Ocean Pearl (20 page)

Some of us had free time while the others had a team
tactics session in the surf. So Kia invited Steph and Zena
in to have a good perve at Ace's photo album while she
wasn't around. Not that Ace would've objected.

They were lying on the floor of the bungalow,
flipping through the album, their 'ooooohs' and
'ahhhhhhs' and 'wowwwwws' bouncing off the ceiling.
I was lying on my bed trying to catch up on last
night's sleep. But after Steph's 'Oh my God, that is the
best one ever!' squeal I decided to stop being boring
and join the fan club.

'Ace and I were talking about that bikini yesterday!'
Steph gasped, just about poking her finger through the
photograph. 'It's my total fave. It's named after the
Ocean Pearl designer. I asked Ace if she reckons they'll
name a bikini after her.'

'What did she say?' Kia asked, pressing her foot
against mine.

'She said maybe.'

'Did – did you know' – my stomach still couldn't
handle OP and Ace at the same time – 'that Kia and
Georgie make bikinis?'

'We haven't done many lately,' Kia said. 'Hopefully
we'll get back into it. I've done heaps of new designs.'

'You should get Ace to organise you work experience
at OP,' suggested Steph. 'How cool would that be?'

'I mentioned that to Ace a few months ago but she
didn't think it was a goer.'

'She didn't even ask?' Zena said. 'Slack.'

Kia shrugged. 'It doesn't matter.'

'If you want, I could sell your bikinis at the Mornington
markets,' offered Zena. 'I've always wanted to have
a stall there.'

'Yeah, maybe,' Kia said, nodding.

'One of my brothers makes these really cool T-shirts
–'

'Hey!' Kia said, sitting up to face Zena. 'That
reminds me. What happened with your brother and
Ace? You never got to tell us.'

'Hmm,' Zena murmured, 'I kind of regretted
opening my mouth about that. I was hoping no one'd
remember.'

'As if!' Steph squawked. 'Like, we're talking about
Ace, not one of us. No offence.'

'Please don't repeat it, 'cause it was ages ago. But
Ace really played him. She was the biggest two-timer.
My brother had a mental when he heard she was here.'

'So he still hasn't got over her?' Steph grilled. 'Not
meaning to be rude, Zena, but that's tradge 'cause Ace
didn't exactly know straightaway who your brother
was. She wasn't like, "Oh my God, I remember him!"'

Would someone please shove a paper bag in Steph's
mouth? You didn't have to be a genius to work out that
Zena felt bad for her brother. Ace must've gobbled him
up then spat him out just as quickly. I wasn't a guy and
I'd never been out with Ace but I had an idea how
Zena's brother probably felt.

That was another thing swimming around in my
head: Ace not being the Ocean Pearl girl and how she
was going to feel when she found out. Would she hate
me? Would she ever speak to me again? Would I
suddenly become the girl who ruined her perfect life?
Because that wasn't what I meant to do.

According to Laura, we were not going to be mixed into
different surf teams anymore. She reckoned – not that
she'd reveal her source, which probably meant she was
making it up – that she knew they were going to select
either her group or the Starfish Sisters for the Australian
Junior Female Surfing Team.

Kia almost jumped on top of me when I told the
others. 'How would Laura know that? Hey? Where
would she get that info from?'

'She wouldn't say,' I answered, 'but she was acting
like she knew.'

'It's total crap,' Georgie said. 'Why would Jake have
just wasted his time on a team tactics surf with me, Ace,
Jussie and Laura if that was the case? It doesn't make
sense.'

'So why's she saying it?' Micki asked.

'This is a contest, remember? It's a psych-out trick.
Laura wants us to relax, get comfortable,' Georgie said,
peeling off her sweaty T-shirt.

Georgie was actually looking pretty good. She still
had the shoulders of a bloke and her legs could hold up
the Sydney Harbour Bridge but she didn't have an
ounce of fat on her. Georgie had so many freckles on
her face but for the first time I noticed how perfect the
skin on her body was. I decided I'd tell her. That might
help to swing her mood around to the Georgie I knew.

Perhaps it'd even squeeze a bit of sympathy out of
her. She'd said maybe five words about Jules and me
breaking up. It did have me thinking that maybe she
was a teensy bit happy he'd dumped me. Like, 'If I
can't get a boyfriend then I don't want my friend to
have one,' type of thing. Still, if she was happy about it
then why wasn't she being nicer to me? It was a total
mystery.

Giving her a compliment might actually put a smile
on her face.

'Look at your muscles! They are bulging, Georgie!
Wow, they're – '

Georgie shot me a greasy that said, 'Drop dead or I'll
do it for you.'

Okaaaaay.

'I really stink. I need a shower,' Georgie said, brushing
past me. 'Do you think I've got time before dinner?'

Micki checked her watch. 'Nearly ten minutes.'

I waited till the shower was on until I said, 'What did
I say? I was trying to be nice. What is up her bum?'

'Don't worry about her,' Micki told me.

'But I do!' I said. 'Kia, has Georgie said any more
to you about cracking with the pressure here? I tried to
ask her the day after the karaoke disaster but she bit my
head off. So I decided I'm not going there again. If she
wants to discuss ways to deal with it then she knows
where I am. That's fair, don't you think?'

'I agree with Micki,' Kia sighed. 'Stop beating
yourself up over Georgie. Just leave her. We should be
worrying about what Laura said. 'Cause if she's
making up a story to try and get the advantage on us,
then that sucks. But if she's not, and one of us has
stuffed up, like in the interviews or something, then
that's going to affect all of us.'

'You're right!' I agreed, shoving my feet back into
my shoes. 'I'm going to their bungalow right now. I'm
going to ask Laura straight out.'

'You'll get soaked,' Micki said. 'It's like a cyclone out
there.'

I pulled out Georgie's green coat from under her
pile of sweaty gym clothes. 'I'll take this,' I said, doing a
sniff check under the sleeves. 'I'll be back soon with
information.'

Sheets of rain whipped across the walkway. I patted
my hair, checking the pins were in place, then pulled
the hood of Georgie's coat over my head, zipped it to
the neck, stuck my hands in the pockets and ran. I
would find out what the hell was really going on.

Raindrops the size of ping pong balls hit the
pathway one after the other. Dodging them was like
jumping over bullets. I felt like I was in a war movie,
going in to battle the enemy, which in a way I was.

The rain was so loud I didn't hear it ringing. But my
fingers felt the vibration. One hand went to bang on
the door of the Dolphin Bungalow while the other
pulled Georgie's mobile out of her coat pocket.

The name 'Jules' was lit up on the screen.

'Hello?'

'This rain's not going to stop, is it?' Jules's voice. So
clear, like he was standing next to me. 'I'm being picked
up at six am tomorrow. What are we going to do,
Georgie? I've got to see you before I go. Agghhh,' he
moaned. I'd heard that sound before. 'Georgie? Think
of a way we can . . .'

I looked down at the phone as I snapped it shut. The
numbers said 00:16. Sixteen seconds to solve the mystery.

Zena was standing at the doorway of the bungalow.
'Are you coming in?' Her voice sounded far, far away.
'Ace, are you okay?'

But I couldn't speak because my throat was about to
explode.

My feet skidded and sloshed through the puddles as
I tore my way back to the Starfish Bungalow. Who
exactly was the enemy?

I threw open the door. Micki and Kia looked up from
the magazine they were reading. Georgie was
crouched over on the floor furiously digging through
her pile of dirty clothes.

'I've got it!' I spat, bundling her coat into a ball and
chucking it at her. It hit just as the explosion in my
throat detonated. 'How could you!'

I ran at Georgie. I beat my fists on her shoulders
while shrapnel sprayed from my mouth. 'I hate you! I
hate you! You were meant to be my friend.' Georgie
stood there. She didn't move. 'You two-faced, lying,
sneaking bitch. I'll never ever forgive you. Ever! Ever!
Ever!' I grabbed her neck. I wanted Georgie to fight
back. I wanted to feel something from her. Anything.
'What have you got to say for yourself? Hey?'

'Ace! Ace?' Micki and Kia were on my back like a
couple of leeches. 'Stop it! Stop!'

I spun around to look at them. 'What? Are you her
little minders? Are you? Are you? Do you know what
she's been up to? Sneaking around with Jules,
my
boyfriend?'

'They don't know anything about it!' Georgie
shouted. 'They've got nothing to do with it.'

Kia was crying. Micki was herding her away from
us, whispering to her to 'breathe, breathe' like she was
the one who had the problem.

'Ace, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.' Georgie was trying to
hold my shoulders but now I didn't want her to touch
me. 'Please, please just let –'

'Please what?' I shrieked, pushing her so hard she
fell. 'Please keep being my friend? Please keep giving
me fashion advice? Please let me keep saying that
Courtney McFarlane is my friend!' Georgie was picking
herself up off the floor. 'You've used me. You've –
you've –' I saw my foot swing out to trip her but it froze
as a voice thundered over mine.

'What is going on?' Jake was standing by the open
door. The faces of Jussie and Steph and Laura and Zena
peeked out from behind him. 'Hey? What the hell is
going on in here?'

Georgie was still on the floor, breathing hard and
fast. I was panting and the sweat had pasted my hair
across my forehead. I stumbled towards Jake. 'Do you
really want to know?' I spat. 'Really?'

'We'll talk about it later, Ace,' Jake said, in a way that
was so calm and controlled it made me want to tear my
hair out and shove it down his throat. 'Now, girls, all of
you get down to the dining room. We're having dinner.
Then after dinner we're playing charades.'

My tears didn't start until we played charades. Not that
the game was to blame, even though Jussie picked the
movie
A Walk to Remember
, which I only had to think of
and my eyes'd start watering.

It was a moment in charades that made me cry
because suddenly I got what the karaoke thing had
been about. At first it made me burst into tears because
it hit me like a smack across the face. But then I kept
crying because it just plain hurt.

It was Georgie's turn to act out a movie, book, song,
whatever. Of course, we were sitting about as far away
from each other as possible. So it wasn't like I was
looking at her. But then Jake said, 'Come on, Georgie.
Up. It's your turn. We're all going to have a go.'

That's when I saw Georgie was shaking her head,
going, 'No. No. I don't want to.'

She wouldn't budge, just like on the karaoke night
when she'd been picked to get up and sing 'Friends
Forever' with me.

Jules and I were still together then.

Quietly I sat there listening to Jake trying to coax
Georgie off the couch while the tears bubbled out of my
eyes. I didn't want to jump up and smack her again. I
just wanted to sit there and cry.

That was the other thing about the karaoke night.
That night I wrote down my three goals. Three things I
wanted to achieve by the end of the week.

1. Be selected for the national team.

2. Focus. Focus. Focus, coz that's the only way I'll
make number 1.

3. That Georgie will forgive me coz I know she
hasn't yet.

Every time the springs of Georgie's bed squeaked, I
opened an eye to check if she was sneaking out to meet
Jules. But all she seemed to do was roll over or snuffle
and snort like some variety of bush pig.

There was a question I wanted answered. What did
Georgie have that I didn't? Yeah, she was funny, she
was easy to talk to, she listened, but – but she was no
supermodel!

Not that I could believe it, but I had been dumped
twice now in the same year! Tim dumped me, but that
was an age thing. So what was it with Jules? Did it start
all the way back when Jules wouldn't sleep with me? But
I wasn't a loser now. So what was it? There must have
been something I'd missed.

I started to dissect every conversation I'd had with
Georgie and every conversation I'd had with Jules
since I'd been here at camp. But I hadn't really had that
many chats to Jules while I was here. It was mostly
texting 'cause he was always running off to training.
The last decent conversation Jules and I had must've
been before I came to camp.

I squeezed my eyes shut. If I could remember what I
was wearing when we'd had that phone call then I'd be
able to work out where I was and when it was.

Yes! Quietly I punched the air. Jules had called me. I
was on my bed, rubbing Daryl's hair growth stimulation
tonic into my bald patch. It was night-time. I was
wearing my Peter Alexander dressing gown with the
angels and love hearts on it. Jules was getting all
tooshie 'cause I kept putting the phone down so I
wouldn't spill any tonic on my chest. Daryl had
warned me to be careful: 'We don't want to stimulate
any hair growth where we don't want it!'

Jules'd started whinging about how I never went
surfing with him and how I kept promising I would. So
I told him I'd get Georgie – hang on! I sat up straight.

I didn't say I'd get Georgie to give Jules a surfing
lesson. It was Jules's idea! He'd asked me to text him
Georgie's number. He said seeing she was around the
corner at camp maybe he'd ask her to teach him how
to surf.

How long had they been together, sneaking around
behind my back? Sometime between tonight and
maybe even before I'd got to camp, Jules and Georgie
had started an affair.

Is that why Jules'd been so agreeable when I asked
him not to meet her that morning at the beach? Georgie
wasn't down in the dumps about how badly she'd
surfed that day in front of Andy Wallace. She was like
that because she hadn't got to see Jules. She'd been so
cocky the night before. Maybe too cocky, so they'd
decided to play it down so I didn't get suss.

They were horrible, horrible two-timers.

Jules could have her. They deserved each other.
Who was he, anyway? Some unknown Canadian
baseball player playing in a country that didn't even
play baseball!

I lay back down, smoothing the doona over my
chest. My heart was starting to ache and my jaw was
feeling heavy. What about Georgie? Why had Georgie
done that to me? She was my best friend. My Starfish
Sister. The only one who knew everything about me
because I had wanted to tell her. I had wanted Georgie
to know the real me. Not the Ocean Pearl girl.