Monday arrived and there was a sausage sizzle going on outside the library, to raise funds for the school dance club. Mav was there along with Pete. Tucker had been there too and collected a huge pile of sausages, which meant that everybody else had to wait while more were cooked.
‘Well, it looks like we’re safe when it comes to the tuck shop,’ Pete said after sipping his coffee. ‘I was pretty much biting my nails all day Friday after it was mentioned in assembly. Was paranoid all day long expecting the Reaper to grab me by the scruff of the neck and haul me back to the office.’
‘Same here,’ Mav said. ‘It’s been worrying me something chronic. It still pisses me off that Wal roped us into that. I don’t want to be one of his accomplices every time he wants to commit some felony.’
‘Yeah, I know what you mean,’ Pete said. ‘It’s like he expects us to do whatever he wants. I’m getting sick of it.’
‘I guess we need to lay down the law to him. Tell him if he wants to do stupid things, we’re not gonna be involved.’
‘He’ll kill us.’
‘Not if we both stick together.’
‘He’ll still kill us. The two of us together wouldn’t be able to take him down. We need someone like Rex, but he’s not around today.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ Mav bit into a sausage wrapped in a slice of bread.
Pete continued, ‘Apparently he’s been away all weekend. No doubt enjoying a long weekend somewhere. His parents are rolling in it. He’s been overseas heaps of times. Some guys have all the luck, but not me. Story of my life.’
‘Life.’ Mav surveyed the rest of his sausage. ‘It’s a bit like a sausage, you know?’
‘What?’
He held the remnants of his sausage up in the air and smirked. ‘It’s like looking at life. It looks okay, sure, I’m a little burnt from the sun, but the world is fine. Then you look inside the sausage. You look inside yourself.’
He tilted it sideways. ‘You examine your existence and you begin to see all the mushy little things - all the meaty details. You realise that life isn’t such a piece of pie as you thought it was. It’s more like a stew. You see all the horrible brown lumps. Your girlfriend has dumped you. To overcome the sadness you begin to smoke. Your breath begins to smell like old socks so nobody wants to be your friend. All your loved ones have forsaken you and you start to feel suicidal. You can’t take it any more!’
Mav pretended to sob. ‘Like this sausage, the world eats you up! It seems that all the smoke in the world has engulfed your entire being! The burning searing grill of your life is making your life a blistering misery! You fall into the fire and your life becomes so charred that you don’t even recognise yourself. It all becomes too much for you and you cannot go on!’
He picked up his coffee in his free hand and studied it for a few seconds before continuing in a calmer tone of voice. ‘Life is hard and all you’ve got to show for yourself is a really bad taste in your mouth. There’s nothing more that you can do. You’re at the stage where you just have to admit... That Nescafe is a bloody good cup of coffee!’
Pete burst into laughter and almost choked on his own sausage. ‘You ought to do stand up comedy. Maybe even do your own TV show. The Rick Maverick Hour of Lunacy.’
‘That would be an instant disaster. It would be about as popular as a Chinese takeaway in a cattery.’
They continued to chuckle away for the next few moments before Pete piped up again. ‘Hey, it’s Sam.’ He pointed to Samantha who had just walked away from the sausage sizzle with a sausage and coffee in her hand. ‘Look, she’s sitting down alone too. I wonder where Craig McLeod is.’
‘Perhaps I’d better mosey over and find out, eh?’ Mav said with a smile.
‘Good luck.’
His nerves ran wild as he made his way over to her, but once he reached her, they calmed. ‘Hi there! If it isn’t my former fiancée, alive and kicking.’
‘Hi, Mav, how’s things going?’ said Sam, her manner quite friendly, which was a pleasant surprise for Mav. He had thought that she might give him a lukewarm response because of his previous meetings with Craig.
‘Well, since you called off our wedding, pretty miserable.’
She laughed. ‘Has it really been that bad?’
‘It’s been awful! Do you realise just how much pain I’ve been going through, knowing that I can never hold you again?’
‘What do you mean again?’ She giggled.
‘Well, how about a first time then?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘How are things between you and Craig? That incident at the beach the other week had me worried. You are still talking aren’t you?’
‘Barely.’
‘Hope I didn't cause any trouble’
‘No, we've been having problems for a while. Don't worry about it.’
Mav really wanted to find out more, but didn't know how without sounding nosy. ‘I know that Craig is pretty peeved with me. I’d hate there to be any hard feelings.’
‘Has he been causing trouble again?’
‘Nah, not really.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Well... We did have a little run-in last weekend.’
Sam stared at Mav and for a few seconds, stunned. ‘What happened?’
‘Nothing really. We didn’t get into a fight, if that’s what you think.’
‘I don’t believe it! I told him to leave you alone. I can’t believe that he’s still holding a grudge against you.’
‘Well, you know him. Craig McLeod does what Craig McLeod wants to do.’
‘That’s half the problem. He never listens to me anymore.’
‘Then why do you waste your time with him?’
She looked pained. ‘Sometimes I wonder. Sometimes I think that he doesn’t even want me anymore. It’s as if I’m just there for show to make him look good with his mates. One thing’s for sure, he’s more interested in spending time with his mates than with me.’
Mav’s opinion of Craig McLeod had been near rock bottom, but now it was down at the level of the dinosaurs. ‘The guy must be nuts. I think that all that money he has, makes him think that he can treat people like garbage. He thinks that he can do whatever he likes, just because he’s rich.’
‘You’re not far wrong Mav. In fact, that’s exactly what he’s like. I guess in some ways it was him, spending money on me that attracted me to him. All though, he was always so n…..’
‘Freaking Rick Maverick!’ Craig strode across the compound towards them. ‘What the hell are you doing with my girl, Maverick, you little toe rag!’
Mav rose to his feet to meet the fuming senior.
Sam did too and intercepted him before he could get any closer. ‘Cool it, Craig!’ she ordered. ‘We were just talking!’
‘Like hell you were!’ He shoved her roughly out of the way.
Mav was not going to allow that. He flung himself furiously at Craig, tackling him around the waist and bringing him to the ground. He sent a stiff blow to the angry senior’s head. For a moment Craig was dazed, but then using all his power shoved Mav off.
Both of them leapt to their feet, fuming at each other.
‘You’re dead, peon! Nobody strikes me and gets away with it!’
‘You’re a spineless, stuck up jerk!’ Mav snarled. ‘Only a coward would lay his hands on a girl, especially his so-called girlfriend.’
Sam seemed to be on the verge of panic. ‘Stop! No Mav, don’t! Craig, cut it out! No fighting!’
Mav took a couple of deep breaths and took a step back, deciding it best to go along with her wishes. He would be better off doing that than getting her upset by resorting to any further violent acts on Craig.
Mav realised too late he might have been a little too complacent, because Craig lunged forward and sent a swift right hook to his head. The blow sent Mav stumbling back, almost toppling him over. Craig leapt on him, bringing him to the ground, sending more blows to his face. If it wasn
’t for the timely intervention of The Reaper, Mav might have been in real trouble.
The Reaper roughly hauled Craig off him and stood him to his feet. Craig was so irate that he tried to break free to get back at Mav, but The Reaper was far too strong. ‘McLeod! Cut it out now! What they hell’s got into you, for goodness sake?’
‘He started it!’ Craig snarled pointing to Mav. ‘He hit me, the swine!’
‘You manhandled Samantha!’
‘That’s a load of crap, Mr Reaper!’
‘Like hell it is!’
The Reaper stared across at Sam with a concerned look on his face. ‘What? Samantha, is this true, did Craig assault you?’
For a moment, Samantha hesitated and then spoke. ‘He shoved me, Mr Reaper.’
Craig gaped at Samantha. Mav figured it had to be a real slap in the face for him having his girlfriend verify Mav’s story, but he thoroughly deserved it and Mav was glad that she’d finally spoken up against him.
Mr Reaper’s face soured as Craig continued to stare at Samantha, for once, speechless. ‘I’m very disappointed in you, Craig. I thought that you were bigger than this. Come. I will deal with you in my office.’
The Reaper said nothing to Mav and only delivered Sam one last purposeful glance before following Craig off to the office block. Mav was left sitting on the ground, feeling like a punching bag, but otherwise unharmed. Sam crouched down next to him. ‘Are you okay?’
He grimaced. ‘Well, my face is aching, so I guess that means I’m still alive.’
‘I’m really sorry.’ She helped Mav to his feet. ‘I’ll never forgive him for this.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘I’ve finished with him. That’s the last straw. I don’t care if I ever see his face again.’
‘Are you sure?’
She delivered him a reassuring smile. ‘Yes I am. I’ve had it with Craig McLeod.’
‘So what will you do now?’
‘I don’t know. Play things by ear, I guess.’
‘Will you be going to the dance this Friday?’
‘I doubt it. To tell you the truth I was considering not going any way. I was going to make an excuse to Craig.’
‘Why don’t you come? It’ll be fun.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so.’
‘Come onnn… what better way than to shove it in your ex-boyfriends face than by being there and dancing with other guys? Showing him that you’re well and truly done with him?’
A twinkle appeared in her eye and she spoke again, ‘True. There is that. You will be there too, won’t you?’
‘Either me or one of my split personalities. I’m sure they will all be queuing up to dance with you.’
‘Great.’ She smiled, ‘I look forward to meeting them all.’
Thursday arrived and with it another gruelling period of physical education with Sergeant Major Harris. Mav was aching and tired from being made to practise for the upcoming cross-country event by doing a complete circuit of the course. The cross-country wasn’t happening for another few months yet!
Rex was back at school and as usual got through the whole hour with very little effort. In fact, he came in twenty minutes ahead of the rest of the field and when Mav came in, Rex was standing there back in his school uniform talking to Mr Harris.
‘I don’t give a rats butt what Reaper says,’ Harris said cheerfully. ‘He and the others can whinge all they like, but as far as I’m concerned there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re a darn good student. If those idiots can’t handle you, then they shouldn’t be in the teaching profession, should they?’
‘Well, just as long as you don’t get into trouble sticking up for me, Mr H.’
‘Don’t worry about it. So you were expelled from your last school, big deal, I think that a mountain was made out of a molehill. I need students like you as examples to the others. You’re the best student out of all this motley lot here.’
Mav didn’t hear any more, but was not surprised Rex had been expelled, judging by his behaviour so far at Te Arawa.
After PE, he got changed and headed for his locker block. Mr Reaper arrived on the scene and called out to him. ‘Maverick. I want a word with you.’
‘Sure, Mr Reaper. What’s up?’
‘Come to my office now.’
Anxiety spread through Mav like smoke through a room. He wondered what he’d done. Was he in trouble because of his run in with Craig McLeod or was it something worse? What if the Reaper had found out he’d been involved in trashing his office? Or worse, been an accomplice to the tuck shop robbery?
Once in his office he sat down in a chair. It felt eerie being back at the scene of the crime. Everything was tidy again and even the graffiti had been cleaned off the walls.
‘Ok, we’ll get straight down to it,’ the Reaper said. ‘You’re here because you have been identified as the tuck shop thief. What do you have to say to that?’
Mav recoiled and stared at the Reaper in horror as his worst fears were realised. ‘Are you serious?’
‘I’m deadly serious. Your name has been given to me as the culprit.’
‘Only my name?’
‘Yes. Only your name. Does that mean there were others involved with you?’
Mav flinched. He had given away too much. Not only had he inadvertently admitted his guilt he had also implicated other people. ‘Who told you it was me?’
There were only a few possibilities. Pete, Wal or Ben… Although another one also came to mind that he couldn’t possibly ignore. Rex. He had seen his bag with all the chocolate bars in it. Could he have reported him to Mr Reaper?
‘It doesn’t matter who told me, but clearly you are guilty. Now you need to tell me who else was involved.’
‘I… I… it wasn’t…’ But he knew it was no use denying it. ‘I wasn’t involved. Not directly. I was just holding the goods that’s all. I had no choice.’
‘Oh you had no choice, Mr Maverick? Is that your excuse? Somebody forced you to break into the tuck shop and steal? Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?’
‘It’s true!’ He decided to be very careful with his words now. ‘I was there and he made me fill my bags with things. I didn’t want to, but he told me I had to. He’s bigger than me, Mr Reaper. I was scared of him.’
‘And just who was this person who made you carry the so-called loot?’
‘I…’ Mav flinched. ‘I can’t tell you.’
‘Oh yes you can, Mr Maverick, otherwise I will have to presume you were in this on your own and that it was you who spearheaded this whole operation. Is that what you want?’
‘No, but I can’t rat on a friend.’
‘So it was a friend, was it? Well that would clearly rule out a lot of people. From what I hard you were hanging out with Pete Cook at the time.’
Mav tried to mask his emotions. ‘No, it wasn’t Pete. He wasn’t involved.’
‘Then who was it? You told me he was bigger than you. Well clearly, Pete Cook is smaller than you, so I’m guessing its someone else you spend time with. Will Ullman perhaps?’
‘He’s not my friend. Not really.’
‘So, he might have forced you to help him in the theft then?’
Mav had to admit the Reaper was sharp. He never let any clue escape his observation. ‘It wasn’t… No, it wasn’t Wal!’
‘Mmmmm,’ Mr Reaper said. ‘I think you’re lying, aren’t you? I can tell when people are lying and yes, I believe it was indeed Will Ullman. So if I bring him into my office and question him, I will learn that you were an accomplice to his crime? What I would do if I were you is to come clean and admit the entire thing. That way, if it is as you said and you were coerced into being an accomplice, then you can come out of this one without a black mark next to your name. Instead, it can just be the one person who suffers the consequences rather than two of you. So wouldn’t it be better to avoid all the aggravation and just admit that it was Ullman?’
Mav couldn’t do it. As mu
ch as he could see the sense in turning Wal in, he just couldn’t rat on him, even though they weren’t exactly friends. He shook his head. ‘I can’t rat.’
Mr Reaper paused for a few moments and then nodded his head. ‘Very well. I understand the code, I really do. I will talk to Mr Ullman first thing tomorrow morning and we will see what he has to say for himself. If he implicates you in the crime as being an equal party… well then… you are going to be in some major trouble.
Mav worried about the whole affair all night and got very little sleep at all. It was clear to him that Mr Reaper believed Wal was the main perpetrator despite the fact that Mav had not named him. He wanted to track down Wal before class and warn him, but he couldn’t find him at all. He came across Pete though. ‘Pete, have you seen Wal?’
‘Yeah, man. He was here earlier, but the Reaper came around and called him to his office.’
‘Oh hell.’ Mav flinched and sat down on a bench. 'We’re in deep crap. Well at least I am. It all depends on what Wal tells Mr Reaper.’
A look of concern came on Pete’s face. ‘What are you talking about?’
‘Someone fingered me as the one who robbed the tuck shop.’
The look of horror on Pete’s face told him that Pete was not the one who had dobbed him in. ‘You have got to be joking!’
‘I wish I was. I denied it, but the Reaper managed to trick me and I had no choice but to tell him.’
‘WHAT?’ Pete gasped. ‘You better not have told him I was involved.’
‘No, I never told him that, but I told him someone made me do it and he figured it out. I never once said it was Wal, but he narrowed it down and that’s why he’s called Wal into his office.’
Pete’s face darkened. ‘I don’t believe it! You ratted Wal out!’
‘No, honestly, I didn’t. Reaper made presumptions that’s all. I would never do that to you guys, ever!’
‘You are so dead. When Wal gets a hold of you he is going to kill you.’
‘It’s not my fault. The Reaper, he’s smart. He figures things out.’
Pete peered at Mav through narrow eyes, but then let out a frustrated sigh. ‘This is ridiculous. Who the hell dobbed you in?’
‘I don’t know. I figured it might be Ben Tamati.’
‘Yeah, well he’s the most likely one.’
‘Or maybe… maybe even Rex Cassidy.’
Pete examined Mav some more and then he spoke, this time with venom in his voice. ‘How do I know it wasn’t you who dobbed us in? Maybe you got the guilts and decided to report us to the Reaper. Otherwise why the hell aren’t you there with him now?’
Mav groaned, frustrated that he could not make Pete see that he was innocent. ‘Nobody’s called you to the office have they?’
‘How do I know I won’t be?’
‘Well if you are it’s because Wal said something.’
‘Oh sure!’ A contemptuous look came on Pete’s face. ‘Now you want to make out it’s Wal ratting on us.’
‘No, Pete. God, Pete, it wasn’t me. It had to be Tamati. Or Cassidy!’
‘I get it. Blame Cassidy. You’re so jealous of him because Holly prefers him to you now.’
‘Oh come on. It’s Samantha I’m after. She even dumped Craig McLeod so that she can meet me at the dance. Besides, Cassidy is gonna be so busy with ever other girl in the school, he’s gonna be too busy for Holly. That will leave the door open for you, Pete.’
‘Huh! And what hope have I got? You know that she doesn’t give a stuff about me.’
‘Don’t worry, mate. We’ll figure something out.’
‘What? Like you did at the beach?’
‘Come on, we couldn’t have figured Holly would end up being the one drowning. That was just a bit of bad luck. We’ll come up with a really great plan for the dance. We’ll have you two dancing the whole night away, guaranteed.’
‘And how the hell would you pull off something like that?’
‘I’ll think of something.’
‘Yeah right!’ A scowl came across Pete’s face. ‘I don’t want to hear any more of your crack pot schemes. You try to make out as though you’re trying to help me, but you’re not. I don’t reckon you have any intentions of trying to set me up with Holly.’
Mav reeled. ‘What are you talking about? I’ve tried my best, but things just didn’t work out. Sure, I’ll admit, I do like Holly, I’ve told you that before, but my priorities are with Sam.’
‘Crap! It wouldn’t surprise me if you were trying to get both of them. You say you’re only really interested in Sam, but it seems like you’re just as interested in Holly to me.’
Mav flinched. ‘If that was the case Holly and I would have been a couple weeks ago.’
‘This is all some kind of a game to you and you’re using me to do whatever it is you’re trying to do and now you’ve gone and pretty much told the Reaper that we robbed the tuck shop.’
‘No! I’m telling you I didn’t mean to give anything away. The Reaper worked it all out. It must be Ben Tamati. He’s the one who wants to make our lives miserable. Or Rex. I mean what do we know about that guy? He comes into this school and starts throwing his weight around. You can’t tell me he doesn’t have deep dark secrets. I even heard he was expelled from his last school…’
‘Expelled? Why?’
‘I don’t know. I just heard him and Mr Harris talking. I don’t know if we can trust him, Pete. He could be real trouble.’
‘He’s really cool.’ Pete then snorted and flagged him away. ‘Yah, it’s like I said, you’re just jealous of him, that’s all.’
Mav let out a deep sigh. He couldn’t believe that Pete was being so difficult. ‘I don’t get it Pete. I’ve been trying to be a friend to you ever since we met. I may have stuffed up a couple of times, but I’ve been trying really hard to do the right thing by you...’
‘Give it a rest, Maverick! You’re a liar, that’s all you ever do. You try to manipulate people and you like to talk in riddles. I used to wonder why you never had any friends at Akato and now I know why.’
‘Hey, there’s a good reas...’
‘I don’t want to hear it! You can carry on with your little games if you like, but count me out of them.’ Pete rose to his feet.
All Mav could do was stare forlornly as Pete stormed away. He sat there for a few minutes before he delivered another deep sigh and made his way to his first class of the day.
Craig McLeod blocked his path. ‘Maverick!’
Mav let out another deep sigh, came to a halt and stood eye-to-eye with Craig.
As if his morning could get any worse. ‘What do you want, McLeod? I’m not in the mood to deal with you.’
‘Well, that’s tough luck! You got me into a lot of trouble on Wednesday.’
‘Me? You put yourself in it, not me.’
‘Do you realise that I’ve been banned from going to that dance because of you?’
‘Good job I say.’
‘Look you!’ He planted his finger into Mav’s chest, a scowl across his mouth, making him look as though he was about to go on a murderous rampage. ‘I’ll be at that dance. Not actually in there dancing, but I’ll be there somewhere and if I see you there at all, especially with my girl, you’re dead.’
‘Your girl? She ain’t nobodies’ girl now, Bub. She dumped you big time.’
‘Nobody dumps me! As far as I’m concerned, she’s still my girlfriend and she’ll come to realise that too. She’s mine until I decide to dump her!’
‘The only dumping you’ll be doing is at the local tip, because all that’s coming out of your mouth is putrefied garbage. Face it, McLeod, it’s over between you two.’
‘No, it’s not, Maverick!’ He tapped his finger forcefully into Mav’s chest. ‘But it will be over for you if you go to that dance Friday night, you hear? That’s not only a threat. That’s a promise!’
With that, he barged away.
Mav stared after him and for the first time felt spooked. H
e knew he couldn’t take Craig’s threat lightly, but no threat would keep him away from the dance, no matter how ominous.
He was about to move away when Holly came across his path and came to a halt in front of him. ‘Hi Mav,’.
At least now it was someone he wanted to see. He immediately put on a cheerful exterior. ‘Holly, you’re alive! How’s things?’
‘Okay, I suppose.’
‘How’s things going with Rex?’
‘I think he’s more interested in Jacqui actually.’
‘He’s mad,’ he replied, but couldn’t help but notice she sounded a little sad. In fact, over the last few days he had noticed that she wasn’t her usual perky self. Something was up and he doubted whether Rex was the main source of her melancholy.
‘I wanted to talk to you about the dance,’ she said.
‘Well, if you’ve come for dancing lessons you’ve come to the right place. I can teach you a great little jig called the ‘Toe Stomper’. Want to learn it?’
She let out a short giggle, ‘I think that I’ll give it a miss, thanks.’
‘It’s really easy. I know a number of people who can’t dance who are naturals at that one. In fact if you’ve never danced before, it’s a lot easier to learn.’
She smiled. ‘Maybe some other time. Are you going to be at the dance?’
‘Wouldn’t miss it.’
‘Are... are you going with anyone?’
Mav paused not knowing how to answer that one. It was a question he hadn’t expect to be asked. Technically, he wasn’t going with anyone, although he was expecting to meet Samantha there. On the other hand, he expected to meet a lot people there. He couldn’t continue to ponder on it though otherwise all would be lost. ‘Going with anyone? Do Me, Myself and I ring a bell?’
‘Your split personalities?’
‘You got it.’ Mav didn’t know what to tell her about Sam, because he was a little afraid of what her reaction might be. ‘Is everything okay? You haven’t been quite yourself lately. I’m never myself, but you, you normally are. Can I cheer you up in anyway?’
‘Well, you could... if you will be my date for the dance on Friday night.’
He paused for a moment. It had obviously taken a lot of courage on her part to ask him so how could he just say no? His mind went to Sam. She wasn’t actually his date and it was more of a casual agreement to meet than anything else. Even Sam hadn’t committed herself to dancing with him and definitely not all night. Surely, Mav would be quite within his right to have a few dances with Holly as well?
Holly continued to gaze at Mav, but her expression turned to disappointment because of his long pause. Mav could hardly bear the sadness in her eyes and knew that he couldn’t refuse her. ‘Sure.’ He smiled. ‘I’d be honoured to’
A gorgeous smile broke out onto her face. ‘Awesome! It’ll be so cool. It’ll be the first time that I’ve actually ever been to a school dance with a date.’
Mav couldn’t resist that smile, but right away, he knew that he was getting himself into some major strife. If only he’d had more time to consider the consequences of his decision. He didn’t want to blow his chances with Sam, but then again he didn’t want to humiliate Holly. The last thing he wanted to do was break anyone’s heart. .
Once they had departed, Mav discarded his cheerful exterior. Someone was going to get hurt and chances are Mav might come out of this whole thing worse off. The dance, if he ever made it do it, had once been something to look forward to. Now it had become something to dread.