Chapter 18: The Adult

Thursday 17-May 2007

Chris and Shahia sat in the lounge room, talking about what kind of music they liked. For Chris, it was an intriguing experience. For the first time, he wasn't talking to Shahia-the-illegal-immigrant, or Shahia-the-single-mother-of-three, but just Shahia, non-hyphenated teenage girl.

And when it came to music, there wasn't actually much that she didn't like. Not surprisingly, Chris supposed, some toddler acts like Hi-5 and Justine Clark figured highly on her list — you couldn't escape the mother part of her.

When he asked who Justine Clark was, she jumped up and burst into song, singing one of her songs, "I like to sing." Maria tried to dance with her, and Chris burst into laughter as she wiggled herself about, completely not in time with Shahia. In no time at all, Alyssa turned up in the room and joined in the dance moves. This was obviously something they'd done before.

When she finished, there was a burst of applause, from Chris, and from his mum at the door.

"Hey, you're good," his mum called out. "Want to do some karaoke?"

Before Chris could blink, he was connecting their karaoke player up, Shahia took one microphone, and Bec appeared to take the other, and then they were off. For the next half hour, they all took turns butchering a whole range of songs, from Abba to the Veronicas. Chris had a few goes, but he didn't have the talent that Shahia did, either for singing, or for making up funny lyrics for the songs on the fly. They were all in fits of laughter, even his mum, who kept saying that she had to go and make tea, but not leaving.

Eventually he needed a break, and he wandered out into the hallway to go through their movie collection, looking for their copy of the Phantom of the Opera, since Shahia had said she loved Andrew Lloyd Webber. With luck, he'd be able to convince her to stay later tomorrow night and watch it after dinner.

He had just found it when someone knocked. Without thinking, Chris opened the door, looking out to see Hassan.

"Hey, Hassan, how was soccer?" Chris could see that he'd been playing at Chris's school.

Hassan gasped, looking at his face. "You did that for Shahia?!"

Chris nodded. "It's not as bad as it looks, you know."

"Still, that's amazing. You the man!"

The way that Hassan was looking at Chris was a little embarrassing, actually. It was clear that Chris could do no wrong in Hassan's eyes. There was a hint of the same look in Shahia's eyes, and as for Maria, he was her best friend ever since he'd held her upside down and tickled her. But Alyssa was still looking at him suspiciously when they left, though Chris was pleased to note that she was starting to get on better with Bec.

Chris wandered back up to his room to rest on his bed. He was just turning his phone on when his mum poked her head through the door. "How did you go?"

Chris smiled at her. "Good, I think."

"It looked like it to me. So she believed you?"

"Yeah. I told her about the riot."

His mum seemed more than a little surprised. "Really?" She came over and sat on his bed. "You told her everything?" She had the strangest expression on her face.

"Yes. What's up, Mum?"

"Oh, nothing! You're full of surprises, you know that?"

That was the second time today someone had told him that. Well it was a definite improvement from 'I don't trust you', which is where he'd been.

Chris grinned to himself. Things were definitely looking up. In a strange sort of way, it was almost as if he'd won the fight. People were being nice. His friendship with Shahia was getting stronger.

At that moment his phone went into a chirping frenzy. He retrieved it to see that he'd got forty messages. With a sigh, he set to answering them.

Tuesday 29-May 2007

Chris was last to leave soccer training.

For the last week and a bit, he'd been a bit of a celebrity. It didn't matter where in the school he was, everyone was staring at him. Even his own classes had taken a couple of days to settle down when he came back to school on the Monday. He was pleased that the story had gone around the school was that they'd fought because he'd caught Jerry pushing a girl around, and that the story didn't name the girl. Boys and girls had different takes on this, but either way, he came out smelling of roses.

Jerry was suspended for all of the first week that Chris was back, but Chris was careful not to stick it to Jerry — he didn't need to anyway, what with the things people were saying about him.

He had one heart stopping moment on the first day, at the end of lunch. He was confronted by the next four biggest boys in the school, all teammates of Jerry's. The one in front, the captain of the team, spoke to him.

"Chris Mackenzie?"

He nodded.

"So, you're the one who wrecked Jerro's knee?"

There didn't seem much point in denying it, especially since his face was still a thing of beauty. "Yes, I am."

"Rumour has it that you fought him because he was pushing some girl around?"

Chris nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

"I knew it!"

"Fuckin' dickhead," said one of the others.

"Jerk," said another.

"Who you talking about? Jerro, or this one?" asked the captain.

"Yeah, dickheads, both of them. Jerro just is, and this one, for taking him on."