Viva Alice! (6 page)

Chapter Twelve

T
he next few days were lovely. Gavin always found half an hour to give me a swimming lesson, and these were my favourite half-hours of the day. As I climbed out of the pool on the fourth day, he smiled at me.

‘You’re doing really well, Megan.’ he said. ‘You’re a model pupil. You have a lovely stroke, and lots of stamina.’

‘Oh,’ I said. His praise was making me feel embarrassed, and my next words came out by accident. ‘I think I might try out for the school swim team when I get back home.’

‘That’s a brilliant idea,’ he said. ‘You definitely should. You’d be great. Now I’ve got to
go, Robyn’s waiting.’

By now, Gavin spent most of his time with Robyn. They weren’t all soppy and smoochy and kissy-kissy, but they just looked totally happy, like they belonged together.

Alice, Grace and I spent most of our time sunbathing, or swimming in one of the pools. Every night Eddie or Lorna cooked a delicious barbecue, and we ate out on the terrace, enjoying the warm air and the smell of holidays.

One morning I woke up and my first thought was –
I’m in this amazing place.

My second thought was –
We’ve only got two days left.

Why does time always have to go so quickly when you’re having fun?

‘Where’s everyone?’ asked Alice that lunchtime, when we got back after a brilliant game of mini-golf.

‘I guess Gavin is off somewhere being romantic with Robyn,’ said Grace, as she used her key to let us in. ‘But I don’t know where Mum and Dad could be. They went to play tennis, but they should be back here by now. Dad said he wanted to try out a new barbecue recipe for lunch.’

She didn’t seem too worried, so I decided not to worry either. Grace got us each an ice-cream from the freezer and we lay by the pool for a while, enjoying the warm sunshine.

When Gavin came back an hour later, there was still no sign of Eddie and Lorna. He tried both their phones, but no one answered his mum’s and we could hear the sound of his dad’s phone ringing on the kitchen counter. Gavin was trying to act casual, but it wasn’t really working. He sat on a sunlounger next to us for a few minutes, but he couldn’t relax. He was all jumpy and nervous and he kept checking his watch.

‘Relax, Gav,’ said Grace after a while. ‘Mum
and Dad are grown-ups. They don’t have to tell us where they are every minute of every day. They’ve probably decided to go out for lunch or something.’

‘But I wanted to see them before I go,’ he said.

‘You’re going somewhere?’ asked Grace. ‘You never said.’

‘Is it a romantic date with Robyn?’ asked Alice. ‘Maybe you should buy her flowers. Or you could “borrow” some from the villa at the end of this road. They’ve got heaps in their garden.’

He went red. ‘Actually it’s not really a date. It’s more like I’m doing her a favour.’

‘What kind of favour?’ asked Alice. ‘Are you going to rescue her from a dragon or something? That’s totally romantic.’

I thought she was being kind of cheeky, but Gavin didn’t seem to mind.

‘It’s not all that romantic,’ he said. ‘Robyn’s Spanish cousins live on the other side of the
island, and they’re having a big family celebration tonight.’

‘I’m not seeing the favour here,’ said Alice.

‘Well, when Robyn was a kid, her cousins bullied her a lot,’ he said. ‘There’s seven of them, and they always ganged up on her. They used to tease her for her English accent, and her English ways.’

‘That’s really mean. Poor Robyn,’ I said, thinking of how bad I feel when Melissa is around.

‘Yeah,’ said Gavin. ‘It was rotten. Anyway, ages ago, Robyn told the mean cousins she’d be bringing her boyfriend to the party, and they made a big deal of it.’

‘But now the boyfriend isn’t around any more, and they’re giving her a hard time?’ said Grace.

‘Exactly,’ said Gavin. ‘They think she was lying, and they keep sending her texts about her “imaginary boyfriend”.’

‘That’s rotten,’ said Alice.

‘Totally,’ said Gavin. ‘So anyway, now that Robyn and I are … friends, she’s asked me to go to the party with her – for moral support.’

‘That’s sweet,’ said Alice. ‘I presume you said you’d go?’

Gavin nodded. ‘Of course. I want to help her.’

‘That’s nice of you,’ I said, thinking that the mean cousins couldn’t pick on her if she showed up with a totally cool, nice boy like Gavin.

He smiled at me. ‘Thanks, Megan,’ he said. ‘It’s all sorted, but I just wanted to tell Mum and Dad before I go. The cousins live kind of far away, so we have to leave soon. And the party will go on very late, so we’re going to stay in her aunt’s house for the night.’

‘Totally romantic,’ said Grace, quickly ducking as he pretended to hit her.

‘You and Robyn can have a beautiful day tomorrow,’ said Alice. ‘You could shake off the mean cousins and explore the other side of the
island together.’

Gavin gave a dreamy smile. ‘That would be nice, but it’s not going to happen. Robyn’s dad is dropping me back here first thing in the morning. He and Robyn are playing golf at ten.’

Grace checked her watch again. ‘Mum and Dad should definitely be back by now,’ she said. ‘And it’s totally weird that they haven’t rung us.’ For the first time, she was starting to look worried.

Gavin jumped up. ‘You’re right, Grace,’ he said. ‘They never stay away this long without letting us know where they are. I’m going to take a walk down to the security office. Maybe José has seen them.’

Just as he got to the door though, the phone in the kitchen rang.

‘It’s Mum,’ he said, as he stood in the doorway and answered it. ‘Hey Mum, what’s up? Why aren’t you …?’

Then he stopped talking, and looked serious.
The rest of us didn’t even pretend not to listen. ‘He what? Oh, no. Is he OK? Poor Dad.’

He talked for ages, and the rest of us did our best to understand what was going on – not easy when we could only hear half of the conversation.

Finally he hung up. ‘Dad fell when he was playing tennis this morning,’ he said. ‘José drove him and Mum to the hospital. They’ve just seen the doctor and she said that Dad’s shoulder was dislocated.’

‘Ouch,’ said Alice. ‘I don’t like the sound of that.’

‘So what happens next,’ asked Grace. ‘Can they relocate it?’

Gavin nodded. ‘I’m not sure that’s what they call it, but, yes, they’re going to put it back into place soon. Mum says Dad will be fine once it’s done, and that they should be home in a few hours.’

He looked at his watch again. ‘Maybe I should stay here till Mum and Dad get back.
Maybe I should tell Robyn that I can’t go with her to her cousins’ place.’

‘No way!’ said Alice quickly. ‘I mean, that probably isn’t a good idea.’

‘She’s right,’ said Grace. ‘Poor Robyn – you promised her you’d go and you can’t let her down. You can’t leave her to face her mean cousins all on her own. You go ahead to the party. We’ll tell Mum and Dad where you are.’

‘I’m not sure,’ he said, looking worried. ‘Will you three be OK here until Mum and Dad get back?’

Grace rolled her eyes. ‘We’re
thirteen
,’ she said.

‘We’re very sensible,’ I said, meaning
Grace and I are very sensible and we’ll keep an eye on Alice.

‘Well, maybe it would be OK,’ said Gavin.’

‘Of course it will be OK,’ said Alice.

She jumped up and practically pushed him towards the stairs. ‘Robyn will be waiting,’ she said. ‘So hurry up and get what you
need. Remember you’ve got to impress the mean cousins, so you’ve got to look your best. I think you should bring your pale blue shirt – that’s really cool, and your navy trousers and you should wear that aftershave that smells like lemons and ……’

Gavin laughed as he backed towards the stairs. ‘I get it,’ he said. ‘I’m going.’

I didn’t say anything. I thought I was the only one who’d noticed Gavin’s lemon-scented aftershave.

Chapter Thirteen

A
fter Gavin left to meet Robyn, the rest of us realised that we were hungry. ‘I’ll make lunch,’ said Alice. ‘I need to practise all the things I learned in home ec.’

Grace and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh. Alice isn’t exactly the star of our home ec class. She’d been studying the subject for six months but she’d never once managed to produce anything you’d actually eat – unless you had a gun pointed at your head. Once she even managed to set off the smoke alarms and the whole school had to be evacuated. My best friend was always optimistic though – and she
had a very short memory.

‘You two relax in the sunshine,’ she said. ‘And I’ll prepare a feast that you’ll never forget.’

I totally didn’t like the sound of that. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, though, so I bit my tongue and lay back on my sunlounger and tried to concentrate on my book.

Twenty minutes later, after lots of banging and crashing sounds, and a few rude words, Alice appeared with a huge tray.

‘Ta-da!’ she said. ‘Lunch is served. I’ve made sandwiches.’

I began to relax a bit. After all, how much of a mess could you make of sandwiches?

Had Alice managed to be sensible for once in her life?

‘Thanks, Alice,’ I said. ‘That’s really nice of you. I’m starving.’

‘There’s three kinds,’ she said proudly, as she put the tray down on a small table at the side of the pool.

‘Yay,’ said Grace as she sat up. ‘What are they?
Mum and Dad haven’t been shopping since the day before yesterday, so it must have been hard to find three different fillings.’

‘All you need is a bit of imagination,’ said Alice. ‘And I’ve always had a good imagination.’

Suddenly I felt nervous. Sometimes Alice can be
too
imaginative.

‘So tell us,’ I said. ‘What’s in the sandwiches?’

‘It was supposed to be a surprise,’ said Alice with a big sigh. ‘But since you’re being so impatient, I’ll tell you. But I’m warning you, you’re going to be blown away.’

Now I felt even more nervous. ‘Just tell us,’ I said.

She smiled. ‘You can choose between – 1. peanut butter, honey and red onions – 2. chocolate spread, cucumber and mayonnaise, or 3. cheese, banana and curry paste. Make up your minds, girls, which one do you want to try first?’

If I didn’t know Alice better, I’d have thought
she was joking. I looked at Grace and she looked at me, and then we both looked at the sandwiches. They were cut into nice neat triangles, and looked harmless enough. Now that I knew what was in them though, I was afraid. I was very afraid.

‘I know. I know,’ said Alice. ‘It’s hard to decide. Here, I’ll make it easy for you.’

She took two plates from the tray, and put one of each kind of sandwich onto each plate. Then she held the plates toward us.

Grace nodded at me and we both leaned forwards. We were in this together. We had to be strong for each other. We took the plates and rested them on our knees.

I sat looking at my sandwiches, wondering how I’d find the nerve to take the first bite.

‘Hey, what’s wrong?’ asked Alice, when she noticed that no one was eating.

Before I could think of an answer, she jumped to her feet. ‘Silly me,’ she said. ‘I forgot to bring out the ketchup. I’ll be back in one second.’

When Alice came back, Grace’s plate was empty and she was wiping her mouth. ‘No need for ketchup,’ she said. ‘The sandwiches were totally delicious without it.’

Alice turned to me. ‘Yum,’ I said, holding up my empty plate, not able to look her in the eye.

Alice held the tray of sandwiches towards us again. ‘Who’s for seconds?’ she asked. ‘I’ve made plenty.’

Grace and I shook our heads enthusiastically. ‘Totally full,’ I said.

‘Couldn’t take another bite,’ said Grace.

Then we watched with our mouths open as Alice quickly ate two of each kind of sandwich.

‘Hey,’ she said, when she was finished. ‘You’re right. These are totally delicious. I think there should be a law against boring sandwich fillings like cheese and ham and tomato. I think when I’m older I’m going to set up my own business. I can see it already. I could have plates and serviettes with a really cool logo saying
Alice’s Suberb Sandwiches – or A.S. … OK, so maybe that exact name wouldn’t work. But I’ll think of something. First though, I must remember to write down what ingredients I used today. These sandwiches could be the key to my future.’

She stopped talking when she noticed that Grace and I were nearly falling off our sunloungers, we were laughing so much.

‘Hey, what’s so funny?’ she asked.

Grace and I couldn’t answer, and Alice’s face went serious. ‘You think I’m being a bit too ambitious, don’t you?’

Still we couldn’t say anything.

‘Maybe I did get a small bit carried away,’ said Alice. ‘I guess it’s a long way from one tray of sandwiches to a chain of successful restaurants.’

She looked so disappointed, I felt sorry for her.

‘No,’ I said. ‘You go for it, Al. You go ahead and set up your sandwich company and I bet you’ll make millions.’

‘Thanks, Meg,’ said Alice, smiling again. ‘Thanks for believing in me. You’re a true friend. I’m going to put a swimming pool in my first house, and you can come over and use it any time you like.’

And Alice lay on her sunlounger and closed her eyes and Grace and I looked at each other and shook our heads. Our friend was nice, but totally weird.

At six o’clock that evening the phone in the kitchen rang again and we all ran inside..

‘Hey Mum,’ said Grace when she picked up the phone. ‘How’s Dad? Have they relocated his shoulder? Did it hurt? When will you be home? You’re probably tired after hanging around the hospital for so long, so Megan said she’ll cook dinner for us all if you like. She’s a really good cook, so you don’t have to worry about us getting poisoned or anything and …’

She stopped talking. ‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘Poor Dad. That sounds rotten. What? The whole night? So when will you be back? Oh. OK. Er no … he’s … he’s … in the shower. I’ll tell him what you said though. Yeah, OK. Talk later. Bye. Give Dad a kiss for me.’

When she hung up, she didn’t look happy. ‘Poor Dad,’ she said. ‘They had to give him a pain-killing injection, and he’s terrified of needles, and he fainted, and he hit his head on a trolley, and there was a big fuss, and they’re afraid he might have concussion, so the doctor says he has to stay in hospital for the night.’

‘Ouch,’ said Alice.

‘And what about your mum?’ I asked.

‘She says Dad’s in a lot of pain,’ said Grace. ‘And hospitals and doctors scare him, and his Spanish is kind of rubbish, and Mum’s is really good, so …’

‘So what?’ I asked. I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going.

‘So Mum’s going to spend the night in the
hospital with Dad,’ said Grace.

‘Oh,’ said Alice.

‘But what about us?’ I said. ‘What are we supposed to do?’

‘I’m not really sure,’ said Grace. ‘I didn’t tell Mum that Gavin’s gone away with Robyn for the night. If I did that, she’d have to come back here, and poor Dad would be all on his own. And if I phone Gavin and tell him what’s happened, he’ll come back from the party, and poor Robyn’s night will be ruined.’

‘We’re
so
not going to let that happen,’ said Alice. ‘As long as your mum doesn’t figure out that Gavin isn’t here, everything will be fine.’

‘But Mum said she’ll ring again in a bit, and she’ll want to talk to Gavin,’ said Grace.

‘Not a problem,’ said Alice. ‘We’ll just make up an excuse, and say he’s gone out for a few minutes. She’ll never guess that he’s gone away for the whole night.’

‘But what if your mum rings Gavin’s mobile?’ I asked. ‘She’ll tell him about your dad, and he’ll
tell her that he’s at the other side of the island. And then one of them will end up coming home.’

Part of me kind of hoped that one of them would come home. A few hours of minding ourselves was fine, but I didn’t like the sound of a whole night without grown-ups.

What if burglars came?

Or there was a fire?

Or if one of us fell and broke her leg?

Grace shook her head. ‘Mum can’t call Gav. Her phone battery is dead, and Dad’s phone is here, so she has to use a hospital phone.’

‘But couldn’t she use the hospital landline to call Gavin’s phone?’ I asked, trying not to sound too hopeful.

Grace shook her head again. ‘Mum never knows anyone’s mobile numbers, so even if she wants to call Gavin, she won’t be able to. Any time she wants to talk to us, she’s going to have to use the landline. As long as we don’t say anything stupid, we’re on our own for the night.
How cool is that?’

I still didn’t like the idea. ‘What about tomorrow?’ I asked. ‘What’s going to happen when Grace’s parents find out that we stayed here on our own? Won’t we be in the biggest trouble ever?’

Alice grinned. ‘I think we could get away with it,’ she said. ‘Gavin said he’s going to get back early, so all we have to do is get up before he arrives, and mess up the kitchen a bit, so it looks like your mum spent the night here, and had breakfast here.’

‘But she won’t
be
here,’ I said.

Alice rolled her eyes, like I was deliberately missing her point. ‘So we just say she went back to the hospital to see Eddie.’

‘And when Mum and Dad and Gavin all get together, won’t they figure out what really happened?’ asked Grace.

‘Nah,’ said Alice. ‘Your dad will just talk about his shoulder, your mum will be worrying about packing to go home, and Gavin will
be in a total dream after his romantic night with Robyn. They’ll never join up the dots.’

‘I think you could be right,’ said Grace, smiling. ‘I think we might actually get away with this.’

‘Of course we’re going to get away with it,’ said Alice. ‘Now stop worrying, Megan, and relax. We’re home alone for a whole night. It’s every kid’s dream.’

I didn’t say anything. Grace and Alice were all happy and excited, so how could I tell them that I was totally, totally scared?