Chapter Thirteen

Here it is, the final chapter. I think I will remove the bit about the eggs, even though it is revisited in this chapter. Thanks for all of your advice and support! I have just one more assignment - anyone have ideas for a god title? Ava.

Lucas was holding his tuba in one hand and a shiny brochure in the other when he appeared at her bedroom door with a huge grin on his face. Carlie was still playing the theme music to Mission Impossible in short staccato bursts. She had realized that he’d taken a break in his accompaniment but she hadn’t realized that he was done for the night. Usually they played together for way longer than this.

She lowered her flute.

“I think you are ready,” Lucas said.

“For what?”

“For this.” He crossed her room and handed her the brochure and then sat down on her bed.

She looked it over. “Queensland Youth Orchestra? There’s no way I’m good enough to audition for that.”

“Of course you are. You’re brilliant.”

She couldn’t help but smile from the compliment but she was still unsure about the orchestra. She flipped through the brochure. “Oh. There’s no point in worrying about it, the deadline to apply for an audition was weeks ago. The auditions are this weekend.”

“Mm… well, I might have already sent an application in.”

“What do you mean might have?”

“Okay, I did. I sent an application in for an audition for you.”

“Are you crazy? There’s no way I’ll be good enough, and I don’t even have a pianist to accompany me.”

“There’s nothing that says your accompaniment has to be a piano. I thought I’d come with you and accompany you on my tuba.”

“You are crazy aren’t you?”

“No. I just think you should try. If you don’t make it then that’s fine, at least you will have tried.”

Carlie didn’t say anything. She just sat and looked at the brochure. It looked like a lot of fun but she’d never tried out for anything like this before.

“Come on. We don’t have to tell anyone else, not even your parents. If you don’t make it nobody will ever know.”

She reluctantly agreed. She was glad that there was only a few days to worry about it, and that a great deal of those days was taken up with Lucas’ crazy practice schedule for the rhythmic gymnastics routine they were going to perform on the last day of Phys.Ed. class.

For some reason he’d gotten it in his head that their group needed to ace the performance. He had a CD with some crazy dramatic opera music on it that they were supposed to perform to. She and Penelope had a shiny red ball each and Lucas had a white ribbon on the end of a stick that he’d arranged for them to practice with full time.

At lunch time and after school he booked the floor of the gym for them to practice on and Tamika would come along and act as their choreographer. Lucas had a list of moves written down with accompanying pictures that Tamika was supposed to ensure they were all sticking to and doing in time with each other and with the music.

They were all a bit confused and perplexed by this strange obsession Lucas had developed, but it seemed to be important to him so they went along with it.

The gymnastics routine wasn’t the only sign that Lucas was a little bit odd. On Tuesday and Thursday Carlie had gone jogging in the mornings with him, her mum and their dog Winston. He absolutely would not let Carlie jog ahead of him. It was weird because Lucas had never been competitive with her about anything before now.

She’d thought it was strange the first time when he wouldn’t let her go ahead, but the second time he wouldn’t even run even beside her. He jogged ahead of her and refused to look at her. When she spoke to him he’d reply, but he wouldn’t even turn his head towards her. As soon as they were home and showered and on their way to school he went back to normal.

Lucas was a mystery. There were so many things about him that she just didn’t understand. When she asked her mum about it she shook her head and said, “There are some things that we’re not supposed to understand.”

They were sitting at Buba and La having a Saturday morning coffee when she said that. Jake the barrista remembered them from the last time and made their coffee to their specific orders.

Carlie had been surprised but happy when her mum asked her if she wanted to go out for a coffee. She felt like a grown up with her earrings and her lip gloss on sitting in a trendy café sipping a cappuccino. If nothing else it was taking her mind off the audition that afternoon.

“Life is such a strange thing,” her mum said. “Sometimes you think you have it all figured out. The years tick by and you’re pretty content. Content without really being happy. Then something happens that blows you out of the water. You look around and realize that life can be so much better if you just try.”

“Are you talking about you and dad?”

Her mum had a far away look. “Yes. I’m talking about all three of us. You, me and dad.”

“So what blew you out of the water? What happened?”

She smiled. “I guess Lucas happened.”

When they left the café her mum put her arm around her waist and said, “We should make this a tradition. We should do coffee on Saturday mornings.”

“Okay, sure,” Carlie agreed.

That afternoon when she was sitting beside Lucas waiting to go into the audition room she thought about what her mum had said about Lucas changing their lives. It was true. There was no way she’d be sitting here about to do the scariest thing of her life if Lucas wasn’t with her.

Once she was inside the audition it wasn’t nearly as scary as she imagined it would be. Lucas made stupid jokes about his tuba and got everyone laughing and then they played the piece that they’d prepared without any mistakes. She was feeling pretty good when they asked her to do some sight-reading. She made a few little mistakes, but nothing major and she covered them up with a bit of improvising. The judges were nodding and smiling when she finished.

They asked her if she could play anything from memory and she and Lucas looked at each other and smiled. She started off playing the theme from The Sound of Music, and then Lucas took over with his version of the Australian National Anthem. Before he was done she sprung Michael Jackson’s Thriller on him. She could see the corners of his mouth spreading into a contained smile while he continued to play along. Before she was ready he launched into the theme from Super Mario Brothers and she had to think quickly to keep up. They went back and forth like that, each time letting the other have less time in the spotlight until the entire thing came crashing down in fits of laughter.

The panel thanked them and she and Lucas packed their instruments away while the judges whispered to each other. When she turned back to thank them and say goodbye one of them stepped forward and told her that she’d made it.

“We usually don’t offer any of the positions until after we’ve seen all of applicants,” the old lady with a neat grey bob said. “But in some cases the artist is so outstanding that we make the decision on the spot. In about two weeks you can expect a letter offering you a position as either the lead flute in the third orchestra or as one of the supporting flutes in the second orchestra.”

Carlie could hardly contain herself. She squealed and jumped up and down and hugged Lucas and thanked them all profusely. When they got home she told her mum and dad right away and they were so impressed that her mum had to sit down.

“I didn’t even know you were auditioning,” she said with her hand over her heart. “Our daughter… in the state orchestra. Just imagine it.”

“Youth orchestra, mum,” she corrected. “And it’s just the third tier, it isn’t the best one.” Carlie tried to keep their expectations low.

“Or the second tier, depending on what they decide,” Lucas reminded her.

“I don’t care which tier,” he mum announced. “I am proud no matter what.”

Her dad was speechless. He stood there, opening and closing his mouth for a while and then he said. “Well, I think I’d better call grandma to let her know.”

“When is your first concert?” He called out a few minutes later.

“God, dad, I don’t know. I haven’t even been to the first practice yet!”

Carlie talked to her grandma on the phone and promised to let her know when the first concert would be as soon as she found out.

“I have to give the girls at the bowls club advanced notice when I leave for the weekend,” her grandma explained in her crackly old lady voice. “They don’t make players like me anymore. I’m carrying the entire team.”

It took a long time for Carlie’s excitement to wear off. Even when she woke up the next morning she was still excited.

She went out to the kitchen and made herself some toast. Lucas was already up and eating an enormous bowl full of cereal. He had a huge grin on his face as he chewed.

“What are you smiling about?” She asked.

“I just told my dad I’m going to quit swimming.”

“Huh? Quit swimming? But you just won a bunch of medals. Why would you want to do that?”

“I dunno, I’m just kind of sick of it. I want a break to try some other sports.”

Carlie felt her heart drop. “This isn’t about the rhythmic gymnastics is it?” She hoped against hope that he hadn’t got it in his head that he wanted to be a rhythmic gymnast. He was the worst in the whole class at it.

He laughed. “No. I don’t think I’ll ever do rhythmic gymnastics again after this Friday. I thought I might try cross country running for a while.”

“What did your dad say?”

“Nothing. That’s the strange thing. I thought he’d flip out and yell at me but he didn’t. He just said that if I didn’t want to swim anymore it was my decision and he could respect it.”

“That’s it?”

“Well, he also said that I should keep working out so that I don’t get fat.”

“Huh. Well, I know a great fat burning DVD if you need a recommendation,” she said with a wry smile.

Lucas laughed and his eyes twinkled at her.

He’d been doing a lot of that lately. When he smiled at her or laughed at something she’d said, his eyes seemed to sparkle and he’d gaze at her for longer than was really necessary. It made her feel all warm inside when he did that.

As the days to the gymnastics routine ticked down Lucas’ enthusiasm reached fever pitch. Even though they had exams almost every day he didn’t let up on their rehearsal schedule. Tamika thought it was a hoot, probably because she was just the choreographer, and not the one who was going to be laughed at in class on Friday.

Not that being laughed at was something she couldn’t deal with. It had happened all the time right after she left her old group. Any time she’d walk near Bess, Gina and Zoe at lunchtime they’d make those nasty remarks just loud enough so that she could hear. They made mean jokes about how she’d run out of assembly after Lucas and called her his little puppy dog. It bothered her, but then she’d go and sit with her real friends and they’d laugh about something else and the humiliation would be replaced with happiness.

She still wasn’t looking forward to Friday though.

It might have been a subconscious loathing that caused her to forget to put her sports uniform in the laundry hamper, so that when Friday did finally roll around she didn’t have clean shorts to wear. She had a spare sports shirt but not spare shorts.

“Crap,” she complained.

“What?” Lucas asked.

“My sports shorts haven’t been washed. Oh well, I guess I’ll just wear my running shorts. They’re clean.”

Lucas’ eyes went wide. “No!”

“What? Don’t freak out, other people forget their sports uniform all the time and have to improvise. I’m sure Ms. Stephens wont care.”

“No. You can’t wear your running shorts,” he stated emphatically as he shook his head.

“Why? It’s no big deal.”

His eyes darted around the room. “Because… because… because you wont match Penelope.” He finally looked at her again. “It is essential for the symmetry of the performance that you and Penelope must be wearing the same thing. It doesn’t matter if your uniform shorts are stinky, nobody will notice.”

Carlie watched him for a moment. He was staring at her with such a serious look.

“Okay, fine. If it’s really so important to you I’ll wear the sports uniform.”

“It is. Thank you.”

Lucas was so weird sometimes.

Just as she had known it would be, the rhythmic gymnastics routine was terrible. No amount of flashy music or symmetric costumes could disguise the fact that none of them were any good at gymnastics.

They were a spectacle. None of the other groups had bothered with music so as soon as the first notes sounded the entire class perked up and looked around to watch them. Carlie and Penelope did the best they could to keep up with Lucas, who was thumping around with his white ribbon like a deranged puppy. They threw and caught their red balls and did their turns and jumps as best they could. For the grand finale Carlie and Penelope were supposed to stand on opposite sides of the floor, with Lucas in the middle twirling his ribbon in the air, and throw their balls in a ‘graceful arch’ (according to his list of instructions) to each other over his head.

Unfortunately Penelope suffered from an unfortunate loss of balance and when she threw her ball instead of curving over Lucas’ head it hit him right in the temple and bounced off  in the opposite direction. She lifted her hand to her mouth and watched as Lucas dropped his ribbon and shook his head, so she forgot about catching the ball that Carlie had thrown to her. The second ball bounced off towards the toilets, so for the final pose, in which they each were supposed to be holding either a ball or a ribbon, they were all prop-less.

When the music swelled for the final pose Lucas turned back towards the class and threw his arms in the air dramatically. Everyone was laughing and cheering and yelling, ‘More, more!’ and ‘Bravo!’ and he bowed several times.

When they regrouped at the side of the floor Penelope apologized for hitting him in the head with the ball.

“That’s alright Nell, it could have happened to anyone,” he said with a sort of grim smile.

At the end of class Ms. Stephens handed out their grades sheets for the term. Inexplicably, they’d been given a grade of A for rhythmic gymnastics. Combined with her A for health, A for getting to know the gym, and C for artistic gymnastics she ended up with an overall grade of A-, which was a nice surprise.

Lucas punched the air and said, “Yes!” when he got his grade sheet.

“Let me see,” she said.

He snatched the sheet away so that she couldn’t see. “No way. This is personal.”

She didn’t see what could possibly be so personal about his grade for Health and Physical Education but she got the feeling he wasn’t joking, so she let it go.

The next day Lucas rode with her dad while Carlie and her mum picked up Penelope and Tamika and drove up to the beach. They still arrived at the apartment at the same time because Lucas and her dad had to swing by her grandma’s house to drop Winston off for her to look after while they were away.

That Saturday was great. They walked along the boardwalk and then the beach, talking and kicking the water from the ocean at each other, until they got to the rusty old shipwreck at Dicky Beach. On the way back to the apartment they stopped at the Moffat Beach Café and ordered milkshakes and sat at the rickety little tables and watched the big containers ships pass across the horizon as they slurped them down.

As much as she liked dressing up and sipping coffee at trendy cafés there was certainly something to be said for a good old fashioned chocolate milkshake by the beach.

When they walked back along King’s Beach they decided a swim in the surf was in order so they all stripped down to their swimsuits. Her dad chased her mum into the water, squealing all the way.

She was helping Tamika tie the cord of her little terry-toweling hat securely so that it wouldn’t come off if she got it wet when she noticed Lucas staring at her. His eyebrows were raised just a little bit and his mouth was hanging open as he stared somewhere around her midsection.

“What?” She asked. “Do I have something on me?” She looked down at herself to check to see if there was something embarrassing stuck to her body or if her bikini was in some way damaged.

Lucas cleared his throat. “No.”

“Why were you staring at me then?”

“I wasn’t,” he said as he turned away, his cheeks bright red. “Come on, let’s get in.” He ran down the beach and dove into the water.

That night they ordered fish and chips from a little beachside shop and sat at the picnic tables by Pumicestone Passage and ate with their fingers from the newspaper wrapping. The pelicans swooped over the water and the seagulls squawked for scraps and it was the perfect autumn evening in Caloundra. 

The next morning she woke to the sound of the front door of the apartment clicking shut. She went out to investigate and Lucas was gone. He had been sleeping on the fold-out couch in the living room, but now he was gone. She tried not to let it bother her. He probably just wanted to go out for an early morning swim. She would have gone with him if he had asked, but he was such a good swimmer that he probably wanted to go on his own.

He didn’t come back for a long time. Everyone got up and her mum took her and Penelope and Tamika down to the main street to buy food for breakfast and she wished Lucas were with them. They went to the fruit shop and bought bananas, strawberries, eggs and Greek style yoghurt with passion fruit pulp on top. Then they went to the bakery to get bread and croissants and to the butcher for bacon.

Lucas still wasn’t back at the apartment by the time they got back. It wasn’t until they’d unpacked all of the groceries and were reading magazines and listening to Weekend Breakfast on Triple J that he finally got back. He cracked the door open and peaked inside the apartment.

“Where have you been?” She asked. “Why aren’t you coming inside?”

He stepped into the apartment and stood beside the door. His eyes darted around between Carlie, Penelope and Tamika and then back to the door, as if he might need to make a quick escape. “Ah… I went for a swim.”

“Long swim. We’ve been waiting for you.”

He bit on his lip. His hair was sticking up and wet and messy. He had on a pair of wet board shorts and had a beach towel draped around his neck. His broad chest still had a few beads of water on it.

“Um… can I take a shower now?” He asked like a kid who wanted to leave the table before he’d eaten all his vegetables.

She shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

He shuffled sideways through the living room. His eyes still darted from one person to the next, as if someone was suddenly going to jump him. When he got close to the bathroom he lunged for the door and quickly shut himself inside.

She looked at Penelope and Tamika.

“That was weird,” Tamika said.

“Yeah, what do you think his problem is?” Carlie asked.

“I bet he pooed his pants,” Penelope said. “My little brother always acts like that when he pooes his pants.”

“Yeah but Lucas is fourteen. Who pooes their pants when they’re fourteen?”

Penelope shrugged. “Maybe he got a bad piece of fish last night and he couldn’t help it.”

Carlie shook her head and went out to the balcony to tell her parents that Lucas was back and they could start breakfast now.

There were strange sounds coming from the bathroom. There was clattering and the sound of cupboards opening and closing.

“See, I told you,” Penelope said. “He’s pooed his pants and he’s trying to figure out how to clean himself up and get rid of the evidence.”

By the time Lucas came out of the shower her mum and dad were well into cooking the bacon and eggs. He was walking across the room towards his bag wearing only a towel when her mum said, “Ah Lucas, how many eggs will you have?”

He froze mid-stride and turned his head towards her very slowly. All of the color drained from his face. “Eggs?” He whispered.

“Yes, eggs. They’re lovely and fresh, we got them this morning.”

Lucas blinked. And blinked again.

“Well? How many do you want?”

He shook his head weakly.

“You don’t want any?”

“Tamika, you’re up,” her dad called out.

Carlie watched Lucas’ horrified eyes follow Tamika as she walked across the room, took the plate of bacon, eggs and toast from her dad and sat down at the table.

“Mm… I love it when the yolks are still a bit runny,” Tamika said. “Thanks Mr. Weaver, these are perfect.”

Lucas’ mouth gaped open and his eyes bulged. She could swear that she could see sweat beading on his forehead, even through the air conditioning was on in the apartment.

Suddenly, he bolted towards the front door.

“Where are you going?” She called out. “You’re not wearing any clothes!”

But it was too late. Lucas was gone again.

“Oh poor Lucas,” Penelope said. “He must really have an upset stomach. I hope he’ll be well enough to come to the garden show with us today.”

Carlie didn’t know what to think. He was behaving so strangely. Maybe he did poo his pants.

About half an hour later there was a knock on the door and she let him back in.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“Yeah.”

“Are you feeling sick?”

“I was. Eggs kind of weird me out.”

“But I’ve seen you eat eggs heaps of times.”

“I just…” His brow furrowed and the corners of his mouth turned down in a frown. “I just think it’s really weird… you know, like cannibalism.”

“Huh?” What on earth was he talking about? “Maybe if you’re a chicken. But last time I checked I had neither feathers nor wings.”

His eyes narrowed at her. “Chicken eggs?”  

“Well yeah… what did you think, we’d gone down to the grocer and bought Crocodile eggs or something?” She joked.

Later that day, when they were driving up to Nambour for the garden show, she thought back over that conversation. Why would Lucas think that eating eggs was cannibalism? It was so weird. Maybe cannibalism meant something different in America, because the only other explanation was that he thought they were eating human eggs, which was preposterous.

Even though Lucas didn’t come to Health class he still did the work and took the exam. They’d just spent nine weeks learning about human reproduction. He should know that the human egg is so small that you’d need a microscope to see it. Besides which, where would they get human eggs from anyway?

Maybe he was joking.

He must have been joking.

Honestly, Carlie hadn’t been that excited to go to the garden show. She had thought that it would probably be like when they went to the nurseries with her dad to look for bromeliads, but she was wrong. It was a huge festival. Sure there were heaps of people selling plants, but there were also all sorts of vendors selling everything from saws to food to jewelry.

They wandered around in a loose group, only casually keeping track of each other. Her dad bought some ‘specimens’ for the garden and her mum tried on a million pairs of sunglasses.

Lucas seemed to have gotten over his stomach bug. He came up to her with a big grin on his face holding a white paper bag.

“What’s that?” She asked.

“I bought something for Dr. McLooty.” He rolled the top of the paper bag down slowly until a pointy red hat emerged and then a gnome face with blonde curly hair, black eyelashes and red lipstick.

She started laughing.

Lucas continued rolling the bag down until she could see that it was a lady gnome, dressed in a pink sundress.

“She’s perfect,” Carlie announced. “I’m sure they’ll be very happy together.”

They wandered through all of the stands selling toe rings and tie dyed hippy dresses and came across one that sold nothing but scarves made out of all different types of material.

“Hey, Tamika, look at this,” Penelope said. She took her sunhat off and wrapped a royal blue scarf around her head. “Is it just me or does this look like it could be part of the school uniform?”

It did look like it would go with the uniform.

Tamika smiled but shook her head. “Mrs. Hoskins would never let me. My mum already asked and it’s the school hat or nothing.”

“That old cow,” Carlie scoffed. “She’ll be gone soon, and anyway, you don’t have to deal with her anymore. You get to go to Mr. Hemming instead because you’re one of my friends. I’m sure Mr. Hemming would let you wear that inside the school instead of the hat.”

They spent almost an hour trying on different headscarves and helping Tamika choose the best ones. When Tamika was paying for them, Carlie felt a warm hand around hers and she turned to see Lucas smiling at her.

“I need you for something,” he said as he led her away to a stall that was selling jewelry. He dropped her hand and picked a necklace up from one of the display stands. It was a silver chain with an amber pendant in the shape of a teardrop. He held it up to her neck and made a, “Hmm…” noise. Then he picked up a different chain with an amber pendant in an irregular shape and held it up to her neck.

“The first one,” he said to the owner of the stall, and took out his wallet to pay for it.

“Is it for your mum?” She asked.

“Nope.”

“Micah’s sister?”

He shook his head.

The stall owner gave him his change and Lucas turned to her with the necklace in his hands and undid the clasp.

“Well?” She asked. “Who’s it for?”

“You.” He reached around her neck and fastened the clasp behind her.

She was stunned. It wasn’t her birthday. He didn’t need to buy her a present.

He took a step back and did one of those contented smiles that made her feel all hot and prickly.

“Very pretty,” the lady who owned the stall said.

“I told you she had a classic beauty.” Lucas replied to the lady but kept on looking at Carlie.

She felt her cheeks flush. Apart from her mum, nobody had ever told her she was beautiful before.

When they drove back to the apartment at the beach Lucas went with her dad and Carlie went with the other girls and her mum, like usual. She kind of wanted to switch cars but she didn’t have the guts. It was probably better anyway. She sat in the front seat of her mum’s car and she could see her reflection in the side mirror. She couldn’t help but glance at herself with the necklace on and bring her hand to her neck to touch it.

After they’d gotten back to the apartment and everyone had put their purchases away and was settled reading or watching TV, Lucas asked if anyone wanted to go for an afternoon swim in the surf. Carlie was the only one who wanted to. They took the boogie boards and walked across the boardwalk to the beach.

Lucas was pretty good on the boogie board. Carlie wasn’t that good at it, so he helped her. He waited with her out past where the waves were breaking and told her when to kick. It was fun. They were laughing and splashing each other and talking.

They were waiting for the next wave to catch and he was telling her about the disastrous orienteering race he’d run one weekend with Ben’s family when something nipped her on the bum.

“Ah!” She yelped. “Something bit me.”

Lucas was biting down on his lip, trying and failing to conceal a cheeky smile.

“Did you just pinch me on the bum?”

He shook his head but he was smiling. “No, I think it was a crab. I’m pretty sure I saw one back here,” he moved closer to her and looked around at the water behind her, as if he were indeed looking for a crab. “There it is!” He said, but this time she saw his arm snake around behind her and pinch her on the bum again.

“Hey!” She cried as she splashed him.

“What? It’s a crab!” He claimed as he tried to get around her to do it again.

Carlie couldn’t help but laugh at his antics. She was turning and wriggling and trying to get away from him and his long arms were twisting around her and pinching her and making her giggle.

He was right in front of her, smiling his big goofy smile, and then suddenly his lips were on hers.

He was kissing her.

Lucas kissed her and her heart pounded and she felt tingly all over.

When he stopped he looked at her in a peculiar way. His eyebrows were raised and his eyes were hopeful.

“Was that… okay?” He asked hesitantly.

She didn’t know if she could speak so she just nodded and mumbled, “Uh-huh.”

“Whew,” he breathed. “Good. So now I know that butt pinching is not considered ‘inappropriate touching.’”

He said the last two words in a voice imitation of Mrs. Hoskins stuffy fake British accent and it made her laugh.

They played and laughed in the water until the Surf Lifesaver pulled the flags out of the sand and retreated up the beach.

Lucas didn’t say anything about it that day but all she could think about was the fact that he was leaving to go back to America on Wednesday. When they were back home sitting side by side on the back porch the next day she told him that she didn’t want him to leave. Her heart burned and her eyes filled with tears.

“Stay a bit longer,” she urged. “Exchange your ticket for one after the Easter holidays.”

Lucas shook his head sadly. “I can’t. My dad already has a trip to Boston planned to visit my brother. He’s already bought the tickets and everything.”

Carlie sighed and leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. “What am I going to do without you Lucy?” Her tears dribbled down her cheeks and dropped onto his shirt.

He put his arm around her shoulders and rubbed up and down her arm. “You’ll be okay Carl.”

It was true. She would be okay. She had good friends and good parents and a good life.

But it all seemed empty without him. Lucas made her feel hot and cold and frightened and safe all at the same time. He was funny and gentle. He was also strange and unpredictable, but that only made her like him more.

Carlie cried quietly and Lucas rubbed her arm and then suddenly he jerked around towards her. “Come visit me,” he said excitedly.

“Huh? When?”

“Apply to Rotary Exchange and come and visit me in America. Stay for a semester, or even a whole year!”

“Lucy, that’s crazy. You don’t have any control over where you’re sent with Rotary Exchange. It’s just luck.”

“Unless you know how to hack their database.”

She tilted her head in question.

“Come on. Did you really think they wouldn’t pick up on something as fundamental as my name and whether I’m male or female?”

“You did lie on your application form!”

“No, I hacked their system. I changed all that information after my application had already been accepted.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Micah dared me to.”

She shook her head. “If Micah dared you to jump off a cliff would you do it?”

He smiled. “That’s exactly what my mom said!”

“Yeah, well she sounds like a sensible woman, I have no idea how she ended up with a son like you.”

He laughed. “That’s what she says too.” He grabbed her hands. “Come on Carlie, it’ll be so much fun. You can go to my school and you can meet Micah and everyone else and I can teach you how to ice skate and once I get my license I’ll take you to the drive in movies.”

She smiled. “It sounds like fun.”

“It will be fun. I promise. All you have to do is put the application in.”

“No, I have to get mum and dad to agree to it first.” Her brain was turning over. It could work. She just had to figure out the best way to present it to them.

Suddenly she didn’t feel depressed anymore. There was work to be done.

The next day they went into town and bought a webcam to attach to her computer and Lucas set her up with a video chat program. He tested it while she was sitting in her bedroom and he was sitting in his. It was like a bomb went off in his room. She’d never seen a messier bedroom. 

Somehow he managed to fit all of his clothes and junk into his suitcases and on Wednesday her parents took the morning off work to take him to the airport. They battled to get his bike back in the crumpled cardboard box it came in and after he’d checked into his flight they all hugged him goodbye.

Even though they had a plan for her to go to America soon she still blinked back tears when she was saying goodbye.

“I’ll see you soon, okay?” He whispered into her ear.

She sniffed and nodded.

He squeezed her tight and then he was gone.

In the car on the way home everyone was quiet.

“It feels like the end of an era,” her mum said. “I’m going to miss him.”

“Mm… me too,” her dad agreed.

“But we have each other, right? Maybe we should take the afternoon off and go to the movies to cheer ourselves up.”

Her dad glanced across at her mum and smiled. “Anything you want to see Carlie?” He called back to the back seat.

Yeah. She was going to be okay. She was going to miss Lucas like crazy but she was going to be okay.