Rev Girl (19 page)

Sydney laughed. ‘Leave it to Miss Racing Star to want to do it all on her own.'

‘Sorry if I don't want to be some damsel in distress!'

‘There's a difference between being useless and accepting help when you need it, Clover.'

‘Whatever. I didn't need it.' Clover didn't mention that she was actually late to the next control and got a minute's time penalty, which was why she was beaten, but she was proud to have done it on her own. The memory of Lasha on the podium her smug smile and laughing eyes, how she practically waved the biggest trophy in Clover's face flooded her mind.

‘I'm so proud of you!' Sydney said, pulling Clover from her darker thoughts. ‘Did Lasha win?'

‘Yeah.' Clover took a deep breath, and looked out at the highway. She'd just passed the turn to Camp Shitty and was reminded of how far she'd come, from the days of drinking her sorrows away and having zero direction in her life, to now chasing her racing dreams. ‘I'm happy with a podium. Not bad for my first year as a pro!'

‘I'll say!'

‘Oh, and, Sydney guess what?'

‘Lasha the evil cow crashed and peed her pants?'

‘HA! Um, no. Dallas came to watch!'

As soon as Clover hung up, her phone revved again. The strong, assertive voice on the other end of the line was unmistakable. Her English teacher.

‘I'm sorry for bothering you early,' said Mrs. Frost. ‘I'll get straight to the point. Something's come up, a significant opportunity for you, and for the school do you think you can meet me in my office as soon as you get in? You are on your way in?'

‘Be there in about ten minutes.'

Clover pushed her phone into the pocket of her jeans. What this big opportunity was, she had no idea. It was only the first day of term, and she'd been well and truly on her best behaviour for the majority of last year, so surely it couldn't be something bad . . . could it?

Clover rapped lightly on the door to Room 6B, English/Language Arts. She watched, through the little window, as Mrs. Frost raised her well-worn face from her desk, and reached for a piece of paper.

‘Please, take a seat,' said Mrs Frost, waving at her visitor's chair, before squeezing between her desk and the wall and sitting down heavily.

Clover eased into the plastic chair, but her eyes stayed on the white wall opposite. There was a new addition to the Shakespeare posters and inspirational material the teacher had previously used to liven up the stark room: a long banner across the entire width of the wall, with blue writing on white, reading,

Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss things.

Great minds discuss ideas.

The saying gave Clover goose bumps. It was so true. Something her mind had often skirted, in parts, but never had the insight to string into a whole, concise statement.

‘Like it, do you?' Mrs. Frost glanced back at the banner.

‘It's perfect.'

‘I hope the others take as much notice. I imagine you're curious as to why you are here?'

Clover smiled, now in the full belief that she'd been beckoned here for something good. Otherwise Mrs. Frost wouldn't be looking so cheery.

‘I knew it couldn't be too bad, I haven't had the chance to submit anything to fail yet.'

Mrs. Frost laughed. ‘No, though I don't expect you'll be getting any more of those. No, this is much more exciting. I got an email this morning from the school division; it seems they are in urgent need of a student to send to ten schools, plus Silvertown Elementary and Silvertown High School itself, to do inspirational, beginning of year talks. We held an urgent staff meeting, and we decided that it needed to be you!'

WTF?!

Mrs. Frost smiled. ‘Not only have you grown leaps and bounds since having, let's be honest, a pretty shaky start to your schooling here, but you are also excelling in your sport. An extreme motor sport, to be precise. And the fact you are going to the World Championships, well, that's a real clincher.'

‘Um, okay.' Clover's eyes were going wide.

Mrs. Frost leant across her desk. ‘Look, Clover, I think you could really help these kids. As you know, previous speakers we've had, well, they haven't resonated with the students. This program has been sponsored by one of the major airlines and a bunch of other companies. Dozens of schools and exceptional students across America are taking part. For our district's end of it to fall down now, just because the kid they had lined up chickened out, well, would just be too sad to comprehend.'

‘Right.'

‘I'm really sorry to do this to you, I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you were up to it. But any time you've spoken in class, you've been fantastic.'

Really?! All I remember is how nervous I was, and the words I messed up …

Mrs. Frost must have noticed Clover's confused expression. ‘Your confidence has really grown,' she said. ‘I know you could inspire these kids. It's the last resort for the schools you'll be going to they've had free-falling grade averages, rises in detentions and expulsions. Basically,' her voice dropped to a whisper,

‘the principals have lost control. It's incredible that a group of passionate individuals have volunteered their time to make this happen. The hope is that the students at these troubled schools will benefit greatly from hearing from a kid like them, a ' She used her fingers for quotation marks ‘“Cool” kid who they can relate to, but also one who has figured out how to succeed as a teenager in this day and age and is striving to do great things with their life.'

Am I considered a
cool kid now?!

Clover had been watching Mrs. Frost's lips open and close, not really hearing what the teacher was saying and certainly not believing the bits she did hear. ‘So, wait ' Clover said, raising her hand to be allowed to speak. ‘You want me to go to all these schools and talk about, what … my racing? And tell the kids that I've struggled with staying on the straight and narrow, too, is that right?'

‘Precisely. Your first stop will be Silvertown Elementary, but not because they are in trouble. The situation there is quite the opposite, as I'm sure you can imagine. We wanted you to go there, just to get your feet wet, on home turf. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of ringing the principal he's very excited. Seems you're a bit of a celebrity there already, with your little sister as a pupil. He said they've put that article from
The Chronicle
that ran on you a few months ago up in most of the classrooms. He's already told the kids about your talk and they're all jumping out of their skins to meet you.'

Clover opened her mouth to ask another question, but Mrs. Frost was too quick.

‘And I also rang your mom,' she said. ‘Sorry, again, but we really have no time to waste on this the first talk at Phoenix Composite High School is scheduled for Wednesday. Your mom was elated when I spoke to her, said you would love to do it. And she assured me missing a few days of your training wouldn't hurt your preparations for the World's.'

‘Um … right,' Clover stammered, trying to align her brain with all the details. ‘So … where else will I be going?'

‘You and Principal Archibald, and your mom, of course, will fly to Phoenix for the day to visit four schools. Then you'll drive to Albuquerque on Friday. After that you'll fly to San Antonio, Austin, then Dallas, back up to Boise, Idaho, hit Salt Lake City and finish up here, in Silvertown.'

Clover stiffened.
You have got to be kidding? I have to talk in front of everyone here?

‘I must warn you,' Mrs. Frost continued. ‘There's been a lot of media attention surrounding this program, so interviews for newspapers, radio, maybe even some television, will be involved. I'm sure you won't mind, considering your previous experience with the media.' Mrs. Frost winked.

Clover smiled tightly. ‘Yeah, no problems.'

‘Thank you for your time. I'll start making the final arrangements. Everything's been signed off with Mr. Archibald. He's out in meetings all day, so you won't see him until Wednesday in Phoenix.'

‘Great.'

Mrs. Frost heaved herself from her chair. ‘I'm sorry, again, to lob this at you,' she said. ‘But we really appreciate your cooperation. We would have been in serious trouble without you. None of the other schools in the district had responded and all the flights were booked it would have looked horrible if this chance had been wasted, especially when they'd already released information about the program and which schools would be participating. And to the media, no less. It would have been almost worse to send someone who wasn't doing something extraordinary, too, so I'm over the moon that you are on board.'

‘Oh, yeah,' Clover said, rising slowly on weak knees. ‘You can totally count on me.'

Mrs. Frost paused, and a hand shot to her hip. ‘Don't be nervous, dear,' she said. ‘You've got the gift of the gab, you'll be fine. But it would be a good idea to start thinking about what you would like to say in your speech, for your high school talks at least. At the elementaries, you'll just do a brief intro, the rest will be made up of question and answer. You'll be fine to do Silvertown on your own, too, won't you? I can come if you would like, but Mr. Archibald had prior engagements.'

Clover took a deep breath.
No!
was the first thought that popped into her mind.
No, I won't be okay!

Mrs. Frost was heading for the door, so Clover had a few seconds to let her mind rant …
What the heck am I gonna say? She thought. The kids will probably just laugh at me and that's the little ones. What about when I get to God knows where in bloody Phoenix and they're all chucking stuff at me and heckling from the back of the gym. I'm gonna look like a loser and
She forced herself to stop, her hands were starting to shake, and followed Mrs. Frost to the door.

‘Yeah,' she said, pausing in the doorway. ‘I'll be fine.'

Clover and Sydney weaved their way, arm-in-arm, through the busy lunchtime crowd to the centre of the school canteen. They'd spotted Dallas and a few of the other guys, who'd pushed two tables together and were laughing loudly in the middle of the room.

Dallas looked up, and Clover's heart skipped a beat. His eyes softened as they met hers. And she felt the same. It was so good to see him, as if an eternity had passed since she had, even though she'd spent the afternoon after the race with him and kissed him goodbye only twelve hours ago. Watching him now, in the centre of all the school's coolest guys, so handsome and godlike in his team jacket, Clover felt the urge to pinch herself. To confirm it was all real. She was the girlfriend of Dallas Cash. She was a Pro Ladies racer, the girl who was going to be the first to represent her home country in the ‘Olympics of Motorcycling', the girl chosen to make a difference in the lives of other kids. At this moment, Clover knew, she could actually have it all.

It was a realisation that made her grin. Then Sydney clutched her hand a table overflowing with nervous-looking girls Clover didn't recognise, had interrupted their path to Dallas. Clover winked at him, before breaking his gaze.

Clover and Sydney went to squeeze past the table, but Clover paused and let go of Sydney's hand, noticing how the girls had shied away. How their shoulders were curled, hands trembling, tightly clutching oversized notebooks.

Clover smiled down at them. ‘Hey,' she said.

The blonde girl at the head of the table was the only one to look up. She resembled a baby deer in the headlights of a Mack truck.

‘Hi,' the girl answered bravely.

Clover raised her eyebrows, waiting for the other girls to acknowledge her. She had no idea why these pretty little things, obviously freshmen girls and new to the school, were so scared of her. Kids usually looked at her, sometimes whispered, others even glared. But she'd never sensed fear in any of her classmates before. She was the one who feared the older kids.

Clover shifted her weight onto one hip, letting her head cock to the side.

And then the penny dropped.

Power rushed up from the floor of the school. Power left from those seniors who had walked these halls before. A warmth surged up through her limbs, pumping them full of strength. She was among the eldest now. No more scary seniors, no more Dee Harding. And the final piece of the puzzle as to why Mrs. Frost had asked her to be the speaker finally fell into place.

She dropped to one knee, and placed her palms on the table.

The girls flinched back with surprise, then, when they must have realised how broadly Clover was smiling, grinned themselves.

‘So what do you guys think of the school?' Clover asked.

The blonde was the first to answer. ‘It's awesome! So much bigger than my elementary school was.'

‘Are you from Silvertown?'