Maxine was in her room. She made no effort to go out. She heard everything.

“Ah yeah gidday, er, Mr Harrison, er… Bill. We were wondering…”

“Hi, John. Look I’m sorry but the answer is still no. I mean it’s not the fire thing. It’s just not really appropriate for a twelve-year-old girl to be playing with boys who are almost twice her age. I mean, really… you’re a whole lifetime older than she is. But thank you for the opportunity you gave her.”

“But she’s really…

“Okay, short straw goes down there and asks…pleads …grovels!” Dooby was grinning fiendishly. So was Noise. John wasn’t. He was deadly serious even though he allowed himself to participate in Dooby’s childish games. He looked over at Chaz. She was in a foul mood, staring out of the window angrily.

John knew he shouldn’t even be doing this. It was against everything he felt. And he knew that when he pulled the short straw he wouldn’t be able to do it anyway.  Dooby and Noise already…

Maxine sat down in front of the computer to do her homework. Boring! If it had been a week ago she would have been up at Munga!’s place rehearsing for the high school gig. Now, because of the so called “fire threat” and police inquiry, Mum and Dad had made a solid front and said:

“No more playing with Munga!  It’s inappropriate for a 12-year-old girl to be playing with boys almost twice her age. Go to your room and do your drum practice like normal girls would.”

Ha! Normal…

“So, tell me what happened next?”

“Well,” started off John, “We’d played most of the songs. We were onto the last one and everything was going great.” John truly had been amazed at how well the concert had gone. There had been some rough playing and missed cues. There had been a lot of hostility from the audience at the beginning. No one clapping, pretending the band didn’t exist. They had also pointed and laughed at the drummer. He could hear the comments about it being past her…