They went in for their next class, different room, different subject, same teacher – Mr. Erickson. When he had a chance, Jayden whispered, “Meet me by the gates at the main entrance when we break for lunch.”
“Sure,” Cade replied. “Are you going somewhere?”
“We both are. We'll go and talk where there's no interruptions. We've got years of catching-up to do.”
“Sounds good to me,” Cade grinned and nodded.
Usually, lunch was the high-point of a schoolday, but not today. They met by the gates and neither of them had stopped to collect their lunch. They'd have to eat on the bus on the way home. Catching up was way more important than eating right then.
They went over the road, through the carpark at the Supermarket and around behind the high hedge on the far side. It wasn't exactly private, sitting by the side of the backstreet, but it was out of sight of the school and that was good.
All they did was talk, but they had a great time there and neither wanted to go back when the hour was over. Jayden suggested cutting school for the afternoon, but Cade refused.
“Hell no. I'd like to, but we can't do that. It's my first day here and we'd be missed. I can't afford to get in trouble on my first day.”
“Yeah, you're right. We won't get away tomorrow though.”
“Why not?”
“Kristal will never let me sneak away two days in a row. She'll be ropable by now.”
“So who's the boss in that relationship?”
“I let her think that she is – it's worth it. Kristal's hot.”
“Do you love her?”
Jayden shrugged, “Dunno. Probably. Have you got a cell-number yet?”
“Not yet. Mum is fixing that up today. What's your number? I'll call you tonight.”
Jayden wrote his number on Cade's arm and they went back to school, late but not too much. Kristal insisted on Jayden sitting with her for the afternoon classes.
“He doesn't need you holding his friggin' hand, does he?”
So, Cade had to find another seat. He didn't have to sit alone though. Every unattached girl in the class was signalling him to sit with her. He made a choice and sat with a girl with short, blonde hair because she looked the opposite of Kristal who, he decided, he didn't like.
After school, Jayden led Cade around to where the buses were loading passengers.
“Here y'go. This is where we say goodbye for today. You go north and I go south.”
“There's a lot of buses!”
“There is. About 20 all together, I think. Something like that.”
“How do you know which one to get on? There's no signs.”
“'Course there isn't. We don't need signs. It's the same bus, same driver and same kids everyday.”
“But the buses all look the same.”
“They do, but you'll soon get it sorted. This one's mine. Karen Fairhall, over there, lives out your way – at the 12 Mile, I think – so you'll be on her bus. Go stand with her.”
“Okay. I'll ring you tonight, okay?”
“Yeah, of course but wait until about 7 o'clock. I'll be busy until then, with chores and stuff.”
“Of course you will. Your dad's still a slavedriver then?”
“He thinks he is. Laters, Cade.”
“Yeah, see you laters, Jayden.”
He went over to the other queue and Karen Fairhall greeted him like he was a long-lost friend, which he might have been, but he didn't remember her. She was pretty cool though, nice to look at and nearly a neighbour, she only lived about 5 k's away, so he made an effort to be nice.
The bus seemed to take forever to get out of town. They loaded-up at the Highschool, went around to the Primary school and collected more kids, and then to the Catholic High and Primary schools for more.
There wasn't an empty seat left when they finally went across the bridge over the river and out of town. Some kids were jammed in, three to a seat, but it wasn't long before they were stopping and dropping people off.
They stopped outside their home at the 9 Mile and Cade, Lance and Angel hurried off the bus. The door was closing and the wheels turning as soon as Angel's feet hit the ground. No-one else got off at their stop, so they had no kids for neighbours. At least they got door to door service.
Angel raced into the house to tell their mother all about her day. Lance and Cade went to their rooms first, to drop their bags and get out of the dorky school-clothes, then they went inside.
The mother was not long at home herself. She'd been in town all day and they were having pizza for dinner. No-one complained about that! The best news was that she had their new cellphones, so they sat around the table entering all the family's numbers in their phones.
The only other number that Cade had was Jayden's. He'd ring him later. Lance had a whole list of numbers to enter. He was a fast worker.
The internet wasn't working yet, she couldn't be in two places at once, and a man was coming tomorrow to sort that out.
“Are we getting wireless?” Lance asked. “I'm hoping to access it from my room.”
“And I'm hoping that you won't. When you're on-line, we'd rather you were in the house where we can see what you're doing. That applies to you too, Cade.”
“Of course it does,” he shrugged, resignedly. (He'd just have to look at the naughty bits after they'd gone to bed. Lance was probably thinking the same thing, but different bits.)
Lance went down the hill with Angel. She wanted to show him the horse paddock. She didn't have a pony yet, but he went anyway. It was something to do. Cade wasn't asked and wasn't interested. He couldn't care less about horses, he'd rather have a car.
He went for a walk as well, down the cliff to the beach.
There was no cellphone reception down there, which was no surprise, but there was a beach, at last. The tide was out and a long, flat and gray beach was exposed. It was mostly sand, broken by a few long low ridges of rock.
It was not the most exciting beach in the world, but not too bad. It was private – no.one had access to it apart from them and their elderly neighbours. He couldn't imagine Mr and Mrs Stuart running up and down the cliff-track. They were way too old for that.
He poked around in the rockpools for a while, but they were boring so he went home.
It was their family's habit to have the evening meal at 5pm. The mother said that that was not too early. “That's the way I was raised and that's the way I like it. Once dinner's over and done with, then you have the whole evening free. Some people don't eat until 8pm. That's stupid. Half the evening is spent waiting and it's time to go to bed when it's over.
Cade didn't mind eating early, it made sense to him, but he was especially glad that night because he'd be free to talk to Jayden. Maybe the Curtis's ate early too? He hoped so.
Cade was lying on his bed, with his new phone, by 6pm. He had a whole hour to wait, but that was okay. The door was locked and the drapes were closed so there'd be no interruptions. Seven pm came, at last, and he waited another 5 minutes so he wouldn't look too anxious.
He speed-dialled Jayden's number and he picked-up on the first ring.
“Welcome to Underground Airways. How can we help you?”
“Shut up, Jayden. You Dork!”
“A Dork, am I? It takes one to know one. It'll be a weird phone-call if I shut up – you'll be talking to yourself.”
“Okay, don't shut up then. Talk to me.”
“Anything you say.”
They talked for over an hour, which was good but it'd be expensive. It would've been free if he'd used the landline, but too bad. Landline calls had to be made from in the house where everyone could hear them talking.
They had no big secrets, but it was a private conversation, just like they used to talk in the old days – all about anything and everything but mostly nonsense, just for the fun of it. It was SO good to be home!
Even after so many years, they easily slipped back into the roles they'd always had. Cade was always the sensible one and the brainbox of the pair, but it was Jayden who was the leader. He was still, probably, the stronger one and more reckless and adventurous.
Cade objected, sometimes, but usually followed along. Jayden was always looking for fun and adventure. That hadn't changed but, unfortunately, where he was looking had.
He was into girls, really into girls. They were all he wanted to talk about. He had Kristal and she was the best, but he could still look at others. No? There was no harm in looking, they weren't married.
Who did Cade like, apart from Kristal of course? He'd pretty much be able to have any girl he wanted, Jayden had seen the way they were all looking at him. Good looking and new in town, he had it made! So, who?
This was not going the way Cade had hoped it would. He didn't want to talk about bloody girls. Finally, to shut him up and so he wouldn't think he was a total loser, he told him that he had a girl back in Australia.
“Two girls actually. Lyndie and Louisa they're identical twins and totally gorgeous. They're way hot – long and leggy and long blonde hair. They were our next-door neighbours.”
That was a mistake. Now Jayden was fascinated and wanted to know all about them. That wasn't hard to do, he knew them really well, just not as girlfriends. At least that shut Jayden up about the local girls.Yeah, he had photos of them, heaps of photos, but he didn't know how to send them on his phone.
Jayden would show him in the weekend. No worries.
That sounded good. How and where were they going to meet in the weekend? No, he was not walking all the flamin' way to Jayden's place!
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