Page 9 of Now and Again

‘Aren’t kids a bit… a bit boring?’ Haley finished in a slightly patronising tone.

Juliet shrugged. ‘Not to me.’

Haley and Meera swapped a look. Juliet tried not to let it get to her. She knew people would be like this. But she didn’t want three years at uni getting smashed, only to come out with a mountain of debt and very few real job prospects. She wanted to make a real choice, start her life now. And she liked kids, she just did. She’d been looking after them her whole life. From a big extended family, they’d been utilising her as cheap childcare from an early age. But she didn’t mind; she was happiest with her cousins. She enjoyed their company more than her peers. They could have fun without making anyone the butt of it. They listened with open curiosity. They loved without prejudice. They laughed without restraint. They were themselves, unashamedly. It felt good to be around them. Juliet was going to centre her life around creatures that brought her a joy that her fellow teenagers had never done.

‘So anyway, I heard that at Glede, you can fail for the first six months and nothing even happens,’ Meera said, turning the conversation back to herself. Juliet didn’t mind. If they were just gonna shit on her choices, she was happy to stay out of the limelight.

But their babbling was cut short. Across the cafeteria, a barking male voice suddenly rose sharply above the din. ‘You can’t just fuckingdothat to me.’

Juliet turned to the sound. There was a tall guy at the other end of the cafeteria, looming over a table, eyes ablaze, fists balled. Juliet couldn’t see who he was yelling at.

‘What’s up with Jack?’ Meera asked.

‘Dunno, but I heard Riley Powell broke up with him yesterday. During indie study,’ Haley said. ‘Which is crazy. Like she’s gonna do better.’

That got Juliet’s attention. She took a hard look at the table he was standing over, to see if she could see Riley. But the angle was wrong. The room had quietened down, though, and she heard the response, despite it being at a much lower decibel level. ‘I don’t want to talk about this right now.’ It was Riley, alright; you couldn’t miss that voice. It was unusually adult sounding for an eighteen-year-old.

‘Tough,’ Jack said. ‘Come outside with me now.’

‘No,’ Riley said sternly.

‘She’s an idiot,’ Meera breathed. ‘He’s gorgeous.’

Juliet gave Meera a disbelieving look that she didn’t see because she was focused on that dreamy arsehole, Jack.

‘Yes, you will. You owe me that,’ he was saying. Though no one looked directly at Jack, it seemed like the whole room was holding their breath.

Riley knew she was being watched because she cracked. ‘Fine,’ she breathed. She stood, Juliet seeing her at last. She looked mortified. Juliet was livid for her. Who the hell did Jack think he was, demanding conversations, being all threatening?

Juliet watched as Riley trudged toward the exit, which happened to be right next to her table. Riley passed with her head down. Next came a smug Jack. He’d gotten his way, and he didn’t care how he’d gone about it.

Juliet glanced over at Meera, who was smiling at Jack, trying to catch his eye as he passed. Juliet couldn’t believe what an idiot she was being. Trying to flirt with this angry twat whilst he was in the middle of having a go at his very recent ex. But it sort of worked. Or at least, Meera caught his eye. ‘What are you grinning at?’ he asked, slowing slightly as he passed the table. Meera’s smile slipped.

But just as he drew level with Juliet, she did something crazy. It was almost like she was outside of her own body, watching her leg slip out from beneath the table and hook Jack’s ankle as he walked by. She kept watching from that removed place as Jack went sprawling, arms out, staggering right into a table filled with the football team, right in the middle of a serious carb load. Pasta, bread, and jacket potatoes were sent flying as Jack upended the whole table with his full body weight. He came to rest on top of the upset table, face down.

There was dead silence for several seconds. The footballers looked down in astonishment at where their food used to be. Jack rolled slowly to face the ceiling, dazed. From the corner of Juliet’s eye, she could see Riley, wide-eyed at the scene. Time slowed.

But the spell had to break sometime. And of course, it was broken by laughter, coming from a footballer. He started giggling like a five-year-old girl. The rest of the room soon joined in once the seal was cracked. Someone yanked Jack up, and he got to his feet, blushing like a tomato. Juliet turned to see what Riley’s reaction was. She wasn’t laughing, not exactly. Her mouth hadn’t moved. But Juliet was sure she could see a smile in her eyes.

Jack had now shaken off his shock. ‘Who did that?’ he asked the laughing room. They kept right on yukking it up. That enraged Jack, and he spun around to the footballer with the high-pitched giggle. ‘Oi! Who was it?’

‘I dunno, dude,’ the snickering footballer said through tears of laughter. ‘Chill out.’

But Jack didn’t chill. He was looking around him, searching the room for a good stool pigeon. He soon found him, a ratty little kid with a wispy moustache that he didn’t know how to shave yet. ‘Oi, runt! Who legged me up?’ Jack asked the boy, towering over him. The kid didn’t pause as his finger pointed straight at Juliet.

‘Shit,’ she whispered to herself. Jack marched over. ‘Did you trip me?’ he asked, incredulous. As well he might. Juliet was no one at this school. Who was she to attack someone of his social standing?

‘Umm, no?’ Juliet replied. It wasn’t very convincing.

Jack eyeballed her as the laughter subsided. Everyone went quiet again, barely able to believe their luck. First the argument, then the accident, now the kangaroo court. It was all their Christmases come at once. For Juliet, it was less fun. Jack’s brow was nearly touching hers, his intense gaze boring into her. She was about a second from confessing all when Jack suddenly took a sharp step back. Or rather, he’d been pushed. ‘Back off, Jack,’ Riley said as she shoved him away. He directed his rage toward her. ‘Oh, you’re gonna defend her, are you? Did you see what she did?’ he said, taking a step toward Riley. She didn’t budge; she was angrier than he was now. Juliet didn’t know what to do. She’d caused this massive scene, and she hadn’t a clue how to shut it down.

But at that moment, the giggling footballer lost his amusement. ‘Dude, you don’t get up in girls’ faces like that. Uncool.’

Riley and Jack broke their stare out and looked at the guy. ‘Sam, it’s alright,’ Riley said.

‘Mind your fucking business!’ Jack yelled at him.

Sam glared at Jack. But he said nothing. Jack turned back to Riley. ‘I can’t believe you’re defending some rando nobody.’

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