22

jesse

In class the next day, Kate raises her hand as soon as Sarah walks into the room. Sarah pretends not to notice and shuffles some papers on her desk.

‘Good morning,’ she says.

‘Good morning, Sarah,’ we answer. Kate waves her hand to get attention.

‘I don’t suppose you want to go to Walter, Kate?’ Sarah asks.

‘No, Sarah,’ Kate says. ‘Jesse and I have an idea for an excursion.’

Sarah glances at me and I try to look hopeful, without giving too much away.

‘Yes?’ she asks.

‘The Japanese Embassy, Sarah,’ announces Kate. I look at Kate’s hands. She’s crossed her fingers, for luck. I do the same.

‘Not this again!’ says Skye. ‘Can’t we go to the beach instead?’

Sarah places the papers in a neat pile on her desk. ‘And what would we do at the embassy, Kate?’ she asks.

‘We’d hold up banners made in art class and ask the Japanese not to kill any more whales,’ says Kate, looking around the class for support. Lance stifles a yawn while Anastasia stares out the window.

Hunter raises his hand.

‘No, Hunter, we are not going to threaten the Japanese Embassy staff.’

‘I didn’t say anything, Sarah,’ says Hunter, looking hurt. ‘I was going to suggest shouting would be better than being polite.’ Hunter raises his voice, ‘I’m good at SHOUTING, Sarah.’

Sarah winces. ‘Yes, I’m aware of that, thank you, Hunter.’ She takes a deep breath and looks at Kate. ‘I’m sorry, Kate, but I don’t think your parents would like me to—’

Kate raises her hand and shakes it around. Sarah nods.

‘I’ve already got a note from my parents saying it’s okay,’ says Kate, smiling.

Skye raises her hand. ‘I haven’t, Sarah. My parents would be very upset if I got a criminal record.’

‘There’s no crime in standing on a footpath, Skye,’ answers Sarah.

‘And no fun either!’ responds Skye.

‘I can practise my Japanese language skills,’ says Eoin.

Everyone looks at Eoin. Sarah asks, ‘And what can you say in Japanese, Eoin?’

‘Hello, goodbye, happy birthday,’ Eoin bites his lip, thinking, ‘and how far is it to Tokyo?’

Sarah smiles.

Anastasia raises her hand. ‘Justin Bieber is very popular in Japan,’ she says.

‘What does that have to do with Kate’s idea?’ asks Sarah.

Anastasia shrugs. ‘We could write to Justin to ask him not to go to Japan until they free the whales.’

‘The whales aren’t captured,’ says Kate. ‘They’re killed in the ocean.’

‘Tanjoubi omedetou!’ says Eoin, in a loud voice.

‘Is that happy birthday in Japanese, Eoin?’ asks Sarah.

Eoin nods and looks like he’s about to start singing.

I quickly interject, ‘We can hand out leaflets letting the public know about the whales getting eaten.’

‘Yeah. With lots of pictures of whales cut up and blood and guts hanging out everywhere,’ adds Hunter. ‘I vote we go to the embassy, Sarah.’

Sarah looks very nervous at the mention of the word vote.

‘Good idea, Hunter,’ I say. ‘Let’s have a vote, Sarah.’

Sarah sinks back into her chair.

‘I vote for the embassy!’ says Hunter. He raises his hand in the air. Everyone follows, except Skye, who crosses her arms and stamps her feet under the desk.

Eoin says, ‘Hai’, in a loud voice. We all look at him. He grins, ‘It means yes in Japanese.’

Sarah sighs.

‘Jesse and I will write the leaflet, Sarah,’ says Kate.

‘I’ll look for pictures, Sarah,’ adds Hunter.

‘I’ll write to Justin,’ says Anastasia.

Sarah raises her hand. ‘Okay. I’ll suggest it to Larry.’

Kate grins. Skye groans.

‘But we will only hand out leaflets,’ Sarah continues, ‘without gruesome pictures. Just the facts.’

‘The facts are whales get their guts cut open,’ says Hunter. ‘Why can’t we show the truth?’

‘We’ll tell the truth, not show. That’s final.’ Sarah looks at Kate. ‘Kate, you and Jesse are in charge of gathering all the information we need.’ She sighs. ‘The rest of the class can design the leaflet and—’

‘Practise shouting!’ suggests Hunter.

‘—workshop a way to approach people in the street that is courteous and friendly,’ says Sarah.

Skye raises her hand.

‘Yes, Skye.’

‘I object.’

‘To what? Saving the whales?’ interrupts Kate.

‘To spending valuable class time standing on a street corner, littering,’ says Skye.

‘It’s not littering,’ answers Kate.

‘Yes, it is. People throw that stuff on the ground after pretending to read it.’

‘I’m happy to make everyone read it, Sarah,’ suggests Hunter.

‘That’s not necessary. We’ll hand out the leaflets and hope that’s enough. It is a democracy, after all,’ says Sarah.

‘Not for the whales,’ whispers Kate.

‘I’ll pick up all the leaflets that get tossed away, Sarah. So we can recycle,’ I offer.

‘Eeeewwww!’ says Skye.

‘Enough!’ says Sarah. ‘I’ll ask Larry what the school policy is on—’

‘Picking rubbish off the ground,’ interrupts Skye.

‘—on such excursions,’ says Sarah.

At lunchtime, I’m sitting under the wattle tree watching the kindy children play hide-and-seek. Paisley Newbould hides behind a pole and closes her eyes. She thinks if she can’t see anyone, they can’t see her. She’s caught immediately by Rain Barker, who dances around Paisley and giggles saying, ‘Gotcha, gotcha’. Paisley keeps her eyes shut and ignores Rain. Rain stops dancing and stares at Paisley.

For a minute, all is silent.

Then Rain carefully presses a finger into Paisley’s eye and lifts her eyelid.

‘Gotcha,’ she shouts.

Paisley slaps her hand away. Rain’s bottom lip starts to quiver. Paisley yells, ‘You poked me!’

‘Did not!’ says Rain.

‘Did too!’ shouts Paisley.

I know where this is heading, so I pick up my lunch box and walk away. I should help the kids settle their problem, but the last time I tried to help I ended up on detention for smoking. I walk behind Edith, out of sight of the kindy kids, and sit on the bench seat against the mudbrick wall. Kate sees me and walks across to sit down.

‘We did it, Jesse,’ she smiles. ‘Larry came up to me a minute ago and said the teachers had approved our excursion.’

‘No gory pictures,’ I say.

‘Hunter will be disappointed,’ she says. ‘Do you want to come over tonight, to help me get the information Sarah wants?’

‘Sure,’ I say. ‘If I’m allowed.’

‘It’s for a good cause,’ says Kate.

‘My family has had enough good causes lately,’ I say, thinking of Kelifa and our new family budget.