Brilliant Besties

by Chrissie Perry

‘Oh,’ she said with longing. ‘Hamburgers. My favourite.’

  It seemed like a long time since breakfast and Olivia’s stomach growled.

  ‘I’d love a hamburger,’ she said. ‘But my mum’s coming to pick me up soon.’

  ‘Before lunch or after?’ asked Ching Ching.

  ‘I’m not sure.’

  ‘But you will stay for hamburgers, won’t you?’

  ‘I hope so,’ said Olivia, because the smell was getting stronger and more delicious every minute.

  ‘Oops,’ said Ching Ching, jumping back inside the room and shutting the door. ‘Mum’s coming.’

  They scurried onto Ching Ching’s bed and pretended to be reading books just as Mrs Adams opened the door.

  ‘OK, you two,’ she said. ‘Lunchtime. Olivia, do you know what time your mum is coming to pick you up?’

  ‘No,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Well, you’ve got time for a burger, anyway. Your mum can join us if she gets here early. And then,’ she said more sternly, looking at Ching Ching and the mess in her bedroom, ‘you can come back here and tidy up a bit.’

  Lunch was actually quite fun. They put their hamburgers together on the dining table. Olivia tried to make sure Daniel was nowhere near when she got her burger, and she avoided the tomato sauce too!

  She was just putting some lettuce on her bun and trying to decide whether to have beetroot and cheese when someone beside her said, ‘Do you want some lemonade?’

  Olivia looked up and froze. It was Daniel, pouring lemonade into plastic cups. Was he teasing her? Was he being rude somehow? What should she say? Daniel just smiled and passed her a cup.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Olivia. She didn’t know what else to say.

  She suddenly thought that maybe it didn’t really matter about the tomato sauce after all.

  She went out with her burger and found Ching Ching sitting under a tree, already eating.

  Olivia realised her sleep-over was almost over. Part of her felt glad. It would be nice to be back home where she knew all the rules and liked all the food.

  Another part of her, though, felt sad because she would miss Ching Ching. She would even miss the things that frightened her — Mrs Adams when she was angry, Daniel, and the brave and lonely feeling she had sleeping on the top bunk.

  Mr Adams called down from the back door. ‘Olivia! Look who’s here!’

  Olivia looked up, and there was her mum. She looked very short next to Mr Adams, and Olivia had forgotten how pretty she was.

  ‘Oh, bum,’ said Ching Ching. ‘Now you’ll have to go home, I suppose.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Olivia, and she couldn’t tell if she was happy or sad.

  They wandered back towards the house.

  ‘Hi, Mum,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Hi, baby,’ said her mum.

  Olivia didn’t want to hug her in front of everybody. Luckily her mum seemed to know this.

  ‘Have you had a good time?’ asked her mum.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Olivia.

  ‘Have you behaved yourself?’

  ‘Um, yeah,’ said Olivia, looking side ways at Mrs Adams.

  Mrs Adams laughed.

  ‘She’s been a peach,’ she said. ‘They’ve been up to a few tricks, but nothing too terrible.’

  Olivia smiled with relief.

  ‘Have you packed?’ said her mum.

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Go on, then. I’ll stay and chat with Mrs Adams while you do.’

  In Ching Ching’s room, Olivia found the box of chocolates as she packed her pyjamas.

  ‘Oh, I forgot to give these to your mum,’ she said.

  ‘Let’s keep them,’ said Ching Ching. ‘Or we could tell Mum she can only have them if she promises you can sleep over next weekend.’

  ‘Or you could sleep over at my house,’ said Olivia. ‘I could make French toast again for breakfast.’

  Ching Ching dragged Olivia’s bag to the front door. For some reason it didn’t seem to zip up as well as it had the day before. Olivia’s pink and green pyjamas stuck out the top, but now she didn’t care who saw them.

  ‘Thank you for having me,’ she said to Mrs Adams, giving her the chocolates.

  ‘Oh, lovely,’ said Mrs Adams. ‘These will be even better than strawberries after dinner tonight.’

  Olivia blushed. She took her bag from Ching Ching and followed her mum out the front door.

  ‘Bye,’ she said, waving.

  She felt happy and brave and somehow more grown up than yesterday.

  ‘I’m glad you had fun,’ said her mum as they got into the car.

  ‘Yes,’ said Olivia. ‘I really did.’

  Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Annabelle was lying on her bed, feeling terrible. She felt terrible even though it was the weekend. She felt terrible even though it was a beautiful, sunny day. And she felt terrible even though it was her birthday party.

  In fact, her birthday party was the main reason she felt so bad.

  I’m staying in here until it’s all over and everyone’s gone home, thought Annabelle. And I’m never, ever having a party again.

  Usually Annabelle loved having parties. Her birthday was in summer and she always had a party in her backyard. Each year there was a different theme.

  One year it was ‘Hawaiian’. Everyone wore grass skirts and long necklaces made of flowers, and they drank tropical juice out of coconut shells.

  Another year the theme was ‘winter’ and they pretended it was really cold instead of really hot. There were huge fake icebergs on the lawn and Annabelle’s Uncle Bob had made an excellent life-size snowman out of foam.

  Then last year she had a ‘school pool’ party. Her friends all wore their school uniforms and brought their school bags. There had even been lessons … but fun ones! In one class they made pizzas. And in another class they decorated T-shirts with glitter paint. Then they all jumped into Annabelle’s pool.

  So Annabelle had always been pretty sure she knew what made a good party. But that all changed the day she went to her best friend Nicole’s party.

  Usually Nicole had an at-home party, too. But this time she’d had it at a rockclimbing centre.

  Nicole had invited the school gang – Dani, Chloe, Sarah, Lola and Annabelle. But she’d invited lots of other people, too. Most of their class went, even the boys. Some of Nicole’s new basketball friends were also there.

  For lunch they’d had wedges and nachos at the centre’s cafe. Then Nicole’s mum pulled out a big pink and gold box. Inside was a huge cake from the bakery, decorated with chocolate curls. Written on the top in pink icing was, ‘Happy Birthday Nicole’. It was the most beautiful cake Annabelle had ever seen.

  ‘This cake is awesome,’ said Dani, as they each munched on a slice. ‘In fact, this is one of the best parties I’ve ever been to. Rock-climbing is cool fun.’

  ‘Yeah,’ agreed Chloe. ‘I wish we could come here for every party!’

  ‘Was it a good party, Belly?’ asked her mum when she picked her up afterwards.

  ‘It was soooo much fun!’ said Annabelle, grinning.

  Then she looked at her mum. She had something to ask. It was her birthday soon. And she wanted her party to be just as good as Nicole’s had been.

  ‘Mum,’ Annabelle said nervously, ‘could I have a rock-climbing party, too?’

  ‘I thought you liked having parties at home,’ said her mum, surprised.

  Annabelle felt a bit bad. She knew her mum and Uncle Bob always put a lot of effort into her parties. And until now she’d thought her parties were great. But she couldn’t help feeling that Nicole’s party had been heaps better. A normal backyard party suddenly seemed like something for little
kids. But there was no way Annabelle could say that to her mum.

  ‘Home parties are great, Mum,’ said Annabelle, in the end. ‘I just feel like doing something different this year.’

  Annabelle’s mum frowned. This meant she was thinking.

  ‘OK,’ she said, after a minute. ‘You can have a rock-climbing party.’

  ‘Yay!’ said Annabelle, bouncing on her seat with excitement.

  ‘Hang on,’ said her mum. ‘There’s a but.’ Annabelle groaned.

  Buts were never good.

  ‘If you have a party at home you can invite whoever you want. But if you have a rock-climbing party you can only invite three people.’

  ‘Only three?’ said Annabelle.

  That was a big but.

  One of the reasons Nicole’s party had been so good was because there were heaps of kids there. It wouldn’t be the same with just three.

  But Annabelle’s mum was firm.

  ‘That’s the deal,’ she said. ‘Now it’s up to you to decide.’

  By Sunday, Annabelle still hadn’t decided what to do. It would be so awesome to have a rock-climbing party. But how would she choose who to take? There was her bestie Nicole, for a start. Plus she had her second besties – Sarah, Dani, Chloe and Lola.

  Then there were her orchestra friends. Annabelle had been playing in the orchestra for a while now and she really liked Siri and Freya. And what about the kids who lived nearby? She always invited Michiko from next door and Shae who lived down the road. Plus there was no way she could leave out Sophie, who was her friend as well as her cousin.

  It was just way too hard to pick only three friends.

  As Annabelle lay on her bed thinking, her mum stuck her head around the door.

  ‘Come on, Belly. It’s time for lunch at Uncle Bob’s,’ she said.

  Annabelle and her mum had lunch at Uncle Bob’s place every Sunday. Sometimes Sophie was there, too. But some Sundays she was at her mum’s place.

  ‘Cool,’ said Annabelle, getting up.

  She liked going to Uncle Bob’s. He was an illustrator and had lots of funny drawings stuck up around the house. And this week Sophie would be there.

  I can ask her what she’d do about this whole party thing, thought Annabelle. Her cousin was good at solving problems.

  Sophie was using the computer when they arrived. She listened as Annabelle explained her problem.

  ‘I think your parties are cool the way they are,’ said Sophie. ‘But it’s up to you, I guess.’ Then she typed something into the computer. ‘Let’s visit the Party Princess website. She might be able to help.’

  Seconds later a girl appeared on the screen wearing a tiara and holding a present.

  ‘That’s the Party Princess,’ explained Sophie. ‘She knows everything there is to know about parties.’

  Sophie clicked on the WHAT’S HOT section.

  Annabelle grinned.

  ‘That’s it!’ she said. ‘I’ll have a mocktail party! Then I can invite whoever I like. And it’ll also be totally different to the sort of parties I usually have.’

  Sophie nodded.

  ‘Cool idea, Bell,’ she said.

  Over lunch, Annabelle explained her idea to her mum and Uncle Bob.

  ‘Everyone can dress up. We can have fancy drinks in tall glasses and food on silver trays,’ she said excitedly. ‘Then we can all play crock-kwit.’

  Her mum frowned for a moment. Then she laughed.

  ‘You mean croquet,’ she said, saying it ‘croak-ay’. ‘I wonder how you play it?’

  Annabelle’s face fell. She had hoped her mum would know.

  ‘You’re all forgetting the most important question!’ said Uncle Bob suddenly. ‘What sort of invitations should we make?’

  Annabelle bit her lip.

  Uncle Bob made Annabelle’s party invitations every year. For the Hawaiian party he made girls who wiggled their hips when you pulled a tab. For the winter party he’d drawn penguins wearing sparkly hats. And for the school party he’d made invitations that looked like report cards.

  But Nicole’s birthday invitations had come from a proper party shop. They had gold edges and smelt like watermelon. Annabelle really wanted invitations like that this year. But before she could say anything Uncle Bob slapped the table.

  ‘I know!’ he said. ‘We can make them look like cocktail glasses! And as you pull the straw the drink will disappear.’

  Annabelle sighed, but very quietly. There was no way she could say anything now. Uncle Bob was way too excited.

  After lunch they all set to work on the invitations. Uncle Bob designed them on the computer. Then Sophie, who was almost as good as Uncle Bob on the computer, coloured them in. Then they printed them out and everyone helped put them together. As a final touch Annabelle added red and gold glitter to the straws.

  It took all afternoon but the time passed quickly. Uncle Bob kept drawing funny things in the glasses. In one he drew a dolphin wearing goggles. And in another he added a duck doing backstroke.

  When the invitations were finished Sophie spread them out over the table.

  ‘They look so cool!’ she said.

  Annabelle nodded.

  They did look good. And seeing them there made her realise that her birthday was very soon! Annabelle felt all quivery just thinking about it.

  This is going to be the coolest party I’ve ever had, she thought.

  ‘Excellent invitation, Bell!’ said Sarah, a few days later. ‘But how come you’re not having a pool party? Your school pool party was the best.’

  ‘I just wanted to do something different this year,’ explained Annabelle. ‘Pool parties are boring.’

  ‘I don’t think they’re boring,’ said Dani. ‘Yours was awesome.’

  Annabelle smiled. She thought Dani was probably just saying that to be nice.

  ‘What should we wear?’ asked Dani.

  Annabelle thought for a moment.

  ‘Something really dressy,’ she replied.

  ‘I’ll borrow some clothes from my sister,’ said Dani excitedly. ‘She’ll have something for sure.’

  ‘Good idea,’ nodded Chloe. ‘What will you wear, Bell?’

  Usually Annabelle wore a good top with her favourite jeans or a skirt to parties. For her school pool party she had worn her school uniform over the top of her bathers. For Nicole’s rock-climbing party she’d worn leggings and a T-shirt.

  But none of these things would be right for a mocktail party. She needed something really special.

  ‘I still haven’t decided yet,’ Annabelle shrugged. ‘But it’ll be cool.’

  Then she turned to Nicole.

  ‘What about you, Nic?’ she said.

  But Nicole was looking at the invitation with a big frown on her face.

  It’s like she’s not one bit excited, thought Annabelle, feeling hurt.

  ‘The party is on the 12th?’ asked Nicole, looking worried.

  ‘Yep,’ replied Annabelle. ‘It starts at two o’clock. Why?’

  Nicole twiddled with her ponytail. She always did that when something was bothering her.

  ‘Well, the Cockatoos won the semifinal,’ she explained. ‘So now we’re in the grand final.’

  Nicole had recently started playing basketball.

  Annabelle gave her friend a hug.

  ‘That’s so great! But how come you look like you’ve just been given detention?’

  Nicole sighed.

  ‘The grand final is on the 12th.’

  Annabelle stared at Nicole.

  ‘You mean, you’re not coming to my party?’ she asked, her jaw dropping.

  ‘Of course I’m coming,’ said Nicole quickly. ‘I’ll just be a bit late, that’s all.’

  Annabelle’s heart sank.

  She didn’t know what to say. Nicole had been to every one of her parties since they were three. She was usually the first to arrive and the last to leave. She had always been in charge of choosing the music. And somehow she always managed
to pick songs that everyone liked.

  Who would do the music until she arrived?

  Then there was the Happy Birthday song. Nicole always sang it the loudest. And she was the one who said, ‘Hip hip!’ so that everyone else could say, ‘Hooray!’

  If she wasn’t there, would someone else remember to do it?

  Just then the recess bell rang and the gang headed back to class.

  Annabelle and Nicole walked side by side, but without talking. Annabelle’s mind was whirling around.

  Maybe I could change the party to a different day, she thought. But it was too late to do that. Most of the invitations had been sent out already.

  Then Annabelle had a really horrible thought. It was so horrible that she screwed up her face and tried to shake it out of her head. But when she stopped shaking the thought was still there.

  Maybe Nic doesn’t want to come to my party. I bet if I was having a rock-climbing party she would miss her basketball game.

  Annabelle and Nicole arrived at their classroom. Annabelle sat down, feeling terrible. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Nicole watching her. Nicole looked like she wanted to say something, but just then their teacher walked in.

  ‘Quiet, everyone,’ Mr Clarke said. ‘No talking please!’

  But the moment he turned around, Nicole grabbed Annabelle’s hand under the desk and squeezed it tightly.

  ‘Don’t worry, Bell,’ she whispered. ‘After the game I’m going to change into my fastest running shoes and run the whole way to your place.’

  Annabelle couldn’t help smiling.

  ‘The basketball court is about twenty blocks away from my place,’ she whispered back. ‘You can’t run all that way!’

  ‘Well, my dad will probably give me a lift,’ admitted Nicole. ‘But if we get stuck in a traffic jam I’m going to jump out and run the rest of the way. I don’t want to miss any more of your party than I have to!’

  ‘Nicole!’ said Mr Clarke, turning around. ‘What did I say about talking?’

  ‘Sorry, Mr Clarke,’ said Nicole.

  But when he turned back she grinned at Annabelle.

  ‘I’ll be there in time for the cake,’ she promised.