Ocean Pearl (3 page)

I hadn't even stepped through the front door of Kia's
house when suddenly Georgie was grabbing me
around the waist and lifting me up while Kia was
trying to jump on Georgie's shoulders like a little terrier
dog. Micki was standing there with the biggest grin on
her face, saying, 'Ace, Ace,' and all I could do was wrap
my hands over my head so that my hat didn't fall off.

'I can't believe you're here!' Georgie gave me
another one of her rib-crushing bear hugs. 'I can't
believe we're all here together.'

'The Starfish Sisters!' Kia squealed, doing a violent
jigging dance around us that had me hanging on to my
hat even tighter. 'What'll we do first?'

'I'm kind of hungry,' I said, which I wasn't, but I
really needed Kia to settle down.

'Okay, let's make some toasted sandwiches,' she
suggested. 'After that we'll go down to the beach 'cause
Kent someone, can't remember his last name, wants to
take our photos for the local paper. But Georgie's going
to tell him that we're, like, all from camp so that he can
take all our photos and the four of us will be together in
the newspaper. How cool will – '

'I don't want my photo taken!' I blurted.

Kia answered with one of her wounded puppy dog
looks then went to the fridge and started taking out
bread, cheese, margarine, the whole time singing that
line 'Everything's fine' from the Veronicas' 'Mother
Mother' song. Not a good sign. Maybe Kia was about to
have one of her private psycho moments.

I caught Georgie's eye and mouthed while pointing
to my hat, 'I can't have my photo taken.'

Georgie shrugged and started taking the bread and
cheese out of Kia's arms.

This was maybe not the greatest start to the
weekend. In fact,
Just shoot me, please,
is what I was
dreaming about now.

Regroup, Ace!
I told myself as I studied a photo board
on the wall in Kia's kitchen. There were a few pictures
of us holding up the tag team trophy; some cute ones of
Charlie wearing a Dorothy the Dinosaur tail; and, let's
say, a bit of a pictorial journey showing Kia making the
training team. Like, one of her jumping up when her
name was called, a separate one for each stair she took
up to the stage and hmm, approximately five to six of
her hugging Jake and waving out to the audience.

In the very corner of one, you could just see my face.
I was staring at the ground, frowning.

I'd wished for someone to please shoot me – well,
bang! The bullet just hit me, right between the eyes.

I took a deep breath and said in the most enthusiastic
voice I could manage for someone so badly
wounded, 'Kia, tell me about Seahorse Girl!' I switched
on a big toothy smile and slowly turned back to face
everyone. 'I can't wait to see the photos. When are they
coming out? Which magazines?'

'I just finished a shoot for next winter's Seahorse
Girl catalogue. I didn't realise they plan so far in
advance. There's an ad, I'm talking a whole page of me,
just me, tearing up this beautiful left at Wategos. That's
where we did the shoot.' Kia's smile was just about to
beam right off her face as she chatted and buttered the
sandwiches. Seahorse Girl was quite a good sponsor,
for a product sponsor that is. I was happy for her.
Really.

'That photo,' Kia continued, 'is coming out in the
September ads in
Tracks
,
Curl
and um . . . um . . .
Georgie, I forgot the other one.'

'I think you're talking about
Girlfriend
.' Georgie gave
me a private smirk and mouthed, 'She really forgot.'

'Yeah,
Girlfriend
and maybe
Dolly
too. I'm not sure
yet.'

'Great.' My toothy smile was still flashing. 'And how
good was it, you managing to convince them to make
you their exclusive wetsuit girl.'

Suddenly Kia's head and shoulders disappeared
below the benchtop.

'Yeah.' Her voice drifted upwards. 'Yeah. Lucky.'

You know that feeling you get when you realise
you've just said the wrong thing? Well, that was the
exact feeling I had now. Georgie was dead quiet.
She was pretending she was concentrating on the
sandwich toaster but her face was tomato red. When
Kia emerged with an armful of plates that smile had
beamed right off her face and into the stratosphere.

'Hey, where's Micki?' I think I only just noticed she
wasn't in the kitchen and it was a good change of topic.

'She's in the garage talking to my dad,' Kia replied.

'How's her dad?' I wanted them to know I'd remembered
that he'd been in hospital. I was caring and a
good friend too. 'Is he all better now?'

'Yeah,' Kia answered.

'She looks tired, Micki, don't you think?' I said.

Kia shrugged. 'I'm just going to tell her lunch is
ready.'

When Kia walked out of the kitchen my insides
were just about to heave with relief when Georgie
barked and they jumped back to attention.

'Why did you say that to Kia about the wetsuits!'

'Well, why can't I?' I snapped back. 'We all know
about what she used to do. It's not like we all of a
sudden can't talk about it.'

The steam from the sandwich toaster sizzled as
Georgie squashed down the last sandwich.

'You're being weird, Ace.'

'I'm not being weird. It's just been a bit, a bit –
awkward, don't you think?'

'You're the one making it awkward!'

'Look, I don't – want – a photo taken, okay? Is that a
crime?' I was whispering. 'They might make me take
my hat off, you know, so you can see my face.'

'Doubt it,' Georgie scoffed. 'Not when your hat's got
Kelly Slater's signature scrawled across the front of it.'

'Trust me, those photographers always want to see
my face!' I answered, my whispering suddenly escalating
to a squeak. 'Look, Georgie, I'm going to say
something like it's against my OP contract to have my
photo taken by other people. Okay?'

'Ace?' Georgie was looking at me like I was from
another planet.

'What!'

'What do you do when you go surfing?'

'I wear a bloody hat!'

'Like one of those . . .?'

'Yes! One of those disgusting old grandpa lycra
numbers,' I spluttered. 'Bet you want to be me, hey?'

I hadn't bargained on having to wear a hat in the
surf, until one day a bit of my scalp got burnt. It was
only the size of a fifty-cent piece, but it was agony. All
the skin peeled off, making me look like I had some
toxic case of dandruff. Every time I rubbed cream into
it, my fingers came off with a billion hairs stuck to
them, which was worse as I needed those hairs to stay
on my head!

The list I could write of the bad things about losing
your hair – or alopecia as the doctor called it – could
justify destroying every tree in Australia. That's how
much paper it would take up. But the worst part of it
was that it'd forced me to cancel two weekends with
Jules. Let alone stopped me arranging any more.

The first weekend I didn't actually cancel. We had
the first day together but everywhere I turned I saw
long blonde strands of hair. Everywhere! Except on my
head. They were on my clothes, the pillows, towels, the
car, the couch; they were even on Jules!

It was too much. I couldn't do it anymore, so I
pretended I was sick.

It was devastating! We hadn't seen each other since
he'd come up to stay the weekend camp finished.
Strangely, that was one of the best weekends of my life.
Even though I was so unbelievably ripped to pieces
about not making the team, him being there somehow
made it easier.

I had almost put him off that weekend too 'cause I'd
felt so humiliated that I didn't know if I could face him.
But then he'd turned up at camp in Carla's office with
his bags packed just like we'd arranged and I did the
exact thing I never ever thought I'd do. I put my arms
around him and burst into tears.

What he said to me in the next second had played
over and over in my head, till I wanted to scream and
shout, 'I can't! I'm not as good as you!'

Jules said to me, 'This will make you stronger, Ace.'

Stronger? I didn't think so.

My hair was falling out. I didn't know if my OP
sponsorship was about to end and more than anything,
I desperately wanted to have a good – no, a great – time
this weekend. I wanted to be with Kia and Micki and
Georgie; to laugh and surf and talk and have all that
fun I could have only with those three. But I wasn't
strong enough. I just didn't have it in me.

Sometimes it felt like my heart had shrunk to the
size of a pea. But then how could anything that tiny
hurt so much?

My jaw was starting to ache I'd been smiling so much.
But I was happy to live with that pain for the rest of
my life.

'I pigged out on that green curry.' Ace was making
noises that defied the supermodel's body sprawled
across Kia's bed. 'Oooh, why didn't one of you stop me?'

'Because you would've slapped us,' Georgie replied.
'You reminded me of myself.'

'That's baaaad,' moaned Ace.

'Gee, thanks for the compliment.'

'Ace, I can't believe you've taken my bed,' Kia said,
as she puffed up the pillows and got comfy on the sofa
bed. 'I don't give up my bed for anyone, do I, Georgie?'

'It's your lucky day, sweetheart.' Georgie wiggled
her hips and jiggled her boobs till you could almost feel
the room rocking. 'Now move over, Kia, you get me all
to yourself tonight. There are people who'd slit their
grandmother's throat for this opportunity!'

'Yeah, like name me one,' answered Kia. 'You're
fifteen and you've had how many boyfriends?'

'Ha ha,' Georgie replied, squeezing into the sofa bed
next to Kia and starting back on the Vitamin C 'Friends
Forever' song that she'd been singing all night. It was
to annoy Ace 'cause Ace'd said she'd been singing it all
week and had only just got it out of her head. 'All those
times –'

'Shut up!' Kia was trying to stuff the pillow over
Georgie's face. 'Now I'm going to have that song stuck
in my head.'

'It's our song!' Georgie mumbled against the pillow.
'Friends for–'

'Oh, shut up, you two! You're making my tummy
ache worse,' Ace moaned. 'Bedtime at the Starfish
Bungalow with Kia and Georgie. I'd forgotten about
that.'

Maybe Ace could forget about those times but I
couldn't afford to. I'd worked so hard on keeping that
stuff alive in my mind. But there were some nights
when I was so tired I struggled to see the little details of
our bungalow – the mound of dirty clothes next to
Ace's bed, the starfish tiles on the bathroom wall or our
three toothbrushes, plus Ace's electric one, sitting on
the left-hand side of the basin.

Not being able to picture those things brought back
that feeling like I couldn't breathe or swallow. Just
when I'd feel like I was about to suffocate and black
out, those little details would appear in my head. All of
a sudden I could see them so clearly, as if I was actually
there, and gradually my throat would uncurl and I'd
start to breathe.

Now, in Kia's bedroom, I didn't have to struggle to
see or hear that stuff 'cause it was all here, in real life. I
snuggled inside the sleeping bag and their chatting and
giggling was like a lullaby. My body felt deliciously
heavy like I was sinking further and further into the
blow-up mattress.

I was sooo tired but I didn't want to let myself fall
sleep. No way. What a waste of time. I wanted to join in
'cause that's what I'd do if we were in the Starfish
Bungalow. Then after they crashed, I'd get out my
diary and record every fantastic minute of this day. All
those blank pages that I hadn't been able to put a pen
to didn't seem to matter now. When I was away from
home and with the girls I could almost convince myself
that my real life never existed. Almost.

My head was chock-a-block with stuff to remember
about today. Just describing our afternoon would take a
few pages.

We were hanging out at a juice bar when the
reporter from the local paper called Kia to say he had to
put us off until tomorrow morning 'cause his camera
was busted.

'Yes!' Ace cheered. But Kia looked disappointed.

'Hey, come on, Kia,' Ace said, wrapping one arm
around her and the other around me. 'The surf 's crap.
The photographer's camera's broken. I think there's
only one thing to do.'

'What?' Kia grunted.

'Go shopping!' Ace gave Kia a wink and then it was
like Kia suddenly snapped out of it and started furiously
nodding at Georgie and Ace. That was one thing
I hadn't thought of, how living with Kia could be
like being on a roller-coaster and seesaw all at the
one time.

At first, I just assumed it was Ace being girly and
shopping crazy. You know, any excuse to shop. So I just
followed. I didn't think any more about it until one
minute I'm checking out the coolest pair of skinny-leg
jeans I had no hope of ever owning, then the next
minute the girls are crowding around me squealing
and waving an envelope in my face.

'Huh?' I mumbled.

'Open it, Micki!' Kia was jumping up and down.
'Open it!'

I turned the envelope over to see 'Miss Micki'
written on it. The air caught in my throat.

'Come on!' Ace laughed.

I went to say something but I couldn't get the sound
to come out of my mouth.

'Just open it.' Kia was almost wrestling it out of my
hands. 'Open it and you'll see! Come on, hurry up.'

Inside was a voucher, and the most awesome card. If
someone asked me to describe the best card ever, then
this was it, sitting in my hands right now. Hundreds of
tiny photos, not much bigger than stamps, covered
every square millimetre of it.

Grinning back at me were the best three weeks of
my life. There we were, the Starfish Sisters lying on the
beds in the bungalow, exercising in the gym, eating
meals, wrestling in the pool, waxing our boards – and
in every single one of them it was Miss Micki staring
back at me.

At last those tiny details were captured forever. It
didn't matter how tired or down I felt, all I had to do
now was look at this card. But I wouldn't be in my
room. I wouldn't be at my house. Dad was going to be
alone and –

Kia squeezed my hand. 'Micki, you're shaking.'

It wasn't just my hands. It was my whole body, from
the very top to the very bottom and everything in
between.

Ace elbowed in and pointed to a photo of her
blowing a kiss to the audience. 'This is the best one of
the fashion parade. I blew that up for the album I'm
giving to Jules. Or rather, you're giving to Jules from
me, that is.'

'Ace?' Georgie frowned. 'What has that got to do
with anything?'

'The photo album.' Ace answered back like Georgie
was a total moron, but their voices seemed a million
miles away. 'You know, the one you're taking up to
Jules for me.'

'Yes, I know that, Ace! But if you haven't noticed,'
Georgie said in a lecturing kind of voice, 'we were in
the middle of giving Micki her present. Not talking
about you and loverboy.'

'You're just jealous,' Ace teased.

Standing there in the coolest shop ever, knee-deep
in a pile of skinny-leg jeans with Georgie and Ace
arguing about the benefits of having a boyfriend and
Kia watching them go back and forth like she was at a
tennis match, I burst out laughing. I don't know where
it came from. But I laughed really hard and really, really
loud. It was the sort of thing Miss Micki would do. Not
the other Micki, who in the last twenty-four hours had
cried one and a half times, breaking her world record.

This morning when I said goodbye to Dad there
were only a few tears. That's why it was only a half. In
fact, they weren't even in front of Dad so maybe they
didn't count at all.

I didn't let the tears get hold of me because I was too
scared. Saying goodbye to Dad was tough. But not
tough in the way I was used to, like was he going to eat,
would he wake up in time for the clinic, would he
remember to turn off the stove so that the fire brigade
wouldn't have to smash down the front door like they
did when I was in fifth class.

I was used to that stuff. That was just simple
'everyday' tough.

This morning, saying goodbye to Dad, was 'serious'
tough.

It was last night, even before I'd reread my diary,
that I first got to meet this other sort of tough.

Dad and I were watching television when he
muttered, 'It's the right thing.'

At first I thought he was talking to the TV but then
he put his hand on top of mine and said it again, this
time nodding his head, 'It's the right thing.'

'What are you talking about, Dad?'

He was scaring me because there was suddenly
something different about the way he looked. Or was it
the way he was looking at me? Dad's eyes were focused
on mine, which in itself was strange. But it wasn't that.
It was like he could see through me or past me. Not at
something else in the room – something else in me.

'Dad?' I whispered. 'Dad? What? What is it?'

He smiled. His yellow tobacco-stained teeth sat all
crooked in his jaw but he could smile so softly. 'Reg and
I've been talkin' a bit.'

'Yeah?'

'We're thinkin' maybe it'd be better if ya moved
down there with his family. He tells me you and his girl
Kia are close. I thought that was real nice when I heard
that. And the high school's good so you can keep on
with ya schoolin' and gettin' yer good marks.'

'Wh-when?' I stumbled. 'When did you and Reg
start talking about this?'

'Oh, Micki, my love. This ain't no way for a young
girl to be livin'. Especially a girl that's gonna be a
famous surfer one day.'

Heat bubbled up through the soles of my feet, into
my legs and raced through my tummy. It invaded my
chest, igniting my heart so that it began pounding
faster than I could keep up with. I forced myself to
swallow. It wasn't that what Dad had said was bad; it
was that I hadn't seen it coming. And that was my job
with Dad – to see things before they hit.

'It's the right thing, darlin',' he said again. ''Tis.'

That's why saying goodbye to Dad was tough.

'Ace, are you going to sleep in your hat?' Kia asked.

'I figure this is the only way I'll ever go to bed with
Kelly Slater!'

'That means Kelly Slater's slept in my bed!'

'You mean Kelly Slater's signature,' Georgie said
and yawned. 'Somehow I don't think that counts.'

Ace's fingers ran across the peak of her cap.
'Georgie, I'd like you to know he has touched this hat
with his very own hands.'

'Chuck it over,' Kia said and beckoned. 'Let us have a
sniff.'

'You're disgusting, Kia!' I said, laughing.

'No I'm not!' Kia's arm was stretched out, waiting
for the catch.

'Hey!' Suddenly Ace sat up and clapped her hands.
'I can't believe I forgot this. Oh my God, this is major.'

Now the three of us were sitting up too. 'What?
What?'

'Guess who I saw!'

Ace always had awesome stories about meeting
celebrities and going to these super-glamorous OP
parties where magazines and newspapers took her
photo.

Even last week when I was waiting for Dad in the
clinic I opened up a Gold Coast newspaper and there
was a headline staring at me. 'Twenty-four hours with
the Ocean Pearl Girl'. Exept for telling us when Ace
went to the toilet, it detailed every tiny thing she did in
her day. 'I understand being the face of Ocean Pearl
makes me public property, that's just part of the job,'
it'd said. Above was a photo of Ace and her mum
cooking dinner in their kitchen. I'd wondered if Ace
usually wore that much make-up when she was at
home. Knowing Ace she probably did. She was the
ultimate OP girl.

'So, come on,' Ace said and clapped. 'Guess who
I saw!'

'You have to give us a clue,' Kia demanded.

'Boy or girl?' I called.

'Girl.'

'What does her name begin with?' I asked.

'M.'

'M?' we repeated.

'I know!' Kia shot her hand up. 'Madonna!'

'As if!' Georgie sniggered, which made Kia pull a
face and mutter, 'Well, sorry.'

'Okay,' Ace said, rubbing her hands together. She
was loving this but then so was I. It was the sort of
thing I'd imagined happening this weekend and I was
good at these games. 'I'll give you her initials, okay.
M – D – R.'

'M – D – R? M – D – R?' I stared at the Layne
Beachley posters on Kia's wall. The only thing I could
think of was 'medical doctor'.

'I know!' Georgie bashed the mattress with her fist.
'I've got it!' she shouted. 'God, Ace, I cannot believe
you only just remembered.'

'Who? Who is it?' Kia and I begged.

'Would it happen to be Megan de Raile?'

'Megan de Raile it is,' answered Ace. 'Or rather, I
should say' – Ace spoke in a deep voice – 'Megan de
Raile.'

'How could you forget that?' spat Georgie. 'She's the
enemy!'

'How is the lovely Megan?' Kia asked.

'Big!' Again, Ace spoke in a deep voice: 'Really – big.'

'Like fat?' Georgie said.

'Sorry, Georgie. I'm talking buff,' Ace explained. 'I'm
talking really, really buff. Her upper body is like a
bloke's. Honestly, it's bigger than yours. I am not
joking.'

'Gee, thanks,' Georgie muttered.

'She must be surfing and training her bum off,' I
said, having visions of Megan resembling the Incredible
Hulk. 'She scares me, that girl.'

'Well, she'll totally freak you out now, Micki. I could
not stop staring at her.'

'Did you speak to Megan?' asked Georgie. 'Come on,
you guys must've said something to each other?'
Georgie was out of bed and pacing around us. I didn't
care how buff Megan was, she just scared me full stop.
She was so up-front and in your face. But Megan was
Georgie's main competition because they were both
awesome big-wave surfers. 'I can't believe you forgot to
tell me this, Ace. When did you see her?'

'Oh, I can't remember, Georgie. May? April?' Ace
shrugged. 'Anyway, what does it matter?'

'I just think it's strange that you haven't mentioned
it. You know the way I feel about Megan.'

'Anyway, Megan said to me' – Ace squashed her chin
against her neck and did the deep growling voice –
'"Did you know that –"'

'Why are you speaking like that?' Kia asked.

'Because this is how Megan talks.' Ace mimicked her
again: 'Like a bloke.'

I was getting the giggles. Ace looked like she'd
grown three chins. 'Stop it. She doesn't speak like that.
You're just trying to freak us out!' I said.