Six Read Free Page A

rude to even start that conversation.
    Virginia led us to a family room whose floor-to-ceiling glass doors opened out to the pool. As we stepped through the doors, the whole pool area, fringed with palms, spread like a fan around us. At one end of the pool was a water feature that trickled water over a series of rocks.
    ‘Ohhhhh,’ said Poppy. She pulled her sunglasses down to the end of her nose and peered over the rims. ‘This is gorgeous. How can you stand living here?’
    Virginia shrugged and pointed to a couple of banana lounges set out under two large calico umbrellas.
    ‘Can I get you a drink?’ she asked. ‘What would you like? Water? Soft drink? Is it too early for cocktails?’
    She stood with pursed lips as if considering our options. I wondered if she was joking about the cocktails.
    Poppy’s eyes lit up.
    ‘Do you have any soda?’ I asked, as I nudged my friend in the ribs.

    WE HAD A NICE day at Virginia’s. I was surprised, because Virginia away from her friends was different to the Virginia we knew at school. She didn’t seem to understand how amazing her life was, just took it for granted, no showing off. When I asked her why she hadn’t gone to Tinburn, Silver Valley’s only private school, she just shrugged.
    ‘I did go there until Year 9, but didn’t like it much. It’s a girls school. I like boys,’ she said. ‘My parents said I could go to Silver Valley High as long as my grades didn’t suffer.’
    ‘Imagine going to Silver Valley High by choice,’ said Poppy.
    ‘It also suited my dad that I go to Silver Valley High.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
    ‘It suited his political agenda,’ she said. Then she waved her hand as if she couldn’t be bothered with that conversation anymore.
    Mr Sloan was a candidate for the opposition in the state election being held that next month. His face was on billboards from one end of town to the other and every second piece of junk mail in our letterbox was from his office. I had a few questions for Mr Sloan regarding his views on the environment and hoped he’d be home before I left.
    Poppy demanded a tour of the house and Virginia didn’t seem to care, though I could have died of embarrassment. I nearly had to drag Poppy out of Virginia’s walk-in robe that was as big as our bathroom at home — ‘She doesn’t mind, really,’ Poppy had hissed — and tried not to search for signs of Finn, who had been such a large part of Virginia’s life for the last eighteen months.
    The inside of the Virginia’s walk-in robe was plastered with at least a hundred photos. Virginia’s besties, Loz and Tamara, featured prominently. Finn was there too, of course, and I found myself searching for him among the faces.
    ‘Carl would go nuts if I tried that,’ said Poppy pointing to the photos. ‘He won’t even let me use Blu-Tack on the walls.’ Carl was Poppy’s stepfather, a favourite topic of conversation for her.
    Virginia shrugged and I felt her watching me.
    ‘So where’s Loz and Tamara today?’ I asked, panicked that she had guessed what I was up to.
    Virginia shrugged again. ‘I don’t know.’
    She shut the robe door and led us back out to the pool area.
    Virginia did most of the talking that afternoon. I was happy to sit around the pool and let the day wash over me, the sound of the trickling water a backdrop to the heat. Virginia was continually checking her phone and multitasked by talking to us and sending replies on her mobile at the same time. It was way too hot to eat much, so we just picked at the fruit platter that sat in an ice esky. There was something decadent about the sound of the ice as it clinked against the edge of my glass. No more summer school. I refused to think about Year 12. Refused to think about Finn, who had probably sat where I was sitting right now…
    Virginia asked Poppy if she could read her aura.
    ‘It’s not showing itself to me,’ said Poppy. ‘But I could try and read your future.’
    Virginia