CHAPTER SEVEN
JEAN
After abut five minutes of quiet driving we arrived at The Grove. The Grove is the fanciest suburb around here. You can tell because there are huge gates that automatically open and a wall that goes all the way around it. The Grove is written in big fancy letters everywhere and hardly anything ever goes wrong here. All the houses are owned by rich people that all drive Mercedes and ladies that have never done a days work in there lives and spend all day painting their nails and seeing whose hair could sit the highest on their heads. They all lived in massive houses with perfect green lawns without a strand of brown in sight. They all had maids and butlers and people to open the doors and were extremely snooty and stuck up. Maybe I’m stereotyping a bit but it’s true. The Grove High school where all the rich kids went was clean, graffiti free and they were always in the newspaper for something good. It sort of all like a big façade really. Most of the kids in The Grove were dealers or did drugs, mostly because they are the kind of kids that can afford them. I know the year elevens and twelves smoked weed and snorted crack like there was no tomorrow and thirteen tenth graders had been expelled for smoking during school time. I know this because they were forced to come to my school. All the streets in The Grove are named after musical instruments like Saxophone Street and Accordion Avenue. Simon lived in Trombone Villas, the most expensive street in all of The Grove. Probably because it’s on the man made lake and all the houses have private jetty’s where they more there boats and yachts and spend their weekends waterskiing. He pulled up outside a modern three story mansion. It was like the kind of house that celebrities lived in on about a three acre block.
‘Here we are,’ Simon said parking the Lexus in the garage in between a red Porsche and a silver Mercedes convertible with a soft top. ‘Home sweet home,’
‘Its Beautiful,’ I said as we walked across the sprawling green grass towards the front door. A gardener was pruning rose bushes.
‘Hello Mr Breville, Ms Turner and guest,’ the old man smiled
‘Hello Trey,’ Simon nodded and I waved shyly. Jack sniffed and marched in front and slammed the front door behind her. The front door opened again and a maid stood holding it open.
‘Welcome back Mr Breville, who is your guest?’ she asked.
‘This is Layne,’ Simon said placing his hand on my shoulder
‘A friend of Miss Turner’s I presume,’
‘No Mrs Parvis Layne is a guest of mine. Jack is not allowed out of her room till the party tonight,’
‘What party?’ I asked
‘Jack is having a party tonight so she can meet new people,’
‘Oh, Caius was invited to that,’
‘Brilliant! I can meet him then,’
‘I guess,’
‘Should I Inform Mrs Turner of your arrival,’ Mrs Parvis said looking a bit confused.
‘No, it’s quite alright Mrs Parvis, just see to it that all the preparations have been made for the party,’ Simon said dismissing her.
‘Would you like a tour of the house?’ he asked grinning happily
‘Yeah sure,’ I said putting a bag down. Immediately a maid appeared and picked it up.
‘Please take it to the guest room,’ Simon said. She nodded and skipped up the stairs. ‘This is the lounge room,’ Simon said opening a pair of French doors to reveal a clean, white room with an Egyptian rug, white sofa, white book cases and a humongous plasma screen TV mounted on the wall. White shelves lined the wall holding hundreds of records that would be worth millions of dollars and in the corner a record player stood, the only object in the room that wasn’t new. Simon led me through towards a library that was full of books of every kind. A white grand Piano sat by itself in an alcove dusty and untouched. He showed me a dining room with a massive chandelier that sparkled over the centre of the antique table; the walls were covered in priceless, original paintings. The busy kitchen that was all modern with every kitchen machine imaginable. They even had a carnival food machine that made fairy floss and corn dogs and popcorn. Chefs with tall white hats were busy preparing food that I guessed was for the party.
