by Robin Martin
‘Let me guess,’ said Harry’s Aunt Meg, who was also Mary-Jo’s mum. ‘It was Rusty.’
‘Who let him in the pool area?’ one of the uncles asked.
‘I just bet it was Ethan and Josh,’ Mary-Jo said.
Naturally the boys were nowhere in sight.
‘I’ll deal with them later,’ Aunt Meg said in an ominous tone. ‘Now, dear, you come with me and we’ll get you into something warm and dry.’
‘I’m fine,’ I said for the umpteenth time. I tried to explain that I had fallen into the water all by myself, but I didn’t get a chance to get the words out.
‘Nonsense,’ she said firmly. ‘You’re already starting to shiver.’
Before I could say another word, she was leading me into the house. I looked back and caught Rion’s eye. His mouth was turned up at the corners, and I could have sworn he was trying not to laugh. In some ways he wasn’t much better than those redheaded kids.
Despite my protests, a few minutes later I was wearing one of Mary-Jo’s T-shirts, which was several sizes too big, and a pair of track pants that would’ve fallen down if I hadn’t pulled in the drawstring tightly. My wet hair was wrapped in a towel. What an attractive look. Just as well I didn’t care, not much anyway.
I went back out to sit on the deck with all the aunts and the gazillion cousins. Now I was the centre of attention. Oh joy. At least the uncles were drinking beer around the barbecue and mostly ignored us, thank goodness.
‘Zoe, you’re in some of Harry’s classes at school, aren’t you?’ said another of the aunts.
‘Harry and Zoe have known each other for years,’ said Eileen, Harry’s mum. ‘They went to kindy together.’
I felt the gaze of at least six pairs of eyes. I readied myself for the second tsunami, but this time of questions rather than water.
‘How sweet,’ the aunt said. ‘Now that I think of it, I’m sure I’ve heard Harry mention you before.’
‘Yes, me too,’ said another aunt or friend or someone old, smiley and nosy. ‘Didn’t you two go to the same school camp together?’
Along with the rest of our grade, I thought, but whatever. I just smiled.
‘Harry, you and Zoe will have to come to little Beth’s christening next month. Oh, and you too Rion if you’re free,’ said another aunt who was dangling a fat baby on her knee.
Harry looked just as embarrassed as me.
Aunt Meg came to the rescue. ‘Why don’t you get Zoe another drink, Harry? And pass her the sausage rolls, Izzy. The poor girl must be starving after that ordeal. I hope someone tied up that dog.’ Then she spied the two young boys, who were trying hard not to be noticed as they slid a bowl of potato chips from one of the side tables. ‘Ethan and Josh, come here now.’
Looking like they’d rather be anywhere else, the boys put down the bowl and reluctantly came forward.
‘How many times have I told you not to let that dog into the pool area?’ She fixed them with a look that only mums can do.
‘Lots,’ they said in unison.
‘You’re just lucky it’s your sister’s birthday or else you’d both be on your way to your room now. Apologise to poor Zoe.’
‘That’s okay, they already did,’ I said. I was actually starting to feel sorry for them. But they apologised again anyway. I was beginning to suspect that Aunt Meg was not a person to cross.
‘Now go and collect the empty glasses and bring them into the kitchen,’ she told them. ‘You can consider the computer off limits for the rest of the day.’
‘Aw, Mum,’ they said in protest.
‘Go. Now.’
They disappeared quickly.
Making my own escape, I moved to the back of the deck where Mary-Jo was sitting next to Rion and drinking champagne, which she could have now because she was an adult, technically speaking. She had one elbow on the arm of his chair.
‘I’m so glad Zoe brought you, Rion,’ I heard her say as I approached. ‘I thought this family thing for my birthday would be so boring, but hey, the company’s not so bad after all.’ She gave him a wide smile.
Could she have been any more obvious?
‘I went out to the city with my friends on Friday night and I was sooo hungover the next day.’ She giggled. ‘Do you want a sip?’ she said, offering Rion her champagne. ‘Or better still, a whole glass? I could put it in a plastic cup and no one would know. Not that Uncle Bob or Uncle Aaron would care, but Mum and Aunt Eileen are, you know, a bit strict. Out of the ark, really. And anyway, you could easily pass for eighteen, nineteen, even twenty.’
Before Rion could answer, I said, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’
‘Oh Zoe, there you are,’ Mary-Jo said, as if I hadn’t been standing there for a couple of minutes. ‘You poor thing, how are you feeling now?’
‘I’m okay. Thanks for the loan of the clothes.’
‘No worries,’ she said. ‘Hey, you and Harry are a cute couple. You really suit each other.’ I knew she was just trying to be nice, but more and more I wished I hadn’t come to this barbecue.
‘We’re just friends,’ I said.
Rion looked at me with his dark brown eyes and an unreadable expression.
‘Of course. Oh, there he is now. Harry, she’s over here,’ Mary-Jo called. ‘Rion, you just have to see what my parents got me for my birthday. It’s a MacBook Pro. So cool. Didn’t you say you were into computers? Come on and I’ll show you.’
She had said the one thing that was guaranteed to catch his interest. He got up and followed her into the house.
The food was being put out, so Harry and I walked over and filled plates.
‘Let’s sit down by the mango tree,’ Harry said. ‘Uncle Brian put a seat there, and it’s nice and warm so you might dry off quicker.’
‘Sure,’ I said, though I’d been perfectly happy on the deck.
The mango tree was around the side of the house, away from the prying eyes of the rest of the party. I wondered, just for a fleeting moment, about Harry’s motivation. But hey, I reminded myself, this was Harry, my kindy buddy, my lab partner, the guy who let me copy his homework.
I sat down and took off the hideous towel, put it on the back of the seat and shook my damp hair. Harry sat beside me and we balanced out plates on our knees.
‘You’ve been really cool about everything, Zoe,’ Harry said, tucking into a sausage. ‘You know, coming here today and being such a good sport about getting soaked. Thanks for that.’
I looked down. My sausage had dripped sauce onto Mary-Jo’s clean white T-shirt. Of course. ‘That’s okay, Harry. Thanks for asking me.’ I knew how to be polite, even if I had to force the words out a bit.
Then his hand sneaked out and covered mine. I felt the pressure of his warm fingers. Oh no.
‘I really like you, Zoe. And I was wondering if …’
His face came closer to mine and then I suddenly realised what he was going to do. I turned my face just in time, and his lips grazed my cheek. He sat back looking all red and awkward.
I decided to cut in before he could say anything that would embarrass us both even more. ‘I like you too, Harry. You’re a really good friend. Let’s keep it that way.’ I smiled at him but I could see that I had upset him.
I slipped my hand away from his and got up just as Rion came around the corner. He looked at us then quirked an eyebrow at me. Jeez, had he seen?
All he said was, ‘They’re going to bring out the cake for Mary-Jo now.’
I moved away from both him and Harry. I needed some space.
We went back up to the deck where everyone, even the uncles, had gathered.
‘Okay everyone,’ Mary-Jo’s mum called out, ‘we’re about to bring in the birthday cake.’
Mary-Jo was pushed toward the table. She was trying to look bored, but I could see that she was kind of pleased. Her mum came out onto the deck carefully carrying a large birthday cake, all eighteen of its candles flickering in the late afternoon breeze, and everyone started to sing ‘Hap
py Birthday’.
I moved aside to make way for the cake and as I did so my foot slipped on a puddle of water, probably left behind from my dip in the pool. My shoes were still drying in the sun, and my feet were bare. One foot slipped and I started to fall. It was like seeing something in slow motion in a dream—you know what’s going to happen, but you can’t do anything to stop it.
I fell against Mary-Jo’s mum and the birthday cake (a double-layer black forest cake with glacé cherries, cream, thick chocolate frosting and eighteen candles) went crashing to the deck. For a microsecond there was complete silence. To me it felt like the universe had stood still. Then there was a collective intake of breath.
Cake, frosting and cherries were splattered on the deck like a scene from one of those violent movies when someone has just copped it bad. I usually turn my head when that happens on the screen, but in this case all I could do was stare at the damage in horrified fascination, taking in every gory detail around me as I sat on the floor. At least the candles had spluttered out—one small mercy—so nothing caught on fire.
Okay, here’s the thing. Harry’s family is super-nice and they would never deliberately make anyone feel badly about anything, especially if it wasn’t their fault. But there are just some days when you know you shouldn’t get out of bed. Today was one of them.
Pandemonium broke out. Mary-Jo squealed, one of the uncles swore (softly) and the red-haired terrors broke out in giggles. Then Rusty, who had somehow gotten untied, burst onto the scene, weaving through legs and heading straight for the cake. He started to eat it up as if he hadn’t been fed in a week.
Recovering from her shock, Aunt Meg burst into action. She grabbed Rusty’s collar with one hand and started dragging him away from the mess, while her other hand reached out to me. ‘Are you all right, Zoe?’
Somehow I managed to say, ‘Yes. I’m so sorry. I slipped on the wet deck.’ I looked over at Mary-Jo and repeated, ‘I’m really sorry, Mary-Jo.’
I could see that Mary-Jo was making a visible effort not to be upset. ‘That’s okay. Not your fault.’
‘Harry, tie up the dog,’ Aunt Meg said. ‘Would everyone mind going into the lounge room while we clean this up? Eileen, there’s some ice cream and fruit in the fridge. We can have that. Mary-Jo, you organise the tea and coffee.’
Everyone moved away to do exactly what she said. I suspected Aunt Meg would have made a terrific general or something; she was so calm and organised in a crisis. I tried to help her clean up the mess, but she stopped me.
‘Why don’t you go and get cleaned up, Zoe?’ she said. ‘I put your clothes in the dryer, and they should be dry by now.’
‘But I want to help you.’
‘Of course not, you’re our guest. Don’t you worry about a thing,’ she said. ‘It’s not your fault you slipped. I should have wiped up the water on the deck, but I didn’t see it. That was very careless of me. Off you go now and get dressed.’
And like everyone else, I did exactly what she said.
Although everyone made an effort, and jokes were even made about how it was the best birthday Rusty had ever had, things kind of fizzled out after that. It wasn’t too much later that Harry’s mum asked us if we were ready to go home.
I had been ready before I even got here.
Everyone was very quiet on the drive home, and it was a relief to say goodbye. Harry had been acting all awkward ever since the kiss incident, and I wondered if things would ever be the same between us. I couldn’t wait to go up to my room and forget this day had ever happened.
‘Hi, you two,’ Mum called as she looked up from her newspaper. ‘How’d the barbecue go?’
Rion answered. ‘I can honestly say it was the most interesting party I’ve ever been to. You might even say it was a crashing success.’ He looked at me and smiled.
So now he had decided to learn how to make a joke.
‘I’m going upstairs to study,’ I said, leaving both of them open mouthed. Anything was better than ‘social interaction’ at the moment.
Chapter Nineteen
I so wanted to stay home on Monday. I was totally spent and I really didn’t want to face Harry today, after what had happened at the party. Also, I knew Jas and the girls would give me the third degree about my date with Rion on the weekend. It would be great to stay home and maybe watch Netflix, eat junk food and try to forget that everything in my life was going south at the moment.
But that was never going to happen. Mum, being a schoolteacher and a total nerd, would never let me have days off school unless I was absolutely dying. Sadly, I looked far from that, even though I felt it. So I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for school.
Rion seemed unusually quiet and thoughtful when I went down for breakfast. For once he actually had a coffee instead of his usual organic green tea and orange juice. And he never even touched his muesli. Mum and Dad had already left for work so we had the kitchen to ourselves.
‘What’s up?’ I said at last to break the silence.
He looked at me for a moment and then said, ‘Do you like Harry?’
That was the last thing I expected him to say. ‘Are you serious?’ I put down my cup.
‘I think it’s a reasonable question. After all, you agreed to go on a date with him and he does seem to like you.’
Maybe he’d seen Harry’s disastrous attempt to kiss me. I rushed to reassure him, in case he had the wrong idea. ‘Harry and I have known each other for, like, forever. We played in the same sandpit together when we were four. We went to the same primary school and now we’re at the same high school. He’s like a brother, that’s all. I only went out with him because he needed a date and I kind of felt sorry for him. And let’s not get carried away with this date thing. After all, I went out with you and we both know that meant absolutely nothing.’
I sat back in my chair and took another sip of coffee.
Rion eyes flickered and I almost imagined I saw something that looked like emotion in them. But I was obviously mistaken. My alien didn’t believe in emotions. He’d told me that often enough.
‘Good to know, although I could see that he clearly had feelings for you, Zoe, and I don’t think as a sibling,’ Rion said. ‘You might not want to give him any encouragement.’
‘Not that it’s any of your business,’ I said, ‘but I don’t intend to. Anyway, that’s enough about Harry. Let’s get going. We’ve missed the bus, but we can still make it on time if we walk, as long as we leave now.’
I couldn’t have said anything to make him move faster. If there was one thing Rion hated, it was being late for school. But I wondered why he had asked me such a weird question.
School was just about as bad as I expected. Harry was awkward. I mean he usually was with other people, but not with me. Now he was being ultra polite and avoiding eye contact. He knew now that any feelings I had for him were the friend type and not the boyfriend type. I really wished he felt the same way because a) I didn’t want him to feel hurt, and b) I didn’t want to lose the real friendship we’d had for so many years.
Life was just too complicated at times.
And then Jas cornered me in the girls’ loo. ‘So, how did things go with you and Rion on Saturday night?’ she asked as I was washing my hands at the sink. She took out her brush and began to run it through her already perfect hair.
‘Fine,’ I said.
I dried my hands with a paper towel and tried to get away, but I was too slow. As I turned toward the door she moved in front of me. She stood with her hand on hip, blocking my escape.
‘What did you guys do?’ There was a smile on her face but calculation in her eyes.
That was a question I didn’t want to answer because I knew how lame it would sound. But I had no choice. ‘We went bowling.’
Jas’s face cracked into a smile and she laughed. ‘How cute. That’s what you’d take a little sister to or something. I mean, bowling? It’s not like a real date, is it?’
I could have w
iped the smile right off her face by saying that Rion and I had kissed. But I didn’t want to share that information with her. I knew the knives would come out for sure, and believe me, Jas’s knives were sharp. I’d seen her other victims. Up to now I hadn’t been important enough to be one of them.
‘It was okay, Jas. We had fun. See you later.’ I pushed past her and out the door. As I walked down the corridor I knew I hadn’t heard the last of it.
And I hadn’t. At lunchtime I was tempted to sit away from her group, but it would have looked like I had something to hide, and then I’d be a target until they found out what it was. So I sat down as usual.
Rion was in the lab. He’d managed to get a little part-time work helping and cleaning up in the lab. He was such a nerd and the science teachers loved him, so that had helped. The job also gave him a little money, which he desperately needed because he hated taking anything from my parents. I supposed that showed character or something noble like that. Anyway, it meant he either wouldn’t be joining the group for lunch, or he would be late and just scoff down his sandwich before the bell.
Jas was playing with her fork in a salad she probably wouldn’t eat. ‘Hey, guys,’ she said, ‘you’ll never guess where Rion and Zoe went on their date on Saturday night. Tell them, Zoe,’ She looked at me pointedly.
‘Why don’t you tell them, Jas, since you seem so interested and all,’ I said.
She didn’t need a second invite. ‘They went bowling,’ she said, pausing for dramatic effect.
She got the reaction she wanted. There were smirks from the boys, and eye rolls and looks from the girls. Chelsea smothered a giggle.
Whatever had made me think these people were my friends? I looked over at my old group, where Harry and the others were sitting. They weren’t the cool kids, but they weren’t unkind either. But Harry was ignoring me, and going over to sit with them would present a whole lot of other problems.
I turned back and looked at the many pairs of mocking eyes, wishing that Rion were here. I knew they wouldn’t dare act this way if he were. Okay, time to sort them out.
