by Aimee Said
Steph stands beside me. “I hope you don’t mind, Freia. I wasn’t trying to get a shot of you. You just looked like you were having such a good time, I couldn’t resist.”
“I think you look great,” says Vicky.
“I agree,” says a voice behind us. I feel myself flush. “These are excellent,” Daniel says to Steph, moving forward to take a closer look.
The four of us immediately look towards the top row where the photo of Daniel is positioned front and centre. I hold my breath until he registers it with a, “Yeah, that was a pretty crap day.”
We invite him to sit with us, but he says he’s just picking up some lasagna to heat up for dinner.
“I told Dad I can’t risk food poisoning on the night of a party.”
The others wait till he’s out of earshot before they say anything.
“So you are going to the party together!” says Siouxsie, looking pleased.
I’ve deliberately not mentioned it to anyone. For one thing, I’m not sure we’re going as anything more than two people who’d quite like to annoy Belinda, and for another, I have it in the back of my mind that I still might not actually go.
Before I can put any of this into words, Steph says, “Excellent! I’m definitely going if you’ll be there. I was worried it’d just be me and the bitches and jocks. I mean, Lisa’s nice and everything, but there’s only so long I can discuss make-up before my brain melts.”
She beams at me and it’s a done deal. Besides, if it becomes obvious that Daniel and I are Just Friends, it’ll be much less mortifying with another friend there.
So now I just have to figure out what the hell I’m going to wear.
When I look in the mirror I’m pretty satisfied. The hem of my skirt’s already fraying a bit where I shortened it with Mum’s good scissors, but it looks kind of cool like that. I’ve paired it with my stripy knee socks and sneakers so I don’t look try-hard sexy. My hair’s actually behaving itself for once so I leave it out, and put on some extra eyeliner for good measure. Okay, so I’m not exactly breaking new fashion ground, but at least I don’t look like my mum dressed me.
When I go downstairs Mum’s eyes immediately narrow in on my short skirt, but she tells me that I look “very hip”, which I assume is related in her mind to “groovy”.
Dad offers me a lift, but I tell him I’d rather walk. I’m feeling really nervous about tonight and I’m hoping the fresh air will calm me down a bit. All the people whose opinions matter most to me are coming to the final performance and I want them to be impressed. And then there’s the party. And Daniel. As I approach the hall, I practise yogic breathing and reapply my lip gloss.
Kate is standing with Alex near the stairs to the balcony. She waves and I raise my hand in reply, wondering whether I should go over and talk to her. I don’t have to think about it for long though, because Brianna appears and whispers something in her ear and the two of them rush backstage, no doubt to deal with a Belinda-related “emergency”, leaving Alex looking like a jilted groom at the altar.
“It’s strange to think that this is the last time we’ll do this,” says Daniel as we run through the final lighting check. “If you’d told me six weeks ago that I’d actually enjoy spending my spare time in this place, I’d have told you to get your head read.”
“I know exactly what you mean.”
Daniel stops what he’s doing and turns to me. “Hey, Freia,” he says, pushing his fringe away and looking into my eyes. “I, uh, I’ve been meaning to tell you … to say … well, thanks, you know, for not believing everything you heard about me.”
I look away, unable to hold his piercing blue gaze and aware that I’m about to start grinning like a loon.
“S’okay,” I mumble, and we go back to flicking our switches as if nothing’s been said.
It takes all my powers of concentration to keep my mind on the lighting script instead of going over that moment again and again, but somehow I do it and in what seems like no time at all the curtain comes down and Belinda is taking the first of her obligatory stage calls. She and Luke present Mr Wilson and Ms Burns with flowers and Mr Wilson makes a gushing speech about the vitality of youth. Then it’s all over.
When Daniel and I get down to the hall it’s still packed with people. Siouxsie and Vicky come over to congratulate us, followed by Nicky and Jay, and even Mr Naidoo gives me the thumbs up.
“The lighting was fantastic,” says Siouxsie, giving me a hug and whispering in my ear, “and you look very cool in that skirt.”
Nicky nods. “It’s not often I agree with your dad, but it really was the best thing in the show. Can I tempt you guys with a celebratory slice of mud cake?”
“Thanks anyway,” says Daniel. “But we’ve got a party to get to.”
I make a pit stop at the loos while Daniel helps Steph pack up her equipment.
When I come out of the cubicle Michael Harrigan is standing in the doorway. “Well, if it isn’t my old friend, Freia,” he says. “Where’s Skeletor tonight? I thought he’d be having his bony way with you by now.”
I freeze on the spot, unable to move or speak, and wonder why stupid Michael Harrigan always has this effect on me.
“Or have you gone lezzo with that goth chick?” he continues with a mean sneer. “Just wait till I start spreading that around.”
At that moment, something inside me snaps and before I know what’s happening a voice that sounds remarkably similar to mine, but way more sure of itself, is roaring. “The fact that I didn’t want your sleazy hands anywhere near me, Michael Harrigan, has nothing to do with whether I’m frigid or gay and everything to do with the fact that you are a grade-A dickhead. Maybe people would like you more if you stopped trying to make yourself look good by spreading malicious lies and just acted like a decent human being for once.” I don’t take my eyes off his for a moment.
He returns my stare for a few seconds before responding. “You know, I think I liked you better when you were too scared to have an opinion,” he says, heading back to his mates.
I didn’t, I think, as I march towards the front gates where my friends are waiting for me.
“I wish I could see Belinda’s face when you three walk in,” says Vicky.
Steph holds up her camera phone. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I capture any highlights.”
“And Daniel, I’m counting on you to hijack the stereo and play some real music,” says Siouxsie.
“I’ll do my best,” he says with a grin.
Siouxsie and Vicky wave us off from the school gates. We decide to walk to Belinda’s since we’re in no hurry to get there. On the way we talk about music and movies and art, and I don’t know how it happens, but halfway there I realise that Daniel’s holding my hand, and it doesn’t feel weird at all.
Freia’s Best Ever Double-Fudge Chocolate Brownies
1 block good-quality dark chocolate
¾ cup unsalted butter
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain flour
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1. Preheat the oven to 180° C.
2. In a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, melt the dark chocolate with the butter, stirring until the mixture is smooth. Make sure the bowl fits tightly over the saucepan so that no steam gets into the chocolate/butter mixture.
3. Remove the bowl from the heat and let the mixture cool until it is lukewarm.
4. Stir in the sugar and the vanilla and add the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
5. Add the salt and the flour, stirring until the mixture is just combined and then add in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour the batter into a well-buttered and floured baking pan and spread evenly.
7. Bake the mixture in the middle of the oven for 25–30 minutes or until a skewer comes out with crumbs (not goo) on it.
8. Let the mixture cool completely in the p
an on a rack and cut it into bars.
THANKS
To all the friends who encouraged and supported my first writing adventure, especially Kirstin, John and Lou who were brave enough to read the earliest drafts. To Sophie, a great agent and an amazing friend. To Virginia, Sarah and the team at Walker Books Australia, for making me feel like a Real Author even though I still have so much to learn. And to David, for everything.
Print edition first published in 2010
by Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd
Locked Bag 22, Newtown
NSW 2042 Australia
www.walkerbooks.com.au
This e-book edition published in 2013
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
Text © 2010 Aimee Said
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior written permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Said, Aimee.
Finding Freia Lockhart [electronic resource] / Aimee Said.
For secondary school age.
A823.4
ISBN: 978 1 921977 14 5 (e-PDF)
ISBN: 978 1 921977 15 2 (ePub)
ISBN: 978 1 922179 39 5 (PRC)
Cover image © Getty Images
For David.