Surf's Up

by Chrissie Perry

  Surf’s Up

  first published in 2005

  this edition published in 2011 by

  Hardie Grant Egmont

  Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street

  Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia

  www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

  EISBN 978 1 742736 19 8

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.

  A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

  Text copyright © 2005 Chrissie Perry

  Illustration and design copyright © 2011 Hardie Grant Egmont

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted

  Illustration by Aki Fukuoka

  Design by Michelle Mackintosh

  Text design and typesetting by Ektavo

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Lucy dragged her yellow surfboard into the bathroom and put it in the bath. Her big sister Frankie was getting ready to go out. She was looking in the mirror, putting brown sludge on her face.

  Lucy knew it was make-up, and that it was supposed to make Frankie look better, but Lucy secretly thought Frankie was much prettier without it.

  ‘Hey, Lucy-Lou,’ said Frankie. ‘I can’t see any waves in that bath.’

  Lucy grinned. It was kind of silly to take the board everywhere she went, but she couldn’t help it.

  Lucy had left hints all around the house before Christmas. She’d stuck a picture of the surfboard she wanted to the fridge with a magnet. She had even put a picture under her mum’s pillow, so she could sleep on the idea. And the hints had worked! Lucy still couldn’t believe she had her very own surfboard.

  ‘Actually, I do know there aren’t any waves in the bath,’ Lucy said. ‘It’s just that I’m so excited about going on a surfing holiday with Bonnie.’

  She lifted the board out of the bath and swung it around. It nearly hit Frankie’s head.

  ‘Do you know that Bonnie has a board too?’ Lucy asked, stroking the surfboard. ‘But hers is red. We are going to be surfie girls together. We’ll paddle through the water and ride the waves. It’s going to be so fun. I can’t wait!’

  ‘Well, you don’t have long to wait,’ Frankie said. ‘Bonnie’s parents will be here soon.’

  Lucy’s heart dipped, as though she was high on a swing. It was so cool to be going away on a beach holiday with her best friend. Lucy and Bonnie and had been talking about it for ages. And Bonnie’s parents, Ross and Helen, had already booked surfing lessons for them. They would have five whole days to learn how to become surfie girls.

  But Lucy knew that five days and five nights was a long time to be away from her mum, dad and Frankie.

  School camp had only been for two days and one night. That had been all right, except when Mr Halliday had tried to get her to eat broccoli.

  Lucy hated broccoli. When she put it in her mouth, she felt like she was going to throw up. Lucy didn’t just feel sick, she felt sad. It was as though the broccoli hit a little button in her throat, and started an attack of homesickness. Luckily, Mr Halliday didn’t make her have a second bite.

  What if Ross and Helen served broccoli for every meal? Broccoli cereal, broccoli pudding, broccoli cake …

  Bonnie had twin brothers, Shane and Tom. What if broccoli was their favourite food?

  ‘Earth to Lucy. Earth to Lucy. Come in, Lucy,’ Frankie snapped her fingers in front of Lucy’s face. ‘Are you OK?’ she asked.

  ‘Yep, I’m fine,’ Lucy replied, though she wasn’t quite so sure now.

  Frankie started walking down the hallway towards her bedroom. Lucy followed, dragging the surfboard behind her. It made a squeaking sound on thefloorboards.

  ‘Is that the cat?’ Lucy’s mum called from the kitchen.

  ‘No, Mum. It’s just Lucy and the you-know-what,’ Frankie called back.

  Lucy stared at the stickers on Frankie’s bedroom door.

  The message was pretty clear.

  ‘Well, see you in five days,’ Lucy said. She let out a little sigh.

  Frankie rolled her eyes.

  ‘OK, Lou, you can come in just this once,’ Frankie said, pushing open her bedroom door. ‘But the board stays here.’

  It was pretty weird to be invited into Frankie’s room. Lucy sometimes sneaked in there when Frankie was out, but this was different. Frankie sat in front of her dressing table. Lucy sat on the bed. She could see Frankie in the mirror.

  ‘So, what’s the problem?’ Frankie asked, as she looked at a pimple on her chin. Frankie tried to cover it up with more sludge.

  ‘I don’t really have a problem,’ Lucy said. ‘I’m just going to miss you guys.’

  Frankie nodded. She reached into her dresser drawer and pulled out a small black book with a lock and key.

  She threw it to Lucy.

  ‘What’s this?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘A diary, you nuff nuff,’ Frankie said.

  ‘For me?’ asked Lucy.

  ‘Yeah. I’ve already got one. You can take this one away with you and write about whatever happens on your holiday. Then you won’t be lonely.’

  ‘Do you reckon I’ll have anything interesting enough to write about?’ Lucy asked.

  Frankie rolled her eyes again. She really seemed to like doing that.

  ‘Listen, Lou. You can write about anything you want in a diary. It doesn’t have to be all about stuff that happens – you can write about your feelings as well. I write about heaps of different things in my diary. It’s cool. It’s like letting your thoughts escape out of your head and onto the paper.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Lucy, opening the diary with the little key and staring at the blank pages. It was hard to imagine how she would be able to fill up this whole book. She wondered what Frankie had written in hers. Probably a lot of stuff about her new boyfriend. That would definitely be interesting.

  Just then, a car horn beeped.

  ‘Got to go,’ Frankie said, standing up.

  She grabbed Lucy by the shoulders and steered her out into the hallway.

  ‘Hey, Frankie, can I read your diary?’ asked Lucy. ‘It might give me some ideas about what to put in mine.’

  Frankie rolled her eyes again, but this time she laughed.

  ‘Don’t push your luck, Lou,’ she said.

  When the Prestons arrived to pick up Lucy, their car was stacked with holiday things. Lucy and Bonnie sat in the back seat, behind Bonnie’s brothers.

  ‘Check out Boof and Pin,’ Bonnie whispered, pointing at her brothers. The boys were asleep in the middle seats. ‘Shane is the Boof-head and Tom is the Pin-head,’ Bonnie half-sung and half-whispered.

  ‘They don’t look like twins, do they?’ said Lucy, giggling.

  ‘Look at Shane’s huge head. It’s about ten times bigger than Tom’s,’ said Bonnie.

  It was hard to believe they were twins. Shane was big and blond, and Tom was darkhaired and quite thin. Shane was dribbling just a tiny bit, and his boof-head bumped against the window. Tom’s pin-head was squashed against Shane’s leg. Tom was snoring very loudly for such a little guy.

  ‘Hey, watch this,’ Bonnie said. She tore off a tiny bit of tissue, and placed it gently on Tom’s nose. As Tom breathed out, the tissue flew around the car. Lucy leaned against Bonnie and laughed. />
  Bonnie was fantastic. She could even make a boring car trip fun!

  Soon they arrived at the beach. It was all so blue, Lucy could hardly tell where the water stopped and the sky began.

  Bonnie wound down the window and the salt air rushed in. Lucy reached for her sunglasses so she could see where Bonnie was pointing. This summer holiday is going to rock!

  ‘That’s the kiosk. They sell the best fish and chips in the world. And over there are the trampolines. And that’s the ice-cream van!’ Bonnie raved.

  ‘Wow,’ said Lucy. ‘This is awesome!’

  She took a deep breath. It was like a whole new world out there.

  ‘OK, kids,’ said Bonnie’s dad, parking the car. ‘Grab your togs and towels. Let’s get down there and enjoy the day. We can unpack later.’

  Lucy ran along the sand with the others. Shane and Tom raced between the flags and dived straight under the water. Bonnie went ahead of Lucy and dived in, too.

  Lucy preferred to get in slowly. She waited until her ankles were used to the freezing cold water, then she walked in up to her knees. When her knees felt OK, she walked in up to her hips.

  Suddenly, Tom appeared in front of her. He took great scoops of water and whooshed them towards her. Lucy gasped as the cold water splashed her.

  ‘That’s for putting tissues up my nose,’ he yelled.

  ‘We thought you were asleep!’ Lucy squealed. The water tingled and fizzed as it hit her tummy.

  ‘Aha! Maybe that’s what I wanted you to think,’ Tom said.

  Just then Lucy noticed Tom was hiding something behind his back.

  Seaweed!

  ‘Bonnie – help!’ Lucy screamed. ‘Pinhead is attacking!’

  Next thing she knew, Bonnie was in front of her. She spread her arms and legs wide, protecting Lucy from Tom.

  ‘Dive under,’ Bonnie yelled. ‘Then it doesn’t matter if he splashes you.’

  Lucy couldn’t stop grinning. This holiday was going to be the best fun ever. And Bonnie was the best friend ever. She was always there when Lucy needed her.

  ‘Hurry! Dive,’ Bonnie called over her shoulder.

  Lucy held her breath. She pegged her nose with her fingers and went backwards into the water. When she came up, she was wearing a seaweed necklace.

  ‘Hey, you look like a mermaid,’ Bonnie said.

  ‘More like a sea monster,’ Tom said.

  They all started laughing and splashing again. Lucy knew that she was going to have lots of interesting things to write in her diary.

  The next morning Lucy and Bonnie walked along the sand to their surfing class.

  ‘The grommets’ beginner class is over there,’ said one of the surfing teachers.

  ‘I’m not going with any grommets,’ Bonnie said to Lucy. ‘They sound gross.’

  ‘Bonnie, grommets are young surfers!’ Lucy whispered.

  ‘Oh, I knew that,’ said Bonnie.

  They took off their thongs. The sand was hot. They had to move quickly to stop it from burning their feet, but running in a wetsuit felt very weird. Lucy felt as though she was covered in millions of layers of glad-wrap.

  Lucy and Bonnie’s instructor was called Luke. Luke introduced them to the other two girls in their class.

  ‘This is Karen,’ said Luke. ‘And this is Mia.’

  Lucy liked the look of Karen. She had bright blue eyes and an even brighter smile. It was hard to tell what Mia looked like. She kept her head down, and didn’t even say hello. Lucy thought she was quite rude.

  After Luke explained some safety rules, the four girls lay on their boards in the sand. They had to practise jumping up from their bellies and onto their knees. Lucy thought it was quite easy, even though her wetsuit felt a bit too tight.

  Finally, it was time to go into the ocean. They stood in the surf up to their knees.

  ‘It’s good to practise your surfing here,’ Luke said. ‘The waves have already broken, so the water is moving, but not too fast.’

  Lucy looked out to where the big waves were breaking. Shane was standing up on his board, riding the barrel of a wave. Tom was out quite far too, but he seemed to spend most of his time lying on his tummy or falling off.

  Lucy put her board down in the water, and tried to kneel on top of it. The sea was cold on her ankles, where the wetsuit stopped. She put one knee on the board, and toppled off.

  It was really quite different from practising on the sand. It felt like she was trying to stand up on a mound of wobbly jelly.

  ‘Hey, look at me!’ Bonnie shouted. She kneeled on her board for about five seconds, and then nose-dived into the water.

  Lucy laughed, and tried to get up again. This time she fell into the water head first.

  A stream of salt water gushed up her nostrils. Even then, she couldn’t stop laughing. Karen put out her hand so Lucy could steady herself.

  Mia just stood in the surf and stared at them. She didn’t seem to be trying any of the moves Luke was teaching.

  Lucy decided that she didn’t like Mia very much.

  ‘Put your knees like this,’ Luke called out. He put his hands on the board to show them where their knees should be.

  By the end of the lesson, Bonnie managed to kneel for thirty seconds. Lucy managed to nose-dive about thirty times! She felt like she had swallowed half of the ocean, but it had been fun.

  ‘Ice-cream time,’ Bonnie said, as they peeled off their wetsuits and plastered on sunscreen.

  Shane and Tom were already at the window of the ice-cream van.

  ‘How did you go?’ Shane asked. He had three flavours on a double cone. Lucy wondered whether he could get through it all before it melted.

  ‘It was wicked,’ Bonnie said. ‘I reckon I’ll be able to stand up tomorrow.’

  ‘Huh, then you might be able to teach Tom,’ Shane teased. ‘He spends most of his time down with the fishies.’

  Shane sucked in the corners of his mouth, making fish lips.

  Bonnie giggled, but Tom didn’t seem to think it was funny.

  ‘What do you guys want?’ Shane asked.

  ‘I’ll have what you’re having – chocolate, vanilla and strawberry in a double cone,’ Bonnie said excitedly.

  ‘I’ll just have vanilla in a single cone,’ Tom said quietly.

  ‘Me, too,’ said Lucy, smiling at Tom.

  Later that evening, Lucy, Bonnie and her brothers went down to the kiosk to order fish and chips for everyone.

  As they walked back up the hill to the holiday house, Shane strode ahead, carrying the fish and chips. Bonnie jogged to keep up with him, even though the hill was steep and Shane was walking really fast. Lucy and Tom walked behind them.

  Shane and Bonnie had made a hole in the fish-and-chip packet and were pulling out delicious hot chips.

  ‘Hey, unfair!’ Tom called out.

  Shane dangled a chip from his fingers. ‘Come and get one then,’ he teased.

  Tom and Lucy ran ahead, but as soon as the chip was just within reach, Shane and Bonnie would run off again.

  ‘Those two are so greedy,’ Lucy said.

  As soon as she’d spoken, she felt bad. It wasn’t a very nice thing to say about her best friend.

  ‘Worse than seagulls,’ Tom agreed. ‘Come on, we’d better get back or there will be nothing left.’

  Lucy grinned. Tom was OK.

  Soon the whole family was sitting on the porch eating the yummiest fish and chips Lucy had ever tasted.

  After dinner, all the kids went into the playroom.

  ‘Where’s the TV?’ Lucy asked.

  ‘There isn’t one,’ Bonnie said. ‘But there is a CD player. Let’s put on a concert!’

  The boys groaned.

  ‘Oh, come on,’ Bonnie urged. ‘Lucy is great at making up dances. She does the best actions!’

  ‘I’m not that good,’ Lucy said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

  ‘Yes, you are,’ Bonnie insisted. ‘Teach us that dance where you wriggle your shoulders. And the
one where you step back and fling your arms up like this.’ Bonnie flicked up her hands, and knocked a lamp off the table.

  ‘This could be dangerous,’ said Shane. ‘I’m in.’

  Lucy put the CD player on. It had marks all over it, and it couldn’t play very loudly, but with everyone singing along it sounded OK.

  Lucy decided Tom was a pretty good dancer for a boy. She showed him the moves, and he copied. He even had a bit of his own style. He kept on flicking his hair back as he danced. It really matched the song.

  It was much harder teaching Shane and Bonnie the moves. When Lucy told them to take three steps to the right, they went to the left. When she asked them to shake their shoulders and click their fingers, they couldn’t seem to do both at the same time.

  Lucy secretly decided to give Shane and Bonnie the easy parts, but they didn’t seem to notice.

  They liked the bit where they leapt out from behind the curtains, tapping their feet. The only problem was that they kept leaping out too quickly, and landing in the wrong spot!

  After they bumped into Lucy and Tom for the tenth time, Lucy put two pieces of paper on the carpet to show them where they should end up. On the eleventh go, it actually worked.

  It was fantastic having three people to direct. Now that Frankie had decided she was too grown up to join in, Lucy usually just looked in the mirror while she practised her dances at home.

  After about an hour of practising, the show was ready.

  Ross and Helen came in to watch the performance. It went really well – except for the bit where Bonnie and Shane knocked their heads together quite hard.

  As they took their bows, Ross and Helen clapped wildly.

  ‘That was terrific, you guys,’ Ross said. ‘Maybe we should get rid of the television at home too. It makes you all so much more creative!’

  Shane’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

  ‘No way!’ he said.

  He looked so panicked at the idea of not having a TV that everyone laughed.

  Soon Lucy and Bonnie were all tucked up in bed.