Hey, welcome to the Westpoint Tales - a series of stories set in a small New Zealand town over a time-span of 150 years. (This one's in 2005.)
All the usual disclaimers apply - this is Nifty. If you shouldn't be reading this, then don't and what are you doing here anyway?
Jason and Jordan's tale - 4
He spent some time with his dad, helping out in the shop. This could be great. He could score a part-time job here and he wouldn't even have to go out the door to go to work. It was a little worrying as his father kept talking about all the renovations that they were planning, it sounded like a lot of work. But, hey - as long as they paid him.
When he went back to his shared bedroom, the wall of sheets had gone. 'Oh, yes?' The length of clothes-line rope was still there though. He felt like Sean was putting him on trial or something - like he was saying that the dividing wall can go, for now, as long as you behave yourself.
'Stuff him,' Jordan thought. 'Punk kid doesn't make the rules.' So, he went and found the sheets in the laundry and pegged them back up again. Sean had hurt him when he put up the dividing wall and he wasn't ready to forgive him for that.
Later, he met the girls again, at the Square, and they went to the movies with a group of their friends, both boys and girls. People did seem to want to know all about the new kid in town, but Sandie and Brenda stuck close like they owned him or something.
He met Sandie's boyfriend, Tommy. He didn't say anything, but he agreed with her gran, he didn't like him either. Tommy was not a nice kid. He was vain, stuck up and self- centred from what he could see. He was nice to look at, but there was more to a person than that. Sandie was welcome to him.
The next few days flew by all too quickly. Jordan saw the girls a few times but his parents kept him busy around home and the shop. There was a lot to be done.
He saw the girls, when he could, and they continued showing him around the town. They even walked out to the beaches by the river-mouth one day. It was too cold to go swimming, but good beaches anyway. He thought he might try surfing when summer came. Some people surfed all year round, but, bugger that, it was cold out there.
Friday was a good night. He had dinner with Brenda and her family. Kenny was delighted and he insisted on sitting next to his friend. Brenda's mum was very welcoming and couldn't thank him enough for what he'd done - helping both her mother and her boy on the same day. He was embarrassed, but it was nice.
Afterwards, Jordan, Brenda, Sandie, Tommy and three others watched four DVD movies. It was a long night, but lots of fun. They'd do it again sometime.
Monday morning, their mother took Sean and Jordan to enroll them in their new school. It was a "teacher's only" day, and the school was eerily quiet as the secretary, Mrs. Burston, showed them around.
Sean was still not talking to Jordan, but, as they walked past the girls' toilet block, he couldn't resist a jibe. "That's where you'll be going to sit down to pee I suppose."
"Wrong. I'll just carry on peeing in your water bottle, as usual."
"Eww. Gross. Mum!"
"Jordan, leave your brother alone," their long-suffering mother sighed.
"My brother's not here."
"What do you mean by that crack?"
"I've only got one brother and he's at home."
"Ha ha. Very funny. What am I then?"
"To me? Nothing. That's all you are to me - nothing."
"Yeah? Well you're nothing to me either. Less than nothing."
"Boys, stop it," their mother growled. "You two have got to sort this out sooner or later."
"Sooner, later or never," Sean retorted.
"Shut the hell up, Dead Boy.'
"I'm not dead, Fag."
"To me you are, Cretin."
"That will do! One more word out of the pair of you, and you are both grounded for a week. And you will stay in your room together too," Mrs. Taylor snarled.
They both knew that she never made idle threats, and that was too horrible to contemplate, so they both shut up - for now.
"I'm sorry, Mrs.Burston. Sometimes I could just bang their heads together."
"I know what you mean, Mrs.Taylor. I've got sons too. Boys, contain yourselves when you're at school. Westpoint High has a zero-tolerance policy on fighting, even between brothers."
"Zero-tolerance?" sighed Mrs.Taylor. "Good luck with that."
Tuesday morning, their mother drove them back to school again. They needn't think that she was going to make a habit of this; this was the last time, from now on they'd be walking. They lived not even ten minutes walk away from the school. Anyway, today was a special occasion and she wanted to make sure that they hooked up with Sandie Metcalf and Curtis Lynch, (Brenda's other, thirteen year old brother), who were to show them around on the "buddy" system.
They arrived at the school, Curtis was there waiting and he and Sean soon disappeared together. When Sandie showed up she was full of apologies for being late, but it was only by a few minutes. Jordan said goodbye to his mother and they plunged into the maelstrom of the early morning locker-room chaos.
The day passed quietly, no great dramas or incidents. As the new kid in school, Jordan naturally attracted a lot of interest and more than a few appraising stares, some from boys as well as girls. He just kept his head down and stuck closely to Sandie as she guided him around and advised him on the places and routines in their school. He tried not to meet anyone eye-to-eye, but all eyes were on him as he was new and a novelty in their everyday lives.
At lunchtime they met up with Brenda and a couple of other girls. The five were sitting on a wooden bench-seat at the edge of the sportsfield, chatting quietly and eating their sandwiches, when a shadow fell across Jordan's face. He looked up at the face glaring down at him.
A big, tall and fat girl was standing over him, arms akimbo. "I've got a bone to pick with you," she snarled.
Jordan looked steadily back at her, his face expressionless, then he turned to Sandie beside him. "Friend of yours?" he queried.
"Not really, no," she replied.
"Brenda? Dawn? Rach?" he asked around.
"No." "No." "Not." Came their replies.
"Right then." He turned back to the big girl still glaring down at him. "Would you mind moving away please? You're blocking the view."
"What?? No! Fuck off. What the fuck do you think you're doing scaring my little sister and her mates down at the Square the other day? You told them that you're their worst nightmare? Well I've got news for you, Boy. I am your worst nightmare too."
"Yeah," Jordan grinned. "You may be right. If that little thug was your sister, you can tell her from me that if I see her and her mates picking on any little kids again, it won't be just their ball that I'll be kicking."
"What?" The girl was taken aback. She was a notorious bully and not used to anyone standing up to her. Normally she just intimidated them with her sheer size and belligerence. This kid obviously wasn't at all in awe of her.
"You go anywhere near those kids again, Pretty Boy, and you're dead meat. You touch them and I'll fucking do you Boy."
"Eww!" he shuddered as he put both hands over his groin and slid his hips away from her. "Now I AM going to have nightmares."
The other girls all burst out laughing at his pantomime.
"Ha ha. Very funny. Screw you, Nancy Boy. You haven't heard the last of this." She turned and walked away, belittled.
"Awesome Jordan," said Sandie. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."
"Yeah," Brenda agreed. "Thanks again, Jordan. But you be careful. Janice is not stupid enough to start anything at school, not quite stupid enough, but you'd better watch your back and don't go walking down any dark alleys. She's bad news that one."
"Thanks Brenda, I'll be fine. Queen Kong doesn't scare me."
"Maybe you should be scared," Rachael said. "She really can be dangerous, Jordan."
"No worries, Rach." he replied. "Yea tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil."
"What?" Sandie said. "Please don't tell us that you're one of those bible-bashers who's going to trust in God to look after them?"
"No Honey," he grinned evilly. "I will fear no evil because I'm the meanest S.O.B. in the valley."
Jordan looked, but he didn't see the kid who he thought of as "the sad-eyed boy", anywhere around the school.
After school he walked home with Nettie, (Annette Symes), who lived right next-door to the shop, over the back fence. That was cool. In his room, the wall of sheets and the clothesline rope had gone. Apparently their mother had decided that enough was enough.
"Whatever," he shrugged. He'd meet his brother halfway. Maybe.
The rest of the day was taken up with chores for his mother, painting preparation for his father and homework - on the first day of school even! Sean, a year nine student, had no homework, which was just as well as he was late home. He'd been playing softball with his new friends.
Next morning they walked to school - in the rain. It was a foul day, windy and wet. It was "persisting " down as it only can on the wild West Coast. The boys both tried to wheedle a ride out of their mother, but she was unrelenting.
"You'll survive. This is Westpoint. It rains a lot here, get over it."
So they walked and they got wet, as did most of the others. They survived.
At lunchtime it was far too wet and windy to eat their lunches outside, even under the open verandahs along the front of the school. So the duty teachers opened the school hall and allowed everyone to eat in there. Trestle tables and wooden bench-seats were quickly set up to form a temporary lunch-room and they were all on sufferance. Any mess and they'd all be eating out in the rain next time.
Sean was already seated, eating with his mates, when Jordan and his now-usual crowd arrived. He, Sandie, Brenda, Nettie, Rachael, Dawn and Janet Harcourt walked in and all eyes were on them as they wandered around looking for seats.
Curtis elbowed Sean. "Big Brother's a bit of a stud, is he?"
"What? Jordan? No, anything but."
"What's he doing with Brenda and all those girls then? Why does he get all the girls?"
"Because he's one of them. All girls together."
"Whadda ya mean?"
"Oh, nevermind."
As Jordan followed Sandie and Brenda down a narrow aisle between the seats, a foot, a large girl's foot, stuck out in front of him. He didn't trip, although he nearly did. He just paused, looked down at the foot attached to his new nemesis, then walked on, carefully treading on it as he went.
"Ow! Watch it, Nancy Boy."
"Oh, sorry, Queenie. Didn't see you there."
He passed on by, ignoring the baleful stare. The other girls all grinned and rolled their eyes.
"You should keep your feet in out of the way, Janice," said Sandie, trying not to grin.
"Damm. There's no tables left," Dawn complained. "We'll have to sit on the floor up at the front."
"No we won't," Jordan pointed. "There's a table over there, plenty of room for all of us. There's only one kid sitting there."
"No we don't Jordan," Rachel replied. "We can't sit there. Come and sit up the front, there's still room on the stage."
"Why not then?" he wanted to know. "There's ten or twelve kids at most of these tables and just one sitting there all on his ownsome."
"And that's how it's going to stay," Dawn said. "That's Jason McDonald. Nobody sits with him."
"I still don't see why not. What's wrong with him? Does he pong or something?" (Jordan now realised that the kid was the sad-eyed boy he'd seen up the main street, which made him even more determined to go over and sit with him.)
"No, Jordan. He doesn't smell, but you still can't sit there. Nobody sits near him, he's a faggot."
"He's what?" Jordan stared at her.
"He's a faggot. A queer. You can't sit there or people will think that you are one too."
"He's gay? How do you know that?"
"I dunno. He just is, everyone knows that. That's why no-one sits there."
Jordan took a deep breath. Time to make a stand here if he was going to be true to his resolutions.
"Dawn, my friend. It doesn't matter because, you see, I am one too. People can think what they like."
He walked over, pulled out a seat and sat down opposite Jason McDonald who looked over at him warily.
"Hey. I'm Jordan," he said, giving him his best smile. The boy looked back down at his book.
There was total silence in the hall now. All eyes were fixed on him. Jordan was unconcerned - on the surface, actually he was SO nervous. He opened his lunch and started eating.
"Jordan, what are you doing?" Dawn leaned over him. "Do you want everyone to think you're a queer?"
"No Dawn. I don't want them to think, I want them to know. I'm gay, get over it."
Dawn reeled back, shocked. She didn't know what to think. She started walking and the other girls all followed her up to the front of the hall, leaving Jordan and the kid sitting alone at the long table.
Between sandwiches, Jordan paused and tried again. "Hey, I'm Jordan Taylor. I'm new here. Your name is Jason McDonald, right?"
"Yeah. Look, Taylor, I don't know what you think you're doing."
"Me? I'm not doing anything, just having my lunch. Eat here often do you?"
"What? No. Get lost." The boy pointedly raised his book and continued reading.
('Damm!') Jordan felt like he'd just 'outed' himself to the whole school and all to show support for someone who didn't want to know him anyway.
After a couple of minutes, the book came down and he looked Jordan in the eye.
"Are you saying that you're gay?"
"Yes I am. I'm gay. Have you got a problem with that?"
"No. No, I guess not. Just keep your hands to yourself."
"Hey, I said I was gay, not a nymphomaniac rapist."
"Whatever. Stay the hell away from me."
('Well, that went well didn't it, Jordan? You've lost all your new friends and this boy doesn't want to know you. Great. Fuck'em anyway. This is not my town and I'm not staying here anyhow.')
Author's Note : Any comments, questions, criticisms etc., please e-mail me at canned-heat@hotmail.com
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