Finally, she hits the end of the page, her self-imposed word length. She signs off, saying, I think I might be as bad at writing letters as you are at small talk, but it’s got to be a bit more interesting than one of my history essays. Love, Willa.
And maybe Nan’s right about trying. Because writing it feels like releasing a long-held breath. She seals the paper into the stamped envelope she bought especially this morning and tucks it in her bag to post on the way home.
When she looks out the café window, she spots Finn straight away, frowning as she walks to meet her in the park. It’s amazing how Finn still grabs her eye like a beacon, even on a crowded street. The expression on her face confirms what Willa already suspected from her text earlier: Finn didn’t get school captain. Willa hurries to find her wallet, because that girl frowning at the footpath looks like a girl in need of a hug.
But Willa has to smile too. Because even when she might be a little heartbroken, Finn still walks like a girl on a mission, like the girl capable of giving the speech she gave last week at the community centre. That’s because a girl like Finn doesn’t need to be school captain to prove herself. She proves herself just by being who she is, brave and believing. That’s what Willa will tell her. Maybe some people don’t know the full wonder of her yet, but they will one day. And right now, Willa’s smitten with being one of those who do.
CHAPTER 69
Finn
Jack’s team scrapes their win, 1-0. And without even kicking a goal, Jack wins the best on field. They all stand and yell and clap, trying to out-cheer the Mummy Cheer Squad, back at their peppy best for the finals.
When the coach is done with them, Jack trots straight over to them all.
“Superstar.” Willa forces him into a hug. Nan does too. He submits, but he’s looking to Dan the whole time.
“Total hero worship,” Finn whispers to her best friend.
Dan just grins and smacks Jack’s shoulder in bloke-y congratulations. “Great job, dude.”
“Riley, congratulate your brother,” Nan says as Riley wanders over the grass with the dogs.
“You didn’t suck,” Riley tells him, yanking on the leashes.
Finn pretends to strangle her. “Why do you have to be like that?”
“I just do.” She shrugs. “It’s older sister rights.”
“I don’t treat you like that,” Willa says.
“Yeah, that’s because you’re weird.” Riley grins and dances around with the dogs attached to her wrists.
“And you, young lady, are obnoxious,” Nan says from her camp chair.
“I know,” Riley says, sounding positively gleeful about it.
Dan and Rosie grab up their things.
“We have to go,” Rosie tells Finn.
“Apparently I have to go home and put on something nicer,” Dan says, yanking at his T-shirt.
“Yeah, you do.” Rosie grins nervously at Finn. “He’s meeting my mum tonight.”
“Aren’t I meeting your dad too?” he asks her.
“Yeah, but my mum is the only one whose opinion counts. If it was just Dad, you could turn up in a penguin onesie.”
Dan looks at Finn and grits his teeth. “I’m meeting parents.”
“Oh boy.” Finn gives him an encouraging arm slap. “Don’t be weird, okay?”
“Thanks. No, really.”
Tyler and his dad come over, and Tyler and Jack high five like they didn’t just see each other on the field five minutes ago.
“All right, kids. Our ride is here.” Nan slowly kicks her feet from where they’ve been resting on the esky, which was full of sandwiches and fruit when the day started. “Get your things.”
Riley pouts, clutching the leashes. “I want to walk home with Finn and Willa.”
“With the dogs, you mean,” Finn corrects her. “It’s not our company you want.”
“So can I?” Riley asks, smiling cutely at Finn.
“We don’t know what we’re doing yet,” Willa tells her.
“You leave the girls be for a minute,” Nan tells her. “They might like to spend some time without you.”
“But they love hanging out with me.”
“When you’re being nice, we do.” Finn gently yanks on her ponytail.
“Come on, my girl,” Nan says to Riley, leaning on her walking stick. “They already took you to the movies last night. You come home with me. You can see if Brittany wants to come over for dinner, if you want.”
“Can she stay for a movie?”
Nan shakes her head and smiles at Tyler’s dad. “It’s never enough, is it, with kids?”
“Nope. Give ‘em an inch.” He grins and hefts the esky onto his shoulder. “Shall we?”
“Yes,” Nan says. She turns to Finn and Willa. “There’s plenty if you both want to come back for dinner. The dogs are welcome if you promise they won’t dig up my yard.”
“Thanks, Nan,” Finn says, giving them all a wave.
The group takes off slowly, accommodating Nan’s halting stride. Riley drags her feet, turning and giving them the occasional mournful looks.
Finn shakes her head. “Such a drama queen. How’d that even happen with you and Nan around?”
“I have no idea. She was born like that.”
“You two are drama queens too,” Finn tells the dogs, who both strain at the leash as Riley, their source of fun and snacks, abandons them.
When everyone’s gone, they wander down the path together, the dogs trotting behind them.
“Holidays in two weeks,” Willa says with a slow smile. “I can’t wait.”
“We’re going to Tasmania for Christmas,” Finn tells her. “Anna’s coming for a week too.”
“Cool. We might go stay with Dad this summer. Just for a week.”
Finn stops walking. “Really?”
“Yes.” Willa’s shoulders rise as she draws in a breath. “I wrote to him. And…and he wrote back. Sort of. It’s awkward, but way less awkward, if you know what I mean.” She looks so self-conscious and elated, and baffled by her own elation, that Finn forgets to be miffed Willa didn’t tell her this. Maybe she just needed to sit with this one her own.
“I’m really glad,” she tells her.
They walk some more, away from the soccer fields, towards the lusher, shadier part of the park where plane trees stand sentinel over the paths.
“I can’t believe we start VCE next year,” Willa says with a shudder.
“It can’t be that bad.”
“I hope not.”
“Anyway, I don’t want to think about it,” Finn says. “Not yet. I just want to think about five long, lazy weeks without school.”
“Me too. I can’t wait to read whatever book I want to read, for as long as I want to read it.”
“Geek.”
“So are you,” Willa shoots back.
“True. I also can’t wait to paint in Tasmania,” Finn says, thinking of the views she sketched last time, wishing the whole time she had brought her paints.
“That reminds me.” Willa stops by a bench and reaches into her bag. She pulls out another smaller shopping bag. “I got this for you.”
“What is it?” Finn inspects the bag, curious. It’s flat and hard.
“I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you look?” Willa teases.
Pulling a face at her, Finn opens the bag. Inside, wrapped in tissue paper, is a small picture frame. The wood is a light, sandy colour, the grain a series of fine swirls.
“It’s for your painting in your bedroom. The one you keep forgetting to buy a frame for.”
Finn smiles. How did Willa remember that?
“I hope the colour is okay. I took a photo of the picture to the man in the framing shop. He said a light colour would work best. But he also said you can change it if y—”
The only thing Finn can do to stop Willa’s mouth is kiss her, so she does. “Don’t worry, it’s perfect.”
Instead of smiling, Willa bites her lip and pulls her closer to the edge
of the path. “I just wanted to get you something to say…I don’t know…thank you. For being so amazing while Nan was in hospital, and being patient when I never had any time and when I got so angry. Anyway, um…” She keeps fiddling with the zipper of her bag, her cheeks flaming.
A honey feeling slides through Finn, because Willa’s deer-in-headlights expression when she’s using her words is the most awkward-cute thing she’s seen.
She places her hand over Willa’s fidgeting one. “Thank you.” Then she gives her a sly grin. “So…you do want to go round with me.”
Willa brow furrows. “What?”
“You do realise that you never answered when I asked you that time?”
“I didn’t?”
“No, you gave me some shruggy answer.”
Willa smiles playfully and shrugs again. “Okay, well, I guess I will, then.” Then she laughs and grabs Finn’s hand, pulling her down the path. “I totally want to go around with you, Finn Harlow.”
“Well, that’s okay, then.” Finn smiles. “So, what do you have to do now?”
Willa’s step slows as she turns to Finn, eyes wide. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“It’s a miracle!”
“What about you?”
“Nothing at all.”
Willa tips her head back and lets out a breath like it’s the best news she’s heard all week. She grabs Finn’s hand and leads her off the path. Dropping onto the edge of a tree shadow, she pulls Finn down with her. Her smile spreads as wide as her arms as she lies back. “Let’s just do nothing for a bit, then.”
The next thing Finn knows, she’s lying too, her cheek resting on the warm denim of Willa’s thigh, the dogs sprawled beside them. How could she resist? “Good plan.”
Then she lets her eyes fall closed to the sunshine and the soft slide of Willa fingers in her hair.
~ ~ ~
About Emily O’Beirne
Thirteen-year-old Emily woke up one morning with a sudden itch to write her first novel. All day, she sat through her classes, feverishly scribbling away (her rare silence probably a cherished respite for her teachers). And by the time the last bell rang, she had penned fifteen handwritten pages of angsty drivel, replete with blood-red sunsets, moody saxophone music playing somewhere far off in the night, and abandoned whiskey bottles rolling across tables. Needless to say, that singular literary accomplishment is buried in a box somewhere, ready for her later amusement.
From Melbourne, Australia, Emily was recently granted her PhD. She works part-time in academia, where she hates marking papers but loves working with her students. She also loves where she lives but travels as much as possible and tends to harbour crushes on cities more than on people.
CONNECT WITH EMILY
Website: www.emilyobeirne.com
Other Books from Ylva Publishing
www.ylva-publishing.com
Future Leaders of Nowhere
(Future Leaders – Book 1)
Emily O’Beirne
ISBN: 978-3-95533-822-0 (mobi), 978-3-95533-823-7 (epub)
Length: 74,000 words (353 pages)
Finn’s solid. Not in body, but in being. She’s gravity and kindness and all those good things that anchor.
Willa’s confusing. Sometimes she’s this sweet, sensitive soul. Other times she’s like a flaming arrow you hope isn’t coming for you.
Finn and Willa have been picked as team leaders in the future leader camp game. The usually confident Finn doesn’t know what’s throwing her more, the fact she’s leading a team of highly unenthusiastic overachievers or coming up against fierce, competitive Willa. And Willa doesn’t know which is harder, leaving her responsibilities behind to pursue her goals or opening up to someone.
Soon they both realise that the hardest thing of all is balancing their clashing ideals with their unexpected connection. And finding a way to win, of course.
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ISBN: 978-3-95533-806-0 (mobi), 978-3-95533-807-7 (epub)
Length: 104,000 words (292 pages)
Orphaned Carmen is sixteen, newly homeless and will do almost anything to survive and keep her and her kid brother safe, together, and out of foster care. Ollie, also sixteen, has a life that’s all about parents, school pressure, friends and dreams of summer. The two fall into each other’s orbit, and one kiss changes everything. Ollie is captivated … but then Carmen vanishes. When they cross paths months later, everything is different.
A young adult queer romance that looks at what we’re prepared to sacrifice for those we care about.
All the Ways to Here
© 2017 by Emily O’Beirne
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-895-4
ISBN (epub): 978-3-95533-896-1
ISBN (pdf): 978-3-95533-897-8
Also available as paperback.
Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Owner: Astrid Ohletz
Am Kirschgarten 2
65830 Kriftel
Germany
www.ylva-publishing.com
First edition: 2017
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Credits
Edited by Astrid Ohletz and Michelle Aguilar
Proofread by Amanda Jean
Cover Design by Adam Lloyd
Print Layout by Allen at eB Format
All the Ways to Here Page 27