*Meh." Khaden stopped strumming and rested his chin on his guitar. *First time I"ve tried it."

Taj walked across the room and sprawled on his brother"s bed, arms clasped behind his head. *Meyer rang this morning. What"s he, the vice-princ.i.p.al or something?"

Khaden tensed. *Year coordinator."

Taj nodded and turned to look out the window.

*So?"

*So what?"

*So, what did he want?" Khaden"s palms felt sweaty.

*Easy, tiger," said Taj.

*Easy? If he speaks to Dad-"

*Mate, if he"d spoken to Dad, you"d know about it by now."

Khaden placed the guitar on the stand. *You don"t get it, Taj. Meyer asked me why I wasn"t at school yesterday, and if our stories-"

*What did you tell him?"

Taj"s calm was driving Khaden nuts. *That I had gastro. Again."

*And that"s what I told him. *Course, when he said you"d been away a couple of days I had to carry on about how crook you were and how Dad had it too."

*Did he buy it?"

*Of course he bought it. I am the master." Taj, sat up and leant towards Khaden. *Want to tell me why you"re ditching?"

*Couldn"t turn up with this, could I?" Khaden pointed to his bruised cheek. *Taj, thanks for ... you know..."

*Yeah, well, don"t make it a habit, okay? Dad will find out eventually. Anyway, you"re smart, KD. Smarter than me. Don"t waste that." Taj stood. *Up for a little compet.i.tion?"

Khaden groaned.

*You owe me, bud."

*Come on, Taj, not PlayStation. I"m over it."

*You can"t be over the brand new Guitar Hero Legends."

*Serious?"

Taj grinned. *Absolutely."

Khaden jumped up. *Prepare to be owned!"

Ruby Since a.s.sembly yesterday, I"d felt disjointed and fuzzy, like I was here, but not. Maybe there was something wrong with me, cancer, or my heart was stuffed. I"d seen on a reality TV medical show that teenagers could have heart attacks.

To make sure my heart wasn"t the problem, I kept checking my pulse in cla.s.s-not that you could call what we"d been doing cla.s.s. In Economics we watched two episodes of Lano and Woodley; for Art and Design, Arty Harty made us clean all the paint brushes in turps; and in English, we played Who Am I? Of course, all the people were characters from books. Ms Dimasi needs to get a life. Anyway, as far as I could tell, my pulse felt normal.

For the first time since we"d been at secondary school, I didn"t mind that Sas, Khaden and I were in different cla.s.ses. When the lunch bell rang, I grabbed my lunch and rushed outside before they reached the lockers. I sat under the gum tree in the courtyard, eating a salad sandwich and watching the cool kids in my year throw water bombs at the geeks. The geeks were holding their own.

Lyndal copped a water bomb to the guts.

The Fink"s squeaky voice cut through the squeals and laughter.

*Enough," she yelled as she thundered like a cartoon character down the path from the staff room.

*Where have you been?" I jumped at the sound of Sas"s voice.

*We"ve been looking for you everywhere." Khaden dropped to the gra.s.s beside me. He held his backpack to his chest and grinned.

Sas, red in the face and puffing, sat beside him.

I slipped my sandwich back into the paper bag. *Didn"t see you guys in the locker room," I tried to sound brighter than I felt. *Figured I"d come out here and watch the show."

The Fink had gathered the water bombers around her and was going off her head, pointing her finger and stamping her foot.

*Coming?" asked Sas. Her eyes twinkled. She looked like the old Sas.

*Where are we going?"

*More to the point, what are we doing?" Sas winked.

Khaden beamed. *Time for another "adventure", Ruby."

A mixture of excitement and fear bubbled through me.

*We broke into the cooking room," whispered Sas.

*What?" I screeched.

Sas frowned. *Keep your voice down! It"s no big deal. Someone left the door open, so we just walked in."

*Yeah, but we had to climb through that weird window above the pantry door to get into there," added Khaden.

*The pantry? Did you steal Ms Grey-Jones" red frogs?" Our Food Technology teacher used either red frogs or mini chocolate bars to bribe us to clean up the room.

*No, better than that." Khaden unzipped his bag.

I peered inside. *Is that..." I realised I was yelling, stopped and adjusted my volume. *Is that cling wrap?"

Sas nodded. *Yep, industrial-kitchen-sized rolls." She stood up. *Come on, while everyone"s distracted."

*But what are we going to do?" I asked.

Khaden reached out and heaved me to my feet. *Wrap a Christmas present for The Fink."

Khaden The staff car park was down the side of the school, behind the cla.s.srooms and out of bounds.

Khaden glanced at the empty rooms. *We have fifteen minutes before the bell." He tossed a roll of cling wrap at Ruby and handed one to Sas. *So we need to move."

Sas ripped open the box. *I"ll do the front."

*Cool, I"ll do the middle. Ruby, the boot"s yours." Ruby"s terrified face made Khaden laugh. *b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, Ruby, we"re not setting fire to the thing, we"re just wrapping it. We won"t scratch or dint it."

*Yeah, but..."

Sas rolled her eyes. *The Fink will take it as a joke. Won"t she, Khaden?"

Khaden slid under the car. *Yep. Anyway, she"s not going to know who did it."

Sas and Khaden worked quickly. Ruby dithered around the back.

Sas finished draping plastic around the driver"s-side wheel. *Front"s done."

Khaden slid out from under the car. *I"m done too."

They glanced at Ruby.

*We"ll help you finish, chicken." Khaden started on the b.u.mper bar.

*I"m not chicken. I"m just not using much, you know, for the environment."

*Yeah right, that"s what she"s worried about." Sas laughed as she wrapped the back wheels.

Ruby opened her mouth, shut it again and stepped back from the car. *So, how does The Fink get in?"

*Who cares?" said Sas. *How good does it look?"

*Awesome," said Khaden. He did a lap of the car and stood beside Ruby, arms folded.

*I guess it does look good." Ruby, looked over her shoulder at the cla.s.srooms. *Hey, that was Lyndal, I swear. Lyndal was at my homeroom window. I saw her!"

Khaden patted her shoulder. *Easy, Ruby. The cla.s.srooms are locked until the bell, remember?

*But, it was-"

The bell echoed off the school building.

Ruby was just about tied in a knot. *Lyndal ... honest..."

*Come on." Khaden dragged her by the arm.

Sas grinned. *Let"s dump the evidence and go enjoy the show!"

*Shove it in my backpack," said Khaden. *I"ll dump it on the way home."

Ruby Dad slammed the driver"s door and Mum buckled her seatbelt. I stared out the window.

In the station wagon beside us, Lou"s mouth was moving in a silent tirade at a bored-looking Sas. Past Sas, I could see Mike"s stony face as he reversed out of the car park. Gravel sprayed as he sped down the school drive. Some people sweat, but these days, Mike gave off something else.

*What the h.e.l.l were you thinking?" Dad"s voice broke into my thoughts.

Mum sighed. *Stuart, this can wait until we are at home."

I rested my head against the cool window.

*Sit up," snapped Dad. *And don"t pull that face."

*What face?" I asked.

*Stuart, please, let"s discuss this at home." Mum shifted in her seat, craning her neck to look at the windows facing the visitors" car park.

*Yeah, so we don"t make a scene," I said, my voice flat.

*What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you?" snarled Dad. *You"re a nightmare. Rude, smart-mouthed-"

*Like you"d notice." I couldn"t look at him. *You"re never at home. You"re always at meetings or playing golf."

*What"s that supposed to mean?" His voice made the hairs on my arm stand on end.

Mum gripped Dad"s forearm. *Stuart, drive. Now."

He jingled his keys before starting the car. Every time I glanced up, Dad"s eyes were staring at me in the rear view mirror. By the time we turned into our street, a thick soup of tension filled the car.

Dad wrenched the handbrake. *Inside. Now." He hadn"t sounded so angry since Mrs Kozaris, Harrison"s best friend"s mum, brought Harrison home blind-drunk on goon.

I dawdled inside and leant against the kitchen bench.

Dad sat at the head of the table. Mum sat beside him and pulled out a chair for me.

I slipped into the chair opposite.

*What on earth were you thinking, Ruby?" asked Mum. Her hair was lank and her eyes didn"t sparkle.

*I don"t know. I wasn"t thinking about anything."

*As usual," muttered Dad.

Mum ignored him. *Was it worth it? You, Sas and Khaden are suspended and will miss out on the last day of school tomorrow-the trip to Torquay, surfing and-"

*I heard Bergman," I said, interrupting her.

*Do you realise how serious this is, Ruby?" asked Dad.