by Julie Fison
That afternoon, we stood beside the water feature in the shopping mall, where we’d arranged to meet the guys. I still hadn’t told my friends what I’d decided to do. I looked at my feet. I didn’t want to disappoint them, but the Wild Club was really important to me.
‘Listen, I’ve been thinking,’ I said. ‘I’ve got to go to the movie night.’
Annabel’s face dropped, like I’d just told her I had an incurable disease. ‘That is literally the worst decision ever.’
‘You’ve gotta come to the party,’ Kimmi begged, pulling on my arm.
I took a deep breath. ‘How about we all go to the movie night? It’ll be fun if we do it together,’ I tried.
Annabel frowned. ‘That’s why we should go to Ryan’s party together.’
‘Annabel’s right, it won’t be the same without you,’ Kimmi added. ‘And Marco did make the effort to get us invited. It might seem a bit rude if you don’t show up.’
I groaned to myself. ‘I have to help out,’ I explained. ‘I’ve been in the club all year, and I feel bad enough that I didn’t go to the last few meetings. I can’t just abandon it because I’ve got a party to go to.’
Kimmi looked at me carefully. ‘Are you sure this isn’t about you having a thing for Liam?’
‘No!’ I insisted. ‘I told you, we’ll never be more than just friends.’
‘Really?’ asked Annabel. ‘But he’s such a hottie. Are you sure you don’t like him?’
‘Yes!’ We’d been in the Wild Club together all year and nothing had happened. ‘I know he’s cute, but I’m pretty sure he’s not interested.’
‘Seriously?’ Annabel smiled. ‘So he’s free? I mean, you don’t mind if I hang out with him a bit?’
‘Annabel!’ Kimmi and I chorused.
‘What about Ryan Baker?’ Kimmi asked.
‘I still think Ryan’s cute. But it’s not like he’s my boyfriend. I don’t even know him, really. Why can’t I like two guys?’ said Annabel, folding her arms.
‘I don’t have a problem with you hanging out with Liam,’ I said to Annabel. ‘Go right ahead.’
‘Shh! They’re coming!’ Kimmi hissed, her eyes darting down the mall.
Liam and Jack were walking towards us. Liam looked his usual relaxed self, probably even more chilled, now that he was out of uniform. He’d changed into a blue T-shirt that went really well with his eyes. My stomach did a weird little flip.
‘Hey there!’ I said, a little too brightly. ‘All ready for work?’
Liam nodded. ‘Ready as we’ll ever be.’
Annabel flicked her hair over her shoulder and edged closer to Liam. ‘We should probably split up if we’re going to get everything done. What do you think, Liam?’
‘Sure,’ he shrugged.
Annabel clapped her hands together. ‘Okay. Kimmi and Phoebs, you can hunt down some paints for the banner. I’ll go with the guys to get the slushie machine. Meet you back here in an hour?’
Before I had a chance to work out what was happening, Annabel was leading Liam and Jack up the escalator.
‘Wow, that was quick work,’ I muttered to Kimmi, slightly stunned.
‘You know what Annabel’s like once she’s got her heart set on something,’ said Kimmi. ‘But you know, I don’t think he’s interested in her anyway.’
‘Oh well, if anyone can talk the slushie shop owners into handing over one of their machines, it’ll be Annabel,’ I laughed.
Kimmi hesitated. ‘Are you sure you’re not feeling jealous that Annabel is hanging out with Liam and you’re not?’
I sighed and shook my head. ‘No. I don’t think so. It’s not like that. It’s just …’ It was hard to explain. My feelings were all jumbled up. ‘She wasn’t interested in the Wild Club all year, and now she is, but only because of Liam.’ I took a deep breath and tried to push my feelings aside. ‘Anyway,’ I said, grabbing Kimmi’s arm. ‘Come on. Let’s go to the art shop.’
We wandered off towards the art shop, where Kimmi thought she might be able to get paints for the banner, but I was distracted. My eyes kept darting to the top floor of the mall, hoping to catch sight of the others. I felt a knot forming in my stomach at the thought of Annabel with Liam. He was my friend. It didn’t seem quite right that she was with him.
‘Look there!’ Kimmi said, suddenly.
My eyes flashed around the top floor, searching for Liam.
‘No, there!’ Kimmi said, pointing into a jewellery shop. She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the middle of the glittering store. Her face lit up with excitement.
Kimmi reached for a bright pink necklace that was hanging on the wall and held it up. ‘What do you think? Would this go with the top I’m wearing to the party?’
Before I had a chance to answer, her eyes had darted to another necklace. ‘Or what about this one?’
I shook my head. ‘We’re really meant to be getting things done for the movie night,’ I said.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Kimmi sighed, putting the necklace back. Then her face brightened. ‘Why don’t we do both? Let’s see if we can get them to donate something for the raffle prize.’
It seemed like a good idea. While Kimmi bought a necklace, I told the shop owner all about the movie night and asked if she’d consider donating a raffle prize. She happily handed over a pair of earrings.
Success! Kimmi and I both walked out smiling.
An hour later, back at the water feature, we had a bag full of prizes for the raffle, as well as paints for the Slushies in Paradise banner. We’d put up all of our posters and I was feeling pumped about the movie night again. I couldn’t wait to share our success with the others. But as I watched Annabel coming down the escalator with Liam and Jack, that weird, jumbled feeling came back to me.
Annabel bounced towards us with a grin on her face, like she’d just won first prize in some big competition.
‘How’d you go?’ I asked.
‘Amazing!’ Annabel said. ‘Sloppy Slushie has a mobile trailer that they’re going to let us use for the movie night. It’s so cute. It’s a caravan full of slushie machines, with a big window at the front where you serve customers.’
‘Annabel even convinced them to let us have it for free,’ said Liam.
Annabel flashed him a bright smile.
‘Cool,’ I said flatly. ‘That’s really great.’
I should have been excited about the slushie trailer. It was great news. But I couldn’t shake the bad feeling I had. And to make things worse, Annabel kept touching Liam on the arm as she talked. What was that about?
‘We scored a cool raffle prize,’ said Kimmi. She took the earrings out of the bag and showed the others.
Annabel screwed up her nose as she inspected them. ‘Shame they look kind of tacky.’
I could feel my skin prickle. I knew Annabel was right – the earrings were a bit cheap, but she didn’t need to say it. ‘They’re actually very expensive,’ I lied. ‘And look what else we got.’
I pulled out the rest of our donations, doing my best to show the others how hard we’d worked on the fundraiser. I knew I was a being silly, but I just couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to impress the guys.
‘Good work,’ Liam said. ‘Annabel said you’d just be off shopping.’
I glared at Annabel.
‘Jokes!’ She laughed, but I didn’t see anything funny about it. She was the one who loved shopping. And then it hit me. I knew why I was so annoyed with Annabel. She was being fake. She was pretending to be interested in the Wild Club and the movie night, but all she really cared about was getting Liam to like her.
‘So, should we meet up again next week, to work out our plans for the slushie stall?’ Annabel suggested.
Liam nodded. ‘How ’bout Monday lunchtime?’
‘Sure,’ said Annabel. ‘Let’s swap numbers, just in case we need to contact each other about anything. What’s your number, Liam?’
It annoyed me that Annabel seemed to be taking over the group, and even thou
gh we all swapped numbers, I felt weird that Annabel had Liam’s number in her phone. Suddenly everything about her was starting to bug me.
‘Liam and Jack are really fun,’ Annabel said as we left the guys and wandered off towards the car park, where Mum was meeting us.
‘Shame you’re not going to the movie night,’ I said. ‘You’d have even more time to hang out with them. I bet the guys are pretty annoyed that you’re bailing on the big night.’
‘Oh, well, about that …’ Annabel gave me a sly grin.
I frowned. ‘What?’
‘Today didn’t seem like the right time to tell them,’ said Annabel. ‘I didn’t want to look like an animal hater.’
‘You didn’t tell them about the party?’
Annabel shrugged.
‘But we’re still going, right?’ Kimmi said, staring at Annabel.
Annabel nodded. ‘Of course! It’s going to be amazing. But we should definitely do what we can to help out with the movie night. I mean, we care about animals as well as parties, right?’
‘Yeah,’ said Kimmi. ‘We’re party animals!’
Kimmi and Annabel laughed, and went on about how cute Liam and Jack were. I guess I was being quiet, because Annabel asked, ‘You okay, Phoebs?’
I just nodded and smiled, and pretended everything was okay. I’d wanted my friends to be interested in the Wild Club all year. But now that they’d finally joined, all they could talk about were guys.
‘Please can we make brownies? Please, please, please?’ my little sister Lulu whined.
I was lying on my bed with my headphones on, trying to work out why I’d been so grumpy about Annabel and Liam, but my sister was making it impossible to think.
‘Please, Pee Pee,’ she carried on, using my least-favourite nickname. ‘Please can we?’
I took my headphones off. ‘I’m busy.’
‘No,’ she snapped back. ‘You said you would help me make brownies.’
I sighed and got up. I wasn’t going to work anything out with my four-year-old sister nagging me. And besides, she was right. I had agreed to help her bake while Mum got the washing done. ‘Okay, then. Go get the ingredients out.’
Lulu ran out of my bedroom squealing, her tutu bouncing up and down. She’d lasted at ballet lessons for no more than a month, but she really loved that tutu. I changed out of my pyjamas and followed her into the kitchen. Lulu was already dragging things out of the pantry. Flour, sugar, breakfast cereal, cake decorations, curry powder – a whole mixture of random ingredients.
I lined up the things that we would need for the brownies and let Lulu measure them into the bowl. She had a look of extreme concentration on her face as she did so, like she was working on a medical breakthrough. She loved to cook, but the problem was that she cooked like she was making mud pies: everything and anything went into the cake mix. One time, she even added peppercorns into a chocolate-cake mix when I wasn’t looking.
‘I’ll mix,’ she declared, when all the ingredients were in the bowl.
I handed her the wooden spoon and stood back. My sister could be very cute when she wasn’t whining. Baking was also a good distraction from thinking about Liam and Annabel. Was something really going on with them? They’d almost looked like a couple coming down the escalator at the mall yesterday – so close their hands were almost touching. I should have been happy to see my two friends getting on so well, but for some reason it just didn’t feel right. Annabel was a party girl and Liam was a nature boy. They weren’t suited at all.
That’s when I heard my phone beep.
‘Keep stirring,’ I told Lulu, and headed to my bedroom to find my phone. I had a feeling it would be Kimmi, trying to convince me to go to the party. I fumbled around on my bedside table and checked the message. My heart skipped a beat. It was from Liam.
Hi Phoebe, I have to go to Baitman’s Cove today. Do you want to come? My mum is making me help clean up down there. Long story. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but it would be cool if you did. Liam.
I blinked. Liam was asking me to hang out with him for the day? I felt like the breath had been knocked out of my chest. Calm down, I told myself. He’s asking you to collect rubbish. But I was actually excited about it.
Sounds like fun, I replied.
A reply came straight back. Cool. I’m heading there now. Come down when you can.
My pulse started racing as I read the message. Liam was leaving for the beach now, but I wasn’t anywhere near ready. What was I going to wear? What was the right look for collecting rubbish at the beach? I could hardly dress up, but I couldn’t really dress down either. I flung open my wardrobe and stared at my clothes. I really needed some help on this one. I decided to text Kimmi.
‘Pee Pee!’ my little sister called.
‘Coming,’ I replied, hastily tapping out a message to Kimmi.
Liam has asked me to meet him at the cove. He’s doing some kind of clean-up thing down there and wants me to help.
‘Pee Pee!’ my little sister yelled again.
I got back to the kitchen just in time. Lulu had poured the mixture into a baking tin and was about to put it into the oven. I raced to take the tin off her before she spilt the lot or burnt herself. Mum would freak if she knew I’d let Lulu use the oven alone, when I was meant to be looking after her. I slid the tray into the oven just as a message popped up from Kimmi.
Ah-ha! A date! That sounds so cute!
Definitely not a date! I replied, texting with one hand. I slammed the oven door shut and put the timer on with the other. We’re going to be collecting rubbish! But what do I wear?
I rinsed the mixing bowl and wiped down the bench, then handed Lulu the ingredients to put away.
Do you have any cute overalls? Kimmi suggested.
Ah, no, I replied. I went back to my bedroom and stared into my wardrobe again.
OK, no idea then, she texted. Soz, gotta go. But good luck!
Lulu appeared at the door a moment later. ‘Whatcha doin’?’
‘Thinking,’ I said absently, pulling out a top and then hanging it up again.
‘Where you going?’
‘Just going to the cove.’
‘I’m coming!’ Lulu announced, without waiting to be asked.
‘Sorry, not this time. I’m doing jobs. It’ll be no fun. And you’ll get your tutu all dirty.’
Lulu frowned and wandered off. I grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of shorts and put them on. I changed another five times before I was finally ready to go to the cove to meet Liam. By then the timer on the oven had gone off. I went to the kitchen and found Mum getting the brownies out of the oven.
‘Mum, is it okay if I go down to the cove for a couple of hours?’ I asked. ‘I’m meeting a friend from the Wild Club – we’re doing some cleaning-up project.’
‘Well, good for you,’ she said.
‘I might take the brownies with me.’ I took a step towards the bench.
‘No!’ Lulu shrieked, rushing towards the brownies.
I tried to ease past her. ‘Lulu, we can make some more later. When I get back.’
‘No!’ She pushed me away, screaming.
Man, she really howled when things weren’t going her own way.
‘How about you take Lulu to the cove with you,’ Mum suggested. ‘Then you can both have the brownies.’
‘Mu-um, really?’
‘Really!’ said Lulu.
I looked from Mum to Lulu and then glanced at the clock. If I tried to negotiate my way out of this I might miss Liam altogether. I accepted the deal with a sigh.
A short time later, I was on my way to Baitman’s Cove with a basket full of warm brownies and a sister dressed for a ballet concert.
‘I’m going to build the biggest sandcastle ever,’ Lulu said as we walked down the final set of stairs to the cove. We often came here in the summer. It was still a bit chilly to get in the water just yet, but it was always sandcastle-building weather as far as Lulu was concerned.
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br /> ‘Can you make me a mermaid sandcastle?’ she begged.
‘We’re not building sandcastles,’ I said. ‘We’re going to be picking up rubbish.’
‘I’m going to be picking up shells and treasure!’ she replied, skipping down the stairs.
‘Okay, whatevs.’ There was no point arguing with a four-year-old.
I paused at the bottom of the stairs. From there, I could see the whole cove. There was a small band of volunteers at one end, with rubbish bags.
I spotted Liam waving at me from the far end of the beach – looking slightly silly. He was wearing a pair of gloves and was armed with long-handled tongs.
‘I didn’t think you were coming,’ he said when we met on the beach.
‘Are you kidding? A beach clean-up day? Wouldn’t miss it for the world!’
Liam laughed. ‘Okay, now you’re scaring me.’
‘I’m a ballerina!’ Lulu interrupted. ‘And I’ve made brownies.’ Her timing was pretty good, because I was sounding a bit weird.
Liam smiled at Lulu. ‘They smell pretty good.’
Lulu nodded and reached for the basket. ‘Let’s eat them.’
‘Not right now,’ I said, holding the brownies well out of Lulu’s reach. ‘First we’re going to help clean up.’
She frowned. ‘First we’re going to make a sand mermaid!’
She bolted off across the beach, in the opposite direction from the clean-up volunteers. I watched her go. ‘I knew this would happen,’ I mumbled.
‘It’s cool,’ Liam said, peeling off his gloves and tossing them in a nearby bin. ‘There’s hardly any rubbish left anyway. We should help your sister.’
I shrugged. ‘You think?’
Liam nodded. ‘Just don’t tell my mum. She said if I did four hours down here she’d help me buy a new skateboard. But you know, four hours building sand mermaids is like community service, isn’t it?’
‘Sure,’ I laughed. ‘You actually deserve a medal for hanging out with my sister.’
We walked across the sand to join Lulu and got started on the mermaid. Normally I got bored, making sandcastles with Lulu. But it was a lot more fun with Liam. He put up with all Lulu’s silly requests for mermaid scales and special fins. He even laughed when she ‘accidentally’ flung a whole handful of sand on his head.