Hey Lily
Hey Kaitlyn, what you doin?
Just wanted to say sorry for today
Sorry? What for?
Kinda telling you stuff, then not finishing.
K. You wanna talk?
Yeah
Ok you first
Promise you won't say anything
Of course not. I mean yes, of course I promise
Well I don't know if I should say anything
Kaitlyn, just say what's on your mind
Ok I'm not sure that Krystal and Tiffany are friends with me anymore. In fact I actually think they hate me ? ? ?
Why do you think that?
Kaitlyn didn't reply for a couple of minutes and then a very pretty and creative photo collage about BFF's came through. I heard Mom's footsteps in the hallway. I held my breath as she came closer so she would think I was asleep.
"Lily," I heard her whisper. I didn't reply and she kept walking. Mission complete. I quickly pulled open my iPad again and looked at the collage wondering why Kaitlyn had sent it to me. 'Sleepover party' was the caption and various words like 'besties' and 'BFF' and 'love' dotted the page. I couldn't believe it when I saw who the photos were of. I was gobsmacked.
15. Mom the Dragon and Dan the Stink bomb
There they were, looking as gorgeous as ever in cute pj's, teased up hair and piles of makeup layered on their faces, obviously having a lot of fun at a sleepover party. It looked like a page straight out of a teenage girl magazine. The most popular group of girls at school, 'The princess gang', Krystal, Tiffany and Chantelle stared back at me from their fake poses laughing menacingly. But the shocking truth was, Kaitlyn was not in the photo.
I didn't know how to reply. Maybe she hadn't been able to make the date they chose for the sleepover. Maybe she was camera shy. Maybe she was taking the photos or maybe, and I hated to think of it, maybe she just wasn't invited. But why then would they send her the photo? They couldn't be that mean. I had to think carefully before I answered.
Ahh cute collage Kaitlyn
Yeah for some
What do you mean?
Well don't you see I'm not in the photos
I just thought you might not have been able to make it
I just wasn't invited. Remember it was cancelled. I got candy, I got new pj's. I was ready but got dumped. They msgd me 2 say it was off because T's mom was having a dinner party. Then 3 days later I got this collage. I don't know whether they sent it to me by mistake or on purpose to be mean. And there's been other things happening lately 2. ?
BINGO!
I was gobsmacked?again. I knew Tiffany could be mean but this was beyond mean. This was really low. This sucked. I hadn't answered when another message came through from Kaitlyn which read:
After the collage I got this message from Tiffany. 'How come you didn't come to the sleep over? I messaged to say it was back on. Oh well, sorry you didn't make it. The collage was just to show you what fun you missed. Next time maybe, Tiff x'
What did you reply Kaitlyn?
I didn't answer it.
I was typing out my next response when I heard Mom's footsteps coming down the passage again. This time they were quicker, as if she was on a mission. I recognised the sound of those footsteps as the sound she makes when one of us is in trouble. My heart started racing. She was on to me. I pushed my iPad quickly to the bottom of the bed and lay there like I was dead, waiting for the scathing onslaught of the mother.
Mom's footsteps approached my door but then kept going.
"Daniel," she said in a stern tone as she opened his door. "Put that computer away, NOW!"
Gosh my mom is scary. I've seen some wicked witches in my days, but none so scary as my mother when she's on the war path. How did she even know he was on his computer? It's like she has this sixth sense that she just 'knows' when one of us is up to no good. Either that or she's installed spy cams into our rooms. Another one of Mom's crazy rules is that Dan is not allowed on his computer after 8.30pm. She takes things so seriously. One little break of the rules and the sentencing is harsher than a hardened criminal serves in jail.
I couldn't risk continuing to message Kaitlyn. I didn't want to lose my iPad for a whole week, so I lay still and sucked in my breath while Mom gave Dan a lecture. I prayed in my head that Kaitlyn wouldn't message me again, and then right on cue I heard the incriminating 'ding' again.
'Nooooo,' I thought to myself, but Mom was too busy ranting at Dan as he gave her some cheek, to hear.
The next thing I heard was Mom huffing and puffing while she took his computer out. Obviously Dopey Dan had been a bit too dopey again and talked back to Mom one too many times, and the punishment had escalated. Now he'd lost his computer. Luckily for him he needed it for homework so he'd probably get it back the next day.
I wanted to check the message from Kaitlyn and let her know I wasn't ignoring her, but I was too scared Mom was on the war path. It was not worth the risk. When Mom was on the war path, she breathed dragon fire and fumed like a steam engine and nobody dares cross her path.
My iPad would probably be flat without charging it while it suffocated at the bottom of my bed all night, but I just had to suck it up! I felt bad that Kaitlyn might think I was ignoring her, but hopefully I could explain in the morning.
I heard Mom steam roll down the hallway then rant at Dad; something about Dan and his computer. I tentatively reached down to grab my iPad while I released the cooped up air from my lungs with relief.
Just as my fingertips reached it, I heard the solemn saunter of Dad coming up the hall way. Poor Dan. When Dad got off his bum from his arm chair, it meant there was big trouble. I pushed my iPad further into the bed, closed my eyes and desperately tried to get to sleep. Dad was speaking in low dulcet tones trying to be quiet but stern at the same time, but his deep voice kept resonating through the walls.
Dad finally left Dan alone to sulk and ambled back to the lounge room again. Finally I could drift off to sleep. The empty sounds of the night were golden after hearing Mom and Dad raging on for what seemed like an hour. I was just about to disappear into the land of slumber when from behind the wall I heard the most revolting, rip-roaring almighty fart, followed by a proud laugh that came from the gross owner.
REVOLTING! MY BROTHER WAS SO REVOLTING!!!
"DAN!" I yelled. He replied with another smug laugh before a follow-up fart; not quite as ferocious as the first, but just as nauseating. It sounded like it had bubbles in it.
"I'm just warming up the bed," he called out through the wall, and then he laughed to himself again.
AGHHH! Sometimes I couldn't believe he was a human being. I threw the pillow over my head and left the planet for eight hours to a place where I didn't have to see, hear or think about that disgusting creature.
16. The Kitty Terrorist
At school the next day there was a buzz of excitement amongst the girls who made it through the cheer offs. The cheerleading team was one of the most admired and most popular groups in school, aside from the football team, but I didn't think I had much chance of getting into the football team. Not unless I grew a few muscles and stuffed socks into my underwear. NO THANKYOU!
But I didn't really care about being popular. I just cared about dancing and cheerleading. I wanted to do it all day, every day and hear the crowd roar as the team ran onto the field on match day. Even just thinking about it makes my spine tingle and gives me goose bumps.
I didn't get to see Kaitlyn before school as I was late. I had a premonition rescue I had to deal with, which really annoyed me because it was imperative that I saw Kaitlyn and apologise for ignoring her iPad message. She already felt down and I didn't want to add to that.
But this dumb five year old kid decided to play cat and mouse with a real live cat on a real live road on my way to school. He chased his little precious kitten out onto the street at 8.30 am in the middle of the school rush hour; probably not the most intelligent decision he'd made in his short
life. Apparently he'd been taunting the cat in the front yard with a monster mask on and when the cat finally decided to break loose and jump over the fence, the kid got the crazy idea that he would do the same and follow the poor thing onto the road.
As I was walking down Jamison road past some houses, my face suddenly became sweaty and my eyebrows twitched and prickled. My heart began to race and the fogginess in my head overwhelmed me.
I sat on the fence trying to gain clarity and flashes of cat fur and blood infiltrated the fogginess. A vision of a boy on a road dominated the image and within a beat, I had transported myself to the scene and pushed the boy to the ground as a car came hurtling past the patch of road where he had been standing.
"OW!" the boy yelled in an annoyed voice as if I'd purposely tried to hurt him. At the sound of his whiney voice, I knew he was ok. I grabbed his hand and walked him to the side of the road to safety.
The woman in the car got out and ran desperately up to us. She had tears streaming down her face and she appeared hysterical.
"Oh my goodness, are you two alright? I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. You saved his life. I didn't see him coming. I just tried to swerve because I saw a cat coming and then he was there, and you were there."
With all the commotion and the strange people, the boy took his monster mask off and started to cry. He still looked like a little monster if you ask me.
"I want my Mommy," he cried. Why do kids always have to cry all the time? I just wanted to get to school, but I knew it was my duty to see him back safely to his Mother.
"Where is your house?" the driver asked.
He pointed to a cute cottage with a picket fence across the road. There were a few toy trucks and a tricycle in the yard. Obviously a child lived there. We all walked to the house together, the boy still whining and bawling with snot dripping out of his nose in big green globules. EEWGH.
After delivering him to his mother who appeared oblivious to the fact that her precious baby was a kitty terrorist and had gone on an escapade out into the big wide world, I raced off down the sidewalk towards school. Even sprinting the whole way, I knew I wouldn't get there in time. As tempted as I was to transport myself in a flash of divination, I resisted. It wasn't the right thing. I just had to be late.
My witch craft and spells were purely for survival and the rescue of others. On occasion I could use a frivolous one, but this was not the time. I would just have to be late and wait to see Kaitlyn at morning break. It was going to be a long few hours.
At morning break I told Mishy I had to go and do something important. She wanted to know what it was but I couldn't tell her. I hated lying to her, but I'd already told them too much about Kaitlyn and I didn't want to overdo it. I think she knew I was up to something by the look she gave me.
I raced around to the eighth grade area to see if I could find Kaitlyn. I asked a couple of geeky girls if they knew where she was. They were very kind. It's funny how kids can be. The less popular ones are always really friendly and helpful, but the popular ones seem snobby and too superior to talk to lower grades and yet they still remain popular. Weird!
They told me Kaitlyn was in the gym practicing cheerleading with the others. By 'the others' I assumed they meant the princess gang. WOW! How things can change so quickly overnight. I didn't bother finding Kaitlyn. I waited until after school and loitered around the school gate waiting to see if I could catch her. I felt like a stalker again hanging around to snare the victim.
Finally, as I was just about to melt in the hot summer sun like the wicked witch liquefying in the wizard of oz, I saw her coming out of the school laughing and giggling with the princess gang. She looked happy, and I didn't want to disturb her. I wondered whether it was a genuine happiness or whether she was putting on a fake exterior to try and fit in with the pretentious group. I decided not to intrude on her apparent fun. The intense heat was starting to give me a piercing headache and I had beads of sweat teaming down my cheeks. I badly wanted to zap up a quick lemonade stand to quench my parched throat, but I knew better than using up spells to satisfy personal desires. I knew Mom had some cans of soda in her secret stash in the outside fridge at home and the thought of the icy cold drink was hard to resist.
Mom camouflages junk food all over the place in different wrappings to hide them from us. She thinks she's got us fooled but we always manage to sniff it out; particularly Dan with his super junk food - lolly finding sniffing radar machine he keeps inside that hollow space between his ears. Once I even found a block of chocolate and a packet of chocolate biscuits in Mom's undies draw. Gross, I didn't want to eat those biscuits.
I decided to forget about Kaitlyn for a while and go home. As I was rounding onto my street I heard my name called out.
"Lily, Lily wait!"
I turned around expecting to see Mishy or Sarah, but it was Kaitlyn running as fast as she could to catch up to me.
"Oh hi Kaitlyn."
"Hi," she said with a beaming smile. Was this the same girl?
"I'm sorry I didn't get to answer your message last night. My mom was on the war path and removing electronic devices all over the place so I didn't want to risk it."
"That's ok, I thought it would be something like that. And I want to apologise for carrying on like a baby too. I was just feeling a bit confused."
"Well I don't blame you."
"Yeah but everything is AOK now. The others explained what happened and I'm totally cool with that."
"Really?" I tried to hide my disbelief. "What happened?"
"It's a long story. Don't worry about it. I understand it all now and I feel really bad that I could actually think they would be mean to me. I mean, I've never done anything mean to them so why would they want to be mean to me?"
I wanted to grab Kaitlyn by the shoulders and scream at her, "THEY DON'T NEED A REASON TO BE MEAN. IT'S WHAT THEY DO. IT'S WHAT THEY'RE GOOD AT." Instead I just nodded and gave her a sickly sweet smile and listened to her ramble about what they were going to do on the weekend together.
"Wanna come to my place and practice the cheerleading steps?" Kaitlyn was bouncing along like she was a kindy kid on the night before Christmas.
"OK sure." I thought it would be fun to practice together and a chance to stop thinking about the princess gang shenanigans now that Kaitlyn seemed ok.
"Great because I have to show you a couple of the steps you got wrong," Kaitlyn offered. My heart stopped for a second and my feet slammed on the brakes and stood still as I rewound in my head what I thought she'd said. I don't like to brag or appear vain but I DON'T get cheer leading steps wrong. I didn't say anything to Kaitlyn. I bit my tongue and waited until we got to her place.
She has a big garage and more importantly she doesn't have a snooty big brother slobbing around or a snotty little one, running around. She grabbed a cool drink out of the fridge for us and I greedily gulped it down while she went to get the music.
"Ok, let's get started," she said as she offered me some biscuits. The girl had her priorities right! Food first, training second.
"Ok let's go," she said when our tummies were full. We stood side by side and started the routine. The music was really pumping and we'd both started to learn our moves really well.
"OUCH!" I screamed as Kaitlyn jumped on my toes as she moved the wrong way and our heads clashed.
"Sorry," she laughed. "But you moved the wrong way. That's one of the steps you got wrong."
I laughed back at her. "No you big clutz," I said warmly. "You got the move wrong."
She laughed. "Let's just keep going from here. I'll put the music back."
We continued and within another few bars we were clashing on the floor again as Kaitlyn moved in the wrong direction, doing a completely incorrect move.
"Hang on, what are you doing?" I knew the moves because Cranky pants had made us copy them down. "Kaitlyn, I don't want to be a know-it-all, but that's definitely the wrong move. I gave the sequence to you the ot
her day."
"Yeah but you got some of it wrong. Tiffany showed me the right way. Two quick air punches followed by two cartwheels to the right."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I imagined the scenario if Kaitlyn was to do two cartwheels while everyone else was doing bridges. Some poor girl would get a mouth full of her foot, not to mention a broken nose. There were only a few more days till the next training session and Kaitlyn had to learn the right moves and quickly. And some dummy also had to tell her that Tiffany had given her the wrong moves, and probably on purpose. And that dummy would have to be me.
"Kaitlyn, I need to tell you something and I want you to trust me."
She looked at me with a sad, perplexed face. I didn't know how to break it to her. I took a big breath in and quickly thought about how I could say it without hurting her again. She'd had enough hurt but
there was no way around it. I just had to tell her straight up.
"Kaitlyn, I know you have a set of dance moves and I have a set of dance moves and they're not quite in sync. One of them is wrong."
"I know, so why should it be mine that is wrong?" she replied.
"Because I was there Kaitlyn. I was there on the day when Cranky Pants gave us the routine when you were sick. I was the one who had to listen to her voice drone on as we wrote it all down. I was the one who practiced the routine in front of her in slow motion, along with your friends Tiffany, Krystal and Chantelle." A look of realisation came over her face. I was worried she might cry again.
"So you think they might have got it wrong too? We've all got it wrong? Oh No! None of us will get in. I'll have to let them know." She grabbed her iPad to contact them.
"KAITLYN!" I stopped her by the shoulder. "They did not get it wrong! Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe, they gave you the wrong moves on purpose?"