Ocean Pearl (11 page)

Kia's elbow was digging into my ribs.

'Can – can we ask what she's done?' Georgie said. 'I
think we have a right to know, especially if she was
cheating. I mean, I've been competing against this
girl for ages. If Megan's been using some kind of
performance-enhancing drug then I think I've got a
right to know what I've been trying to beat.'

'I'm sorry, Georgie. I can't go into specifics,' Carla said.

'What?' Georgie huffed.

'I know that's not a satisfying answer but I will say
that what she was doing was potentially very
damaging and dangerous to her health. And yes, it is
classified as cheating.'

'So, you
are
saying that Megan was taking drugs?'
Georgie pressed.

'I'm talking –' Carla paused. 'I'm talking about a
combination of things.'

My back sagged into the couch. Yep, I'd been right.

'What – what will happen?' Kia asked.

'That depends on her. But certainly for now her
surfing career is over.'

'What!' Georgie flopped back into the cushions. 'I
can't believe it,' she kept muttering. 'This is – this girl
was potentially going to be on a team with us.'

'Georgie, we're bringing a counsellor in for you girls
to talk to,' explained Carla. 'This is a big deal. We know
that.'

Jake peered through the blinds. Outside you could
hear a car door slam. He excused himself and hurried
out of the room.

Carla continued, 'Today we'll try and refocus. We'll
go over the process of the selection for the team. We've
got four more girls arriving on the weekend. Okay?
We're looking forward, not back. I don't want you girls
to be thrown off by this.'

'Yeah, right,' Georgie muttered.

Jake snuck back in and nodded to Carla.

Carla smiled and clapped her hands together.
'Hopefully, this'll help to get you back on track, girls!'

The rec room door flew open and in walked Ace.

'Hiiiiiii!' It rushed up my throat and burst out of my
mouth. 'Aaaagggghhhh! Can you believe it? I'm here!'

The girls were so surprised they didn't even move.
They were like statues pinned to the back of the couch,
with their jaws wide open.

Georgie made a noise. 'Wow,' I think she said. Or
was it 'Whoa'?

'I know! I know!' I laughed, jumping up and down
like a puppy. 'How amazing is this!'

'You've had your . . . hair cut.' Kia was pointing to
her shoulders, which is where I'd had it chopped to.

'Your hair's longer than mine now, Kia,' I said and
smiled.

'Yeah.'

'Do you like it?'

The girls kind of nodded and made another noise.
They were shell-shocked!

'You should see you three.' I pointed. 'I wish I had
my camera!'

'I think they've had as many surprises as they can
take today,' Carla said, laughing and giving me a hug.
'It's lovely to have you back, Ace.'

Shyan gave me a cuddle. We had always been tight.
'We need your energy around here, Ace,' she said to
me. 'Love your hair. Super cute.'

I sent Georgie a wink but she was looking at Micki
and not at me.

This whole fantastic thing that had me all of a
sudden standing here in the rec room as part of the
training team started because I'd decided to do something
about my hair. I knew it did. It was more than a
coincidence. It was spooky!

I couldn't wait to get Georgie on my own so I could
tell her the whole story.

Yesterday, Wednesday afternoon, less than twenty-four
hours ago, I was studying my bald patch in the
mirror when I had 'a moment'. I don't know what else
to call it.

It was like this light suddenly flooded the bathroom
and took possession of me.

'Mum?' I called. 'Mum!'

'What? What?' Mum flew into the bathroom.

'Mum.' My voice sounded calm even though I could
feel my whole body quivering. 'Mum, ring Daryl. It's
time for me to cut this hair.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yep, I'm positive.'

Now, this was the next spooky bit. Daryl, who was
always booked up for weeks, had just had a cancellation.
'Doreen,' Daryl had told Mum. 'Tell Courtney to
get up here pronto.'

Two minutes later, I'd whipped off my school
uniform, squeezed into my skinny-legs and stilettos
and was running out the door. It's hard to explain but it
felt so fantastic, like – like I'd been paralysed and
suddenly someone was taking me to get a new pair of
legs.

'I've been waiting for this,' Daryl had said, kissing
me on both cheeks. 'Come with me.'

Daryl led me into the back room where he could
inspect my bald patch without anyone seeing. Apart
from Mum, Georgie and the doctor, my hairstylist was
the only person who knew.

'Mmm. It's a bit better.'

'Yeah?'

'If we trim to the shoulders, do some soft layering
around the front,' Daryl explained, fluffing my hair
over my face, 'then you can gather bits at the front and
pin them at the top of your head, à la Nicole Kidman,
and all your sins will be covered.'

'Really?'

'Come on.' I followed Daryl back into the salon.
'Time for me to wave my wand' – he sat me at the wash
basin – 'and do my magic.'

Like a bull fighter he shook the black plastic cloak
over my front and soon the warm trickle of water was
running past my ears.

One of the old ladies with gold jewellery and lips
that didn't move when she spoke gave us the evil eye.
Daryl never washed hair; only the juniors did that. But
I was one of his important clients. A 'VIP', he called me.

My fingers'd clamped onto the sides of the chair as
Daryl began to scrub my scalp.

'Relax,' he'd whispered.

'I'm starting afresh, Daryl,' I tried to whisper back
but it was hard with my head jerking up and down.
'I've been moping around and now I'm sick of it.'

My hair almost looked bouncy after my blow dry.
Daryl had pinned the front bits on top of my head so I
didn't even need my hat.

I felt so great. So excited. Soooo happy. Almost like
my old self, not counting a few hairs shorter.

Mum and I decided to go out for dinner and celebrate.

'Mum, I'm back,' I announced, once I'd got rid of the
waiter who was hanging around trying to chat me up.
'I feel like finally I can face the world.'

'It's the start of a new chapter,' Mum'd replied as she
squeezed my hand.

Now here's the really,
really
spooky bit.

Thirty seconds, no twenty seconds, later Mum's
mobile rang and it was Carla.

'Can you believe it, Georgie? I finally accept the situation
with my hair and I get the phone call to come
here!' Georgie was holding open the door to the Starfish
Bungalow. I dropped my bags in the doorway. 'I mean,
is that spooky or what? It was obviously meant to be.'

Georgie hadn't said a thing. But then I'd been
talking so much she couldn't have got a word in if
she'd tried.

'It's like hiding under that hat was keeping me
back.'

'So, will you tell Jules and the others about your
hair now?'

'Are you crazy?'

'I'm feeling a tad crazy at the moment,' Georgie
muttered.

'You've got to agree, the whole thing is more than a
coincidence.'

'Maybe the light that came into the bathroom was
the sun.'

'Georgie!' But Georgie wasn't laughing. 'What's
wrong?'

'Ace, I'm really happy for you about your hair and
everything but we've had a pretty big twenty-four
hours here.'

'Okay.'

When I'd arrived, Jake'd come out to warn me that
the girls were a bit shaken. It would've been a bit
boasty if I'd said, 'When they see me, Jake, everything
will be better.' But that's what I'd thought. Instead, it
was like walking into a family funeral and I was the
adopted daughter everyone hated.

It did not make sense. Megan being asked to leave was
bad for her, but great for us. It's what we'd dreamt of.

'The bungalow looks the same,' I said carefully.

'Guess so.'

I laughed – well, tried to. 'Hey, you pushed Megan's
bed over there. Classic. I'll move it back.'

Georgie shrugged. 'If you want.'

I dragged my bags over to the wardrobe while
Georgie stood there watching.

No, Jake's description of them being 'shaken' was
pathetic. Georgie wasn't shaken. She was beyond that.
She was frozen.

'Was it really bad with Megan?' I asked, starting to
unpack my stuff.

That was the way to do it. Get the girls to talk. I
could help them get it off their chests. Then, when that
was done, hopefully by tonight or even this afternoon,
everything would be back to normal.

Carla would be fully grateful to me. I would get a big
tick next to my name, which was what I wanted. I had
promised myself I was going to be so good, so focused,
on time to everything and not sneak out at night to
meet Jules. That would be the hard one to keep.

I could feel Georgie watching me. She still hadn't
answered my question so I asked again. 'Was it bad
with Megan?'

'Yeah, it was bad,' she replied. 'Megan didn't even
get to say goodbye. Not that she could've looked us in
the eye.'

'Do you know what happened?'

'Not exactly,' answered Georgie, sliding down onto
the floor next to her bed.

'Did they tell you anything? Georgie?'

'Huh?' Georgie was playing with her mobile. 'They
didn't say much. Carla has sort of said but without
actually saying it that it was drugs but – '

'Drugs! Gross! And I'm sleeping in her bed.'

'That's a bit . . . harsh.'

'What, and cheating's not?'

'We don't even know what drugs she was taking. I
mean, some people can't help taking drugs. It's like a
disease.'

'Yeah right, Georgie.'

'You're being pretty judgmental, Ace.'

'What did I say?'

Georgie stood up and put her phone in the drawer.
Now at least she was smiling. So I assumed she was
over whatever was making her act so weird.

I put a pile of T-shirts on the bed 'cause I thought
she was coming over to help me unpack, but instead
she started walking towards the door.

Georgie leant against the entrance with her arms
crossed. 'You were being judgmental, Ace. You were
making out that if you take drugs you must be dirty.'

I'd seen Georgie stand all grumpy and frowning like
this before. She was about to get her period. That's
what it was. Even Kia said Georgie was a PMS witch
and coming from Kia that was really something.

'It is pretty off, Georgie. You must admit.'

Georgie did the 'whatever' eyebrow lift. But I could
still spot the smile hiding behind there.

'Hey, wait till you see this.' The magazine I'd bought
for Kia and Georgie was peeking out of my bag. 'This
mag has got the best bikinis in it,' I said, holding it out
to her.

If Georgie wanted it she was going to have to come
and get it.

'It's French.' I held it up to show her the cover. 'You
and Kia could easily copy the designs. I mean, who'd
ever know?'

Georgie didn't move, even though it was obvious
the smile was trying to escape.

'Loooook.' I opened the page I'd marked. 'Gorgeous,
hey?' I said, pointing to the photo. 'That little bow in
the middle of the top is what makes it.'

Georgie did the eyebrow lift again. 'It's a bit skanky,'
she said and walked out the door.

The magazine fell to the floor with a clunk.

'Skanky? Skanky!' I muttered to the empty
bungalow. Now I'd caught the frozen disease. The only
thing I could move was my lips. 'Skanky? Like since
when has Georgie been some style queen?'

I could handle the girls being 'shaken', even though
that was a gross understatement. I could handle
walking into the rec room and not one of my supposed
best friends getting up to hug me. I could handle
sleeping in the same bed as a drug addict – just. But I
could not handle Georgie, the beefcake, giving me
advice about style and fashion.

Suddenly my movement returned and I was
shoving bras and undies and jeans and jumpers into
the drawers.

Had Georgie suddenly forgotten that for the last six
months she had asked my fashion advice – not Kia's
and certainly not Micki's – every time she went to a
party or a dance or wherever she went in her one-camera,
one-newspaper little town?

I slammed the drawers shut and pushed my bags off
the bed.

'Skanky!' I called out again.

I got out my phone and texted Jules. He'd make me
feel better.

'Here. Can't believe it. Georgie in a fouler. Hardly
speaking to me. Miss you. Xxxx'

It took amazing self control not to add 'Let's meet
up – now.' But I was here to be a good girl.

Besides, Jules'd say, 'I've got to train.' That seemed
to be all he was interested in at the moment. Baseball,
baseball, baseball.

At least, it had been in the last week or so. Even the
day Jules got the photo album, he'd sent me some lame
message like, 'Got training. Running late. Talk lata. Dig
album.'

Dig album? Surely my effort deserved more than
two words. How about another two like 'thank you'?

Jules and I did speak later. Or rather, he spoke and I
listened. He was on a total whinge fest about how I'd
never gone surfing with him. How I kept promising
but then never did anything about it. The only way to
shut him up was to promise I'd get Georgie to take him
for one.

Lucky Georgie didn't have PMS then, or she
would've bitten my head off and said something like,
'I'm not here to do your dirty work.'

I shut the door and ran out of the bungalow. I couldn't
walk or I'd scream.

The problem was that there were so many things to
scream about I couldn't decide which one to scream
about first!

What the hell was Ace doing here? And what the
hell were we going to do about her being here?

At the end of the walkway, I leant over the railing
and did my first scream. Of course, I didn't let the
sound come out. Instead, I stretched my lips as wide as
they could go and forced out the air until I felt the
punch inside my tummy.

Then there was Megan. What was that about? What
exactly had she done? Yeah, she'd been rude; she'd
been aggro; she'd been a pain; she'd been a total idiot
pulling the shark stunt – but what had she actually
done to get herself chucked out of here?

It had to be something really bad. But drugs?

Megan was an elite sportswoman. She trained hard.
She commanded respect and fear because she was so
good. Megan was the one to beat and she knew it too.
We pushed each other to the wire. Our battle'd start the
second our boards hit the water – even before that. On
land we played psych-out games with each other. To
me, she always had the edge, always. But she'd been
cheating. She needed drugs, or whatever it was, to
make her good – to give her that edge. And I needed
her. I needed Megan to make me good.

I leant over the railing and released another silent
scream into the air. But then I dangled over the edge
that extra second, savouring the smile that could now
break free.

The grin I'd been trying to hide from Ace was now
stretching the hell out of my cheeks.

Jules'd sent me another text. The second one since
last night. The exact same words: 'Lets go surfin dude.'

But Ace was here and Jules knew that.

So wouldn't that mean that Jules'd want to surf
with her?

I opened my mouth for another silent scream but
the only thing that came out was a gigantic long sigh.

Micki and Kia were lying on the grass next to the tennis
courts. The strange thing was that they actually looked
like sisters. Not pathetic Starfish Sisters – real sisters.
They were both lying on their backs with their hands
folded over their foreheads and one leg crossed over
the other.

'Hey,' I said, collapsing onto the grass next to them.
'Good hiding spot.'

'Thanks for going to the bungalow with her,' said
Micki.

'Did I have a choice?'

The three of us groaned and simultaneously rolled
onto our stomachs.

'What are we going to do, girls?' I asked.

'I don't know,' Kia said. 'But Micki's freaking out.'

'I'm not freaking out. I'm just not . . . comfortable,'
Micki explained. 'It's been a really tough few days and I
was just starting to feel okay – good, actually – and
then she turns up. Please, Georgie, please don't say
anything to Ace.'

'I'll try,' I answered. 'But it's going to be hard.'

'Please?'

'The good news is that she definitely doesn't know
about your dad,' I said.

Micki sat up. 'How do you know?'

'I just do,' I replied.

'Yeah, but how?'

What an idiot I was! I should've thought before I
opened my fat mouth. This was a really big deal for
Micki. If it was happening to me I'd be paranoid too.

'It's a hunch. You know, a feeling,' I offered.

'So you don't know for sure?'

'She didn't tell me. It's like I said, just a feeling. But –
but I definitely think Ace would've said something to
me. Don't you, Kia?'

The more I tried to dig myself out of the hole the
deeper I was falling into it.

If Ace was so disgusted at the idea of sleeping in the
same bed as a drug addict, even though the sheets had
been changed, then my hunch was that she'd be
equally disgusted sleeping in the same room as a drug
addict's daughter. But I was not prepared to share that
hunch with Micki.

'So, Ace didn't say anything?'

'No, Micki. I swear.'

'Georgie's probably right, Micki,' Kia said. 'She's got
a good instinct with people.'

'I do?' It was just one surprise after another today.
'Micki, did Kia just give me a compliment?'

Micki was laughing. I'd always loved watching
Micki's face when she laughed. Her eyes sparkled so
much it was almost like you could see stars inside them.
Now I knew the truth about Micki, I loved watching
her laugh even more because I desperately wanted her
to be happy.

'You two are odd,' she said.

'Correction,' Kia said to Micki. 'I
used
to be odd.'

'How did you two start talking to each other again?'
In one breath, Micki blew down the brick wall that'd
been sitting between me and Kia. 'You don't mind me
asking that, do you?'

Kia's mouth was wide open but nothing was coming
out. That was okay. It'd caught me off guard too.

'Well,' I said, 'it probably had something to do with
the fact that I needed a lift down to Sydney.'

'No, it was before that,' Kia said.

'Really?' Georgie frowned.

Kia sat up. Something told me we were going to
hear a story, Kia style. So I got comfy; I wanted to hear
it. This was a first, Kia actually talking openly about our
no-speaky period. I was impressed.

'Well, we were in Health.'

I had no idea where this was going.

'It was about three months after Georgie, you know,
found me.' Kia swallowed but she didn't stop. 'Of course,
we'd always sit on opposite sides of the room. But we'd
check each other out every now and then.'

'Would we?'

Kia answered with a punch to my arm.

'Anyway, our teacher was doing this slide show and
the song "Friends Forever" started playing and without
even thinking what I was doing I looked over at
Georgie and Georgie was looking me.'

'Um . . .?'

'You remember.' Again Kia gave me a playful punch.
''Cause when I realised that you were looking at me
too, I smiled.'

I'd probably thought Kia had snarled. It'd been
really, really hard being in the same room as Kia.
There'd been days when I could've reached out and
touched the hate that was burning off her skin.

None of our other friends knew what had
happened. Some rumour got spun about us having a
big spat at a surfing contest. Part of the story was that
I'd punched Kia in the face to stuff up her Seahorse Girl
interview. They thought that was the reason Kia didn't
come back to school that week.

Of course, I denied punching her. But I didn't
correct the other stuff and neither did Kia. We weren't
talking, yet we were in a conspiracy together.

For almost three months, every night before I fell
asleep and every morning when I woke up, I'd say to
myself, 'You did the right thing. You had to tell.'

'I feel like I could sleep for a thousand years.' Micki
yawned, stretching out and putting her head on my
lap. 'If Ace wasn't here I'd almost say that things were
close to perfect.'

My fingertips ran along Micki's scalp. Her eyelashes
fluttered as she closed her eyes. My hands moved
along her neck and shoulders and slowly I felt the
weight of her body melt into my palms.

Who looked after Micki? Poor Micki. But she would
hate me calling her that. That's probably why my chest
ached that little bit more.

Surf camp had been nothing like what I'd expected.
In fact, camp had only delivered the unexpected.

I felt like I'd been put in a washing machine. I'd
come out and now I didn't know if my arm was where
my leg should be, if my nose was on my elbow and my
elbow was on my nose. Everything was topsy-turvy,
upside down and back to front.

The counsellor arrived. It wasn't compulsory to see her
but Carla 'advised' that discussing the 'Megan situation'
with a professional who wasn't connected with
surfing or the camp would be helpful.

What would be helpful, I wanted to say, would be
discussing it with a real person who'd actually trained
their butt off only to discover that their opponent had
been cheating to get the results they'd been chasing.

As far as I was concerned, that was the only
'professional' worth talking to. Someone who could
understand how I felt now that my rival, the one who
gave me aggro and made me hungry, had disappeared
off the face of the earth.

Micki volunteered her services to the counsellor.

'You don't have to,' I said to her.

'Maybe I want to.'

Obviously Ace didn't need to see the counsellor. She
was peaking. Megan's downfall was Ace's victory.

So Ace went for a surf with Jake. Even the way she'd
said, 'Jake wants to see how my surfing's going'
annoyed the crap out of me.

'No, Ace, he
needs
to see how your surfing's going,'
I'd said back.

Bitchy? Yeah. But not every guy was after her.

'Do you feel like a surf?' Kia asked me.

'Not with her out there. Do you?'

'No. How about a game of tennis?'

'Nah. I always beat you.'

'Do you want to go up to the bungalow?'

'Nothing else to do,' I said and sighed. 'I wish we
had some chocolate.'

'Me too.'

'Do you reckon Carla would let us get some?'

'What? Go down the street?'

'Yeah.'

'She's feeling guilty,' said Kia, smirking.

'She is.'

I looked at Kia and we gave each other a wicked smile.

It felt strange walking out the gates and into the real
world. Surf camp was so intense that you forgot about
this other life form pumping away out there. People,
cars, shops, houses, fights over parking spaces, cute
boys – well, there was one particular cute boy I hadn't
forgotten.

Kia and I sat on the steps outside the milk bar and
stuffed our faces with chocolate.

'Remember when we came up here in January to
buy Micki's birthday card?' Kia said.

I nodded. My mouth was too full to talk.

'You're okay about what she told you, aren't you?'

'You mean about her dad?' I answered through a
chocolate dribble. 'Of course I am. I just feel really bad
for Micki. It's good she's going to live with you.'

'It means she'll be living near you too.'

'And going to the same school,' I added.

'Do you think Micki and Ace will sort it out?'

'I really don't know,' I answered, unwrapping the
second block of chocky we were meant to be taking
back for the others. 'I've got my own stuff with Ace.'

'Yeah. You're pretty mad.'

'Aren't you?'

'I think I'm more sad than mad. You know, Starfish
Sisters, all that stuff.'

'Come on, Kia! If we were really Starfish Sisters then
Ace wouldn't have read Micki's diary. Or at least she
would've confessed to it. I'm sorry to be the one to say
it but the Starfish Sisters are crap.'

'I don't think we're crap,' Kia answered, pulling
Ace's Kelly Slater cap over her face. 'We're just going
through a tough time.'

'Yeah, right.'

For a while we sat there. Not eating, not talking,
while the world rushed about its usual business. I was
watching it as if I was an alien because at the moment
this world did not feel connected to mine.

I couldn't agree with Kia. Not even to keep her
happy. Ace destroyed the Starfish Sisters. But she
destroyed them last camp while she was busy prancing
around and not focusing on the selections.

'What are you thinking about?' Kia asked me.

I shrugged. 'What are you thinking about?'

'I was thinking that I've never really said thank
you.' Kia wrapped her sticky chocolate fingers around
my hand. 'Thanks, Georgie.' Kia kissed my cheek.
'You're a good friend. You're loyal and trustworthy.
I've got to tell you, I'm impressed you didn't say anything
to Ace.'

Kia made me smile. She was trying so hard. But then
Kia tried hard at everything she did and maybe that
was part of the problem.

'Why?' The one word I'd been wanting to say
popped out of my mouth.

'Why?'

'Yeah. Why at my place?' I curled my fingers back
around hers. I wanted Kia to know that I wasn't asking
out of anger. There was still a part of me that was scared
that if she got hurt she'd do it again. 'I'd just like to
understand, that's all.'

'Why in your bathroom?'

I nodded.

'I've asked myself that so many times,' she
answered. 'I think it's 'cause I wanted help but I was
too scared to ask for it myself.'

'Okay.'

'You've always been stronger than me, Georgie.
You've got your life in order. You always have.'

'It doesn't always feel like that.'

'It looks like that.'

'Mum told me that your dad cried.'

'That was the worst bit,' Kia whispered. 'That's
when I knew I had to get it together and stop having all
these crazy thoughts.'

'Do you think you'll do it again?'

Like the sky had the answer, Kia looked up to it, a
little frown the same as her dad's crinkled across her
forehead. 'I don't think so. No. No, I won't.'