Five minutes later, Beau's mom had rounded up all the teenagers in her house into the living room. She had them all squished on the couch and loveseat. She was pacing around the room, not speaking. Ally was scared for her life. She had not wanted to meet Beau's mom like this. She didn't want her to look at her like every other rule-breaking teenager. She had wanted to maybe bond with her over lunch, or going out to do their nails. She would have settled for anything but this.
“Beau I-.” Ms. Brooks said, but then shook her head and continued pacing, deciding against whatever it was that she had been going to say. The tension was so high in the room Ally could have sliced it with a knife.
“Weeeeeell...” Harmany said,as she got up slowly. “I think I should be going now-”
“Sit your ass down!” Ms. Brooks shouted and Harmany shot right back down. Jai slipped his hand, subtly, into hers and squeezed it gently, reassuring her.
“Mum, I-” He started to say but his mom cut him off.
“I expected more from you Jaiden!” She exclaimed. “You too, Luke. Beau, not so much, but you two, I definitely expected more from you.”
Beau looked down at his hands, hurt from his mother's insult, and Jai blushed at the use of his full name. Ms. Brooks looked so angry. Ally completely understood where it came from, but she just wished that Ms. Brooks could have been one of those moms that would have walked into the living room filled with strangers and a half naked Harmany and just been like “PARTY!!!”. She was grateful, though, that Aiggie had been smart enough to put the beer cans and bucket away before going to sleep. They didn't look as guilty now.
“Beau Peter Brooks.” Ms. Brooks began, “I leave for one night. One night. And you decide it would be fun to have a....a...A SEX PARTY!” She screamed and gestured at Harmany who was still only wearing Jai's shirt and underwear.
“No, Mum! It wasn't a 'sex party'. They're friends, and we all just wanted to spend time together.” Beau said, trying to calm his mom down.
“Really? It wasn't a sex party? Then please, tell me, whose condom is on the floor in my room. BECAUSE IT SURE AS HELL ISN'T MINE!” She shouted.
Beau glared at Skip. There was no way he was going to get out of this. Ally looked at Skip, pleading with her eyes for him to help somehow. He sighed.
“Um, Ms. Brook?” Skip said tentatively.
“What, Daniel!? What!?” Ms. Brooks screamed.
“The truth is... I uh... you see... I'd never had a condom on before...and well...uh... I... I tried it on...and well...I may have gotten a little carried away.... with myself.” He said, cheeks burning red as he came up with this embarrassing lie to get everyone out of trouble. Ms. Brooks just gaped at him.
“Daniel... get out of my house. NOW!” She yelled, and Daniel sprang up from the couch and rushed out the house, keeping his head down.
“Boys, I'm going to have to talk to you about choosing good friends, but right now you are all in trouble. Okay, so maybe no one was having sex in my bed, and thank Jesus for that, but where are this girl's clothes!?” She said pointing at Harmany once more.
“Well... you see, I was getting out of Beau's car when I slipped and fell into a puddle of mud and dirt. The boys gave me some clothes to wear... but their shorts...um... made my legs itch. I believe that I may be allergic to the material. So I took off the shorts, because I believed that everyone here was mature enough to handle seeing my legs. If you disagree I could go put on the shorts, Ma'am. I know that I'd have a bad reaction, but I wouldn't want to disrespect your house or your rules.” Said Harmany, Queen Bullshitter, herself. Ms. Brooks looked at Harmany and her “sincere” and “innocent” expression. Ally knew then that she'd been suckered into the lie.
“Don't worry, dear,” Said Ms. Brooks, “I'll just run into my room and lend you a pair of my own shorts.” She said and left the room. Rebekha gave Harmany a fist bump, and Ally high fived her
“How do you do that?” Aiggie whispered, smiling.
“You're a fucking genius.” Mira whispered.
Harmany blew on her nails and rubbed them on her shirt. “I know.” Was all she said.
“Guys, I am so sorry about everything right now.” Beau rushed. Jai and Luke nodded behind him.
“It's okay.” Aiggie said. “We have our fair share of Mama Drama.”
“Yeah.” Harmany agreed.
“Okay, but still...sorry.” Said Jai. “Oh, and you never heard her call me Jaiden.”
Everyone laughed. Ms. Brooks walked into the room then with a pair of hot pink cotton shorts. She handed them to Harmany and she pulled them on. Ally could see in her eyes that she was unhappy with the choice of colour. She warned her with her eyes to just shut up and be happy her lie had been believed.
Ms. Brooks sighed and stood, facing them all. She wasn't as angry as she was before. Obviously she was disgusted with Daniel, but Ally was sure this couldn't have been the first time that Daniel had been on her shit-list. I mean, common, it's Skip we're talking about, here!
“Boys, even if you weren't all fooling around, you did have people over without my permission. Girls on top of that.” Ms. Brooks said.
“But Mum! It's because they're from a school trip!” Luke insisted.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“They're all the way from Canada, Mum. Honestly Jai, Beau, and I just wanted to make them feel welcome here and we wanted to show them around today. I had the idea that we should have them stay over so that we could start as early as possible. We were going to take them to...uh... the beach, and maybe even the zoo.” Luke said, spilling out lie after lie.
Ms. Brooks sighed. “Is this true?” She asked, looking at Harmany. It seemed that Harmany had earned her trust, and she was the only girl in this room who Ms. Brooks remotely liked.
Harmany nodded. “Yes, Ma'am. They were going to show us everything that there was to be proud of in Melbourne.”
“Okay, so here's what we'll do.” Ms. Brooks said after a few moments of quick thinking. “You can eat your breakfast that the boys seemed to have prepared for you. But then, I want Beau to drive you home. The boys will be staying home for the rest of the day and maybe tomorrow as well. They did disrespect my rules.”
“I understand completely.” Harmany said, “And I would just like to apologize on behalf of my friends and I. We really didn't mean to be rude or inconvenience you in any way.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. Now why don't we go dig into those pancakes.” Ms. Brooks said and she walked out of the living room. Everyone else followed her into the kitchen.
Five minutes later, they were all situated comfortably at the table. Everyone had a plate of at least three pancakes in front of them, and they each had a glass of orange juice. The pancakes weren't as good as the could have been, as they were cold due to all the talking, but they were still delicious. Ally enjoyed every bite.
“So, Beau,” Ms. Brooks said after swallowing a mouthful of pancake. “Which one of these lovely young ladies have you claimed?” She was staring right at Harmany when she said that. Beau choked a bit on his food.
“It's a mother's intuition.” She said laughing at her son's surprise. “Now, I know you can be smart sometimes, so I think that maybe you are with this lovely one right here.” She was pointing right at Harmany. “What's your name dear?”
“It's Harmany, but-” Harmany started, but she was interrupted by Jai.
“Actually Mum, I think I'm the smart one, because Harmany's mine.” He said, and slipped his hand into hers.
“Oh, uh then who is your-” Ms. Brooks started but Ally interrupted.
“I'm Beau's girlfriend.” Ally said proudly.
“Yeah. Mum, this is Ally.” Beau said nudging her with his elbow.
“Oh... well... she's cute...I guess...” Ms. Brooks said
“Mum!” Beau said at his mom's rudeness.
She laughed. “I'm joking, sweetie. Ally it is a pleasure to meet you. I don't know how you are able to keep with this one.” She winked.
“With great difficulty.” Ally stage whispered. Beau folded his arms and pretended to pout.
“You guys suck.” He said and his mother laughed.
“Now, for you Luke. Because I know that you wouldn't let the rest of these girls go unoccupied.”
“ME! ME! IT'S ME!” Mira squealed, shooting her hand up in the air as if she had a question. Luke smiled at her silliness and Ms. Brooks laughed.
“Well it's nice to meet you too, Love.” She said. She then turned to Rebekha and Aigneis. “I have a feeling that you two have James or Daniel.” She said Daniel's name as if it were a disgusting thing.
“Yep!” Aiggie said. “Jamzi is aaaallll mine.” Ms Brooks smiled, and then turned to give Rebekha a half smile-half glare. Rebekha said nothing, but she blushed and shoved more pancake into her mouth.
Ms. Brooks sighed. “I thought so.” She said, still staring at Rebekha. “Sweetheart, do yourself a favour...and run. Now. As fast as you can. He is bad news.”
Rebekha remained quiet, but Ally could see the anger flash through Rebekha's face. There were many things that she wanted to say at that moment, that would get all of them kicked out.
Soon, everyone was done breakfast and the girls had their clothes in hand; Harmany was hiding hers so that Ms. Brooks didn't see their cleanliness, since they were supposed to be covered in mud. The girls were all waiting by the door saying their goodbyes to Luke, Jai, and Ms. Brooks.
“It was nice meeting all of you.” She said to them. “I'm sorry that I'll be taking the boys away from you for a while, but a mum's gotta do what a mum's gotta do.”
“We understand,” Harmany said. “We hope to see you really soon, Ms. Brooks” She gave her a big hug.
"Call me Gina." She said.
The girls walked out the front door and they climbed into Beau's car. As soon as they were all buckled in and Mira was sitting on Aiggie, Ally turned to Harmany.
“You are such a fucking kiss-ass!” She said laughing.
Harmany laughed along with her. “Yeah, I know. It's a gift.”
••••