After the Party

                                    

                                              


                          
She had never got home so late before, she knew her parents would worry. There had been no incidents for two thousand and forty-three days, another thirty-two days and Concord would have gone the longest ever without crime. She did not want to be responsible for ruining the crime clear record, there would be talk of incompatibility and indeed, her mother was worried.
                          
'Where have you been?'

                          
'At a party'
                          
'A party? You didn't tell us, we didn't know, we could have called the police.'
                          
'You didn't did you?
                          
'No but we could have, you can't be an hour late back without worrying us Eunice.'
                          
'What's there to worry about? Nothing ever happens here.'
                          
'That's not the point' her father interrupted. 'You need to be seen to be compatible at the moment, it's not for long, you can party all you like later, but right now you need to pass your exams.'
                          
'I'll pass my exams dad, honestly when have I ever failed?'
                          
'Don't get over confident, it isn't just about knowledge this time, it's about how you behave. You need references, you need a good attitude.'
                          
'Whose party was it?' Her mother asked.
                          
'It was just someone Speck knew.'
                          
'Speck that Varo boy?'
                          
'Yes mother that Varo boy.'
                          
'Well, I hope he's worth it.' Her father said and went back to the lounge, where he poured himself a drink. His body language was tense, his face was hardening with the twitches of unsaid resentments or was it anxiety? Eunice felt unwelcome and it was true that she had some revision to do 'I'm going to my room, I've got some homework to do, happy now?'
                          
Her mother nodded and smiled, 'Of course dear' she paused and then said 'Don't stay up too late.'
                          
'Oh for God's sake mum!'
                          
It was later, much later that she started to go to bed. She had revised, revisited, rewritten her cue cards for her subject, history. She had page numbers, arguments and facts all organised, colour coded, pinned on the wall. Some of her arguments, she had to admit were not quite orthodox. She wanted to interrogate the theory of history that stated the injustice of the Survivor Wars had necessitated ultimate division in order to perpetuate peace. She was not clear why now, the world she lived in was divided into sectors so solid that there could be no movement between them, surely coexistence had to be more than simply that, more than existing with your back to the wall. 
                          
She took out her headphones and started to climb into bed, and it was then she heard them. Her parents were arguing. Their voices hissed, but occasionally the squeal of her mother's anxiety or the deep rage of her father made words detectable. This never happened.
                          
'Dangerously incompatible' was one phrase; her father spat it out like salt.
                          
'Why? Who said that? Is it that boy?'
                          
'I can't tell you who told me, it's not just that boy, it's what she says.' 
                          
Her mother mumbled something beneath a moan that Eunice couldn't hear. 
                          
'Intolerant and she...' again she couldn't hear 'quick to blame...bully.'
                          
Bully? They thought she was a bully! Tears tickled at the back of her eyes, her body shivered with an intake of breath. She pressed her ear harder to the wall. 'That play she was in, Othello, she pushed through her own ... I don't know, interpretation. ' Her father really agitated. 'It upset some of them, they felt her interpretation wasn't compatible, that they were being dragged into her ideas.'
                          
But no one had said anything to her. She had thought they liked the idea, they argued with her a bit yes, but then, then they agreed, was that bullying? Did she bully them just by being forceful? By having an opinion?
                          
'She just likes her own way, that's all she... just like the others.' Her mother's voice was louder now, but more anxious.
                          
'Maybe not just like the others, maybe not enough.' Her father seemed to be finishing the conversation, 'We'll know soon enough.'
                          
Know? Know what? She listened again and thought for one stupid moment that she could hear her mother crying, surely not.
                          
It troubled her. The party had been brilliant, it had relieved the mind-numbing boredom of her current life, but that didn't mean she did not like her life, or expect it to go well. The party had not really distracted her from her studies and everybody seemed to like Speck, including the teachers. Why was everyone so worried? It was obvious she was just having fun, just getting a bit wild, before she settled down to Horticulture Studies, with Art History as an elective. She shivered, she had been out of bed for a while. Her parents were quiet now and her father was right, two days to the exam, the final viva and the result, all on the same day. They didn't waste time, electronic marking, a personal assessment, what could go wrong? She had been assessed throughout school, she did well, she always did well. She climbed into bed; it would be over soon, she reassured herself and then her mum could stop worrying.