by Mel Sparke
“Yep,” Sonja agreed, though she felt herself beginning to thaw a little. “Although I was so uptight, I didn’t give you much of a chance to explain yourself.”
“That was understandable. You must be under so much strain and I didn’t help much. I only hope that at some point you might be able to forgive me,” Owen said wearily. “And in spite of the rubbish I came out with on Sunday. I want you to know that I will support you, whatever happens, and I hope we can work something out.”
Sonja felt a huge wave of relief course through her body as a weight lifted from her. Knowing that Owen was willing to help her get through this rotten mess was a great comfort.
“Thanks. I don’t think I can cope on my own,” she found herself saying. “It’s too big a thing. Only Kerry knows - she’s been brilliant. But it’s not down to her. This is my life…”
“…Our lives,” Owen corrected her. “I’d hate to lose you, Son. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, I mean that. Don’t let’s break up.”
Neither said anything for a few moments. When Sonja finally spoke, her voice was small but quite firm.
“Well, if you really want to be there for me,” she said, “you could come with me to the Family Planning Clinic when I’ve made an appointment. I- I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet, but I think I’d like to have your support.”
Owen took a few strides towards Sonja, sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped his arms around her. “Course I will,” he murmured.
“And, uh, while I don’t want to put any more pressure on you,” he carried on after a few moments’ silence, “did you mean it when you said you weren’t sure if you wanted us to live together?”
“Do you still want us to live together. After all this?”
“Of course.”
“Then we will.”
“That’s great,” smiled Owen, kissing the top of her head. “And look, we will get through this. Together.”
CHAPTER 19
MATT TO THE RESCUE
“Boy, do I feel grateful to be alive.”
Cat climbed gingerly out of Joe’s Fiat, stretched elaborately, then lent a hand to drag first Vikki, then Billy, off the back seat and into the fresh air.
“Gee, now I know how it feels to be one baked bean too many in a Heinz can,” Vikki commented. “It was a bit tight on space in the back. I knew I should have beaten Meg to the front seat,” she added, casting a glance at Joe’s girlfriend who had by now leapt agilely out from the passenger side door.
“I don’t think the driver would have been too pleased,” said Cat as she watched Joe looking doe-eyed at Meg. She’d seen him casting longing looks at his girlfriend on several occasions as he’d driven to Dansby from Winstead. “Hey, you nearly hit fifty miles an hour on the dual carriageway, Joe,” she carried on. “For a minute, I thought I’d got into Michael Schumacher’s car by mistake.”
“Ha ha,” said Joe. “You could have gone with Matt. I nearly lost sight of him a couple of times, even though I had my foot to the floor most of the way here.”
“Yeah, and I was doing all of fifty-five,” Matt grinned. “I didn’t dare go any quicker in case a door fell off.”
“At least we’re here now,” said Kerry.
“Hmmm,” Cat looked around. “Here, as in a field miles from anywhere. Are you sure you’ve got the right place, boys?”
“It’ll get busier. It’s only because we had to get here early,” Ollie explained, jumping down from the passenger seat of the battered blue Transit Nick had borrowed for the occasion.
“You girls wait,” Nick added. “In a couple of hours this site will be teeming with gorgeous young men for you to lech at. By the time you get back to your tents tonight there won’t be room to move. And if I might make a suggestion,” he added, “if you boys park your cars over there, so that you’ve got the hedge at one end and that tree at the other, you’ll see that you’ve made a sort of boxy area to erect your tents in. That way, you’ll give yourselves a lot more space that can’t be pinched by other campers.”
“There speaks one with several decades of festival experience under his ever-increasing belt,” Ollie chuckled, patting his uncle on the stomach over-hanging his jeans, and watching as Joe and Matt manoeuvred their vehicles in the way Nick had suggested.
“So, Maya,” Cat carried on, her eyes glinting. “I’ve been dying to know how you got on with your parents. Are you here with their blessing or have you had to fabricate some fabulous lie to explain your absence? We had a bet in the car - Joe and Meg reckon you wrapped your parents round your little finger, while me, Vikki and Billy prefer to think of you as a fugitive. What’s the story?”
Maya giggled. “This lot have already heard,” she said, referring to her car companions, “but for the rest of you, here goes…” She related the story which had unfolded the previous evening.
“Y’know it’s the Dansby festival tomorrow?” Maya had said to her parents.
“Hmmm?” her father had replied. “What about it?”
“I want to camp overnight with the others.”
Her father had looked up from his newspaper. “You know the answer is no, Maya.”
“Why don’t you trust me?”
“We do,” Nina said.
“Then why don’t you prove it? Or you might find I just go off and do what I want anyway.”
Her mother had laughed. “Don’t be silly, Maya, you’re far too sensible for that.”
This had riled Maya. “If I’m so sensible, why the heck won’t you let me stay overnight? It’s not as though I’m going to come back in a drug-fuelled state or with tattoos all up my arm, is it?” she’d raged.
“Don’t raise your voice to your mother, Maya,” said Sanjay, “or you won’t be going to the festival at all.”
Maya had been so angry something inside her snapped. She was sick to death of being reasonable with her parents. She’d had enough.
“There’s no point discussing this any more,” she had said calmly. “But just to let you know, I am going to Dansby, I will be staying the night and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“Maya, that’s brilliant,” Vikki cut in. “Good for you. Wow, if it had been me saying all that, my mum would have locked me in a cupboard for the weekend! It’s OK,” she added to a startled-looking Meg, “I’m joking but, well, you know what I mean. So what happened next? Did they forbid you to leave the house?”
“Thankfully, it didn’t come to that,” Maya continued. “I stormed off to my room and Dad rang Joe’s mum - they’re quite chummy, what with her working at the surgery. And because she was OK about Joe going, and kept going on about how responsible I was, they had a rethink, ordered me back down to the kitchen and said I could go after all. So long as I brought this…” She pulled a mobile phone from her pocket, “…and promised to ring in the morning to let them know everything’s all right.”
“So you won’t be getting your hair dyed pink or having an eyebrow pierced while you’re here then?” Andy joked.
“Ooh, do they do things like that?” asked Cat, suddenly more interested in her surroundings. “I’d like to watch a few people having it done, see them squirm a bit. Purely for professional reasons, of course,” she added quickly, seeing a few startled faces around her.
“And on that sick note, I think we ought to go and sort out this soundcheck,” Ollie chuckled, looking at his watch. He delved into the front pocket of his combats, drew out the backstage passes and handed them round to the boys and Nick.
“And in the mean time you girlies can have some fun putting the tents up,” Matt sniggered, lobbing his car keys at Vikki.
“No problem,” she replied, turning to her friends and grimacing. “Let’s get started.”
As the boys all piled into the back of the transit to head off towards the stage, the girls began dragging tent equipment from the boots of the cars.
Kerry and Sonja hung back a little.
“How are you feeling?�
�� asked Kerry in a low voice.
“Ooh, miserable, tearful, like I shouldn’t have come. How’s that for starters?” Sonja replied, a forced smile on her face.
“Don’t you feel any better now you and Owen are sorted?”
“In a lot of ways, yes. At least we’re going to the clinic next week. But it still doesn’t make it go away. The bottom line is that I’m still pregnant and I still don’t know what to do about it.”
“I know,” Kerry said, looking crestfallen. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s not your fault. I feel awful for dragging you into this.”
Sonja forced herself to lighten up. “I’ll be OK once we get to see some bands,” she said. “I’ll get my bopping hat on and we’ll be well away. It’ll make a change from staring at the four walls of my bedroom.”
She gave Kerry’s arm a little squeeze and smiled, even though inside she wasn’t laughing.
“Why are we doing this?” Cat queried five minutes and several tent poles and bits of rope later.
“To show them that we’re not idiots,” said Vikki, “and that we can in fact put up a couple of mangy old tents.”
“Yeah,” Maya agreed. “And you can bet they think we’re going to totally mess up.”
“OK, so why not look at it like this?” said Cat, chucking her pole on the ground and stripping off her shorts and top to reveal a skimpy bikini. She took a beach towel out of her bag, laid it on the grass, sat down and began rubbing Factor 8 sunscreen all over her bare bits.
“If we’re really savvy,” she carried on, “and if we want to play them at their own game, surely the thing to do is not rise to the challenge? What I propose is that we all have a lie down, catch some morning rays and leave the hard work to them when they get back.”
“You know, Cat,” said Maya, “sometimes I think you’ve got a brain the size of a planet.”
With that, she unbuttoned her top ready to do the same.
When the boys drove round to the back of the stage, they found more people rushing around there than at the front. Parking up as near to the platform as possible, they leapt out of the van and watched as Nick hurried off to find an organiser. The others began milling about, soaking up the atmosphere, feeling increasingly pumped up to be even a small part of it.
“I feel nervous already,” said Joe, his face a couple of shades paler than normal.
“I know what you mean.” Billy replied. “It’s a mixture of nerves and anticipation and excitement. I bet even the biggest names feel like this before a gig.”
“Cept they already know what to expect,” Joe added.
“So do we,” reasoned Ollie. “It’ll just be like the Railway Tavern, only bigger and better. We’ll be fine. It’s going to be brilliant.”
“Hey, look over there, I’m sure that’s Deke.” Matt pointed to a lone figure in the distance, mobile phone clamped to his ear. “I’ll just go and say hi. Catch up with you lot later.”
Matt got close enough to speak to Deke just as he finished his call.
“Hey, Deke. How are you doing, mate?”
“Uh, pretty stressed, man,” Deke replied, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. “One of the guys I booked has gone AWOL and I haven’t been able to get anyone else at such short notice. I guess I’ll have to double up with the first act I’ve got on.”
Matt’s brain went into overdrive. “What d’you want to do that for, when I could fill in for you?” he demanded.
“Huh?” Deke didn’t cotton on for a few seconds.
“Come on, mate, give me a chance,” Matt cajoled. “All I need is a stack of tracks to go through. You can vet my choice if you like. Then you just need to point me in the direction of the decks and I’ll be away. You can’t lose.”
Deke scratched his designer stubble for a while, letting Matt’s suggestion sink in. “Uh, yeah,” he said finally. “Why not? You had some pretty good stuff at that party of yours the other night… let’s give it a shot.”
Matt felt he was going to explode with joy. “Oh, wow, man, that’s great!” he said, slapping Deke on the back. “Thanks a lot.”
Deke laughed. “No worries, just don’t let me down. Meet me over there in an hour?” He pointed to a bank of speakers at one end of the stage. “You’ll be on fairly promptly after the start, so I’ll show you where everything is and you can begin setting up.”
Matt charged back to the lads to tell them what was happening.
“Matt, that’s brilliant!” they chorused amid a lot of arm-punching and back-slapping.
“This is gonna be such a brilliant day for us all,” Ollie raved. “It’s like it was meant to be. Hey, Nick,” he called, seeing his uncle rushing towards them with various bits of paper flapping in his hand, “Matt’s gigging here too!”
“Matt, that’s great. Good for you,” Nick smiled. Then his face dropped and he took on a more serious manner. “Now - can we all get our backsides in gear, please? Only I’ve just spoken to one of the organisers and if we don’t get on-stage in the next ten minutes, we’re going to miss our soundcheck.”
“Only a few seconds to go, girls.”
Cat and the others stood at the front of the festival site and craned their necks to see what was going on. Ever since Ollie had rushed round to tell them about Matt’s brilliant opportunity, they had been checking their watches, getting more excited with every passing moment.
As the opening act finished their set and retreated to the wings, a few seconds’ silence was suddenly broken by the intro to Artful Dodger’s Re-rewind. The girls studied the DJ console to one side of the stage and Cat ear-blastingly gave out a little squeal.
“There he is!”
Sure enough, there was Matt - or at least, the top of his head, bobbing up and down to the track he’d just put on. All around him, guys were on the stage, getting it ready for the next live act. There were plenty of distractions, cables being rolled out, pieces of equipment being pushed back and forth.
And in the midst of it all Matt was looking right at home, like he been doing this kind of thing all his life.
“He’s brilliant,” enthused Maya, grinning broadly and and snapping away madly with the camera she’d naturally brought. She turned to see what the growing crowd was up to and began frantically taking more pictures of them as well.
“Look, they’re totally rockin’,” she squealed to the others, who turned to see a mass of heads moving up and down, appreciating the music Matt was playing.
“God, he’ll be impossible after this,” Cat complained fondly. “His head’s big enough as it is. He’ll need a train to carry it home by the time he’s finished.”
She smiled, proud of the fact that it was her friend up there, then carried on bopping and cheering like she was in the front row of the best gig of her life.
CHAPTER 20
RESULT!
“I need the loo.”
Kerry looked wildly around as they stood waiting for The Loud to come on.
“Me too,” Sonja added, “sort of, quite desperately. Ooh look - there’s a Portakabin thing way over there. That looks promising. Catch you guys later.”
Sonja grabbed Kerry and headed for the temporary toilets, while the others carried on watching the band playing up on-stage.
“Phew, I’m busting,” said Kerry, leaping up the three rickety stairs and opening the door marked ‘Women’. “And, they’re not too bad at the moment,” she added, looking around before disappearing into one of the cubicles.
“Yeah, imagine how grim they’ll be by the end of the night,” commented Sonja next door.
“Ugh, I know. Hey, this one flushes as well. Result.”
Kerry came out and stood at the sink to wash her hands.
“Omigod, I don’t believe it,” she heard Sonja shriek.
“What? What is it?” Kerry rushed over to the door to hear what sounded like Sonja weeping from the other side.
“Sonja, are you OK?” she said, pushing the door with her hand to
try and get in.
“I’m f-f-fine,” Sonja stuttered from behind the door. “I, uh…”
She broke off to unlock the door and peep out at Kerry.
“I um… just wondered if you’d got any tampons…?”
“What? You mean…? you’ve got your… you’re not…?” Kerry’s hand flew to her mouth and her eyes lit up like beacons.
“Not pregnant.” A beaming Sonja opened the door fully and leapt into the arms of her friend.
“Oh, wow, I can’t believe it!” Sonja cried, tears of relief streaming down her face.
“Me neither.” Kerry hugged her, patting her on the back over and over again.
“What a relief!”
“I know!” Kerry stood back to study the huge smile on Sonja’s face. She looked a lifetime younger than she had five minutes ago.
Sonja wiped the tears from her eyes. “Isn’t it just the best news?”
“It’s the very best.”
“I must tell Owen.”
“You know his mobile number, don’t you?” Kerry asked as they ran out into the lovely warm sunshine.
“Yeah, I’ll borrow Cat’s phone and give him a call. He’ll be so relieved.”
“I wonder why you were so late then?” pondered Kerry as they made their way back to the others.
“Who knows? I guess it could have been all the worry of my exams. And I reckon that half the reason I’ve felt so rotten and weepy and miserable these last few days is because I’ve had PMS. No wonder I was feeling bloated and had sore boobs. But I was so convinced I was pregnant I didn’t recognise the symptoms.”
“What a nightmare,” Kerry sighed. “I’m so pleased it’s all over.”
“I wonder if any of the others have got tampons?” wondered Sonja as they caught sight of Cat, Maya, Meg and Vikki giving it loads in front of them.
“Someone’s bound to. Hey, you lot!” Kerry called from a metre or so away.
“Shhh, don’t shout,” hissed Sonja.
“Sonja, give me some credit,” Kerry tutted. “I was only trying to get their attention.”