Cub Reporters

by Belinda Murrell

I nearly told Mum about her shoe, guiltily hidden in the back of the cupboard, but then I didn’t want to spoil her mood. And I didn’t want her to think she’d made a huge mistake letting us have a puppy.

  ‘Nothing much,’ I fibbed. ‘She’s mostly been an angel!’

  Harry snorted loudly into his orange juice.

  It was time to get cracking on our Sassy Sisters story.

  On Wednesday afternoon after school, Cici and Charlie were ready to visit some clothing shops on the main street of Kira Cove. Cici’s plan was to charm, bribe or convince the store owners to let us borrow clothes for the photo shoot. She had made a folder that she called her lookbook, with a selection of photos that she had printed and pasted onto white cardboard at interesting angles. Ideas were scrawled down next to them.

  Meg and I decided we would come along to offer them moral support.

  The first shop we tried was a kids’ boutique called Kira Beach Babes. The window was filled with child-sized mannequins wearing the latest looks.

  A stylish woman stood behind the counter, folding a rainbow of singlet tops.

  She looked enthusiastic when we walked in. ‘Good afternoon, girls. May I help you? We have some lovely sun frocks just in from Paris.’

  She waved towards a display beside the cash register. I realised there were no price tags to be seen.

  ‘Hello,’ said Cici, with her brightest smile. ‘My name is Cecilia Lin and we are students from Kira Cove Primary. We’re organising a fashion shoot at the beach for our school newspaper on Saturday evening and we’re hoping you would lend us some clothes to photograph.’

  Cici opened her lookbook to show the women what she had in mind. I took a closer look at one of the sundresses, and spotted a tag tucked in the back of the neck. I couldn’t believe how expensive it was.

  ‘I’m afraid that won’t be possible,’ said the woman briskly, not even glancing at the lookbook. Her welcoming smile had turned rather frosty. ‘We don’t lend clothes, especially not to children and especially not for you to wear to a gathering at the beach.’

  ‘Not a gathering,’ insisted Cici. ‘It’s a fashion shoot for our school newspaper. We can let you use some of the photos for your advertising …’

  ‘Thank you all the same,’ the woman interrupted Cici. ‘Good day, girls.’

  We were clearly dismissed. The four of us bundled out of the shop.

  ‘Well, that didn’t go so well,’ said Charlie. ‘I think she thought we were planning a party and wanted to steal the clothes for that.’

  ‘On the bright side,’ I said, ‘we did say we wanted to focus on affordable fashion for kids. Those sundresses from Paris were two hundred dollars each!’

  We strolled down the cobbled main piazza of Kira Cove, which had quaint shops and tiny restaurants on each side. A group of kids were skateboarding down a side laneway. Three boys picked up their skateboards and walked towards us.

  ‘There’s Alex, Rory and Sam,’ said Meg. ‘Should we ask them now if they’ll be models for us?’

  ‘Definitely,’ said Charlie. She called out to them. ‘Hey, guys – just wondering if you might be able to help us out?’

  The boys wandered over, calling out greetings.

  ‘We were hoping you could be models for our photo shoot on Saturday for the school newspaper?’ asked Cici. She smiled at them winningly.

  Alex glanced at me, his eyebrow raised in a question. ‘Maybe. What would we need to wear?’

  Cici flipped open her lookbook to a page that featured some of the boys’ outfits she had researched.

  ‘We haven’t got the clothes yet, but here are some of the looks from the latest fashion labels,’ explained Cici.

  The models in the pictures wore huge sunglasses and perky fedora hats with their hands in their pockets. One wore chino shorts, a white shirt and a baby-blue linen jacket. The other had acid-yellow jeans, an electric-blue T-shirt and matching sneakers. The third model wore a shirt covered in pineapples and super-baggy hippy pants with bare feet.

  ‘No way,’ said Rory. ‘I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing any of that stuff!’

  ‘Me neither,’ said Alex apologetically. ‘Boys we know don’t want to dress like that.’

  ‘Who did those designers make those clothes for!’ said Sam. ‘We’d be laughed at by the whole school if we had our photo taken looking like that.’

  Cici was crushed. ‘But these photos are the latest looks from the London Fashion Show.’

  ‘Sorry, Cici,’ said Alex. ‘I don’t reckon you’ll get any of the year five boys to help you out with that one.’

  The boys jumped on their skateboards and scooted off with a quick wave goodbye.

  ‘Those boy clothes are kind of over-the-top,’ I said hesitantly to Cici.

  Cici tossed back her hair defiantly. ‘It’s fashion.’

  ‘Let’s try another shop,’ said Meg, quickly changing the subject. ‘How about that one?’

  The next store was a super-cool surf shop. All the shop assistants wore singlet tops with ripped denim shorts. They were walking around, talking and laughing, and re adjusting hangers on the displays. None of them seemed at all interested in helping us.

  The man behind the counter had long, blond hair and a goatee beard. He didn’t even try to pretend to be interested when Cici told him her spiel.

  ‘Sorry, dudes,’ he said. ‘The boss won’t let anyone borrow anything. Cash only, I’m afraid.’

  So far, our genius idea wasn’t working at all.

  We were just coming out of the surf shop when we bumped into Olivia, Sienna and Willow walking along eating ice-creams.

  ‘Hi, girls,’ they chorused.

  ‘Are you guys doing some shopping?’ asked Willow. ‘Doesn’t look like you found anything yet.’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘We’re working on our newspaper story.’

  Olivia swung towards me. ‘Are you interviewing shopkeepers?’ she asked, wrinkling her nose in derision. ‘That sounds boring.’

  We all prickled at Olivia’s words.

  ‘No, of course not,’ said Cici.

  ‘Cici had the most brilliant idea of organising a fashion shoot,’ I said quickly. ‘We’re just checking out ideas for different looks.’

  Olivia stuck out her bottom lip. ‘That sounds like an okay idea for a story,’ she agreed. ‘Our group has decided to interview an interesting local celebrity.’

  ‘Who have you chosen?’ asked Charlie. ‘Pippa and I thought about interviewing local kids or personalities.’

  ‘Not kids,’ said Olivia, curling her lip. ‘I’m going to interview Ruby Starr.’

  ‘Ruby Starr?’ shrieked Cici and Charlie together.

  ‘I adore Ruby Starr,’ said Charlie. Charlie could perform all the famous singer’s songs on the guitar.

  One of my most embarrassing experiences ever was dancing to a Ruby Starr song at school and smashing poor Alex in the face. For a while, we all thought I’d broken his nose.

  ‘Are you really going to interview Ruby Starr?’ asked Cici. ‘I’ve heard she almost never gives interviews.’

  Olivia smiled. ‘Yes, I know, but my dad knows her agent and he’s lined it up for me. Actually, I shouldn’t tell you this, but Ruby wants to do the interview at your little cafe on Friday after school.’

  ‘At my cafe?’ I asked. ‘Ruby Starr is coming to the Beach Shack?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Olivia, licking a long drip from her cookies-and-cream cone. ‘I can’t imagine why. She said the lemon cupcakes are to die for, but mine wasn’t that great yesterday. I think it was a tad overcooked.’

  I rolled my eyes at Charlie. Of course Olivia didn’t like the food at my cafe. She didn’t like anything about me.

  ‘Ruby Starr said my cupcakes are to die for?’ asked Cici, looking ecstatic. ‘She loves my cupcakes!’

  Technically they weren’t Cici’s cupcakes as my mum made them now, but I guess it was Cici’s recipe so she had good reason to be excited.

  ‘This interview is
going to be fantastic,’ said Sienna. ‘We’re so lucky that Olivia managed to organise it with Ruby. I wouldn’t be surprised if our story made the front page.’

  Cici didn’t look quite so excited at that news. ‘The front page? That would be a huge honour.’

  ‘Anyway, we’d better go,’ said Olivia, fluttering her fingers. ‘We have a looong list of questions we need to write to ask Ruby on Friday. See you tomorrow.’

  The three girls turned in a tight huddle, licking their ice-creams and discussing their burning questions for Ruby Starr.

  ‘I really want to ask her if it’s true that she’s broken up with her boyfriend Kai Stone,’ we overheard Olivia say as they walked off. ‘I heard a rumour that’s why she’s here. And Sienna, I’d love it if you could take some cool photos of me with Ruby on Friday …’

  ‘Great,’ said Cici gloomily. ‘We can’t even get a shop to lend us one outfit for our photo shoot, and Olivia’s group is going to get the front-page scoop with an exclusive interview with the most famous person on Kira Island.’

  ‘I told you we should have gone with a series of fun interviews,’ said Charlie. ‘We could inter view kids and local celebrities. I wish I’d thought of interviewing Ruby Starr.’

  I felt totally disappointed. My grand visions of our Sassy Sisters club writing fun stories and taking photographs for the school newspaper were looking more and more unlikely. I scuffed a cobblestone with frustration.

  ‘I need to get back to the boatshed,’ I said gloomily. ‘I promised Mum I’d help her clean up for closing.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Meg. ‘We’ll regroup tomorrow and think of something brilliant.’

  Meg and I walked back to the cafe together, as it was on her way home. The cafe was really quiet, so Mum said she didn’t need my help after all. She and Zoe had everything under control.

  ‘Why don’t you come to my place and I can show you how to use the camera?’ suggested Meg. ‘It would be good if you had a chance to practise before our photo shoot.’

  ‘Is that okay, Mum?’ I asked.

  ‘Sure, Pipkin,’ said Mum. ‘You can practise using my camera later, as well. It’s in the drawer under my bed.’

  Meg and I went to her yacht to fetch the camera, then we sat on the jetty while Meg gave me a lesson.

  ‘First of all, always make sure you have the strap around your neck,’ said Meg. ‘The camera’s quite heavy and you definitely don’t want to drop it!’

  The camera had a long, black lens that took super-clear shots. It could be twisted to take close-up or wide-angle photos. Luckily, it had automatic functions for focusing and shutter speed, so it was quite easy to use.

  ‘Just look through the viewfinder here,’ said Meg. ‘And really think about your shots. Try to get a balance of sky and ground. And use the zoom lens to get as close to the subject as you can.’

  I took a whole lot of practice shots with Meg helping me, then we went for a wander up the beach, taking photos of boats bobbing, crabs rolling sand balls, pelicans fishing, and kids cycling past. Meg was really encouraging and gave me tips on how to make the photos better. We took loads of shots and then deleted all the duds, which was most of them!

  Later, back at home, I borrowed Mum’s camera and took dozens of photos of adorable Summer – pouncing on a blade of grass, chasing a butterfly, running off with Bella’s toy dinosaur, collapsing asleep in her basket curled up with her favourite toy. I also snapped some shots of Papa cooking in the kitchen, and Mimi feeding the chickens.

  Harry was wearing the black top hat and magician’s cape that my dad had bought him back in London. He was practising magic tricks on the patio by the outdoor table.

  Magic was one of the things that Dad and Harry had loved doing together. Dad had taught Harry some really cool card tricks and had taken him to see some of the greatest magicians of modern times. Lately, Harry had been practising his tricks more than ever. Perhaps it made him feel closer to Dad.

  Today he was working with a clear plastic bottle filled with water and several sachets of tomato sauce that he’d borrowed from the cafe.

  ‘Hello, Master Magician,’ I said. ‘What scintillating enchantments are you creating now?’

  ‘Look, Pippa,’ said Harry, popping a sachet of sauce inside the full bottle and screwing the lid on tight. ‘With just the power of my mind I can make the tomato sauce sink.’

  Harry concentrated hard, holding the bottle with one hand. ‘Down,’ he commanded in a deep, confident voice, lowering his other hand in a downward signal. Obediently the sachet dropped to the bottom of the bottle.

  ‘Up,’ he commanded, raising his hand again. The sachet of tomato sauce bobbed to the top of the bottle. ‘Down again. Now stop!’ The sachet hovered in the middle of the bottle of water.

  ‘That’s incredible, Harry,’ I said, snapping some close-ups of his face, which was furrowed with concentration. ‘You’re getting really good at this.’

  Harry beamed at me and the sachet bobbed to the top again. ‘Thanks, Pippa,’ he replied. ‘I need to be perfect if I’m going to be a professional magician one day.’

  Looking for my next model, Bella agreed to pose so I could practise taking fashion shots, but she insisted on wearing her dinosaur tail. That worked well until Summer discovered the enticingly waving green tail and attacked. She pounced and wrestled, snapping and growling.

  I captured a series of close-ups of tubby Summer tumbling over the green tail.

  ‘Muuum,’ roared Bella, stomping her foot. ‘Summer’s eating my tail and Pippa’s not helping.’

  ‘Grrrr,’ replied Summer.

  I quickly stopped taking photographs, set the camera on the patio table and put on my firmest voice. ‘Leave it, Summer.’

  Summer shook her head from side to side ferociously, her needle-sharp teeth buried in the poor dino tail. I tried to prise her jaws apart but ended up with a sharp nip to the palm of my hand.

  ‘Ouch,’ I yelled. ‘That hurt! Naughty Summer.’ I sucked the blood from the scratches.

  Summer looked sorry for just a moment, putting her head down on her paws and gazing up at me with her big brown eyes. But then Bella’s dino tail waggled again and Summer was off.

  Mum came running out from the caravan. ‘Is everything all right, Bella-boo?’

  ‘Noooo,’ shouted Bella, grabbing her tail with both hands. ‘Let go, you wicked puppy.’

  Bella was now shaking her tail from side to side, trying to dislodge Summer. Summer, of course, thought it was all part of the wonderful game and hung on even tighter. I tried to pull Summer off but she was as slippery as a greased piglet.

  Mum laughed out loud to see our struggle.

  ‘It’s not funny,’ bellowed Bella. ‘She’s destroying my tail!’

  ‘Summer, leave it,’ said Mum in her sternest voice. At once, Summer dropped the fluffy appendage and looked up at Mum for approval, pink tongue lolling and plumed tail wagging madly. ‘Summer, come.’

  Summer raced to Mum’s foot and sat on it. ‘Good girl. That’s a perfect puppy dog.’ Mum scooped Summer up for a cuddle, kissing her on the nose. Summer wriggled her whole body in ecstasy.

  ‘Come on, Pipkin,’ said Mum. ‘Let’s go and wash that puppy bite. And Bella-boo, maybe your dinosaur tail should go away in the cupboard for a while.’

  The next morning at school, Charlie and Cici reported that they’d tried three more shops yesterday afternoon but with no luck at all. At recess, we asked Jack and Seb if they’d model for us, but they took one look at Cici’s lookbook and flatly refused.

  Thursday lunchtime was the second meeting of the Kira Cove School Newspaper Club. It was a little worrying because quite a few kids seemed to have dropped out. Perhaps their story ideas had become too difficult, just like ours.

  We all sat around on beanbags in the library. Mrs Neill started the meeting by asking everyone how their stories were going.

  Olivia, Sienna, Willow and Tash looked very pleased with themselves.
r />   ‘We’ve organised an interview with Ruby Starr on Friday afternoon,’ Olivia announced proudly.

  A murmur of excitement ran through the whole group.

  ‘Ruby Starr is one of the most popular singers with kids our age,’ said Willow. ‘She’s an absolute sensation.’

  ‘I know who Ruby Starr is,’ said Mrs Neill, suppressing a smile. ‘Well, congratulations, girls. That is an incredible scoop.’

  Olivia nodded seriously. ‘I know, Mrs Neill. Ruby never gives interviews normally, but she made a special exception for us. I probably shouldn’t tell you, but we’ll be meeting her at the Beach Shack to have afternoon tea, take some photographs and ask her a long list of questions about her life and career.’

  ‘Ruby Starr will be at the Beach Shack on Friday afternoon?’ asked Seb. ‘That story plus a huge photograph will be fantastic for our front cover.’

  The other year six kids nodded.

  Jack examined his list of stories. ‘If you get a good interview we can continue the story with more pictures on page three. Then I’ve reserved pages six and seven for the fashion shoot story, followed by the back three pages for our sport stories.’

  Olivia shot me a look of triumph. I slumped down in my beanbag.

  Great! I thought. Olivia and her team get the front page and our feature is tucked up the back before sport!

  Seb looked serious. ‘So if anyone has any bright ideas, we still need to fill three or four news pages.’

  No one seemed to have any suggestions, or perhaps it was that no one wanted to take on more work.

  Mrs Neill turned towards us. ‘And how are you girls going?’

  Charlie, Cici, Meg and I all looked at each other. We didn’t want to admit to Mrs Neill that we hadn’t made much progress.

  ‘Well,’ said Charlie. ‘We hope to do the shoot on Saturday afternoon and we’re just organising all the details.’

  ‘Like the clothes and models and accessories,’ said Cici.

  Mrs Neill nodded. ‘I like the idea of a fashion shoot but perhaps you could make it more meaningful than just photographs of clothes. Is there some way you could make the concept stronger? You do have two whole pages to fill.’