30

jesse

I finish my vegemite sandwich, toss the wrapping paper into the bin and trudge to Arnold. Sarah is waiting in our room, sitting at her desk and writing in a notebook. I knock. She beckons me inside.

I sit on my chair and sigh.

Sarah attempts a smile. ‘Two detentions in a term. Not a good start, Jesse.’

Detention. For getting soaked to the skin trying to save my worst enemy. According to Larry it’s ‘for putting yourself in danger’. It’s Larry who’s putting me in danger, leaving me in detention with Hunter!

As if on cue, Hunter walks into the room without knocking. He shuffles to his chair near the window, flops down and stares outside toward freedom.

Sarah checks her watch. ‘Hunter, good of you to join us.’

Hunter doesn’t answer.

Sarah closes her notebook and stands. ‘I trust I can leave you two together while I go to Doris.’

I raise my hand.

‘Yes, Jesse?’

‘May I get a book?’

Sarah points to the bookcase along the side wall. She looks meaningfully at Hunter. ‘Please don’t make me have to return early.’ She closes the door and walks along the verandah.

I glance toward Hunter. He’s still staring out the window. I get up from my chair and walk to the bookcase. I don’t really want to read, but if I have my head buried in a book maybe Hunter will ignore me. As if a book can save me. Standing close to the bookshelf, I close my eyes and reach out. Wherever my hand lands, I’ll read that book. I open my eyes. A novel titled Stormchaser. Without thinking, I laugh, remembering why Hunter and I are on detention. The perfect book!

‘What’s so funny, Badboy?’ says Hunter.

‘Nothing,’ I say. I should have remembered where I was. I take the book back to my chair and open it, pretending to read. Hunter gets up and walks toward the front of the room. I slink down further in my chair. He casually picks up a marker and stands in front of the whiteboard. He starts writing, in a clear large text:

STEALING

TRIPPING KENDRICK NORRIS

THREATENING TO PUNCH HARRY WILSON-HOLMES

Hunter steps back from the whiteboard, considering what he’s written.

‘What … What are you doing?’ I ask.

‘What does it look like?’ Hunter turns to face me, looking at the book in my hands. ‘It’s better than reading,’ he says.

‘I mean, what are you writing?’

‘Words,’ he says.

We both smile. I can’t help myself. ‘Very funny,’ I decide to risk it, ‘Jokeboy!’

Hunter laughs, pointing his finger at me, as if he were firing a gun. I duck, dropping my book on the floor. Hunter walks toward me and leans down to pick up the book. He carries it back to the shelf. He adopts the voice of a teacher, ‘Now Jesse, the book will remain here until you learn how to treat school property properly!’

He repeats, ‘Property properly!’

Hunter walks back to the whiteboard and points at the word, STEALING.

‘One week’s detention for stealing Harley Rae’s iPod. No-one believed I found it over by the wattle trees where stupid Harley dropped it.’

Hunter points at the next sentence. ‘Kendrick just fell over my foot. It’s not my fault he’s clumsy.’

He writes the word, SMOKING on the board. ‘Oh yeah, it wasn’t me that got caught for that was it Mr Jones?’ He draws a line through the word.

He points to the last sentence. ‘Threatening.’ He scoffs. ‘Not actually hitting anyone, just threatening. Pretending. Ha! Detention for doing nothing. I’d have been better off actually hitting hyphen-Harry.’ Hunter flops down in Sarah’s chair and puts his feet up on her desk. I look toward the door, expecting Sarah to walk in at any moment.

‘Come on,’ says Hunter. ‘Relax.’

I check my watch. We have another twenty minutes of detention.

‘Why were you threatening Harry?’ I ask.

Hunter shrugs. ‘Some people just ask to be annoyed.’

‘And some people are just annoying,’ I counter.

Hunter looks up. ‘You’re pretty smart …’ He’s trying to think of a new name.

I suggest, ‘Brainboy?’

Hunter looks back at the whiteboard, without answering. He gets up and writes, in large letters:

CALLING PEOPLE NAMES

He laughs to himself, then adds two exclamation marks in bold type.

Satisfied, he sits down again at Sarah’s desk.

‘It’s called bullying,’ I say.

‘Ha!’

‘Haboy!’ I respond.

‘You see,’ says Hunter, ‘that doesn’t hurt me!’

‘But … But for some kids, it does,’ I say.

Hunter rolls his eyes, as if he’s heard it all before. Which he probably has.

‘What do your parents say,’ my voice is a little shaky, ‘when you get in trouble?’

Hunter stares at his shoes on Sarah’s table. He doesn’t answer.

‘If Mum and Dad found out I got detention, they’d—’

‘That’s your parents, not mine,’ says Hunter.

‘Sorry,’ I say. ‘I guess they’ve got other things—’

‘Don’t talk about my parents!’ Hunter smacks the desk hard with his hand.

I shake my head, too scared to speak.

Hunter pushes back Sarah’s chair and stares out the window. I notice his hands are shaking. All of a sudden, he doesn’t look so tough, just sad.

We sit in silence.

I lean back on my chair and clumsily put my feet on the desk.

Hunter looks at me and almost smiles.

I whistle, trying to appear more relaxed than I feel. I tilt back my chair until it’s balancing on two legs.

‘My dad lives in New Zealand,’ Hunter says.

I stop whistling.

‘Do you visit?’ I ask, nervously.

‘He hasn’t asked me.’ Hunter shakes his head. ‘He’s never coming back.’

I picture waiting in my bedroom every afternoon for Dad to arrive home and give me a hug. How I’d feel if that suddenly stopped. I imagine Mum and Beth and me at dinner, all of us eating in silence, remembering Dad’s bad jokes. How quiet it’d be around home, as if all the life was sucked out the front door one morning, never to return.

‘Jesse, tell me what’s bad?’ Hunter asks.

‘Pardon?’ I don’t understand.

Hunter gets out of the chair and picks up Sarah’s ruler. He points it toward the whiteboard and calls out, in a teacher’s voice, ‘Stealing, bad’. He taps the whiteboard with the ruler. ‘Tripping people, very bad.’ He waves the ruler over the next word. ‘Smoking! Very, very bad.’ He points down the list. ‘Calling people names!’ He turns to look at me. ‘A week’s detention and a note home to your parents, Hunter Riley.’

He taps the ruler against his leg. ‘You are a misguided boy, Hunter. You are disruptive in class and rude and—’

Suddenly he throws the ruler, with every ounce of his strength, toward the window. It sails through the air, making a weird whirring sound before clattering against the pane and landing on the floor. Hunter is flushed with anger. ‘Tell me what’s worse.’ He points at the board. ‘All of these things,’ he takes a deep breath and flops down on Sarah’s chair, his fists clenched on the desk, ‘or a father who runs away.’

We sit in silence for a few moments.

‘Maybe my dad should be on detention, not me,’ Hunter says, bitterly.

Suddenly, all his actions make sense.

I understand. But, there’s no way I can tell him that. So, I do the next best thing.

I say, ‘Your dad’s a …’ I swear, a rude word I never say. I’m shaking, not sure how Hunter will react.

Hunter looks surprised, even a little shocked.

I blush and say it again.

He stands up and walks to the whiteboard. In big letters, he writes another word:

SWEARING!

Hunter smiles.

‘Your dad’s a …’ I repeat the rude word.

‘My dad’s a …’ swears Hunter.

We look at one another and together, start laughing.

‘Rudeboy!’ I say.

‘Ha!’ Hunter laughs.

Sarah opens the door and walks into the room. She glances at the whiteboard and frowns. ‘What’s this?’

I answer quickly, ‘Sorry, Sarah. I … I was getting Hunter to list the things he’s done lately and …’

‘And Jesse was telling me how to improve,’ adds Hunter.

Sarah looks from Hunter to me and back again, not sure if we’re serious. She eventually smiles and walks to the whiteboard, erasing each of the words slowly. Hunter looks back at me and flashes a grin.

When Sarah has finished, she turns and says, ‘Wiped clean, Hunter. Let’s forget all about the past shall we?’

‘No worries, Sarah,’ says Hunter, before heading toward the door.

Sarah looks at me. ‘Thank you, Jesse.’