Secret's Out
Page 3
‘I think your brother might be out on the roof,’ Tamsin grinned.
‘I think my brother might be out of his mind,’ Casey groaned.
‘Out of his mind and out on the roof, with our snakes!’ Ivy squealed.
Suddenly, the Secret Sisters were all scrambling out the door. Casey giggled as Nina grabbed one of Aaron’s legs, and Ivy grabbed the other.
Casey grinned to herself as the girls pulled Aaron down onto the balcony of the cubby house.
It was great to see everyone acting like they were on the same team again. It was even better to watch them win back the red and yellow snakes!
‘Hey, you guys did save us the red and yellow ones,’ Ivy giggled as Aaron climbed down, chuckling.
Casey looked at Tamsin slyly.
Tamsin winked at her, and said cheekily, ‘As if we wouldn’t save them for you! What sort of friends do you think we are?’
Casey smiled as she poured each of her friends a glass of lemonade. It was fantastic to have everything back to normal.
‘Hey, let’s do that quiz,’ Nina suggested, flipping through Casey’s magazine.‘It’s called, What sort of friend are you? Is everybody ready?’
‘Yep!’ the others called out together.
‘All right, question one,’ Nina began.
‘Definitely!’ they all yelled.
Nina laughed as she put each of their initials next to the A on the quiz sheet. They spent so much time talking about this stuff there was no way any of them would get that question wrong.
Nina moved on to question two.
‘Well, that’s easy,’ Ivy said. ‘We all went on the school camp together last term. Remember how Casey freaked out on the flying fox? And her face was all screwed up like this?’
Everyone cracked up as Ivy did a great impression of Casey on the flying fox.
‘Yeah, and I also remember a certain person falling over face first in the mud on the obstacle course,’ Casey snorted.
It was ages until they got to question three. But nobody cared. It was just great fun doing the quiz together!
‘Definitely,’ Tamsin called out. Again, everybody agreed.
Nina was quiet for a moment as she studied the quiz page. Then she read out the next question.
‘Yes,’ Ivy said. ‘Of course it’s yes.’
Casey watched as Nina shook her head. ‘No way, Ives,’ she objected. ‘Like, some things you just shouldn’t say.’
‘Yeah,’ Tamsin agreed with Nina. ‘For example, if Ivy got a new top that she absolutely loved, and I absolutely hated, I’m not going to tell her that, am I? That would just be mean.’
‘But if she asked your opinion,’ Casey said, ‘then you should tell her the truth. Don’t you think?’
‘Of course you shouldn’t!’ Nina and Tamsin said together.
‘Of course you should!’ Ivy and Casey countered.
‘Shouldn’t!’ Nina and Tamsin giggled.
‘Should!’ Casey and Ivy yelled.
‘Shouldn’t!’
Suddenly, all the girls were up, dancing around and singing ‘should’ and ‘shouldn’t’. Ivy was the first to put her ‘should’ into a funny little shimmy as she danced around the cubby.
Soon, though, all the Secret Sisters were shimmying to their own chant.
Casey paused for a minute, and watched her dancing, disagreeing friends.
It didn’t matter that they had different opinions. Maybe they all had different rules for what they should tell and what they should keep secret.
Maybe they all had different ideas of when they should tell the truth, or when they should keep something to themselves.
And really, Casey was glad. The ideas that made them different also made each of them special.
Real life, and real friendships, weren’t as simple as choosing an A or a B, like in a quiz.
And Casey wouldn’t change that. Not for anything in the world.
Secret's Out
published in 2013 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
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A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia
eISBN: 9781743580288
Text copyright © 2008 Chrissie Perry
Illustration and design copyright © 2013 Hardie Grant Egmont
Illustration by Aki Fukuoka
Design by Michelle Mackintosh
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