The Call of the Wild

by Julie Fison

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Phoebe Goes to Ryan Baker’s Party

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Phoebe Goes to The Wild Club Movie Night

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Phoebe Stays to help Liam

  Chapter 10

  Phoebe Goes to Meet Saia

  Chapter 10

  Phoebe Confronts Annabel

  Chapter 10

  Phoebe Pre Tends Nothing is Wrong

  Chapter 10

  Phoebe Tells Kimmi the Truth

  Chapter 11

  Phoebe Lies to Protect Kummi

  Chapter 11

  Phoebe Stays With Liam

  Chapter 11

  Phoebe Goes Back to the Slushie Stall

  Chapter 11

  Copyright Page

  I could tell as soon as I boarded the bus that the news was big. Very big. I pushed my way down the aisle towards my friends, buzzing with excitement. Kimmi and Annabel were practically dancing in their seats.

  ‘We’re in, we’re in!’ Annabel sang as I approached.

  I dumped my bag on the floor and slid into the seat beside Annabel. ‘No way!’

  ‘Yes way,’ she said, smiling. ‘We’re on the guest list.’

  I stared at Annabel, hardly able to believe my ears. We’d talked about nothing else for the past week, but I’d never really believed that she could pull it off. Until now.

  ‘Ryan Baker’s party!’ Kimmi said, drumming her hands on my seat. ‘Pretty cool, hey, Phoebs?’

  I grinned at her. ‘Too cool.’ Apparently, Ryan Baker lived in some kind of mansion right on the harbour. His party would be out of this world. It wasn’t the sort of thing Westway girls normally got invited to, but Annabel’s neighbour, Marco, went to Highgrove with Ryan, and he’d got us on the guest list.

  ‘Ryan Baker.’ Annabel sighed and gazed out the window. ‘At last we meet.’

  Annabel had been dreaming about Ryan since the start of the year. She’d seen him getting out of his mum’s Porsche at Marco’s house and had been hooked ever since. She said icicles practically dripped off him, he was that cool. So far she’d just drooled over him from a distance. She followed him on Instagram and stuff, but she’d never got close enough to talk to him. The party would be her big chance.

  ‘So, Marco came through after all,’ I said. ‘I thought you said he was being tricky?’

  ‘Yep, good ol’ Marco,’ Annabel replied. Her face suddenly got serious. ‘But there is a catch.’

  I frowned. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘He wants us to go over to his house every weekend for the next year. Tidy his room, wash his dirty socks and –’ Annabel paused for dramatic effect. ‘– clean the dirt from under his toenails.’

  ‘No!’ Kimmi yelped and covered her ears. She had a major thing for Annabel’s neighbour. ‘Marco is divinely lovely. He doesn’t have dirty toenails.’

  ‘Jokes!’ Annabel grinned. ‘I’ll probably just have to tell him a million times what a swag king he is for getting us into the party. But it’ll be worth it!’

  ‘For sure,’ I said, but I was feeling a bit nervous. Now that we were actually invited, I was having second thoughts. While Annabel was off with Ryan and Kimmi was with Marco, who would I hang out with? ‘You guys aren’t going to leave me all alone while you chase after Ryan and Marco, are you?’

  ‘Of course not.’ Annabel squeezed my arm. ‘We need you there. And Marco’s got heaps of cute friends he can introduce you to.’

  ‘Yeah, what about that guy you mentioned,’ Kimmi asked Annabel. ‘What was his name?’

  ‘Yes! Saia.’ Annabel enthused. ‘I’ve already told him about you, Phoebs. You’ll love him.’

  ‘What?’ My jaw fell open. ‘What did you say to him?’

  ‘Nothing. Well, just that you’re amazing, and single,’ Annabel said. ‘I mean, I know your heart belongs to Bunga the orangutan, but Saia’s pretty gorgeous, you know, for an actual … guy.’

  Kimmi and Annabel giggled. They loved teasing me about how I seemed more interested in animals than guys. I was in the school Wild Club and Bunga was an orphaned orangutan that we sponsored. But he was incredibly cute, and I’d rather hang out with an orangutan than most of the boys in our year.

  I laughed along with them. ‘Who are these cute guy creatures you speak of?’

  ‘You’ll see,’ Kimmi said. ‘And you’re going to be very pleased you discovered them.’

  ‘So, the countdown begins.’ Annabel rubbed her hands together. ‘Eight days till the party!’

  I took a deep breath and stared down the aisle, wondering what Saia was like. I hoped I’d like him. I’d never really had a serious crush on anyone before, but Annabel and Kimmi were always talking about their latest obsessions. It would be nice to join in.

  Was Saia tall and strong, or short and stocky? Was he loud and funny, or quiet and serious? A little tingle ran up my neck at the thought of finding out.

  By the time we got to school, our excitement levels were off the scale. We’d decided to meet at Kimmi’s place before the party to get ready. Afterwards, we’d stay at Annabel’s, seeing as she lived the closest to Ryan’s.

  ‘We can stay up all night!’ Annabel said, banging her locker shut.

  ‘For sure,’ Kimmi agreed. ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep anyway, after hanging out with Marco.’

  ‘As opposed to hanging out in the tree in my backyard, blowing kisses at him?’ Annabel teased.

  Kimmi gave Annabel a playful slap on the arm. ‘I’ve only done that once.’

  I laughed. I’d seen her do it at least ten times. She really was crazy about Marco. The last time she’d done it, Marco had actually waved back. Maybe at Ryan’s party, they would finally hook up!

  ‘It’s going to be amazing,’ Annabel said, looking at her phone. ‘And guess who just posted an exclusive event page?’

  I peered over Annabel’s shoulder. There it was, the ‘Ryan Baker Party’ page. And there we were, on the guest list. I had to check twice just to make sure. Annabel stroked Ryan’s profile picture and then hit the join button.

  Kimmi and I pulled out our phones and accepted our invitations as well. Now it was official. I scrolled through the guest list until I found Saia. I clicked on his profile to check out his picture. He looked back at me with lovely brown eyes and a great big smile. He was seriously cute.

  ‘He’s hot, right?’ Kimmi said, peering at the picture on my screen.

  ‘Yeah, he’s not bad,’ Annabel said, checking out Saia. ‘But look how gorgeous Ryan is.’ She sighed, scrolling through pictures on her phone. ‘I can’t wait for the party.’

  ‘So,’ I said, nudging Annabel. ‘Do you think you’ll get with him?’

  Annabel smiled coyly and kissed a picture of Ryan posing on the beach.

  Kimmi winked at Annabel. ‘How about for real?’

  Annabel paused for a moment, and then nodded. We all squealed.

  Then a message popped up on my phone.

  Saia Natane wants to be your friend.

  ‘Annabel, look at this!’

  She grabbed my phone. ‘Oh my god! Accept, accept!’ she said, pressing accept.

  ‘Annabel!’ I shrieked, snatching my phone back.

  ‘Girls!’ came a loud voice from the end of the corridor. ‘I’m sure you have classes to get to.’ Miss Treemore glared at us. ‘I expect more from a year representative, Phoebe.’


  ‘Yes, Miss Treemore,’ I said, shoving my phone away. There were distinct disadvantages to having a leadership position.

  I grabbed my science books from my locker and we headed off to class, chattering as quietly as possible about what we might wear to the party. Kimmi had just bought a new black crop top. She showed me a photo.

  ‘Wow! You’ll look so cute in that,’ I said.

  I showed Kimmi a picture of one of the outfits that I was considering for the party – a little satin green top with black shorts. ‘What do you think?’ I asked.

  Kimmi smiled. ‘You’d look good in anything.’

  ‘Really?’ I wasn’t sure about the top. My little sister Lulu had told me to buy it the last time I went shopping with her and Mum.

  ‘Let me have a look,’ Annabel said. She grabbed my phone and inspected the picture. ‘Oh,’ she began. ‘No offence, but you look a bit like a frog. A cute one, obviously.’

  I took my phone back, feeling slightly offended. I’ve got a soft spot for amphibians, especially frogs. But I didn’t want to look like one.

  Kimmi smiled. ‘She’s just waiting for her prince to come along and turn her into a princess.’

  ‘I think it’s meant to be the other way around,’ I said. I deleted the photo. ‘That’s what I get for taking fashion advice from a four-year-old.’

  Kimmi gave my shoulder a squeeze. ‘Keep your little sister away from your clothes.’

  ‘I know!’ cried Annabel, as if she’d just made some incredible scientific breakthrough. ‘How about you borrow my pink top with the low back? That would really work with those shorts.’

  ‘Really? You don’t mind?’ I asked.

  Annabel was beaming. ‘Of course not.’

  I felt excited, just thinking about it. Everything Annabel owned totally rocked. This was all working out perfectly. I just needed to sort out some accessories. And I had all weekend to shop for those!

  There was a poster for the Wild Club pinned up on the noticeboard outside the girls’ toilets. The poster showed our sponsored orangutan, Bunga. His big brown eyes stared out at me pleadingly, his head tilted in an impossibly loveable way. The little tufts of red hair that stuck up from the back of his head just made me want to hug him.

  Bunga the orangutan needs you!

  Join the Wild Club and find out how you can help.

  I didn’t know how anyone could resist Bunga. I’d signed up for the Wild Club as soon as the poster had appeared. I thought it was so cool that we could sponsor an orphaned orangutan.

  ‘What do you think?’ I asked Kimmi when she emerged from the toilets, flicking water from her hands.

  ‘We should go shopping this afternoon to get our accessories,’ she said.

  ‘No.’ I nodded at the poster. ‘What do you think about joining the Wild Club?’

  Kimmi stood back and considered the poster, as if she’d never seen it before. ‘Cute monkey.’

  I sighed. ‘You know he’s an orangutan, not a monkey,’ I said. ‘But what do you think? Are you going to join?’

  The club met every Friday at lunchtime. I’d missed a few meetings lately because of a conflict with debating, but I was definitely going today.

  Kimmi shrugged. ‘Suppose,’ she said eventually.

  ‘Really?’ I said, not quite believing what I was hearing. I’d been begging Kimmi and Annabel to join for months. I really liked some of the people in the club and I wanted my friends to meet them. And now, finally, Kimmi had agreed to come along. I gave her a big hug. ‘You won’t regret it, I promise. The club is really great. Jack ’n Liam have all kinds of plans to raise money to help save animals.’

  ‘Cool,’ Kimmi nodded, clearly not listening to what I was telling her. But I didn’t mind too much. It was enough that she’d agreed to join the club. She could catch up on the details later.

  ‘Don’t make plans for lunch,’ I told Annabel when we saw her in the corridor outside our French class. She was still staring at pictures of Ryan on her phone.

  ‘We’re going to save some monkeys,’ Kimmi said.

  ‘Orangutans,’ I corrected her. ‘Kimmi’s decided to join the Wild Club. You have to come, too.’

  Annabel raised her eyebrows. ‘Is this about Bunga again?’

  I nodded. ‘Please come. It’ll be fun.’

  ‘It’ll be a bunch of nature nerds,’ Annabel scoffed. ‘Any chance of encountering cute, wild males there?’

  I smiled to myself. ‘There are a few cute ones.’

  ‘What? Monkeys or actual guys?’ Kimmi asked, laughing.

  I elbowed Kimmi as Madame Clements popped her head out of the classroom and stared at us.

  But Annabel was too busy miming a passionate smooch with a photo of Ryan to notice. ‘Sorry, Ryan. I’ve gotta leave you at lunchtime to save some orangutans. Miss you already.’

  Madame Clements cleared her throat. ‘Entrez, s’il vous plaît! Will you ladies be joining us this morning? Or would you like to stay out there? You can explain to the headmaster why you’re kissing your phone in the corridor.’

  Annabel stuffed her phone away. ‘Coming, Madame.’

  We marched single file into the classroom behind another group of stragglers, mumbling a greeting to Madame Clements in French. The lesson hadn’t even started and we were already in trouble, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t wait to introduce Kimmi and Annabel to my ‘nature nerd’ friends.

  The bell for the end of class and the start of lunchtime came and went and still we sat at our desks, listening to two girls mangle the days of the week in French. I mean, seriously. Mercredi and vendredi weren’t that hard to remember or pronounce. But now we were all being kept in. We’d be late for the Wild Club meeting.

  ‘Let’s all have one more try to get it right,’ said Madame Clements.

  So, off we all went, reciting the days of the week. Once we had been through that ten times, she made us write the words out another ten times before finally letting us leave.

  ‘Glad that’s over,’ Annabel said when we got outside.

  ‘So annoying,’ I agreed. ‘I hate being kept in.’

  Kimmi just groaned. She marched across the quad to the bench where we normally had lunch.

  ‘What are you doing?’ I asked as Kimmi and Annabel sat down. ‘We’re going to the Wild Club, aren’t we?’

  ‘Really?’ Kimmi whimpered. ‘That French class fried my brain. I don’t think I’ve got anything left for the monk …orangutans.’

  Annabel looked pleadingly at me. ‘Can’t we just let this one go? I know you love animals. But I really love a lunch break.’

  ‘But you guys said you’d come,’ I protested. ‘And you’ll really like the others in the club. There are two really great –’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ Kimmi interrupted. ‘I’ll come.’

  I gave her a little clap as she got to her feet.

  ‘All right, then,’ said Annabel. ‘If you’re both going.’

  ‘You’ll like it!’ I grinned. ‘You know, Jack ’n Liam from the Wild Club went to Borneo last year and visited some orangutans,’ I said as we headed towards the meeting. ‘How cool is that?’

  ‘That’s amazing.’ Kimmi smiled. ‘Where’s Borneo?’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘It’s the biggest island in Asia. The bottom is part of Indonesia, the top is Malaysian, and Brunei is in the corner. There are rainforests and beaches – and some very cute orangutans!’

  Annabel’s eyes sparkled. ‘Imagine lying on a beach and watching orangutans playing in the trees.’

  When we arrived at the meeting room, the door was closed. We were so late that the meeting was already underway. This was going to be awkward. I gently turned the door handle, but it didn’t budge. ‘I think it’s locked,’ I whispered. ‘That’s weird.’

  Annabel nudged me aside. ‘Probably just stuck. The building’s a hundred years old.’

  She turned the handle and gave the door a shove. Nothing. So she shook it a bit. Still nothing. Looking determined, s
he turned the handle and shoulder-barged the door, like she was a cop bursting in on the scene of a crime. The door swung open and Annabel flew in. She staggered across the classroom, arms and legs flying everywhere, finishing up in front of the whiteboard – with a picture of an orangutan projected on her face.

  ‘Ta da!’ she cried, throwing her arms in the air, like she’d planned the dramatic entrance. Typical Annabel.

  Kimmi snorted. She followed Annabel into the meeting room, but kept her head down.

  ‘The comedy workshop is two doors down,’ came a voice from the back. A ripple of sniggers went through the room as a girl got to her feet. It was Polly, president of the Wild Club. She was very, very serious about the club, and a bit on the scary side.

  ‘I’ve brought some friends to save Bunga. Sorry we’re late,’ I said, glancing over at my usual bench. Jack and Liam were both there, smirking at us.

  ‘That’s great,’ Polly said, relaxing. ‘Just in time to help out with our next fundraiser.’

  ‘Okay!’ I smiled as Polly sat down again.

  ‘This is totes awkward,’ Kimmi whispered. ‘We should go.’

  I shook my head and started walking towards my usual seat.

  ‘What’s this stupid fundraiser?’ Annabel muttered under her breath. Then she saw where I was headed. ‘Oh my god,’ she whispered. ‘You weren’t kidding about the cute guys.’ She sashayed confidently towards Liam and Jack. It was weird. When I first met Liam at the start of the year, I’d definitely noticed him. There was something about his blue eyes that went right through you. And Jack was cute, too, in a quiet way. But they were both in the year above, so they felt a bit out of my league. Since then, we’d become good friends. I guess I’d sort of forgotten about Liam being OMG cute.

  ‘Hey, Phoebe,’ Liam said, as I sat down next to him. ‘Long time no see.’

  ‘Thought you’d quit the club,’ Jack added.

  I shook my head. ‘I told you I had debating. Couldn’t get out of it. Did you miss me?’

  ‘Of course!’ Liam said, and he looked at me, just a little too long, until Annabel cleared her throat.

  As I turned to introduce my friends, I couldn’t help noticing that they looked a bit dazed. It was as if they’d never seen guys before. Kimmi got tongue-tied when she tried to say hello, and Annabel started giggling about nothing.