Read Online Living With Leanne by Margaret Clark - Free Book Online

score starts.
    ‘I know that,’ says Cooja. ‘So I’m going first.’
    ‘Typical,’ giggles Cathy, moving closer and squeezing his arm.
    Boxie winks at me. I’m lost. There’s something going on here and I haven’t quite twigged.
    ‘It’s an internal triangle,’ whispers Boxie in my ear. ‘How does he do it?’
    Huh? Oh, he means an eternal triangle. Cathy, Belinda and Cooja? I’m stunned. I thought Belinda was still pining over me .
    ‘A six,’ goes Cathy as Belinda throws.
    ‘A six.’
    That was my throw. It’s a play-off between Belinda and me.
    ‘You could be chivalrous and let her start,’ says Cathy.
    Forget it. This isn’t a game of manners, it’s a game of power. I throw.
    ‘A six.’
    Belinda throws.
    ‘A six.’
    ‘Aw. Come on. We’ll be here all day,’ says Boxie.
    I throw again.
    ‘A six.’
    ‘Suffer, Belinda.’
    She throws again.
    ‘A six. And I’m starting.’
    ‘That’s not fair,’ I go, but it’s too late. She throws a four and lands on ‘Risk’. She takes a card.
    ‘You made a rude noise in public, go back to the start,’ she reads out, and makes a farting noise. I grab the dice.
    ‘Clockwise, dork,’ goes Cooja, grabs it back and throws a five. It means I end up throwing last. Doesn’t seem fair to me and it’s certainly not good manners. I finally get to throw.
    ‘A six.’
    ‘Another six.’
    ‘I’m on a roll here,’ I say, as I throw a third six.
    ‘What’s with you, Stud? You got the devil on your side? Six, six, six?’
    ‘Manners from hell,’ goes Belinda, glaring at me.
    ‘Is it my fault that I’m hot?’
    ‘Ya might be hot on board games but that’s about all,’ says Cathy, and the internal triangle cracks up laughing. I’m starting to feel uncomfortable.
    ‘Don’t worry about them,’ says Boxie, rolling his dice after I’ve thrown a two. ‘They’ve got their own problems.’
    The game’s okay. We get points and bonuses for answering correctly where proper manners are concerned and black marks for stuff like forgetting to say ‘Excuse me’ and yawning without covering your mouth and burping aloud and spitting and barging ahead of people. Before we know where we are the double period’s ended.
    ‘Now,’ says Miss Heatherton, ‘the thing is, I want you to carry these manners out away from the game, away from the classroom, into your everyday lives. We’re going to discuss your successes and failures during the next lesson on Thursday. Take note of how people respond to you when you are courteous and polite. We’ll use this information to do some writing.’
    ‘Der,’ says Boxie. ‘Knew there’d be a catch.’
    But he doesn’t sound too disappointed.
    We motor over to the canteen and start our usual pushing and shoving in the queue.
    ‘Hey,’ says Belinda. ‘Females first. Good manners.’
    ‘Yeah? What about feminism and equality?’ goes Cooja, grabbing her round the waist and giving her a squeeze. If looks could kill he’d be dead on the canteen floor. Cathy presses her lips together and glares at Belinda.
    ‘Whoa. This could get in-ter-est-ing,’ says Boxie softly.
    ‘Give us a buttered roll and a packet of Twisties,’ says Cathy to the lady.
    ‘Per … lease,’ we all chorus.
    This manners thing could be habit-forming. We float over to a seat and sit. Cathy opens the roll and pours her packet of Twisties into it. Belinda’s up tight against Cooja. Then she spots her initials on his arm and nudges Cathy.
    ‘He loves me,’ she goes, pointing, giggling.
    ‘Get real,’ says Cooja. ‘B.S. stands for Bestial Shock the new thriller out by M.A. Carb.’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    Cathy looks like she’s going to start bawling and Belinda looks smug.
    ‘I can’t stand this,’ says Boxie in my ear. ‘I’m outa here.’
    ‘Me too.’
    We take off for faraway places, that is the locker room.
    ‘Cooja’s gonna get burnt. He’s playin with fire,’ he says. ‘Jugglin two women at once when they’re best