CHAPTER 7:
Suffering the Backlash
Chelsea stood in front of her parents, her head hung low. Their faces wore deep frowns and there was a silence, which sent goose bumps over Chelsea’s skin. It was the moment she had been dreading. It seemed inevitable even back when the idea of skipping class was first brought up.
‘I can’t believe that you’d do something like that,’ her mother said, peering down at her. ‘What’s gotten into you?’
Chelsea could only gaze at the floor in shame.
Her mother tapped her foot on the ground. ‘Well? What do you have to say for yourself?’
‘It was just a bit of fun. I... I know it was a stupid thing to do,’ she finally admitted. What else could she say? That she had skipped class just to be popular? There was no way that she was going to admit that to them.
‘Who were you with?’
‘Jacqui Donaldson... and a new girl from Akato.’
‘Jacqui? I didn’t know that you two were friends.’
‘We’ve sort of just become friends.’
‘Whose idea was it to skip class?’
Chelsea hesitated. If she said that it was the idea of one of the other three students, then she was sure that her parents would be against their friendships. Then again, she certainly didn’t want to tell them that it was her idea, because it wasn’t. She decided on a compromise. ‘We just sort of decided together. I don’t know who first mentioned it.’
Her father spoke up. ‘The senior mistress, Mrs Towcher, said that there was a boy involved. Who was he?’
Chelsea thought back to the time she’d spend with Sheep only half an hour earlier. She was so confused over what had happened. It had all been a little too overwhelming for her, having the guy she desired coming onto her like that and pushing things a little too far too soon. Nevertheless, she kind of felt guilty just running off like that. It seemed cowardly and now she feared she’d blown it with him.
She really wanted to go to her room and give it some more thought, but right now she had to be strong and deal with the problem at hand; her parents. She really didn’t want to drop his name, but it seemed she had no choice. ‘Rog Shepherd.’
‘Rog Shepherd,’ her father repeated in a neutral tone of voice. ‘Yeah, I know his father.’
Her mother said, ‘Is that why you skipped class? Because of a boy?’
‘No, of course not! It had nothing to do with him.’
'I can't believe you skipped school, it's so unlike you. It must have been because of that boy and your new friends. That was such a stupid thing to do. I don't want you associating with people who are going to get you into trouble.'
‘They’re nice girls.’
‘Well, I hope so! If you’re to remain friends with them, you’d better not get into any more trouble. As for your punishment… you’re grounded for two weeks.’
‘Two weeks?’
‘Yes! Two weeks. And I’m being lenient. You could have all been in serious danger playing around that old swing bridge.’
‘But I didn’t even go near it!’
‘It ought to be torn down,’ her father added.
Chelsea knew there was no point in arguing. The whole discussion had left a bad taste in her mouth. The most frustrating thing was her parents’ attitude towards her friends. They were the type of people who would forbid certain friendships. Her mother already had a bad impression of Jacqui and Holly, plus her father didn’t seem very impressed with Sheep. It wasn’t fair. She was trying so hard to keep this group of friends and it didn’t help when your parents made things twice as hard.
The next day at school, Chelsea went in search of Holly and Jacqui, but came across Sheep first. In fact, it seemed that Sheep had sought her out and called out her name.
She had been dreading running into him again and still felt highly embarrassed about walking out on him the afternoon before. ‘Hi.’
‘What happened with you yesterday? I thought we were good and then you did a runner on me. Did I do something wrong?’
Chelsea flinched. ‘I’m sorry. I really am. It was just all kind of moving too quick for me.’
‘Too quick?’ Sheep looked at her funny. ‘I thought you liked me.’
‘I… I do, but…’
‘So what’s the problem then?’
She wasn’t quite sure how to reply to that. She didn’t want Sheep to think she was old fashioned, but perhaps she was? ‘I just kind of freaked that all. I thought we were just gonna hang out for a bit and get to know each other better one-on-one.’
‘Well that’s what I thought we were doing.’
‘Yeah, but not like that. You know what I mean?’
‘No.’
Chelsea ran her fingers through her hair. ‘I… I don’t know, I just...’ She didn’t get a chance to say anything more as Holly and Jacqui arrived on the scene.
‘Hey, Chelsea,’ Holly greeted her in a friendly manner. ‘How did it go with the olds last night? Did you get in the shit?’
Chelsea felt a little relieved by the interruption. ‘Oh yeah, they blew their stack.’
‘Is that all?’
She didn’t want to tell them she’d been grounded so made up something else, ‘Oh, they’ll just be complete jerks for the next three weeks and try to make life difficult for me.’
‘That’s too bad.’
‘What about you? Did you get punished?’
‘Nope.’ Holly smiled. ‘I managed to con my way out of it good.’ She explained the phone call between herself and Mrs Towcher and Chelsea couldn’t help but chortle at the thought of the senior mistress being so easily taken in. ‘The only problem is I have to skip class tomorrow so I can go home and beat my mother to the mail box. And how do I get there? It’s too far to walk there and back. Oh man… I don’t know what I’m going to do.’
‘Why don’t you just throw a sickie?’
Holly raised her eyebrows. ‘Now there’s an idea. I like that.’
‘That is a good idea,’ acknowledged Jacqui. ‘That way you’ll be around all day and can get the mail as soon as it arrives.’
‘As long as it does arrive tomorrow. What if it gets delayed? I’d have to take another day off.’
‘I’m sure you can put on a good act.’
‘Maybe. Mum’s normally pretty good at figuring out when I’m faking it though. Oh and another thing. She normally stays home when I’m sick. I’d have to be - you know - sneak in and out of the house to check the mail box. She’d catch me doing it.’ Holly sighed and gazed at the ground. ‘Oh man… looks like I’m at least gonna have to give it a try.’
Chelsea noticed that Sheep had moved away now and was talking to a couple of other guys. She wanted to talk to him, but she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want him to think that she was still the square Chelsea Brown from last year. Maybe now he did?
‘So what about you, Jacqui?’ Chelsea asked. ‘How did your parents react to you cutting class?’
‘Didn’t really care.’ Jacqui smirked. ‘They know I’ll pass my units. Besides, they say they used to skip class occasionally too back in their days. They’re not hypocrites unlike some parents.’
Holly delivered a sigh. ‘Lucky for you. I’m just beginning to wish I’d let old Groucher talk to my Mum and faced the music after all.’
‘No way,’ Jacqui said. ‘Cuz then they might try to stop you from going to the beach on Saturday.’
‘True. I don’t want to miss that.’
‘What’s happening at the beach?’ Chelsea asked.
‘Ultimate fun,’ Jacqui said.
‘You should come too,’ Holly said. ‘It’s gonna be awesome.’
Chelsea would have loved to come, especially getting to hang out with the cool kids, which was what she wanted so much, but there was absolutely no way she could go when she’d been grounded. ‘Umm, I can’t. I’m...’ she had to think quickly, ‘my grandparents are coming for the weekend and I’ll be spending the day with them.’ It was the b
est excuse that she could come up with on the spur of the moment, but she regretted it immediately.
‘Oh how wonderful.’ Jacqui clasped her hands to her chest. ‘A weekend with Granny and Gramps. What a wonderful time you’ll be having. A nice family picnic at the rose gardens? Maybe a spot of knitting? Maybe even an exciting game of Scrabble! Whoopee!’
Chelsea felt very small and pretended as though the alleged visit was something she was dreading. Maybe she could turn things around in her favour. She rolled her eyes in discontent. ‘Gosh, it’s going to be such a drag. My grandparents are such bores. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what we did do. If only there was some way of getting out of it.’
Jacqui snorted. ‘There is. Just tell them you’re going to the beach. Tell them you can’t stay. You’re fifteen years old. You don’t have to hang around home with your grandparents, do you?’
‘My parents wouldn’t let me.’
‘So what? You’re old enough to do your own thing. Just go. I would.’
‘Yeah,’ Holly said. ‘They can’t stop you.’
‘Or are you afraid to stand up to your parents?’ Jacqui snorted. ‘A Mummy and Daddy’s girl?’
‘No, I’m not!’
‘Well, then?’
‘Sheep’s gonna be there,’ said Holly.
Chelsea turned her eyes to where Sheep still stood chatting with his friends. She had to admit it would be good to have him in a group situation where there wouldn’t be quite so much pressure as there had been the previous afternoon. They could talk some more and get to know each other better. That’s if he still wanted to get to know her.
Nevertheless, the question still remained… how did she get there when she had been grounded?
‘Forget about it,’ Jacqui said. ‘She’s just too much of a dork. She’d rather stay at home like a good little girl and do what Mummy and Daddy want her to do.’
‘Maybe her parents are – you know - really strict,’ Holly said. She immediately got a dirty look from Jacqui which seemed to spur her, ‘Besides, her grandparents probably won’t be around for much longer.’
Both Holly and Jacqui burst into giggles.
‘All right, I’ll come,’ said Chelsea, determined not to let Jacqui and Holly think she was a wimp. She had no idea how she’d get there nor for that matter how she was going to get by her parents, but somehow she would.
‘Way to go,’ Holly said. ‘That’s what we like to hear.’
Jacqui snorted. ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’