Chapter 6 – Partyin’ Partyin’ Yeah!

It was finally Friday and I sat with my friends in our usual part of The Gardens. The sun would occasionally come out from behind a cloud and I would quickly move to somewhere in the direct sunshine to warm myself. I still wore my modified dress (and with pride) for two reasons. One, James couldn’t afford a new one for me and two; I had lied and made up some BS story about having to modify the school dress in Fabrics class. I was still hesitant about having the skirt shorter than my knees but I was learning to get used to it.

As the sun went behind a big grey cloud, I rejoined my friends on the table and Emily started playing with my hair. She took small parts and plaited them before pinning the back under other tendrils of my dark curly hair.

“You should straighten your hair,” she told me.

“I don’t own a straightener. Amy does, but I don’t use it.”

“Have you ever straightened your hair?” Mikki asked me. I shook my head and she gasped. “This weekend and you’re not getting out of it.”

I heard Kya’s unmistakeable laugh and sure enough a moment later, she walked around the corner hand in hand with Jake.

“Well, look, Mr and Mrs. England have finally decided to join us,” Jamie joked and Kya blushed but Jake just smiled widely. They joined us at the table as Jake asked, “How’s it going?”

“Good, we were just talking about what we’re doing this weekend,” Jamie said with a sly look at Jasmine.

“What do I not know?” I asked curiously as I moved my head.

“Lisa!!! Don’t move! You’re gonna make it uneven!” Emily protested. I playfully poked her and she screamed before dissolving into a fit of giggles and forgetting my hair. I turned back to the others with a smile and repeated my question.

“What don’t I know?”

“Nothing. We’ve told you everything. We’re all going over your house tomorrow for a sleepover to celebrate your nineteenth birthday. I don’t care what your dad says,” Jasmine added.

I sighed. “He’ll kill me you know.”

“He better not!”

“Well, there’s no telling what he’ll do considering we have the ‘babies’ coming,” I said, sneering the word.

“Babies? You mean more than one?”

“Yes she does!” Amy came dancing into the clearing, followed by Eisha but surprisingly, not Kevin. “Mum’s having twins!!!!” she said gleefully.

“How’d you get in here and more importantly, how did you find us?” I asked with frustration colouring my tone.

“Eisha knew where you were and there was no teacher to stop us,” Amy smiled at her friend who walked over and hugged Emily.

“Hey lovey, how are you?” Emily asked the year nine.

“I’m great! We’ve already started preparing for our first performance at the next middle school assembly and if we do a good job, we’ll even be able to perform at the senior school assembly!”

The two began chatting with their own conversation as I turned back to Amy and everyone.

“Twins? Wow, both boys or one of each or both girls?” Mikki asked her.

“We’re not sure yet but mum’s hoping for one of each,” Amy sat next to me and I glared at her. “What?” she asked.

“You ratted me out last night; you told dad that I was at Jasmine’s.”

“Amy! We told you so you knew where she was and that she’d be home soon! Not so that you could tell her dad!” Jamie exclaimed.

“I didn’t tell him! Grandma asked where she was and I told her. She’s the only person I told, I swear!”

“Then she must have told him, in case he got worried,” I said the last bit sarcastically. James would never worry about me. He didn’t give a toss about me or what happened to me.

“Why do you hate your dad so much, Lisa?” Jake asked me. I had almost forgotten about him.

“It’s a long story. Let’s just say my mum died, my father remarried, and my dad has anger issues,” I said simply being careful of what I said with Amy around. I didn’t want what I said to end up on Facebook.

“Lisa, he has more than an anger issue!” Mikki leaned over the table and closer to Jake and Kya before whispering, “He hits her.”

Jake raised his eye brows and Amy gasped. I looked at her and she looked at me with a look that screamed, ‘I’m sorry!’ I shook my head in dismissal to anything she was thinking or going to say and the bell went.

Eisha grabbed Amy’s hand and pulled her away after hugging Emily. I slung my bag over my shoulder and went to my last two lessons of the day. I had Art with Mikki, Kya, Steve, Emily and Jamie and finally I had Math.

 

“So, today we’re going on with our cover designs and for those who have fished, you are to take one of the images from over here, choose a part of the image and tape it off and then sketch it into your book. Hopefully you will all be working on this next week,” Mr. Harpeth instructed in his nasally annoying voice. His grey eyes looked like plates behind his huge wire-rimmed glasses and long grey curly hair. “Subsequently, this will all be going to your grade and for those of you who get it done quickly, you will get bonus marks. Anyone who hands their work in late,” he shot a glance at our table because Mikki and Emily were giggling at his voice, “will lose marks. Now, get to work!”

I opened my sketch book and pulled out a 2B pencil even though I had my doubts that anyone on our table would be doing any work on a Friday afternoon.

“No, see that’s where you’re wrong. The Pokémon Movie that was released in 2000 was the only good Pokémon movie ever released!” Steve was saying to Jamie.

“The first series was good but anything since is crap,” I told him and everyone except Mikki nodded. Mikki was too busy sketching and shading her cover design. She ought to have a sign, ‘ARTIST AT WORK. DO NOT DISTURB OR DEATH.’

“Katie recons that Digimon is better than Pokémon, which I don’t agree with,” Jamie said as he erased a line on his page.

“Yeah, but Digimon was good. At least they didn’t come up with the catch phrase ‘Gotta catch ‘em al’ which means that viewers won’t be satisfied until they have seen every Pokémon caught,” Steve pointed out.

“But only full-on hard-core Pokémon fans, who have no life, would want to see over five-hundred Pokémon caught. But even then, yes, it was a stupid catch phrase for the product,” Emily said, poking Steve with her pencil. The conversation continued idly for the rest of the lesson and in Math, after I had gotten my textbook, I sat next to Jake again after he waved me over.

“Hey,” he said with his boyish smile and his hazel eyes shone in the light, the green flecks stood out more today under the artificial fluorescent light.

“Hey, thanks for saving me a seat.”

“Thanks for being on time and not embarrassing me” he laughed. Mr. Hallaway was late to class so everyone sat and talked about the weekend ahead.

“Hey Lisa! Can I come to your party tomorrow night?”Kent called out across the room. Suddenly all chatter died down and people looked at me. Kent was one of the loud mouth sporty people who everyone else seemed to admire and listen to.

“Don’t you have to stay home and give your grandmother a sponge bath?” I asked coolly. Everyone knew his grandmother was living with him and his mum and that Kent was always asked to help his grandmother. “KENT!” I wailed in an impression of an old person. “Mah teeff haff fallen out… Be a good boy and find dem and wass dem for me…” Some people giggled at my comment but I held Kent’s eyes until he muttered embarrassedly about having plans to go to this super cool party anyway and turned away.

When the teacher had finally arrived, he had enough time to call roll before the bell went and we all jumped up to leave.

 

Amy met me at my locker and I waited for the others to say good bye. Jasmine hugged me goodbye first before she walked off, Jamie trailing behind after shooting me a smile. Mikki and Kya headed out to the front car park with Emily and Kya stood by Jake’s locker, smiling at me as I waved goodbye.

“James hits you!” Amy exclaimed as we walked to her grandmother’s car.

“Yes, now shut up Amy.”

“Why? Why didn’t you tell anyone!?” she stood in front of me stubbornly.

“Amy…” I began exasperated but a blue fringed boy caught my eye. “Kevin’s over there,” I pointed and she spun around with a huge smile.

“I’ll see you tonight. Don’t be home late, Amy!” I called as I walked to her grandmother’s car and she walked to her boyfriend. I said hello to Lilly and we had a short conversation on the drive home.

 

“Lisa? Happy birthday for tomorrow,” Lilly smiled as she handed me an envelope with my name on it.

“Oh, thank you! You didn’t have to, really,” I told her but she just shrugged it off.

“Save it, spend it, It’s your decision,” she said with a wave of her hand as I pulled two fifty dollar notes from the white envelope.

“Wow! Are you sure? Thank you so much!” I hugged her and kissed her cheek before getting out of the car.

“I’ll see you next week!”

“Okay, thank you so much, and have a good night at line dancing!” I called as she pulled out of the driveway. With a huge smile I walked inside our house and surprisingly fell asleep on my bed after turning on my television and channel surfing.

 

I woke early Saturday morning and had a shower before getting the lounge room organised for the sleepover. Not long after lunch time, the doorbell rang and I bolted through the kitchen and dining room to answer it, glad and surprised that Maria had stood up for me and let me have a party. I almost slipped in my socks on the tiled floor, but I arrived safely and opened the door to see Emily with a red and white sports bag over a shoulder, a big black pillow under one arm, a blanket under the other and in her hand, a small purple gift bag with a tag that read, ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY LISA!’. With a huge smile, she handed me the gift bag and hugged me as we walked into the lounge room where we would all be sleeping. I sat on the couch with my legs crossed and put the gift bag on the coffee table.

“Aren’t you going to open it?” Emily asked me, her smiling face slowly falling into a sad frown.

“Of course!” I exclaimed. “I’m just going to wait until everyone’s here.”

We didn’t have to wait long because not even ten minutes later, (that Emily and I spent getting bowls of lollies and chips organised) everyone else seemed to arrive.

Jasmine’s dad beeped the horn, waved and drove off after leaving, Jamie, Kya, Mikki and Jasmine on my front doorstep.

“Sorry we’re late,” Jasmine said with a smile. “Mikki forgot something and she stayed at mine last night so we had to stop at her house on the way here.”

“And Jake says sorry but his work rang and he has to work today and tomorrow starting at six in the morning,” Kya told me as she crossed the threshold and entered our house.

“That’s okay. It was nice of him to even consider coming. I don’t know him that well, we only met Monday.” I shrugged and we all walked into the lounge where hugs with Emily were exchanged and then presents were given to me. I frowned. “What did I tell you guys? I don’t want presents!”

“Well, I didn’t know!” Emily cried.

I shot her a look, “I told you all the same thing last year too. Every year you always ignore me!” I flopped onto our couch and sighed as I put my head in my hands.

“Well, mine’s non-refundable so bad luck,” Jasmine told me as she pulled my hands away and shoved an envelope and a squishy present wrapped in white wrapping paper with black spider webs and purple roses. I carefully opened the envelope first and pulled out your typical birthday card. A big 19 marked the front but when I opened it I jumped as the sound of cackling laughter came out of the card. Everyone laughed at how ridiculous it was, even me.

“Musical birthday card. Good idea, Jazie. Just scare the girl to death so that she won’t make it to her twentieth.” Jamie joked with a huge smile. He put an envelope on the table next to Emily’s present. Kya did the same while Mikki rummaged through her bag to try and find something.

I carefully tore at the paper where the sticky tape was. I didn’t want to rip the paper; I wanted to keep it because it was pretty. I lifted a layer of the paper that was free of tape and saw a pile of clothes. I pulled the first thing of and lifted it up to get a better view. It was a dark purple long-sleeved top with black stripes and a white and black skull on the front. I folded it and put it next to me before pulling out the next item. It was a pair of black skinny leg jeans with diamantes down the outside seam of the legs. There was also a black and white striped scarf at the bottom. Finally, my eyes caught the label that hung off the scarf.

“Jasmine!” I gasped. “You got these from Sin-City??” I exclaimed. It was one of the most expensive Goth/emo/punk clothing shops in the city.

My friend nodded, “Do you like them?” she asked and I nodded and hugged her.

“I’m next!” Emily cried. I took the gift bag and pulled out a small black velvet box. Inside was a gold cygnet ring.

“Thanks Emily! I love it!” I slid it onto my right hand before hugging her and moving on to Kya’s gift. It was an envelope with a black rose wax seal on it. With a smile I opened it and instead of a card there was a dream catcher.

I smiled as she said, “It’s to get rid of the nightmares that you’ve been having.” I hugged her and took Jamie’s envelope from the table. Inside the envelope was your typical non-musical birthday card and inside of that, a $50 iPod voucher.

“Thanks Jamie. There are a few things on iTunes that I’ve been meaning to buy.” He smiled and hugged me before we all turned to Mikki.

“Okay, so this is from me,” she handed me a small maroon velvet box and when I opened it I saw a silver locket with flowers and vines engraved on the front. I pulled it out and looked on the back,

With love from,

Your sister,

Mikki

I opened it and saw that on one side there was a photo booth picture of Mikki, Kya, Jamie, Emily, Jasmine and even Steve and on the other side was a picture of my mother holding me as a baby.

“Mikki…. Where did you get the picture?” I gasped as I studied my mother’s face. I hadn’t seen a picture of her in years. James had put all photos that had any relation to my mother in the attic and I had never liked the attic so I never went up there.

“I have a confession. Last time I slept over I went snooping and went into the attic. I found the boxes of photos and I found that one of you and your mum. I thought it was cute and I was going to give it back to you but I ended up using it for your birthday present. I hope you don’t mind!” she added quickly, worried that I would be angry.

“Mik, I’m not angry, I’m so happy. I don’t have a picture of my mother, James made sure of that. Thank you so much. Can you please put it on?” I asked quietly. I was in a little bit of shock but I managed to compose myself once the locket was around my neck. It felt like it belonged there, like it had always belonged there and always will.

“Okay, well, you’re still not allowed to be angry because we have one last surprise for you,” Kya told me as she stood next to Mikki.

“What?” I asked hesitantly as Jasmine shot me a sly smile. Jamie was smiling brightly but Emily looked as confused as me.

“What? Why wasn’t I told of this! I could’ve helped!” she cried.

“Sorry Emily, bubby. It was kind of a last minute decision though. If we hadn’t decided yesterday, we would have gotten you involved.”

“Wait! Could have gotten involved in what?” I asked unaware of what they were talking about. “Why are you keeping secrets!?” I almost yelled in frustration.

“Sorry Lisa. Okay, so, we were talking the other day and Mikki had an idea,” Kya began.

“I thought that we could all chip in a buy something because you said, no presents, as in more than one,” Mikki explained.

“But we all had our own ideas and personal tastes for what we could get you,” Jamie said.

“So we ended up all buying our own gifts for you, but,” Jasmine paused dramatically, looked at the others and continued. “But, when we were taking the photo for your locket, we decided to get you the one present from all of us as well.”

“That’s why you guys disappeared!” Emily exclaimed. Kya nodded and Jamie continued now. It seemed very well-rehearsed.

“We went for a walk and we went into a jewellery shop.”

Mikki extended her arm and held out a green velvet box. I hesitantly took it but I didn’t open it.

“How much did you spend?” I asked worriedly.

“We can’t tell you that! It would be breaking the rules! You’re not meant to tell the birthday girl how much you spent on her!” Kya whined. “Please just open it!”

I hesitated and after a minute Jasmine snatched it out of my hands, opened the box and passed it back. I looked in the box and gasped at the contents. Inside was a silver charm bracelet with five charms. It was easy for me to guess who chose each charm.

“It’s so pretty! A film real… That’s got Jamie all over it,” I said and he smiled guiltily. “The ruby book has to be from Kya, and the diamond moon is from…Jasmine? Which means that the opal butterfly, is from none other than Mikki.” I looked at the last charm, a thick-looking chrome circle.

“It’s for never ending friendship,” Kya murmured and I looked up, tears welling in my eyes.

“Thank you guys! I love it so much!” they hugged me and after it was put on my wrist, we stayed up for hours chatting and eating pizza and lollies and chips, and drinking soft drink. Soon they all fell asleep but I stayed up and crept to my room.

I sat on my window sill and looked out at the full moon and began talking to my mum.

“Mum, I don’t know if you can see, but I finally have a picture of you! This has to be the best birthday I’ve had since you died. I really wish you were here…”

 

*****

 

The short fat woman stood out the front of the red bricked house; her fist rapping on the wooden door.

“James, open up! I know you’re in there! Let me in! Let me see my niece! Let me see my sister’s daughter!” Ingrideliah shouted. After a moment she heard someone’s soft footsteps and the door opened a tiny bit but a chain stopped it from being opened more than a foot’s width. A girl with clear bright green eyes looked through the gap and Ingrideliah gasped.

“Lissa….is that you?”

“My name is Lisa, not Lissa. Who are you and what do you want?” she asked.

“I-I am Ingrideliah. I am Phoebe’s sister...your Aunt and God-Mother.”

The door slammed in her face and after another minute, she heard the chain being removed.

“How did you find me?” Lisa asked as the door opened to reveal her thin body clothed in black skinny leg jeans, a long-sleeved dark purple and black striped top and a white and black scarf and black combat boots.  Her dark hair was straight and had a streak of purple in it. “And why did you take so long?”

“Lissa... I mean, Lisa, I haven’t been able to find you until now. You turned nineteen yesterday, did you not?” she nodded her black hair swinging with the movement. “Can I come in? I will tell you everything.”

 

 

 

Author's Note

chapter six.