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ON TUESDAY THE TROUBLE began. Each morning the fundraisers would hand in the money they had raised the evening before, then hang around until Mrs Ngarata, the school office manager, came out from behind her window to write up the new totals on the progress chart.
There was an extra buzz of excitement that Tuesday because Suzy and Bridget had just passed Randy and Tammy in the lead. Coming a close third were Toi and Lloyd.
"Yes, yes! Go, go, go!" shouted PJ Jackson as if he were watching a running race. Randy, observing from the edge of the crowd, couldn't tell if P.J. was 'go-go-go'ing Suzy and Bridget or Lloyd and Toi. Not that it mattered either way; at least his plan was working.
"It's not fair!" said Nathan Mooney suddenly. He and Chas Killock were still at the bottom of the chart.
"Yeah," added Chas darkly. "Not fair!"
"Why's it not fair?" said Suzy angrily.
"You got the best selling spot, that's why," growled Nathan, "We're in a complete dog of a place."
"You're on the main road too!" Suzy snapped back.
"Only 'coz we didn't have no choice, did we?" growled Nathan, warming to his theme. "Youse guys got all the real farms. We just got the stupid pony club!"
"Because we went out and got them while yous losers didn't," jeered Bridget, shoving through to join Suzy.
"Yeah but ponies don't poop as much, do they?"
'Awww, come on!" snortted Suzy, disbelievingly.
"No it's true!" shouted Nathan.
"So what?" snapped Bridget and Suzy together.
"So you've got a double advantage! People stop for girls."
'Aw, bull! Makes no difference."
"Does so!" roared Chas. "And you're in front of us! You get them first. They all drive past us!"
'Aw bull! We're on different sides, Thicko, so you get the other way traffic, not our traffic!"
"Yes we do 'coz . . . Oops!"
"You're not supposed to do both sides!" interjected Johnny. "Don't you remember what Mr Tully said? It's too dangerous."
"Yeah but we had to!" whined Nathan. "Had to!"
"Us too," chimed in Tama Bexley from the side.
"We got a stink place too, on the Dam Road."
"Yeah but at least you get the tourist traffic," shouted Robbo, whose fundraising efforts with Johnny hadn't exactly featured high in the charts either.
"Tourists don't buy crap," grunted Tama's partner, P.J.
"Do so," interjected Tweety quickly. "They buy souvenirs, don't they?"
"Oh, hah-hah - shut up!" said everyone.
After that it began to get really ugly, then Mrs Ngarata came out and told them all to be quiet or go outside because she didn't want to listen to the bad language anymore, so they went out into the playground and began swearing and yelling even louder.
All except Randy, who slunk away around the nearest corner, and Tammy, who noticed him sneaking away and went after him.
"Oh dear," she said, "what're we going to do? "
"Not my fault," Randy muttered. "Nathan started it. And anyway, he's a real loser."
Tammy told him off. "That's not nice! Remember your class contract – no put-downs!"
Randy leaned against the wall, still listening to the ruckus around the corner. "Yeah, yeah, okay,” he said tiredly. "He's not a loser, he's just got an attitude problem."
"That's better," she said. "But don't you think you oughta do something?"
Randy groaned and rolled his face to the wall. Just then Mr Tully showed up.
"What's going on, Randy? There’s chaos out there!"
Randy shrugged. "Not my fault."
"What sort of attitude is that?" demanded Tully in a suddenly more authoritative tone. "You're in charge of this, young Mr Cathro, so you can't just step back and let it all go to pack. Get back there right now and sort it out!"
"Awwwuh! They won't listen to me anyway. And anyway I can't solve their problems. I didn't find them their spots, did I?"
"Okay, true , but you've still got to do something to smooth things out. Come on, let's see what we can do."
Mr Tully was great. He called a meeting right away and they all trooped off to the hall instead of going to class. Then everybody was given a turn to say what was bothering them.
Then Mr Tully said, "Okay, so the problem for some of you is supply, but for most of you it's location. So, for the next three days, how can you improve things for yourselves?"
Various ideas were put forward, but in the end most of them decided to ask a parent or a neighbour for help in moving their bags to a better place. Nathan and Chas decided to try outside the gardening centre. Tama and PJ would see about a move to the Dam Road turn-off, and Johnny and Robbo talked about setting up in the supermarket carpark for the last days.
Randy slid up to Mr Tully after the meeting and said, "Uh, thanks, Mr Tully, for helping me out right then."
"Thanks for saying thanks," replied the teacher, "Now maybe next time you could try and settle it yourself. Identify the problem, Discuss the options, Empower your people, then Activate the solutions. I-D-E-A spells 'idea!' Got it?”
“Ahhhh... one more time.”
“Please.”
“Sorry, 'please'.”
“Identify. Discuss. Empower. Activate.”
"Right. Got it, Thanks.” Randy hurried off to c1ass, his mind already on other things.
#
NEXT MORNING HE GOT to school early, before any of the other fundraisers, and carefully studied the progress chart. It looked good, really good. Even if Bridget and Suzy did even better than they had already, he and Tammy were still going to swoop past on the last day. Every extra dollar they made brought him closer to being able to successfully protest the mauve jerseys and replace them with something Piho liked.
Now – the protest. He was going to need some signs ready, stuff like Mauve: No Way! and Mauve is Wet! so he was probably going to have to get painting fairly soon. And then there was the problem of the best design. He would probably have to push for a team vote in the end, regardless of which design won the contest. Now there was sure to be some strong resistance from the teachers who wouldn't want to spend the extra money. So how was he going to get around that? Try as he might; his brain was a blank.
Holy crap: What a business! – Just to get that cursed prize out of Barry Boyd! Speaking of which, had that producer guy actually done his bit or not?
Tammy arrived, interrupting his troubled thoughts.
"Randy," she said, "I think we should put all our money in now. I hear the others did a lot better last night."
He panicked. "No! We've gotta wait till the last moment, the very last moment!"
"Why? What's with you? It's worked now, hasn't it? Everyone's motivated.
"Yeah, but just a couple more days, okay? A couple more."
"Okay" she sighed, "okay, but I'm putting in everything we made yesterday'."
"Okay. Yeah, that's okay," he agreed hastily, noticing that a few people had come in since they had begun talking and he didn't like the funny looks they were getting.
Tammy put in the money. The other teams began arriving with their latest earnings, and at about ten to nine Mrs Ngarata came out to write up the new totals. Bridget and Suzy now led by five dollars, Toi and Lloyd were equal second with Tammy and Randy, Tweety and Jefferson had passed Johnny and Robbo, and Nathan and Chas were still last but with more than twice what they had recorded yesterday.
The money was pouring in!
Tammy looked at Randy. He looked back at her. She sighed. He grinned encouragingly. "I'd better get to class," he said. "I've got a bit of homework to finish."
"Okay, see you later."
And that must have been what started the gossip. Randy came back from lunchbreak to find 'Randy Loves Tammy' in giant letters on the classroom blackboard and about ten classmates waiting like vultures to see what he did about it. Well of course he did what any normal boy would do: he turned bright red, rubbed it off immediately and said nothing.
Unfortunately it didn't stop there. As soon as class resumed there began a busy trade in false love letters. He managed to intercept a few of them:
Dearest Sweetheart Randy
Last night when you French-kissed me I knew it was
true. Let's run away together before another day can end.
Yours for eva, Tammy
Darling Tammy,
Oh. how I love you like a wild wind, like an all-consuming fire,
like a wild animal. I am panting and panting for your love.
Your hot hot lover, Randy
Deer Randy,
I carn’t wait eny longa. Meat me 2nite behind the bike sheds – Tammy
Similar sentiments were to be found hastily chalked up in the less populated corners of the school, and some incredibly rude stuff was to be found in the toilets. (The worst of it, apparently, in the girls'!) The stupid asses! How could they think that? There was nothing going on between Tammy and him. Nothing!