Generation Next (8 page)

Now she'd been AWOL for an entire weekend and I was obsessing. In fact, it was pretty much all I could think about as Sai, Austin, Ava and I sat up on the roof of the block of flats where Sai lived. The rooftop was Sai's private little sanctuary, as hardly anyone else ever went up there; he loved it, and I could see why. It was so peaceful, and you felt like you were somehow disconnected from the rest of the world. It was getting dark by the time we'd headed up there that evening, and the lights of the town were waking up and starting to shimmer below us. Truth is, we were all a little bit burned out because we'd been working so hard on the website, as well as revising, so nobody was saying much. I broke the silence eventually, bringing up the subject of Ella, of course.

“Where do you think she's been hiding?”

Austin and Sai both groaned.

“You haven't even asked her out,” Austin said. “We've been working together for weeks and you always seem like you're just treading water, waiting for the right moment, but it never seems to come. What's the matter with you?”

“Do you know what, Austin? I like Ella so much that the thought of asking her out and then getting knocked back is doing my head in.”

“So you're basically bricking it,” Ava said.

“Pretty much.”

Sai was very quiet on the subject, but looked as though he was dying to say something.

“What do you think, Sai?” I asked. “You look like you're a wise man where women are concerned.” Actually he didn't at all.

“It's just that . . . What I'm saying is, like . . .” Sai stopped in the middle of his garbled sentence.

“Spit it out if you have an opinion,” I said.

“Well I think you need to be careful around that situation,” he said, looking down at the floor.

“What situation?” Why did I think there was something he wasn't telling me?

“What Sai is trying to say is that if you have these feelings for Ella, you need to act now,” Ava said. “Tell her the next opportunity you get.”

“Actually that wasn't what I was saying at all,” Sai argued.

“Look,” Ava said, taking control, “if I was a girl—and I am—I would want a boy, or whoever, to tell me what was what and how they felt, right? So do it, man. Stop dithering or it'll be too late.”

“Maybe it's too late already,” Sai said.

“And there speaks the voice of doom,” Austin snorted, causing laughter amongst all of us.

After that, I felt like maybe everyone was a bit fed up with me banging on about my love life, or lack of it, so I decided to change the subject and get back to the thing that had brought the four of us together.

“Can you believe we actually roll out GenNext next week, guys? It's so amazing how it's all come together in less than two months. How are we going to celebrate? Shouldn't we have some kind of sick launch party?”

We were all slumped on a slightly damp abandoned sofa, heads back, looking into the evening sky.

“What, with just the five of us?” Ava said. “How rubbish would that be?”

“We need to get the word around. We want people to check it out, at least the kids in our own school. How do we announce it if not by throwing some kind of event?”

“I've got an idea about that,” Sai said. “There's a party on Friday where literally anyone who's anyone cool and important is going to be.”

Austin sat up, excited.

“And we've been invited?”

“No, not exactly,” Sai said. “Well, not at all, actually. But I sort of have, and—”

“They said you could bring friends,” I said, also sitting up.

“Again, not exactly. But I could get us in, 'cause it's a kid in our year and I help him with his homework. Actually I end up doing most of his bloody homework, so he owes me a favor.”

That was when the penny dropped with Austin.

“Hunter? Hunter's having a party? What, at his mum and dad's ridiculous palace on Underwood Road?”

Sai nodded and I groaned.

“I heard it's gonna be sick,” Sai said. “A pool party with DJs, girls, drinks, everything. Bad things are gonna happen, I tell you.”

“Really, Sai?” Ava said. “Bad things?”

Austin was taking it all in, staring into the night air like he'd been hypnotized.

“That's so amazing,” he said, temporarily lost in another world.

“But you don't even like Hunter,” I reminded him. “You called him a knob-head.”

Austin leapt up, suddenly very animated and waving his arms around.

“No, it's perfect!” he yelled. “We can make some flyers and pass them around.”

“Oh yeah, 'cause when I'm at a kick-ass party, there's nothing I like better than to sit down with a really good flyer,” Ava said.

“Or I could put together a business card design with some info included,” Sai said. “Make it look like something cool and a little mysterious that people want to discover for themselves.”

“Better,” Ava said, nodding.

“Look, J, it doesn't matter whether we like Hunter or not—the main thing is that everyone else does,” Sai said. “We need to be there, mate, and that's all there is to it.”

“But—”

“Ella's bound to be there—it's her crowd—and you did say you haven't seen enough of her the last couple of weeks.”

I hadn't thought of that, and yes, I know it was a bit shallow of me, but that's what love does to a man. That was when I caved. That was when I sold my soul. That was when I agreed to go to Hunter's party.

Hunter was a kid who knew how to splash the cash around, despite the fact that he was only seventeen. Now obviously I wasn't exactly what you'd call close buddies with him—far from it after the unfriendly welcome during my first few weeks at St. Joe's—but in the short time I'd been there I'd noticed he was constantly designer-labeled up to the eyeballs, with the most expensive boots, jackets and bags and the coolest gadgets money could buy. It was also apparent that about fifty percent of the girls from Year 9 upward wanted to be his girlfriend, and he seemed to have this strange, slightly dangerous kind of charm that attracted people to him. In fact it seemed to me that a fair few of the students at St. Joe's actually wanted to
be
him, which I didn't get at all.

Word around school was that Hunter's dad was some kind of big kahuna on the property market and owned about a third of the county. Now, I'm pretty sure that was
an exaggeration—but not a hundred percent sure. Plus I'd heard all sorts of talk about how lavish his home life was: a butler at the dinner table, au pairs who looked like Bond girls, two—or was it three—Ferraris in his dad's garage, all of which Hunter was allowed to drive, an indoor and an outdoor pool. If you believed the school grapevine, Hunter's life was a cross between
Downton Abbey
and
MTV Cribs
. Someone even said that his dad had converted one of their bedrooms into a dry ski slope, but as I said, this was all supposition rather than cold hard fact, and when you questioned anyone about who had actually seen evidence of this stuff, it all went a bit quiet. Whatever the case, we were all eager to find out just how sickeningly wealthy Hunter was, and exactly what the house of someone that sickeningly wealthy might look like, and at least he hadn't given me any trouble in the last couple of weeks. Maybe it was going to be a bit of a laugh after all.

“What's this shindig in aid of anyway?” I asked Austin, who was sitting at the desk in my room, waiting for me to get ready.

“I think it's his birthday,” Austin said. “His mum and dad are on safari in South Africa and he's taking over the entire gaff. As far as I know, he's invited half the school.”

“All right for some,” I said. “And we've definitely been invited? You're sure about that?”

“Look, Sai does most of Hunter's homework, so we're in,” Austin said.

“Remind me why he does that again?”

“For a small amount of money but mostly through fear of violent reprisal,” Austin said, laughing. “Whatever the reason, Sai got invited, which sort of means I've been invited, which sort of means you've been invited. Dude, this is the social event of the year and we need to be there. We don't have to
like
the host, don't stress. We'll just walk in together like we're meant to be there, and while we're enjoying ourselves in a heated pool with hordes of hot girls, we'll be dishing out the new business cards and spreading the word about GenNext. It's a win-win.”

“Oh is it now?” I said.

Earlier in the week there had been a fairly heated debate regarding the pros and cons of the two of us turning up to Hunter's party together. One line of reasoning was that we should because neither of us had a girlfriend and rocking up on our own might look lame and a bit sad. On the other hand, Austin had a bee in his bonnet about people thinking we might be a couple. I pointed out to him that if I had even the slightest interest in dating somebody of my own sex, the person in question would be a lot better-looking than he was. Then he got all sulky and I had to assure him that he wasn't ugly and that he was sure to meet a hot girl at Hunter's party whether we walked in together or not. Jeez, the pitfalls, etiquette and dos and don'ts of teenage life could be very complicated at times. I swiped through my wardrobe, trying to make a decision about what to wear: a crisp white shirt, or was it better not to look too try-hard and just go for a T-shirt? After all, it was a mild
night so a jacket wasn't required. Maybe a polo shirt was a good halfway house. Yeah, that was the way to go.

“Do you think some of those au pairs might be there?” Austin said, rubbing his hands together and staring at me, deadly serious.

“What? Serving us beers in bikinis?” I laughed. “You wish, mate.”

“You never know, do you?” he said. “Are you taking swim gear?”

“Of course, it's a pool party, isn't it?”

“And talking of beer,” Austin went on, “we're all supposed to be taking our own alcohol. How are we going to swing that?”

“Well, I've had a few thoughts,” I said, grinning. “My old man has got quite a nicely stocked liquor cabinet, so . . .”

“What's in it?”

“Wine, Bacardi . . . I dunno.”

“I don't like wine,” Austin said.

“What do you like?”

“I'm not entirely sure,” he said. “Where is the drinks cabinet, anyway?”

“It's in the living room,” I told him.

“And where are your mum and dad now?”

“In the living room, watching
Game of Thrones
.”

“So unless you've developed the power of turning yourself invisible, how are we going to get hold of it?”

Austin had a point. This required a bit of fast thinking.

“Tell you what,” I said, after deciding on jeans and a light blue polo shirt, “what about if you, like, pretend
to fall all the way down the stairs and twist your ankle and then, like, scream out and then they'll rush out to help and I'll swoop in and put a bottle or two in my bag and . . .”

Austin looked at me like I'd come unhinged.

“Twist my ankle and scream out?” he said. “Do I look like one of Dr. Who's female companions?”

I shrugged, wondering if Austin might come up with an alternative plan. I mean, it wasn't exactly
Mission Impossible
, was it? We just had to get them out of the room and grab a bottle of something alcoholic.

“Or,” Austin said finally, “we both go into the living room and then you say you need to talk to them in the kitchen privately and very urgently, with a proper serious look on your face. Then they get all worried and follow you out and I nick the bottle out of the cupboard.”

“Yeah, and what do I say once we're in the kitchen?” I asked.

“I don't know, do I? Tell them you feel a bit ill, or that you've got some really bad life-threatening illness.”

“Tell them I've got a life-threatening illness and then swan off to a party?” I said. “Is that your idea?”

Austin nodded. “It'll work, trust me,” he said.

And it was at that moment I realized why I liked Austin so much. He was both a clown and an optimist rolled into one, and as far as I was concerned that was a pretty good combination.

In the end I got them out of the room on the pretense of showing them a personal website I'd been putting
together up in my room. Dad wasn't all that happy that I'd interrupted a particularly bloody battle scene, but they went for it anyway. While we were upstairs, I could hear the clanking of bottles as Austin rifled through the drinks cabinet, so I spoke to my parents in a stupidly loud voice to cover up the noise. Dad complained that I hadn't made any progress since the last time he'd seen the website so what was so urgent, and Mum asked me why I was shouting and assured me she wasn't deaf, but I think it did the trick because when we came back down the stairs Austin had a massive grin across his face and was standing by the front door, ready to go.

We left the house and headed off down the street armed with a small box of our new GenNext business cards and whatever alcohol Austin had managed to steal. I just hoped that neither of my parents fancied a glass of whatever it happened to be.

In the end, Hunter's house turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, at least from the outside. Sure, it was nice, and a fair size, but not really the rock-star mansion we'd all been imagining. It was just a smart house on the outskirts of town. My hopes of a dry ski slope in one of the back bedrooms was also dwindling. On the up side, we were greeted at the front door by a gorgeous young woman who Austin was convinced was one of the aforementioned au pairs, clearly ready to strip down to a bikini at the drop of a hat and cater to our every whim. Wrong again. Turned out it was Hunter's older sister, Fran, who had a degree in interior design and had just set up her own business.

The inside of the house was a bit more impressive than the outside, with an awesome hallway that led to a huge staircase. Above our heads was one of the biggest chandeliers I'd ever seen, and there seemed to be doors everywhere—so many rooms. Fran led us to the back of the house and out to the pool, where it was all happening. As we stepped outside, I felt my eyes widen, and Austin and I gawked at one another, mutually awestruck. All around the sizeable pool and the smart patio area behind it there were people partying: some dressed up, others in swimming gear, and at first glance I didn't recognize a single one of them. Strands of lights decorated the walls, tables, trees and plants, and there were several flame-lit lanterns dotted around too. A guy in a chef's hat and Speedos was flipping burgers on a grill on
the patio, and the pumping dance music was courtesy of a DJ who had set up on one side of the pool. Everyone seemed to have a drink in their hand and a smile on their face, and you could hardly hear yourself think, let alone speak.

“Oh mate, this is seriously amazing,” I said to Austin.

“You like it, do you? It's all my own work.” Fran smiled, shoving between us and gesturing across the magnificent scene.

“We do,” I said. “We absolutely do.”

“Yeah, we need to get involved.” Austin nodded eagerly.

“Well enjoy yourselves, boys,” Fran said, putting a hand on each of our shoulders. “Rules are, don't smash the joint up or pee anywhere that isn't the toilet, which is over there in the pool house. There's also a bar in the pool house but it's soft drinks only if you're under eighteen, I'm afraid—Dad's condition for letting Hunter have his birthday party at the house. Of course, Dad's not here and I'm in charge, so I might turn a blind eye if you've brought something of your own and you slip me a tenner.”

Fran was very beautiful in a punky sort of way, with deep red lipstick and heavy dark eyeliner. She wore a tight-fitting black T-shirt that almost reached her thighs, but no shoes, and she was smoking a cigarette, which mostly I don't like but on her it was somehow cool. She
must have noticed me noticing her because she smiled knowingly when my eyes met hers.

“I was only joking about the money,” she said. “I'm sure you're both very sensible boys.”

“We are,” I said.

She took a drag of her cigarette and moved closer to me.

“Not
too
sensible, I hope,” she said, winking.

I gulped like I was swallowing an ice cube and Fran laughed.

“Very cute,” she said, just as Hunter breezed past us eating a burger.

His sister grabbed his arm and he spun around to face us, mouth smeared with ketchup and slightly unsteady on his feet.

“Oi, Hunter,” Fran said. “Why don't you introduce me to your new little pals? I've not seen these two around before.”

Hunter wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and looked Austin up and down.

“Yeah, I vaguely know this one,” he said.

“How's it going, mate?” Austin said.

Hunter's mouth curled into an evil half-smile when he turned his attention to me, and he peered at me through squinty eyes. Then he shook his head.

“Nah,” he said finally, “I've never set eyes on this one before. But welcome anyway, boys. Enjoy yourselves!”

He smiled and slapped me on the shoulder and then took a bite out of his burger and walked off. I felt myself blush; not just my face but my entire body was blushing. Why would he say he'd never set eyes on me? What was that about?