Hide and Seek (4 page)

Shelby smoothed down the green skirt at the front and stared at herself in the mirror of Aunty Jenny's spare room. The skirt was a bit short, but she supposed that was because her legs were longer than they had been when her mother bought it. She thought she really should iron it, but then her family would know some-thing was up because she had never ironed anything in her life.

The only shoes her mother had packed were her Pollyanna school shoes. She also had her pair of scuffed old sneakers, so she had opted for the latter. She wore a pink long-sleeved tee-shirt. It had an orange stain on the front so she'd put a singlet over it, like she had seen some other kids do at the shopping centre, except it was an under-singlet – off-white, made of the same stuff they make spencers out of, with acrylic lace around the edge. It was vee-necked and the shirt was not. She hoped that didn't matter.

Shelby had had her hair done in the morning, and now she was worried that Chad would think she'd cut it for him, so she slipped Blake's 'Bob the Builder' beanie over her head. She wasn't sure if she looked really cool, or whether she looked as though she was wearing her undies on the outside, her little brother's beanie, and possibly his skirt also.

She pulled the beanie off and then put it back on again, folding it so that you couldn't see Bob. Did everyone worry about what they looked like as much as she was, or was this just because she was new to caring about it? She hoped it was a one-off, because she could waste a lot of time over the years staring in the mirror.

Shelby didn't know why she was making such a fuss anyway. It was only hot chips, and Chad might not even be there. He did say that he 'usually' hung out at the beach. He might still be fishing, and then she was going to feel like a dill.

She sighed and headed down the hall to the lounge room, where the rest of the family were playing card games or reading. Strips of coloured foil littered the floor. A half-eaten chocolate egg was melting in Blake's fingers.

They all stared.

'What?' Shelby said, feeling her face flushing.

'She's wearing a skirt,' Shelby's father said to her mother.

'Not much of a skirt,' her mother replied.

'I'd say definitely more than one hand-span above the knee,' remarked Aunty Jenny over the brim of her magazine.

'That's my beanie,' Blake remarked.

'I'm borrowing it,' Shelby said. 'Can I have five dollars? I thought I might go down to the beach and maybe get some hot chips or something.'

'You just had lunch,' said her mother.

'Yeah, I know. I might meet some other kids,' Shelby mumbled.

'Are you saying you have met some kids before and this is a prearranged meeting, or are you going to loiter at the fish and chip shop on the off-chance that you might meet some other kids?'

'Both,' Shelby answered.

Her mother laid her playing cards face down on the table and waited. Shelby's face grew redder. She was going to have to come up with an explanation.

'Well, what happened is, yesterday I met a . . . um, friend, and we said we might catch up today, maybe to have chips or something, but it's not confirmed.'

'An um friend?' Her father turned to her mother again. 'Shelby has an um friend!'

'Shut up,' Shelby muttered, her face flushed again.

'Did you hear that? She's telling us to shut up. She's wearing a miniskirt and meeting an um friend, and bam! Just like magic she's a teenager. Where's my camera? I want to record this moment.' He jumped up. 'We can have it blown up for her twenty-first. Our

little girl!' He hugged her on his way past.

'Dad!'

'He's right, Shelby,' her aunt told her, smiling. 'As painful as it is now, you might want to remember this later.' She sighed. 'Oh, first love!'

First love?
Shelby thought. This was getting way out of control. 'It's no big deal! Can I have five dollars? Please?' she asked.

Her father came back into the room with his camera trained on her. 'Go on! Throw a tantrum. That will be the full box and dice.' He clicked away – the flash going off at two-second intervals.

Blake and Connor jumped and crowded around Shelby, giggling and using their fingers to pull their faces into grotesque shapes for the camera.

'Mum?' She begged her mother to let her escape.

'So who is this friend?' her mother asked. Her father stopped snapping for a moment, keen to hear Shelby's answer.

'Just someone I met on the beach.' Shelby chose her words carefully. 'I have met this person before, though.'

'This
person
?' her father repeated, beaming. 'A person, eh? What do you think about that, boys? Is it a
he
person? Or a
she
person?'

'He! He! He!' Connor chanted, and soon Blake joined in, punching his fist into the air in time.

Shelby covered her face with her hands.

'Off you go, honey.' Her mother took ten dollars out of her purse and handed it across. 'We're going to the movies this evening, remember. Don't be late.'

'Thanks, Mum.'

'No holding hands, or I'll have to come after your um friend with a pruning saw,' her father said. He tilted his head to the side. 'OK, you can hold hands, but definitely no smooching!'

'Smooching?' Blake giggled. 'Yucko!'

Shelby fled.

At first Shelby waited up near the shops, but the breeze in the shade was cold around her legs, so she sat on the sand in the sun and watched the waves curl over one another.

She had known her dad would make a fuss, and now she was more nervous than ever, which was dumb, because it was just hot chips, and he was just a boy.

Besides, the last two times Chad had seen her she'd been dirty, and rained on, and crying, so obviously he didn't really care what she looked like. Yesterday Chad had said 'that day', so he probably didn't even remember that he had met her twice in the Gully.

Maybe he didn't even like her? Perhaps he'd only made the invitation out of politeness? She ran over the conversation they'd had the day before in her mind, looking for a different meaning that she might have missed.

There was a couple walking along the beach holding hands. Laughing, the girl broke away, running along the waterline. The boy chased after her and grabbed her around the waist. Shelby looked away as they kissed.

Above the beach there was a small grassy park. An older lady sat on a rug and fed a toddler from a baby food jar while another child, about Blake's age, played on the slippery dip.

Where was Chad anyway? It was 'afternoon' and she must have been waiting for half an hour already. Knowing her luck he'd seen her and was hiding around the corner waiting till she was gone.

Shelby stood up and brushed the sand from the back of her legs. She'd brought a book to Aunty Jenny's that Erin had lent her. She hadn't started it yet. Erin wasn't much of a reader, so it must be good if she liked it.

Shelby decided to buy some chips and a drink to take back with her to the house. Aunty Jenny had a hammock hanging from the back veranda. She'd spend the afternoon there with the book, but first she would change into some track pants. Skirts definitely weren't her style.

When she turned Chad was there, right behind her, grinning. He had gummy stuff in his hair to make it stand up, only he had missed a bit, which lay fluffy and flat on the side of his head.

'I thought it was you, but I couldn't tell with the hat. And your hair's a different colour, isn't it? I've been standing up there for ages trying to decide whether to come down and check.' He pointed his thumb over his shoulder.

Shelby put her hand on her beanie. 'Oh.'

'So do you want some chips or something?' He smiled at her again.

'OK.'

They walked up the beach towards the car park. 'Have you been here for a long time?'

'Nope.' Shelby hoped she would be able to start speaking full sentences soon. She was nervous, and it was so dumb because the first time she met Chad she had yelled at him. She took a deep breath. 'I got my hair done. It was Mum's idea. I was going to grow it out, but . . . How was fishing? What do you catch around here at this time of year?'

'A cold,' he answered.

Shelby raised an eyebrow.

'Sorry. Really bad, really old joke. We caught some nice snapper. My bro eats a lot of fish. Good brain food. Do you like fish?'

Shelby shrugged. 'It's OK, I suppose.'

They stopped at the kerb and waited for a few cars to pass before crossing. She could feel Chad standing right next to her even when she wasn't looking at him, as though he was letting off some kind of electronic waves. She couldn't think of anything to say so she watched the traffic intently. She snuck a peek at him. He was looking so seriously at the truck that passed that she wondered if he was doing the same thing.

'What's your favourite food?' Chad asked.

She thought about it for a while – food being a very important business. 'Pasta.'

'Italian heritage?' he asked.

'No,' she frowned. She didn't look Italian. 'My family is Aussie.'

'Yeah, me too,' he said.

Shelby gave him a sideways glance as they passed through the door into the chip shop. With his skin colour and dark eyes she had assumed that his family was from somewhere overseas.

Chad ordered some chips and then they stepped outside to wait. Neither of them said anything for a while. Shelby folded her arms and looked at the signs that were taped to the inside of the window. There was an ad for guitar lessons and a sign for a missing cat.

'If you go to the Catholic College you must know some of my friends. Do you know Hayley Crook or Lindsey Edel?'

'Do you hang out with those girls?' he asked.

'Yeah, they're two of my closest friends. It's weird, isn't it, to think that we both see them every day. I wonder if there are any other coincidences in our lives like that?'

Chad didn't answer. He headed inside to collect the chips. Shelby bought a bottle of soft drink for each of them and they wandered back across the road to sit on a bench in the park.

'I haven't seen you out on the trails lately,' he com-mented, unravelling the white paper packet. The delicious smell of the chips wafted up between them.

Shelby blew on a chip before putting it in her mouth. 'I've got a job at the stables, and I've been getting riding lessons, so I haven't been in the Gully much – only up near the stables.'

Chad dropped a chip. A lone seagull alighted in front of them and gobbled it up. Then three or four who had been stalking a family nearby scurried over on their red legs.

'You probably haven't seen the circus then.'

Shelby shook her head. 'Circus?'

'You know up on the other side of the Gully there's a water tower?' Chad drew a map in the air with his index finger. 'Well, in front of that there was a paddock with some cows in it.'

Shelby nodded. 'There's an old lounge on the bend.' She pointed to the place on his imaginary map where the lounge suite would be.

'That's the one.' He smiled. 'Well, the cows are gone and now there's a circus. They've just put up a new fence.'

'What do you mean a circus?'

Chad flicked a chip with a burnt spot to the birds and they squabbled over it, screeching in their bird voices. Others, attracted by the calls, alighted on the fringes, and soon they had a whole flock staring at them expectantly.

'Circuses aren't on the road all the time, you know. They have to have a base, don't they? Sometimes they have a rest and come up with a new routine.'

'No way! Are there elephants?'

Chad frowned, thinking. 'I haven't seen any elephants. Just horses.'

Shelby took a swig of her drink. 'I saw a heap of trucks on the road on the way here. It had
Equus Caballus
written on the side. It looked like a horse circus.'

'Yeah, I think that's what it's called.'

'How many horse circuses can there be?' she asked. 'Cool! I'll have to go and have a look.'

'We could go together,' Chad suggested. 'Then I might be brave enough to ask if I can watch them practice instead of hiding in the scrub.'

'Were you on your trail bike when you did this hiding?'

'Yep.'

'And you reckon they didn't know you were there?' Shelby grinned. 'If you're going to make a habit of lurking in the bushes you'll need a quieter form of transport!' She put her index finger on her chin in an exaggerated gesture, as though she was thinking. 'Hmm. Let me see, what's fast and quiet?'

He shook his head and scrunched up the empty paper. 'I've already told you I think you're crazy getting on those things. Bikes don't have their own idea about where they want to go, and they don't get lost all the time!'

Shelby took one last mouthful of her drink and then handed him the empty bottle to put in the bin.

'Good chips, eh?'

'Yeah. Thanks for inviting me.' Shelby stood up.

'Are you going?' he asked. 'We could walk along the beach. There's a rock platform on the headland. We could look for anemones and starfish. I saw an octopus there once. Ever wrestled with an octopus? They're really strong – like one big muscle. Or we could walk out along the jetty. One of my cousins is out there fishing.'

'I can't. We're going to see . . .' Shelby paused, embarrassed. He might think it was babyish to see an animated movie. 'I have a family thing.'

'What about tomorrow?' he asked.

'I'd love to but we're going home tomorrow,' Shelby told him. She looked him in the eye and realised she really would like to explore the rock platform with Chad. It had been hard to think of things to say at first, but now they were talking as though they'd known each other for years. He wasn't at all like the boys at school. They all seemed to be from another species. Chad seemed to be a friend already.

'Well, we should arrange a day to look at the circus. What about next week sometime?' he asked.

'Maybe. I work, remember. It's really busy right now because of the holidays. What about if you ring me?'

Chad patted his pockets. 'I don't have a pen!'

Shelby laughed at the tragic look on his face. 'We're in the phone book. My last name is Shaw. Can you remember that?'

'Sure can!' He winked.

She groaned.

'I guess you've heard that one before.'

'Once or twice,' she admitted as she backed away.

'I'll ring you then, Shelby.'

'Bye!' Shelby waved. Then she felt dumb for waving when he was standing only two metres away, so she turned and jogged up the hill. Then she thought she probably shouldn't actually
run
away from him. He might think she didn't want him to ring her, when really she did.