‘But surely I’m too old,’ Roy said.
Penelope sighed. ‘I don’t think you’re ever too old for love.’ Then she had another thought. ‘Though it’s possible that you can be too young.’
Roy shook his head.
‘Yet my silly old heart goes clunkety clunk whenever I see Doris,’ he said. ‘I’ve been trying to ignore it.’
‘I don’t think it’s good to ignore your heart,’ Penelope said. ‘It doesn’t sound very healthy.’
‘Maybe that’s why you’re always cranky?’ Bob offered.
‘Ease up kid,’ Roy said. ‘I’m not always cranky.’
‘I’m sure you have good moments,’ Penelope reassured him. ‘It’s probably just that we’ve never been here at the right time, so we haven’t seen them.’
Roy blew out a very deep breath.
‘What can I do about it anyway?’ he said. ‘I mean, a gal like Doris isn’t going to be interested in an old codger like me.’
Bob frowned. ‘Well, you won’t know what Doris thinks about you, you old codger,’ she said, ‘unless you let her know how you feel.’
‘Maybe start with something small,’ Penelope suggested. It was a Very Good Suggestion, and Penelope felt quite proud of it. Roy must have thought so too, because, suddenly, he clapped both hands on his knees.
‘Righto,’ he said, ‘here goes nothing.’
Penelope took the opportunity to straighten Roy’s bow tie. His downward slash of a mouth seemed to gravitate upwards slightly. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Then Roy took off. Halfway down the corridor, there was a table with a doily and a vase of plastic roses. Roy picked out a pink rose and put it on his lap as he wheeled back into the lounge room.
Some of the elderly folk were chatting with the kids from Penelope’s art class. Others were inspecting the paintings up close.
Roy wheeled his chair up to the spot where Doris was chatting to Sheena, but then hesitated, and reversed.
On the third go, he did it. Penelope and Bob could see his mouth move, though they couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then Roy handed Doris the pink flower.
Even from a distance, it was easy to see Doris’ reaction. Her smile was huge. She took the rose (which luckily was plastic and didn’t have any thorns) and pushed it into her lovely blue hair, where it sat above her left ear.
Roy looked back at Penelope and Bob and waved.
Penelope put her arm around Bob’s shoulder.
‘I think Cupid’s arrow is right where it should be,’ she said.
When Penelope arrived home and saw Ava’s bike on their verandah, she had a moment of wishing things would go back to normal. But Penelope pushed the thought aside and walked in.
Harry and Ava were on the couch again, all squished up together. And the TV was on. But (and this was Very Unusual, but in a good way) they were not watching the show Harry normally watched at this time on Fridays. Penelope did NOT like Harry’s favourite TV show, where people dare each other to do strange and dangerous things for no good reason. But he was (usually) very bossy if Penelope tried to change the channel.
Today, though, Harry and Ava were watching a show about a funny family (Penelope had hardly ever been allowed to watch it, so she couldn’t remember the name). And Harry was chuckling away with Ava as though he was actually enjoying it. This was a Very Interesting development.
Penelope walked into the lounge and sat on the armchair. As soon as Ava saw her, she pressed pause on the remote to greet her (which was something Harry would never do, and a very nice thing indeed).
‘Hello Miss P,’ Ava said. Then, without waiting for an answer, she jumped up and pulled Penelope into the kitchen.
‘Hey, where are you going?’ Harry called out (he could be very impatient).
‘Just a sec, Harry,’ Ava yelled over her shoulder. She turned back to Penelope. ‘So, how did you go yesterday. With Oscar?’ she whispered in a very private way that made Penelope feel quite special.
‘Really good,’ Penelope replied. She had nearly finished telling Ava all about Oscar and their conversation in the tree when Harry yelled out again.
‘I’m pushing play, ready or not!’
Ava rolled her eyes. ‘First Harry says he can’t stand shows like that, and now he’s all antsy about getting back to watching it.’
Penelope rolled her eyes back at Ava.
‘Boys!’ she said.
And, right then and there, Penelope realised something. Not all change is for the worst.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chrissie Perry is the author of over thirty books for children and young adults, including thirteen books in the popular Go Girl series and the award-winning Whisper. She lives in St Kilda with her husband, three children (who are stubbornly refusing to stay young) and an opinionated Maltese Shih Tzu called Gidget. Like Penelope Kingston, Chrissie believes it’s great to aim for excellence. But she has a sneaking suspicion that going with the flow every now and again can also work out just fine.
To Hugo Perry, for countless challenges of Would you rather?
Quiz Questions and Complicated Crushes
published in 2016 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond,Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
Text copyright © 2016 Chrissie Perry
Illustrations copyright © 2016 Hardie Grant Egmont
Series design copyright © 2016 Hardie Grant Egmont
Series design by Elissa Webb
Illustrations by Jon Davis
eISBN 9781743584224
We welcome feedback from our readers. All our ebooks are edited and proofread vigorously, but we know that mistakes sometimes get through. If you spot any errors, please email [email protected] so that we can fix them for your fellow ebook readers..
Quiz Questions & Complicated Crushes Page 5