Playing Truant {Part One}

Prudence and Lydia



6:15 am



“Jesus, Prue!” Lydia said to her friend walking abreast of her. “It’s 11 degrees and you’re dressed for a hot summers day”

Prue was dressed in a black halter-top, a denim mini and sandaled-heels that exposed her newly painted black toenails. She smiled and flicked the purple fringe of her black and purple bob out of her emerald eyes. “It’s not cold! I swear, Lydia, you’re not normal,” she studied her friends attire. “You’ve gone mad. It’s free dress day and you’re waring a trench coat and scarf over-” she peaked into Lydia’s coat. “-a long sleeve cardigan. The only day of the term we’re aloud to show off our bodies at school and you opt to hide away”

Lydia shook her head. “I’m not hiding. It’s called dressing for the weather. Which by the way, you obviously haven’t. Look, you’ve even got goose bumps!” she giggled whilst linking arms with Prue.

They walked on through the tree-lined streets and past beautiful Victorian houses with perfectly manicured lawns. Every morning the two of them walked together to the station and every morning they followed the same route as before. Meeting up at the park, taking a left at an elementary school, up and over a hill that would usually take them out of the shadows of the valley and then down towards the rush hour traffic of Anzac Avenue.

The two friends walked through a vacant lot and stood at the edge of the sidewalk. “Can’t we just use the lights today?” Lydia asked, looking at the heavy volume of fast moving traffic travelling in both directions.

“Don’t be silly,” Prue laughed. “We’ve never used them before”

“Yeah, and each time we've jay walked we almost gotten killed”

Prue sighed. “Okay, Lyd. We’ll use the lights if that’s what you want,” she took her hand in hers and walked up the sidewalk.

“Really?”

“No,” Prue grinned and then suddenly she yanked on Lydia’s hand and pulled her out into the street with her. Horns blared, tires screeched and drivers swore and presented the girls with explicit hand gestures. Lydia screamed while a laughing Prue pulled at her as they bolted across the four lanes of traffic and onto the opposite sidewalk.

“Wasn’t that a thrill?!” Prue said still laughing.

“No!!!” Lydia screamed. “What the fuck is the matter with you? You could’ve gotten us killed!”

“But we didn’t get killed, did we?”

“No,” Lydia sighed.

“And it was thrilling, you’ve gotta admit that”

“Yeah,” Lydia smiled. “It was. But don’t do it again. Now lets go or we’ll miss our train”

7:35 am

Central Station to be perfectly honest wasn’t very central at all but situated on the western edge of downtown, it still served its purpose though with trains leaving and entering the city centre every five minutes. Lydia and Prue rode the escalator out of the dimness of platforms five and six and followed the crowd of commuters across the concourse.

“Can you see Jane and Sebastian anywhere?” Prue asked.

“Nope. Maybe their train is late,” Lydia said and led Prue over to the row of destination monitors that were attached to the ceiling. Each monitor had the words of either ‘Next Trains North’, ‘Next Trains South’ or ‘Next Trains South West’ stuck above the corresponding monitor and each screen had a list of arrived and expected trains. All destinations were highlighted in different colors that represented the train line and flashing destinations indicated that the train was at the platform.

Lydia looked up at the ‘Next Trains North’ monitor and scrolled her eyes down until she spotted a blue segment with the suburb Shorncliffe written on the background. It wasn’t flashing. “Their train isn’t in yet. It must be late”

“Well it better hurry its arse along or we’re gonna miss our connection,” Prue said and took a drink from a near by water fountain.

Lydia shuddered, thinking of all of the other people that had most likely sneezed and coughed all over the drinking tap. “Now you’re gonna get Hepatitis,” she told Prue who only shrugged.

“Fact, you’ve got more chance of getting Hepatitis from a pay phone than you do from a drinking fountain,” Prue said matter-of-factly. “So I think I’ll survive”

“I’m gonna see how far away they are,” Lydia took out her cell phone and flipped it open. After dialling Jane and getting her voice mail she ended the call and tried Sebastian, but instead of getting his voice mail she got the annoying mechanical voice saying. “Im sorry, but the phone that you have tried to call is either unavailable or switched off. Please try again later”

“What’s the point of having a mobile phone if you don’t intend on turning it on!” Lydia said frustrated. “Do you wanna wait for them or should we keep going?”

Prue considered her question and mulled it over. “I think…I think...we should wait. Who cares if we’re late, we can blame it on public transport”

“Kay…hey, lets go over to McDonalds and have something fattening while we wait”

Sebastian and Jane



7:30 am



“Attention passengers the next station is Brisbane Central this is a Shorncliffe train, stopping at all stations. We are currently running on time. In line to Queensland Rail’s commitment to safety please make sure you have all your personal belongings before leaving the train,” the announcement over the PA ended in static.

Jane glared at the speakers as if to say – how dare you interrupt me - then continued on quizzing Sebastian.

“What do your tunes say about you?” she read out from the magazine in her lap “Ok, question one. Your boyfriend/girlfriend just broke up with you. You go into your room to be alone and put on a CD – what do you listen to…”

The two of them got through three questions when suddenly the circuit breakers in the roof gave a loud clunk causing the lights to fail just as the train was entering a tunnel. The train gave a great lurch, which flung all those standing into each other. Giving out little embarrassed laughs and apologies they carefully disentangled themselves and it was a few moments before they realized that they had stopped and not at a station.

“This is just what we need,” said a man in tweed. “I wanted to be at work early but now we’re gonna be stuck here all day”

“I certainly hope not!” a plump and exhausted woman holding a large cardboard box exclaimed. “There’ll be no one to open the shop!”

Sebastian and Jane looked at each other. “Well, this should be interesting,” Sebastian, said sarcastically.

Jane closed the magazine. “Well, maybe if we’re lucky we’ll miss our maths test”

“That would be great! I haven’t studied at all!” he said looking around the carriage with the aid of the two non-electrical lights at either end of the car.

Eventually a Queensland Rail officer came through the carriage explaining that due to an electrical fault the train would be delayed until further notice. No, he did not know how long the delay would be. No, there was no chance of another train running into them. Yes, he was aware that it was a great inconvenience. No, there was no way of doing anything faster than they already were.

People started to get comfortable, some settling in to read the morning newspapers (those closest to the two lights), some snoozed and others listened to personal stereos.

Sebastian produced a packet of cigarettes and silver lighter from his briefcase and lit one, inhaling deeply. “Want one?” he said asking Jane knowing all to well that she would refuse.

“No thanks and I don’t think you’re allowed,” Jane said uncertainly.

“Pah, rubbish. They can hardly expect us to be stuck in here without a little luxury,” he said good-naturedly. Jane laughed, noticing that others too were producing cigarettes and lighting them.

It wasn’t for another forty-five minutes until the officer came back again to inform them this time that they would be letting passengers off now so that they could walk along the tracks to the station. No, there was no chance of another train running them over as all trains heading south had been halted to reduce the risk of that happening. The officer took out a key and inserted it into a switch that manually unlocked the doors. He then told them that once in the tunnel they were to head towards the station, which could be seen at the tunnels exit.

“Well. This should be fun!” Jane said as she and Sebastian gathered their coats, scarfs and other belongings. They entered the line of exiting passengers and patiently waited their turn, watching as the people jumped out from the train and onto the concrete below. Sebastian jumped first and then lifted Jane down after him.

8:19 am

Jane and Sebastian found their friends stuffing down McMuffins and slurping on thick shakes at McDonalds. They were both very thankful that Prue and Lydia had ordered them each a McMuffin and shake as well. They sat down to the task of scoffing down their breakfasts, all the while regaling Prue and Lydia with the tail of their recent brush with inadequate transportation.

“I wonder if our teacher will believe us,” Jane said, wondering if their excuse for lateness would be valid.

Prue snorted. “No. And I think we’re too late for school as it is,” she said looking at her watch. “It’ll most likely be lunch time by the time we get there”

“So what do you propose we do then?” Lydia asked.

“Play truant,” Prue said mischievously. “We may as well. We’ve got a great excuse and we’re all dressed for it too”

She was right. They all were dressed for a day downtown. Sebastian was wearing black jeans, a white turtle neck sweater and a black leather jacket. Jane was a little different from her friends however, and hadn’t dressed the same as them. Instead she wore a black tee with a red and black striped cardigan over the top, a black mini and black and red-striped thigh-high stockings. Converse shoes adorned her feet and a trench coat kept her warm.

“Well, what’ll we say if our ‘rents find out we weren’t at school?” Jane asked, curiously.

Sebastian smiled and took the words Prue was about to say right from her mouth. 1

“We’ll blame it on public transport”2