New Chapters

Just wanted to let and 'The Patriots' fans know that there are new chapters up on Goodreads.com

Sorry for the disappearing act!

Hi everyone, sorry for being MIA for so long. A lot has happened in the past 2 months and I'm struggling to keep up with my fast-moving life! I need a holiday! I hope to be able to start writing again soon and when that happens I'll let you all know what the plans are and where I'm posting.

Some good news on the Lucy front... The manuscript entitled 'Nightmares of a Foreign Exchange Student' is currently being considered by three different agents, two in Australia and one in the USA. I have my fingers crossed for an offer of representation soon. I'll let you all know how that goes.

Until then, keep well and hopefully I'll be back writing again soon! Cheers! Ava.

Woo-hoo!

Hallelujah! Got my first request for a partial on Nightmares of a Foreign Exchange Student from the second agent I queried! Now I must work feverishly on replacing the egg joke with some Mrs. Hoskins bashing before anyone asks to see the full manuscript!

Ava.

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. 

Bromeliads

Check out the bromeliads. Cool. 

My mum thinks the joke about the eggs 'offends good taste'. What do you think? Should I keep it in when I send it to agents or is it obnoxious? 

Only one chapter left of Lucy. Keep posted for it in the next couple of days! 

Chapter Twelve

“I’m glad you came to me with this problem Luka,” his dad’s deep scratchy voice came through the computer speakers.

“Yeah, so what should I get her?”

“Whenever you buy a present for a female you have to think very carefully. A gift speaks volumes. What do you want your gift to say?” His dad leaned forward and peered at him through the screen.

“I dunno… happy birthday?”

He rolled his eyes. “Why do you want her to have a good birthday?”

“Because… I guess because she’s my friend?”

He gave a curt nod. “Okay, good. You want a gift that says, ‘I’m glad you’re my friend.’”

“Yeah.”

“Just friends?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty sure her dad would kill me if I tried for anything more than that. ”

“Okay. You need to be careful that it can’t be interpreted as a girlfriend gift, so you want to stay away from flowers and chocolates, and jewelry is borderline.”

“What do you mean, borderline?”

“Well obviously you’re not going to get her a ring. The only time you ever give a girl a ring is if you’re asking her to marry you. Necklaces…” He bit his lip and shook his head. “…probably not. You might be able to get away with a bracelet, so long as it’s not elegant. Actually, come to think of it, just avoid jewelry all together.”

“Okay… so what should I get her?” He returned to his original question.

“I can’t tell you, I don’t know the girl. You’ve got to listen to her very carefully. Take notice of the things she likes and the things she complains about and then get her something that will make her life a little bit better.”

“There isn’t some master gift that all girls like?”

“Well… yes and no. In my experience all girls like scented candles. If you are really stuck you could get her a scented candle, but only use that as a last resort. Your gifts say a lot about you. You want your gift to say, ‘I am listening to you,’ not, ‘I bought you a candle because I couldn’t think of anything else.’”

“Oh. Okay.”

As the days ticked down towards Carlie’s birthday, Lucas listened to her and watched her very carefully. The problem was, all Carlie and her friends talked about for the rest of the week was the pros and cons of different brands of makeup. His dad had said not to buy her jewelry so obviously he couldn’t get her earrings, and he knew nothing about makeup, so it kind of left him at a dead end.

On Friday afternoon, at a loss to know what else to do, he googled ‘Gift Shop’ and rode his bike up to a line of trendy looking stores along LaTrobe Terrace in Paddington. He wandered in and out of them looking for a candle. There was a lot of stuff that he had no idea what you would do with. Little glass jars with ornamental stoppers as lids, furniture that looked like someone had gotten sick of refurbishing halfway through the job, a shop that sold nothing but brightly colored beaded jewelry… it was all quite bewildering.

Finally he stepped into a store called ‘Buba and La,’ which in his estimation had a high probability of carrying scented candles. It was one of those stores that was decorated so that you felt like you sere stepping into a picture from a fashionable magazine. It was light and airy and there were pretty things all around the place. There were glass bowls full of delicate shells and shelves artfully arranged with vases and wooden boxes.

There were two guys in their early twenties chatting. A taller blonde guy was leaning on the counter to a coffee bar and a darker guy was restocking a shelf. Lucas thought they must be Buba and La. They were both dressed in fitted jeans and brightly colored polo shirts and the friendly, open way that they were talking to each other belied a relationship that went beyond working together in a gift shop. They were probably the owners.

Lucas felt relieved. Even if they didn’t have scented candles, gay guys knew all about women and gifts and stuff like that. Surely they’d steer him in the right direction.

“You right mate?” The blonde one, who Lucas decided was Buba, asked. “Do you need a coffee?”

Australians and their coffee. After puking up a cappuccino all over the Governor Lucas was taking a break from coffee. “No, I’m looking for a present for a girl.”

“What sort of present?” La asked.

“A birthday present?” Lucas said, unsure of himself.

“Did you have anything in mind?”

“Um… a scented candle?”

“Oh, we usually carry them but we’re all out.”

“Do you have anything like a scented candle?”

“Ah…” La tilted his head to the side.

“There are those scented soaps,” Buba interjected. “Show him the soaps.”

La took him over to a corner of the store where there were wicker baskets full of neatly wrapped bars of soap.

“Do girls like soaps like this?” Lucas asked.

La furrowed his brow and said, “Ah… well…”

But Buba cut him off. “Chicks totally love soaps. They think if they use fancy soap it’ll turn them into a supermodel or something. You should see my sister’s bathroom… totally overflowing with soaps and perfumes and other girly stuff.”

This comment gave Lucas the confidence he was looking for. He picked a bar of soap and was about to buy it when he decided, what the hell, why not two? If one scented soap was a good present, two must surely be great.

After buying the soaps and having them gift wrapped, it was like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He felt so relieved. He slept like a baby that night, and the next day, at the Queensland swimming championships, he swam like a fish.

Mr. Weaver took the morning off from the bromeliads to take him to the swimming facility, which was on the south side of town. Lucas was surprised when he parked the car and came inside rather than just dropping him off near the gates. Mr. Weaver stayed all day. He sat beside Ben’s parents and when Lucas touched the wall at the end of a race he’d look up and see Mr. Weaver standing and cheering.

Near the end of the day Mrs. Weaver, Carlie, Penelope and Tamika showed up to watch the last couple of races. He won the under fifteen division of the 100 meters breaststroke and they all acted surprised and happy.

“I didn’t know you were such a good swimmer Lucas,” Penelope said. “From the way you act in Phys. Ed. class I just assumed you weren’t any good at sports.”

Lucas laughed. “I’m afraid artistic gymnastics really isn’t one of my strengths.”

“Maybe you’ll do better at rhythmic gymnastics,” Carlie joked.

It was a funny thing to say, but the reality was that Lucas needed to step things up in gym class. The grade for that Phys. Ed. was merged with the grade for health class and he hadn’t even looked at any of the material that the girls had been going over in that class.

Each Wednesday he hurried to the classroom to get the package of photocopies that Ms. Stephens put together for him before the girls got there, then he went to the library, hacked the wireless router and played computer games for an hour with the sound turned off. Needless to say, he was going to fail the test they had coming up in 2 weeks time.

His only hope of a passing grade was to ace the rhythmic gymnastics performance on the last Friday of classes for the term. It was a long shot, but he thought he just might pull it off. His mom had been a ballerina when she was young so he was planning on asking her to help him put a routine together.

There was only one more event that he was swimming in that day and so he told them all that they should go home ahead of him and he’d get a ride with Ben’s family, but Mr. and Mrs. Weaver protested and insisted that they would stay to the end.

Carlie and her friends seemed content. They were talking about how to get Tamika into ninth grade classes. She had only been kept down because she had some health problems when she was younger and she was really smart so there was actually a chance that she might be able to get accelerated.

After a while the topic of conversation changed and Carlie started talking about how fit all of the girls who were swimming looked.

“They’re all so toned and muscular,” she said. “Look at that girl in the maroon and yellow, she looks like she belongs in a TV commercial or something. I wish I looked like that.”

It was a stupid thing to say. Carlie wasn’t as muscular as the swimmers but in Lucas’ opinion she was way prettier than any of them.

Mrs. Weaver laughed at her. “Those girls probably swim for hours every day. You don’t just magically have a body like that, you have to work for it.”

“Maybe I should work for it,” Carlie said. “Maybe I should start exercising more. I should get up in the morning and run with you guys, and I should do sit ups and pushups every day.”

Suddenly something clicked in Lucas’ brain. Carlie was saying that she wanted to do more exercise. That was something that could be turned into a gift.

Before long it was time for his final race of the day, the 200 meters freestyle. Micah’s event. He always had such anxiety attached to this race. His dad always said that all he had to do was to try his hardest and it would make everyone happy, but that wasn’t true.

When he tried his hardest he would beat Micah and he’d have to look in his eyes and see the pain and disappointment and know that he was the one who’d put it there. When he didn’t try his hardest he felt ashamed of himself, as if he was lying or something. It was a loose-loose situation.

Micah wasn’t here today and so he swam his event. He felt great and he was winning until the final lap when realized that he was probably going to swim a personal record. Something about that bothered him. He didn’t want to be faster than Micah in his event, even if he wasn’t even in the same country.

It felt wrong.

He slowed down and the guy in the lane beside him powered past him to take first place. Lucas came in fourth and he had that same awful feeling that he got when he told lies.

He rode home with Mr. Weaver and the girls went in Mrs. Weaver’s car. Mr. Weaver asked if he was feeling okay.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied.

“Do you like swimming?” Mr. Weaver asked.

It was a weird question. To Lucas it was sort of like asking, ‘do you like breathing?’

“Yeah, of course.”

“What about racing?”

“Yeah… to a degree.”

“Why’s that?”

Lucas sighed and Mr. Weaver took his eyes off the road for a moment to glance at him.

“Anything you tell me is strictly confidential. I wont tell anyone,” he added.

Lucas regarded him for a moment. Mr. Weaver had wild, thick, dark brown hair that always looked messy and when he wasn’t at work, or defending himself against bromeliads, he wore short sleeved button-down shirts in muted earth tones with jeans and brown leather shoes that looked like they belonged on the deck of a yacht. He had a tall, narrow frame that made him look a bit like a reflection from one of those warped mirrors at county fairs.

His pale blue eyes flicked from the road over to Lucas and back to the road again.

Lucas sighed again, and then told him everything. He told him about how his and Micah’s dads were best friends and had swam together at university and how he and Micah had been friends ever since they were born, two months apart, fourteen and a half years ago. How they had always swam together with Micah’s brothers and how even though he trained twice as hard as anyone else, Micah could never keep up.

“The 200 free is his event and I always feel guilty if I beat him at it, but then I also feel guilty if I let him beat me. Today I realized that I was probably going to swim faster than Micah’s personal record, so I slowed down.”

“Hmm…” Mr. Weaver didn’t say anything for a while.

“Sometimes I feel like I want to quit, just so I don’t have to deal with it anymore, but I think my dad would freak out.”

The seconds ticked away and Lucas thought that must have been the end of the conversation, because when Mr. Weaver finally spoke he said, “Do you know the words to the Australian National Anthem?”

“No. I know the tune, but not the words.”

“The first line is, ‘Australians all let us rejoice.’ When I was younger I was an assistant producer of a TV program that aired on Saturday nights. It was my first big job and the head producer assigned the comedic part of the program to me. I’m not really all that great at comedy so I struggled for a while until I discovered four to six year old children.”

“That sounds a bit weird.”

Mr. Weaver smiled. “Okay, that did sound weird, but it saved my job. On the week before Australia Day Mrs. Weaver happened to be sick so I had to drop Carlie off and pick her up from day care. One day there was a little kid out on the play equipment singing the national anthem, but some of the words were wrong. I asked her what the words were and she said in a very serious voice, ‘Australians all are ostriches.’

“I got permission to interview her from her parents and it was a real hit. I started making a regular segment where I’d have an interviewer ask little kids questions and film their whackey responses. It was hilarious. People loved it. But what I really learned was that every person sees the world through their own eyes and interprets thing very differently.

“We expect that little kids would misinterpret the world, but I think there is a certain amount of that going on with teenagers and even adults too. You think that your dad would flip out if you told him you weren’t going to swim any more, but you might be interpreting him incorrectly. He might be happy for you to try something different.”

“Mm… maybe.”

“And Micah might find the same thing. He might find that he is good at something else and that his parents would be just as proud of him for that as they would be for him to swim.”

“Yeah but how could I tell him that?”

Mr. Weaver shook his head. “You probably can’t. But you could be the first one to try ditching swimming. If your dad got over it and wasn’t mad at you then maybe it would give Micah the confidence to try too.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. He loved swimming but it caused him so much stress. He often felt his life would be much happier without it.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Mr. Weaver said. “You have an amazing talent in the water, but it is your talent and your life and you have every right to try other things if that’s what you want to do.”

Lucas thought about what Mr. Weaver had said a lot for the rest of that day. He asked to be let off at the swimming pool that he worked at because he wanted to talk to his boss, Sarah, about Carlie’s birthday present and he decided to ask her about quitting swimming too.

He showed Sarah the medals he’d won at the swimming meet and she ohhed and ahhed over them and then he said, “I’ve been thinking about quitting swimming.”

Her penciled eyebrows rose in surprise. “Quitting? Why would you want to do that doll?”

“Well, I feel like I’ve been doing it for a long time and I’d like to try something else for a change.”

She nodded enthusiastically. “Oh yes, there are so many fun and exciting ways to stay in shape. Just this morning my boyfriend and I paddled in kayaks from town to the Indooroopilly bridge and back. There’s no reason that exercising needs to be a chore.”

“Right. Well, that’s something else I wanted to talk to you about. I have a friend who’d like to exercise more and build muscle. What would you recommend?”

Sarah smiled and winked at him. “Would this ‘friend’ have just recently quit swimming?”

“Huh? No.” Carlie rarely swam. In fact he’d never seen her swim, even in her parents’ pool.

Sarah motioned with her head and he followed her lycra-clad form into the little retail shop that was attached to the kiosk at the entrance of the pool. She picked up a DVD and handed it to him.

“Burn Fat Fast,” he read the title.

“Uh-huh,” Sarah said as she smiled and nodded. “That is the best half hour workout I’ve ever found. I do it every night before I go to bed. It’s not all about burning fat. It is about building and toning muscle too. Is that something your ‘friend’ is interested in?”

“Yeah. I think so. Thanks.”

He bought the DVD and wrapped it when he got home to the Weaver’s house. Now he had two presents and he was feeling pretty confident about Carlie’s birthday. He’d done a step better than what his dad had told him to. He’d listened to her and gotten something that she indicated she would like, and he’d gotten her something that was so close to a scented candle that she probably wouldn’t notice the difference.

He was so happy that he didn’t even get annoyed the next day when both Penelope and Tamika gave her earrings. It was pretty unfair that girls were allowed to give each other jewelry but boys weren’t allowed to give girls jewelry unless the girl was your girlfriend.

Her mom gave her makeup and her dad gave her tickets to the symphony.

She got to his gifts last and he knew he had a big grin on his face when she was opening the first one. His dad had said that gifts say a lot about the giver. His gifts were going to say that he was a thoughtful person who listened to her and wanted her to smell and feel pretty.

She opened the soaps first and her reaction wasn’t exactly what he’d been expecting. La at the gift shop had done an excellent job with the wrapping and she ohhed and ahhed over the nice paper and ribbons and the glamorous glossy business card that was attached to the bottom of the package, but when she saw that it was soaps a perplexed look came over her face. Her brow creased and her head tilted to the side. She lifted the soaps to her nose one at a time. The whole room was silent.

“Thanks,” she said in a restrained way.

“There’s another one,” Lucas prompted.

Carlie took a deep breath and let it out, then smiled in a determined way at the next gift as she unwrapped it.

The smile fell from her face.

She turned the DVD in her hands. “Burn... Fat... Fast...”

There was a collective intake of breath from everyone else in the room and Lucas suddenly got the feeling that perhaps the DVD was a bad idea.

Maybe he should have gotten her some private gym lessons.

Suddenly Carlie leapt from her seat and screeched at him. “You think I’m fat!”

“What? No!”

“You think I’m fat and that I stink!” She hurtled the DVD in his general direction and took off running towards her room.

“Oh no,” Penelope said.

He couldn’t see Tamika’s reaction because she was wearing a little hat with a brim that was just long enough to cover her eyes when she looked down into her lap, like she was doing right then.

“Come on,” Penelope tugged on her arm and they went after Carlie.

Now it was just Lucas and Mr. and Mrs. Weaver out in the living room with a small pile of wrapping paper on the couch and a line of gifts on the coffee table, except of course the DVD which had bounced off the wall and was lying on the floor.

He thought back to the conversation that he’d had with Mr. Weaver yesterday. ‘Every person sees the world through their own eyes and interprets things differently.’ Well, Carlie had certainly interpreted his gift in a different way than he had expected.

“I didn’t mean that she was fat or stinky,” Lucas told her parents. “Yesterday she said she wanted to work out more and my boss at the pool said that DVD was the best workout she’d ever done, and I meant to get her a scented candle but the closest they had was scented soap and Buba said that girls love soap.”

“Who’s Buba?” Mrs. Weaver asked.

“The gay guy who owns the gift shop up in Paddington.”

“Did you keep the receipts?”

“Yeah, they’re in my room somewhere.”

“Okay, let me go talk to her and see if she’ll exchange them for something she’d like better.” Mrs. Weaver got up and left Lucas alone with Mr. Weaver.

“Jeez…” Lucas sighed. “Do you ever think I’ll get it right with her?”

Mr. Weaver shook his head. “Probably not. She’s a teenage girl. Who knows what goes on in that head of hers?” He leaned back in his chair and sighed. “I used to think that it would be best to just hold my breath and wait for these teenage years to be over, but after you said your brother left home when he was eighteen I started thinking. I might not have much time left with her. She might decide to leave home when she’s eighteen too. So now I think it’s best to just try your hardest and apologize when things go wrong.

“How do you feel about the beach?” He asked.

Lucas was starting to become accustomed to these quick changes in the direction of Mr. Weaver’s conversations. “I like the beach.”

“Good. I think we should all go to the beach for a long weekend before you leave to go back to America.”

That idea brightened Lucas’ day. Things actually got better. When Carlie finally emerged from her room he apologized and explained that he hadn’t meant the gifts the way she had taken them. It helped that when they went to exchange the DVD at the pool’s retail store Sarah was there and she was aghast when he explained what had happened.

“I am so sorry,” she gushed to Carlie. “I told Lucas to buy that DVD because I thought he was buying it for himself. If he had told me it was for a birthday present for a girl I would have told him he was out of his mind.”

The retail store had a bunch of swimming, running and cycling gear and Carlie exchanged the DVD for a pair of running shorts. She tried them on in the little changing room and when she stepped out and said, “What do you think?” Lucas’ mouth and throat dried up and he couldn’t reply.

He’d never seen Carlie in anything as revealing as these shorts. He felt sure the school uniform was designed specifically to make the girls look frumpy, and that included the sports uniform. On the weekends she usually wore jeans or skirts that came down around her knees. This was the first time her glorious legs had been revealed to him in all of their splendor. It took a gargantuan effort to stop himself from staring.

Sarah was explaining to her all of the features of the running shorts; the sweat wicking fabric and the athletic cut that would allow her to stride out. She started talking about the hidden key pocket that was sewn into the waist band and lifted Carlie’s shirt a little to show her where it was. Lucas got a little peak of the smooth skin of her belly and when Sarah folded the waistband down to show her the key pocket he saw the top of her lacy white panties.

He turned away quickly and strode out of the store. He was sure Mr. Weaver would flog him if he knew the thoughts running through his head right now.

“Where are you going?” Mrs. Weaver called out.

“I’m just going to say hi to the other lifeguards,” he replied without looking back.

He walked around the pool to the far end and tried to think of unsexy things. He thought about that big hairy old guy who swam every Tuesday afternoon and whom Lucas had accidentally seen naked in the locker rooms one day. That event, which Lucas had thought of as particularly unfortunate at the time, was turning out to be a real blessing in disguise, because thinking about the hairy man was claming him down.

He said hi to the two lifeguards on duty and by the time he got back to the store Carlie was back in her regular clothes and they were ready to leave to go to Buba and La’s shop to exchange the soaps.

When he walked in the door Buba recognized him and waved hello. “How did the soaps go?” He asked.

“Um… not so great. She wants to exchange them,” he motioned to Carlie.

“Oh.” Buba looked disappointed.

“I told you, Jake,” La said. “You don’t give girls soaps because they’ll think you’re trying to tell them they stink. How you ever got a girlfriend is beyond me.”

“You have a girlfriend?” Lucas asked, stunned.

“Yeah. Why? Is that surprising?” Buba, or Jake, asked.

“Um… no… it’s just that I thought you two were… well, you know… gay.”

“Ha! Dennis only wishes I swung that way.”

“Get out of here you big ape,” Dennis said as he threw a CD case across the space between the register and the coffee bar. Jake ducked and it bounced off the espresso machine and clattered to the floor.

Dennis came out from behind the register and showed the girls all of the pretty things in the store and eventually Carlie decided to exchange the soaps for a little wooden box that she said she was going to use to store all of her earrings in.

Seeing that it had been a distressing morning for all of them in some way or another, and that it was Carlie’s birthday, they all ordered cappuccinos and little slices of an amazingly rich chocolate cake. They pulled together two of the little tables in the coffee shop part of the store and Jake arranged the pieces of cake around a fancy pink candle.

“I thought you said you didn’t have any candles?” Lucas asked.

“You asked for scented candles, this one is scent-less, it’s not the same thing.”

“Yeah, but it’s still a candle.”

Jake shrugged his shoulders. “You said scented. I thought that was important.”

Lucas shook his head and decided to drop it. Carlie looked happy now and that was what mattered.

They sang happy birthday and she blew out the candle and the entire time it was as if he were watching one of those old home movies where the camera focuses on one person and you’re not even aware that there were other people in the room. After she blew out the candle she looked up at him and smiled and he felt the strangest warmth bloom in his chest and he knew he was smiling back at her without even telling himself to.

When they got back home he got on iChat and told his dad about how terrible the advice he’d given had been. His dad looked stunned and then laughed loudly when he told him the whole story. After he was done with his dad he talked to his mom about the gymnastics routine for a while and then called Micah and told him that he thought he was going to quit swimming.

Micah looked conflicted. His brow furrowed and he bit his lip. “Why would you want to do that?” He asked.

Lucas shrugged. “I dunno. I just want to try some other stuff for a while. I feel like all we’ve ever done is swimming. How come we never joined baseball teams or tried soccer?”

“It’s a little late for that, don’t you think? All of the other players will have been doing it for years.”

“Who cares if I suck at it? Why does it always have to be about being good at something? Why can’t we be content with just enjoying the things that we do?”

Micah nodded cautiously. “Okay. I mean, I’m not going to give you a hard time about it. I’ll miss you at practice, but if you want to try other things you should try other things. What do you think your dad will say?”

“He’ll probably flip out, but you know what? He’ll get used to it.”

“Good luck with that. Let me know how it goes.”

“Mm. So the Weavers are taking us to the beach in two weekends time.”

“Two weekends? Like the weekend before you come home?”

“Yeah, as a farewell party. We’re going for three days and we’re going to stay in a vacation apartment. Carlie has invited her friends. It should be fun.”

Micah grabbed his date book and was flipping through it. “You mean the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re going with a bunch of girls?”

“Yeah, three girls and Mr. and Mrs. Weaver.”

“Are you mad?” Micah asked dramatically, his eyes bulging.

“No… what do you mean?”

“The 14^th Luka… what happens on the 14^th?”

“Huh?” He didn’t know what the hell Micah was talking about.

“That’s when they lay their egg. You told me that they lay their egg on the 14^th day of the month!”

“Oh shit.”

“You’re going to be stuck in an apartment with three girls and woman all laying eggs.”

Lucas felt the blood drain from his face. What had he gotten himself in to? “What am I going to do?” He whispered.

Micah shook his head. “I don’t know. You’ll have to try and give them their space. I figured out that’s what that saying means you know. They need extra space on the day they lay their egg.”

“But we’re going to be at the beach. We’re supposed to be hanging out together all weekend.” He felt the dread spreading over his body. How on earth was he going to deal with this?

Micah took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s just calm down and think about this rationally. They probably do it in the morning right? Like when you wake up and you need to pee, it’s probably like that. Mom and Gracie always pee in the morning, just like us guys do. I feel confident that laying the egg is probably the same.”

Micah’s logic was calming Lucas down. Sometimes he felt so lucky to have him as a friend.

Micah continued. “So all you have to do is get out of the apartment early on the Sunday morning and don’t come back until you’ve given them all enough time to do their thing.”

“How long do you think?”

“I don’t know. Maybe ten minutes each?”

Lucas nodded. “I’ll give them fifteen each just to be sure.”

“Yeah, good idea. I can’t imagine that it takes longer than fifteen minutes to lay an egg.”

“Okay.” He was starting to feel better about this now that they had a plan. He’d just go down to the beach for an early morning swim and not come back for an hour… or maybe two hours just to be sure. “Hey Micah? What do you think they do with them?”

He shrugged. “Maybe they flush them.”

“No, I don’t think so. Sometimes toilets get clogged just with poop, can you imagine how badly they’d get clogged if there were a bunch of eggs going through the pipes?”

“Hmm… good point.” Micah chewed on his thumbnail for a few seconds as he thought. “This is going to sound crazy but maybe… do you think they sell them to the grocery store? I mean egg cartons have pictures of chickens on them, but it wouldn’t be the first time the food industry had tried to trick us. Remember when we found out that crab meat wasn’t really made out of crabs?”

“Yeah, but it turned out that it was actually called imitation crab.”

“What about cheese singles? They’re not really cheese are they?”

“No. You might be right,” Lucas conceded.

Micah nodded seriously. “I have a feeling about this one. I think we should suspend all egg consumption until we have it figured out. You’ll have a great opportunity when you go to the beach, I mean, they have to get rid of them somehow, right? Try to observe them and see what they do with them.”

When he got off the computer Lucas lay on his bed and thought through all of the events of the weekend and tried to arrange them in his head. Funnily enough, even after the conversation about girls laying eggs he still got a warm happy feeling when he thought about Carlie.

When he’d first found out about the menstrual cycle and had told Micah’s dad that girls were disgusting he’d replied, ‘You wont always feel that way.’ Lucas thought that maybe he was starting to understand that. The menstrual cycle was weird and creepy and gross, but it wasn’t Carlie’s fault that she had it. If she needed to lay an egg each month then it was okay with him. Anything Carlie needed was okay with him.

Chapter Eleven

Carlie hardy slept that night. Her mind kept on swirling around the events of the day and contemplating all of the things that could go wrong when they took their case to Mrs. Hoskins.

It felt weird to get up and put regular clothes on instead of her school uniform on a week day. It also felt weird to have both her mum and her dad hanging around the house rather than rushing off to work. After they’d finished with the documentary last night they’d sat down to watch it in the studio one last time, and her dad had been so happy that he’d said he wanted to come to the school with them to see Mrs. Hoskins’ face when she saw it.

“Carlie is my daughter too,” he’d said to her mum. “I’d like to be there to witness her debut as a news woman.”

She was eating her weet-bix at the dining room table when her mum came to sit beside her with her coffee.

“Carlie… I was thinking about it…” She turned the mug around in her hands nervously.

“Mm?”

“You said that you fell off the treadmill in the first week of school?”

“Yeah.”

“Back then you and Lucas weren’t friends, right? In fact, you were pretty upset about him being here at all.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Well… it’s just that… I think you made the right choice by not lying and saying that he touched you. I can see how that could have been tempting and I’m proud of you for having the strength to tell the truth.”

There was an awkward silence as Carlie felt her face turn red from embarrassment.

“And, you know, in the end I think you’ll find that the people who are worth being friends with are not necessarily cool or popular.”

“Yeah, I know mum,” she mumbled.

“Penelope seems like a nice girl, do you want to invite her to do something for your birthday this weekend?”

“What about Lucas’ race? I thought we were going to go and watch his swimming carnival?”

“I think it would be nice of us to go and support him for a while, but we don’t have to do that all weekend. It’s your birthday. We should do something that you want to do.”

“Can we go out for lunch?”

“Yes, wherever you want. We could go and pick up Penelope from her house…”

She cut her off. “No, I mean, could you and I go out for lunch?”

Her mum’s eyebrows rose. “Just the two of us?”

“Yeah. Why’s that so strange?”

“No, no, it’s fine. I just didn’t realize that was something you might like.”

“We could go afterwards and get my ears pierced and buy makeup, and then get Penelope and go to the swimming carnival.”

Her mum gave her a wry smile. “I was hoping you might have forgotten about the ear piercing and makeup.”

“Mum, you promised I could when I was fourteen,” she complained. “I’m not a little kid anymore.”

She held her hands up in defense. “Okay. A deal’s a deal. You can get your ears pierced on Saturday and I’ll buy you some makeup for your birthday.”

Before long Lucas was out of the shower and they all went up to her school together. Today Mrs. Hoskins was wearing a severe looking dark grey tweed suit with enormous shoulder pads, a ruffled blouse underneath and a striped blue and white scarf around her neck that made her look comically sea-faring.

Her mum insisted that Carlie and Lucas should be allowed to come into the office to discuss their suspensions and Mrs. Hoskins reluctantly agreed. There weren’t enough seats and Lucas offered to stand but her mum disagreed.

“I’ll be fine standing today.”

Mrs. Hoskins look up at Carlie’s mum with an expression of distaste. “Rachel,” she began. “I expect you will want to know what happened yesterday.”

“No Gwen,” her mum replied. “I know what happened yesterday. What I want to know about is what preceded yesterday. How you came to possess a bag of marijuana, and how you broke into Lucas’ locker to set him up for a very serious crime. How you have been systematically defaming his character, and finally, how on earth you thought you’d get away with it.”

Mrs. Hoskins’ eyes were wide with anger. “Well, I never!”

“No Gwen, I never. In all my years as a public defendant or as a criminal defense lawyer, I have never seen such filth. I have never seen a grown woman so thoroughly abuse the power entrusted to her to guide and educate the next generation. Children Gwen. Children. You have manipulated and abused children. You have used your power to set up and defame a perfectly innocent, sweet, trusting boy.”

Mrs. Hoskins’ face was red and scrunched into a glare so potent Carlie had no idea how her mother was enduring it. “That boy is anything but sweet and innocent! He is an American hooligan! He gallivants around this school, touching the girls inappropriately, offering them drugs. For all I know he could be seducing them into sexual relations!”

Her mum shook her head. “We both know that’s not true. Lucas has done nothing of the sort. You are the perpetrator here, and we have the proof.” She laid the DVD of Carlie’s documentary on the shiny polished desk.

“What is that?”

“It is a news report that uncovers this whole sordid affair.”

Mrs. Hoskins took a deep breath and held her head high. “Rachel Stewart,” she spat out Carlie’s mum’s maiden name. “You have always been a trouble maker. From the first day I laid eyes on you when you were twelve years old, I knew you would amount to no good.”

Her mum’s eyebrows rose. “A trouble maker? As I recall I was the dux of my year.”

“Not with my blessing you weren’t. I never did like you. You were always pushing the edge of the rules. Wearing powder blue ribbons in your hair instead of royal blue ones, wearing socks in winter instead of stockings. You always had an unhealthy appetite for debate with your superiors.”

She smiled. “And look where that has led us. I am holding the key to your demise in my hand. I am quite happy for my husband to air this tonight… unless of course you would like to see it first.”

“I don’t have a television in here. I’m afraid I cannot watch it.”

Lucas snorted. “I’m pretty sure there’s a TV in the health class room.”

Carlie and Lucas lead them over to the health classroom, which was unoccupied, and her dad messed around with the TV on the stand in the corner until he got the DVD player to work.

Carlie watched Mrs. Hoskins as the documentary played. She knew it pretty much by heart by now so she knew that when her dad’s voice was talking about how Lucas had come over on an exchange from America there was footage of him trying (and failing) to play cricket with the sound and lighting crew on the lawn outside of the TV station.

She knew that when her dad’s voice said, “All Lucas wanted was the chance to get to know the Australian culture and make new friends,” there was a close up of his face with a big broad smile. He had been smiling at her as she tried to demonstrate how to use the cricket bat when that was shot. For some reason he wanted to stand upright and swing it like a baseball bat.

Mrs. Hoskins’ face was twisted into an evil scowl as she watched the footage that made Lucas look like the big, clumsy, loveable boy that he was.

“But that wasn’t to be, because of one woman.” Ominous music signaled a change in tone of the report as the scene cut to a slow motion snippet of Mrs. Hoskins walking out of the administration building, looking extremely pompous and full of herself.

Carlie watched Mrs. Hoskins face fall as Zoe’s interview and then her statement were played. Then there was the part with Lucas and Mr. Crossey trying to open the lock with Lucas’ key. By the time the footage of her trying to avoid the camera as she got into her expensive car was played her face was drawn and she had a far-away look to her.

“What do you want?” She asked weakly.

“We are willing to refrain from airing this report if we can come to a satisfactory agreement with you.”

Her mum laid out what they wanted. “As an old girl of the school, the last thing I want is for a scandal like this to sully its good name. You will see out the rest of the semester as the principal and then retire on the basis of poor health.”

Mrs. Hoskins hesitated for a moment before she nodded.

“You will keep your distance from Carlie and Lucas and anyone else who they associate with. If there are any problems with my children they will see the deputy principal, not you. If I so much as hear a whisper that you are trying to sabotage them in any way this report will be aired that same day, no questions asked.”

Mrs. Hoskins agreed to all of the conditions that Carlie’s mum laid out.

Finally, as they were getting ready to leave, her mum turned to Mrs. Hoskins and said, “Oh Gwen, about the Marijuana, if I were you I would get rid of it as quickly as you can. I’ve heard burying it in your back yard is the best method. Rumor has it that it floats if you try to flush it down the toilet.”

Carlie looked over at Lucas and their eyes locked. He was biting down on his lip, trying to contain his amusement. As soon as they were out of the classroom they were both laughing hysterically.

Her dad took them all out for a celebratory breakfast of French Toast and cappuccinos and then her mum had to go back to work.

“You were fabulous Rachie,” she heard her dad say as he squeezed her mom to him and kissed her on the lips before she left.

“Urgh, gross,” Carlie said, embarrassed by the abnormally high level of affection they’d been showing each other lately.

Carlie and Lucas didn’t have to go back to school until the next day so they got to tag along with her dad all day. It was really fun. He was covering an interview with Queensland’s Governor General in the Southbank Parklands. The Governor was having some problems with his public image, so he was presenting the awards for ‘Young Queenslanders of the Year,’ and then doing a live interview afterwards where he would talk to the young people and try to convince the public that he was ‘hip’ and ‘with it’.

Carlie stood beside her dad and every now and then he’d lean over to her and whisper about the best way to shoot a frame, or how to know when to cut away to a different angle. She watched Tracy Grimshaw expertly guide the Govenor through a ‘casual talk’ with the teenagers and young adults who had won the prizes.

Lucas sat off to the side under the shade of an awning. He wasn’t feeling well because he’d eaten too much for breakfast and then had to sit in the back of a news van with no windows as it swerved and weaved in and out of traffic on the way out to Southbank.

After a while all of the young people went out on the lawn to play a game of pick-up cricket with a set that the Governor’s advisors had brought along while Tracy asked the Governor a few more questions.

When her dad queued the girl who was batting, she called out for the Governor to join in the game and he acted as if it was a big surprise. He rolled the cuffs of his business shirt up as he jogged out on to the patch of lawn and took the bat from the girl. The camera switched from the boy who was bowling to the Governor taking an embarrassing far-off swing at the ball.

“God, he’s terrible,” her dad muttered under his breath. “We’ve got to do something. Go in and relieve him of that bat,” he told her.

“No way! I’m not going in there.”

The Governor took another ridiculous swing at a slow easy ball.

“Well shit, we’ve got to do something… Lucas! Lucas, get in there and have a go at batting. Tell the Governor to try bowling for a change. Joke around and smile with him a bit.”

Lucas looked a little green as he got to his feet, but he did as he was told. He was a much more obedient child than she was. He swerved a little as he jogged to where the Governor was swinging the bat around.

“Get a close up of this,” her dad ordered the cameraman.

Carlie and her dad watched as Lucas approached the Governor. He was smiling but it didn’t look quite right. He looked a bit groggy. His eyebrows were squished down a bit, as if he were slightly demented.

The Governor smiled back and held the bat up for Lucas to take. Lucas lifted his hand towards the bat, but his other hand went to his stomach and the smile fell from his face. He bent a little at the middle. His shoulders hunched.

Oh shit.

A wave passed from his abdomen, through his shoulders and neck, and then French Toast and cappuccino was hurtled from his mouth all down the front of the Governor on live TV.

The Governor stood, aghast, his arms outstretched as vomit dripped from his silk tie.

“Should we cut?” The cameraman asked.

Carlie looked up at her dad. He was biting on his lip and had his eyes narrowed. “No. Keep rolling. Keep the camera on the Governor.”

It took a second for the Governor to compose himself, but then he put his hand on Lucas’ back and bent his head towards him to say something. Lucas nodded.

“Somebody get this boy some water,” the Governor called out as he walked Lucas back to a bench in the shade of a big tree.

“Keep rolling,” her dad said.

One of the Governor’s aids jogged over to the bench with a bottle of water, which she handed to him then stood off to the side.

“Close in on him talking to the boy,” her dad said.

The Governor handed Lucas the bottle of water and was saying something to him as Lucas sat with his head bowed and his elbows resting on his knees. He must have made a joke because Lucas looked up at him and laughed and then the Governor smiled and laughed too.

“Okay, you can cut now,” her dad said. “If that doesn’t get him reelected nothing will.”

He was right. Lucas throwing up on the Governor was all over the news that night. Whenever the Governor was on TV he was talking about how he’d reacted to being thrown up on. His obvious concern for Lucas showed his human side a lot better than trying to play cricket did.

“I don’t know how dad knew to keep on filming,” Carlie told her mum at the dinner table. “If it had been up to me I probably would have cut to a commercial as soon as I saw he was going to barf.”

Her mum reached over the table and squeezed her dad’s hand and he gave her a little grin.

The next day Carlie and Lucas went back to school. The official story they were supposed to tell everyone was that someone from Lucas’ swimming club had tried to set him up, but of course they told Penelope the truth, and Tamika too.

Carlie had been surprised when she’d walked up to their usual lunch spot and Tamika had been sitting there in her school hat, looking like a dork.

“Um… Penelope said it was okay for me to sit here,” Tamika said.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m Carlie, by the way.”

Carlie didn’t know why Tamika refused to take her hat off but after a while she just got used to it and stopped thinking about it. Tamika was actually the same age as the rest of them, even though she was only in eighth grade.

Carlie told her and Penelope all about how she was going to get her ears pierced and get makeup for her birthday that weekend and invited Penelope over to stay the night on Saturday. She noticed Tamika looked away when she said that and even though she didn’t really know her, she invited Tamika to come too.

“Really? You’d really want me at your party?” She asked skeptically.

“Well it’s not really a party. We’ll just go and watch Lucas swim in his races on Saturday afternoon and stay up late and watch movies or something that night. My real birthday is on Sunday but mum wont let me have people over late on a school night.”

“Well… I’d like to come, but I’m not sure what my mum will say. Can I have your phone number so my mum can talk to your mum?”

That night Carlie stayed up to watch Lucas’ favorite show with him, “Ladette to Lady.” They both spent the vast majority of the time in stitches over the ridiculous girls at Eggleston Hall and the even more ridiculous teachers.

When she went into her room to get ready for bed her mum came in to talk to her.

“Carlie, you know your friend Tamika?”

“Yeah?”

“I just got off the phone with her mum.”

“Oh, about this weekend? I invited her to stay over on Saturday.”

“Mm… honey, Tamika has a skin condition which causes her hair to fall out.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yes. It’s called Alopecia. Her mum says she’s very self conscious about it.”

“Is it contagious?”

“No. You can’t catch it.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Mm… so, if you still want her to come over you’ll need to be sensitive about her hair. You wont be able to do your beauty treatments like you do with Penelope.”

Carlie snorted. “They don’t work anyway. I think they just write those things in magazines to torture girls like us.”

“So do you still want her to come over? I told her mum I’d call her back.”

“Yeah. I think it’ll be alright, don’t you?”

Her mum smiled and touched her on the shoulder. “I think you’ll handle it just fine.”

After she said goodnight to her mum Carlie couldn’t figure out why she felt so happy. Even though there had been the huge drama of Lucas’ and her suspensions, everything seemed to be going so well lately. Her mum had told her that she was proud of her. Her dad had said that she was a real news woman. And she had friends. Friends who wanted to come over to hang out with her, not just to use the pool and her parents surround sound entertainment system. It was strange how the people you would never think to look twice at could make you happy.