The Recruit Page 2

  Jaz strode out of her bedroom, down the wide corridor to the other end, straight into her brother’s room, and stumbled. Argh! It was so bright she had to wait until her eyes adjusted before she could start looking. The gold of her necklace hung from his bedpost, taunting her. She stepped into Simon’s perfectly clean room. She was sure his shoes were colour-coded, along with his clothes. Jaz put her necklace on over her head, the medallion dropping between her breasts. She was about to leave but yanked at the crisp white sheets on his neatly made bed. A smile curled on her deep red lips. She knew he would hate that, Mr Oh-So-Tidy Simon, but he might think twice before going into her room. And what normal fourteen-year-old has a room this clean anyway.

  ‘Jasmine, are you coming or not! We need to leave now or we’ll all be late!’ echoed her mother’s voice up the staircase.

  Jaz bellowed back as she grabbed her black school bag and headed down to the foyer. ‘Yeah, yeah, keep ya shirt on, Mum.’

  She watched the expression on her mother’s face change from her normal calmness to irritation, as she looked Jaz over with her sharp eyes. Tasha Thomas’ blonde hair was pulled back into a hard bun and her cream skirt suit was immaculate. It went with the face she was making, like she was just about to ‘tut tut’ along with an exaggerated eye roll.

  ‘Jasmine, tuck in your shirt please,’ Tasha asked as she gestured to Jaz’s white school shirt. ‘We pay good money for you to attend a top school and I just wish you would be a little appreciative of what you have. You’d look so pretty if you did your hair and didn’t wear so much…black.’ Tasha’s eyes roamed down to Jaz’s thick black stockings and Doc Martens. ‘Oh God, I’m going to get another call from them, aren’t I? And is your skirt getting shorter or do they make them like that now?’ Tasha’s eyes were drilling holes in her red tartan skirt.

  Personally, Jaz couldn’t see what was wrong; all the girls wore their skirts this short. She didn’t even mind the stupid thin black tie they had to wear, the guys had to wear it too.

  ‘You look like a high school drop out,’ sneered her brother, who was waiting patiently by his mother’s side with his shirt crisp and folded into his pants as carefully as origami. He was short for a fourteen-year-old, like his hormones hadn’t kicked in yet, still baby-faced with soft blond hair, fair skin and their mother’s blue eyes.

  ‘Better than dressing up like a fifty-year-old school teacher, you’re just missing the tweed jacket.’ Jaz snorted at her own joke.

  Simon was about to open his mouth but he was cut off.

  ‘That’s enough you two, into the car.’ Tasha checked her diamond-encrusted watch as she followed them both out to the sleek, silver Mercedes. At the door, she stopped Jaz and reached for the necklace around her neck. The medallion slipped into her mum’s hand. ‘Jaz, I told you not to wear that. Why can’t you keep it in your room, where it will be safe?’

  ‘It’s safe on me, Mum.’

  Tasha gave her a pained look. ‘But what if it’s lost or someone spots it and steals it? It’s real gold.’

  Jaz had heard this all before. ‘It’s all I have of my real dad. Please Mum.’ The only reason Jaz had it was because she’d found it while snooping through her mother’s things a few years back.

  ‘I wish you hadn’t found it, Jaz. I wish I hadn’t told you it was from your real father.’

  Jaz sighed. ‘But he’s not alive and seeing as you won’t tell me anything about him, I think of this as a compromise,’ she said taking the medallion back and slipping it back down inside her clothes.

  A few times her mum had opened up, telling her about how much her smile was like her dad’s or that she was strong and determined like him, and what Jaz saw in her mum’s eyes showed she really did love him at some stage. Who knows why it all went south. She refused to tell Jaz anything, except he’d died in a car crash and that was it. So this was her life. Clinging on to a pendant of a guy she knew nothing about.

  ‘Okay, okay, you win. Just please keep it hidden under your clothes. Come on, we have to go.’

  Jaz smiled on her way to the car. Her mum was getting soft in her old age.

  ‘I’m in the front, Knuckle Head,’ Jaz said to Simon as he reached for the car door.

  The sprinklers popped up and began watering the dark, green lawn as Tasha pulled out of the paved driveway and onto the road. Simon called out from the back seat, the leather squelched under him as he leant forward. ‘Mum, don’t forget I have my computer lessons with Dad after school, I need to be on time please.’

  ‘I won’t forget darling. How about you Jasmine, do you want a ride to Pax’s today?’ asked Tasha, keeping her eyes firmly on the road ahead.

  ‘No thanks, Mum. I don’t mind the walk, warms me up before my work-out.’

  Tasha sighed, ‘I do worry about you walking down there. It’s not the best part of town.’

  ‘Com’on, Mum. I’m old enough to take care of myself, you know that. Why don’t you come down for a work-out? It’s been ages since we’ve sparred together…and Pax keeps saying he hasn’t caught up with you for so long!’ Pax ran The Ring. It was the gym that she always went to, which just happened to be in a seedy part of the suburb.

  Tasha risked a long glance at her daughter. ‘I know, darling. I’ll try to make it one day so you can beat me up, yet again. But I’m so out of touch with all that now. Work keeps me busy at the law firm.’

  Jaz slouched in the front seat as she swallowed her mother’s excuse. She’d been coming to the gym less and less and Jaz missed her. It was her mum who introduced her to the gym, before Jaz could even walk, spending every afternoon there teaching her martial arts like her life depended on it. But these days her mum’s job and social calendar kept her pretty busy. She had turned into the rich wife, just like all the other ones in their area.

  Jaz stared out the tinted window watching the two-storey houses flash by. Her pulse started to throb in her neck as Taylor’s house was coming up. Their red SUV appeared first, still stationary in the wide, circular, paved driveway, Taylor’s mustang beside it. Craning her neck she watched the large, jarrah double doors but they didn’t open; maybe he was already in the car.

  ‘Would you like us to go back so you can get a better look at Lover Boy?’ Simon teased.

  Jaz swung around so fast, her hand flying, but Simon had been ready, hiding behind his school bag, but the force she’d used caused his bag to slam into his face.

  ‘Mum, Jaz got me in the face,’ he whined.

  ‘Jasmine, I wish you would behave,’ Tasha said, hardly flinching.

  ‘He’s baiting me.’

  ‘And you are falling for it.’

  Jaz crossed her arms and Simon slunk back into the leather seat. They travelled in silence until Jaz and Simon gladly climbed out and went through the large metal gates of St Christian College.

  ‘Bye kids,’ Tasha yelled through the car window. Simon said goodbye while Jaz just raised her hand in a half wave and took off along the pathway, her hair flying behind her.

  ‘Hey Jazzy, over here.’

  Anna Johnson, best buddy in the world, waited by a shady lilac tree that grew in the corner of a large manicured lawn, in front of the towering, brick school. Teenagers ambled past heading into the building, while others gathered outside waiting for friends. Anna must have something to tell her, as she always twirled her hair when she was trying to contain herself. Jaz threw her bag down on the lawn as she joined Anna on the wooden seat.

  Jaz took a deep breath before turning to Anna. ‘Go on, spit it, I can see you’re dying to tell me something!’

  Anna’s soft green eyes brimmed with excitement and the small freckles on her delicate face highlighted her fair skin. ‘You’ll never guess what happened this morning?’ she teased, finally releasing her hair from her nervous fingers.

  ‘Um…you hacked into the school’s computer again to see what grade you got in English?’

  ‘Don’t be a knob! No, I got here early as Mum had to get to work but you
know who was here, sitting right here on this very spot?’ Anna was practically bouncing on the seat.

  ‘Calm down, anyone walking past would think you were trying out for the drama club. Honestly, that’s the last impression we want to give.’

  Anna rolled her eyes while Jaz smiled.

  ‘Ricky was? Really? Did he say anything, did you talk to him?’ Jaz pressured her for the details.

  ‘Well no…but he might have if I had gotten close enough,’ said Anna with her standard cheeriness.

  Anna may be the brightest person she knew, but she could also be so clueless. ‘Anna! Tell me you talked to him…did you chicken out?’ Jaz rested her arms on Anna’s shoulders and shook her, already guessing the answer.

  ‘Well yeah, I was kinda scared.’

  ‘You git! He was probably waiting for you; maybe he was making a move.’

  ‘He had his nose stuck in a book, I doubt he was waiting for me,’ said Anna screwing up her cute freckled nose.

  ‘But everyone knows we always sit here, it’s our spot and nobody comes near, unless they’re new or unbelievably stupid.’

  ‘Who’s unbelievably stupid, I hope you’re not talking about moi?’

  They both looked up. ‘Taylor, don’t sneak up on us like that,’ said Jaz almost gasping for air, but she was always gasping for air around him. He always managed to make a pair of black school pants look delectable, and with his blond hair flicked up at the top he could have easily come from a modelling shoot. Not that she was into the good-looking types but Taylor was different. She knew him well and he wasn’t vain and up himself like the other good-looking popular kids.

  ‘So do I get to find out what you were talking about?’ he said raising a perfect eyebrow, his school bag hanging from his shoulder. He could make the simplest things look cool.

  Anna shook her head and tried to hide behind the cascade of strawberry blonde hair.

  ‘Ricky was on our seat this morning and Gutless Wonder here didn’t go talk to him.’

  ‘Jasmine Thomas, how dare you!’ Anna looked horrified.

  Jaz put her hand on Taylor’s arm and enjoyed the warmth through his shirt. ‘Anna, it’s only Tay, he’s like…been our friend since the first grade. He probably knows more dirty secrets about you than I do!’

  Anna sobered up instantly, her face now showing an intense expression. ‘You know, you might just be right. How lucky we are that you don’t blab to your other friends about us,’ Anna said, squinting up at Taylor.

  ‘I wouldn’t dare. Jaz would likely kick my butt and have me begging for mercy,’ he said giving her a wink. ‘Besides I don’t think they would be interested in you two rejects,’ Taylor finished jokingly. The girls automatically lashed out. He caught Anna’s hand but took a hit to the guts from Jaz. ‘Oomph, no fair Jaz,’ he said rubbing his belly. ‘You know it doesn’t do much for a bloke’s ego when he’s always getting beaten up by a girl. Blokes like to be the stronger ones…or at least think we are.’

  ‘Oh please, somebody give him a tissue,’ Anna laughed.

  Jaz smiled. ‘Maybe next time you’ll think twice about a smart arse comment. You know we don’t like your other friends, they’re very snobby and mean.’

  ‘Yeah, and why is it that you like them again?’ asked Anna tilting her head to the side. But they weren’t expecting an answer. They knew that Taylor moved in different circles with his family and deep down they knew he liked being popular…hey, who wouldn’t! But he’d never once dissed them, and because of their friendship all the other kids left them alone. Besides the odd snide comment from Minka when he wasn’t looking.

  A short blast rang out over the PA and small groups slowly merged together as they headed inside the building.

  ‘Come on we better get moving, I’ve got Mr Noble up first and you know how he likes to make a spectacle of anyone who’s late, so I’ll catch up with you two later,’ he said before taking off. ‘Oh, Jaz, you gonna be at training?’

  Her heart pounded an extra hard beat as she nodded.

  ‘Cool,’ he replied before striding off into the merging traffic of uniformed bodies.

  Anna watched her friend for a while before speaking. ‘And you think I’m chicken — when are you going to fess up your feelings for Tay?’ she asked as they moved off.

  Jaz reluctantly took her eyes away from Taylor’s lean figure. ‘Come on Anna, it’s different. We’ve been friends too long, I can’t risk losing that. Besides I know he doesn’t feel the same way,’ Jaz said sadly.

  ‘How would you know when you haven’t even asked him?’ Anna said before putting her arm around Jaz’s shoulders. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll sort something out. Come on, let’s get to another exciting lesson of biology, whoopee…not. You might be able to dissect a frog…I know how much you love gross stuff.’

  Jaz smiled. ‘And Minka likes to faint at anything gross-related…that would cheer me up.’

  ‘Remember the last time she fainted and hit her nose?’ Anna laughed.

  ‘You always know how to cheer me up.’

  On her way to her form room she passed a circle of guys on the inside quadrangle who looked like they were shoving someone around. Jaz kept walking, more concerned about getting to class, but in the gap of the guys she saw a familiar face. Simon. Then she heard what the guys were saying, teasing her brother, trying to get him to fight. She skidded to a halt just as one guy punched Simon somewhere near his chest.

  That was it. Nobody teased her half-brother but her. Throwing her bag down she pushed her way into the middle of the bullies’ circle to stand in front of Simon.

  ‘You okay, Si?’

  He was rubbing his chest, but nodded his head that he was.

  Now she turned to face the older boys. ‘Think it’s funny do you? Like picking on people smarter than you? Well now, you can deal with me. Who’s first?’ She stood there challenging them, waving them on with her hands while daring them with her eyes.

  One of them, with an earring, laughed. ‘I don’t hit girls,’ he said. Jaz hadn’t seen him before, maybe he was new and hadn’t heard of her yet.

  ‘Well I don’t discriminate,’ she said, raising her hands.

  The other guys took a few steps back. They didn’t look so tough now. Jaz was itching for one of them to make a move just so she could bust their butts. The one with the earring, who had hit Simon, stood tall, chest puffed out trying to intimidate her.

  ‘You come near my brother again and you’ll have to deal with me. I don’t like bullies.’

  A guy with a shaved head leaned over and whispered something to the dude with the earring before he turned and left. The rest of the crowd went with him. Earring boy gave her an unimpressed glance before turning and following the others.

  ‘I guess your reputation is still alive and well,’ said Simon as he picked up his spilt books.

  Jaz put her hand on Simon’s shoulder. ‘If they bother you again, you tell me.’

  ‘You can’t fight all my battles, Jaz,’ he sighed while putting his bag on his shoulder.

  ‘And why not? You got the brains, I’ve got the brawn, together we are unbeatable,’ she said with a laugh. ‘Come on, we better get to class before we’re both in trouble.’

  ‘Thanks, Sis,’ he said before turning and running towards the nearest door.

  Jaz followed along at a slower pace. She was a little disappointed no one had thrown a punch. She did love a good fight but usually it was with her mates at The Ring. Maybe another day, she thought.

  Chapter 3

  Jaz was mesmerised. Yeah, the wooden bench seat in the gymnasium was hard on her butt and her white breeches were a bit tight, but Taylor occupied the rest of her thoughts. He was just so cool. Okay, so the get-up in fencing wasn’t as revealing as a pair of footy shorts but it was the way Taylor moved that was wonderful, his steps so graceful, his arm speed so quick and his riposte so decisive. Jaz wasn’t really good at remembering all the names of things in fencing but that didn’t matter, she cou
ld still do all the moves.

  Taylor was right into fencing…and anything else different. Like his passion for guns. His dad was the Deputy Commissioner of Operations for the police and had a huge gun collection. Taylor had shown her a few times over the years, and he would ramble on about each new gun every time his dad had acquired another one. He probably thought she was interested but Jaz just liked the way the words rolled off his tongue and the way he spoke so passionately.

  ‘Hey, you. Finished practice?’ asked Anna as she walked into the school’s large gym. It had grandstands on either side of the court and two fencing mats were set up in the middle, where Taylor and Reece were bouting.

  Jaz lifted her mask up off the bench so Anna could sit down. ‘Just about.’

  They watched for a few minutes as Taylor won another point.

  Anna sighed, ‘Wow, Taylor makes it look so sexy.’ Jaz glanced at Anna who held up her hands. ‘Hey, I’m just sayin’…no wonder you joined.’

  ‘Hmm.’ Jaz had joined the fencing team just to be with Taylor but she didn’t realise how much you needed fast reflexes and pinpoint precision. Fencing, she’d found, was a battle of the body, mind and spirit between athletes and she got that, it was an extension of what she did at Pax’s gym. Now she enjoyed it as much as Taylor did and she liked beating the other boys.

  She watched as Taylor took a lunge and finished off his attack. She turned back to Anna. ‘So did you memorise a few more books in the library?’

  Anna rolled her eyes at Jaz. ‘Don’t mock me, because you know you need me. I’m the smartest friend you’ve got.’

  ‘Anna you’re the smartest kid in the whole of Perth…and I’m glad that you’re my friend…and not just because of that marvellous mind of yours. So you coming to The Ring too?’

  Anna tossed her long hair over her slim shoulder. ‘Yep, never know when Pax will be off. He’s always been capricious.’

  ‘What the…? Stop showing off! How many times have I said not to use big fandangled words I have no idea about? Talka enrish, please.’

  Anna laughed, her green eyes sparkling and her freckles creasing in her smile.