by SR Silcox
“Music festival?” Barry asked.
Lizzie nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. Pop’s been thinking about changing the festival up for a few years now, and this year, well, he just felt like it was the right time to take advantage of the younger crowd. Right, Will?”
“Right,” Will said. He looked at Pop, who still appeared to be in shock.
“You have no idea how many people have been contacting me asking me for details this year,” Lizzie said. “It’s going to be huge. So anyway, it would be great if you could come back tomorrow so we can take a photo of you handing the cheque to Pop. It would make a great front page story, don’t you think?”
“Well I—”
“We can sort it all out tomorrow,” Lizzie said, smiling sweetly at Barry and then at Pop.
Barry smoothed down what little hair he had left on his head and said, “Right then. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” He walked out into the yard and disappeared around the corner.
Lizzie turned to Will and smiled and then turned to Pop who said, very quietly, “You two better have a bloody good explanation for what just happened.”
∞
“I can’t believe he’s letting us run with it,” Will said. He crossed off the name of a band on his long list that had said they couldn’?t make it to the festival.
“I know,” Lizzie said. She changed the background picture on the screen and said, “How about that?”
“I liked the other one,” Will said, peering over Lizzie’s shoulder. “I really hope we can get it organised in time.”
“No sweat,” Lizzie replied. “Which other one? I’ve shown you, like, ten different ones.”
“The blue one. With the lights.”
Lizzie flicked through the gallery and brought up a picture. “This one?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Or this one?” Lizzie said, switching to the next picture.
Will peered at it and sighed. “I have no idea. I feel like my brain’s going to explode. Just pick one, Lizzie. It’s not like it's for real.”
“Yeah but we have to treat it like it is, otherwise she won’t get the full effect.”
“I think she’ll get it. When are we going to tell her anyway?”
“Not until Saturday morning,” Lizzie said, replacing the red background with a dark blue one. She systematically changed all the text boxes on the mock up poster on the screen to make the words easier to read and then sat back and admired her work. “I think that’s it,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“I like it,” Will said.
“I’ll email this to dad and get him to print it out on the work printer. How many more bands have you got to hear back from?” Lizzie said as she opened an explorer window.
“Just two I think.” Will consulted his notebook. “Yeah, two. Just Anchor and Double Cross to go.”
“How many is that now?”
“Eight. That’s almost a fifty percent hit rate. Not bad for short notice.”
Lizzie nodded and started tapping on her keyboard. “We’ve started getting some followers on Twitter already. Obviously, we’ll have heaps more next year.”
“If there’s a next year.”
“There’ll be a next year,” Lizzie said, posting an update for their followers. “A better website would make a huge difference, but we have to work with what we have. Once we start making some money—”
“If we start making money,” Will said.
“When we start making money,” Lizzie said, ignoring Will’s pessimism. “We’ll be able to pay someone to do up a website that we can take bookings for camping and bands and stuff, all in the one place. That’ll make things so much easier, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, whatever,” Will said, though he had no idea about websites. Lizzie was the internet and social media nerd, so he found it easier to just agree with whatever she said. His phone rang. “It’s the guy from Anchor. Hello?” Lizzie watched him expectantly. “Yep. Free camping and free food. How many are we expecting?” He looked over to Lizzie who gave him nothing. “I’d reckon a couple thousand.” Lizzie slapped her forehead and shook her head. Will shrugged. “Yeah, I know. It’s going to be huge. Excellent. That’s great. We’ll see you Saturday arvo then.” He hung up.
“A couple thousand?” Lizzie asked. “Are you serious?”
“You were the one who said to aim high,” Will said, putting a tick beside Anchor’s name on his book.
“Not that high. You shouldn’t be promising more than we can deliver.”
“We don’t know what we can deliver. Besides, isn’t that your job? To get people excited about it on social media?”
“Yeah but so far all we have are small bands who have a handful of fans between them. We haven’t got a big name act to bring people in.”
“Something will come up,” Will said.
Lizzie didn’t know whether to strangle him or be happy that he’d stopped being so pessimistic. Before she could say anything more, Will’s phone rang again and he said, “That'll be the last one. Fingers crossed.”
NINETEEN
Tess thumbed through the messages on her phone. There were three from Maddie, five from Lizzie and one from Will. They all asked if she was up for hanging out (she wasn’t), how she was doing after last night (crap) or telling her to call them if she wanted to talk (she didn’t). She chewed on the corner of her thumb nail and considered texting Maddie to see how her appointment went this morning. She decided against it, because as soon as she sent Maddie a text, she’d probably assume Tess wanted to talk. She tossed her phone onto the bed beside her. She closed her eyes and lay back on her pillow and sighed.
She’d been waiting all day to talk to Pop but he’d been holed up in the sheds doing who-knew-what, so she hadn’t even seen him. She’d thought about just going down to the sheds and confronting him, but the way she figured it, the longer he had to cool down and think about the festival without her interfering, the higher the chances he’d decide not to cancel it. At the moment, those chances were still pretty slim, and the fact that Gran hadn’t done any more baking told Tess all she needed to know about the current fate of the Crush Festival.
Tess was considering her chances of sneaking out for a snack without running into Gran when she was startled by a knocking on her window. She sat up and pulled back the curtain. Standing on the other side, grinning, was Maddie. Tess pushed out the window and asked, “What are you doing?”
“I was just wondering if you wanted to come to dinner,” Maddie said.
“Why didn’t you come to the door like a normal person?”
“Because normal’s boring. Anyway, I thought it might be a bit more romantic doing it like this.”
“Romantic?”
“Yeah. You know, like Romeo and Juliet sneaking out at night.”
“Right,” Tess said. “So you’d be Romeo then?”
“At your service, my fair Juliet,” Maddie said, and bowed low.
Tess smiled in spite of herself and shook her head. She leaned out the window and looked around, expecting to see Will and Lizzie hiding somewhere nearby.
“It’s just me,” Maddie said, answering the question Tess hadn’t asked. “No-one knows I’m here. Are you coming or not?”
“I don’t really feel like talking,” Tess said.
“You don’t have to talk. It’s just dinner, Tess. I’ve already told Gran you won’t be here tonight, so if you don’t come you’ll be fending for yourself.”
Tess sighed. What harm could it do to get out of the house anyway? She’d only be wallowing like she’d done all day, and spending time with Maddie would be a good distraction. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll meet you around the back.”
“Can’t you just climb out the window?” Maddie asked.
“I haven’t climbed out of this window in years.”
“Live dangerously for a while,” Maddie said. “Pretend you’ve been kept against your will and you’re finally able to escape with t
he help of your knight in shining armour.”
Tess laughed in spite of herself. She said, “You know I turn into a pumpkin after midnight?”
“I’ll have you home well before then, Cinderella,” Maddie said.
“I thought I was Juliet?” Tess said.
“You can be whoever you like, Princess,” Maddie replied, grinning.
Tess climbed up onto the window sill and swung her legs out. She pushed the window out to give her some more room, and then pushed herself off, landing on the grass in a crouch.
“That drop always looked so much bigger when I was little.” She dusted herself off. “Where are you taking me?”
Maddie took Tess’s hand. “You’ll see.”
∞
Tess’s suspicions that Will and Lizzie were involved were confirmed when Maddie took Tess up to the tree house on Chitty. Tess had warned Maddie that Chitty could be cantankerous when they’d come up to swim in the dam, but Maddie had obviously been shown how to start it by someone. Plus, the tree house was cleaner than it had been in a long time, and Maddie had put out little LED candles around inside to give them some light. The sun hadn’t gone down yet, but even with the window open all the way, inside was dark because of the shadows from the trees on the side of the dam.
Maddie spread plastic containers out onto a blanket and popped open the lids on each one.
“This looks fantastic,” Tess said. She settled herself on the floor and pulled her legs underneath her.
“Will and Lizzie gave me a hand to set it all up,” Maddie said.
“I knew it,” Tess replied.
“We all wanted you to get out of the house for a while,” Maddie said, pouring orange juice into two plastic cups. She handed one to Tess and said, “We should toast to something.”
“Like what?” Tess asked, taking her cup.
“I don’t know. How about… oh, how about to not getting killed on Sunday?”
“Why would you toast that? You hurt your ankle.”
“Yeah, but I also met you.” Maddie cocked her head to the side and smiled.
Tess smiled back. “To not getting killed on Sunday then,” she said. She clinked cups with Maddie and they each took a sip.
“Do you want to talk about what happened with the fire?” Maddie asked.
“Not really,” Tess replied. “Thanks for getting me out of the house though.”
“That’s okay,” Maddie said. “If you'd said no to me asking you on a date, Will and Lizzie were going to come and kidnap you and take you to Lizzie’s house.”
Tess laughed. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Maddie nodded. She took a strawberry from a plate, dipped it into a pot of cream, pointed it at Tess and said, “Lucky for you, they both had stuff on tonight.” She took a bite of the strawberry and dropped the green tip back into the container.
“What kind of stuff?” Tess asked. She peered into the food containers and decided on biscuits and cheese.
“Lizzie had to work and Will had band practice.”
Tess nodded. Just like them to figure that the festival would still be going ahead. She pulled out a piece of coconut ice from a container and said, “Is this Gran’s?”
Maddie nodded. “She said she had some spare since the festival might not happen now.”
Tess put the sweet back into the container and wiped her fingers on a paper napkin.
“Sorry,” Maddie said. She looked around the tree house. “You must’ve had some great times in this place.”
“The secrets this place could tell if it could talk,” Tess said, glad for the change of subject.
“Like what?”
“Little kid stuff mostly. We formed two secret clubs up here when we were in primary school. And whatever was said in the tree house stayed in the tree house.”
“Secret societies, huh?”
“Yeah, among other things.”
“Such as?”
“Such as, Will and Lizzie had their first kiss up here.”
“Huh,” Maddie said. “Will and Lizzie don’t act like a couple.”
“That’s because they also broke up here.”
“Oh. That’s sad.”
“Not really. They’re much better as friends.”
Maddie knew exactly what Tess was talking about. “What about you?” she asked.
“What about me?”
“What deep, dark secret have you told the tree house?”
Tess replied, “This is where I came out to Lizzie and Will.”
“That’s pretty huge.” Maddie pulled a wrapper from a chocolate and took a bite.
Tess smiled and said, “Yeah. It wasn’t a big deal though. I was never really in, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” Maddie said absently. She took a sip of her drink and balled up the chocolate wrapper in her hand. “It feels like that sort of place, doesn’t it?” she said finally.
“What do you mean?”
“The sort of place you could say anything and not worry about the consequences.”
Tess had never really thought about the tree house like that before. Probably because it had always been that sort of place for her. A place that felt like it was a million miles away from the rest of the world. “I guess so,” she said.
Maddie didn’t reply, so they sat in silence for a while, listening to tree branches scraping against the sides of the tree house. Then Maddie said, “Can I add a secret of my own?”
“I guess so,” Tess said.
“The tree house rules apply?” Maddie asked. “Whatever is said here, stays here?”
“Of course.”
Maddie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She turned to Tess and said, “I’m going to tell you something Tess, and it’s a huge secret.”
“Okay.”
“And I don’t want you to freak out on me.” The way Maddie looked at Tess, it was like she was afraid that whatever she was about to say, it might make Tess run for the hills.
“Okay,” Tess said.
Maddie chewed on her cup and said, “It’s stupid.”
Tess laughed, and said, “You have no idea how many stupid things this tree house has heard. It can’t possibly be any worse.”
Maddie smiled and said, “It’s not stupid as in it’s a silly thing. I mean it’s stupid that I’m finding it so hard to tell you.”
“Wow,” Tess said. “It must be huge. Don’t tell me then. Let me guess.” She tapped her chin. “I know. You’re on the run from the law.”
Maddie laughed. “No.”
“Hmm, what else could it be?” Tess bit into a biscuit and chewed slowly. “Are you a spy on a secret assignment?”
“In a place like Chesterfield?” Maddie asked.
“Good point,” Tess conceded. “The only controversial thing going on out here is Gary Evans wanting to plow in his cane and plant macadamias.”
“Really? People are worried about that?”
“You have no idea,” Tess said. “Hmm, what else could it be?” She looked at Maddie, who seemed to be enjoying the game. “Oh my God I know what it is.”
“What?” Maddie asked.
“You,” Tess said, pointing at Maddie, “are a famous actress in some sort of trouble who’s trying to avoid the spotlight.”
The colour drained from Maddie’s face and she swallowed hard.
“What?” Tess asked. “What’s wrong?” She felt like she’d touched a nerve.
Maddie took several deep breaths. “Okay,” she said finally. “I’m going to have to tell you.” She looked into Tess’s eyes. Tess felt herself leaning forward, and thought she might burst from the anticipation. Maddie’s phone rang, breaking the tension, making them both laugh. Maddie looked at the screen and said, “It’s Jo. I should answer it.” Maddie swiped the screen and said, “Hello, Jo. I’m kind of in the middle of something. Can I call you back?” She looked up at Tess and gave her a little smile. Then her face dropped and she stood up and walked to the door of the tree house, turning her
back on Tess. She lowered her voice and Tess couldn’t quite make out what Maddie was saying.
After a few seconds of muffled talking, Maddie raised her voice. “I don’t care. I’m not going back,” she said. Then her shoulders slumped and she said, “Fine. I’ll be there soon.” She hung up and turned back to Tess. “I’m so sorry. I’ve got something I need to sort out. Can we take a rain check?”
“Sure. I guess,” Tess said. She started putting lids back on food containers. “What about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow’s good,” Maddie said, kneeling down to help Tess pack up. “Lunch?”
Tess nodded. “What if we go into town? There’s a really great take away place called Piggies’. They make the best burgers and chips in town.”
Maddie smiled and said, “Sounds great. I can meet you there? Say around one o’clock?”
“Great,” Tess said. “Oh, I almost forgot. Lizzie’s having a movie night tomorrow night. I was going over around three. Did you want to come?”
“Sure,” Maddie said.
“I’ll be staying at Lizzie’s for the night so it’s okay if you can't, you know, if Jo wants you home.”
Maddie smiled and said, “I’ll ask Jo. She should be able to look after herself for one night.”
TWENTY
Tess sat on the bench outside Piggies’ waiting for Maddie. She wasn’t as nervous as she thought she’d be. She guessed that was because technically, even though it was interrupted, they’d had their first official date last night. Plus she was also more than a little curious about the so-called ‘big secret’ Maddie didn't get the chance to tell her, and wondered if it had anything to do with Jo.
“Hey,” Maddie called. Tess looked up to see her walking along the footpath. She was wearing a summer dress that floated around her knees as she walked, a plain red baseball cap pulled down on her head and a backpack slung over one shoulder. Tess felt a little under dressed in her cargo shorts and t-shirt.
Tess stood up and Maddie greeted her with a hug.
“What’s in the bag?” Tess asked.
“Spare clothes and stuff. For staying at Lizzie’s tonight.”