Ocean Pearl Read Free Page A

added: 'I told Mum that I trust you
with my life and that you won't tell anyone.'
    'You'll be fine. I know you will.' Bad things didn't
happen to Ace. Not being selected for the training team
was as bad as bad luck went for girls like Ace. So I
totally meant it when I said, 'Ocean Pearl would never
dump you. You are Courtney McFarlane, remember.
You're hot, the sexiest bikini model ever, with slim legs
that go forever and you're an awesome, awesome
surfer. So get over yourself!'
    Now, I pulled the doona over my head and groaned.
Nothing good could come out of Ace not making the
team. In fact, things had got potentially worse, much
worse.
    Yesterday – like, it would have to be the day before
I'm about to see Ace – Andy Wallace called and left a
message on our answering machine. He didn't
say much, just that he was interested in 'talking' some
time.
    Mum and Dad got all excited and said stuff like
'About time you got a call from a sponsor' and 'You
really deserve this'. But me? I was busy doing battle
with my skin, which was trying to drain the colour
from my face. Andy Wallace was possibly, no, definitely,
the last person in the world I wanted to hear
from. Saddam Hussein would've been preferable, if he
was still alive.
    'Why does my life have to be so complicated?' I said
out loud under the doona. 'Why? Why couldn't the
four of us have all made the training team and gone on
being the simple old fun Starfish Sisters?'
    Well, one of those things was true. We weren't old
and we certainly weren't simple. But we were fun. This
weekend was going to be the best. Nothing was going
to ruin it.
    Everything was good. Kia had forgiven me and we
were speaking again; we'd used the money we raised
at last camp's fashion parade to buy Micki a two-hundred-dollar voucher at the best surf shop here at
Lennox. Kia, Ace and I were totally pumped about
giving it to her. Kia had made a fantastic card out of
heaps of photos from camp. Plus, good swell was
predicted and we were off to camp on Sunday, which
meant missing the last two weeks of term. Could it
really get any better?
    All that bad, complicated stuff could take a big, long
hike. I wasn't going to think about stupid Andy Wallace
and whatever he wanted to 'talk' about. I was going to
try really, reeeaaally hard not to think about saying
goodbye to Ace on Sunday morning. Just thinking
about it had my throat choking up almost as much as it
did when I imagined my own funeral.
    Camp was not going to be the same without her.
That didn't mean that I liked Ace more than Kia and
Micki. But Ace and I had a special bond, which was
kind of funny 'cause Ace and I really were nothing
alike. Starting from the outside in!
    My phone beeped with a message from Kia.
    'Should Micki or Ace have blow-up mattress?? I
can't decide.'
    'Ace 2 tall. Give it to M,' I texted back and jumped
out of bed.
    We were the Starfish Sisters and we had been
hanging out for this weekend.
    I jogged around my bedroom punching the air. The
girl coming to camp instead of Ace was a freak surfer
called Megan de Raile. Megan was the kind of girl I
loved to hate. She made me want to win. She made me
hungry. That was the only good thing about her being
there.
    'Bring it on!' I shouted to the mirror, thumping my
chest with my fists. 'Starfish Sisters number one!'

KIA
    'Kia, I found the blow-up mattress in the garage.'
    'I want to do the pumping, Mum,' Charlie said,
jumping on the sofa bed we had squeezed into my
room. 'I'm the pumper!'
    Only my five-year-old brother would think
pumping up a mattress was the most exciting thing
ever. The problem was that it took both his chubby little
legs to make the foot pump work so I knew that job
was going to be mine. Good exercise, I s'pose.
    'So, honey, have you worked out who's sleeping
where?' Mum asked. Again.
    'Yep.'
    'And – and you're feeling okay about everyone
coming and –'
    'Mum, do I look like I'm not feeling okay? You know
I've been counting down the days for this.'
    'I know, I