Ocean Pearl Read Free Page B

know,' she sighed back. 'I'm being silly. I'm
just starting to feel a bit – a bit – funny about you being
away for two weeks.'
    'Mum!' I tried very, very hard not to groan. 'Mum,
I'll be fine.'
    Mum wrapped her fingers around her neck, her
second finger doing this kind of rubbing stroke against
her chin. I watched, knowing in a few seconds her
whole hand would grasp tightly around her neck. The
first few times I'd waited, terrified that her face would
turn bright purple. It never did. I knew that now 'cause
I'd seen her do it so many times at the psychiatrist's.
    I wasn't mad at Georgie anymore. But for a while I'd
hated her.
    The pact we'd made that January night at camp, that
moment when the four of us had placed our hands on
top of one another's and shouted 'To the Starfish
Sisters', had been broken – by me and only by me. If
anything, Georgie had protected me by not telling the
others. But because of that I knew she felt like she had
broken the pact too.
    'Are you going to tell Ace and Micki?' Looking back,
it was so pathetic that straight after, that was the only
thing I'd said to Georgie. But I couldn't help it. I was
scared they'd be angry with me and hate me.
    'I'm not going to tell them,' Georgie had replied, her
bottom lip quivering. 'Because you need time to get
better, Kia. You need help.'
    'What would you know!' I spat those words out at her.
    After I said that to Georgie I didn't speak to her for
almost three months. And I was good at it too.
    She'd see me walking towards her at school or the
beach and her eyebrows would rise and she would
half smile or even open her mouth to say something –
but she would be cut to pieces by my razor-sharp
glare.
    I'd keep walking. Not a flinch. Not a millisecond's
hesitation in my step. Instead, I'd stride away feeling
powerful and feeling the hate burn through the ridges
on my thighs.
    She dobbed me in , I'd say to myself. She dobbed me in and ruined my life.
    But I'd been an idiot. I'd got caught. Or, as I started
to think as time went on, maybe I hadn't been. Maybe I
knew exactly what would happen. I wasn't strong
enough to do it but Georgie was.
    Getting a product sponsor was meant to be the
greatest thing ever. It's what I'd wanted. It's what I'd
dreamt about. But this product sponsor, which made a
'surprise' arrangement with my dad to come and
watch me surf in round one of the regional titles, was
Seahorse Girl, one of Australia's leading manufacturers
of – bikinis.
    That's when everything started to spin out of
control. Or rather, that's when I started spinning out of
control.
    Dad was beyond excited. He couldn't stop hugging
me. I could barely cope with him, let alone the overly
bubbly, in-your-face Fiona, Seahorse Girl's surf scout,
and her offsider, Rebecca, who kept saying she had 'big
plans' for me.
    So a week later when I walked into the Seahorse Girl
office in Brisbane to be welcomed by Fiona's and
Rebecca's big smiles plus a desk overflowing with
bikinis, it was more, much more, than I could take.
    Ten seconds later, I was charging down the corridor,
kicking open the toilet door and spewing so hard I had
to press my hands into the walls to stop myself from
falling.
    I couldn't help it.
    At least it got me out of having to try on any
swimming costumes.
    Dad drove me back to Lennox with an ice-cream
container on my lap and a beach towel draped over my
front. But I wasn't going to spew again. I was going to
do something else. I just had to wait till I got home.
    Now I understand why I picked Georgie's place. But
at the time it felt like I was simply trying to get away
from Dad. His crinkly frown confused me.
    Did it say, 'I'm disappointed in you'? Did it say, 'I
hope Kia's okay and that it's just a bug and not cancer'?
Or did it say, 'You stupid idiot. You stuffed up and now
they'll go and find someone else to sponsor'?
    At the front door, with my schoolbag slung over my
shoulder and my toiletry bag safely packed inside, I
stood there and lied to my