I am on record for hating that film. (My review is on Rotten Tomatoes under Willanthropic.) Remember the part in the movie where Bella and her creepy vampire boyfriend dance at their school formal together? That’s when I usually throw something at the screen.
This time, when the scene came on, I welled up. Tears literally ran down my face.
Mum put a hand on my forehead. ‘Are you feeling okay? Cripes. I put too much chilli in the vegetable curry, didn’t I?’
‘I’m fine.’ I swiped roughly at my tears. Imagine getting emo over a school formal scene! It was the kind of thing the girls at Rosemead would do. ‘Hey, Mum. Can I ask you something?’
‘Of course.’
I brought my knees to my chin. ‘Why were you so keen for me to go to Rosemead?’
Mum grabbed another cushion for her back. She was probably remembering the last time we had this conversation – it had taken a while. ‘Do you really want to go through this again? You know why. You remember the problems you had at your old school.’
‘Yes, but why Rosemead?’
Mum paused. ‘I wanted to send you to a school with better resources, and a more nurturing environment –’
I snorted.
‘What?’
I was tempted to tell her about my meeting with Croon, and how she’d made it clear that Rosemead would prefer not to have me anywhere near its environment, but I knew it would upset her so I held my tongue. ‘Nothing.’
‘And I wanted you to have the opportunity of a first-rate education,’ Mum said.
‘The teachers at my old school were heaps better than the ones I have now.’
‘Maybe they were,’ she conceded. ‘But the classes were twice as big, the sports facilities consisted of one field that turned into a mud bath every time it rained, and there was no Art Department to speak of.’
I grunted. ‘Yes, but it wasn’t a snob factory like Rosemead.’
She knew this was one of Dad’s lines. ‘Your father went to a school very similar to Rosemead, you know.’
‘And he hated it.’
‘But as a result of going there, he got to become what he wanted to be.’ Mum tapped the coffee table in time with her words. ‘He got the marks for the degree he wanted, and the first job he had in the arts industry was through the father of a high school friend of his. He likes to think it was all on his own merit, but he is living his dream because of that school. Whereas only fifty per cent of my public high school year even graduated.’
‘My old school wasn’t like that,’ I said. ‘I know the facilities weren’t great, but at least I didn’t have to deal with the stuck-up bitches at Rosemead, who will get to rule the world because of the size of their family’s share portfolio.’
Mum let out a sigh. ‘You can’t blame me for trying to give you a fresh start, can you? For giving you a chance to be happy?’
Of course I couldn’t.
‘You’ve got Natasha now. And what about that new friend of yours, Amelia Westlake?’
‘Er, sure.’
‘Look, Will.’ Mum turned to me. ‘I have no doubt you’re right about the stuck-up girls at Rosemead. But they can’t all be that bad. We’ve talked about this before. You have such high expectations of people. Not everyone can have fully formed opinions about politics and current affairs like you do.’
‘Why not?’
She shook her head, smiling. ‘Give people time to grow, Will, and they’ll do the same for you.’
We sat quietly for a moment watching Twilight.
‘I’m sorry we don’t have a family share portfolio,’ she said when the next ad break came on. ‘It was remiss of us.’
Now she was making fun of me. ‘You know that’s not what I meant.’
She smiled. ‘You could still make your mark, you know. You’re a bright girl. And we may not have the type of money your classmates have, but I’d like to think your dad and I gave you a decent grounding in other ways.’
‘Your point being?’
She clasped her hands together. ‘Put it this way. You are passionate and creative, and you have a lot of knowledge to back that up. And knowledge is a form of power – a tool you can use to change the status quo. Down with capitalism and all that bullshit, right?’
I grumbled into a cushion.
We watched the end of the film and Mum switched off the television. There was the tick of the screen cooling, then silence.
While usually I’d prefer to stab myself in the eye with a cocktail umbrella than actively pursue a heart-to-heart, we were going so well I figured there was no reason to stop.
‘You know what’s always puzzled me?’ I said.
‘What?’ Mum asked.
‘What you see in Graham.’
‘Will,’ Mum said crossly. ‘What did I just say about not judging people?’
‘Sorry,’ I said, trying to look apologetic. ‘But it’s true. He’s so … I don’t know … boring, I guess, in comparison to you. It just makes no sense to me.’
Mum raised an eyebrow. ‘It doesn’t need to make sense to you. It needs to make sense to me. Anyway, I like how different Graham and I are. Our differences are what make things interesting.’
I considered this. ‘Can I ask one more thing?’ I said.
‘Could I stop you if I wanted to?’ said Mum dryly.
‘When you started seeing Graham, did you know Dad was having an affair?’
She cleared her throat.
‘You don’t have to answer me,’ I said.
‘No. I didn’t. In fact, I’m not sure that he was,’ Mum said carefully. ‘Not then. It’s hard to put a definitive date on these things. Your dad and I had been disconnected for a while.’ She watched me to see how this landed.
I bit my lip. ‘You make it all sound so … inevitable.’
‘Not everyone is meant to be with just one person for their whole life. I’m not saying it was wrong that your Dad and I got together to begin with or
