When Thaddeus finished Grade 12 in 2006 I was a bit edgy. He had been a stay- at- home teenager and with the wisdom of hindsight I’d have to say he probably lulled me into a false sense of security. I assumed all teenagers were like that and frankly, I couldn’t have been more deluded.I got a call from the suit hire shop at about two pm the day after his school formal as he had failed to return the suit. I freaked out as I had no idea where he was and naturally imagined he was indeed, dead. A few phone calls later we had located his whereabouts and all was hunky dorey once more.
A harmless group of his friends (overseen by the girls in the clique) booked a house on Magnetic Island for ‘Schoolies’ and Thaddeus’ only responsibility was to bring five large bottles of Cottee’s Lime Cordial. Seemed innocent enough! And it was. He returned safe and sound and had a great time.
Jonah graduated in 2008 and resolved to go further afield than his brother deciding to spend Schoolies at Airlie Beach. Although I fretted a bit more about the distance aspect, he managed to return in one piece. Stories filtered back later on that he’d succeeded in getting so pissed on the first night he had spewed the entire next day. He’d also lost his thongs, couldn’t walk very far, and consequently stayed in the room on his computer for much of the week. Par-taaay animal!
Hagar celebrated his farewell to high school a tad differently. On the Friday night he finished grade eleven he held a humdinger of a party at his father’s house. Evidently it was advertised on something called “Facebook”. His father was overseas and what better place could there be for two hundred, 17 year old youths to colonise, than a house with no adult supervision?
He’d told me, (Queen Gullible of the Naïve) that he was staying at a mate’s.
Early the next morning, Lulu spotted the photographic confirmation on Facebook and immediately dobbed him in. She was only thirteen at the time and still had a modicum of parental respect. Nowadays she wouldn’t be the informer; she’d be the one instigating the party.
Word must have got out that the game was up because as we arrived at my ex-husband’s house about eight iridescent utes and various other vehicles were pulling away in a big hurry.
A panorama of wet mattresses strewn all over the carport, broken bottles and cans all over the floor and carpet, doors broken off their hinges and a green, albeit stubbornly defiant- looking Hagar formed the apocalyptic landscape in front of us.
He was made to clean up over the next three days and it goes without saying that he was grounded.
Lulu told us he had written on his Facebook wall,
“I’m grounded for two weeks. It was worth it.”
That’s when we upped it to four weeks.
