Chapter 1

Table of contents
List of Authors, Illustrators
Parameters
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1-9
List of Authors
Jakob Cocks
Georgia Clifford-King
Charlee Harberger
Bridget Ismay
Jack Lowe
Lauren McDonald
Tori McKenzie
Olivia Mellington
Rachel Staples
Sophie Thomas
Illustrators
Bridget Ismay & Jakob Cocks & Tori McKenzie
Parameters
Primary Character 1
Cook
Primary Character 2
Taxi Driver
Non-Human Character
Super-light Airplane
Setting
Boat
Issue
Security Breach
Random words
Hectic, Fascinating, Cantankerous, Furry, Curious
Copyright
Published by Rainbow Secondary College Bowwriters Blue, Albert Street,
Rainbow, Victoria 3424
Copyright © 2014 Rainbow Secondary College Bowwriters Blue
All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the
copyright act, no part may be reproduced by and processed without written
permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Mrs Leach and Miss Morris for
organising this event.
To the children who read this book, we hope you
find it interesting and funny. We hope that above
all, it brings you happiness and joy.
Love vs. Mafia
Prologue
Sanjay and Maria aren’t your ordinary couple.
Sanjay is a handsome young man, who came to Australia from India when he
was just 19 years of age, too young to be leaving home as his mother would say,
he landed in Melbourne and got the first job he came across, as a taxi driver.
Maria is a pretty young lady, keen to get her career as a chef started, was fresh
out of Italy and school when she arrived in Australia. Her father, Mario, is a
cantankerous man and dead set against her moving to Australia because that
meant her growing up.
Chapter 1
6 years later…
“Oh my God, I can’t talk right now Sanjay, I’m at the restaurant.” Maria said,
clearly overwhelmed.
“I’m gonna stop in and grab some bangers and mash for lunch. See you soon”
Sanjay said as he hung up the Bluetooth in his taxi.
He was doing a few more rounds of Chapel, Collins and Burke streets and it
was about 12:30 and time to stop for lunch. Sanjay made his way through the
Melbourne lunch time traffic to St Kilda where Maria’s restaurant, The Aussie
Joint was located.
When Sanjay opened the restaurant door, he was greeted by a squealing and
excited Maria and an overly crowded restaurant. They hugged and kissed like it
had been days since seeing each other. As Sanjay ate, Maria daydreamed about
the day they met, as she often did. It was almost two years ago to the day, a
nice Melbourne summer day, she was working in a little hipster café in Carlton
and Sanjay walked in, looking like the handsome devil he is, wearing a leather
jacket, a light blue pair of skinny jeans and a pair of Italian leather shoes. Maria
was struck by his fashion sense, along with his electric blue eyes paired with his
dark brown skin and his dark hair, it made her heart flutter. As he sat down and
looked at the menu, she composed herself, and then she went out to take his
order.
“W-what would you like?” Maria squeaked out.
“An ice tea and a Caesar salad with extra croutons and anchovies on the side,
please” Sanjay said with a wink and a grin with a flash of white teeth.
“Coming right up” Maria said, giggling, and headed back to work.
Sanjay watched her keenly while she waited on other café-goers. She was the
most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, with her European looks. Sanjay knew he
wanted to see her again…
So he came back again the day after and the day after that for the next five days
until he got up the courage to give her his phone number. “Call me,” Sanjay
said with his trademark wink and grin that melted Maria’s heart.
“Why are you staring at me like that? You look a million miles away.”
Snapping back to reality, Maria realised that she’d been staring at Sanjay during
her flashback.
“I was only about 10 kilometres away, in actual fact” Maria smiled at him. The
boss called her back to the job as Sanjay was getting up to leave.
After a bit over a year together they finally made the easy decision to move into
Maria’s house. With a jolt, Sanjay remembered it was almost their 2 year
anniversary being together.
“Maria, are you working tomorrow evening?” Sanjay asked, mysteriously
“I am but I don’t think tomorrow will be busy, so I could probably weasel my
way out of it.” Maria said with a mischievous smile on her face.
“That would be super, my love. Also dress up for the occasion” He left her with
a kiss and a wink.
Chapter 2
Maria spent the next day getting pampered for her date with Sanjay, she
expected she’d have to look glamorous for the evening, it gave her an excuse to
go shopping and buy something that would make her feel like a movie star and
also to buy some more designer pieces like a Louis Vuitton bag, Chanel
perfume, Tiffany & Co jewellery and a pair of Dolce & Gabbana shoes. She got
her nails done and she had her haircut and styled and then finally she got her
make up done. She felt like a princess. If only daddy was here to see me Maria
thought, I’d finally make him proud of me, instead of Luigi.
Later, Sanjay came out to their lounge room in their St Kilda apartment,
anxiously pacing around; he was fiddling around with a small box from the
jewellers, opening and closing it but carefully enough to not lose the diamond
ring that was inside.
While waiting for Maria, Sanjay remembered the first time he saw her; she had
her dark hair up in a messy bun, and was wearing her favourite designer outfit
for work, her dark blue Levi jeans, paired with a Gucci top and a pair of black
and white high top Converse. She came over to his table at the café to serve
him, she smiled at him shyly, like she didn’t know she was beautiful, but that
was the exact opposite of what Sanjay was thinking.
“What are you thinking about?” Coming back to reality, Sanjay realised that
Maria was now ready to go.
“How beautiful you are.” He winked at her, mesmerised by her beauty.
Maria giggled, “Where are you taking me?”
“It’s a surprise, let’s go.” replied Sanjay, mysteriously, grabbing her hand.
Chapter 3
‘This is delicious,’ said Maria, peeking through her dark long hair.
‘It’s good to have others cook for me once in a while’ she said thinking about
how much better food tastes when someone else has cooked it. The pair had just
finished their tea of fancy chicken Carbonara and was waiting for their dessert.
The delicious smell of exotic food that filled every corner of the room was
mouth-watering. Waiters entered in and out collecting orders and serving food.
The restaurant had seemed more busy than usual so Sanjay took Maria outside,
but what Maria didn’t know was that Sanjay was planning to propose. Outside
was quite romantic, with flowers and candles scattered all around the place.
‘There must have been a party’ Maria said, and Sanjay just smirked. This made
Maria very curious. Sanjay was always a very mysterious man.
‘Dessert’ called the waiter in a French accent as he placed the magnificent art
piece of food onto the table.
‘The food looks beautiful’ said the shocked Maria. ‘
I know’ said Sanjay ‘Just like you’.
Maria smiled. At that moment Sanjay then stepped up from his chair.
‘What are you doing’ Maria said, becoming very interested.
‘You’ll find out’ said Sanjay with a wink.
Sanjay pushed his chair in and stepped closer to Maria. So close that Maria
could hear him breathing, and see sweat beginning to drip down his face. She
had never seen Sanjay look so nervous before. At that moment Sanjay knelt
down on one knee and said the magic words every woman wants to hear.
‘Will you marry me?’ he said in an attempted calm voice.
He pulled out a designer diamond ring from his pocket.
‘Of course’ Maria screamed and jumped up and down, trying not to knock over
the lit candles.
They spent the remainder of their night talking about how happy they were and
enjoying their dessert. That was until Maria realised she had to tell her father…
Chapter 4
Ever since Maria was born her father had always told her what any well
respected Italian boy would do. It was always ‘Maria, I want you to meet
Guido”, “Maria, this is Gabriel” but to Maria the only one she wanted was
Sanjay. Maria never saw anything special in those boys, and thought that calling
her dad over the phone would be the best way to tell him. It took Maria every
inch of courage inside of her to call up her dad, but she managed. She dialled
the number and waited patiently for an answer, yet the longer he took to reply
the larger her anxiety grew.
‘Hello, who is this?’ said a gruff voiced man through the phone.
‘Dad, its Maria’ she announced, sadly. ‘I have something to tell you’.
She took a big deep breath and then explained everything. She told him about
Sanjay, how she was in love with him, that she’s engaged, and that the big
wedding is to be planned soon. Maria thought her father would be upset and
would never want to talk to her again, but his reaction was very different to
that. He said that he was proud, that he would be coming to the wedding with
Luigi and that he loves her. This made Maria glad but just as she went to thank
him he hung up the phone…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in Italy, a furious father was angry at
his daughter. He didn’t want Maria to get married to that silly man because he
wanted her to have Pablo. He had pretended to be happy for her. Mario did not
just dislike Sanjay, but he hated Sanjay.
‘Luigi’ shouted Mario, to his son. ‘Grab the guns, we’re going on a holiday’.
Chapter 5
Sanjay and Maria were due to get married the next day in a massive wedding to
be held on the Spirit of Tasmania. Being on a boat the best thing was having the
fresh sea air drifting around you.
Meanwhile in Mario’s private plane, Juan, the Mexican, balsa wood, talking jet
that had luxurious leather seats, five star food coming out in 5 star silver wear,
the finest Champagne and 50 inch TVs. Mario was scheming about the
wedding, cold sweat pouring down his face. Suddenly, a flash back, as his old
job as a plumber, came back to him of him sticking his hand down a clogged
dunny. He woke up screaming. It had all been a dream. Then he ran over to his
son Luigi’s room and said “I have the master plan.” Then there was a sudden
silence.
“What is this plan you speak of?” Luigi inquired
“I shall not tell you, son, for I can’t take the risk of you being captured and
having to tell them my master plan” Mario replied
That conversation turned out to be an argument. After the argument had
finished Mario found himself thinking of his genius plan to frame Sanjay, his
master plan was to put a dead body in the back of his taxi. Then he laughed too
himself. ‘tee hee hee hee.’
Mario and Luigi would touch down 12 hours before the rest of the Mafia
because of Juan’s super flying, going at the speed of light. Mario had jet fuel
injected into the wood coated surface of Juan. Meanwhile the backup Mafia
men were flying in an old German plane full of bullet holes, the air whistling
through. The dull roar of the engine next to the big henchmen bored him and so
one of them decided to have a shoot off to see who the best aim was. The one
that decided to have the contest was a newly recruited rookie and he put the
targets up right against the cockpit wall. Several hours later, when a lot of them
had run out of bullets they stopped. One of the more senior members of the
Mafia went into the cockpit to see how long they had left on what seemed like
an extremely slow flight. When the door opened the pilot on the right of the
mobster had a bullet hole straight through the back of his head, due to the
shooting competition. He looked to his left and then the senior mobster ran out
of the cockpit and got the co-pilot to come and fly the plane.
Meanwhile Mario and Luigi were watching “Rush Hour” while sipping on red
wine when suddenly the plane hit turbulence, spilling red wine all over Mario’s
white pants. He dropped to his knees and screamed Noooooooooooooo” as the
fuel blinker went on. They made an emergency landing in Singapore. He got out
of the plane and went to the nearest fuel station and brought a Snickers and a
Slushie. Once refuelled they all piled back in and started their journey back to
the boat in St Kilda, Melbourne.
The Mafia in the rundown old cargo plane were not far behind since Mario had
to stop for fuel, but not for long. The Mafia in the cargo plane were bored, again
there was nothing to do but play some cards. Eventually, the flight had ended
for Mario and Luigi. They booked the grandest hotel in St Kilda. The next
morning, Luigi told his dad that he was meeting up with the stupid Sanjay to
have a serious chat to try and talk him out of marrying his sister. He had some
ideas of how to do it; first he thought he might threaten him but if that didn’t
work he might have to bribe him.
Luigi then sent Sanjay a text and the meeting was set.
Chapter 6
Meanwhile back at “Wedding Central”, Maria looked at the mess on the table.
Bridal magazines and the plans for what type of wedding they were to have
were spread everywhere.
“Maybe we should have a big Indian wedding with an Elephant.” Sanjay
pleaded, hoping this would be the right thing to say.
It had been a stressful time and a few arguments had already broken out.
“No, I want to have a big Italian wedding,” Maria said then started crying. “I
don’t even know,’ she said in between sobs.
Sanjay jumped up from his seat, papers flying everywhere. He ran and hugged
her.
“Maybe we should just have a small wedding, so we won’t attract any attention
and it won’t cost us too much.” he told her.
“But I’ll be able to get my dad to pay for everything” she replied.
“Leave your father out of this.” Sanjay said beginning to get angry.
“Yeah whatever I don’t care anymore,” she said storming out of the room.
Sanjay picked up a vase and flung it against the wall, his usual calm composure
forgotten. Maria flounced out of the house and slammed the door behind her.
She took to the streets browsing the stores for a dress. She even admired the
Christmas displays. She glanced quickly at her phone and saw Sanjay’s name
come up. She ignored it and put her phone, firmly back in her pocket. At last
she found the perfect shop. The famous Raffaele Ciuca Bridal and Men’s formal
wear shop. She wandered around in there for a while until a shop assistant came
over.
“What exactly are you looking for?” the shop assistant asked.
“A white, knee-length dress, suitable for this weather” Maria answered.
“I think I have the perfect dress,” replied the tanned blonde Australian.
She brought the dress to Maria to try on. It fitted perfectly and Maria
immediately fell in love with it.
“Also, there is an additional piece to that costume.” The shop assistant informed
bringing a pink fur coat to her.
“It’s so furry,” exclaimed Maria, running her smooth fingers over the soft fur.
“I’ll take it,” Maria affirmed. She paid for it and strode out of the shop.
She headed to her favourite shoe shop, Myers. She inspected the Jimmy Choo
section and chose some white sandals. Now she was feeling good about herself
so she checked her phone. She saw that Sanjay had left a message and she read
it. ‘I’m going down to the restaurant, see you there. J’ read the message. She
hurried back to the car and drove to the restaurant.
When Maria had left the house, Sanjay set about cleaning up all of the mess. He
could understand why Maria was so upset, the stress had been getting to him
too. He decided to surprise Maria, and go shop for his suit for the wedding.
Driving down the road in his ratty old taxi he saw a menswear shop. Parking the
taxi he glanced again at the shops name. It was Cosmosuits Bespoke. He’d seen
ads on TV about the items they sold there and had liked what he had seen. He
raced into the shop and checked out the suits. Then he strolled over to the bowties and checked their range. He selected a suit and a matching bow-tie then
bought some swag-a-licious sunnies.
He felt the buzz of his phone which sat in his pocket. It said the message was an
unknown number. He opened it up. The text said, ‘This is Luigi, Maria’s
brother. I would like to meet you since you are taking my sister’s hand in
marriage. I’m in Melbourne anywhere will suit me fine.’ Feeling a little hurt,
Sanjay typed back to meet up where Maria worked. ‘Sounds fine to me,’ was
the reply. Sanjay was curious. Why would they want to meet him this early? He
also thought it fascinating that Luigi had somehow got over here so quickly.
Sanjay skipped through the shop and went to his taxi. Sanjay drove down to
Maria’s shop, Aussie Joint, with the same question running through his head,
why would Luigi want to meet up?
Sanjay pulled out his phone and sent a text to Maria to tell her where he was
going.
He arrived at the restaurant and saw a black car outside. This seemed a little
unusual and suspicious to Sanjay. He strolled inside and saw Luigi with his foot
on a table, looking quite relaxed.
“You finally arrived,” Luigi snickered.
“And it’s good to see you too, Luigi,” Sanjay replied coolly. He reached out to
shake Luigi’s hand. Luigi started reaching out then pulled back.
“Have a seat,” Luigi instructed. Instead of taking the offered seat, Sanjay pulled
up a stool. “Well let’s get down to business, but first let’s order something.”
Chapter 7
“You are not and never will marry my sister.” Luigi said aggressively
“It’s my life I can live how I want! You can’t tell me how to live my life”
Sanjay rebuts
“I can if you want to keep on living it”
“How do you mean?”
“Well if you marry my sister I will kill you, if you don’t, you live.”
Their tense conversation was interrupted by Maria placing her signature bangers
and mash on the table.
While the strained meal was still going Mario and the rest of the Mafia put a
dead body which they had stolen from the morgue in the boot of Sanjay’s old
yellow taxi.
“I best be getting back to the motel to check if Mario’s doing alright, he wasn’t
feeling too well after the bumpy flight over.” Luigi said while he checked his
gold plated watch for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“Catch you in the curry!” Sanjay said enthusiastically.
“What’s that supposed to mean?’ Luigi asked confused.
“It’s the Indian version of ‘seeya in the soup’.” Sanjay replied.
“Maria!” Luigi yelled.
“Yes!” she shouted back from the kitchen.
“You’re marrying an idiot! You would have been better off with Pablo.” Was
his final response before he turned and stalked away.
“Who’s Pablo?” Sanjay questions
“Just a Jamaican banjo player I met at a Switzerland ski resort high in the alps
back in ‘09’”
Outside Luigi was reunited with Mario.
“Where are the boys?” Luigi asked
“Read this.” Mario said angrily, passing the phone to his son.
‘Sorry, Boss, got lost and landed in Broome…
Won’t be able to make it. Soz. Yours truly, the Boyz’
“Morons.” Luigi snickered
As Mario slammed down the boot, the deed was done and Luigi immediately
dialled the police on his hot pink iPhone 5c, he reported the crime and gave
them the address, leaving Sanjay as the prime suspects.
Chapter 8
Maria and Sanjay heard sirens in the distance.
“I bet you that this has something to do with Luigi.” Maria said worriedly.
They jumped into the cab and as Sanjay turned the key the engine roared to life.
The pair pulled out into the sea of traffic heading towards the harbour. Hearing
the sirens gain on them; the flashing lights began to alarm them. Maria peered
into the side mirror seeing the cop car right on their tail.
As they approached the harbour they saw the draw bridge being lifted. They
realised this was their only chance to get away. Sanjay put the pedal to the metal
as the bridge inched higher and higher. When they reached the bridge he floored
it.
They went flying through the air, over the water, past the boat gate, then with a
harsh thud they landed on the boat decking. Sanjay had accidentally kept his
foot on the gas and gone straight through the ship’s cabin. Maria and Sanjay
only took a second to get their breath back and get their adrenaline back to
normal; they had much more important things to worry about.
They swung the doors of the taxi open and stepped out into all the debris which
they had caused by their incredible landing. They ran to the ship’s railing and
saw that the cops had only just arrived at the draw bridge. They still had time.
Sanjay pulled out his hand gun and shot at the rope a few times. The rope broke
with a loud snapping noise, which would have made anyone standing around
jump out of their skin if the bullets hadn’t already caused them to. The ship
began drifting away from the docks. Maria sprinted to find the control room and
found it on the top deck. She barged through the door and started frantically
pushing any and every button. The ship started picking up the pace and she
grabbed the wheel and successfully steered the mighty ship out of the harbour
and into the beautiful blue sea.
Maria screamed when someone poked her. It was only Sanjay. ’Maria, this is
the Spirit of Tasmania!”
“OMG, It’s meant to be SJ” she squealed excitedly.
Chapter 9
They had now been on The Spirit of Tasmania for about an hour, when they
began to hear faint buzzing sounds. They didn’t think much of it as they must
have been miles away by now. The noises were getting louder though, and now
they couldn’t ignore it.
“Sanjay! Can you hear that?!” Maria exclaimed loudly.
“Quickly go and check outside!” Sanjay ordered.
They both rushed outside and looked up towards the sky. There in the sky was
none other than Juan. Things were about to get sassy. The light-weight plane
was now right over head. The spotlight was being shone down on them.
“You can run chicka, but you can’t hide.” A Mexican accent called. It was Juan
the talking plane being cheeky.
Then through a megaphone a deeper voice rambled, it was Mario.
“MY DARLING MARIA PLEASE MOVE NOW!” Mario commanded as
polite as he could. Maria did move but in front of Sanjay, she knew her dad
would try to kill her little Sannyjay but he would never try to hurt her.
Mario was furious so he threw down the rope ladder that he had prepared. Luigi
grabbed his gun and clambered down the ladder landing harshly on the deck of
the boat. Mario quickly joined his son leaving Juan to navigate the plane in the
pitch black sky.
Luigi grabbed Maria and shoved her keeping her pinned on the ground
Mario charged at innocent Sanjay. Just as Mario was about to leap at Sanjay a
massive beamed of light shined down on the ship. Dozens of heavily armed
police in protective black uniforms slid down ropes from the helicopter above.
They pointed their guns on all four of them.
“Any last words?” the policeman asked.
Juan looked cheekily down at the little people and said to Maria “I’ve seen more
carrots in the supermarket than in your diamond ring”.
THE END
LOVE VS MAFIA
Sanjay and Maria live a quiet life in Melbourne. Then
one day Maria’s Mafia father comes from Italy to
Melbourne and their lives are turned upside down. Will
their plans eventuate or be ruined forever?