The Kookaburra College Trilogy - Originally published in three parts on needleinthehey.net between March and April 2016 (two winners and one not eligible)

PATRICK

(YEAR 10 AT KOOKABURRA COLLEGE, 199_)

Year ten is a year of transition. During the year, a number of students will leave and enter the workforce by choice. Others will limp through, only to be asked not to come back the following year by honest teachers. Patrick Redford recently became the latter. As we join him, he is drinking his ninth beer, standing on his own on the outskirts of an end of year party at a local park. Most of his year level are present but they pretend that Patrick isn’t. Why would the biggest bully and prick in the school, who has no friends at all come to an end of year party? They’re all thinking it. Patrick’s attendance confuses, angers and worries the children around him.

Patrick sips long and hard from his beer. He downs it quickly, tosses it onto the ground and grabs can number ten from his esky. Patrick’s attendance is motivated by two factors. The first is his sadness at not returning to school next year. Although most of the people at the party hate him, he’s going to miss them. They are the closest things to friends he’s ever had. He knows that no one will ask for his phone number or address before they leave the party.  None of them will ring, write or visit next year. The thought makes a cloud of sadness sweep over Patrick so he quickly finishes beer ten and grabs number eleven.

Not many kids from school know about Patrick’s home life. Most assume that he comes from a poor, violent family. But that’s not that case. His parents are still married and both have full time employment. They could perhaps be described as neglectful, but certainly not abusive. Patrick has one sibling, an older sister named Leah who has just finished her first year of university. Patrick has had every opportunity to be a good student and a good person. But he is neither. He has always had trouble managing his urges and regulating his emotions. But as he went through puberty, things got more challenging. The truth is, since puberty began, Patrick has wanted to fuck everyone and everything around him and this is the main factor for his behavioural issues. Not a soul alive knows this fact, other than Patrick himself.

Patrick tends to relieve his sexual tension regularly, sometimes two or three times a day. At nights, while he in enclosed in the safety and silence of his bedroom, his head fills with wild and violent fantasies involving almost everyone he knows. Males and females are equally represented in his fantasies, but he has exhausted the limits of his imagination with his fantasies about Leah. In his mind, Patrick has done everything and anything to his sister that he could ever imagine. Leah is his ultimate muse and the fact that she is his sister only increases his excitement when he thinks about her. She is his forbidden fruit.

However, despite his overactive libido and enjoyment for fantasy, Patrick is still technically a virgin. This is a fact that pains and embarrasses him. He has performed a few sexual acts over the years with both boys and girls, (some willing participants…) but he has never managed to seal the deal. Patrick’s ultimate goal tonight is to lose his ‘V’ plates with a girl from school. That’s the second motivator for his attendance. He knows it’s going to be tough, given that almost all of the girls are scared shitless of him, but he remains hopeful. He needs to stay attentive and look out for opportunities.

As the party draws to a close, most of the children leave quickly, exiting the parklands in every direction. Patrick watches as the last few kids leave the park, not even bothering to look back at him. The group scatters in all directions. One person catches Patrick’s eye. A pretty girl named Evelyn stumbles away on her own, heading down a dark, secluded stretch of parkland that runs along the river. Patrick hesitates for a moment before deciding to follow her. Perhaps tonight is going to be something to remember after all, he thinks to himself.

---

EVELYN

(YEAR 11 AT KOOKABURRA COLLEGE, 199_)

When Nanna was alive, her favourite expression was: ‘Everything happens for a reason’. Nanna was wrong. Sometimes bad things happen for no reason. 

TERM ONE

Going back wasn’t easy. I got through two weeks without issue. Then I had my first ‘incident’. In history, my teacher, Mr Wallace came up behind me and touched my shoulder. I burst into tears and ran out of class. It was so embarrassing. I had to sit down with the Vice Principal later. He asked me heaps of questions about Mr Wallace, thinking he was the problem. I said that Mr Wallace had done nothing and I was just having lady issues. He let me go after that.

If only I hadn’t walked home that night. What was I thinking? Why did my friends let me walk home? They knew how drunk I was. I try to blame them but I can’t. It’s my fault. I put myself in that situation and now I’m paying the price.

TERM TWO

My friends kept asking why I didn’t go out anymore. They noticed that I used every excuse imaginable to avoid leaving home. What could I tell them? The truth? I’d rather die than let them know the truth. I decided to go to one party to get them off my back. When my friend Karen came to pick me up, I panicked. When I heard the doorbell ring, I blocked my bedroom door and crawled into bed. Mum yelled that I was being rude but I ignored her. Karen eventually left without me.

I tried to tell my mum after it happened. When I started the story about walking home drunk, she got mad. When I said something bad happened, she yelled, “A girl your age walking around at night, what did you expect?” My mum has always had a way of avoiding difficult subjects and making me feel guilty about bringing them up. I quit trying to tell anyone about it after that.

TERM THREE

My parents sat me down at the end of term to talk about my grades. I said I was sorry, but they kept going. Perhaps they could tell that I didn’t care. In the end, I got angry and for the first time in my life I swore at my parents and stormed out of the room. In my bedroom, the guilt eventually came. I was the worst daughter in the world.

My nightmares have lessened during the year. I’d be on the ground, next to the river with someone on top of me. Sometimes it would be a boy from school, or my dad, or one of my teachers. But in the scariest dreams I looked up and saw a blank face. It was as if my attacker could be anyone; or everyone.

TERM FOUR

I watched the kids in my year level as they hugged and laughed on the last day of school. They all looked so young and stupid. Some would be getting crap jobs but the rest would be back here in a few months. I left that day without saying goodbye to anyone. Maybe, after a break, I might come back next year and re-make some friends. I might not feel the urge to cry every time someone touches me. Perhaps the boys won’t call me a frigid bitch next year. Year 12 could be a good year.

Peter was my boyfriend. At an end of year 10 party, he betrayed and hurt me. The scariest thing is that it could have been worse. Another boy found us and pulled Peter off me. The boy was a scary kid I’d never spoken to named Patrick. When he told Peter to fuck off, I thought I was in trouble. I thought Patrick was going to finish what Peter started. I was so scared that I couldn’t talk or move. But Patrick turned and walked away. Both Peter and Patrick didn’t come back to school this year. I know that Peter got an apprenticeship but I don’t know what happened to Patrick. Whatever he’s doing, I hope he’s going okay.

---

PETER

(Kookaburra College 15 Year Reunion, 201_)

Peter had no intention of attending his 15 year reunion. But then, out of the blue he got a message from an old mate named Dean. Peter had always idolised Dean. He was taller, cooler, better at footy and more handsome than Peter. He was everything Peter wanted to be. As was the case back in high school, what Dean said he should do, Peter did.

After leaving school, Peter became a qualified electrician, working for his father before moving to the ‘big city’. By 24 he had had two failed business ventures, his hair was falling out rapidly and he came crawling back to his home town. His father let him buy a stake in his business and for a while things went well. He met a girl named Stacey and after a whirlwind relationship they moved in together and married. By 28 Peter was the co-owner of a business and he had a loving bride. Life was good.

Despite their attempts, Peter and Stacey couldn’t make a baby. They tried everything. Peter knew that Stacey blamed him, but he wouldn’t accept that, irrespective of what the doctors said. A baby-shaped void grew between them and soon their relationship was filled with resentment and anger. After eighteen months of marriage, Stacey walked out one day and never returned. Peter was devastated. Then his business started to fail. By 30 Peter was heartbroken, unemployed, bald and living with his parents. Life was bad. Three years later, with the reunion scheduled, things hadn’t improved much.

Peter arrived early at the pub for the reunion. He figured a couple of looseners would help him relax and he managed to down three pints before most of the people got there. As the night went on, Peter dutifully followed Dean around like he did in high school. For a little bit, Peter forgot all about his shitty life. He began to feel mindless, stress-free happiness like he had as a teenager. He began to genuinely smile and laugh with his old buddies. Peter was glad that Dean had talked him into coming.

Late in the night Peter took a seat at the bar and surveyed the room. People laughed and danced around him. But Peter noticed one person not dancing or smiling. It was a familiar face at the other end of the bar that he couldn’t place. Whoever the man was, he was staring intensely at Peter and Peter couldn’t help but squirm under his glare. Peter felt an urge to turn and leave the venue. Then it hit him. The last time he saw that face was a long time ago. The face scared him then, and it scared him now. Patrick, the worst bully Peter had ever known was staring at him.

Peter had heard some rumours about Patrick being in prison over the years but he hadn’t actually seen him since the end of Year 10 party. Patrick had interrupted Peter as he was trying to have it off with his girlfriend. Peter hadn’t thought of that night for a long time. When he heard Evelyn had killed herself during her first year of university, he wondered why she did it. As much as he told himself that it was ridiculous, he couldn’t help but feel guilty for some reason. Under the stare of Patrick, the sense of guilt reappeared. Did Patrick blame him for Evelyn?

Peter decided that he’d had enough of the reunion and quickly left. As he walked down the dark streets near the venue he constantly checked over his shoulder, feeling like Patrick was following him. Evelyn’s face flashed in his mind as he walked. Why did she do it? Did she want Peter to feel guilty about that night? Peter told himself that it couldn’t be the case. An irrational fear befell Peter as he walked towards a taxi rank. A flood of thoughts entered his mind; Evelyn lying in a bath filled with red, Patrick’s stare across the bar, the three of them on the night by the river. Was Patrick there to avenge Evelyn? Peter’s thoughts made less and less sense as he got in the taxi.

The next time Peter got an invite out he declined. Something about the reunion stayed with him. He began to have dreams about Evelyn’s suicide and about being chased by Patrick. He told himself everything was okay but it didn’t help. A sense of dread stayed with him whenever he was out and about. Peter experienced anxiety and debilitating fear unlike anything he’d felt before. His life would never be the same following the reunion. For the first time in his life, Peter experienced something that resembled what Evelyn felt because of him.