When Mandy arose the next morning, she wanted to avoid her parents completely, but in the end, she went downstairs for a late breakfast. Both her parents were home including her brother and sister. Both parents gave her evil stares but said nothing, which came as a great relief. She avoided talking to them, knowing they were pissed and probably itching to give her another lecture. As long as her siblings were around, it probably wouldn’t happen. She’d make sure she was long gone, before they left the house.
The appearance of Vanessa bothered Mandy. She had an overwhelming desire to find out who she was and exactly how this girl knew Rex. Mandy tried to ring Rex the following day, but all she could get was his voice mail. She rang her friends too, wondering if they had seen the girl themselves.
Mandy phoned Laura Stott first.
‘What? You went back to Rex’s place afterwards?’ Laura asked. ‘Oh God, I wish I had been there. You lucky bitch.’
‘But that’s not all. When I went home, some girl just turned up out of the blue on the street looking for Rex. My God, Laura it was the weirdest thing. Rex acted like he’d seen a ghost. He just stared at her at first. But God, she was sweltering hot and drop dead gorgeous.’
‘Who was she?’
‘He called her Vanessa.’
Suddenly Laura gasped. ‘Oh my God! What if it was Rex’s mysterious ex-girlfriend? You know, the one Rex never talks about.’
That thought hadn’t occurred to Mandy and all and for a moment, she just stared across her room. ‘You really think it could be?’ She almost kicked herself now. No wonder Rex had reacted the way he did.
‘Oh my God, yes! Remember Jacqui and Holly found out that her first name started with a V. Oh my God, it’s her! It has to be!’
Now Mandy was worried. The last thing any of the girls needed was to have to deal with a girl that Rex at some stage loved. She hoped desperately it wasn’t the same girl and just some chick he’d met at one of the interschool events or some other social activity outside of Te Arawa.
She got off the phone from Laura, still pondering over the mysterious Vanessa. She had been off the phone for less than a minute when it rang, causing her to jump. She picked it up. ‘Hello.’
‘Hi, Mandy,’ a male’s voice replied.
‘Dale!’ She recognised the voice immediately. He had been in year twelve the previous year, but they hadn’t gotten to know each other until earlier on during the holidays. She had run into him at the domain pools and they had gotten to talking. He was a really nice guy and pretty cute too. They had exchanged phone numbers one week and she had been hoping he might call.
‘Saw you at the party last night,’ his voice came back. ‘But you were too busy with Rex Cassidy.’
‘Oh yeah, I know. I’m really sorry. I would have danced with you if they had any decent music playing.’
‘Man, that 60s and 70s retro stuff didn’t do my partying spirit any good either.’
‘Oh, we took the party…’ she quickly cut her words off. She was about to say she took it somewhere else, but then she might have to go into details and she didn’t want to do that. If Dale was truly interested in her, she didn’t want to put him off by telling him what she and Mr McDreamy got up to.
‘Took the party?’ Dale sounded confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘We took it and threw it in the bin.’ Mandy giggled. ‘I went home, I’d had enough.’
‘Yeah, me too.’ Dale chuckled. ‘Hey err…’
‘Hey what?’
‘Are… you and Rex like going around? I mean, I always see you with him. You always hang out at school.’
‘Yeah, but we’re just really good friends.’ She definitely didn’t want to deter him by suggesting anything more.
‘Oh!’ Dale seemed quite pleased to hear that. ‘So, err…’ his words trailed off again.
Mandy knew he was nervous. She figured she knew what was coming. ‘You want to ask me out?’
‘Yeah!’
‘Great! I tell you, I need to get out of this house today, do you want to do something?’
‘Yes!’ Dale sound rapped.
‘What do you have in mind?’
‘Wanna come out to the farm for the day?’
‘Sure. I’d love to. I’ll cycle over there. You’re out on Te Arawa West Rd right?’
‘Yeah, look for Tanker route 14345. We’re the only house down that track.’
‘I’ll come over now, shall I?’
‘That would be great!’
Mandy was very happy to have a reason to leave the house. She grabbed some gear and passed by the lounge to get to the front door.
‘Where are you going?’ her mother called to her.
‘Out!’ she said in a firm, no-nonsense voice. She wanted to make it quite clear she was not in the mood to deal with her mother. In seconds, she was out the door, on her bike heading for Dale Casterton’s house.
She had a pleasant day on the farm with Dale. He was a really nice guy and quite the gentleman and they hung out and had plenty of laughs. His parents seemed quite happy for her to be there and she stayed as long as possible, before returning home for dinner that evening. Fortunately, her siblings were there, so she managed to avoid a lecture from her parents. She tried to ring Rex again, but again got his voice mail. She turned in early, seeing as she had school in the morning.
The first day of school for the year dawned. She met up with a handful of her usual friends at their usual haunt outside E Block amongst the trees and gardens. Some of her friends she hadn’t seen since before the Christmas Holidays.
‘I understand Samantha Drysdale has been picked as Head Girl this year,’ Holly Robinson said. Holly was an adorable dark-haired beauty with big brown eyes like her own, although she was a lot shorter in stature. Mandy had met her for the first time two years ago, on an excursion with Jacqui Donaldson. She went to a different school at that time, but when she came to Te Arawa, Mandy had quickly come to enjoy her company. She had fallen pregnant the previous year, but under tragic circumstances, she had a miscarriage. It had been hard, but her boyfriend Rick Maverick helped her get through it.
‘She’ll be a great head girl.’ Chelsea smiled.
‘Yeah, she will,’ Mandy said. ‘Who’s head boy…?’ Her voice trailed off when she saw the same girl, from Saturday night walk by. ‘Oh my God, it’s her!’
All heads spun around to see whom she was referring too. They saw her standing near one of the blocks talking to another girl.
‘Oh my gosh, she is gorgeous!’ Holly stared.
‘She’s Vanessa?’ Pete Cook spoke up. ‘I’m in love.’
‘Shut up, Pete, this is no joking matter!’ Mandy scolded him.
‘I wasn’t joking. She’s a goddess!’ Pete was always fooling around so it was hard to know when he was serious and when he wasn’t. He was a short, fun loving boy who also had a habit of getting into trouble with the teachers and his fellow students. He enjoyed riling people up with silly remarks and insults and often found himself the target of bullies. Most of the time, Mandy and the other girls just tolerated him, but sometimes he was a fun to have around. Nevertheless, he was definitely not the type Mandy would go for. He wasn’t tall enough, good looking enough or athletic enough. One of her other friends had taken a shine to him though – Denise Phillips. She and Pete were now going around together, which had certainly raised a few eyebrows. Nobody saw Pete as her type.
At that moment, Rex’s cousin Biggles arrived. ‘Hi, everybody!’
They all greeted him cheerfully. He wasn’t as big and strong as Rex, neither was he anywhere near as good looking, but he was still quite a catch. Mandy could see herself going around with a guy like him, but she still had her doubts about him. Sometimes he just seemed a little too conceited.
‘Get a load of her over there, Biggles.’ Pete pointed to Vanessa. She had just moved away and now all they could see was her back as she continued on her way.
Biggles whistled softly. ‘Now there’s a girl who look
s good in a school uniform. Nice butt. Fantastic butt. Wow!’
Mandy was sure that if anyone could shed some light on the mysterious Vanessa, Biggles could. He’d always denied knowledge of Rex’s ex, but none of the girls believed him. A family member of Rex’s would surely know of her, but they figured he’d been sworn to secrecy by Rex, due to the fact Rex never wanted to talk about her.
‘Biggles,’ Mandy said. ‘You know about Rex’s ex, right? The mysterious girl whose name starts with a V? You know… the one who you insist you know nothing about?’
Biggles peered at her with an amused glint in his eye. ‘The girl I know about who I deny knowing about? You think that asking me the question like that is going to get me to admit I really do know…?’ His voice trailed off. He stared at Mandy for a couple of seconds then spun his head around for another look at the new girl, but she had disappeared from sight. ‘Wait! Whoa, what? No… It can’t be…’
‘Does the name Vanessa ring a bell?’ Mandy said, becoming more and more intrigued at the way he stared down the path she had gone. ‘She knows Rex, Biggles. You should have seen the look on his face when we ran into her on Saturday night. He was gobsmacked. I’d never seen Rex look so confounded. That was her just then, Biggles, the one you said had a great butt. Tell us, Biggles could it be her? Could that be McDreamy’s mysterious ex?’
Biggles turned his head back to Mandy and his eyes were wide. ‘Long black hair… irresistibly blue eyes?’
‘Yes, really bright sapphire blue.’
‘Flawless skin?’
‘Yes!’
‘And a butt to die for? Oh my God. That’s her all right. That’s Vanessa!’
The girls gasped.
‘So, you do know about her!’ Chelsea said.
‘God yes, of course I do… It’s just that Rex didn’t want me talking about her, that’s all. That’s why I couldn’t say anything.’ He ran his fingers through his hair and stared back down the path again. ‘Drokk… is it really her? It has to be… that butt… that walk…’
‘Come on, Biggles, tell us more,’ Pete said. ‘What’s so special about this chick…? Apart from her amazing looks.’
Biggles turned his eyes back to them in wonder. ‘That my friends, is the only girl who ever managed to wrap Rex around her little finger!’
They all fell silent for a few minutes until finally Holly spoke. ‘So, I guess she didn’t die then. I was sure that she had - you know - died tragically, going by the way he talked about her. Or what little he said about her.’
‘What happened between them?’ Mandy asked.
Biggles sighed. ‘You know, Mandy, I don’t really know.’
‘Oh, come on, Biggles, you might as well spill the beans now.’
‘I’m telling you, I really don’t know. I’ve met her a couple of times, yes. One moment they were a couple, inseparable… and then next it was over. He never spoke about it.’
‘How long were they together?’ asked Chelsea.
‘About a year. Until about a year before he came to Te Arawa. Like I said, I only met her a couple of times, but I’ll never forget her.’ He gazed off into the distance. “She had this presence about her. You just couldn’t keep your eyes off her. She was perfect in every way, and she was very very intelligent and so funny – a great sense of humour. She just lit up the entire room whenever she was around. You wanted to talk to her forever. Rex would do anything for her. He seemed crazy about her. She really was something.’ He continued to gaze into the distance.
Mandy clicked her fingers in front of her face. ‘Hellooooo, Biggles. Tell us more.’
He flicked his eyes to her. ‘There’s not much more to tell. Well not that I can tell you anyway. One day I asked him how Vanessa was and he just gave me this really uncomfortable look and said they weren’t together anymore and that she had left town. Whatever happened, I figured it was something pretty big.’
‘So, they broke up?’ Holly asked.
‘That’s what I figured.’
‘Well what you say sort of makes sense,’ Mandy said. ‘When she turned up that night, Rex acted really strange. It was like all these emotions were showing on his face. I wondered whether maybe she did something to hurt him in some way.’
Pete snorted. ‘Rex be hurt? Come on, he’s a rock. He’s like Superman.’
Chelsea spoke up. ‘Well maybe, just maybe, this girl is his Kryptonite?’
‘Yeah,’ Mandy said. ‘Maybe she is.’