-- Chapter 15 --

He stood in front of the mirror in his bedroom, adjusting his plain, pale-blue, button-up shirt and grey pants for the third time. This uniform wasn’t that different to what he’d had to wear back home – there the shirt had been a boring beige, or cream – so pretty much the same thing.

‘You ready, Levi?’ Matt called from the kitchen.

‘About as ready as I’ll ever be,’ Levi muttered, more to himself than as an answer for his father, who miraculously appeared at the door to his room at exactly the same time.

‘You’ll be fine, mate,’ Matt said, startling him. ‘And you look good. A chip off the old block, and all that.’

‘Not exactly. Mum said her old high-school boyfriend was the king of the castle back then – that was you, wasn’t it? Or was there someone else?’ Levi said, with a nervous grin. ‘Pretty sure that doesn’t describe me.’

‘Don’t sell yourself short,’ his father replied, adding a wink as he did so.

Matt drove him to Thompsonville Central, where they found students milling around in loose groups, all in uniform, laughing loudly. A single bus pulled in ahead of them, dropped some kids and pulled out again. It was nothing like this back in the country . . . drop off there, where the town was about five times the size of Thompsonville, was always chaos. Every! Morning!

‘Much different to what you’ve been used to?’ Matt asked as he pulled to a stop.

‘Nothing like it. Back home the mornings were crazy, with buses and cars everywhere, even though it wasn’t a massive town.’

‘Bigger than here though, right?’

‘Way bigger.’

‘Well, just take it one day at a time. I know you’ve got this.’

‘Thanks,’ Levi replied, as he opened the car door, while gripping the strap of his bag tightly. ‘I guess I’ll see you this afternoon.’

‘Just call me if you need to.’

‘Okay.’

The bell rang as he walked through the gates, and almost immediately he felt eyes on him. He kept his head down and followed the crowd toward the admin block, to where he had been asked to report, so that he could officially be shown to his first class.

After talking to the secretary, he waited a few minutes for Mrs Ryan, who quickly consulted a folder on the counter and said, ‘Good morning, Levi. Welcome aboard. How about we take you to your Pastoral class?’

‘Pastoral?’

‘Maybe you call it roll call, back home?’

‘Oh, yeah. Got it,’ he replied.

Levi followed Mrs Ryan out of the office and down a hall, before heading outside and across a quadrangle, towards one of the demountable buildings. They soon entered the building and Levi found they were in a corridor between two classrooms, before Mrs Ryan then knocked on one of the doors and they entered.

He was first introduced to the teacher – a cheerful woman with frizzy, red hair and owl-shaped glasses, named Ms Harper – before Mrs Ryan excused herself.

‘Well, Levi, welcome to class 9H,’ Ms Harper said to him. ‘And while you’re up here, how about we ask you to say a little about yourself.’

Turning towards the class he found about twenty faces staring back at him. Instinctively he reached for the cross that hung around his neck, which wasn’t missed by those close enough to see what was on the chain.

‘Ummm . . . hi, I’m Levi Chambers,’ he said, with a voice steadier than he felt. ‘I just moved here from up country, after my mum . . . errrrr . . . my dad lives here in Thompsonville.’

A few kids nodded politely. One girl in the second row smiled at him. But as soon as he sat down in the vacant chair in the front row, he heard the whispers behind him start.

‘See him clutch that cross. He looks like he’s ready for church,’ he heard some boy murmur.

‘Probably is,’ another voice replied with a quiet laugh.

He dared not look back to see who it might have been.

‘Now, Jimmy,’ Ms Harper said to the boy sitting next to Levi. ‘Would you be so good as to show your new classmate around today, please? We don’t want him to feel as if he’s not welcome in our school.’

‘Yes, miss,’ Jimmy replied, before looking over at Levi and giving him a smile, then quietly asking, ‘What class do you have next?’

Levi glanced at his timetable. ‘Humanities,’ he answered.

‘Me too,’ the kid replied. ‘Just stick with me.’

By recess, the ‘Church kid’ label had stuck. He heard it twice more in the hallway as he and Jimmy Carr walked between rooms, and by the end of the day his nickname was already ‘Churchie’.

It doesn’t take long!

Humanities was followed by English, and an introduction to another teacher. Mr Price. Not too old, with a dark beard and an almost bald head. He reminded Levi of one of his old teachers from back home, and seemed okay.

‘We’ve just started studying Lord of the Flies,’ he said to Levi. ‘Have you read it before?’

‘No, sir. Though I think it was on the list for this year, back home.’

‘That’s good then. I’ll find you a copy, but for now perhaps you can work with Jimmy to bring you up to speed?’

‘Yes, sir.’

The rest of the day unfolded in a blur of new faces and awkward introductions. He knew there was no way he was going to remember all these names.

He ate lunch with Jimmy near the sports oval, watching groups of students sitting around and laughing together.

‘Don’t you have friends you’d rather hang with?’ Levi asked.

‘Only my mate, Dan, but he’s sick at the moment. You will meet him when he comes back.’

‘Oh.’

A couple of boys from their English class – Jake and Riley – wandered over and sat with them for a while. They seemed friendly enough, asking about where he was from and what sports he played. Levi answered cautiously, trying not to sound too out of place.

The real test came in the afternoon.

During a break between classes, Levi and Jimmy were walking past a group of older boys when he heard his name mentioned.

‘ . . . yeah, that’s the kid. Levi something-or-other. He lives in the gay house.’

Levi froze mid-step.

‘He lives with those four gay guys,’ another boy said, louder. ‘Proper little hypocrite, eh? Living with the fags, but clutching that cross around his neck. Bet he prays for them every night while they’re . . . you know . . .’

Crude laughter followed, then someone was saying, ‘Suck . . . suck . . . suck!’

Levi’s face burned. He wanted to turn around and defend Matt and Luke, but the words stuck in his throat, and just then Jimmy grabbed his arm.

‘Just keep walking,’ Jimmy said. ‘I’ll fill you in about those arseholes later.’

So that was what Levi did, with his shoulders tight, and heart hammering.

All afternoon the comments gnawed at him. Hypocrite. Gay guys. Fags. The same words he had been quietly fearing. He could accept Matt and Luke – they were his family now – but the way other people saw it, that made everything feel tangled and . . . shameful. Even sinful.

When the final bell rang, Levi and Jimmy walked out of the school gates together. When Levi spotted Matt’s car waiting for him, he turned to Jimmy, then gave him a fist pump.

‘Thanks for helping me through my first day,’ he said.

‘Anytime. Maybe we can hang out sometime?’

‘Yeah. That’d be cool. Just let me talk to my father.’

Jimmy cocked his head sideways for a second. ‘You have to ask him to be able to hang out with a friend?’

‘What? Oh, no . . . it’s just . . .’

‘Hey, don’t sweat it, Levi. I hope we can do it soon. Me and Dan can show you around and tell you all the traps about this place . . . and who to avoid. No tricks. I promise.’

‘Thanks. I’d appreciate that.’

Feeling exhausted he trudged over to where Matt was waiting in the Commodore. Somewhere behind him, he heard someone say, ‘See ya, Churchie!’

One look at Levi’s face and his father knew something was wrong.

‘Rough day?’ Matt asked gently as Levi climbed in.

Levi stared out the window at the bay in the distance. ‘It’s different here,’ he said finally. ‘Everything is so different.’

Matt didn’t push for details. He just reached over and gave Levi’s shoulder a squeeze.

‘You’ll find your feet, mate. It just takes time.’

Levi nodded, but inside the anxiety swirled. He had survived the first day, but he already sensed that Thompsonville Public – and the town itself – was going to challenge far more than just his ability to make new friends.

‘I see you’ve at least made one friend.’

‘What? Oh, yeah, that’s Jimmy. We’re in all the same classes. He seems pretty cool. Wanted to know if we could hang out sometime.’

‘I hope you said yes?’

‘Well, that’s just it. I said I’d have to check with my father, then he, like, asked if I have to ask permission just to be able to hang out with someone . . .’

Matt just let that sit for a moment.

‘Back home,’ Levi continued, ‘I used to have to ask permission to do just about everything. His question surprised me, and made me stop and think.’

‘You’re not back home any more, Levi,’ Matt replied, just as a car horn blew directly behind them.

Matt started the car and pulled out.

‘I want you to make friends. I want you to enjoy some of the freedoms that you apparently didn’t have back home,’ Matt said, as they headed downtown. ‘That’s the only way you’ll grow into an independent guy who is capable of making his own decisions. Sure, you might make a few mistakes along the way, but that’s all a part of growing up . . . that’s life. That’s how you’ll learn. We can butt heads over those mistakes later.’

As Levi thought about that, Matt crossed the weir and headed up Main Street, before finally coming to a stop not in front of the automotive store he worked in, but in front of an old-style milk bar.

‘Fancy a milkshake?’ Matt asked. ‘We can grab something, and then I’ll run you home afterwards. Or, if you want to hang out downtown for another hour or so until closing time, seeing as there won’t be anyone at home, you can do that too.’

‘Okay, that sounds like a plan,’ Levi replied.

***

Back in the day, almost every town in Australia had a café called The Parthenon, almost exclusively owned and run by Greek families who had settled here after World War 2. They were all independent, but they all sold the same type of food, with decor of laminated surfaces, plenty of stainless-steel, or chrome, fittings and milkshakes served in anodised aluminium containers, that seemed to keep the contents colder than anything else. You could also buy ice cream floats, or even ice cream scoops served on glass plates, covered with strawberry or chocolate topping, sprinkled with nuts and with some whipped cream on the side.

That was exactly what Matt ordered for the two of them, with the only question being the flavours required – strawberry for Levi and chocolate for Matt – before they slid into opposite sides of a booth along one wall.

Beside them, the lower half of wall was timber panelling, to just above the height of the booths they were sitting in, while above that the entire wall was painted with an incredible panoramic scene of the city of Athens, showing the Parthenon, mountains in the background, and whitewashed houses and scattered pine trees.

Along the back wall was another panoramic painting, this time of the Greek islands, showing rocky cliffs, vivid blue water and sailboats.

Levi couldn’t stop staring at them.

Matt didn’t push him, he wanted Levi to start talking, as he was finding that the best way to get him to open up. Push the boy too hard and he tended to withdraw into his own shell, so letting him find his own words in his own time seemed to be the best way of getting information from him and also getting through to him.

For a few minutes each of them concentrated on what was in front of them, while everything went on around them. Customers came into the shop, including some school kids, all boisterous and loud, and while Levi glanced their way once, just to confirm in his own mind they were kids from his school, he ignored them.

That was, until he heard one of them say Churchie, at which time his head snapped back around to see who may have said it, but there was no way of knowing who that was.

Matt studied his son as he looked towards the kids, then back to his ice cream, with barely a glance at his father. He could see something was eating at Levi, but wasn’t sure how to start this conversation, other than to let Levi do it.

When Levi finished his ice cream and then his milkshake, he sat back against the seat and looked across the table at his father.

‘I can see something is eating at you, Levi. So, maybe if you get it off your chest, we can work our way through it?’

The boy gave a sigh and crossed his arms in front of himself.

‘It was just . . . some things that were said today,’ he finally replied.

‘Okay then, that’s a start. Like what?’

‘First thing this morning we had a home room . . . except they call it Pastoral here. I had to introduce myself to the rest of the class . . .’

‘Go on.’

‘Well, I was nervous, and I put my hand on mum’s cross . . . it kind of . . . I dunno . . .’

‘I think it calms you down, mate. I’ve noticed you do it a bit.’

‘Oh.’

There was a pause then, as Levi gathered his thoughts, before continuing.

‘I heard somebody in the room say Church Boy,’ he said.

‘Church Boy?’

‘Yeah, and by the end of the day everyone was calling me Churchie. Day one and I already have a nickname that makes fun of me!’

‘Oh. I see.’

‘But that wasn’t all . . . some kids were talking about the house . . .’

‘Which house? Our house?’

‘Yeah. They had a name for it . . .’

At this, Matt smiled, which only confused Levi.

‘Oh, let me guess. The Gay House?’

‘Yes. So, you’ve heard it before then?’

‘It’s old news, Levi. I’m sorry . . . we should have warned you about what to expect. And I suppose some of them called us a few names also?’

Levi could only nod in response.

‘Like I said, mate . . . after living here for more than fifteen years, we’re kind of used to it now. Like water off a duck’s back, to be honest. I am sure that you will hear every derogatory term about gay people known to man at your school . . . but I’d also like to think that there are people at that school with the good grace to correct them, or at least frown down on them for saying those kinds of things.’

‘I think I heard most of those terms today,’ Levi replied, rather sheepishly. ‘And I’m not twelve years old, so even if I might not actually talk like most teens my age, or do any of the things they are talking about, I do know how school kids talk, and understand what they talk about. It’s just . . . I don’t know . . . it feels different when these things get said about someone you know, right.’

‘Yeah, I’ve noticed that you get most of our jokes that some might consider to be a bit risqué, so to me, that means you know what is going on around you. And I guess that words like those used can really hit home when it’s about someone you know, or care about.’

‘I think what worries me most though, is that if they think and say these things about you and Luke, and the others, will that mean they will automatically think and say these things about me, just because you’re my father and I live with you?’

Matt thought for a moment, as he studied his son’s worried expression. There was nothing he could do or say that might take away the possibility of what Levi was concerned about actually happening, and he was at a loss as to how to respond just at that moment.

‘I’m really not sure what I can say that may answer that, Levi,’ he eventually said, ‘I think we should have a chat about it with Luke, when we get home.’

Levi was about to say something in reply, but, when somebody came up to their booth and stood there, he stopped.

‘So, this is why you didn’t want to hang out?’ the kid said to Levi, who quickly grinned back at him.

‘Hey, Jimmy. Sorry, but I didn’t know we were coming here,’ Levi replied, before then turning to his father and saying, ‘Dad, this is Jimmy, who I met today. He showed me around. Jimmy, this is my dad, Matt.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Jimmy,’ Matt said, as he held out his hand. ‘And thanks for looking after Levi today.’

‘Anytime,’ Jimmy answered, as he shook hands. ‘He wasn’t much trouble.’

‘You say that now,’ Matt replied, with a laugh, before then turning to Levi. ‘I need to go back to work for a bit, mate. If you and Jimmy want to hang out till I’m ready, that’s fine. I’ll give you a call as I’m shutting the shop.’

He then reached into his pocket for his wallet, before handing Levi twenty dollars.

‘Buy your friend a milkshake or something, and I’ll see you in a while.’

‘Okay, thanks. We won’t be far away.’

With a nod, Matt slid out of the booth and left the boys to it, while Jimmy slid right in.

‘So, you want a milkshake?’ Levi asked his new friend, while holding up the twenty-dollar note.

‘Well, seeing as you’re buying,’ Jimmy answered. ‘Then how about we head over the road to the beach for a bit, while the sun’s still shining?’

To be continued . . .