s eyes were a bit puffy, like she’d stayed up all night. Both girls looked tense. Razz struggled to get the conversation going, but he was fighting a losing battle.
‘Great debate, hey? Don’t know how the boys did it without my help.’
The girls pushed out a couple of weak smiles.
‘Of course, it’s a little known fact that I write most of Scobie’s stuff for him. He’d be nothing without me.’
The girls’ weak smiles weakened.
‘On his own this time though. I’ve been too busy editing the sun safe epic to make you two look even hotter.’
The girls’ smiles died stone dead. Sally levelled her serious dark eyes at Razz.
‘Can we talk now?’
Razz tried to stay upbeat, but his upbeat looked like it had been beaten to a pulp.
‘Talk … Sure, right … Yeah … no problem. In there OK?’
Razz pointed to the next classroom. Sally nodded and went through the connecting door with Razz tagging along behind. If his shoulders had been slumped any lower he’d be sliding along the floor. They closed the door behind them and I was left alone in an empty room with Jess. I stood there feeling stupid until she sat down and patted the chair beside her.
‘Have a seat. Might be a bit of a wait.’
It crossed my mind that being seen sitting next to Jess Hambleton might do wonders for my shattered post-’extensions’ reputation. I was hoping someone from my Homeroom might wander down the corridor.
‘Great debate,’ she said. ‘I could never do that. I can talk all right. Mum says I can talk under wet cement. I just can’t say anything smart enough, that’s the problem. Scobie was awesome. I’m listening to him speak and I’m like “Wow!” You were great too.’
‘Thanks. It helps a lot when I don’t pass out.’
Jess’s mouth opened in a big ‘O’. ‘That’s right! It was you that time, wasn’t it? You ended up on top of Kelly. We heard all about it back at school and I’m like, Oh my god, that is soooooo funny! Not for you, of course. Or Kelly.’ Jess’s smile turned down. ‘Gosh, I miss her.’
‘Me too!’ I wanted to say, but didn’t. Then Jess bit her bottom lip and went quiet. She sat staring ahead at the whiteboard as if she had X-ray vision and could see through it into the next room.
I followed her gaze. ‘Wonder what’s going on in there.’
Jess didn’t answer, but when I looked across at her, she had her head down and was wiping dampness from under her eyes.
‘Jess? What’s up? You OK?’
Her face just crumpled up.
‘I’ve wrecked everything for Sal. It’s all my fault. I should have kept my big mouth shut.’
‘What do you mean? What did you do? What happened?’
Jess shook her head and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
‘I wasn’t going to say anything. I totally wasn’t. But we were on camp and Sal’s like “What’s wrong? You don’t seem happy.” And I’m like, “No, it’s nothing. I’m fine, really.” And she’s like, “No, you’re not. You have to tell me what’s wrong. I’m your friend.” And she’s right but I don’t want to tell her because she is my friend and I know it will just stuff everything up for her. But she keeps saying, “You have to tell me. I’m your friend. I can help.” And I’m still totally like, “No, really, I’ll be fine. It’s no big deal.” But she can tell it totally is and she won’t let up till I say what’s bugging me. So I do. I didn’t want to, I didn’t mean to, but I do. And now I wish I could take it back, because it’s going to ruin everything for Sal just like I knew it would. God, I’m such an idiot sometimes!’
Beside me Jess blinked up at the ceiling as big tears pooled in her eyes and overflowed down her cheeks. I know Razz would probably say that there was something wrong with me, but I couldn’t help thinking that Jess Hambleton didn’t really need a micro bikini to be beautiful.
‘But what was it? What did you tell her?’
Jess dug into her bag and wiped her nose with a big wad of tissues.
‘I told her …’
But just then Razz burst in on us and grabbed me by the arm.
‘Come on, dude! I need you!’
‘Why?’
‘’Cause you’re the only one who can save me, man!’