Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
"I just think it would have been better if she was a lesbian!"
"We are not making Hero a lesbian and she is not getting it on with Beatrice at the end to punish Claudio!" Maddie sighed exasperatedly and banged her head once on the table in front of her. Jasper had been making stupid suggestions about what they should put in their modern Shakespeare, they'd already decided on the basics and just needed to flesh it out a bit. However Jasper was just being silly and crude, offering ideas that were just never going to happen.
"I'm not saying we need a girl on girl scene but maybe a kiss or some sexual tension between the two of them, both know they can't be together but they still long for each other." His eyes had glazed over and Maddie really didn't want to imagine what he was seeing in his mind.
"Weren't they cousins in the original? That is wrong on so many levels." Maddie shivered as jasper frowned at her and the way she kept shooting down all his suggestions.
"Well they aren't cousins in ours." The smile slid from his face when he saw the scowl Maddie had pointed towards him. "Okay, so no lesbian encounters. But I think we need something edgier in our version, what about if Don John was gay and in love with Claudio and that's why he doesn't want him to be with Hero."
"I thought the whole point of this part of the assignment was to show the relevance of the play now, don't you think that means we shouldn't change the story that much?" Maddie turned in her chair to face Jasper; they were sat at his dining room table, books and papers splayed everywhere. They'd been working on their project for the last hour and a half and hadn't gotten any further than where they'd started from.
"It's not fair, you keep shooting down all my ideas and not offering anything of your own. I've done everything on the project so far." Jasper stood up and shoved his chair under the table, causing it to make a horrible screeching noise. "I think it's time you did something."
Maddie stood up herself, pissed off at Jasper. How dare he say she'd done nothing, they'd done everything together. "How dare you say I've done nothing? You know full well that I've done my fair share of the work." She began piling her papers and folders together, she shoved them in her schoolbag and swung it onto her shoulder; narrowly missing an expensive-looking crystal vase holding a bunch of pink roses.
"I'm going home to do some of my own work, if you decide you can work with me again let me know." She stormed out of his kitchen, through the hall and to the front door.
"Well I don't think that's going to be any time soon!" She heard Jasper shout from the kitchen just as she slammed the front door closed behind her. Seething and mumbling to herself under her breath she stomped down his front steps and out of the gate before going into her own house and slamming the door. She leant backwards and growled to herself before dropping her bag to the floor. Looking up to the ceiling she sighed and pushed away from the door.
"Kate I'm back! Jasper is so bloody annoying, I can't believe what he just did!" Maddie carried her bag into the living room and dumped it onto the sofa, she carried on through to the kitchen but it was empty. Strolling back through the lounge she stopped at the bottom of the stairs and called up to her sister.
"Kate! Kate, are you up there?" She waited a few seconds for a reply but didn't get one. "That's strange, I'm sure she didn't say she was going anywhere this morning. Oh well, she must be at a friend's house." Making her way back into the lounge and dropping down onto the big sofa, Maddie pulled her phone out of her pocket and text her sister to see what she wanted for dinner. Their parents had gone away for a few days so the two of them had the house to themselves.
When it reached half past nine Maddie was beginning to get worried, she still hadn't had a reply from her sister. She tried calling her sister's phone but there was no answer, if she was just at a friend's house why wouldn't she answer her mobile. All sorts of possibilities of where Kate could be and what she was doing ran through Maddie's head and none of them ended well. She tried Kate's mobile again and this time somebody picked up.
"Hello, Kate? Where the hell are you? I've been trying to get hold of you!"
"I know sis and I need you to promise that you won't get mad." Kate sounded shaky at the other end of the line causing all the anger inside Maddie to dissipate and be replaced by concern.
"Why would I be mad? Just tell me where you are." Maddie moved the phone from her left ear to her right ear and perched on the edge of the sofa arm. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she waited for her sister to respond.
"I'm in Watford, I-"
"Watford! What the hell are you doing in Watford?" Maddie stood up so quickly she nearly to her head off on one of the wall lights.
"I thought you promised not to get mad?"
"I never promised anything! Why are you in Watford?" Maddie was well aware her voice was getting higher and higher and that soon her sister wouldn't be able to understand her.
"Lucy and I got tickets to see The Saturdays - "
"Lucy's with you? Does Jasper know about this?" Maddie leaned against the sofa arm again feeling all her energy sap out of her.
"Nobody knows we're here. Look we need your help . . . I need your help. This guy has been flirting with Lucy all night and I think he might have put something in her drink. He's trying to get her to go home with him, she keeps saying no but I don't know how much longer she can keep it up. I don't know what to do!" Maddie heard the panic rising in her sister's voice, she could hear the tears as they formed in Kate's eyes and saw them fall in her mind when her sister's voice broke on the last sentence.
"Sit tight, I'll be there as soon as I can. Text me exactly where you are and Kate, don't worry I won't let you down." Maddie stood up and ran into the kitchen, opening all the draws and clattering around in its contents looking for the car keys. After she'd opened the last draw she realised they wouldn't be there, her parents had taken the car. Her fist crashed into the granite worktop as her brain whirred into action deciding what the hell she was going to do.
Ringing her parents wasn't an option, they'd freak out if they knew Kate had gone to Watford on a school night without Maddie knowing. She couldn't call Ali either, things had been weird between them since she'd walked in on her and Jasper in the art room. That only left one option and it wasn't the one she wanted to take, unfortunately she didn't have a choice.
"What are you doing here? It's quarter to ten at night?" Jasper pulled the door open after her third ring on the doorbell. The anger on his face turned to worry when he saw Maddie. "What's wrong? What's happened?"
"Kate hasn't been home all evening so I tried calling her and eventually got through. She and Lucy are in Watford, they've been to see The Saturdays. Look I don't know how to say this-"
"What? Has something happened to her? Is she okay?" Jasper stepped forward and grabbed Maddie's shoulders, staring into her eyes trying to get the answers to his questions. Maddie shrugged his hands off of her shoulders and took the left one in her own hands, looking right back into Jasper's eyes.
"Kate said she thinks Lucy's drink has been spiked." Maddie clutched Jasper's hand tighter as he tried to pull away from her. "She said some guy has been flirting with them all night and won't leave them alone."
"Oh God!"
"Have you got a car here? My parents have gone on holiday in ours." Maddie asked in a hurry, jasper just stared at her blankly before comprehending what she had said.
"Yes, yes my parents have gone out for the evening but they went in a taxi. I'll just get the keys." Jasper ran back inside and returned a minute later wearing his black jacket and clutching a pair of car keys. He led the way to a red Mini Cooper parked twenty feet up the road, he jumped in the driver's seat and started the engine before Maddie had even opened her door. As soon as she was in and had closed the door Jasper sped off up the street.
"Jasper. Jasper!" He glanced to his left at Maddie, she could see his heartbeat pounding in his throat. "She'll be okay. Kate's looking after her." He smiled quickly but it never quite reached his eyes. He turned back towards the road and overtook a black cab that was slowing down to pull up and let somebody out.
"I'm gonna kill this guy if he's still there. What sort of freak preys on sixteen year old girls? What sort of freak goes to a Saturdays' concert?" Maddie didn't want to think about that, there had been so many reports on the news lately of paedophiles and perverts; she didn't even want to contemplate that there was one within 50 feet of her sister.
"Don't think about that because she is going to be fine." Maddie was talking to reassure herself as much as Jasper.
"Yeah until my parents find out and decide to kill her and me for letting her go. Even though I didn't even know she'd gone. I'm useless, absolutely useless. Nobody wants me as their brother." Maddie's heart clenched at the sadness playing on Jasper's face, as the light of the streetlamps danced across his face she saw a single tear roll down his cheek.
"Don't be stupid anybody would be lucky to have you as a brother." She turned in her seat to face him, when he didn't respond she reached out a hand and brushed the tear from his cheek. She felt him lean into her hand before he glimpsed at her.
"I'm sorry about earlier, I shouldn't have said those things to you. I know the ideas were stupid, I was just trying to make you laugh." There was an undercurrent of meaning in his words but she couldn't quite make out what it was. They were quiet for the rest of the journey, the only thing that broke the silence was the soft patter of raindrops as they began to fall on the car windscreen.
"Kate! Lucy!" Maddie and Jasper had arrived at the place Kate had texted her, however they were nowhere to be seen. They split up in search of both their sisters, Maddie looked outside the club while Jasper went inside. She searched all the alcoves and gaps around the building, all the while getting soaked from the rain and cold from the wind.
She gathered her jacket around herself and headed back towards the front door hoping Jasper had had more luck than her. "Mads!" She turned on the spot to see her sister dragging a worse for where Lucy by her side. Relief flushed through her system as soon as she saw the two of them stumbling along, she rushed over to them and crushed them in her arms.
"Maddie, I can't find them, I can't find Lucy." She swivelled her head to see Jasper walking towards her.
"They're here, they're here." She cried relief tinging her voice. Jasper ran over to them and threw his arms around them, Maddie was crushed closest to him as her arms were caught around the two younger girls.
"Thank God! I thought something had happened to them when they weren't inside." He sighed in Maddie's ear and she could swear she heard the weight lifted from his shoulders. After five minutes of standing in the wind and rain they broke apart and moved back over to the car. Jasper loaded his sister in the backseat while Kate climbed in next to her.
As soon as they were back on the road the two girls in the back dropped off to sleep, Maddie stared out of the window contented with the fact that they were safe once again. She felt Jasper's hand take hers and squeeze, she turned round in time to hear him whisper "Thank You!"