Free Mucked Up by Danny Katz Page B

all know it’s there which is why nobody wants to go near it but Mrs Gaffnee’s telling us that’s where we have to go right now.
    ‘Year 9s to the Map of the World Rug, hurry up.’
    ‘Mizzzzz, nooooo,’ goes Richard Brincat, ‘it’s got vom there, mizzzzzz,’ but Mrs Gaffnee is not interested in his mizzzzzing: ‘This is a trying day for everyone, Richard, go to the rug and sit quietly, no arguments!’
    We all go into the library past the front counter, then turn left towards the Fiction L to Z aisle at the side of the library where the Map of the World Rug is. Jack S is about four people in front of me. Richard Brincat is right in front of me, following Mandy Karaniki. ‘You can sit on China, Mandy, haw haw.’
    ‘You are so moronic, Richard.’
    Crazy-hot inside the library because so many classes are packed in. Kind of stinks like somebody dropped one. The Year 8s are in the reference section. Girls are on the floor in a circle talking about the Gorillas in Netball Skirts.
    It was definitely Ash’s brother / Which one? / The one with the sunglasses
    Year 8 boys are at the spinning magazine rack looking at a famous surf mag that every boy at school has looked at because of the pics of a super-spicy chick in a blue bikini windsurfing.
    What’s her name? / Who cares what her name is / Just wanted to know
    The Year 7s are up the back in the reading nook. Lucky little gimples are all chilled on the floor cushions and diving on the yellow beanbags, making crunch-crunching noises when they land.
    Here we are at the side of the library where the Fiction L to Z aisle is. And here is the Map of the World Rug. It is massive and takes up the whole floor. It’s really detailed with all the countries in different colours. And right in the middle of the rug you can see China with that chunder stain, a sick orange colour.

    Heaps of Year 9s are already sitting on the rug and all the good countries are taken. Way down the far end of the Map of the World Rug, someone’s waving. It’s Jarrell and she’s got the whole of New Zealand to herself; she’s making come-here signs but it’s not to me, it’s to Jack S in front of me. When he sees her he guns it across the rug, stepping over all the countries and oceans until he gets to New Zealand with Jarrell, and they sit together and hold hands. Bet they’re going to talk about me, bet he’s going to tell her what I said, bet they’re going to say bad stuff about me.
    I’ve got to find a country to go to. I could stay here in Canada but gap-toothed joker-man Angus Smits is already here, with Dougy Mansour. Angus Smits points at my T-shirt and says ‘Found yourself a BOY yet, Zurbo?’ And Dougy Mansour covers his clackerhole and goes ‘Backs to the wall, lads’ which is the same joke he made in I.T. Jeeeeez, joke’s old, Mansour.
    Got to get away from Canada so I go down into America but there is no room: it’s pretty much solid Jacks – Jack W, Jack G, and Jack P. They are talking about something that happened to Mrs Duckworth the history teacher.
    Hear Duckworth’s car got egged? / Yeah she went completely batshit and started chasing the guy
    Most of the soccerdicks have taken over South America and they’re kind of fake-fighting each other so I don’t want to go near them.
    Crossing the ocean over to Europe but Bronte Panckhurst and the Acty Drama Chicks have taken over, looking all posey with their thick hipster-glasses.
    Mandy Karaniki and Lynn Lin (with two names the same) are up in the Arctic at the top of the rug: it’s comfy up there cos they have a wall to lean against, but there’s no room for me. Brisley Weng and the HAGZ are stretched all over Africa, owning the continent, so I go over there.
    ‘Can I squeeze in?’
    Brisley looks up at me and smiles like she’s not sure who I am; then she turns back and talks with Krissy Klang, Mae Nguy, Angie Maningas, Dante Cho and Ji-Hyun (Jack). I am too unworthy to stand close to them or talk to them and