CHAPTER 6:
Getting out of Trouble?
Holly arrived home that afternoon bracing herself, ready for the backlash that she knew would come from her parents. Her mother was normally home about now, but her father would not get there until closer to dinner time. She held her breath as she entered the house and expected her mother to call her immediately.
She didn’t.
In the main living area, she found her mother busy mopping the kitchen floor.
‘Hi, Mum.’
‘Oh hello, dear. How was your day?’
Holly hid her surprise at the friendly greeting. ‘Ummm, yeah, ok. How was yours?’
‘Excellent. We are having Shepherd’s Pie for dinner tonight. I know how much you like that.’
‘Yeah, I do.’ Holly said, daring to hope that maybe the school had decided not to call her parents. Unless of course they had phoned her dad at work.
‘Seeing as you’re here, you can finish this job for me. I have to dash down to the dairy to get some milk.’
Holly sighed, but considered herself lucky not to be getting an ear bashing. ‘Ok.’
Minutes later, she was putting the finishing touches on the kitchen floor when the phone rang. She answered it. ‘Hello.’
‘Oh hello,’ came a very familiar female voice. ‘Is Mr or Mrs Robinson home please?’ The voice was quite elderly and then it occurred to Holly who it was. The voice was still very fresh in her mind from earlier that day when she sat in the office of the owner. It was Mrs Towcher.
For a moment, Holly hesitated, but then she quickly pulled herself together as a devious plan sprung to mind, a plan that would hopefully get her out of trouble. She spoke in a slightly more mature tone, ‘This is Martha Robinson.’ She held her breath hoping that the old biddy would fall for her ruse.
‘Ahh good, this is Joanna Towcher, the senior mistress from Te Arawa College. I am ringing with regards to your daughter.’
Holly smiled, knowing that her ploy was working. She quickly put on a serious face though and got into character again. ‘Oh no, what has that little wench done this time?’
‘She skipped class this morning. Went down to the river with a couple of female friends and a boy. The boy fell into the river going across the old swing bridge and nearly drowned.’
‘What? You mean to say that swing bridge is still there? I thought the school was going to have that thing torn down. Why has it not been torn down yet?’ She covered her mouth to muffle a laugh.
‘Well, we have asked the council to remove it, but…’
‘The council?’ Holly said in a disgusted tone of voice. ‘Why doesn’t the school just do it themselves? Why wait for the council? If you wait for them, you’ll never get anything done. And meanwhile more foolish boys will try to cross that river and get themselves drowned. Honestly, I don’t know why they are so stupid, but I guess there’s not much we can do. Boys will be boys, but my goodness, it was all in the news three years ago when one of those silly creatures drowned in that river. I remember being glad my children were in Akato schools. Never thought that bridge would still be there now. I’m surprised they haven’t even drained the river out and turned it into a landfill or something.’ She really couldn’t hold back her laughter now and muted the phone to let out a fit of giggles.
She could just hear the reply, ‘I don’t think it’s possible to drain that river. And it would not be good for the ecosystem.’
‘Pleeeease,’ Holly said after unmuting the phone. ‘Don’t give me that school mumbo jumbo about ecosystems. I’m a grown woman now and I shouldn’t have to hear about that sort of thing anymore. Leave it for your biology students!’
‘I’m sorry, but draining the river is not a practical option. You can guarantee that the school has been in contact with the council about it and I hope something will be done soon, but the issue here is that your daughter skipped class with these other students and on the first day of school too.’
Holly wanted to joke around some more but decided she’d better not risk it. ‘That’s not good. You can bet your bottom dollar that I will deal with her very severely. I do not approve of my daughter skipping classes. Not at all.’
‘Well I’m glad to hear that. We decided it best to let her parents deal with her on this occasion rather than punishing her ourselves.’
‘Well I guess you could have her miss Maths classes for a few weeks. She really does love maths you know. She would hate to miss those.’ Holly smirked.
‘We can’t have her miss Maths classes, Mrs Robinson. I hope that you can come up with a fitting punishment for her.’
Holly figured all along that it was a forlorn hope to get out of her most hated subject. ‘Oh I assure you, Joanna that I will deal with her severely. She will not get away with what she has done. You just leave it up to me and my husband to come up with an appropriate punishment.’
‘Thank you, Mrs Robinson. We will do that. We will also be sending you a letter about our conversation so that you will have a record of our call.’
Holly froze and stared down at the mouth piece of her phone for a moment. ‘Oh no, Mrs Towcher, there’s no need for that. No point in wasting paper and postage on our behalf.’
‘Well how about I email it to you then? I would, but we don’t have your email address on record.’
Holly knew that would not work either because giving Mrs Towcher her personal email address of “HollyIncomingMailBatman would surely give away who she was really talking to. ‘Ummm, no I don’t have an email address.’
‘Well we shall post it to you then. Thank you, Mrs Robinson for your time. Good day to you.’
With that, Mrs Towcher hung up.
Holly flinched and she put down the phone. Now she had really caused herself some trouble. She would now have to beat her parents to the mail box to stop that letter from getting to them. But how could she do that when the mail arrived while she was at school? What a dilemma she found herself in.
‘Oh, Holly, you really have screwed up,’ Jacqui said to her after dinner that night. Holly had been dropped off in town by her father and she had met up with Jacqui so they could hang out for a bit. ‘Maybe you should have just faced the music rather than tried out that scam.’
‘Well – you know - it seemed too good an opportunity to pass down and Mrs Groucher fell for it hook, line and sinker.’
‘So how are you going to get a hold of that letter she’s sent?’
‘I don’t know. I might have to sneak out of school to get here to collect the mail before Mum gets home.’
‘So skip class again?’
Holly sighed. ‘I might have to!’
Jacqui laughed. ‘Skip class so you can get out of trouble for skipping class. What is wrong with this picture?’
Holly couldn’t help but feel amused at the irony. ‘A girl has to do what a girl has to do.’
Most of the shops were closed now, so there wasn’t much to do in town. They ended up heading over to the Domain. It was quite a popular place and consisted of a rugby and squash club, along with a large swimming pool and picnic area. There were trees all around, including a small area of dense bush and a shallow, but wild river. That evening there were a lot of people swimming in the pool, but Holly and Jacqui hadn’t brought their swimming suits so couldn’t go swimming. It was handy though, because that was where Holly’s dad was going to pick her up in an hour’s time.
There was terraced seating, a couple of picnic benches, changing sheds and other facilities, but they chose to sit underneath the trees on the grassy hill overlooking the entire pool area.
‘Hey, I’ve got something.’ Jacqui opened her bag and pulled out a couple of bottles of drink.
Holly reeled when she saw what they were. ‘Whoa, Jacqs, is that alcohol?’
‘They’re only RTDs. Like soft drinks, but with a little kick to them. Here.’ She twisted off the top of one and handed it to her.
Holly stared at the bottle for a few moments, unable to believe what
she held in her hand.
‘Come on,’ Jacqui said, twisting off the top of hers. ‘It’s only one bottle. Oh don’t tell me you’re gonna be a square like Chelsea Brown?’
‘Where did you get these?’
‘Stole them out of my Dad’s bar fridge.’
‘If we get caught with these, we’ll be done.’
‘Just keep it out of sight. Don’t let people see it. Relax, Holl, it’s not gonna hurt you.’ She engulfed a mouthful. ‘See? It’s nice. Go on, try it.’
Holly cautiously raised the bottle to her lips. She knew she shouldn’t, but she couldn’t very well refuse, not if she didn’t want Jacqui to ridicule her. She hesitated.
‘Oh come on, Holly, for hell’s sake, I can’t believe you’re this much of a wuss.’
‘I’m not a wuss!’ Holly took a mouth full and swallowed. It went down easily and although there was something bitter in it, it was mainly sweet and tasted good. ‘What’s in it?’
‘Lemonade and Vodka. Not much. It’s only 5% alcohol.’
Holly stared at her. ‘Do you drink much?’
‘Not much. Don’t want Dad getting wind of it. Come on, don’t be shy.’ Jacqui set the example by drinking some more.
Holly knew she shouldn’t, but she really wanted to please her friend so obeyed. It once again went down surprisingly easy and she soon found herself taking mouthfuls at regular intervals. In a few minutes, it was gone and she felt pleasantly light headed.
‘That’s my girl,’ Jacqui said. ‘How do you feel?’
Holly couldn’t help but smile. ‘I feel good. Like everything’s just – you know -perfect in the world.’
‘See? It wasn’t so bad, right? Not like, we’re taking drugs or anything. Now you really do belong to Te Arawa College. I guess all those other Akato people you’re used to mixing with are simply just a bunch of dorks.’
They continued to chat and laugh. Holly was still in a good mood when her father arrived. She climbed into the passengers’ seat next to him. ‘Hi there driver. Can you please take me to Akato please. There’s some old people there waiting for me to get home.’
‘You seem to be in a good mood.’
‘That’s because I’m getting a free taxi ride.’
‘Yeah, I know, I should charge you.’ He accelerated the car and they cruised off down the road.
‘You should do this for a living. You know, pick up drunk people and drive them home.’
‘Now why would I want to do that?’
Holly nearly kicked herself. Fancy making a comment like that and after she’d been drinking too. Still, she doubted she was drunk, after all, it was only one bottle and it contained mainly lemonade. ‘Well… you’re experienced that’s why. Aren’t people always looking for experienced people?’
‘Yeah well I get plenty of experience driving you around all over the place.’
‘See?’
Her father glanced at her with a strange look on his face. ‘You’re acting pretty strange, you know that? Have you been up to something tonight?’
‘No!’ Holly gasped. ‘I just hung out with Jacqui, that’s all.’
Her father didn’t reply. Holly began to feel nervous. What if she really was behaving strangely? Would he figure out she’d had some alcohol to drink? Then another horrible thought crossed her mind. What if he smelt the alcohol on her breath?
She deliberately made sure she faced the opposite direction from him, staring out the window.
‘You’ve gone quiet all of a sudden,’ her father said.
‘Gosh, Dad. What’s with you? One moment you’re complaining because I’m in a good mood and now your complaining because I’m being quiet. I can’t win.’
‘No need to get all defensive now. I’m sure your old enough and mature enough not to get yourself in trouble when you’re in town on a Monday night, aren’t you?’
‘Of course!’ She continued to stare out the window with a slight glare.
‘Then every thing’s hunky dory then, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah…’ But now Holly wasn’t so convinced. When she got home, she showered, brushed her teeth and headed for her room. The last thing she wanted was her parents to know she’d been drinking alcohol. Oh if only she’d had the guts to say no to, Jacqui. It was just like that whenever they were together. It seemed some things never changed.