In his head he’d expected it to be different. He’d expected it to be like one of those old Western movies, where the hero pushes through the swinging saloon doors and instantly becomes the centre of everyone’s attention – the piano player stops mid-tune, the barman stops mid-pour, the card-sharks stop mid-cheat…
Nobody stopped for Billy as he entered the Redback Theatre. Nobody noticed as he dramatically flung open the door. Nobody watched as he stepped boldly into the room. Nobody stopped. Nobody cared.
Secretly, part of Billy gave a sigh of relief. Although it was an anti-climax after building himself up for this moment for months, he didn’t honestly know how he would have reacted if they had all stopped and stared. He had tried his best to convince himself that he was brave and determined, but in truth he suspected that, thrust into the limelight like that, he might well have turned and run terrified from the room like a shrieking little girl.
He told himself that the lack of reaction was a blessing in disguise, as it gave him a chance to calm the thumping in his chest, steady his shaking nerves, and take stock of his surroundings before taking the next step.
Directly in front of him, sitting on a group of tables, were the kids he had heard from the corridor. They were still laughing and joking at the short girl, who was still angrily shouting back at them…or was she? Now that he saw her, he wasn’t sure if she was really angry at all, or just pretending. To his left, up the back of the room, on the stage, a dimpled cheeked girl who he didn’t recognise from the play, twirled a pair of colourful, streamer-trailing balls on the end of long strings, like he had seen buskers do outside Flinders Street station once when his Grandma had taken him Christmas shopping in the city. Lying on the stage beside her, unconcerned by the missiles flashing past just inches above their heads, another couple of girls were busily engrossed in each other’s mobile phones, alternating between furiously typing out messages on the tiny number pads, and rolling about laughing uproariously at the presumably hilarious replies. They in turn received weary glances from a group of four girls in black jumpers, sitting at a table by the wall to Billy’s left, with books and papers spread out around them, apparently studying for some test or assignment.
More students sat chatting on the edge of the stage, on chairs, on tables…Billy felt his heart begin to thump again. He hadn’t realised the Redback Theatre Group was so big, there had only been five or six students involved in the play on Transition night. He felt his fears start to get control of him once more, twisting his stomach and clutching at his chest. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. Without even realising it, he began to edge back towards the door. At least he could still slip away unnoticed.
“Whoah! Careful kid!” The voice came from directly behind him, catching him completely off guard and making him jump in fright. He spun around and cannoned directly into a tall lanky boy standing in the doorway. Momentarily dazed, Billy stumbled back into the room, his head reeling, and collided embarrassingly with a table.
They hadn’t paid attention before, but the loud crash grabbed everyone’s attention now. Billy felt twenty pairs of eyes boring into him. Conversation stopped. A heavy silence pressed down on the room. Billy’s face burned with embarrassment. He wished there was some place to hide, some tiny crack that he could press himself into and disappear.
To his left, he saw a tall, thin boy stand up, about to speak. He trembled uncontrollably as he waited to hear what he would say…
“Hey Kirsten…who’s this, your new boyfriend?”
The room erupted into howls of laughter, followed quickly by another piercing shriek of anger from the short girl. She hurled herself at the boy. “Screw you, Kenny!” she raged, as the boy quickly ducked under a table and popped up the other side. Looking around wildly, he grabbed at the arms of two pretty girls leaning on a nearby table.
“Quick, Deb, Tezza – hide me!” He ducked as the girl hurled a pencil case, whizzing just inches past his ear. Laughing but unsympathetic, the girls pushed him away.
“Don’t hide behind us you wuss!” they chuckled. He circled around, keeping a table between himself and the furious girl, and then made a lunge for Billy himself. Billy froze, stiff as a board as the boy grabbed him and held him in front like a human shield, ducking more flying missiles and taunting the girl.
“Hey, hey, careful now Kirby! You don’t want to miss, you might hit your little boy-toy!” His dig procured another shriek of rage and another flying pencil case whistled by – terrified, Billy felt the zipper brush past his ear.
“Ok, that’s enough…” An older, more authoritative voice. Billy glanced to his right, and for the first time noticed a teacher sitting smiling behind a big wooden desk.
“Yeah Kirby…enough…” the boy taunted again. The girl made another lunge at him, which he fended off by swinging Billy into her path.
“ENOUGH!” The teacher wasn’t shouting but it was clear that he was serious. The two kids paused.
“But sir! You heard what he said!” Again, Billy couldn’t tell if the girl was really upset or just playing along. He thought he could detect an edge of laughter in her voice.
“He was just teasing. How old are you now? You know better than to react.” Again, Billy caught an edge of laughter to the teacher’s voice.
“Yeah Kirby, you know better than to react” The boy continued his taunts, until the teacher calmly continued on.
“Besides, how many times have I told you, we all know why boys tease girls”
“Yeah Kirby, we all…hey wait…we do?” the boy looked quizzically at the teacher.
“Of course…” the teacher kept a perfectly straight face, “They do it to cover up that they have a crush on them.”
The room burst into laughter once more as the boy screwed his face up in disgust.
“Ewwwwww! No way!” He pushed Billy at her and backed away as she made mock kissy faces at him, laughing.
“Awww come on Kenny-wenny, don’t you want a kiss”
“Get away from me you freak!” he warned, again greeted by howls of laughter from the room. Pretending to be offended, the girl grabbed the still-terrified Billy.
“Maybe I will take this guy!” she pouted, “He’s more of a man than you anyway!” More roars of laughter erupted, but Billy felt his face burn with embarrassment. Seeing his discomfort, the teacher spoke up once more.
“Kirby, leave the poor kid alone.”
“Yeah Kirby, you’re scaring him,” spoke up one of the black jumper girls, “Look at him, he’s terrified…gosh!”
Laughing, the girl let him go.
“How sad is that, even little kids are too scared to go out with me!” she complained, as she returned to her friends on the table. The black-jumper-girl kept her attention on Billy.
“What are you doing here anyway, kid?” She spoke sort of quickly, but her voice was kind, and Billy felt himself liking her straight away. This was it, the moment he’d been building up for all these months. He took a deep breath.
“I…uh…” He hesitated, then with a supreme effort, gathered the last of his courage and pressed on boldly: “I want to join the Redback Theatre Group”
To be continued
November 26, 2006
November 17, 2006
Billy Bobbins Part 2
It had taken Billy Bobbins all summer to work up the courage to do what he was about to do now. Since that transition night months ago, barely a waking moment was lost, going over and over it in his head. Sometimes, in his darker moments, he felt like he would never be able to do it...but always the memories of that magical room, and those bright shining kids, and those pictures had dragged his plans back on track. Now, here he was, back in that corridor, passing those noticeboards again, but this time running towards his dream instead of away from it. He had seen those pictures only once before, but they seemed so familiar to him, so many times had they run through his mind over the last months.
He paused. He could hear voices now. Their voices. He recognised them instantly, matched them up with the memories in his head. That one...that was the tall girl, the one who'd worn the red dress...and that one, laughing, that was the blonde one, with the curly hair- he smiled: she was always laughing...the deeper voice, that was the boy with the hair that looked like a big mop...and that one, the one shouting, that was the short girl, the one that was just a little bit scary. He knew them all, not by name, but by memory.
The door was only a few metres away now. His hands were sweaty, he rubbed them on his pants. He wondered which one he should ask. Not one of the guys...they were so tall and so confident, he couldn't imagine that they would even notice him let alone speak to him. One of the girls then...the blonde one? the tall one? Or maybe... no... not the scary one...
He took a deep breath.
Stepped up to the door.
And slid it open.
He paused. He could hear voices now. Their voices. He recognised them instantly, matched them up with the memories in his head. That one...that was the tall girl, the one who'd worn the red dress...and that one, laughing, that was the blonde one, with the curly hair- he smiled: she was always laughing...the deeper voice, that was the boy with the hair that looked like a big mop...and that one, the one shouting, that was the short girl, the one that was just a little bit scary. He knew them all, not by name, but by memory.
The door was only a few metres away now. His hands were sweaty, he rubbed them on his pants. He wondered which one he should ask. Not one of the guys...they were so tall and so confident, he couldn't imagine that they would even notice him let alone speak to him. One of the girls then...the blonde one? the tall one? Or maybe... no... not the scary one...
He took a deep breath.
Stepped up to the door.
And slid it open.
November 15, 2006
Billy Bobbins
Some of you may have noticed strange occurrences in the drama room recently. Curtains moving for no apparent reason, windows mysteriously being opened, the computerised lights behaving in unexpected ways, that sort of thing.
It's time you learned the truth....
the truth about Billy Bobbins, the ghost of the Redback Theatre...
Billy Bobbins was a year 7 student at NPSC. He was one of those shy, quiet kids, that sits in the front row, but right over the side out of the teacher's line of sight. One of those kids that stands on the edge of a group of friends, but never quite makes it into the circle, and never says anything, until the circle closes him out and he quietly drifts away without anyone noticing that he has gone, or was even there to begin with. He yearned to be part of a group like that...to feel like he belonged somewhere...anywhere...
While he was desperate enough to take anything, of all the little cliques and groups and clubs at NPSC, the one he longed to be a part of the most was the Redback Theatre Group. On transition night last year, he had come along to the school and sat in the audience in the drama room as they put on a show. He had sat on a plastic green chair in the back corner, closest to the door, as all the other grade sixes from all the schools in the area pushed and shoved and crowded into the front rows and packed out the room.
And what a room! He'd never seen such a wonderful room in any of the primary schools he had been to. Big velvety looking curtains, strange, complicated looking lights and control panels, a real, carpeted stage...
Then the lights went down, and the Redback Theatre Group did their thing. Billy was entranced! Not by the play, he couldn't really follow that...something about an elephant, and a butler, and a missing bear, and a lesbian couple - but he laughed and cried and cheered all the same. No, what really held him spellbound were the actors themselves. They seemed so alive and energetic, so confident. Their voices, their body language, the way they trusted each other to each play their part, all came together to make them one big, living breathing, moving, wonderful team.
So entranced was Billy in the actors that he almost didn't notice when the play finished. Only the applause and cheers from the other grade 6s snapped him out of his daydreams. Avoiding the crush and the rush for the door that would undoubtably follow, Billy slipped out the door to wait for his parents in the corridor outside. He pressed himself against the wall, doing his best to avoid eye contact with the flood of chattering children who swirled out of the room and away down the halls of their soon-to-be-new-school. Not that it was necessary. Not one of them even looked in his direction. He sighed as they swept by.
It was obvious that many of them were already making friends, or worse, already were friends, from primary school, or local sporting teams. Still, it was hard for Billy to feel too down...not after what he'd just seen in that room. Looking around him now, he saw that the drama room was just as interesting on the outside as on the inside. The corridor windows, which he'd assumed from the inside were just painted black, he now saw were actually notice boards, and on the notice boards outside...oh, the the pictures! Dozens of pictures of kids laughing and kissing and posing and dressing up and acting out and having fun and most of all, looking like they belonged. Right there and then he knew what he was going to do. What had that tall, scary looking teacher said in the speech in the library? Moving from primary school to high school was a chance to 'make a new start'. Well that's what he was going to do...he was going to take that chance, he was going to make a new start...
(to be continued)
It's time you learned the truth....
the truth about Billy Bobbins, the ghost of the Redback Theatre...
Billy Bobbins was a year 7 student at NPSC. He was one of those shy, quiet kids, that sits in the front row, but right over the side out of the teacher's line of sight. One of those kids that stands on the edge of a group of friends, but never quite makes it into the circle, and never says anything, until the circle closes him out and he quietly drifts away without anyone noticing that he has gone, or was even there to begin with. He yearned to be part of a group like that...to feel like he belonged somewhere...anywhere...
While he was desperate enough to take anything, of all the little cliques and groups and clubs at NPSC, the one he longed to be a part of the most was the Redback Theatre Group. On transition night last year, he had come along to the school and sat in the audience in the drama room as they put on a show. He had sat on a plastic green chair in the back corner, closest to the door, as all the other grade sixes from all the schools in the area pushed and shoved and crowded into the front rows and packed out the room.
And what a room! He'd never seen such a wonderful room in any of the primary schools he had been to. Big velvety looking curtains, strange, complicated looking lights and control panels, a real, carpeted stage...
Then the lights went down, and the Redback Theatre Group did their thing. Billy was entranced! Not by the play, he couldn't really follow that...something about an elephant, and a butler, and a missing bear, and a lesbian couple - but he laughed and cried and cheered all the same. No, what really held him spellbound were the actors themselves. They seemed so alive and energetic, so confident. Their voices, their body language, the way they trusted each other to each play their part, all came together to make them one big, living breathing, moving, wonderful team.
So entranced was Billy in the actors that he almost didn't notice when the play finished. Only the applause and cheers from the other grade 6s snapped him out of his daydreams. Avoiding the crush and the rush for the door that would undoubtably follow, Billy slipped out the door to wait for his parents in the corridor outside. He pressed himself against the wall, doing his best to avoid eye contact with the flood of chattering children who swirled out of the room and away down the halls of their soon-to-be-new-school. Not that it was necessary. Not one of them even looked in his direction. He sighed as they swept by.
It was obvious that many of them were already making friends, or worse, already were friends, from primary school, or local sporting teams. Still, it was hard for Billy to feel too down...not after what he'd just seen in that room. Looking around him now, he saw that the drama room was just as interesting on the outside as on the inside. The corridor windows, which he'd assumed from the inside were just painted black, he now saw were actually notice boards, and on the notice boards outside...oh, the the pictures! Dozens of pictures of kids laughing and kissing and posing and dressing up and acting out and having fun and most of all, looking like they belonged. Right there and then he knew what he was going to do. What had that tall, scary looking teacher said in the speech in the library? Moving from primary school to high school was a chance to 'make a new start'. Well that's what he was going to do...he was going to take that chance, he was going to make a new start...
(to be continued)
November 07, 2006
Name the Horse Competition Results
Winning names:
Clayhorn (Stacey)
Drama Queen (Renee)
and that's it.
I didn't like any of the others so I'll hang onto the third ticket and come up with another competition. Stay tuned...
By the way other cool names would have included:
Stage Kiss
Bang The Hammer
Break A Leg
and
Transgranny
Clayhorn (Stacey)
Drama Queen (Renee)
and that's it.
I didn't like any of the others so I'll hang onto the third ticket and come up with another competition. Stay tuned...
By the way other cool names would have included:
Stage Kiss
Bang The Hammer
Break A Leg
and
Transgranny
November 06, 2006
Melbourne Cup Sweep
Melbourne Cup time kiddies, and since you're all too young to gamble I thought I'd run a sweep for you all. Plus I'm kinda bored.
Prizes are tickets to Short and Sweet:
1st = Free ticket to each of the three weeks
2nd = Free ticket to two of the three weeks
3rd = Free ticket to one of the three weeks
Last = Everyone points and laughs at you
RULES:
*There are 24 horses, and only 20 Redbackers including me, so there are four spare horses.
*If anyone's horse gets scratched from the race, they get one of the spares.
*If no horses (or less than 4) get scratched some people will get a bonus horse.
*If you want to be one of those lucky people, be one of the first to comment on this thread saying "Hell Yeah I Want Another Horse!" before race time (3.00pm I think).
*If not enough people comment, the horses stay spare and if one of them wins, bad luck.
*If you don't want your prize you can give it to any other Redbacker
I've given out the horses in order of joining Redback (I think) and if you joined at the same time as others it went alphabetical by last name. I counted me as joining at the same time as the founders.
1 YEATS Sam Bagley
2 DELTA BLUES Caughey
3 RAILINGS Preety Gulati
4 TAWQEET Terri Holt
5 GEORDIELAND Kirsten Kerr
6 HEADTURNER Stacey Miller
7 SHORT PAUSE Pat Supel
8 ACTIVATION Debbie Thompson
9 LAND 'N STARS Renee Verma
10 MAHTOUM Sarah Bactol
11 ON A JEUNE Luke Krause
12 POP ROCK Kat Wood
13 ZIPPING Amy Miles
14 DIZELLE Emily Nixon
15 ICE CHARIOT Adele Rose
16 KERRY O'REILLY Laura Scopel
17 ZABEAT Gemma Berry
18 ART SUCCESS Steven Bagley
19 DEMERGER Leila Kocsis
20 GLISTENING Ken Waples
21 MANDELA Sam Bagley
22 DOLPHIN JO Preeti Gulati
23 MAYBE BETTER Debbie Thompson (didn't post a comment but she asked for the last place on MSN and no one else has put their hand up for the last horse)
24 EFFICIENT Scratched
Prizes are tickets to Short and Sweet:
1st = Free ticket to each of the three weeks
2nd = Free ticket to two of the three weeks
3rd = Free ticket to one of the three weeks
Last = Everyone points and laughs at you
RULES:
*There are 24 horses, and only 20 Redbackers including me, so there are four spare horses.
*If anyone's horse gets scratched from the race, they get one of the spares.
*If no horses (or less than 4) get scratched some people will get a bonus horse.
*If you want to be one of those lucky people, be one of the first to comment on this thread saying "Hell Yeah I Want Another Horse!" before race time (3.00pm I think).
*If not enough people comment, the horses stay spare and if one of them wins, bad luck.
*If you don't want your prize you can give it to any other Redbacker
I've given out the horses in order of joining Redback (I think) and if you joined at the same time as others it went alphabetical by last name. I counted me as joining at the same time as the founders.
1 YEATS Sam Bagley
2 DELTA BLUES Caughey
3 RAILINGS Preety Gulati
4 TAWQEET Terri Holt
5 GEORDIELAND Kirsten Kerr
6 HEADTURNER Stacey Miller
7 SHORT PAUSE Pat Supel
8 ACTIVATION Debbie Thompson
9 LAND 'N STARS Renee Verma
10 MAHTOUM Sarah Bactol
11 ON A JEUNE Luke Krause
12 POP ROCK Kat Wood
13 ZIPPING Amy Miles
14 DIZELLE Emily Nixon
15 ICE CHARIOT Adele Rose
16 KERRY O'REILLY Laura Scopel
17 ZABEAT Gemma Berry
18 ART SUCCESS Steven Bagley
19 DEMERGER Leila Kocsis
20 GLISTENING Ken Waples
21 MANDELA Sam Bagley
22 DOLPHIN JO Preeti Gulati
23 MAYBE BETTER Debbie Thompson (didn't post a comment but she asked for the last place on MSN and no one else has put their hand up for the last horse)
24 EFFICIENT Scratched
November 04, 2006
Well Done Kat and Luke!
CONGRATUlaTIONs KAT AND LUKE for an amazing performance last night in Godspell you guys did awsome and everyone is so proud of the both of you XOXOXOX
(Kirby wrote that bit)
Pics are now up on flickr, thanks to Deb, who - unlike me - remembered to actually bring a camera.
(Coy added that bit) (and fixed Kirby's spelling of "congratulations") :P
(Kirby wrote that bit)
Pics are now up on flickr, thanks to Deb, who - unlike me - remembered to actually bring a camera.
(Coy added that bit) (and fixed Kirby's spelling of "congratulations") :P
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