Chapter Three
Our Primary School years went by too fast. They were happy times. We went on our yearly camping trips with Dad and Mark. And would all play together at snack and lunch times at school. The Teachers always wanted Gazzy and Angel to play with kids in their own level, and for Iggy, Fang, Nudge and I to branch out and make new friends, but who were they to tell us who we could be friends with. We were inseparable from the very beginning.
We played in the forest behind my house, even when we weren't aloud. And had many sleepovers with many sleepless nights. We were each other's extended family, and adopter each other's families as our own. But that's not saying we didn't have our falling outs. There was a time in the first year of High School when we didn't even talk to each other. Before that though, things seemed perfect.
Until Mum got sick.
She had been getting pain in her chest for a couple of months before she went to the doctors. After many, many appointments and tests, she was diagnosed with bone cancer. She always said everything was going to be okay. It was early days and it was treatable. But I could see it in her eyes, even when I was twelve, that she was scared. She told Ella and me everything was going to be okay. Right up until the end she said it. My brave, compassionate, caring Mum, who was always looking after everyone else, suddenly needed looking after herself. I didn't know how to do that.
Age Twelve
"Nick!" Fang and I look up to see Lana, Fang's Mum, walking swiftly towards us. Her high heels loud against the concrete. She frowns when she catches sight of us. We are on our hands and knees behind a car, in the car park of the hall we're having our Primary School Graduation in.
Fang stands up quickly grabbing my elbow and pulling me up with him. I dust down the blue silk dress mum made for me, and insisted I wear, forced really.
"Nick. Maxine. What in the world are you two up to?" She asks sternly, but then smiles, probably at our sheepish expressions. She straightens up Fang's shirt collar.
"Hiding Mum…" Fang says with a half smile.
"I don't even want to know. Just make sure you're on that stage when your names are called. Please. I'm begging you." Lana says.
"We will, Promise." I assure her, glancing at Fang who is nodding his head.
"Are you excited and ready for tonight Max?" Lana asks me kindly.
"The eyes are bright the tale bushy." I grin at her. Lana laughs effortlessly.
"Alright Sweethearts. Break a leg! Or chookas is it these days? Anyway I'll see you both in there." She shakes her head one more time, smiles a private smile, before turning and making her way back to where Mark is standing. He waves when he sees us looking over.
Iggy, Nudge, Fang and I had been standing in the line, with our fellow Grade Six classmates, when Iggy decides it will be great fun to drop a small drop-tail lizard, which he found on the ground by our feet, down the back of my dress.
This resulted (of course!) with me chasing him across the car park. Trying to throw it back at him in return, I know, poor lizard! I accidentally, I promise, hit Nudge in the face with it. She screamed waving her arms around frantically, swiping it away onto Fang. In the end it somehow turned into us playing gang-up tiggy. Iggy and Nudge are both it now, looking for Fang and I.
"Let's go kids. It's time." Mrs Hoover our vice Principle calls, clapping her hands together to get everyone's attention.
"We win." Fang says, holding his hand up for me to high five. I laugh hitting his hand hard. He doesn't flinch.
"Ah, there you guys are." Nudge says pulling Iggy along by the hand. "Where were you!?"
"We-" I begin, but am cut off by Fang's hand covering my mouth.
"Max. Never give away a good hiding spot." He says smirking. I pulled his hand away.
"First off, don't ever do that again, and second, when do you think we'll come back here and hide!?" I exclaim. His smirk widens. "Doesn't change the 'never give away a good hiding spot' rule. Have I taught you nothing?" He jokes. I roll my eyes, but laugh.
"Come on guys. The lines moving. Move your butts." Nudge orders, smiling at Fang and me. She runs her hands down her pale pink dress and fixes her, naturally curly but straightened for tonight, hair.
We run over to the door just in time to walk through and onto the stage, climbing up the three steps.
"Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Family. Please help us in welcoming this year's graduating Grade Six class!" Our Principle Mr. Davey announces. The crowd erupts with cheers, clapping loudly. I can hear Gazzy and Angel over all the voices. Nudge and I exchange grins. She squeezes my hand briefly in her own.
All of us Grade Sixes are lined up on stage in three lines. The shortest kids in the front row. Then the middle row with the medium sized kids. And finally the back row for the tallest kids, which is where Fang, Iggy, Nudge and I stand side by side.
The Principle went on talking after the applause died down. I'm not really paying attention. Instead I scan the audience for my family. I see Angel first, her blue eyes shining with excitement. She gives me a small wave. Next to her is Gazzy. He is squirming around in his chair. Probably because Daniel Andrews' mum with the big hair is sitting in front of him. Next to Gazzy are Fang's parents Mark and Lana. Lana is smiling proudly, fully engrossed in what the Principle is saying.
I always loved Fang's parents. In time they became second parents to Ella and myself. They were what I thought to be the perfect family. Fang always told me when I would say this to him that everything isn't as it seems. I didn't know what that meant back then.
I always thought he didn't know how lucky he was. Things at home hadn't been the same since mum got sick. She was different, we could all see it. Dad and Mum would lose their tempers quicker and more frequently. I knew it was because they were under so much stress. Mum's medications made her say and do things she wouldn't normally have done and said. But what they didn't see was the amount of stress it put on Ella and I.
Next to Mark and Lana, are Iggy's parents. Then Nudges. Then finally my Mum, Dad and Ella. Mum and Dad both look tired. They have dark shadows under their eyes. Mum catches my eye and smiles. The smile reminds me of her old self before she got sick. I smile back at her.
I look away from Mum and turn my head to Fang. His dark eyes are studying me.
"You okay?" He whispers so only I can hear.
"Ye-Yeah." I say trying to smile, hating myself for stuttering. He doesn't look convinced. He looks out at the audience and his eyes settle on my Mum. I feel him grab hold of my hand and squeeze gently. I try my best not to look down at our entwined hands. Fangs always had the knack of reading me.
All of our families had gone back to Lana and Mark's house after the Graduation. Angel and Gazzy had gone to the graduation with Iggy's parents, so they dropped them back home afterwards.
The tears our mothers shed continued even while at Mark and Lana's house. We all thought it was terribly embarrassing. Our parents decided to go down memory lane that night. Telling stories of when we were little. How while at a park when we were seven, Fang had kissed me one the cheek and I had apparently punched him in the nose. He denies that, even to this day.
And the time when Iggy, Nudge, Fang and I were ten, and Angel and Gazzy were nine, and we had gone roller skating. We had decided to speed around the rink with all six of us holding hands in a line. What we didn't take into account, were other skaters. Resulting in us 'clothes- lining' a little boy. We had been banned from ever going back to that place. But we eventually did, it just took a lot of grovelling.
I slept at Nudge's house that night. She had told me a secret. That she had a crush on Iggy. It was weird for me to hear that. Out of all of us Iggy and I had known each other the longest. Since we were babies. Iggy and I had met Fang and Nudge in Three Year Old Kinder and then Angel and Gazzy when we were five when the twins moved into the same street as me. Iggy was like my brother. We would fight the most out of all of us.
Times were changing. And that scared me.