Fifteen Going on Grown Up (3 page)

In her room Hally put the finishing touches to her makeup and perused her reflection in the mirror. She had a new mini skirt and top which showed off her curvy figure and long slender legs. Her mother came in and looked at her.

“You look really lovely darling.”

She told her daughter. Hally screwed up her face and said.

“Do you really think so?”

Her mum nodded with a smile and Hally shrugged and grinned back.

“Oh well I suppose I’m not a Rachel Rover.”

She told her mother. Mum burst out laughing. Her husband had invented that saying when they had been dating and used it to describe any girl he found unattractive. It was very amusing to hear her daughter use the saying.

“Come on, your guests will be arriving soon.”

They walked downstairs chatting about who was coming to the party and as they reached the bottom they heard Corrinne and Clia’s voices. Hally went to greet them and mum went out into the garden. She heard the girls squealing excitedly to each other about how they looked.

An hour later the garden was beginning to fill up with Hally’s friends. Groups of girls stood admiring each other’s clothes and groups of boys stood admiring the girls. Hally moved amongst her guests chatting and dancing and thanking individuals who handed her presents. She had decided to wait until later to unwrap her gifts and the pile was rapidly getting bigger.

By the middle of the evening the garden was humming with the sound of talking, laughing and music. Most of the girls were dancing and several of the boys were beginning to join in. Everyone was having a great time and Hally’s parents were very popular with her friends as they joined in with the party spirit.

Everything was going really well until a commotion was heard in the corner of one of the gazebos. A small crowd gathered as Hally’s parents quickly moved in to intervene. Hally pressed between two girls and came across a furious argument between Kerry and Anna. The girls who were friends of a friend of Hally’s, were leaning so close together their faces were almost touching. Both were jabbing their finger at the other and were shouting so loudly it was difficult to determine what was being said.

“….you COW!”

“…bitch…you said…you KNEW!”

“NO I SAID……”

“What on earth is going on!”

Mum had forced her way to the girls and was trying to get between them. Both girls turned angrily and started shouting at the same time so no one could make out what they were saying. Hally squeezed in beside her mother and tried to help and dad joined in as well. Quite a large crowd had gathered around the group and mum, dad and Hally had a difficult time trying to calm the situation. Then quite suddenly everything went quiet and it became obvious that someone had turned the music off.

“That’s better.”

Dad said in an exasperated voice.

“Now will someone…..” he raised his hand as the girls were about to start speaking both at once. “…tell me what is going on. You first.”

He pointed at Kerry.

“She, SHE, I told her, but still she…” and she burst into a flood of tears.

Dad turned to mum and frowned.

“I think we had better get these two inside, the study should be quiet and kid free.”

Without asking for an explanation mum nodded and began to lead Anna towards the house with her husband leading Kerry. Hally turned to her guests and was about to tell everyone to carry on with the party when Nathan jumped in.

“Shall I put the music back on now Hal?”

Hally grinned.

“Was that you who turned it off?”

“Yeah well I just thought those two yelling was a bit much with the stereo on as well.”

With that he bounced back off to the house and a few seconds later music was again blasting out into the garden.

Clia and Corrinne had made their way towards Hally.

“What’s that all about?”

Enquired Clia. Corrinne was nodding her head and looking intently at Hally.

“I don’t know. But it must be something sort of serious for mum and dad to take them off.”

As Hally finished her sentence she was bumped from behind and tumbled into Clia.

“Hey watch it you idiot.”

Clia told the culprit. But it soon became obvious to the three girls that the bump had not been intentional but was because the girl who did it could not stand up straight.

“Oops sooo sorry.”

Hally stared at the girl and recognised her as Kerry’s cousin. She remembered Trish, a girl in her tutor group, asking her if she could bring Kerry and Anna and Kerry’s cousin because she was staying with her. Hally had agreed adding them to the list. Now she regretted that decision very much as she realised the girl was quite drunk.

“I think you had better leave.”

Hally told the girl.

“I can’ I’m stayin at Kerry ‘ouse.”

The girl slurred.

“Right then I’m taking you to my parents.”

She took hold of the girl’s arm and with difficulty and help from Clia and Corrinne led her into the house to the study where her parents were.

Inside the study both girls were sitting on chairs in floods of tears. Dad was on the phone talking quietly to someone and as Hally and her two friends eased into the room with the drunk girl her mum put her finger to her lips indicating that Hally wait. Dad finished on the phone and turned to his daughter.

“So what have we got here?”

He asked. Hally pointed to the girl.

“Dad she’s completely hammered and she’s with these two.”

“That explains a few things then. We can’t get a word from these two. They just keep crying.”

He told his daughter.

“Who were you phoning?”

Hally asked.

“Your mother managed to prise a home phone number out of one of them but her parents are not in. I was speaking to her older sister and asked her to tell her parents to phone us as soon as they get home.”

The girl Hally had brought in made a loud belching noise.

“Oops. Don’t know where that came from.”

She muttered.

Hally’s mum took the girl’s bag and opened it.

“Hey you, you can’t do tha’ tha’s my pers… my bag.”

“Oh be quiet.”

Mum told her firmly and at the same time pulled out a bottle of almost empty vodka.

“And where did you get this from?”

She demanded. Kerry suddenly stopped crying and this caused everyone to look straight at her. She was shaking her head rapidly at the girl. As soon as she realised everyone was looking at her she stopped and covered her face with her hands and began making a sobbing noise again.

“That is not going to work young lady.”

Mum told her very sternly.

“Now where did this alcohol come from and have any of you got any more?”

Kerry and Anna both reluctantly handed over their bags and mum found inside a bottle of whisky and a bottle of rum. Both bottles had a lot more inside than the vodka.

“So I’ll ask again where did it come from?”

Anna genuinely began to sob again. Kerry gave her a fierce look but she ignored her and quickly spilled out the truth.

“We got all of it from Dana. She sold it to us for a fiver a bottle. But she made us promise not to say where we got it from, she said…” At this point Kerry jumped up and grabbed Anna.

“Shut up you stupid cow, he’ll kill us.”

Dad stepped forward and pulled Kerry away.

“Now calm down, we’ll have none of that sort of behaviour.” And looking at Anna he said “Go on and tell us everything.”

With her eyes wide and obviously terrified Anna began to explain.

“Hally you know that stuff about the nicked booze, well Dana and her lot got a load of it off Cobby and when she knew we were coming to your party she said we could buy some off her. Only she said there was a condition attached, like we could have each bottle for a fiver if we made sure the bottles were stashed somewhere in your house. And we was supposed to get a bit drunk and later she’s gonna call five oh anonymously and tell them there was trouble at the party and they would come and find the booze and and ….”

She burst into fresh sobs. Kerry stared at Anna furiously, but Hally felt the anger just bubble up and burst out of her.

“WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE TO YOU?”

She shouted. Mum put her arm around her and pulled her close.

“Hush hush baby. We will deal with this. You, Corrinne and Clia go back to the party and enjoy yourselves.”

“But mum…”

“Go on love do as your mum says. I’m going to call the police myself.”

As he said this both Kerry and Anna started to protest but he told them both to be quiet and sit still. The other girl in the meantime had slid down the wall and was snoring very loudly.

Hally was extremely angry as she marched back to her guests in the garden. Passing Nathan he linked his arm through his sister’s and demanded.

“What’s goin’ on sis?”

“I’ll tell you what’s going on. Those idiots in there were not only going to ruin my party but get mum and dad into trouble at the same time.”

Hally told him in a hard but very quiet voice, walking rapidly at the same time. Corrinne and Clia were almost running to keep up with her.

“Calm down Hally. Don’t let them see that they have upset you.”

Clia told her in a breathless voice.

“Don’t worry. I’m perfectly calm. But you realise that Trish must have something to do with this ‘cos she was the one who asked if they could come with her.”

“Look Hal. I know you’re really angry and so am I but you know Trish might not be involved. Just go and ask her but don’t, you know, go steaming in with accusations.”

Clia told Hally. Hally stopped and looked at her friends. Nathan was still clinging to her arm. She seemed to have forgotten he was there. For a few seconds she stood motionless, thinking, then she nodded slowly at the two girls. She knew Clia was right, how many times in the past had one of the popular group come and accused her of something she hadn’t done? How many times had she been accused of saying something to someone when she hadn’t even been there? No, she knew she had to deal with this carefully and diplomatically. Suddenly she realised her little brother was still attached to her elbow.

“Nat, get off.”

She told him shaking her arm a little. With a groan he let her go but tagged along with the threesome as they made their way toward Trish.

Several people tried to get Hally’s attention but she managed to deter them by whispering “Later,later.” She spotted Trish amongst a group and moved towards her.

“What’s up Hally?”

Trish asked as they came level. Corrinne and Clia stood either side of Hally and Nathan tried to peer around the girls.

“Trish why did you want Kerry and Anna here?”

Hally asked softly. Trish gave her a puzzled frown.

“Kerry asked me to ask you. She said something about not wanting to miss such a cool party. Why?”

“Did you know Dana had made an agreement with them?”

Hally enquired.

“What!”

Exclaimed Trish.

“Hally what do you mean, what’s going on?”

Trish looked genuinely upset and concerned. In an instant Hally knew that Trish had not been privy to the setup and quickly informed her of the night’s happenings.

“Oh my… crikey, that’s just…Hally I’m so sorry. If I’d had any idea.”

Trish stammered. Hally shrugged.

“Hey, look, it’s not your fault so let’s just leave it to my parents and enjoy this party.”

Hally told her. She then turned to Nathan who was still hovering beside her.

“Go and turn the music off for a minute please Nat.”

Without question her brother dashed off and a moment later all went quiet. Several people looked around questioningly, especially those who were dancing. Hally moved to the edge of the deck and raising her arms called for the attention of her guests.

“Everyone sorry to interrupt your fun but I need to tell you all something that has happened. Without going into too much detail at the moment a couple of girls have started some trouble and my parents have had to call the police.”

There was a general murmur and a few exclamations of “What!” and “No!”

“So I think we should all try and get on with the party and let my parents and the police sort it out”

Hally finished speaking and sent Nathan back to the stereo. A few friends came over to ask what was going on but Hally refused to explain fully. She wanted the police to deal with it before it hit the grapevine.

A short while later mum came and found Hally in the garden. The party was in full swing and most of the guests were now dancing and having fun. The light was fading and as the moon came up big and full and glowing, the lanterns which Hally had lit a little earlier began to give off a warm romantic glow.