Ocean Pearl (12 page)

There is nothing more embarrassing than waving at
someone you think is waving to you, then realising
they're actually waving to the person behind you.

But I was certain that the tall guy in the sunnies and
baseball cap was waving at us, like we were his besties.

'Georgie?' Georgie was preoccupied with trying to
make the chocolate wrapper look like it had more in it.
'Georgie, that's not Jules, is it?'

Georgie's head shot up. 'Jules? Where?'

'It is him.' Jules was walking towards us.

'Hey.'

'Hey,' we said back.

'What are you doing out of prison?'

'Chocolate fix,' answered Georgie, running her arm
across her mouth. 'You know how it is.'

'Sounds like some weird stuff 's been going on.'

'Did you talk to Ace?'

'For a second, last night. She said the girl from
Tasmania had been booted out and she was coming up.
Then she texted me today to say she'd arrived.' I had
not borrowed Harry Potter's invisibility cloak but Jules
was having a conversation with one person. 'So, when
are we going surfing again? Come on, Georgie, I'm
dying.'

'I don't know when I'll be able to. They're turning
up the pressure.'

'Hey!' Finally Jules spotted me. 'Ace's Kelly Slater
cap! How come she lets you wear it?'

I pointed to Jules's cap. 'My dad used to go for the
Gold Coast Cougars.'

'Yeah?'

'He goes for the Atlanta Braves now.'

Jules laughed. His teeth were so white they had to
glow in the dark. 'That's a different league.'

'I think he likes that they're called the Braves,' I
answered. 'Who do you go for?'

'Toronto Blue Jays, my home-town team. Georgie,
your buddy knows her baseball.'

For once, Georgie didn't have a comeback line.

'I'll let you girls get back to the fortress. I'll text you,
Georgie. Okay?'

But Georgie was almost across the road. I was
zigzagging around the cars to keep up with her.

'Have you got credit?' he called out to her.

She gave him the thumbs up.

'Good.' Jules was pretty much yelling now. 'So text
back this time.'

'Georgie? Georgie?' It was three of my steps to every
one of hers. 'Has Jules been texting you?'

'Twice. Okay? They both said the same thing! "Let's
go surfing dude." It's not like he's trying to crack on.'

'I know that!'

'He's with Ace, remember.' Georgie was out of
breath. She was puffing as she spoke. 'So how come
you know so much about baseball?'

'I don't.'

'You sounded like you did.'

'Why don't you want to go surfing with Jules again?'

'I didn't say I didn't want to.'

'I could tell.' Now I was almost jogging. 'I'm not a
total idiot.'

'I didn't say you were!'

'Is your period due, Georgie?'

'No!'

'Just checking.'

Did Georgie like Jules? It was possible. But surely
she didn't think Jules liked her? No way.

Georgie had never hooked up – well, once, but that
didn't count, it was just some loser who grabbed her
for five seconds at a party – and I still didn't have my
periods. Our joke had always been that Georgie
would end up as one of those creeps in late-night chat
rooms and I'd never be able to have children. Sometimes
we'd plan how we'd help each other. I'd get the
guy and she could have the babies. That was a win-win
solution.

'Georgie, you don't have the hots for Jules, do you?
I mean, you're only human, but –'

'Kia! I do not have the hots for Jules. Get real. He's
Ace's boyfriend.'

She had the hots for Jules.

*

Tomorrow was the last day the four of us, the Starfish
Sisters, would be alone. By Saturday lunchtime there'd
be another four girls here. I had just come to the realisation
that it was only me who could bring us together. For
starters, I was the only one really speaking to Ace, so
already I was the middleman.

Reading Micki's diary was a low thing to do but to
be honest I felt sorry for Ace. Everyone was against her
and if anyone knew what that felt like, it was me.

Ace'd burst into the rec room squealing and
jumping around so excited to see us and what did we
do? Nothing. We sat there looking at her like she was
some killer germ from Africa. Me included. But Ace was
the last person I'd expected to see.

At least then we had the excuse that we'd just found
out about Megan. Now that excuse was starting to look
weak.

Georgie almost hated Ace. At least, she was acting
like she did. Plus it looked like Georgie had the hots for
her boyfriend.

Ace didn't know that but she sure knew Georgie
wasn't happy to see her.

After lunch, Ace'd cornered me outside the rec room.

'Quick! Come in, Kia,' she said beckoning, then
closed the door behind us.

'What's happened?' I pretended.

'What's happened?' Ace echoed. 'You tell me. What
the hell is up with Georgie? She is being a total bitch!'

'She's a bit spun out about Megan.' I kept my eye on
the door or rather the door handle. My life would not
be worth living if Georgie busted me in here with Ace.
What a waste that would be. Georgie and I were totally
cruising now. 'I'm sure she'll settle down.'

Boy, that was a stupid thing to say.

'Does she have PMS 'cause that's the only thing I
can think of.'

'No.'

Ace's eyes opened wide, like they were ready to pop
out of her head.

Now I wanted to take the truth back and put a lie in
its place. 'I asked her this morning.'

'So she's being a bitch to you too?'

'Just a bit snappy,' I replied, squeezing behind the
whiteboard so I couldn't be spotted through the
window. 'And she's probably a bit tired. Today might
seem easy but they've been pushing us hard. I think
we're all feeling it.'

'Maybe that's what's wrong with Micki,' Ace
whined. 'I don't think Micki's said more than two
words to me. That's pretty rude, you must admit.'

I could feel myself rocking back and forth on the
soles of my feet, which had never been a good sign.
Just
chill,
I told myself.
Ace isn't attacking you. She's just – she's
just asking lots of questions. Ace is a big girl. She might be
very, very famous but she can look after herself.

'We should probably get back,' I suggested.

Ace stepped in front of the door. 'So it's not that
heads have got a bit big while I've been away?' she
asked. 'This is my third time at camp, remember. They
do start pushing the "you're elite, you're super
wonderful" line.'

'There's been none of that,' I replied. 'I promise.'

'I just – I just had this idea that me turning up was
going to be the best thing ever. The four of us together
again. You know, the Starfish Sisters are back.' Ace's
bottom lip was quivering. 'I feel like Megan being
chucked out was meant to be. This is like our total
dream – but – but it's not feeling like that. At least not
with the others. You're the only one who's being
normal. At least I can rely on you.'

'It'll be okay,' I said, coming out from behind the
whiteboard to give Ace a hug. 'It's just been a big day –
a big few days.'

It was hard being 'normal'. Suddenly I'd become the
girl that got on with everyone. It actually made me feel
like a piece of ham wedged between two slices of bread.
One slice being Micki and Georgie. They wouldn't
mind sharing – they were so tight.

The other slice being Ace.

Also, being the normal one meant I had to fix the
situation. It was up to me to bring the Starfish Sisters
back together. Action – that's what was needed.

I just had to pick the right time and the right setting.

Night-time in the Starfish bungalow was where we
used to do our sisterhood business. So, we'd do it like
that again. Tonight!

It was a delicate operation, so it was important to tell
each girl that tonight there would be a discussion. That
way, no one could say 'I'm tired' or 'I have a headache'
or invent another random excuse.

The tricky part was finding the exact moment to tell
each girl.

Georgie and I were hosing down our boards. She'd
just had the most awesome session in the surf and she
knew it. Jake had been out on his board filming. He
was cheering her on and keeping her pumped.
She'd obviously impressed Jake big time. He'd all but
handed her the Australian Junior Female Surfing Team
rash vest.

Understandably, Georgie was amped. 'My hands
were glued to the rails and I'm thinking: don't let go. It
was so fast and I'm thinking: I'm on it. I'm on it.'

'It was a perfect wave,' I said. 'I didn't think you had
it at first.'

'Me neither.' Georgie laughed. 'I was paddling my
guts out.'

'It looked good from the beach. If it was me I'd have
scored you a nine.'

'Noooo! Really?'

'Hmm, maybe an eight-point-five.'

'Can't wait to see the video tonight,' Georgie replied.

'About tonight,' I said, seizing the moment when
Georgie was on such a high. 'I'm going to chair a
meeting between the four of us in the bungalow.'

'You're going to what?'

'The four of us are going to talk it all through
tonight.'

'Have you run this by Micki?'

'Yeah.' I hadn't but I was about to. 'It's just you and
Ace I have to tell.'

'And Micki's cool about it?'

I nodded.

Georgie was half frowning, half smirking. The possibility
of what that meant immediately gave me a
tummy ache.

'So, Kia, when's this "talk" happening?'

'Later tonight. Like we used to have them.'

'When we were the Starfish Sisters?'

'Don't be sarcastic.'

'I can't promise I won't say everything that's on
my mind.'

'That's fine.' I smiled while my stomach ache tripled.

Next stop was Micki. At least she wouldn't give me
the hairy grilling Georgie did.

The thing was, I had to find her first.

Micki had been in a Swiss ball session. After that she
was on dinner prep.

I put my board away. Made some excuse to Georgie.
Then, breaking the golden rule of not walking through
the main building in a dripping wetsuit, I jogged off in
search of Micki.

I found her outside the dining room talking on the
public phone. She waved and mouthed, 'Wait.'

'Okay,' I mouthed back as I took the chair next to her
and began to plan how I'd open the discussion.

Micki probably wasn't ready to tell Ace about her
dad. That was a good thing. Especially after Georgie
told me how Ace freaked out over sleeping in the same
bed as Megan. So maybe all Micki needed to do was tell
Ace she knew that she'd snooped in her diary and
leave it at that.

'Okay, Dad,' Micki was saying. 'I'll call you in a
couple of days. Hmm? No, today's Thursday, Dad.'

She rolled her eyes at me and smiled. I couldn't
imagine having a father who wasn't sure what day it
was. Dad organised my life for me.

'Yes, Davo. Okay. Love you.'

Micki put down the phone and sighed. 'He was
good today.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah,' she said, nodding.

'How was your Swiss ball session?'

'Hard,' Micki answered. 'I don't know how my abs
are going to feel tomorrow but I already have a tummy
ache.'

'Me too.'

'Jake was telling me that the girl from Sydney, Laura
someone, is pretty good. I think she's another one of
those big power surfers like Georgie and Ace. It's
getting nerve-racking,' Micki said, rubbing her hands
together. 'We've got twenty-four hours left, then
they're going to really turn it up. I can feel it.'

'Yeah, I know.' Patiently I had waited to squeeze it
into the conversation. 'So Micki, seeing we only have
twenty-hours left with just us four I thought tonight
we'd talk it out.'

Micki sat back in the chair.

'It'll be okay,' I told her. 'I don't think you need to tell
Ace anything about your dad. Just have it out with her
about the diary.'

'I'll never tell Ace about my dad.'

'That's up to you.'

'What does Georgie think about this?'

'She's fine about it.'

'Oh.' Micki's tone was flat.

So she wasn't angry but she wasn't happy. So what
was she? My churning tummy told me that whatever
Micki was, it wasn't good.

'I better get to the kitchen. I'm on dinner prep duty.'

'Micki?' Not that I knew what I was going to say
next.

Micki touched my arm. 'Kia, I know you're trying to
do the right thing. But you can't force it.'

'What am I trying to force?'

'Us.'

'Us?'

'The Starfish Sisters.'

Suddenly, tonight didn't feel like the right night. In
fact, it felt so wrong that I wanted to pinch myself for
opening my big mouth.

From dinnertime onwards the tension grew and
grew until I felt like my head was going to explode. It
was pretty much no talkies while we were eating,
except for me. I had to become the table's motor mouth.
At first I tried to get the other three involved but I got so
sick of their 'No', 'Yes', 'Maybe' answers that I gave up
and settled for my own voice.

To make matters worse, our night's entertainment
became the 'Georgie and Jake' show.

Jake played and replayed and re-replayed the footage
of Georgie surfing. Then he did like a mock interview
with her asking how she felt about each wave, what she
was thinking, how she visualised it. On and on he went
and on and on Georgie followed. By the end of it, I
swear she was speaking in an American accent.

Maybe Ace'd been right when she asked about
heads getting too big 'cause I was surprised Georgie
could fit hers through the doorway of the Starfish
Bungalow after that.

But what made me the most nervous was the way
Georgie was speaking to Ace. It was the same way she
spoke to Megan. It was almost like Georgie hadn't
realised that Megan had gone and that the girl standing
by the wardrobe, changing into her pyjamas was Ace.