Suzie is a very bad girl.
Suzie – F##k him
“Even before his arrival, Bligh’s style of governance led to problems with his subordinates. The Admiralty gave command of the storeship Porpoise and the convoy to the lower ranked Captain Joseph Short and Bligh took command of a transport ship.” drones the kid reading.
I try not to jump up from my chair screaming ‘Will this class ever end?’ What’s the point of having someone read this shit out loud. Can’t we just watch the movie?
I’m so bored!
I catch Jordan looking at me from the other side of the room. Under the table I part my legs to give him a look at my ‘Sylvester the Cat’ nickers. Some of the other boys are trying to see what Jordan is looking at, so I spread my legs further to give them a peek too. Losers. That’s as close as they’ll ever get.
What sort of a perv puts a cartoon cat on the front of girls nickers anyway? Probably the same sort of freak that buys them. I have a little chuckle to myself.
“Susan. Are you with us?”
“Huh? Sorry miss. I was just thinking about …” Shit. What are we doing again? “Captain Bligh.”
“And he amuses you does he? Perhaps you can share the joke with us.”
“Ah.”
“Well, perhaps then you can explain the cause of the Rum Rebellion?”
I have no idea. Out of the corner of my eye I see Lisa trying to discretely point to something in the text book, but I just can’t make it out.
“Lisa, since you being so helpful today, you can read for us next.” says Ms Briggs. “Susan, we’re waiting.”
“Rum tastes disgusting.” Give me a Vodka Cruiser any day.
The rest of the class giggles while Ms Briggs glares at me.
“Anyone want to help Susan out?”
Amanda has her hand up desperately trying to get Ms Briggs’ attention looking as if she is about to burst. Of course she’d know. Such a swot. It’s a good thing she’s so cool or we’d have to pick on her.
Ms Briggs looks around the room.
“Anyone other than Amanda? Anyone?”
Nobody makes a move. Ms Briggs sighs and gestures to Amanda.
“Essentially it was the culmination of a long-running tussle for power between the government and private entrepreneurs, a fight over the future and the nature of the colony.” says Amanda excitedly. “The early governors wanted to keep NSW as a large-scale open prison, with a primitive economy based on yeomen ex-convicts and run by government fiat, whereas -”
“Thank you Amanda.” says Ms Briggs. “Susan, perhaps if you were paying attention you’d learn something. And if you and Jordan don’t stop messing about I’ll have to separate you. Lisa, continue reading please.”
Fuck you, bitch. All the bloody teachers have it in for me. Fuck the lot of ’em!
I see Jordan smirking at me. Well, fuck him too!
Fuck him!
Fuck. Him.
Fuck him.
Now that’s an idea. It’s not as if we hadn’t talked about it. And we’ve done everything else but that. Mum and Gran are both out late today. It’s perfect.
Mum will go absolutely freaking mental when she finds out. Must remember to leave the condom somewhere that she can ‘accidentally’ find it.
This will be awesome.
The bell goes and everyone rushes for the door. I catch up with Jordan in the corridor. He’s talking to Luke.
“I need to talk to you.” I say grabbing his arm.
He nods to Luke that he’ll catch him up.
“’sup” he says.
I push him up against a locker.
“You know how we promised that we’d be each others first?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, if you want me to keep my promise, you need to come with me right now.”
“What? Here?”
Now that’s a thought.
“No stupid, my place. Everyone’s out. It’ll be perfect.”
“Sure.”
I look around. The corridor is almost empty as the few remaining kids rush to the next class. We need to move or we’ll be noticed. I don’t give a rats about detention, but that would spoil my plan.
Dragging Jordan around the corner, I push him through the door into the East Block girls loos. There’s a couple of Year 12 girls trying to have a cig out of the window. They see Jordan and they’re about to say something, then they see me following and think better of it.
Pushing him to the wall, I press myself onto him. My hands in his hair; his on my waist. I wriggle my hips and feel him hard against me. He pulls me in tighter. Our lips meet and we kiss – roughly. My hands on his face, while our tongues wrestle. He breaks the kiss and gives me playful nip on my neck. I moan.
Then I hear something said from behind me. Breaking our embrace, I spin around and advance on the two girls.
“What did you say?”
The girls look at me, then at each other and giggle. I get closer.
“What did you say?!”
They stop giggling and start looking worried. They might be Year 12s, but I’m tall for a Year 9 so they’re not that much taller than me.
“None of your bees wax.” says the brown haired one, while the brunette just looks down her nose at me. They’re both trying to bluff it out, but it’s not fooling me.
“It is if you’re talking about me.” I say hands on my hips.
“Why don’t you two just get a room.” says the brunette. She turns to brownie. “The Year 9s are so slutty this year.”
The sound of the slap echoes around the hard walls. The brunette has her hand to her cheek; brownie is slack jawed. They are both staring at me as they try to move away but their backs are against the wall.
“You got anything else to say?” I say glaring at them. “Bitch.”
“Suze. Leave ’em. We’ll miss the bus.” Jordan says from behind me.
I just glare at the girls cowering in front of me.
“Come on Suze. They’re not worth it. Let’s go.”
I give them a final dirty look before I turn and follow Jordan out of the loos.
We sneak down the corridor, avoiding the security cameras, and out of the side door. Hugging the wall of South Block to stay out of sight until we reach the music building. We go behind it, then over to the fence. Jordan holds back the bush hiding the hole in the fence for me while I go through it. He’s good like that. A quick cut across the park and we get on the bus to Altona.
***
All people, places and events depicted are real, just not in this universe.
© Paul Shipley