Benworden (8 page)

There was no way Miss Fickle could be angry after an apology like that. She had gone from thinking there was something wrong with her dress to believing it was very special and she replied, “It's all right, dear. I didn't take it to heart. It is a lovely dress though, isn't it Sophie?”

Kate replied, “It really is magnificent. Where did you get it?”

Miss Fickle told Kate all about the dress and Kate knew she had mended the first bridge for the day. She then headed out to the school garden and picked a small bunch of flowers for Miss James.

Kate worked tirelessly throughout the day, not only apologising to those she had hurt and insulted but leaving them liking Sophie more than they had before. By the time Kate got back to the boarding house she was absolutely exhausted but she knew she had one more thing to do. She headed straight to Sophie's room to tell her what she had done the day before and how sorry she was.

At first Sophie was furious and hurt and Kate told her she would understand if she never spoke to her again. She went on to tell her that she had spent her whole day fixing the damage
she had done.

As Kate turned to walk out Sophie told her to wait and said, “This should be a good lesson to the both of us. Come here and give me a hug.”

Kate turned around. “Does this mean you forgive me?”

Sophie walked over and hugged her and said jokingly,” Of course it does, sweetie, but are you some sort of a nut coming up here and telling me what you'd done? I would have kept it to myself!”

Kate began to laugh through her tears and Sophie said to her sister, “Come on, we really need to get Isabel back on side before she does some damage.”

It was that English charm they inherited from their parents that got them out of trouble and invited into places that other club members couldn't enter. Sophie and Kate were our perfect spies outside of school and even Isabel would invite them as special guests to her parties and functions. Isabel once asked them about the club rings they wore and they told her that they had been given to them by Bungles and Roo, two year 8 boys who the girls said had a crush on them. The girls went on to say that they told the boys how much they liked the rings they were wearing and the boys went out and bought two more for them.

“Silly boys,” said Sophie.

“Yes, silly boys,” repeated Kate, and they both began to giggle.

Isabel asked them what the rings meant; she had seen others wearing them and Kate replied, “Who knows?”

Sophie continued with, “Just a trend I guess.”

Then the both of them continued in unison, “As long as we got them for free, who cares?”

Isabel joined in the giggling but thought to herself, “There's got to be something more to those rings than meets the eye, but I guess I'm asking the wrong people. They wouldn't have a clue what they represented.”

What Isabel didn't know was that the girls were keeping the club informed of what she was up to and this helped us to stay one step ahead of her. Although their little made-up story about the rings had thrown the suspicion off them as far as Isabel was concerned, poor Bungles and Roo couldn't work out why Isabel would walk past them and say: “I know who you have a crush on.” They would look at each other curiously and Roo would say to Bungles, “What was that about?”

And Bungles would reply, “No idea, mate. You tell me!”

9

B
EST
F
RIENDS

I
n year 8 we have Eddy “Bungles” Moore and Terrence “Roo” King. Bungles' parents, Bevan and Tanya, were born in Ballarat and had left to take up contracts with a mine in Western Australia. Bevan landed a job as superintendent of the workshop for the huge coal trucks that needed to be serviced on site at regular intervals, and Tanya was employed in the despatch office. They had both come from farming families but many years of drought had dwindled away the size of their parents' properties; most of the farmers in the area had pushed their kids away from farming to save them the heartaches that they had faced.

Bungles had an older brother and sister who attended Monash University, and although mining jobs pay well it was still tough coming up with the costly fees that Bevan and Tanya were paying for their kids' education. Both of Bungles' parents worked 12-hour shifts with nine days on and five days off and when on site they stayed at well set up camps. They had two properties, one in Perth and the other the family home in Ballarat.

Bevan and Tanya would fly home once a month to spend time with the kids, and if they couldn't get back during school holidays due to extra shifts then Bungles would either spend the holidays with Roo or at home with his brother and sister. They had a key to the house and made sure Bungles was well-catered for. Before Bevan and Tanya took up their positions with the mining company they ran their own business doing
mechanical repairs for heavy duty trucks and farm machinery. Bevan was an A-grade mechanic and Tanya would take the bookings and work the accounts.

Bungles loved spending time with his dad and tinkering around on the machinery, and his father was astonished at how quickly he picked it up.

He would always be saying to Tanya, “The boy's a natural. It won't be long before he's as good as me.”

And she would reply,' “As good as you! With the time you're spending teaching him your skills he'll be better than you before he turns 18.”

There was no doubt that Bungles was well on the way to achieving those skills and that was one of the reasons why the club had selected him for membership. We almost didn't pick him initially because he was often bringing attention to himself – which could also bring attention to our club, and that was something we couldn't afford. It wasn't that he purposefully drew attention to himself, but his nickname explains it all. Bungles would trip over anything and everything and accidents were a way of life for him. However, his loyalty and outstanding abilities got him through and he became a club member.

Roo, Bungles and another year 8 by the name of Talbert Tucker were best mates, and both Roo and Talbert had tried out for the local basketball team, the Ballarat Bandits. Roo grew up on his uncle and aunt's farm just outside of Ballarat and had learnt to drive tractors and operate farming equipment at a very young age. He adored his Aunty Candice and Uncle Alan and they had been a constant source of encouragement to him.

His Aunty Candice loved rubbing his jet-black hair, saying,
“Well done, mate! Good job!”, although this had become harder and harder as Roo in year 8 stood at 6 feet 2 inches and was still growing. He was definitely a man's man but the girls in his class absolutely adored him and often commented on his deep brown eyes and dark complexion. They also loved the small horse-shoe shaped scar on his right cheek which he received from the horn of a prize bull he was parading at the local show. The wind had blown the Stetson hat from his head and as he bent to pick it up the bull shied and caught him on the cheek with the tip of its horn.

Roo received his nickname when the PE teacher had been watching him do lay ups at basketball and commented in front of one of the students, “That's unbelievable. He can leap like a kangaroo!”

After that the kids began to call him “Roo Boy”, which eventually became just “Roo”.

Roo was selected for the Bull Ants Club because he was multi-talented and a jack-of- all-trades. There wasn't a thing he couldn't drive and if it broke down he could fix it as well. He was also mature for his age and stronger than anyone I knew, including adults, but there was no doubt his future outside of the club and school lay in his natural ability at basketball. He had three leather basketballs: one at school, one in his room at the boarding house, and one that he kept in the club rooms that he often misplaced. The reason Roo was often losing his basketball in the club rooms was because he wasn't allowed to take it into certain parts of the club due to him breaking several things while bouncing it off the walls. (These included: one monitor, three light bulbs, one coffee mug, one glass and several ornaments.) As a result, whenever he was where he shouldn't be with the ball and he heard someone coming he
would hide it and later forget where he'd put it.

Roo's mother and father, Danielle and Herbert, lived in Lakes Entrance, a small fishing town almost a day's drive from Ballarat. They wanted Roo to have the best possible education they could give him and Danielle and her sister Candice had attended Benworden as students and knew it was a quality school. Candice and Adam had tried without success to have children of their own so they were only too happy to have Roo stay with them for as long as required and they treated him as if he was their own son, while still respecting his parents' wishes. Roo often joked to other members of the club that if his mum or aunt knew what was below them when they were at Benworden he doubted that he would have ever attended the school or the boarding house.

As for Talbert Tucker, his father owned a trucking company just outside of Melbourne and he had made his first million at the age of 35. James was a tall, solid man and was known throughout the region as “Big Jim”. Talbert's mother, Samantha, had been Big Jim's childhood sweetheart and had helped build their trucking empire.

The trucking business had become so large that both Big Jim and Samantha could have had anything their heart desired, except happiness, but sometimes making money and being powerful becomes such an obsession that the real reason for obtaining that sort of lifestyle is forgotten. Happiness, however, is too important to forget.

Samantha had asked Jim to sell the business because she could see that they had very little time for each other any more and they had begun to grow further and further apart, but Big Jim loved the power that the business gave him and wasn't ready to budge on the issue.

Big Jim was a gentle giant and that's what Samantha loved about him. He had never raised his voice or a hand to her or Talbert, but one day he was in a bad mood after he had had to lay off one of his workers who had been stealing from the company. Jim was devastated. He had known the guy for many years and he was the last person Big Jim would consider to be dishonest, so he was definitely in no mood for the discussion Samantha had planned on his arrival home.

He had just walked in the door when Samantha said to him, “Jim, I need to talk to you about where we're going in life. And I need to know if you'll ever consider giving up the business.”

She paused and was about to speak again when Big Jim roared at the top of his voice, “Enough! It's not going to happen, so get over it. And if you can't accept it, leave!”

Samantha was stunned and stood there in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Her eyes welled with tears and she turned and walked away. Jim wanted to say he was sorry but his pride got caught in his throat and he remained speechless.

After a while he felt so uncomfortable in the house that he couldn't stand the silence anymore, so he headed down to the local drinking hole to try and drown his thoughts. Back at the house Samantha was packing Talbert's and her bags. This was the last thing she wanted but knew if she stayed things would only get worse.

Jim and Samantha owned a small hobby farm 40km outside Ballarat and Samantha felt that this would be a good place to raise a young boy. Talbert was six when they moved there and from that time he felt something missing in his life. He was constantly overwhelmed by a need to belong and had no idea of what he needed to belong to, but he always believed this craving would be fulfilled one day. All through junior school
Talbert joined every sporting and social club he could in order to find that connection but it continued to evade him. However when he knew he was heading off to boarding school he had asked himself, “Could this be what I've searched for, or am I just chasing something that doesn't exist?”

Talbert got very little sleep the night before his induction into Benworden but that didn't stop him being up at the crack of dawn. He did his normal chores and fed the dog and the chickens. He thought about how he would miss his daily routine but it couldn't be helped because he would only be home on weekends now. Talbert's dog Sam, named after his mum, knew there was something going on and followed him everywhere he went that morning. Even the chickens weren't their usual clucky selves, but nothing could deter Talbert from his positive frame of mind.

He wasn't the only one beginning a new phase in life: his mother had realised that once he was in boarding school she was going to be lonely so she began applying for jobs. It wasn't long before a tourist company saw her potential and had her promoting their tours all over Australia. She had become so involved in her position that she unintentionally began to neglect Talbert.

Like his mother and father Talbert loved it when opportunity came knocking and he was going to give boarding his best shot. He was right: this was a new beginning for him and it wasn't long before he met his two best friends Roo and Bungles. Life had new meaning and his confidence kept growing through year 7, and year 8 proved to be even better. Talbert's mother and father remained good friends and Talbert, who was forever the optimist, continued to believe that some day they would make a go of it again. This was quite possible as neither of them had taken on a new relationship.