Boy Friend?

by Meredith Badger

  Mia was surprised. Usually Nick acted like her friends were too boring for him to hang out with.

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Michiko.

  ‘It’s cool!’ said Jack. ‘One person hits the ball over the net, drops the paddle and runs off to the side. Then the next person has to run over, grab the paddle and try to hit the ball.’

  ‘So every shot is hit by a different person?’ said Michiko.

  ‘Exactly,’ Nick nodded.

  ‘Sounds fun,’ said Shae, jumping up. ‘Let’s play!’

  It was the weirdest game Mia had ever played. The moment one of them hit the ball over the net they had to run off to the side, to make room for the next person. Then they had to run to the other side of the net as quickly as they could. Mia found herself getting very puffed!

  Shae kept missing the ball. ‘I’m hopeless at this!’ she said laughing, but looking frustrated.

  ‘No you’re not,’ said Nick. ‘You just need some coaching. Here, I’ll show you.’

  Mia stared at her brother in surprise. He never gave her any coaching! Nick showed Shae how to hit the ball so it was really difficult for anyone to hit it back. After that, Shae was much better.

  ‘Your brother is really nice,’ Shae whispered to Mia. Her cheeks were suddenly very pink!

  They kept playing until everyone was too tired to run anymore. Then Nick threw his paddle down.

  ‘I’m totally stuffed!’ he groaned, flopping down onto the ground. Everyone else sat down, too.

  ‘That was sooo fun!’ said Michiko. ‘We should play ping-pong at school some time. There’s a table in the storeroom.’

  ‘Great idea,’ said Jack. ‘I know Flynn would be into that. He loves ping-pong.’

  ‘Really?’ said Michiko. ‘Hey, Jack … does Flynn have a crush on anyone?’ she added, as if she didn’t care either way.

  Jack gave her a sly grin. ‘I’m not telling you that!’ he said. ‘You’ll have to find out for yourself if he likes you!’

  ‘I didn’t mean me,’ said Michiko, blushing.

  ‘Sure you didn’t!’ teased Shae.

  Michiko looked at her watch. ‘Hey!’ she said, jumping up. ‘Let’s take some more photos. My mum will be here soon.’

  Jack got up to leave. But Shae grabbed his arm.

  ‘You have to be in at least one photo with us,’ she insisted. ‘You’re Mia’s friend, after all.’

  Jack paused. ‘Aren’t we all friends now?’ he said, pretending to be hurt.

  ‘Of course we are!’ said Michiko. ‘Does that mean you’ll be in a photo? Go on … say yes!’

  Jack grinned cheekily. ‘Not if it means I have to dye my hair pink!’

  ‘That’s OK,’ Shae laughed. ‘You can stay just as you are.’

  Michiko, Shae, Mia and Jack posed in front of the ping-pong table, holding their paddles. Nick pointed the camera.

  ‘Say sneeze!’ he said.

  ‘SNEEZE!’ yelled everyone.

  Mia could just tell it was going to be a great shot. One that would always remind her of this afternoon, playing with all of her friends.

  And all of a sudden, Mia knew just what she should write for her friendship tribute.

  Mrs Bonacci had told the class that they would bury the time capsule straight after lunch on Monday. The morning went really slowly for Mia. Even lunchtime seemed to drag by.

  Jack came past on his way to join his friends. ‘Hey, guys,’ he said. ‘Mr Perelli is going to set up the ping-pong table for us tomorrow.’

  ‘Cool! I can’t wait!’ said Michiko excitedly.

  ‘How funny,’ chuckled Jack. ‘That’s exactly what Flynn said.’

  ‘Is he going to play?’ asked Michiko, fiddling with her hair.

  ‘He was totally into the idea,’ said Jack. ‘Especially when he heard you’d be playing.’

  Mia laughed at Michiko’s red cheeks. It was kind of good to know she wasn’t the only one who got embarrassed!

  Just then, the bell rang. They all jumped off the bench.

  ‘Finally!’ Mia said happily. ‘Come on!’

  Mrs Bonacci’s class met in the native garden beside the tuckshop.

  Mrs Bonacci put the empty jar down. ‘OK, who wants to go first?’ she asked.

  Mia’s heart did a double-quick beat. This was the moment she’d been worrying about!

  Michiko nudged her. ‘Hey, Magic Mia, go for it!’

  ‘Yeah,’ whispered Shae, grinning. ‘Are you a rock star or not?’

  Mia’s heart thumped. Her hands felt sweaty. She’d spent a lot of time decorating her tribute. There were drawings of flowers along the bottom edge and ping-pong paddles along the top. And she’d added swirls in the margins with her glitter pens.

  She looked at the photo glued to the top. It was the one of all of her friends together in the shed, holding their ping-pong paddles up. Jack was pulling a funny face, and Michiko was doing bunny ears behind his head. It made Mia giggle every time she saw it. And she just knew it would still make her laugh when they opened up the time capsule ages from now.

  ‘Mrs Bonacci?’ Mia spoke up. Her voice was loud and clear. ‘Can I go first?’

  Mrs Bonacci looked surprised, and then she nodded.

  Mia cleared her throat, and started to read. ‘I don’t think it matters if your friends are the same as you, or completely different, or if they’re girls or boys. What matters to me is that we have fun together, we laugh together and we understand each other.’

  For a moment there was total silence. Then everyone clapped, and Michiko and Shae cheered loudly.

  Wow, thought Mia happily. That wasn’t so bad! She looked over at Jack, and he gave her the thumbs-up sign. Then he mouthed the words Magic Mia!

  Mia grinned back. She felt great!

  One by one, everyone put their tributes in the jar. Soon, there was only a handful of people left.

  ‘It’s your turn, Michiko,’ said Mrs Bonacci.

  Michiko held out her friendship tribute. She had decorated the edges with stars.

  ‘My friends are like bright stars, shining in the sky,’ she read. ‘I am so lucky to know them! They are always there for me.’

  Then Michiko put her tribute into the jar, and everyone clapped.

  ‘Excellent, Michiko,’ smiled Mrs Bonacci. ‘Now, who’s left? How about you, Jack?’

  Jack nodded. ‘I had lots of trouble finding a picture of all my friends together, Mrs Bonacci,’ he said. ‘But I finally found this one.’

  Jack pulled out a picture and held it up. Everyone laughed. It was a picture of a group of monkeys, hanging from their tails. But over the monkeys’ faces, Jack had stuck photos of his friends’ faces instead! Oliver, Hugo and Flynn were the first three monkeys. At the end of the branch were Mia, Shae and Michiko.

  Once the laughing had died down, Jack got out his tribute. He had drawn cheeky monkey faces around the writing.

  ‘I’ve known some of my friends for ages,’ he read. ‘But some of them are pretty new. They all have one important thing in common, though. They are totally awesome!’

  Everyone clapped loudly.

  ‘The next time you see this you’ll be about to leave primary school!’ said Mrs Bonacci, as she buried the jar. ‘Do you think you will have changed by then?’

  Everyone was quiet for a moment. Then Jack spoke up and said exactly what Mia was thinking.

  ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But one thing definitely won’t have changed. We’ll all still be friends!’