Cub Reporters

by Belinda Murrell

  ‘They’re all brilliant ideas,’ I said. ‘But we need to decide if we want to work together as a team on one story, or go our separate ways and do our own stories.’

  Everyone thought for a few moments. Meg still had her arms crossed, looking very stubborn.

  ‘The fashion shoot will be too hard to do on my own,’ admitted Cici. ‘We need to source lots of different clothes and I need you all to model. Plus we’d need a photographer, a writer, a layout designer and a stylist so it means we can all do something that we’re good at.’

  ‘It would be great to do something together,’ said Charlie. ‘It could be a Sassy Sisters club project.’

  ‘Well, I like the idea of interviewing kids or someone interesting from the community,’ I said. ‘But I think the two best ideas for the first issue are the fashion shoot or Meg’s environment story. So why don’t we vote?’

  Meg, of course, voted for wildlife. Cici and Charlie voted for fashion. So it was up to me to make the deciding vote.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Meg,’ I said, looking at her with sympathy. ‘I’m voting for the fashion shoot. I love your wildlife story idea, but perhaps we can do it next time? I really want to do this together as a team.’

  Meg looked upset for a moment. Charlie gave her a hug.

  ‘Cheer up, Megs,’ said Cici. ‘You can’t be a wildlife warrior all the time. It’ll be fun, I promise.’

  Meg sighed, then she smiled at us all. ‘Of course I want to do the story with you guys. We wouldn’t be the Sassy Sisters without me!’

  I was happy that Meg had decided to come around. I hated it when we squabbled over silly stuff.

  Just then, the bell rang for the end of lunch.

  ‘We didn’t get very far,’ said Charlie.

  ‘But at least we know what we’re going to do now,’ I said.

  ‘How about we have a club meeting after school this afternoon?’ suggested Cici. ‘At the Beach Shack?’

  My heart warmed. ‘Absolutely.’

  As planned, Charlie, Meg, Cici and I had our Sassy Sisters club meeting after school to organise our newspaper story.

  For once I didn’t have to walk my brother and sister to the boatshed. Harry was practising his new passion, playing touch football in the playground. In London, he’d loved football, and now that he’d joined the school touch football team he was keen to hone his skills. Bella had been picked up by one of her friends’ parents to play. So it was just the four of us, walking together to the Beach Shack.

  When we arrived the cafe was buzzing with people. The tables and chairs out on the jetty were also filled with cheerful customers. Zoe, our red-haired barista, waved to us from behind the coffee machine as she made a series of lattes, espressos and cappuccinos with love hearts, butterflies and flowers in the froth. Zoe was a whiz at latte art. It was a lot like doodling only using coffee and milk.

  A group of kids were there in their school uniforms ordering afternoon tea. I was thrilled to see that the cupcakes, made to Cici’s family recipe, were super-popular. Our specialties were zingy lemon, mango-and-coconut, chocaholic and pink vanilla.

  My personal favourite were Cici’s pupcakes, which were decorated with the cutest puppy faces, but they were far too much work for the everyday cafe menu. We also sold mini berry cheesecakes, French lemon tartlets, and choc-chunk cookies. Of course, Mum made sure there were lots of healthy options too, like tropical-fruit kebabs, frozen yoghurt lollipops, and a mezze plate with hummus and veggie sticks.

  Mum was serving behind the counter, making up a three-tiered stand with a mixture of different cupcakes, fresh strawberries and chicken-and-lettuce finger sandwiches. The Beach Shack high tea special had proven to be a hit.

  ‘Hello, girls,’ said Mum as she saw us come in. ‘Why don’t you take a seat wherever you can find one and I’ll get you something to eat.’

  My favourite spot was a little round table in the corner near the window with views out to sea. Zoe always made sure it was kept free for us to use after school. We sat down and began talking about Cici’s idea for the fashion shoot. She had printed off some beachy photos from different websites to give us some ideas.

  In a couple of minutes, Zoe came over with a tray laden with four creamy, ice-cold mango smoothies, a plate of fruit kebabs and four zingy lemon cupcakes.

  ‘Thanks so much, Zoe,’ we all chorused.

  ‘Pleasure, girls. Lovely to see you,’ said Zoe. She pushed an escaped red curl back behind her ear.

  ‘How’s your new job going, Zoe?’ Meg asked.

  Zoe beamed. ‘Fantastic. I love working here with Pippa’s mum. The customers are chatty and friendly, and I get to go for a swim or a surf in my breaks. I’ve even joined the Kira surf lifesaving club and started doing volunteer patrols on Tuesday and Sunday afternoons. It’s so much fun.’

  Zoe was staying at Kira Island for a working holiday before she started university. She was bright and bubbly, and the customers loved her. She had even managed to charm our crotchety neighbour, Mrs Beecham. It had taken me a lot longer to get on Mrs B’s good side.

  I saw Mrs Beecham sitting at a nearby table, sipping tea with one of the other regulars. I waved to her and she waved back with a friendly smile.

  Zoe peered at the photos that Cici had spread out over the table. ‘Love those clothes, Cici. Are they your mum’s designs?’ There was floral beachwear, T-shirts with cut-off jeans, sporting gear and tutu-inspired party dresses.

  ‘No,’ said Cici. ‘These are some ideas for a fashion photo shoot we’re planning for our school newspaper. We want lots of gorgeous summer styles for boys and girls.’

  ‘Sounds like fun,’ said Zoe. ‘Let me know if I can help in any way.’

  Zoe bustled off to look after the next customers. Meg, Cici and I helped ourselves to a fruit kebab – a bamboo skewer of pineapple, banana, strawberries and mango. Charlie broke off a piece of cake and nibbled it.

  ‘Your mum is really getting the hang of baking these cupcakes,’ said Charlie.

  ‘Do you remember the first afternoon tea we had here before the Beach Shack opened?’ said Cici.

  I grimaced. ‘How could I forget? Green gloop and sawdust muffins,’ I joked. Mum had made, of all things, a seaweed and broccoli smoothie for us to try. It was so terrible we fed it all to the fish!

  The mango smoothies, however, were delicious and my new favourite afternoon treat.

  ‘How’s the adorable Summer, Pippa?’ asked Charlie. ‘I can’t wait to see her again.’

  I shuddered theatrically. ‘You mean wicked Summer? She’s absolutely loveable. But she is so naughty! I haven’t had the heart to tell Mum that Summer ate one of her favourite shoes.’

  ‘Oh noooo,’ said Cici, her dark eyes twinkling. ‘Not the shoes! Your mum won’t be happy about that. When can you bring her out for walks?’

  ‘Not until she’s had all her injections,’ I explained. ‘She’s ten weeks old now so another few weeks.’

  ‘I can’t wait to introduce her to Zorro and Bandit,’ said Charlie. ‘We can take them to the park to rumble together.’

  Charlie loves dogs and animals of all kinds. Her family have lots of pets, including two donkeys called Archie and Clementine, five chickens, a cat called Trixie, and a lamb called Maisie. But her favourites are her two black-and-white border collies. Both dogs have black masks across their eyes that make them look a bit like robbers, which is why they are called Bandit and Zorro.

  ‘Muffin would love that too,’ added Cici. Her dog is a little puggle – half beagle, half pug and very cute. ‘They can form their own little pooch club.’

  ‘I don’t think Neptune would enjoy that club very much,’ said Meg. ‘He hates dogs.’

  I giggled at the thought of Meg’s aloof ship’s cat trying to make friends with all the wild and playful dogs bounding in the park.

  ‘Maybe having some doggy friends will teach Summer some manners,’ I said. ‘I’m trying to teach her to behave but she’s not very obedient yet.’r />
  ‘I’ll help you train her,’ offered Charlie. ‘I can come around one afternoon and show you some tricks.’

  ‘That would be perfect,’ I said. ‘Imagine how thrilled Mum would be if I could teach Summer not to chew everything in sight!’

  ‘Look who’s here,’ said Cici, glancing over to the counter. There was a group of girls from school – Willow, Sienna, Tash and Olivia. All the girls had come to the launch party two weeks ago. Willow and Sienna had been to the cafe a few times now. Willow’s mum was talking to my mum.

  I felt proud to see so many kids from school visiting our cafe. This was exactly what we’d hoped for. It looked like the cafe was doing well.

  Most of the girls were chatting and laughing. Olivia stared around taking in the atmosphere.

  To me the cafe looked gorgeous. There was a bookshop area with comfy sofas and armchairs. A long window seat ran along the left wall, with feather cushions and stunning views of the cove. All the little tables were crowded with customers chatting over their drinks, so too was the long refectory table that ran down the centre of the room.

  Mum decorated the space with dozens of iron buckets overflowing with bunches of fresh flowers every week. Today there was a profusion of hot-pink and orange with a pop of summery blue.

  I remembered back to when I first arrived at Kira Cove School. Olivia had told me that her father said that some idiot had paid a ridiculous amount of money for a falling-down old shack. In a funny way, this was what inspired the name the Beach Shack. I wonder what she’d think if she knew?

  Willow’s mum led the group of girls past our table. They were heading outside to the jetty where there were more tables and chairs. We all waved and called out hellos.

  I noticed that Cici quickly packed up her collection of photos and slid them away in her bag.

  Willow paused beside us, looking curious. The others crowded around behind her.

  ‘Are you guys working on your story for the newspaper?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said Charlie. ‘We’re going to –’

  Cici quickly interrupted her. ‘We’re still trying to decide what we’re going to do.’

  ‘That’s what we’re doing here too,’ said Sienna. ‘A brainstorming session!’

  ‘Jack said that they’re looking for a really catchy story to go on the front page with a big photo,’ added Olivia. ‘Something really different or unusual. That’s our mission!’

  I felt a prickle of doubt. We hadn’t thought of writing a story especially for the front cover. Was the photo shoot idea catchy enough? Probably not. Could we make it more interesting?

  ‘Have you come up with any ideas yet?’ asked Meg.

  Olivia, Willow, Sienna and Tash grinned as though they were hiding a special secret.

  ‘You bet,’ said Tash, sounding mysterious. ‘Something really cool.’

  ‘We’ve come up with an absolutely amazing idea,’ said Olivia. Her blue eyes sparkled with excitement. ‘But we can’t say anything until it’s definite. We don’t want to jinx it.’

  ‘Can’t you give us even a tiny hint?’ asked Cici. ‘Otherwise we might be working on the same idea.’

  ‘I doubt that,’ said Olivia, rather smugly, I thought. ‘We’ll let you know once it’s all confirmed.’

  Charlie, Meg, Cici and I looked at each other in frustration. I was burning up with curiosity. What could those girls be planning?

  ‘It sounds exciting,’ I said. ‘Good luck with it.’

  The girls said goodbye and hurried outside, almost skipping with anticipation.

  ‘I wonder what brilliant idea they’ve come up with?’ I asked. I must admit I felt just a twinge of jealousy.

  ‘Don’t worry about their story,’ said Charlie. ‘Let’s get on with ours! We voted to do the photo shoot so let’s get planning.’

  ‘What did you have in mind, Cici?’ asked Meg, picking up her pen.

  Cici leaned forward, her face alight with enthusiasm. ‘I want to show a range of beautiful but affordable clothes for kids our age, both girls and boys. Everything from swim and beachwear, sports and casual gear, to the hottest new looks for parties, with ideas on how to style the look.’

  ‘That sounds great,’ said Meg. ‘I hate looking at magazines and reading that the T-shirt I like costs a small fortune.’

  ‘How will we get the clothes?’ I asked. ‘Will kids just wear their own things from home?’

  Cici shook her head, her dark hair swinging. ‘When Mum worked as a stylist on a fashion magazine, they would borrow the clothes from different stores and return them afterwards. So I’m sure the little shops around town would be happy to lend us some things if we’re careful with them.’

  Meg and I scribbled down notes.

  ‘So we take the photos at the beach,’ Charlie said. ‘But we need to make the photos really beautiful.’

  ‘Yes, and sassy,’ said Cici. ‘We don’t want stiff, awkward shots of kids standing still like in the department store catalogue. We should take photos of kids doing stuff they really love doing. Like Charlie being a boho-mermaid playing her guitar on the rocks. Or Meg looking sporty and gorgeous with her surfboard.’

  ‘Or Pippa cuddling her adorable puppy, all wild-haired and gypsy-like,’ added Charlie. ‘And Cici bossing all of us around!’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Cici with a cheeky grin. ‘Our very favourite activities!’

  This was more like it. This was fun. The Sassy Sisters working together as a team.

  ‘I can borrow my mum’s camera to take the photos,’ said Meg, jotting herself a reminder. ‘I’m sure she won’t mind.’

  ‘And we need someone else to take photos as well, so that Meg can be in some of them,’ said Cici. ‘The more we have the better.’

  ‘I can try if Meg shows me what to do,’ I said. ‘I might be able to borrow Mum’s camera too.’ I glanced over to where Mum was working behind the counter.

  ‘Easy,’ said Meg. ‘I’ll teach you.’

  So the four of us set to work on planning our story and making lists of what we needed to do. Meg and Charlie searched for photos on the internet. Cici made a list of shops on the island that we could ask. I jotted down ideas as we came up with them.

  This is what my notes looked like:

  We had a plan. Now we just had to make it happen.

  ‘How’s upstairs coming along?’ asked Cici. The girls, especially Cici, all loved checking on the progress of our renovation. It was like magic, watching the dusty, tumbledown old shack being transformed.

  Our builders, Jason, Dan and Miguel, had managed to get the downstairs of the boatshed finished in time for the cafe to open two weeks ago, but they still had loads of work to do to get the upper storey finished. Upstairs was going to be where we would eventually live.

  ‘Why don’t we take a look?’ I suggested.

  We all cleared our notebooks and Mum’s laptop off the table and carried our glasses and plates to the kitchen bench to save Zoe from having to do it. Then we climbed the stairs.

  The huge old attic had been divided into rooms to make an apartment for us. At first, I was worried that Mum was going to make us live in a dusty attic with holes in the floor. But all the rooms had walls now and you could almost see how the finished flat would look.

  At one end, the living area and kitchen had floor-to-ceiling glass doors, which opened onto a balcony with glorious views of the cove. At the other end were Bella and Harry’s rooms, which faced towards the shore and the olive-green mountains behind the village. In the middle were my room and Mum’s room. I led the girls into the living room, where the builders were just packing up their tools.

  ‘Hello, girls,’ said Dan, as he took his tool belt off and put it away in a large chest. ‘Did you bring any of those delicious cupcakes up with you?’

  ‘No, sorry,’ I said, feeling rather guilty. All three of the builders loved sweet treats and they had worked so hard to help us that we liked to spoil them. ‘I can run down and fetch something if y
ou like?’

  Jason pretended to cuff Dan over the head. ‘That’s all right, Pippa. Don’t you dare! Dan’s just trying to trick you. Your mum brought us up some choc-chunk cookies only an hour ago.’

  Dan laughed. ‘Well, it was worth a try.’

  The girls and I looked around to see what had been done since we were last up here. The builders were working on framing up some cupboards in the kitchen.

  ‘Have you come to check on our progress?’ asked Jason. We all nodded. ‘Well, we’ve been working mostly in here this week, but there’s also a little surprise in your bedroom that you might want to check out.’

  ‘What have you done in my room?’ I asked.

  Jason picked up his backpack, with a wide grin. ‘It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you, would it? See you later, girls. Enjoy.’

  Miguel and Dan said goodbye as well and they all headed off.

  The girls and I rushed into my new bedroom. It was small and empty, but it had a wide window with views up the beach and out to sea. It took me a moment to work out what was different. Then I saw it beside the window.

  I pulled open the door of my new cupboard. There weren’t any shelves or drawers inside yet, but there was the narrow ladder that led up to my secret tower room.

  ‘They’ve built some cupboards,’ I said, brimming with enthusiasm. ‘And they’ve hidden the ladder inside!’

  ‘No one will know how to get up there,’ said Charlie with glee. ‘Unless you tell them.’

  Of course, we had to climb up immediately.

  The tower room was perfectly round with views in all directions. It was still empty and dirty, with salt-smeared windows and cobwebs in the corners. But eventually it would be a secret space where our club could meet and hang out.

  ‘How are you going to decorate up here?’ asked Cici. We all looked around.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘I want to make it really special, but I’m not sure exactly how.’

  ‘It already is special,’ said Meg.