The war of words between Vanessa and Jacqui was for the moment over. Sheep was glad about that, as the last thing he wanted was Jacqui to alienate Vanessa. Fortunately, Vanessa seemed unconcerned with the previous few minute’s events and was quickly back to her normal cheerful self, chatting with Mav and Holly.
During the last several minutes, almost all of Sheep’s friends had shown up and now were talking happily amongst themselves. It was a glorious day and there was little cloud in the sky. A perfect summer’s day as far as he was concerned.
He was particularly pleased to see Chelsea standing near him, talking to Laura, all though she looked dishevelled, with her shoulder length blonde hair looking ruffled. ‘I had to run all the way home and back to collect my book money. I am so tired. I’d give anything for a Coke right now.’
‘You’ll have to settle for tap water.’ Laura giggled.
‘Oh no way. I refuse to drink that stuff. I’m sure it comes straight from the town sewers.’
‘Wouldn’t surprise me.’
Out of the corner of his eye, Sheep saw Wal, listening in. Then the burly sixteen-year-old turned and quickly walked away. For a moment, Sheep watched him walk towards D Block. He then broke into a run and turned left. It suddenly occurred to Sheep what Wal was up to. He was heading for the eastern exit. He was going to buy Chelsea a Coke from the dairy just down the road. Sheep had to act quickly if he wanted to beat Wal to the punch. ‘Chelsea!’ he said suddenly. ‘You want a Coke, I’ll get you one.’
‘No, it’s ok, I…’
‘I’ll be right back!’ With that, Sheep sprinted off in the same direction. He turned left between E and D blocks and then right onto the main walkway in front of C block. He could see Wal up ahead heading for the eastern exit, in between the prefab classrooms and the horticulture area. There were no doubts about it now, Wal had exactly the same plan in mind as he did.
Sheep knew he was way faster than the big beefy Wal and would easily beat him in a running race. Once he reached the eastern exit himself, he charged through, not concerned whether he was seen by a teacher. He just knew he had to get Chelsea that bottle of Coke.
He could see Wal running along the road in the direction of the dairy. Wal was fit; he had to be, being a sure starter for the school 1st fifteen that year, but he was a prop, not a winger, like Sheep. He was known for his power, not his speed. Sheep flew past Wal who swore at him as he went by. Sheep ignored him and continued running toward the dairy, flying past houses, not even looking for cars pulling out of driveways. Fortunately, there were none.
He got there well ahead of Wal, rushed inside, brought a bottle of Coke and came back out. He only had about two minutes to get back to school before the bell rang and was about to take to his heels again, when Wal came at him, tackled him and brought him crashing to the ground. Sheep lost his grip on the Coke bottle and it bounced onto the grass strip near the footpath.
Sheep was dazed and by the time he came to his senses, Wal had already picked up the bottle. ‘Catch you later, Sheep!’ He said cheerfully, pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and charged back down the path.
‘Damn it!’ Sheep struggled to his feet, straightening his own specs, which had almost fallen off. ‘That flaming beggar!’
He hadn’t given up yet. He raced back into the dairy to buy another Coke, but there was somebody else being served. He tapped his shoe irritably on the floor, waiting for the transaction to be completed. It wasted him valuable seconds, but finally he was out on the road, sprinting towards the school grounds again, a Coke in hand.
He could see Wal nearing the gates. It was a matter of life or death now. He put every ounce of energy he had into his steps and sprinted as fast as he possibly could. He heard the bell ring as he neared the eastern gates. His goal was only a few meters beyond the gates at one of the prefabs. Students were already trickling into P2, but Chelsea and a few of the other girls were still outside.
Wal was only a few metres in front of him and had almost reached their destination. It was time to repay a favour. Sheep dived towards him, tackled him around the waist and brought him sprawling to the concrete driveway. Alas, he had estimated the tackle badly, probably due to the urgency of the situation. He lost grip of his bottle, but fortunately so did Wal.
Both bottles hit the concrete and shattered into a hundred pieces, fizzy brown liquid splashing against the path with a hiss. Both of them lay entangled on the ground, staring hopelessly at the lost refreshments.
Laughter came from the girls who still stood outside P2 and peered down at them. Sheep’s glasses, were half of his face, so he pushed them back on properly and blinked a few times, staring up at the laughing faces of the girls.
Sheep’s heart sunk as he realised all his effort was for nothing. He glanced at the path as the remains of the Cokes seeped into the guttering at the sides of the classroom. He groaned.
‘Sheep, you great thumping pillock!’ Wal growled, pushing him off.
Both boys climbed painfully to their feet, feeling very embarrassed.
‘What the hell are you guys trying to do?’ Chelsea asked.
‘We… I just wanted to get you a Coke,’ Sheep said.
‘Yeah, me too,’ Wal added. ‘You were thirsty.’ He gazed down at the broken glass and puddles of Coke. ‘Err… there it is.’
‘I can see that.’ Chelsea giggled. ‘You guys are crazy. Sweet, but crazy. You could get in trouble for leaving the school grounds like that. I definitely don’t want you getting into trouble on my account.’
‘Well it’s too late now!’ came the angry voice of the Reaper from behind them. Sheep spun around to see the glaring eyes of the man in charge of discipline. ‘You boys are in trouble. The both of you!’
Sheep and Wal both sat in the Reaper’s office feeling irked. Mr Reaper had left unexpectedly to see someone at the main office, leaving them sitting there. Sheep was not often in the Reaper’s office, but each time he was, he hadn’t been able to get over how disorderly it was. The books on the shelves there were stacked willy-nilly, some tilted on their sides and others stacked one on top of the other. He had a large fern in a pot that looked as though it badly needed pruning. His desk itself had papers scattered all over it along with two empty coffee mugs. It was kind of ironic to Sheep that the man in charge of discipline at TAC was lacking in so much discipline himself.
He took special note of a dusty framed photograph on the top level of the book shelf of two ugly little kids, a boy and girl. They both had crooked eyebrows like Mr Reaper, so he assumed they were his kids. Sad for them that they hadn’t inherited their mother’s eyebrows, whatever they were like.
‘You idiot!’ Wal grumbled, breaking the silence. ‘If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be in here right now.’
Sheep moved his attention from the ugly kids to his fellow classmate. ‘You played dirty! You shouldn’t have tackled me at the dairy and stolen my Coke.’
‘What were you doing coming after me anyway?’ Wal snarled. ‘It was my idea to go down and get a Coke for Chelsea, not yours.’
‘You were trying to show me up. Shooting away as quickly as you could. You know if you hadn’t been in such a God darn hurry, I wouldn’t have been seen leaving the school grounds.’
‘And if you hadn’t been seen leaving the school grounds nobody would have even known I had! You buggered things up for the both of us, you moron.’
Sheep didn’t reply. He just sat there and glared at Wal.
Wal leaned back in his chair and sighed. ‘Isn’t she a doll though?’
Sheep folded his arms and went back to surveying the bookshelf. ‘That’s for sure.’ ‘I don’t know why I never noticed what a doll she was ages ago. I guess I was too wrapped up in Jacqui and Mandy.’
‘Yeah nah, I can fully understand that.’
‘This trying to outdo each other is not helping though.’
‘Yeah no, it’s not.’
‘One of us needs to step aside and
let the other go for it.’
‘Well it ain’t gonna be me.’
Sheep grunted. He knew it was a waste of time trying to reason with Wal. He wasn’t the type of guy you could make see sense that easily. ‘I tell you what Wal. I’ll make you a deal. There’s a school dance every term and there will be one coming up in a few weeks. What say, I work my charms and you work your… whatever it is you work and then we both ask her to the dance and let her choose which one of us she wants to go with?’
‘What? Like we both ask her at the same time.’
‘Yeah. Both of us there at the same time, that’s the deal. In fact, let’s make it this Saturday at the beach party. The next few days will be our opportunity to impress her. Obviously, whoever impresses her the most, she’ll pick.’
‘Sounds good.’ Wal nodded. ‘But you know you don’t stand a chance. She thinks you’re a conceited jerk.’
‘And she thinks you’re an uncouth moron.’
Wal smirked. ‘We’ll see about that.’
‘Yep.’ Sheep peered at him with contempt. ‘May the best man… that’s me… win.’