Michi shakes her head. ‘No,’ she says, her dark eyes dreamy. ‘But he did text.’ She holds up her phone so I can see the screen. ‘Want to see what he said?’
Is she serious? I open my locker door and start pulling out books for first class. ‘No, thanks. It’s too early in the day for mushy stuff.’
Ever since Michi and Ben got together after Amira’s party last term, all I ever hear from her is stuff about Ben. Funny things Ben does. Cute things Ben says. Ben’s favourite music track and least favourite thick shake flavour. If Michi had to go on one of those quiz shows with Ben as her ‘special subject’, she’d win it, no worries.
Michi reads the message again, then snaps her phone shut. ‘It’s not mushy.’ She grins. ‘Well, not very. He only put two kisses. I normally get heaps more than that.’
‘Maybe his bus turned up halfway through the text,’ I tell her. Well, it might be true.
‘Oh, for sure,’ says Michi, her eyes going dreamy again.
All around us, kids are slamming their lockers shut and hurrying off down the corridor. I poke Michi’s arm. ‘You going to get your books for class? First bell went ages ago.’
‘In a minute,’ Michi says, opening her phone again so she can text Ben back.
It’s like aliens have sent down a beam and transported cool and independent Michi back to their planet, and replaced her with love-sick puppy Michi.
I swipe the phone out of her hand before Turnip Turner, the duty teacher, sees her and confiscates it. ‘Come on,’ I tell her. ‘You’ll probably see Ben at recess anyway. Can’t you tell him then?’
Michi gives me a goofy smile. ‘I guess,’ she says, grabbing a couple of folders from her locker. ‘Hey, did I tell you what Ben said on the weekend? About how he thinks that –’
‘Yes, you did tell me,’ I sigh, dodging streams of students as we weave our way along the corridors towards Room 19. ‘On the phone yesterday afternoon, and then again when you messaged me last night –’
‘Yes, but did I tell you the most important part?’ Michi babbles on. ‘About what’s going to happen when we –’
‘Michi,’ I plead. ‘Tell me about it later, ’kay? I’m trying to get to class here!’
She shoots me an apologetic grin. ‘Yeah, sorry, Mia. I know I get a bit carried away sometimes. It’s just that Ben is so –’
‘Lovely,’ I say, finishing the sentence for her. And he is lovely, too. From what Michi tells me, he’s everything you could want in a boyfriend. Funny. Kind. Thoughtful. Not to mention a definite hottie, in a quiet kind of way. Not all obvious about it, like some of the guys Alysha drools over, or the actors on shows like Bailey’s Beach.
I just wish he didn’t take up quite so much of Michi’s headspace. Or time. Time she could have been spending with me. A few weeks ago she cancelled a trip to this cool vintage clothes market we’d been planning to go to for ages. All because Ben asked her to go the movies that day. What was I supposed to say? No, you can’t go with him? And then when we actually did go to the market last week, all she wanted to do was look at clothes for Ben.
Second bell rings just as we arrive at our classroom. We hurry inside and over to our usual place near the window. We’ve been sitting here ever since the big fall-out between Michi and Amira last term. They made up after a few weeks of cold looks and awkward moments, but not enough for us all to sit together like we used to. Guess that’s going to take a while. And the fact that Michi did end up going out with Amira’s crush, Ben, hasn’t helped, either. Just as well Amira has found herself a new crush to stress over.
Ms Hayes, our English teacher, clears her throat. ‘Welcome back, everyone. I hope you all had a good break over the holidays. Anyone do anything or go anywhere exciting?’
There’s a chorus of ‘No, miss,’ and ‘Boring, miss’.
She smiles. ‘Just as well we’ve all got next week’s camp to look forward to then, isn’t it?’
Jane sticks up her hand. ‘Why do we have to go on an outdoor adventure camp?’ she whines.
‘Yeah,’ says Jess. ‘It’s the middle of winter. We’ll freeze our bums off. Why can’t we go somewhere warm, like the Gold Coast?’
‘Fiji,’ calls out Liam.
‘Hawaii,’ snorts Harry. ‘I want to see hula girls.’
Typical. Those guys are such morons. I think it’s going to be awesome. Who cares if it’s cold?
Ms Hayes holds up her hands. ‘Okay, that’s enough, settle down. Wildwood is a fantastic place and you’ll all have a great time. Now, before we get down to today’s lesson, any last questions about the camp?’
A forest of arms shoots into the air.
‘Yes, Tara?’
‘Are we allowed to bring our mobiles with us?’
‘Definitely no personal phones allowed on camp. And in case you’re thinking of sneaking one in anyway, there’s no point. There’s no reception in that part of the mountains.’
‘But how am I going to talk to my friends?’ asks Tara, horrified.
‘I’m sure you’ll cope,’ Hazy tells her. ‘There’s a public phone in the rec hut. Anyway, this is a good chance for you to make some new friends from the other two classes that are coming.’
There’s a rush of questions then. Which other teachers are definitely coming? Who’s doing the catering? Will hamburgers and pizza be on the menu? Who chooses which kids will be in which cabin? What time will lights-out be?
Michi turns to me, her dark eyes huge. ‘How am I going to last for a whole week without talking to Ben?’ she whispers. ‘I won’t even be able to text him.’
‘Come on, Michi. You’ll survive,’ I tell her.
‘No, I won’t,’ she says. ‘I won’t have anyone to talk to!’
‘But I’ll be there,’ I tell her. ‘And Lexi, and Leesh. It’ll be fun.’
Plus it will give us some time to hang out together, like we used to. Leesh seems to be spending more and more time with Paige and Jayde these days.
Michi doesn’t look convinced. ‘But I want Ben to be there, too,’ she sighs. ‘You don’t understand.’
Maybe I don’t. I’ve never had a boyfriend. Well, not a proper one that I’ve officially ‘gone out’ with. Okay, I’ve had a few crushes here and there, and there’s this Year 8 guy from another school who I chat to at the bus stop in the mornings some days. I think he likes me. A bit. But Lexi’s always there, and I’m scared to say too much to him in case she gets all silly about us being ‘boyfriend and girlfriend’, and scares him off. And it’s not like we’ve ever gone to a movie or we text each other like Ben and Michi do. So no, I probably don’t understand what Michi means when she says she won’t be able to survive without any contact with Ben. But that doesn’t mean I have to agree with her.
Chapter 2
monday recess
Lexi is already waiting for us at our special place under the peppercorn tree.
‘Hi, you two,’ she says, crunching into an apple. ‘So, did Hazy talk about the camp this morning?’
‘Sure did,’ I say, plonking myself down on the bench beside her. ‘I’m really looking forward to it.’
‘Me too,’ says Lexi. ‘Ertie reckons we’re going to do kayaking and rope courses and all kinds of cool stuff like that.’
Michi pulls a face. ‘I’m not.’
Lexi stares at her. ‘What? You’re not going kayaking? But it’s so much fun.’
Michi shakes her head. ‘Not looking forward to it. The camp. Any of it.’
‘Not even the concert?’ Lexi asks. ‘Ertie says we’re having a concert on the last night. We all have to get into groups and put on a skit or something. I thought you loved that kind of stuff.’
‘Yeah, normally I –’ Michi begins, then breaks off and stares into the distance sadly.
‘Michi’s worried about the no-mobile-phones rule,’ I explain to Lexi.
‘Yeah, well, who isn’t?’ Lexi says. ‘But you guys are about the only people who call or text me anyway – along with Leesh, of
course – and you’ll all be right there on camp with me, twenty-four seven.’ She stops for a moment and turns to Michi. ‘Are you worried about missing your family? I know you’re really close with your mum.’
Michi shakes her head again, obviously too choked up to speak.
‘It’s Ben,’ I say, giving Michi’s shoulders a squeeze. ‘She doesn’t know how she’s going to get through a whole week without talking to him, do you, Mich?’
Michi nods, her eyes huge.
Lexi laughs. ‘Oh yeah, Ben. I forgot about him.’ She peers around the school grounds. ‘Where is Wonderboy, anyway? Doesn’t he normally come over to say hi about now?’
Michi doesn’t answer. I can see she’s dying to turn on her phone, in case there’s a message there from Ben, explaining why he hasn’t shown up. Or to explain why he only put two kisses at the end of his last text. She hasn’t got a hope of getting through next week without her mobile.
I see Alysha near the canteen with Paige and Jayde and wave her over. She saunters across then squeezes in between Lexi and me.
‘No Ben today?’ she asks Michi, who shakes her head. ‘Gone off you already, has he?’ she laughs.
I glare at her. Trust Alysha to put her big foot in it.
‘What?!’ she says.
I try to tell her with my eyes to shut up, but she ignores me and keeps twittering on.
‘Well, when he does show up, ask him how his mate Nick’s doing, okay? That guy is all kinds of cute.’
‘Sure,’ Michi says quietly. She checks her watch for the tenth time since we sat down. ‘He’ll probably be here in a minute or so. You can ask him yourself.’
Alysha wriggles her bum around on the bench, then pulls her jumper sleeves down over her hands. ‘It is freezing out here,’ she says. ‘I reckon we should shift somewhere warmer now it’s winter.’
‘It’ll be worse up in the mountains,’ Lexi says. ‘Hey, what are you guys taking to wear?’
I shrug. ‘Just trackies, I guess. And T-shirts and hoodies and thick socks and my ugg boots. And that coat I got at the market last week. It’s awesome. Really warm.’
I sneak a look over at Michi’s face, to see whether she remembers how excited I was when I found the coat. But she’s staring out across the quadrangle, her eyes endlessly searching the groups of students for Ben.
‘How about you, Leesh?’ I ask. ‘You bringing your trackies too?’
Alysha [horrified]: Trackies? No way. They make my bum look big.
Lexi [rolling her eyes]: Your bum is tiny, Leesh. Nothing could make it look big.
Alysha: Really? You think so?
Me: Miniscule. A nanobum.
Alysha [smoothing her jumper down over her hips]: That’s not what Paige reckons. She says I’d make a good contestant on Fat Wars.
Lexi: Yeah, and I bet if Paige told you to jump in the lake, you’d do that too.
Alysha: What’s that supposed to mean?
Lexi: What it sounds like. Princess Paige says jump, and you ask how high.
Alysha: Mia, tell her to shut up! I so do not do what Paige tells me to do.
Me: We-ell … sometimes you do … Alysha: Like when, for instance?
Lexi: Like, every minute of the freaking day? You are so Paige and Jayde’s little pet and you just can’t see it.
Alysha [sarcastic]: Oh, really?
Lexi [facing her down]: Yeah. Really.
She turns her back on Alysha and stares off into the distance. Alysha pulls a face then turns her back on Lexi.
Great. Just what I need. Yet another fight between Lexi and Leesh to sort out.
Me [jolly voice]: Come on, guys. Cheer up. Let’s talk about camp.
Deathly silence.
Me: Hey, do you reckon we’ll all get put in the same cabin? That’d be great, wouldn’t it? It’ll be like an extended sleepover. We can each bring a whole lot of chocolate, and have midnight feasts every night. Yeah?
More silence.
Me: And we definitely have to do the concert skit together, whether we’re in the same cabin or not. Mr C says there’s a trophy for the best performance each year. Hey, how about we all get together at my place after school today, and start coming up with some ideas? That way we could blitz everyone else cos we’ll have had more time to practise.
Still more silence. Maybe a grunt from Lexi. Or was it a sigh? Not a happy sound, anyway.
Me: Honestly, you guys are no fun. At all. Maybe I’ll just do the whole skit thing on my own. You’d all just hold me back. Who’d vote for a bunch of misery gutses anyway?
But I’m wasting my time trying to get a reaction out of them. Any of them. They’re all too caught up in their own little problems. Michi’s freaking out big time because she hasn’t heard from her boyfriend for a whole hour and a half. And Lexi is still stressing over the fact that Alysha would rather spend time with the shiny girls than her. And Alysha thinks she’s fat. Fat. Ha!
Hopeless. The lot of them.
But they’re my friends. And I love them.
I try again.
Me: Hey, Lexi. Remember camp last year? When we short-sheeted some of the guy’s beds?
More silence.
Me: And … and put itching powder in Mr Doyle’s sleeping bag?
Lexi: Yeah, that was kind of funny … But we’re a bit over that sort of stuff now, aren’t we?
Alysha [rolling her eyes]: Yeah. Bit primary school, don’t you think, Mia?
She’s probably right. But at least I’ve got them agreeing about something for once. Now, if I can just keep them talking … Me: Hey! Check out that guy over there.
Alysha [snapping to attention]: Which guy?
Me: That guy with his collar turned up. Talking to the guy with the arm cast on.
Alysha: The guy with the dark hair? Cute.
Me: So how many points on the pashability scale? Alysha: Seven?
Lexi: No way! He’s a five, tops.
Alysha: Like you’d know.
Lexi [play-thumping Alysha’s arm]: Shut up!
Alysha: Oww!
Me: I’m with you, Lexi. What about his mate? Michi?
Michi: Whuh? Did I miss something?
Me: Forget it. Leesh?
Alysha: Hmm … nice eyes, nice bum … Six point five?
Me: Maybe. That arm cast would put me off, though.
Lexi: How you do mean?
Me [giggling]: Well, it would be all scratchy and get in the way when you went in for the hug.
Lexi: Mia!
Alysha: Yeah, since when did you start hugging guys?
Michi [blinking]: You hugged a guy? When were you going to tell me?!
Yes! Finally! I keep them busy debating the guys until the bell rings and we all head back to class.
Michi’s out the door as soon as Period 4 finishes.
‘Hey, wait for me,’ I say, hurrying after her.
Michi slows down a nanosecond so that I can catch up.
‘So what’s the big hurry, anyway?’ I ask her.
‘I just wanted to catch Ben before he goes off to play soccer with his mates,’ she tells me as we stride up the corridor. She stops suddenly and grabs my arm. ‘Hey, look, there he is over there.’
I follow her gaze. Ben is standing in a tight group of other Year 9 students – a mix of guys and girls. One of the girls is talking and they’re all hanging on her every word, Ben included.
Michi breaks away from me and hurries over to him. I hang back, not wanting to interfere, but not wanting to disappear either. If there is a reason why he didn’t turn up at recess time, or why he only sent her two kisses on his text, Michi’s going to need someone around to help pick up the pieces. And I don’t like the look Joe and Nick, Ben’s mates, are giving her either. Like she’s just some little girl they wouldn’t be caught dead with. Someone who’s wasting Ben’s time. I wonder if he knows they think that way? Or maybe I’m misreading their expressions. I hope so.
Ben moves out of the circle as soon as he sees Michi. They st
and to one side, talking intensely for a couple of minutes. Then Ben rejoins his mates and Michi practically skips back over to me.
‘Everything okay?’ I ask as we head off to our lockers.
‘Yep,’ Michi says. Her eyes have lost their worried look and gone soft and dreamy again. ‘Fine. Finer than fine. I don’t even know why I was stressing.’
‘So where was he at recess?’
Michi looks vague. ‘Dunno. We didn’t talk about that.’ She grabs my arm. ‘But guess what?!’
‘You’re running away to get married,’ I joke.
Michi rolls her eyes. ‘Duh, Mia. As if.’ But then a little smile creeps over her face. ‘He says there’s stuff he has to do this lunchtime, but he wants to meet up after school. He’s got something really important to tell me.’
‘Important good or important bad?’
‘Well, good, obviously. He was being really sweet. He wouldn’t be sweet if he was going to tell me something bad.’
Then she grabs my arm again, harder this time. Her eyes are luminous. ‘Hey! Maybe he’s going to give me something! A necklace or maybe a ring. That’s why he’s being all mysterious today. He is, isn’t he?!’
I’m not so sure. Not after the expressions I saw on his mates’ faces.
‘Probably,’ I tell her, crossing my fingers that’s she right. And then I steer her away from the Year 9 area and back to our haven under the peppercorn tree.
Chapter 3
monday afternoon
‘See you in a bit, ’kay?’ Lexi calls to me as the bus drops us at the corner of our street. ‘I just have to let Mum know I’m coming over.’
‘Sure,’ I tell her. I go around to the back door and let myself in. I wish I had a parent who worked from home. The house always seems so empty when I get home from school.
It wasn’t always like this. Mum worked parttime when I was little, and then stopped working altogether when my baby brother Marco got sick. It was only afterwards that she went back full-time. But I’m not going to think about that now. I’ve got work to do on our skit. It’s going to be the best concert act. We’ll win that trophy for sure.
I put my bag away, grab a snack, then head out to Pink HQ at the back of our garage. I love it out here. Everything’s so comfy. It’s a great place to be – whether I’m on my own or with friends.
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