Chapter One

The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay

Rebecca Sparrow

Rumours started going around about Nick McGowan pretty much as soon as school went back.  Some people said he'd tried to overdose on sleeping tablets and that his best friend in Middlemount had found him in slumped over in his car and given him mouth to mouth. Others said he had to have his stomach pumped. That he'd left a note asking to be buried in his Dire Straits tee shirt.  And that under no circumstances was anyone to play anything by Bette Midler or the movie Beaches at his funeral.  Kate Winter, one of the pretty boarder girls who hung around in Nick's group, had the physique of a greyhound and a fondness for heavy black eye-liner, told anyone who would listen that the rumours were bollocks. She'd seen him over the summer break. Gone and seen Cocktail with him at the Emerald Cinema.  New Year's Eve marked the anniversary of Mrs McGowan's death, she said, while teasing her strawberry-blonde fringe to within an inch of its life. So the Christmas holidays were always hard for Nick and his dad. 

Back then I wasn't sure what happened to Nick McGowan the summer before we started our senior year. What I did know is that he went from being the first Year 11 student to top every subject to the first prefect to be stripped of his badge. And kicked out of the boarding house. On the night of the swimming carnival, at 11.45pm, Nick McGowan got out of bed, changed into his school uniform and systematically set off every fire alarm in the boys' boarding house. They eventually found him sitting on the Chapel steps - in clear view of the Principal's house - smoking a pack of Benson and Hedges and doing his German homework.  When Mr Tallon, the principal, asked Nick what he was doing, he said that he had a German quiz the next day.

And that's when the P&C were called, my Dad got involved and my troubles really began.

 
CHAPTER ONE
I'm staring at an egg timer, and for the first time in a week I'm wishing it would hurry up.  That the sand would fill just a little faster so that I could have an excuse to get off the phone.

'Are you even listening to me?'

No. 'Yeah, yeah.  Zoe, you have two minutes.'

'How can you even tell?  What does two minutes of sand even look like? This is very Brady-esque. Didn't Mike make the Brady kids time their phone calls using an egg timer?'

'It was a pay phone. He installed a pay phone into the lounge room. Zee, I'm really ?'

'Your parents seriously come up with the most bizarre punishments. You know I think if my parents found me making a one-hour international phone call, they'd just be happy that I was at home. As my mother says, if she can see me, it means I'm not out somewhere getting pregnant or doing drugs.  You know she's started subtly trying to check my arms for track marks.  She keeps saying she's looking for moles but I know what she's doing. She thinks I'm a teenage crackhead waiting to happen. I think she's been watching too much "Degrassi".' 

' We have about a minute. Hurry up.  Say what ever it is that you rang to say.'

'Okay. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease come to the party. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease.'

'What?  We talked about this today. No less than an hour ago outside the school gates.  I've already told you I'm not going.'

'Just for an hour?'

'No.'

'Just for half an hour?'

'No.' I nestle the cordless phone into my shoulder, take off my shoes and start to unzip my maroon uniform.  I'm tired and the last thing I feel like doing is having this conversation about some lame party in two weeks' time.  I've got homework to start. It's week two and I already have three assignments. Welcome to Year 12.

'But you said that 1989 was going to be the year you loosened up a bit more.  Let your hair down. Became a bit more social.'

'No I didn't.'

'Well you should've.  And it's ridiculous for you not to be there when everyone else from the play is going. Even the stage-crew.'

'Why is Sally even throwing that party now?  I mean Lady Windermere's Fan all happened at the end of last year - we should have had a cast party then. Not now.  Not three months later.'

'Well she couldn't have it then because her parents wouldn't let her, but now they've gone to New Zealand and her older brother's in charge.  So you've gotta come.'

'Zee, you've known me since I was five. You should know that once I make up my mind, that's it.  I AM NOT GOING TO THE PARTY. I've got assignments to start. This is a big year and I plan to work really hard and stay focused.'

'Who starts work on their assignments in week two? I swear, sometimes it's like you're a thirty-five year old trapped in a seventeen year old's body.'

'Well that was a waste of ten seconds'

'God you're in a cranky mood.'

'I'm tired, Zee.  I just walked in the door.  My feet hurt. And in an hour I have to go and be perky in front of fifteen four-year-olds ? Dad!'

My father's face has suddenly appeared at my door.

'Rachel, when you're off the phone, your mother and I would like to talk to you about something.'

I nod.  He leaves.  I feel my face drain.

I turn back to the phone. 'Ohmygod. They know.'

'Huh? Why are you whispering?'

'Gees, Zoe. I said, OHMYGOD THEY KNOW.'

'No they don't. You're being paranoid.'

 But all I can think as I hang up the phone is, we're dead.