9: Birthday Plans
Monday 14th September 1998
No sooner had Lisa walked in through the school gates than Julie appeared, with a bright smile and a pen and notebook at the ready.
"So, what are we going to do for your birthday, Lisa?" said Julie.
"We?" said Lisa, a little stunned. "Well, uh, I was thinking about just having a quiet birthday, you know? Me and my parents."
"Don't be silly," said Julie briskly. "Everyone has proper birthday parties when they turn sixteen, don't they? Now, who are we going to invite?"
Lisa opened her mouth to protest.
"But I don't want - "
"Of course you do," Julie interrupted. "So, I'm coming, right? That means we'll have to invite Mary and Leonie and Sarah and Luanne. Oh, Milly Truman too, of course. I know she only started here this year, but we can't leave her out, can we? And we can invite Tyrone Hayes as well, and Mike Dennis, and – yes, Justin Thomas, he's cool – and Phil Barrett, he's so cute."
"But Julie - " Lisa protested; again, to no avail. There was no stopping Julie when she was in this kind of mood. So Lisa resigned herself to her fate and joined in with the planning for a party she didn't particularly want to have.
"Oh, all right," she sighed. "In that case, we'd better invite Jamie Cooper too. Phil won't come without him; I swear they're joined at the hip or something. How about Alex Denny?"
"Good idea," Julie agreed.
"Paul Armstrong as well?"
"Mmm-hmm. So, that's Mary, Leonie, Sarah, Luanne, Milly, Tyrone, Mike, Justin, Phil, Jamie, Alex and Paul – and you and me, obviously. That makes fourteen. Big enough, do you think?"
"I want to invite Jack Carpenter too," Lisa added.
"Him?" Julie looked disgusted. "Why? What do you want to invite him for?"
"Because he's my friend, that's why," said Lisa. "No Jack – no party."
"Oh, fine," grumbled Julie. "But don't blame me if he ruins everything. He can come if you really want him to, although why you want him there anyway is completely beyond my understanding."
It was with some difficulty that Lisa bit back her intended reply.
"O-kay," said Julie, scribbling notes. "And this'll be at your house, right?"
"Right. In the back yard? Easy to clear up. And it's got to be during the day – my parents usually get home at eleven, so night-time's no good," said Lisa. "About midday, say?"
"Great," said Julie, writing the time and location down in her notebook. "So if you can write the invitations, I'll sort out all the food and drink and stuff. Okay, it's a date! I'll go tell the girls."
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"Australia alone has over a hundred species of marsupials…" droned Mrs Bietelbaum.
How come we gotta have Beetle this year too? thought Jack. He didn't particularly like Mrs Bietelbaum; she was always ignoring him or, worse, criticising him in front of the whole class. If only he could have gone to St Michael's Catholic High School like his fellow Street Rats – but his aunt had said that she couldn't afford the fees. Of course, neither could his friends' parents, but they still managed to scrape the money together somehow.
Although there was one upside to being in Raccoon City High School, and that was sitting next to Lisa every day. Jack had to admit that this was very nice indeed.
When Mrs Bietelbaum's back was turned, Lisa leaned over to his desk and slipped a crumpled scrap of paper into Jack's hand.
"RSVP," she hissed.
Jack unfolded the paper, taking care not to let Mrs Bietelbaum see what he was doing, and read the message. In Lisa's neat, graceful handwriting were the words:
Birthday party at my house - Sept 28th. Interested?
Jack's heart sank as he saw what Lisa had written. Yes, he was interested – going to her birthday party would be great – but she would almost certainly have invited everyone else in the class, and he felt uncomfortable around them to say the very least. They hated him, and he wasn't overly fond of them either.
Sorry, Lise, he wrote back, but I no can go to you party. You uptown friends hate me like they want me dead. But what say I go buy you a real nice present an' give it to you later? That be okay?
Jack returned the note. He saw Lisa's face fall as she read it, and he felt like he'd just been stabbed in the heart.
"Sorry," he mouthed.
Lisa smiled weakly, and mouthed something back.
"What?" Jack whispered.
Just in front of him, Julie rolled her eyes.
"You know, downtown boy, you might actually learn something if you paid attention instead of talking and passing notes to your girlfriend," she said loudly.
The entire class – Mrs Bietelbaum included – turned to stare at Jack. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, silently willing everyone to stop staring at him.
"Jack Carpenter," said Mrs Bietelbaum frostily. "Your grades are good, considering you come from downtown, but they're not so good that you can afford to ignore what I'm saying! Maybe a short spell of after-school detention might improve your attention span a little. Report here at the end of the day."
The rest of the class tittered. Face hot with embarrassment, Jack looked down at the desk and silently begged the floor to open up and swallow him without trace.
Mrs Bietelbaum opened her mouth again, possibly to continue berating Jack, but whatever she was about to say was soon lost in the noise of the bell – it was time for lunch. Frowning, she dismissed the class and left the room.
The tenth-graders eagerly packed their bags and rushed out of the door en masse. Jack was the only exception – he lingered behind, not wanting to leave at the same time as the others. He knew they'd make fun of him, as usual. He could almost hear the taunts now:
"Hey, smart aleck! Not smart enough to keep out of trouble, are you?"
"Grades so good you don't need to listen, huh?"
"Stupid downtown trash."
"Go back to Mexico, Mexico boy!"
"And tell your aunt to get a decent job 'stead of being a whore!"
Fighting back tears, Jack ran out of the room and passed Lisa without even seeing her. She, however, saw him all too clearly. More to the point, she saw the look on his face.
"Jack," Lisa called after him, but he didn't hear her.
Julie passed her in the other direction, laughing and joking about something with the other tenth-grade girls.
"Did you see his face? The idiot…" said Julie, and the others giggled.
"You bitch," muttered Lisa.
Under normal circumstances she would have left it at that, but something inside her rebelled. Boiling hot rage took over Lisa's brain and gave the rest of her body new instructions – so Lisa unexpectedly found herself rotating through 180 degrees, chasing after Julie and grabbing her by the shoulder.
"What did you do that for, huh?" said Lisa fiercely, as Julie turned around. "That was cruel! He's never done a thing to you, and then you throw that at him! Why? Because he's from downtown? Because he can't afford to strut around in Armani jeans like the other guys? Or is it because you just can't accept that different doesn't always mean wrong?"
"Sor-ry. Jeez. If I'd known you fancied the cargo pants off him then I wouldn't have said anything," said Julie disdainfully. "Although I must admit I'm surprised by your choice. I always thought you had better taste than that, Lisa."
"You - " As the rage relinquished control of her body, Lisa suddenly found herself at a loss for words. "You are just unbelievable!"
She stormed off. Julie shrugged, and turned back to the rest of her group.
"What's her problem?" she said to them. The other girls just shook their heads.