Excerpt
Lisa was in the Mall, trying to have a civilized conversation with her so called friends, but it was not an easy thing to do when you hung out with a bunch of loud-mouthed giggling teenagers.
She called them friends, but they were more just parsing hello’s most of the time.
"Listen, it's true I tell you, Eddy cheated.” Lisa protested.
"I did not, you just can't accept the fact that I'm a better pool player than you." Eddy hissed back, sticking out his tongue at her and making a big gloating smile.
“Yeah, well I bet I could beat both of you together," Jessie piped up.
"Yeah right, in your dreams Jess," Cheryl boomed, "You can't even hit the balls."
"Balls, what are them then?" Jessie joked. Mind you, Jessie was the typical city teenager, too many big ideas, too big a mouth, and no skills.
'Yeah, well what about this party? "Jenny cooed, "We’ve got to have one."
"I told you I didn't want a party, and I don't," Lisa groaned, but somehow she didn't think they were listening.
They may have been her friends, and she may well have enjoyed their company, but paying attention to other people was not one of their greater points.
"Well I say we got to do something for your Birthday Lisa, it’s only a few months away, John begged.
“Yeah, its an excuse for a party, we have to do something," Jenny agreed.
"Well don't you guys worry about a thing, Jessie replied, "I have it all worked out already."
“What? What?" they all asked together, their eyes lighting up with the prospect of having a real good time.
"A pub crawl maybe?" Cheryl asked.
“Nope."
“Um, a visit to the children's zoo?" Jenny added, laughingly.
“Gee, I didn't think of that one."
"A stripogram?" John asked. That was just typical of him, everything he talked about was sex, and if it didn't contain sex, it always had women in it all the same. A trait of his that Lisa really hated about him, what did she see in this boy to ever want to go out with him?
"Okay, we give up, what is it?" Eddy asked, looking round the crowd of kids at the table and seeing their eager faces.
"Well it's a surprise, so you'll just have to wait and see."
"Oh come on, tell us," they groaned simultaneously.
"Nope, you'll just have to wait won't you!”
“I have a surprise for you too Lisa,” Jenny cooed, “But I’m not telling either.”
The group fell silent, their faces an array of subdued glum looks and indignation. For such a lively and chaotic group of adolescent school kids, silence was not a state they preferred to be in. But, as they peered around the table at one another, surveying the solemn looks and stern faces, everyone hated the silence, but no one dared to be the first to break it.
Lisa thought silently to herself during the unspoken silence, as she wondered what it was they had planned for her. It certainly wasn’t going to be a very special Birthday because Debbie was out of town on a college excursion. Debbie John was always the one she would turn to for a laugh. So she knew it would be a boring Birthday with her away.
She began to daydream about all her friends, or was it her few friends?
There was Eddy Simmons, he was the usual geek that you would expect at any high school, very brainy, but very naive. Then there was Cheryl West. Cheryl was Lisa’s best friend. They had been friends for years, almost all of her life in fact. They had grown up together and lived through the joys of childhood, both knowing all the secrets of the other, neither letting anything go unknown. Cheryl worked part time in the library, though seeing as she certainly wasn’t a bookworm, Lisa never understood why she did that kind of work. She hated books.
Jessie Fanchon was the school hunk. The kind of guy that just lived on the high levels of excitement he got from watching girls swoon at his feet. A was planning on becoming a mechanic, but somehow he could never pull his finger out and actually do it. All the girls at school loved him, even Lisa. Though she never let him know about it. It was her little secret. Well, her and Cheryl anyway. He was a hunk to look at, is muscles bulged at the arms, and he always wore tight fitting shorts and t-shirts whenever he could. Jenny on the other hand, was the more mature of the bunch. She worked hard at school, not to the extent of Eddy, but hard enough to have passed all of her eight exams, and was heading to New York City to be a lawyer in less than a few days time. Jenny at least was going to make use of her talents.
And John? Well he was just a lazy bum. He didn’t plan on doing anything that wasn’t absolutely essential.
Their solemn glares of frustrating silence, was so gratefully broken by a stranger as she stepped up to the table and uttered her rude and indignant speech.
"I thought I might find you lot here, how's the geeks club going?"
"Oh, Tess, it's you." Jenny answered in contempt.
"Yeah, what do you want?" Cheryl quizzed.
"She's come to join the geeks club,” Jessie laughed, but Tess didn't see the funny side. Being the cocky, I'm too good for you type; she was too stuck up to have a sense of humor.
"Actually, I want a word with John."
"What is it'?" John barked. He too was getting rather fed up of his sister and her very annoying rudeness.
"In private." She barked, equally annoyed.
“Ooh, little John and big bad sis are going for a private chat, hey speak up we can't hear you properly." Lisa called after them.
Giving Lisa a stern and dangerous look, Tess turned away from her to talk to John, ignoring the boo's and giggles from the table as best she could.
"I'm leaving town for a while, I got some business to attend to. '
"Well how long you gonna be?"
"I don't know do I, a month or two, maybe three."
"Well where you going?"
“That doesn't matter, just you make sure you keep the house good. I don't want to come back to a pigsty like I did last time."
"Yeah sis, okay." He could see no point in arguing with her, it never worked anyway. Though at least he had the house to himself for a while, no big sister to push him around, telling him to clean his room and pick up the rubbish, empty the trash, take out the washing. They may have been orphans but she certainly made up for the parental absence. He had three months to make the most of it and pig out on what and when he wanted, and generally be lazy.
He never knew exactly what she did on her business trips, she never told him. All he knew was that she went on trips two or three times a year and he had the house to himself to do whatever he wanted. And he looked forward to it.
"Okay," he said again, and she stormed off as quickly and as rudely as she had come, giving them all a stern, evil look as she went.
“That girls a cow,” Lisa huffed.
“You got that right Lisa,” Cheryl eagerly agreed.
Lisa never really knew why Tess was always so horrible to them. She was always calling them names and talking down to them, since the first day they had met. She only knew her because she was John’s sister, and that was more than close enough for Lisa’s liking. Lisa just put it down to the age difference, that and the fact that she was a total utter cow.
"Great," John said as he returned to the group of giggling school kids, "summer holidays and no sis to boss me about, no cleaning to do, no nagging, no teasing, no bossing me around, this holiday is going to be one to die for.” He went to put his arm around Lisa, but she brushed it away without even looking and she ignored his lustful look of desire.
Little did they know, death was closer than they imagined.