Surf School (20 page)

She answered the phone, pushing around the paperwork for a pen, and unearthed a red mobile. She scribbled the phone message down, then checked out the mobile – no name, no markings – and tossed it into the lost property box. The noise of the party filtered into the room. Marlee bit down on her thumb to stop the tears she knew would come.

When she returned to the party it had stepped up a gear, as Mitch and Jamie hoisted Phil's chair on their shoulders, taking him down to the water's edge for the arrival of Santa Claus, who appeared on Sam's board dressed in his regulation reds. Marlee sank onto the seat near the door, sad, empty.

‘You handled that well. As usual,' she said to herself.

Another phone rang and Marlee tracked the sound to the lost property box – the red mobile. She flipped it open and gasped softly. The screen saver was a girl in a short black skirt and hat. Her. The photo Kyle had taken on the way to the Island Breeze dinner, except she was the only one in the picture, all her friends had been cropped out.

She put the phone up to her ear, heart racing.

‘Hello?' Her voice strangled, locked.

‘Who's this?'

‘Marlee,' she managed to whisper.

‘Have you got my phone?' Kyle asked.

‘Well, no. Yes. I mean it was in the lost property box. Where are you?'

‘On the way to the airport.'

Marlee's body sagged. It was too late. All the speeches, all the moments she'd had to explain, were gone.

‘Hang on a sec.'

She walked out of the School and away from the party towards home.

Without Kyle in front of her, her mind cleared and her thoughts took shape. Now that it no longer mattered, her trapped emotions and words sailed free. Once she began to talk, the words tumbled and fell quickly and in no particular order. She told him about that day in the surf, how his actions had hurt her, the ugliness of her own behaviour. She crossed the road, home in sight, all the time talking, talking, talking, about how her heart thumps when she sees him, even when she's mad with him, how she looks for him in the surf, how the next few months he's away will be too long, how beautiful Hawaiian girls are … As she kicked open her door, she'd totally convinced herself that this whole conversation had been a dreadful, embarrassing mistake – something her head had invented, and the silence on the other end of the phone confirmed.

‘Okay, so bye.' She hung up and dropped onto the bed, the silence around her vast and empty. She closed her eyes and the summer flashed through her mind, imagining how she could
have done things differently but you never think of that stuff until it's too late.

The phone rang again and eventually she answered.

‘Hello.' Her voice was small, dispirited.

‘Hello. We got cut off. I rang back to say goodbye.' Kyle's voice was so soft she could barely hear him.

There was a knock at the door.

Too late. It was all too late. She'd made a fool of herself once again. She bit her lip as though that'd stop the tears welling in her eyes.

‘Bye. Thanks for calling back. Have a good trip.' And when he said nothing she added, ‘I have to go, there's someone at the door.'

‘Marlee.'

There was another soft knock.

‘Hang on!' she called, getting off the bed.

‘Marlee, before you answer the door, I want you to answer one question.'

‘What?'

‘If the person on the other side of the door was me would that be a good thing? Marlee? Marlee, can you hear me?'

Marlee ripped open the door. It creaked and complained on its old hinges but she didn't notice. Tears ran down her cheeks. Kyle dropped the mobile away from his face. He looked unsure, like that time they'd talked on the bus. He stepped towards her, wrapping his arms around her and gently lifting her up. She folded into his body, feeling his warmth, the soft skin along his neck, the curl of his hair as it brushed
against her face, and the softness of his lips as they finally found hers.

A car horn blared. Kyle glanced over his shoulder, then back to her, wiping away her tears with his thumb.

‘I have to go.' He backed away down the drive. ‘Will you write?' he asked.

Marlee nodded.

He turned a circle and ran back to her as the car horn honked louder and longer. ‘Oh, nearly forgot. I need my phone. It was the only way I could convince Dad to turn back.' He kissed her again and then he was gone.

Big puffy clouds, like comfy armchairs, grazed overhead. Water lapped softly against their boards and sunlight danced diamonds across its surface. Tilly, Marlee, Fran and Pink rolled off their boards, diving down to the sandy ripples where fish darted across the shadows. Marlee did a handstand, Pink attempted the splits, Tilly clicked an imaginary camera and Fran swam lazily along the bottom.

One by one they popped back up like fishing floats, climbing back onto their boards, warming up in the sun.

‘I can't believe we go back to school next week,' Tilly groaned.

‘Yuck, school shoes.' Marlee pulled a face. ‘I haven't worn shoes for nearly two months.'

‘Pink, are you still going to boarding school?' Fran asked.

Pink, her voice choked, said, ‘Looks like it. Unless I can come up with a plan, but so far I haven't.'

‘Well, we can come and see you,' Tilly said.

‘Is there surf near this school?' asked Marlee.

‘Would you?' Pink jumped up on her board, then onto Tilly's, across to Fran's and then to Marlee's. ‘Wooooohooo, that's great!' She dived high and wide into the sea then swam back to them. ‘I thought if my parents sent me away you'd stop being friends with me.'

‘Why?' Fran was puzzled. ‘Friendships don't work like that.'

Marlee floated her new board next to Tilly's, Tilly grabbed Fran's hand and Fran linked hers with Pink's until they floated with boards facing inwards like petals of a flower.

‘Yeah, we've got the Pink link, Fran's going to sell her Bikini Warfare shirts, Marlee and I are going in every contest we can next year,' said Tilly. ‘And, I'm going to save up for the best camera ever.'

‘Damn,' Pink said, her stomach grumbling, ‘I thought you were going to say you were cooking lunch.'

‘Yeah, well that too.' They paddled together towards the shore, walking past the School and along the boardwalk back to Tilly's.

31 JANUARY

FAVOURITE COLOUR

T: Blue.

M: Blue.

FAVOURITE WAVE

T: The one out the front of my house.

M: The one I'm about to surf.

FAVOURITE BOARD

T: My good old little super gun.

M: The one Jordie made me – wooo hoo!

FAVOURITE BOARDIES

T: My white ones with the blue hibiscus on them.

M: The dry ones.

FAVOURITE SURFERS

T: Melanie Bartels, Sam Cornish, Sofia Mulanovich, Steph Gilmore, Silvana Lima.

M: The young guns: Laura Enever, Carissa Moore, Sally Fitzgibbons, Co Co Ho, Airini Mason.

WHERE I WANT TO BE AT EIGHTEEN

T: With Marlee surfing somewhere, preferably the WQS or WCT.

M: On the WQS or WCT.

BEST MOMENTS THIS SUMMER

T: Dad coming home, Marlee, Jamie teaching me to cook.

M: My new boards, my best friend, Kyle.

BEST PRESENT

T: The costume Pink gave me.

M: Franipani's green and blue anklet.

BEST MANOEUVRE

T: My 340 – only 20 degrees to go!

M: My re-entry and cutback.

IF I COULDN'T SURF …

T: I'd cook.

M: I'd die.

IF I COULD BE GOOD AT SOMETHING ELSE I'D BE …

T: A chef or photographer.

M: A professional surfer – sorry, there ain't anything else.

IF I BECAME AN ANIMAL I'D BE …

T: A pelican.

M: A dolphin.

IF I WERE A MACHINE IT WOULD BE …

T: A lava lamp.

M: A super-fast car.

IF I WERE A WAVE …

T: Anything wet is good.

M: A ten-foot barrel.

IF I WERE A THING OF NATURE BESIDE A WAVE I'D BE …

T: A rainbow.

M: A river rapid.

FAVOURITE PLACE TO BE THAT ISN'T WET:

T: At home.

M: At Tilly's.