Pride & Princesses

by Summer Day

  ‘Yes, focus,’ I replied.

  ‘There’s nothing we can do right now,’ Mouche assured me.

  Jet was waiting at the pier with two snow cones when we arrived in Santa Monica. Mark was nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Hey Mouche, hi Phoebe,’ Jet smiled in the most affable manner and I could tell Mouche smiled extra wide when she noticed the t-shirt he wore advertised a band that she liked.

  ‘Mark had to go...park the car but he said he’d meet us here in ten minutes.’

  ‘Great,’ Mouche said. ‘Hey, I love your t-shirt. That’s my favourite band,’ she added, sounding just a little over eager if you ask me.

  We walked down to a sandy area reserved for ‘safe swimming’ where Jet had arranged to meet Mark. The weather had turned a little and it seemed our beach party idea might have to prematurely end before it started as the sky went from bright to cloudy all in the space of a few minutes.

  Mouche and Jet seemed to be having a great time though, splashing each other in the shallow water, as I read over my script sitting on a blanket. Mouche wore an eye-popping pink, polka dot bikini. I’d managed to find my regular navy blue leotard, which could double as a swimsuit. I’d left it in a school bag in the glove compartment of Mouche’s car. It was a pity not to wear it. Besides, as the afternoon wore on, it seemed the other half of the date wasn’t going to happen.

  I looked up from my script when some little kids on the beach kicked sand in my face. I considered the benefits of changing into my regular clothes and waiting in the car instead of being the third wheel. As Mrs Jones said, ‘being the third wheel on a date is a form of torture. I’d advise any girl being forced to witness the budding romance of her friend up close and personal...to go shopping.’

  Jet and Mouche were laughing in the shallows and although it was good to see them having so much fun, I was becoming a little exasperated. Feeling thirsty, I stood up, pulled on jeans and a t-shirt and yelled out, ‘I’ll be back in ten minutes!’ to Mouche.

  ‘What?’ Jet replied, until both he and Mouche seemed to understand.

  Go shopping. It was the one piece of Mrs Jones’ advice I maybe shouldn’t have taken. I was suddenly extra thirsty and wandered up to the boardwalk to buy a drink. As I was turning to pay, I felt a tug on my purse strings. Not just a tug, a pull and in the time it takes to scream, a small boy ran off with my bag.

  He was as fast as lightning but I was also pretty quick and followed him for what seemed like minutes, through a tiny maze of backstreets until I was thoroughly confused and the boy seemed to have disappeared. I was desperate for a phone to call my mother but I didn’t want to worry her. Besides, what could she do all the way out in Sunrise? It was darker, later, and I’d been away from the beach for at least half an hour. Mouche would be starting to get worried.

  I dusted my jeans off then sat in the curb for a few minutes. Searching for a friendly face to ask for help was probably not the best idea. There was only one business open in this particular side street, and no people. The store looked dark and cramped, but beggars can’t be choosers or so the saying goes. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty.

  Meanwhile, Mark had arrived in Santa Monica. He was late after attending the last of his ‘counselling’ sessions. Mark was required to visit a psychologist after crashing his car into a shop window two years ago and driving without a licence. No one had been hurt, but still, it was a requirement for him to be able to drive without restrictions or Mark never would have attended the ‘sessions’, he later told me. He didn’t generally discuss his problems with strangers.

  The psychologist’s office was not far from Santa Monica but he’d been stuck in traffic. Thoughts of the planned afternoon in Santa Monica were making him impatient. He really did want to get to know Phoebe and Mouche better. He wanted to introduce them to Petra as well. His sister had hardly left her room, except for school, since they’d arrived.

  When he’d asked Petra about her first day, she just burst into tears and ran up the stairs.

  ‘That bad?’ said Jet, ‘I told you those HSYL girls are nasty...’

  ‘If my aunt and uncle weren’t such snobs she could’ve just come to Sunrise with us.’ Mark was thinking about all of this when he noticed a girl who looked a lot like me, running up from Santa Monica beach after ‘a little street urchin.’ This alarmed him because he knew the area was not safe if you were by yourself. He knew it was later than expected, but he followed his instinct that all was not okay and tailed me into the laneway.

  Meanwhile, Mouche was worried and on the verge of panicking.

  Her senses were in overdrive. Although she’d never admit it to Jet, she had been having very intense dreams lately and had woken up that morning with the idea that something might go wrong during the day if she and I were separated.

  ‘I just can’t imagine where she might have gone. We should go look for her. Phoebe would never go off alone and stay away without saying goodbye,’ Mouche said, as she and Jet dried off and hastily pulled their clothes on over their damp swimsuits. Then she had a vision of a CD outlet and said, ‘hurry, we should go up to the business centre beyond Santa Monica Boulevard...’

  ‘How do you know?’

  ‘I just...remembered, Phoebe said something about...buying some CDs...’

  So, I guess you could say, by the time I entered the small music store I had three people already searching for me, which could only have been a good thing.

  There was a grungy looking man sitting behind the counter, at least ten years older than me, wearing a t-shirt advertising dog fights. He was sort of creepy so I hovered near the entrance, wondering why this store had to be the only one open for business on a Saturday.

  ‘Hi,’ he said, and looked up. Music blared out.

  ‘Hi,’ I said hesitantly. I hope he couldn’t tell just how freaked out I was about losing my purse, or rather, having it stolen from me. ‘I’m just wondering which direction the pier is? Someone...a little kid, stole my purse.’

  He looked concerned.

  ‘Hey, do you wanna use the phone or something?

  ‘Uh, okay,’ I said hesitantly. I was glad I had committed Mouche’s cell number to memory. As I took steps forward, he moved off his chair and opened the latch that led to the area behind the counter.

  ‘It’s back here.’

  Suddenly, I was wary.

  ‘Can I use your cell? I’ll pay you.’

  ‘No problem, except I don’t have one.’

  Who doesn’t have a cell? I was backing out the way I came in when I heard a child screech. I looked above me to the open loft in the upstairs section of the store. A child looked down at me, I saw his reflection on the television screen. He was playing a computer game. It was the kid that stole my purse.

  ‘That’s him! That’s the kid who has my stuff.’

  It may have been unseemly but I actually pointed towards him.

  ‘Really?’ the man said innocently, ‘He’s my nephew, I don’t think...’

  Suddenly, I had this odd feeling Mr Music Store owner was running some kind of pickpocket racket when suddenly I took a step back into another person and turned around to see the face of Mark Knightly.

  ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ he said in his rich, low voice.

  ‘That child stole my purse.’

  Quick as lightening, Mark said, ‘wait outside,’ and pushed past me to race up the stairs.

  I heard a child throwing a tantrum and about ten seconds later Mark emerged with my tote bag in his hands.

  ‘Is this what you were looking for?’

  He didn’t say anything for at least three minutes as we walked back through the alley way, me trailing along behind his manly strides.

  ‘You shouldn’t be hanging out in this area,’ he felt the need to chide me. He seemed angry.

  ‘Excuse me. It’s a free country last time I looked.’

  I would’ve said ‘thank you’ more profusely by now but he barely seemed to notice me. He was distracte
d by a text from Jet.

  ‘Everything’s okay, we have to get back to Sunrise. I’ll drop you home. Your friend is going ballistic, seems she thought you’d been kidnapped. You shouldn’t have just wandered off like that alone.’

  I was stunned by his near total lack of empathy.

  ‘Well...if you’d been where you said you were going to be, I might have gone swimming and never had my purse stolen in the first place!’

  Mark looked annoyed.

  ‘Do you want to report this? I mean, to the Police.’

  ‘What’s the point, they’ll just deny it.’

  ‘I’ll get my aunt to make an anonymous complaint to child protection. It’s probably better that way,’ Mark said.

  ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘Well...um, I’m sort of on probation and that guy had a gun under the counter...’

  We arrived back at Mouche’s house late-afternoon. Mark hardly said a word to me except, ‘put your seat belt on,’ on the way back. He was treating me like a child and I really wasn’t impressed. It was a thrill to be in his sleek car but I wasn’t sure just how much more of his conceited personality I could tolerate.

  I was relieved when we pulled up at my house. Mark deposited me in the driveway before I could say ‘thank you’. Mouche arrived about ten seconds later. Jet followed behind in his car. Mouche waved to him as we opened the gate and the boys drove off without even bothering to come inside.

  Chapter 10

  The End of The Day

  Trey was sitting on the porch helping Wednesday to paint her face with glitter and non-toxic substances when we arrived. He gave Mark a quizzical stare, but Trey had ignored me for most of my life so, I pretended not to care. The boys said a brisk, ‘see ya,’ to Mouche and me, then left as quickly as they’d arrived.

  Mouche’s brother looked up at both of us with what could only be described as amusement and derision. I mean, Trey had something of the authority figure aura about him. On this particular day, I have to tell you something I’d refrain from telling Mouche; he looked totally buff. He had his shirt off because he’d been swimming and his muscles were all big and cut...mmm. Kind of like how Mark might’ve looked without his shirt, only older.

  But Trey was angry. He had a dark, cute little cloud forming over his face and a wrinkle of exasperation between his eyes like he was ready to verbally lose it.

  ‘You guys said you would be back at one. Here.’ He deposited Wednesday’s paintbox in Mouche’s hands as if he was glad to be free of it.

  ‘Take it. I’ve decided child minding is ‘women’s work.’

  ‘So-rry. Someone’s chauvinistic brother is in a bad mood,’ Mouche added sarcastically.

  ‘Yeah, yours. I’m going out.’

  ‘Oh, it must be that skinny buck-toothed girl who also takes pre-med. She’s always coming around,’ Mouche said with a clever little sister smile. Mouche was particularly outspoken with family members and Trey was usually a safe target.

  He grabbed her sun hat and she chased her brother up the stairs but when he locked the child-proof fence behind him, Mouche screamed until he threw her hat back at her.

  Trey pretended not to notice me after that.

  Later, Mouche and I occupied Wednesday by allowing her to play with our makeup, while we compared shoes and ate gummy candy.

  When he was ready to go out, Trey left a slightly sweet smell in the hallway. As he walked past us, the air reeked of aftershave.

  ‘Wearing the latest ‘perfume for men’ are we? Oh, he’s so manly,’ Mouche teased.

  I swooned. Poor Trey just went all red and bolted out the door.

  Mouche and I both laughed and Wednesday clapped her hands again. She really was the smartest almost-three year old in the world.

  When Wednesday was born, Mouche and I applauded Mouche’s mom for her original name choice. Mrs Mouche liked to watch re-runs when she was a little girl of this classic show on television where the child was called, you guessed it, Wednesday. So, Mouche’s little sister is not just named after the day she arrived in the world. In any case, I’ve offered to babysit tonight, because Mouche has a ‘date.’

  We have planned to go for a swim. After that, I’ve promised to teach Wednesday how to become a star. Some teenagers don’t like little kids but I love hanging out with Wednesday and if I didn’t want to be an actress, I might even become a nursery school teacher.

  Mouche has her ‘practise date’ organised for this evening from 6pm to 8pm with Scott Riley who lives across the road because, according to Mrs Jones’ guide, ‘a first date can often go badly...always have your next date planned, that way you won’t fret if the first one doesn’t work out...there are plenty more fish in the sea.’

  Mouche gives her date with Jet priority so she’s practising with Scott. She suggested I also go with them to the ‘Midnight-Zoo’ (the Sunrise baby-animal zoo opens late once a year) but I don’t want to be the ‘third wheel’ again. Besides, I’ve been reading all about Africa in geography. One day I intend to go on a safari so I won’t be missing anything I can’t see in future.

  ‘I wanna come too,’ Wednesday says as she watches Mouche run the straightening iron through her hair.’

  ‘Oh, you get to stay with me, Wednesday. Lucky you...’ I say.

  ‘Lucky-me! Lucky-me!’ Wednesday says, clapping her hands. Children are so cute when they are pre-school age.

  ‘How do I look?’ Mouche says ten minutes later.

  ‘Hot.’ We both clap our hands like we are Mouche’s fan club. ‘We are so glad we’re not going with you,’ I whisper under my breath. Scott was not exactly my dream man.

  ‘Now’, I said to Wednesday after Mouche vacated, ‘I’m going to put on this DVD of Mouche and I singing songs in first grade, you’ll just love it... and we can practise all the words after we’ve watched it.’

  Of course, Wednesday sang along for about ten minutes and I danced around with her but after all the face painting exertion, she wound up asleep in the corduroy beanbag in front of the television. I moved her out of the way of the radiation and looked up to see Trey rifling through a drawer in the kitchen.

  ‘Hey Phoebe, has Mouche just left you guys here?’

  ‘Yeah, it’s okay, I promised your mom I’d wait until she comes home. My mom is coming home soon...she has a late showing.’ My mom was busy selling a house three streets away.

  ‘Okay, if you’re sure it’s alright. You are really good with her...’

  ‘Uh...thanks.’ I smile. Trey is looking super hot. What a shame he is an older man and totally annoying. He thinks he’s going to be a band manager as well as a doctor.

  ‘...So?’ I asked Trey.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Forget something?’ I said with a smile.

  ‘Oh, I’m just trying to find my car keys...’

  ‘I think they’re in the fruit bowl...’

  ‘Oh,’ he says, grinning at me all white toothed and handsome. Gosh, he’s almost as good-looking as Mark Knightly, and because he’s older, he might even be hotter.

  Mouche and I took Trey’s car for a spin once when he was studying. He didn’t even notice it was gone until after we arrived home. Trey is so busy studying and trying to promote his band that the more important things in life, like having some serious fun, might just bypass him if he’s not careful.

  ‘I love your aftershave,’ I say, really sarcastically.

  He looks so embarrassed and Wednesday stirs and mumbles, ‘after-wave’ and Trey looks uncomfortable and says, ‘see ya’ in a confused manner and hurries out the door.

  ‘If a man is hesitant around you, don’t imagine you’ve reeled him in. He may just be unsure whether or not he wants to make the first move. And a man should always make the first move. And really, girls, do you want a man who doesn’t think enough of you to make the first move?’ Oh, Mrs Robinson can just shut up for the next day or so. I totally enjoyed making Trey cringe. Honestly, my new found confidence and all those old dating guides a
re working wonders.

  As Wednesday slept, I wrote up the Boy-Rating guide with the events of the day and the plan for the following month. Mouche and I are big on planning.

  But when it came time to put pen to diary paper, all I could think to write about my ‘date’ was:

  Date with Matt the UCLA older man – possibility- didn’t occur

  Rating 3/10

  Items for the treasure chest: silver pen.

  Possible Date with Mark Knightly – My saviour!!!

  Rating 6/10 – it didn’t really happen, but he still managed to be in the right place at the right time. Yay! Thus far has revealed an arrogant nature with little regard for the feelings and schedule of others (i.e. me).