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Keri
Two days after Jess had come home, I took her to meet Mereana. It was not an easy meeting. I had known Jess for the longest time, and Mereana only for the last few years. We’d gone to the same school together since the beginning, but Jess had never really got to know Mereana before she went away. Now I was introducing my two best friends to each other. After two years, Jess and I were getting to know each other all over again. We had changed in that time.
To look at, the three of us were very different. Mereana, small, brown-skinned, and black-haired. Me, average height, mousey brown hair, tanned, and Jess, tall, curly auburn hair and white skin. She hadn’t spent much time out in the sun, that was certain. She hadn’t been as pale before.
I was desperate for my friends to like each other. But we were also different in our likes and temperament. Mereana was a bit of a do-gooder. That was how we met – we both won scholarships to a private school. Hers was for citizenship as well as academic, and it was Mereana who came to help me out when William went missing. I had lost him in a shopping mall and he was gone for a few weeks before Mereana and some other friends came up with a plan. She was bouncy, and funny and smart.
Jess was sporty, not keen on school work and she was also smart - but with her words, not so much academically. I’d been on the end of her sarcasm a few times, and it wasn’t easy to take. She had a bit of a temper on her. I’m so average I could get lost in a crowd. Average size, average looks, average academically, but I was pretty good at art and sport. I watch anxiously as Mereana and Jess warily moved around each other, looking to see if there was a connection. After fifteen minutes of me trying to get a conversation going, I gave up.
In frustration I said, “Come on, let’s walk down to the school and throw a few hoops.”
Mereana looked a bit desperate, but she found a ball. It was somewhat flat, so on the way down we called in to the service station to get it pumped up. Around in front of the classrooms the playground, fields and courts were empty but there were kids and a few adults enjoying the school pool in the warm afternoon. We went to the furthest court and started throwing the ball around to each other and into the netball hoop. Jess hadn’t lost her touch – every throw went straight in. Mind you, the courts were designed for primary kids, and the hoop was quite a bit lower. But still, Mereana and I didn’t have the same success.
I loved playing the game but not as a goalie. I preferred wing attack or centre. Mereana didn’t play at all, now we were at high school, but she was still pretty nimble on her feet. After throwing the ball around and racing up and down the courts for half an hour, laughing and giggling over silly things, we took a walk around the school, reminiscing.
“Hey, do you remember when Russell McDonald brought wattle flowers in to Miss Lane, and it turned out she was allergic to them?”
“Oh my god, she threw a fit. It was awful.”
“We heard her from our classroom,” Mereana said.
“Which room were you in?” Jess asked.
“Next to you, that year. We had Mr Thompson.”
“I wanted to be in his class – but instead we got the dragon,” Jess said. “Mr Thompson was cool.”
“Was that the same year Russell got picked up for doing over the speed limit down Sunrise Avenue by the traffic cop who was coming to school to do a safety talk?”
“Yes, it so was! I remember. He had to walk to school for the next month.”
I listened to my friends bouncing school stories off each other, giggling about teachers we’d all had, and other kids who had been in our classes - and sighed with relief. Maybe it would work after all.