Ben leans over and taps the screen. ‘That one should go in your book of photos, Jo,’ he says.
Jo nods. ‘Yeah, I thought the same thing.’
‘I’m going in your book?’ I say.
‘Yeah, of course you are,’ says Jo, rolling her eyes but also smiling. ‘As if you wouldn’t be in it.’
Anya and Soph wander up to us then, both of them eating one of my dad’s pies. I can tell from the tops that Soph has got the vegie one and Anya has the chunky beef one. They plonk themselves down on the grass with us.
‘These pies are seriously amazing!’ says Anya with her mouth full. ‘Except can you tell your dad not to put carrots in the beef ones? Carrots are gay.’
My eyes flick over to Jo’s. She smiles and shrugs. She doesn’t mind. But I suddenly realise that I do. ‘You know what Anya?’ I say. ‘You shouldn’t say gay like that all the time. It makes you sound stupid. There are way better words you could use.’
‘Oh yeah?’ says Anya. She stops eating and fixes her eyes on me. ‘Like what, exactly?’
My brain scrambles to think of something. Anything.
‘Atrocious,’ says Soph suddenly. ‘Appallingly, abomin-ably awful.’
‘Disgusting,’ says Jo, grinning. ‘Daunting and dis-concerting.’
‘Don’t forget diabolical,’ adds Ben.
I smile at them all gratefully. ‘Horrible and hideous,’ I say. ‘Heartbreaking.’
Soph starts laughing then — one of her super-contagious ones — and soon we’re all laughing too. All except Anya, who is sitting there staring at us, shaking her head. ‘You are a bunch of weirdos,’ she says. But I see a smile start to appear and soon it’s spread across her entire face. ‘You’re also freaks and … and … demented dimwits.’ We all clap and cheer and Anya tries her hardest to look annoyed but looks pleased instead.
‘Yep,’ says Soph, holding up her pie. ‘Demented dim-wits and proud of it.’
And then from nowhere, a football drops into the middle of our circle, making us all jump. It’s Adam again and now Josh is with him too.
‘Don’t you guys have a race to prepare for or some-thing?’ Anya says to them.
‘Not for another hour,’ says Josh. ‘Plenty of time to sit here and annoy you guys.’ So the circle expands again.
I get a feeling then. It’s not exactly the same as the running feeling, but it’s similar in some ways. It’s a happy, content feeling. Like everything truly is going to be okay.
I look around at my friends. There’s Anya, still picking bits of carrot out of her pie and flicking them at Josh, who has somehow ended up with the beanie-with-horns on his head. And Soph is looking at Jo’s photos and telling Ben who all the people in them are. Adam has picked up the football again and is punching it up in the air, catching it, punching it.
As I’m watching he misses and the ball bounces right into Anya’s lap, so that the last bit of her pie splatters against her chest. Anya shrieks.
‘Sorry,’ says Adam — grinning in a way that shows he’s not really sorry at all.
‘Adam Wilcox, you are so totally … annoying!’ says Anya. She scoops up the ball and jumps to her feet. ‘This thing is going over the fence.’ She takes off with it, fast as lightning.
‘Oi!’ shouts Josh. ‘That’s mine, not Wilcox’s! Come back here!’ Then he takes off after her, with Adam close behind.
Soph looks at me. ‘We better go help her,’ she says. So we get up, and Jo and Ben get up too, and we all tear off after the others and soon there’s a whole mob of us playing a manic, no-rules version of keepings off. And by the time Josh and Adam have to go and get ready for their race we’re all dripping with sweat and looking pretty messed up. But I, for one, am feeling pretty fine.
Anya was right before. We are a bunch of weirdos, freaks and demented dimwits. We’re all what Dad would call strong flavours — but somehow it’s working.
I store this moment away, pin it to the inside of my head. It’ll be something that I’ll pull out whenever I want to feel the whooshy, floaty, run-forever feeling that I’ve got right now.
I Heart You, Archie de Souza
Edi lives a weird double life. At school it seems like everyone loves her, but at home her parents barely notice she exists — except when her marks aren’t good enough.
So when Edi hooks up with her crush Archie, she can hardly believe her luck. Archie is super cute, and his family are warm and welcoming. Edi wants to spend every waking minute with Archie, even if it means letting her friends and schoolwork slide. But does Archie feel the same way?
Waiting For It
When the boys at school put up a list of the hottest girls in her year, Hazel is ranked halfway down. It figures. Even on something as stupid as a hot list, Hazel is stuck in the middle.
She’s sick of being nearly-but-not-quite grown-up, kind-of popular, almost good-looking. And she’s sick of waiting for things to change. It’s time to take matters into her own hands!
It’s Not Me, It’s You
Erin doesn’t know exactly when it happened, but it happened. Boys started being boyfriends. Girls started wearing make-up to school. And her big sister started keeping secrets about her love-life.
It seems like everyone is changing around Erin, and yet she’s still the same. She’s fine doing her own thing, but she never thought she’d be deliberately left out. How can Erin grow up and just be herself?
Things I Don’t Know
published in 2012 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
This ebook is also available as a print edition in all good bookstores.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia
eISBN 9781742739298
Text copyright © 2012 Meredith Badger
Illustration and design copyright © 2012 Hardie Grant Egmont
Design by Michelle Mackintosh
Text design and typesetting by Ektavo
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