A regency fiction heart

Words recall our second year of high school, February '70. Of everyone in the entire world, my best friend Coral petitioned me to help her find 'the words.'

At the start of this new school year, two weeks previous, Coral met a new classmate: Ruby. She quickly garnered nicknames, 'the brunette' or 'the pixie.'

Her feisty tongue flicked smooth, like her milk chocolate ponytail.

Before transferring to our high school, she attended a private all-girls Catholic college. My bestie took an instant shine to her, though Ruby evasively dodged questions about how she escaped the custody of the nuns.

From the beginning, Ruby was splashy. Her fluttering lashes lured, and she told wicked jokes.

I remember her first one around the time of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Our television sets showed grainy black-and-white violence on the streets of Belfast.

Ruby wisecracked, "A Catholic and Protestant family went to the beach. One family had a Catholic girl and the other a Protestant boy."

She waved her hands, "Suspend the belief; they could be friends!"

" Oh, so the girl's not you," pipped Josh.

Coral nudged my mate, her polite way of saying, 'Don't be rude.'

The brunette saw it.

"The rude bit is coming; big boy, don't be impatient," hurled the petite lass.

Her batting lashes recaptured Josh's interest in her joke.

"The kids lost their bathers in the water. Their parents scolded them for losing their togs. One parent said, let that be a lesson."

She wagged a finger and paused till Coral wagged one back.

"Where's the naughty part?"

Josh couldn't help himself.

Ruby did a low loser hand signal to Coral as she continued: "Well! Together, the kids said they had discovered something more important as they got out of the water."

"What?" chimed Coral, who enjoyed the joke.

Ruby finished with fake shocked hands at her mouth, "We found out — the children announced — the difference between Catholics and Protestants."

Coral giggled behind her hand.

Josh guffawed, " Wicked. Tell another one."

Ruby smug, tightening her ponytail, "Tomorrow."

The brunette glanced askance in my direction.

I hadn't reacted.

Ruby's sharp eyes, I suspected, instantly comprehended I was a watcher. 

Coral never fussed, even in her awareness.

Josh and I did boy stuff, preferring to skirt personal emotions. Games occupied us.

The petite brunette, I think, from day one when she met Coral, tried to fathom: Why a ten out of ten golden girl and the school hunk hung around a closed-mouth, on-looker?

No denying it: Ruby, upfront, presented as sassy and intelligent.

From the beginning, I believed she would unbalance our trio.

The seed of change wasn't Ruby's arrival; it came from within Coral.

She decided Josh should be her boyfriend, and my forever best friend came to me seeking the right words.

"I like Josh," Coral delivered straightforwardly during a school lunch break.

I comprehended the depth of her 'like.'

I noticed how she had decided to sit next to him in the preceding weeks and walk closer to his side. The way she flipped her hair in his presence.

I told her, "Simple, say you like him and want to be his girlfriend."

"Nope," and her locks spread in a body shake.

My best friend was a seventies modern girl with a Regency fiction heart.

"I want it memorable."

She interlaced her fingers.

I told her, "You're overthinking it."

" Yes, okay, I know I do, but help me," she implored as her green eyes lost lustre.

They hinted at a pale grey, matching her school blazer. Perhaps a cloud shadow, still her eyes doubled my determination to do better.

I suggested, "Get a love poetry anthology."

Coral appreciated the idea and bounded off to the library.

At home that night, it pricked me; I should be a better friend.

Coral had approached me with an open heart. Something changed in her thinking about Josh. I mulled the possible reasons as I chewed a nail. Perhaps my mate's teenage hunk physique. His prowess as a top sports boy. Maybe it was his knuckling down at school and conversations overheard with his parents about him becoming an engineer. Coral saw this and more in Josh.

Still, Josh was my mate; we did guy stuff.

Yet, nearing fourteen, Coral, my bestie, decided on the path of girl-boy with Josh.

My mate and I practised table tennis the following afternoon.

I used a break between games to ask what he thought about moving from being a friend to being a boyfriend.

"Do you like Coral as more than a friend?"

Josh wiped the sweat from his brow and suggestively said, "Sure! She has filled out."

"No," I blurted, "No and yes. Yes, she has blossomed. I'm asking about the Coral bit - Coral as your girlfriend."

"The reef," quipped Josh, "she can be controlling?"

We shared the pun about her name at school.

"Yes," I replied, "You and I know her words can scratch!"

I wasn't here to dis Coral.

I kept the vibe upbeat, "She likes you. She wants to be your girlfriend. Give her a go. If not for yourself, try; for me. Try for her."

I liked Coral flying high.

Josh furrowed his brow.

"She likes fishing; it's a start, but if she tells me what to wear or who can be my friends! I don't know! I'll have to head off with Ruby to annoy her!"

I scratched my chin; I couldn't envisage Josh and Ruby together.

"Okay, mate," keeping to the point and getting ready to serve, "Be her boyfriend?"

"Serve, mate."

Maybe he required thinking time.

I served.

The next day at school, I asked my bestie, "What have you got?"

She clutched a book in her hands.

"Shakespeare's sonnets," her voice lacked buzz.

Good start, I thought.

"It's not working; it's courtly and manly- not Josh."

Geez, give him some time to grow up.

She revealed what she meant.

Coral lamented, "I worry; Josh thinks of me as a fishing partner or an eight-ball buddy. He may see me as a fluttery 'Tinker Bell,' from when we celebrated his birthday party a few years ago."

She lightened, "We were cute, photographed together."

Her voice descended to complete resignation.

"He sees me as ten years old."

I never liked Coral unhappy.

I didn't tell her everyone knew she had budded into a stunning, drop-dead gorgeous teenager.

"I will find the words. I will find the place! Give me time," I assured her.

I did not know what I could do, yet something gnawed inside me to try.

An idea formulated and I couldn't pull it off by myself.

Damn, it meant asking Ruby to visit the spring for the first time.

She agreed to escort Coral; I would nudge Josh there.

Neither Coral nor Josh knew why Ruby and I bugged them separately to go to the spring after a school day. We usually reserved it for a Saturday or a mayhem splash during the school holidays.

Usually vocal on a school bench, I commenced instructing Ruby, "You must dress Coral as a nymph using her Tinker Bell wings. She keeps them in her walk-in robe. She wore them to a party with Josh years ago."

The brunette whipped her ponytail, " Well, Moorey, you do speak more than monosyllables."

Her eyelash flutter stymied my train of thought but not hers.

"Hearts and flowers," she jibed, "Hearts break, flowers wither."

I thought, a bright, sarcastic Miss.

She got flippant, "It's soppy."

I thought she will withdraw her offer of help. 

Chewing a nail, my head went down.

She clicked her fingers to gain my attention, "I will help to see the sweetie kiss her first boy. Fairy wings it is!"

The brunette rose and performed an exit shimmy.

Coral had no idea; I found out later why Ruby dressed her as a nymph and insisted she go to the spring. She participated in a brunette lark. She found Ruby instant fun from day one.

I struggled to get Josh to wear boots and a bushranger's-style coat. He threw expletives between insisting we play table tennis.

"What the hell is going on? I look dumb in this."

The coat stretched a couple of sizes too tight and was old-fashioned.

I persisted, "Trust me."

He gave me a high-five.

We had complete trust in each other back then.