Chapter 5: St. Leonard's College

When I woke up at six in the morning on Tuesday—the next day—I saw Eddie standing near my bed.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"You forgot to lock your window. I climbed that tree in Lily's house." Eddie saw Lily on my bed and pointed to her. "What's she doing here?"

"She's sleeping over at our house. She was supposed to sleep down there." I pointed to the red mattress near the base of my bed.

"I came here to get the porno," said Eddie. "Remember you told me you'd give me free porn if I don't touch Lily?"

I lowered my voice. "Don't say 'porno.' If people find out I'm giving pornography to an underage child, I could go to prison. Use the word 'onrop' instead."

"Why 'onrop'?"

"It's 'porno' spelled backwards."

"Alrighty, well, gimme my onroppers."

"How do you want them? On a floppy disk? On CDs? I've got a CD burner."

"Floppy disk. I don't have a CD-ROM driver. How much porn can you fit on a floppy disk?"

"Quite a few images." I grabbed a floppy disk from my desk. "The disk's empty now. I'll fill it up and give it to you some time tonight."

"Be quick. I want my onroppers."

My ears were very receptive. I heard footsteps approaching and knew that one of my parents was walking outside the bedroom door.

"My parents are coming," I said, grabbing Eddie by the arm. "Hide under the bed." I literally threw the little boy under my bed.

Just when my mum opened the door and entered, Eddie was safely hidden. Mum walked in and smiled when she saw Lily sleeping on my bed. She slept on her back. Her eyes were shut. The blanket on top moved up and down with her breathing. Mum looked at me and spoke.

"It was nice of you to sleep on the mattress last night so Lily had a bed to sleep on." My mum thought I had slept on the mattress.

"The mattress wasn't very comfortable," I said, stretching my back.

"We've got to wake her up now." Mum laid a hand on Lily and softly shook her body. "Wake up," she said lightly. "Today's your first day at your new school."

Lily yawned and rubbed her eyes.

"Did you have a nice night, Lily?" asked Mum.

Lily nodded.

"Time to have a shower then. Off you go." Mum pushed Lily out the door. My mum didn't leave though. She stayed in the room. It looked like she wanted a private discussion with me.

The only problem was it wasn't a private discussion because Eddie was under the bed.

"Guess what your father told me last night," said Mum.

"What?"

"He says he saw you... uh... with someone's underwear... a young female's underwear." Mum seemed just as uncomfortable as I was. "Were you, uh, doing anything with this underwear? You can tell me anything, Keith. I'm your mother. Whatever you say is between me and God."

I shook my head. "No way. I didn't do anything."

"You didn't touch her or anything last night?"

"No, I slept on the mattress the whole time. I'd never hurt a child, Mum."

Mum stared at me for a while. I knew she wanted to believe I was innocent, and I had a feeling I had succeeding in convincing her. Mum walked up and gave me a hug before carrying the camping mattress out to the garage. My mum's hug was awkward. That must have been the first time she had hugged me in nine or ten years. Throughout my childhood my mum had always been nice. She never screamed or hit me like other mums do, but unlike other mums I had trouble talking to her. I was always afraid that if I opened up she might not like what she'd see within me, so often the communication between my mum and me would consist of basic statements and commands, such as "Mum, I'm hungry," which is a statement that also doubled up as a command.

Eddie came out from under my bed when Mum left. He went on about how close he was to being caught before climbing back out the window. Eddie needed to get back to his house and change into his school uniform before the bus came.

After breakfast, Ella and Lily Jenkins waited outside at the bus stop with me. The two girls faced their first day at a new school. Ella seemed confident. Even though she was new to the neighbourhood she already had friends. Lily, on the other hand, was visibly nervous. The little girl looked very pretty in her school uniform. She wore a dark blue jumper, a black cardigan with green stripes, a short black dress, and ankle-high black socks.

Ella seemed eager to talk to me at the bus stop that morning.

"Guess what I did yesterday," she said.

I wrinkled my brow for a few seconds. "What did you do?"

"Went out with Mark. He's me new boyfriend. He's much better than the other one."

"What's so good about Mark? He's a bully."

"Who does he bully on?"

I didn't want Ella to think I was a victim. "Uh... smaller kids. He's that sort of person. Couldn't you tell?"

"He seemed kinda confident and strong to me."

"Yeah, that's pretty much how bullies behave."

"Well, I don't date wusses. Mark is not a wuss. He tells me that all the other guys at school follow him. He makes heaps of money as well. I don't know how. He doesn't get it from his parents though."

"Maybe he's a drug dealer." I had a smirk on my face when I said that.

"I doubt it." Ella walked to the middle of the road and checked to see if the school bus was coming. She walked back with a look of disappointment on her face. "Keith, can I ask you a question?"

"What is it?"

"Do you have a girlfriend yet?"

"No." I started to wonder why she often asked these weird questions.

"Why not?" She seemed as if she were disappointed in me.

"There's more to life than... you know... that stuff."

Ella laughed. "Keith... you are weird. I bet you anything that by the time you're thirty, you'll still be living with your parents."

I didn't know how to respond. Ella seemed to suggest that living with parents was bad, but I never knew there was anything wrong with living with parents.

Ella spoke. "If you want, Keith, I can introduce you to some of my friends. There's this one chick... her name's Janine... you heard of her?"

I shook my head. "No, not really."

"She's been out with heaps of guys already, so she might be willing to try you out. She's free now 'cos she just dumped a boyfriend. She dumped him because he had girly fingers."

I watched as Ella started laughing.

The school bus came and Ella went on first. She sat down next to Mark, whose brown hair was nicely gelled. I rolled my eyes when I saw them kissing and hugging. Everyone on the bus stared at them.

The bus arrived at the school twenty minutes later. The school I attended, St Leonard's College, accommodated children from Kindergarten to Year 12. It was an Independent School of the Uniting Church. I had been here for thirteen years and this was my last year. Ella was in Year 10 while Lily and Eddie were in Grade 3. What distinguished my school from other schools were the school's surveillance cameras and the many trees planted all over the place. St Leonard's College was perhaps the greenest school in Australia. Nearly everywhere I walked I saw a hedge, a massive tree, or a green field of grass. The school also had cameras spying on students, mainly as a deterrent to drug use and bullying.

I walked straight to the lockers and saw Mark, the bully, talking to his new girlfriend Ella. I hid myself behind the corner and listened to the conversation.