Free Bill Rules by Elizabeth Fensham

before you’re ready to do the test. Please go back to your group and invite Bill and Matty to join you.’
    Isabelle bristled. Her back went stiff. She did not reply to Marguerite Bell. Instead, she chose to sit on a chair in a corner of the hall all by herself. No amount of coaxing would get her to join in the activities. Bill could tell she was pretending to look bored and unconcerned. Bill knew better. Isabelle would be in a whirlwind of fury. What Marguerite had done to Isabelle was like – Bill struggled to find a comparison – a red flag to a bull? Far too mild. Maybe it was likethrowing yourself into a pit of scorpions, deadly spiders and snakes where you’d die, but only after hours of agony.
    In Bill’s short, but much-regretted friendship with Isabelle, he had seen her in her home environment. His memories of visits to her mansion were a blur of scenes – a heated indoor pool where Isabelle treated the housekeeper like a servant, ordering drinks and special meals for herself and Bill; Isabelle’s all-pink bedroom fitted out with a fridge, TV, computer and an array of the latest toys and gadgets; Isabelle getting her way in every situation, including with her socialite mother and jet-setter, businessman father; and, worst memory of all, the dinner party thrown for American business guests where Bill, in order to make up for betraying Matty, purposefully let it be known that his dad was a jailbird.
    Bill always squeezed his eyes shut when he thought of that humiliating night when Mr and Mrs Farquay-Jones suddenly excluded him and virtually threw him out into the night. And then there was school the day after the dinner party. After an atomic explosion, scientists talk about ‘fallout’ – days and days of shockingeffects from the bombing. Isabelle’s vicious gossip about Bill was like that fallout.
    Did that sweet Girl Guide leader, Marguerite, realise the dangerous thing she had done by rebuking Isabelle? For the moment at least, the snake had been de-venomed. Marguerite turned a cheerful face to everyone in the room and clapped her hands, ‘Now, Bill, how about being our patient? Who wants to save Bill’s life?’ A sea of hands went up and laughter rollicked round the hall, but it wasn’t a cruel laughter. It was the sound that young people make when they are having fun.
    Tom Grub picked up Mat and Bill at the end of the night. They sat together on the front seat of the combi. ‘And was it any better this week?’ he asked.
    â€˜Yes and no,’ said Mat.
    â€˜What’s the “yes”?’
    â€˜A whole lot of girls gave me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,’ said Bill.
    â€˜They didn’t actually put their mouths on you, but,’ said Matty.
    â€˜Nope, but my mates will enjoy hearing about it at school tomorrow,’ said Bill cheerfully.
    â€˜And what’s the “no”?’ asked Tom laughing.
    â€˜Well, Marguerite says Bill probably can’t join Guides. Not without causing a lot of fuss; she says that would be damaging for Guides and that would make her very sad. And...’
    â€˜And what?’ asked Tom.
    â€˜Isabelle Farquay-Jones. Bill and I have to put up with her five days a week at school. I don’t think I want to share the same space with her on Monday nights as well. I don’t think it’s worth fighting to get Bill into Guides. What do you think, Bill?’
    Bill could have kissed Isabelle Farquay-Jones. Life had such twists and turns. Here was this gross girl, his worst nightmare, whose presence at Guides meant he just might make his escape. He chose his words carefully, ‘Why don’t we put our plans for Girl Guides on hold and wait to see if Isabelle gets more bearable?’
    â€˜Good idea,’ said Mat.
    Bill smiled to himself. Waiting to see Isabelle change would take years. He was a free man.

For a whole month, life was as peacefully uneventful for Bill as a