The Great Australian Escape

Brotherly Intervention

Shifting her head to her side, Felicity was getting ready to take one last breath before turning down, around and pushing back off the edge of the pool to continue swimming on in the opposite direction. She never did get to that turn because Coach Thorpe tapped her on the head just as she was coming up to the edge. “Get out, your brother’s waiting for you in the office.” she said, fingering the stopwatch in her hand. “You made good time today, though. “

“Thanks,” Felicity replied, treading water to stay afloat, “but it’s Wednesday, why is my brother here?”

“How would I know, Griffin. I’m just the messenger. Now, get yourself dried up and head out.”

 Ten minutes later, Felicity had managed to get her uniform on and was speed walking down the corridor to the main office. Running was strictly forbidden, a rule she would normally flout regardless of her prefect badge, but it was never worth risking it near the front of the school where Headmistress Mandeville had her office. She turned the corner into the library themed waiting area and immediately spotted her tall, broad-shouldered brother standing with his back to her and his hands in his pockets, staring into the fire crackling in the hearth.   

 “Archie.”

Her brother’s head whipped around and his face was serious. “Floss.” There was a moment of silence between them; then he continued, “Your hair’s dripping onto your blazer, mum’s going to kill you if it gets ruined.”

“You didn’t just show up here in the middle of the week to tell me I’m going to ruin my blazer. Anyway, this is your fault; you pulled me out of training. What the hell are you doing here?”

Her brother crossed his arms, “We need to talk about your life choices.”

“And it couldn’t wait two days? I’m coming home on Friday evening for the whole weekend, like I always do. Every week. Without fail. You could have talked to me then.”

“No, we need to talk now because this is getting ridiculous. Mrs. Cartwright called home saying you hadn’t applied to anything. Application deadlines end this week so stop pissing about Flossy and send them off before it’s too late. I know you’re just trying to be difficult and stubborn and shit, and honestly I can’t believe mum and dad have been humouring you on this, but it’s basically February already and it’s got to stop.”

Felicity’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me, but this is absolutely none of you business. I am not “trying to be difficult”, I told you months ago I was going to apply to Australia. I don’t want to be in England anymore, I’m so sick of constantly having people watching my every move and having you lot all breathing down my neck!”

Felicity instantly knew she had crossed a line by saying that. Her brother looked so hurt and his eyes turned towards the floor. “I just don’t want you to go. I didn’t think you would really go through with it.”

“I know, Arch. I’m sorry. I just can’t take it here anymore. It’s so claustrophobic.”

“I understand that,” he said stepping towards her and placing a large hand on her wet head. “But why can’t you just go study somewhere relatively close at least? I checked and there are a couple nice universities in Paris and Belgium whose applications are still open for a little while longer? Or how about Dublin? Just anything that’s not too far. What if something happened to you all the way in Australia? We wouldn’t be able to help right away.”

Felicity sighed and moved to sit down on the leather sofa, “That’s exactly the point, Arch. I need to see if I can survive without all of you immediately there to save me. We live in this privileged bubble where we just don’t learn from mistakes because there’s always someone else there to fix it for you, and help you bounce back from it.  I’m eighteen and I’ve never done anything remotely rebellious in my life. It’s like I’ve just absolutely wasted my teenage years, because if I don’t do it now I won’t ever do it. If I stay here and go to University, I’ll just graduate, move straight onto some highflying job, find a husband and settle down. And that’s going to be it. That’s going to be my life, and I won’t have any exciting stories to tell my grandchildren. My whole life would have just been about following the path set out for me. So, one option would be to stay here and not go to University at all, or to go study but on my own terms. And those terms are Australia.”

There was another long pause in which her brother just stared at her, the sound of the logs in the fire cracking in the background the only thing to break the silence. She watched him take a deep breath, “You know what, Floss? I really admire you for that.” A massive smile broke across her face at her brother’s admittance as she stood up and wrapped her arms around his midriff and hugged him tightly. “Thanks bro.” She muttered into his chest, and she felt him chuckle in response. “Be careful in Aus, alright? I won’t be there to protect you, little one.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, looking up at him as she moved away. “You still have the littlest one to look out for. Tilly’s getting into plenty of trouble, so you’ll have your hands full.”

Archie threw his head back and laughed, “Listen, how much time do you think I have? I missed a day of lectures to come down here and lecture you, if I have to do the same for Matilda every second day I won’t be graduating anytime soon. She’s a tough cookie, I think she can survive without her big brother being embarrassing and protective just yet.”

Felicity quirked an eyebrow. “She’s ten. The boyfriend phase isn’t far off, let me tell you.” Archie’s face immediately turned serious.

Before either of them could say another word, Headmistress Mandeville walked in carrying a binder. When she saw the pair of them standing there, she stopped in her tracks and smiled widely. “Why, if it isn’t Archibald Griffin!” she exclaimed, “Checking in on your sisters, are you? How’s university going, Archie? Still playing football? Let me tell you, the team has not been the same without you!”

Archie smiled, “Uni’s great, Mrs. Mandeville, really enjoying it. Unfortunately biochemistry does not leave much time for football, but I try my best to have a little play whenever possible.”

“That’s wonderful to hear, we are all so proud of you down here. So glad to see you haven’t quite forgotten your old school, dear! I daresay you’ll be coming back down for Felicity’s graduation, yes?” Archie just nodded in agreement. “Wonderful!” Headmistress Mandeville continued, “Well, you had better wrap it up dears, I’m sorry to say that the dinner bell should ring any minute now and I would like for Miss Griffin to change into a dry blazer beforehand, please.”

“Of course, Mrs. Mandeville, sorry.” Felicity nodded in solemn agreement before the Headmistress existed down the hallway.

Felicity walked out onto the gravel car park with Archie, who gave her a tight squeeze before climbing into his black Land Rover, “I’ll see you on Friday then, yeah?” She asked through his open window as the engine warmed up. He nodded in response, “Do you want me to come with dad to pick you and Till up?”

“What, and deprive mum the joy of having you help her with dinner? Absolutely not, we’ll see you when we get back. And for God’s sake don’t go in my room again like last week to tidy up, mum lets me keep it messy for a reason: because it’s an organised chaos and I won’t be able to find anything if you go and mess about in it.”

“When you’re living on your own in Australia you’re going to have to tidy up or you’ll have a load of snakes and spiders hiding in that “organised chaos” of yours.”

Felicity’s breath hitched. She hadn’t thought of that. Of course she’s thought about the snakes and the spiders and the sharks and, well, basically everything else that was out there to kill her, but she hadn’t considered that they could be hiding in her apartment amongst her mess. “I’ll be fine, now get your ass out of here, I need to change my blazer and go to dinner.”

“Aye-aye Captain!” Archie saluted at her as he reversed away and headed down the tree-lined driveway with the tires crunching on the gravel. 

A/N: I'm really sorry if this is sort of boring or whatever, especially if you were hoping it would get straight into the Bondi Rescue stuff, because that's still at least two chapters away. I guess for now I'm just sort of writing whatever is coming to mind, so if it seems a little unstructured or loose, that's why. Anyway, I really hope you're enjoying this and continue to bear with me! :) -C