Super Con-Nerd Read online

  I blink rapidly at her. ‘You go to tutoring?’

  ‘Well, my cousin tutors me three times a week,’ she says. ‘She used to come to Kentsworth, but she’s in uni now.’

  I turn to Vinh. ‘Don’t tell me you get coached as well.’

  Vinh slowly nods. ‘Only for Maths and English.’

  I dangle my legs over the bench. ‘Am I the only one who doesn’t go?’

  I wonder if that’s how you become a super nerd. You don’t need to come from an alien planet or expose yourself to extreme radiation. Just get tutored. That doesn’t sound so super to me.

  We have a double period of English in the afternoon. Mrs Cheney walks in and snaps her fingers. ‘It’s time for your first major assessment task.’

  I grip the table because our classroom has just gone into a nosedive. If an oxygen mask drops from the ceiling, I’ll grab it for sure.

  Andrew flutters his eyelashes at her. ‘So the other assessments were warm-ups?’

  Mrs Cheney smiles. ‘Something like that. I’m sure everyone is ready for a meaty assignment.’

  I stick my tongue out as if I’m vegetarian. I glance over the question and gasp. The question is like a fat cockroach I squashed in the kitchen last week where baby cockroaches crawled out. There are eight mini questions wrapped into one.

  ‘This is crazy,’ I whisper.

  Irene turns around. ‘We’re just analysing a few characters.’

  ‘Yeah, it’s like she wants us to rewrite the book.’

  Andrew’s scribbling notes all over his page. He’ll probably have it finished by home time.

  Mrs Cheney spreads out her arms. ‘Let’s get into groups and work through today’s comprehension questions.’ I move my chair towards Irene and Vinh but Mrs Cheney taps my shoulder. ‘How about you join Andrew’s group? You boys had a great discussion last time.’

  ‘Um, okay.’ I take my chair over and squeeze into Andrew’s circle.

  Andrew yawns at the sheet. ‘I can do these questions in my sleep.’

  I wish he would take a nap now. I’m sick of hearing his voice all the time.

  Andrew flicks the paper. ‘So, Connor, what do you think about question one?’

  I feel as though I’m being grilled like a chicken in the oven. I must be golden brown and ready to turn over. ‘Um . . .’ I flip through the novel. ‘Well, you see . . .’

  ‘Do you want to phone a friend?’ Andrew laughs.

  ‘I’m just thinking about it,’ I snap. ‘I’m allowed to do that, right?’

  Andrew smirks. ‘Sure, if it doesn’t hurt your brain.’

  ‘Not everything has to be a test, you know,’ I say.

  ‘Then why are you here?’ Andrew waves his pen in the air. ‘A selective school is one big test that’s made up of little tests. That’s what my tutor says.’

  I flick the paper away from me and fold my arms. ‘I don’t care about being the smartest kid at school anyway.’

  ‘And you never will be. You are not Kentsworthy.’

  Mrs Cheney claps her hands. ‘All right, let’s share what you’ve learnt so far.’

  Andrew’s a royal pain. I wish I could share that, but everybody knows it.

  ‘How about we start with Andrew’s group?’ Mrs Cheney smiles at him. ‘Any interesting thoughts?’

  Andrew pats my back. ‘Connor here was sharing some insightful and interesting thoughts about Mr Heinrich’s past.’

  Mrs Cheney lights up. ‘Really? Let’s hear it, Connor.’

  ‘Um, well . . .’ I turn away from Andrew’s smirk and think about Mama. ‘I think Gerald’s great at playing piano but being a pianist was his Plan B.’

  ‘And what was his Plan A?’ Andrew asks.

  ‘Anything else but piano.’

  Mrs Cheney’s nodding. ‘That is interesting, Connor. I should put you in Andrew’s group more often.’

  Andrew gives her a strained smile. ‘He’s welcome in our group anytime.’

  The bell rings and Andrew hands me a few silver Master Class College business cards. ‘Nice save, Connor,’ he quacks. ‘A few more and you might just survive here.’ He acts like he’s been here for years, not weeks.

  Andrew swaggers down the corridor, but in my mind he waddles like a duck.

  Is he right about me not being Kentsworthy? Did I just fluke my way into this school?

  In the afternoon, I sit down on the train and take out my phone. I can’t hold back any more. I let loose and send a massive message to the original C gang about Andrew. I can’t wait to hear what Stephen will say. If he was around, he would ride his skateboard up Andrew’s forehead like a ramp and do a flip kick off it. Stephen coming into Kentsworth would be like letting a lion loose into a field full of gazelle.

  I’m dying to know Mandy’s thoughts, so I head straight to her place. I can hear music thumping through the walls. I knock on the door a few times but I get no response. I try calling Mandy’s phone but it keeps ringing out. I bang on the door a few times.

  Mandy finally sticks her head out. ‘Oh, it’s you.’ Her eyes burn through me. ‘What do you want?’

  ‘Didn’t you get my message?’

  ‘Yeah, why?’

  I cling on to the straps of my backpack. ‘Are you busy?’

  ‘Yeah, no. I mean, kinda.’ Mandy opens the door and lets me inside. ‘Just doing some homework and stuff.’ We follow the music coming from her bedroom. I haven’t been in here for ages. It looks so different now. Her pink bedsheets have been replaced with grey ones. All her plushies and soft fluffy cushions are gone. She’s got her laptop open, with her smartphone beside it. I’m guessing she’s doing more stuff than homework.

  ‘Is this Jason Bobo’s new song?’ I say. It feels like the room is a wind tunnel of sound.

  ‘Ewww, He’s creepy, nobody likes him any more.’ Mandy shivers. ‘This is 500 Years of Winter.’ She points to a poster of the four-piece band. ‘There’s Joel, Lachlan, Henry, and Gary’s my favourite. He’s the lead singer.’

  Gary’s hair needs to be sheared. But Dazza’s woolly hair is wild. I try to listen out for Gary’s voice but it’s drowning in a sea of beats and whiny noises.

  ‘Sounds all right,’ I say.

  ‘They’re coming here for a promo visit and a free concert . . .’

  She dives backwards onto her bed, with her legs kicking in the air. I’d forgotten how crazy Mandy goes over these boy bands. I can’t keep up.

  ‘I’m going in the moshpit,’ she says.

  ‘You want to go in a pit full of mosh?’

  Mandy pulls herself up on the bed. ‘So what do you want, Connor?’

  I pull myself away from her gaze. ‘How are you finding high school?’

  ‘Did my mum make you come here?’ Mandy stands up and rushes over to her smartphone. ‘Unbelievable. She thinks I’ve been brainwashed by my new friends. Just because they’re not in my year, doesn’t mean anything.’

  ‘Your mum didn’t send me. I don’t even sound like her,’ I say. ‘Wait, you don’t have any friends in your year?’

  Mandy crushes a cushion between her hands. ‘It’s no big deal. I’m hanging with my cousin’s friends. I’m just trying to fit in, that’s all.’

  ‘I know how you feel,’ I say. ‘There’s this guy named Andrew who’s a pain in the neck . . .’

  ‘Uh-huh.’ Mandy taps quickly on her phone. I’m surprised her fingers haven’t caught on fire yet. ‘So are you friends with him?’

  ‘Didn’t you read my text message?’ I have a shouting match with Greg’s whiny voice. It’s like trying to talk over a car alarm. ‘Andrew picks on me in class.’

  ‘He’s just jealous cos you’re smarter than him.’ Mandy doesn’t look up from her screen.

  ‘No, he’s the smartest in the class,’ I yell over the music. ‘He thinks I’m not Kentsworthy.’

  ‘Then just find something to beat him at,’ Mandy says, turning down the music. ‘He can’t be great at everything.’

  I tap my ch
in. ‘Yeah, I think I can out-draw him any day. Thanks, Mandy.’ I rub my stomach. ‘Do you want a noodle rollie?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You know, remember how we used to cook up noodles and then cram them inside a bread roll? It was soggy goodness.’

  ‘Ewww, no thanks,’ Mandy mumbles.

  ‘It was our favourite arvo snack last year.’ I grab her smartphone. ‘Maybe you should put this down and take a break,’ I say. ‘Or you’ll be wearing glasses like me.’

  Mandy’s lips turn inside out. ‘Okay, now you do sound like my mum.’ She pushes me out of her room. ‘You’re not the boss of me.’ She slams the door and turns the volume up even louder than before.

  I stomp next door to my place. Mandy hasn’t just been brainwashed, her brain has been wiped clean.

  I get inside and take out some mi goreng noodles. Mama buys boring wholemeal sliced bread now, so I have to make a noodle sandwich instead. When I take a bite, half my noodles slop onto the plate. I push the plate away. It’s not the same without white bread rolls. Or Mandy.

  I chuck the noodle sandwich in the bin and get a bunch of pears out of the fridge. I chomp into one and take the rest to Dad’s shrine.

  ‘Hey, Dad.’ I kneel down and place the pears into the red bowl in front of his picture. ‘I bet Mama’s been asking you about me in high school,’ I say. ‘Don’t tell her this, but Andrew’s been getting on my nerves. He treats me like I don’t belong there.’ I close my eyes. ‘Should I just ignore him? Or is Mandy right? Should I challenge him to something? What do you think, Dad?’

  I open my eyes and blink rapidly at Dad’s picture, wondering if I should wait for an answer or not.

  It doesn’t matter. I know Dad’s got my back.

  The next morning, I finally get a reply from Stephen.

  You should tell a teacher about this Andrew guy, Con-nerd.

  That’s it? Did some alien abduct the old Stephen and replace him with some goody goody? I’m not going to tell any teachers yet. I’ll challenge Andrew to something first.

  Irene and Vinh meet me at the school gates. ‘I forgot to charge my laptop, so can we go to the library?’ Irene asks.

  ‘Yeah, okay.’

  We walk in and try to find a spare study room. There’s an empty one in the far corner. I run towards it and open the door. Vinh puts his bag down and Irene plugs in her laptop and opens it up to check some computer gameplay videos.

  Andrew walks in with Naveed and Joseph. ‘Sorry, we’ve booked this room.’

  Irene points at him. ‘Only seniors can book these rooms.’

  Andrew stands on his toes, trying to stretch his body out like dough. ‘Well, Mrs Sov lets me.’

  Joseph quickly skips over to Irene’s laptop. ‘You’re not even working.’

  ‘We were here first.’ Irene slams her laptop shut and growls at Joseph. ‘Better luck next time.’

  ‘I bet all three of you are in the bottom half of our class.’ Andrew blows his words at my face. ‘And one is probably at the bottom of the whole grade.’

  I pinch my nose. ‘Yuk, did you just eat a whole jar of olives?’

  Andrew folds his arms. ‘Why don’t I get Mrs Sov to come in here? We’ll see who she gives this room to.’

  I picture the scene in my head, with Andrew sucking up to Mrs Sov. I’ve seen enough of it already. ‘All right, let’s go.’

  Irene sighs and unplugs her laptop. I hear Andrew and Joseph crack up after we leave.

  ‘He’s been here for a month and he thinks he owns the whole school,’ Irene says.

  I nod. ‘The guy is really a Squire.’

  ‘What’s a Squire?’ Irene asks.

  ‘He’s a know-it-all character in an anime I used to watch.’

  Irene laughs. ‘Yeah, that’s him all right.’

  We sit down near the shelves at the back of the library, in a corner with a spare power socket. I lean against the wall. ‘I’m going to try to beat him.’

  ‘I dunno, man, he’s heaps bigger than you.’ Vinh gulps. ‘He could sit on you and turn you into Con-cardboard.’

  ‘No, I’m just going to challenge him in something,’ I say.

  Irene pinches her bottom lip. ‘I bet he can’t do a handstand and hold it for five minutes.’

  ‘But I can’t do that either.’

  Irene giggles. ‘Who cares? It’ll be funny to see the blood drain down to his face.’

  ‘It’d probably take an hour for his giant head to fill up,’ I say.

  We’ve all got the giggles now. Vinh and Irene are pretty cool. Maybe not as cool as Mandy’s new friends but they know that I’m Con-nerd. I need all the help I can get if I’m going to beat Squire. I grab my notebook and start making a list of things I’m good at.

  1 Drawing comics

  2 Reading comics

  3 Sleeping and drooling on comics

  4 Dragon Wings

  5 Basketball (I think)

  I chew on the end of my pencil. Andrew’s list could do laps around the oval. But if I can show everybody I can beat him at something, hopefully Andrew will see that I am Kentsworthy.

  We have Maths the following day and Mr Metwally’s already handing back our surprise tests. I wonder if the teachers here try to be the quickest markers too.

  ‘Andrew Thompson . . . 93 percent. First in the class.’ Mr Metwally smiles and his face looks like a dried prune. ‘Well done.’

  Mr Metwally comes up to me. He pushes his lips together and more wrinkles pop up on his forehead. ‘You need to show more of your working out, Connor.’

  I check my mark: 67 percent. It’s not bad. It’s also not good, or excellent or anywhere near Andrew’s level. If Mama saw this, she would probably out-frown Mr Metwally.

  After Maths, Andrew skips up to me. ‘What did you get, Connor?’

  I stuff my books and exam into my bag. ‘I passed, okay.’ I brush by him.

  ‘Hey, I’m only trying to help.’ He flicks another business card in front of me. He’s been sneaking around and slipping them in my bag. ‘Seriously, you can get two months for free.’

  I don’t know if he’s a bully or just a pushy salesman. I take his card and scrunch it up.

  ‘I bet you fluked your entrance exam and are just happy to be here, right?’ Andrew crosses his arms. ‘You’re going to get left behind, you know.’

  A few students stop and stare at us. Do people fight in a selective school? I don’t want to find out.

  Irene steps in front of me. ‘Get off Con-nerd’s back, Andrew.’

  ‘Con-nerd? Cute nickname.’ Andrew cackles. ‘Nerds are supposed to be smart. But you definitely got the first part right.’ He walks away with his friends.

  I thought being picked on by a cool kid like Stephen was bad enough last year. It stings even more to be pushed around by another nerd. A super nerd. If I don’t become super soon, he’s going to turn Kentsworth into a living nightmare.

  At lunch, I take out my anger on the sketchbook. Vinh looks over my shoulder. ‘Is that Squire?’

  I laugh. ‘Is it that obvious?’

  ‘Yeah, he looks like a quacking duck.’

  Galway comes over, armed with a tank pointed at us. ‘Hey, Con-nerd.’

  ‘Welcome to the nerdy rejects.’ I turn to Irene and Vinh. ‘Irene, Vinh, this is Galway and he’s into tanks.’

  Irene claps her hands. ‘Oh cool, I’m a tank in Journey of Legends.’

  Galway twitches his eyebrows. ‘Huh? What kind of tank are you?’

  ‘I’m a dwarf.’

  ‘Must be a tiny tank?’ He checks out Irene’s laptop screen. ‘Oh, right. You’re actually a dwarf.’

  ‘Yeah, in Journey of Legends, a tank is someone who absorbs lots of damage for their team,’ Irene says.

  ‘I can be your tank.’ Galway clutches his stomach. ‘I’ll take the punches and kicks if anyone picks on us. I spar with my grandma sometimes – she’s got a brown belt in judo.’

  ‘Wow, that’s cool,’ Vinh says. ‘Does she
want a black belt?’

  ‘Dunno, my mum might buy her one for Christmas.’ Galway sits down. ‘But she likes doing judo in her lucky brown belt.’

  Irene slaps her forehead. ‘You guys are on the same wavelength. We’ll get along just fine.’

  Vinh and Galway chat about cosplay and tanks. I go back to sketching Andrew. After I finish, Irene casts a shadow over my page. ‘Maybe you can draw us next.’

  Vinh butts in. ‘Yeah, try not to get my ugly side.’

  Irene laughs. ‘Come on, you’re ugly from every angle.’

  ‘It’s okay, he’s not drawing me in 3D,’ Vinh says. ‘We can be characters in your Fireproof Knights comic.’

  A smile creeps onto my face. My nerdy senses are tingling again. This time, my fingers feel itchy and it spreads down to my spine. These friends are the reason I belong at Kentsworth. I just have to get Squire off my back.

  After dinner, I lock myself away in my room, working on my next issue of Fireproof Knights. The plan for Issue Five was for an epic battle with Fragor, the deadliest dragon of them all. The Knights work together to take him down but he casts a spell that separates us. I can’t believe I predicted my future in real life.

  The original C gang were supposed to meet up this Saturday, but everybody’s made excuses. Dazza has footy training. Stephen had to be at the skate park for a competition. And Mandy’s booked up for the next three Saturdays. She’s getting more popular by the second. I can hear whenever her cousin’s friends come over. Their shrieks drill little holes through the walls and into my eardrums. Her room and her life are a Con-nerd-free zone.

  I rub out a picture of Mandy’s character and blow away the eraser bits. Time for a clean start. I can have these old Fireproof Knights off somewhere else, fighting a bigger dragon or being part of a cooler supergroup like Shockproof Cyborgs.

  I’m going to recruit Vinh, Irene and Galway to the Fireproof Knights. I start sketching Vinh’s lanky body and wonder how he can fit in his armour. But he shouldn’t be a knight. They are so last year. My new friends could be something out of this world, like aliens. I draw Vinh’s S-shape frame with scaly skin so he has the look of an upright lizard. He can shapeshift into anything he wants, like when he cosplays.