Starfish Sisters (2 page)

'Welcome.' Carla, the camp director, shook my hand.
'You must be Kia.'

I managed a smile and a nod even though I was still
screaming inside at Dad, who had just conveniently
'remembered' to tell me that Micki Elvich, a girl I'd
hoped I could go through my entire life without ever
meeting, was going to be here, at this camp, for three
whole weeks.

'Reg.' Carla and Dad gave each other a peck on the
cheek. 'It's so great to meet your girl at last. She's
already in her wetsuit. She must be keen.'

Dad gave me a squeeze and I felt my shoulders
stiffen and freeze.

'Okay, housekeeping.' Carla picked up a clipboard
and flipped over a pink sheet. 'You're in the Starfish
Bungalow, Kia.'

'Am I with Georgie Elwood Ross?'

'You certainly are.' My shoulders relaxed.

'Where are we putting the boards, Carla? I might as
well start unloading them.'

'Hang on, Reg, the keys to the board shed are in my
office.'

'I'll get them,' I offered.

'Thanks Kia.' Carla smiled. 'Go through the glass
doors and my office is at the end of the corridor.'

It hadn't crossed my mind until I was standing at the
entrance of Carla's office and staring at the piece of
paper. It had to be the list of who was in what room
'cause it was pink like the sheet she had outside on her
clipboard.

I tiptoed out to the corridor and had a quick peek.
There was no one around. It was dead quiet except for
my wetsuit, which was rolled down to my waist and
made a rubber-groaning squelch as I walked.

'Come on, Kia,' I whispered to myself. 'Don't be such
a chicken.'

I took a step through the doorway and into the office.
Then another one and another one. I now could read
'Bungalow Allocation' at the top of the pink page. Just
two more steps to find out if it was good or bad news.

Unbelievably good would be Courtney McFarlane
in our room. I'd read her shoulder injury was better
and that she was coming to camp. Bad – no, worse than
bad, disastrous, like the whole camp ruined – would be
if Micki Elvich was in the Starfish Bungalow.

Just as I was one centimetre off reading the names,
I heard a voice in the corridor. I scuttled back to the
doorway and looked around, pretending I wasn't sure
if I was in the right place.

Carla squeezed past me. 'There they are,' she said,
picking up the keys off her desk. I followed her out of
the office.

'The water is so warm, Kia. It's divine.'
Don't be
pathetic. Just ask her. Ask her
, my mind teased. 'You're not
going to need a wetsuit in the middle of the day.'

'Um, um?' It came tumbling out: 'I was just wondering
if you could tell me who else is in the Starfish
Bungalow?'

'Oh?' Carla turned and looked at me. 'I thought I did.'

'No, you just said Georgie Elwood Ross was with
me.' I stopped at the glass doors. It was probably best
not to have this conversation near Dad. 'Do you, um,
remember who else is with us?'

'Let me think.'

Come on, baby
, I willed her with my mind.
You can do it.
Come on. Spit the names out. Say 'Courtney' and not 'Micki'
.

'Well, Micki Elvich, of course. Your dad thought it
would be great if she was in the room with you and
Georgie.'

My throat clamped shut.

'And Courtney McFarlane. She's the other starfish.
I'm sure you've come across her even if you've never
met her!'

One good and one bad
, I told myself. Now I just had to
work out how to get Micki out of our room. There had
to be a way.

I leant against the doors, barring Carla's exit.
'Courtney's how old?' This strategy was worth a try.
'Sixteen or seventeen?'

Carla went to speak.

'And Georgie and I are fifteen next month.'

'Yes?'

'But Micki's twelve, isn't she?'

'Thanks for reminding me, Kia.' Carla's face
suddenly beamed. Maybe she'd just bought my idea.
'Reg told me she's turning thirteen while she's here at
camp.'

'Dad told you?' What was my father? The Micki
Elvich fan club director!

'And I must make a note of it. You must remind me.'

As if! But I couldn't get sidetracked on that.

'Thirteen, hmm?' I steadied my breath. 'That's still
pretty young though, isn't it? I mean, if I was twelve or
thirteen I'd want to be in a room with girls my own age,
not older. That'd totally intimidate me being with older
girls. I'd hate it.'

'She's very mature,' Carla said, stepping around me
and opening the glass doors. 'Anything else, Kia?'

De-Micki my life, I wanted to request.

'Go and enjoy the surf while it's all yours. Well,
almost.' Carla said something else but by then I didn't
care and wasn't listening.

There was something I had to do before I hit the
surf. I had to call Georgie.

'Hey Georgie.' I concentrated on making my voice
sound normal. It was hard to take the wobble out of it
when I felt this mad. 'Are you packed yet?'

'You're already there, aren't you?' she replied.

'First here. I told you I would be.'

'Do you know if we're in the same room yet?'

'Yep.'

'And are we?'

I could tell Georgie was busting. Stringing her along
would take my mind off what I was really wanting to
spit out.

'We might be.'

'Kia!'

'We might not be.'

'Kia,' Georgie growled. She wasn't having fun and
to be truthful I wasn't either.

'We are,' I relented.

'Fantastic! How many in a room? Do you know who
else we're sharing with?'

It was awesome that Courtney McFarlane, the actual
Ocean Pearl model and an amazing, fully sponsored
surfer, was going to be living with us for three whole
weeks. It almost balanced out the disaster of Micki even
being at the camp let alone in the same room as me, but
not quite.

'Four to a room,' I replied. 'And guess who is in ours?
You are sooo going to die when I tell you.'

'Who?'

'Actually' – I felt my nails dig through the rubber
of my wetsuit – 'there're two girls I need to tell you
about and they're both in our room. One's good. One's
bad.'

'Well, come on, tell me.'

'I'll get the bad one out of the way first.'

'You're so loving this,' Georgie whined.

'No, I'm not loving this bit, I promise,' I told her. 'I
can't believe Dad only just remembered to tell me on the
way here. Of course, he thinks it's the best thing ever.'

'Get on with it!'

'That girl Micki Elvich, you know, Dad's best friend's
daughter from Queensland. Well, she was picked for
the camp too!' I spat. 'Like Dad somehow forgot to
mention it! Funny that.'

'She might be okay.'

'Are you for real?' I yelled. 'Micki is not okay.'

'But you've never met her.'

'Whose side are you on?' I said. Georgie could be so
irritating.

'I'm not on anyone's side, Kia,' she groaned. 'It's just
that you don't even know her.'

'I know enough about her!'

'So who's the good one?'

'Huh?'

'You said there were two girls, one good –'

'Oh, yeah.' I felt flattened. Why couldn't Georgie
ever support me when I needed it?

'So, who's the other one?'

'Courtney McFarlane.'

'Courtney McFarlane? Isn't she that –'

'The Ocean Pearl girl, duh! The one who goes out
with Tim Parker.'

'She's in our room? Great,' Georgie grumbled. 'I bet
she's fully up herself.'

'You've never met her. You don't know anything
about her!' Now I got the chance to say it. Let's see how
Georgie liked it. 'She might be okay,' I added. 'She
might even be really nice.'

'I doubt it, Kia. She's a model. That's all I need to
know.'

'She has got the best figure.'

'Ooh, my thighs just got about five times fatter.
Thanks for that.'

'Get over yourself,' I told her. 'I was thinking about
Bikina. How awesome would it be if we could get
Courtney McFarlane to wear our cossies?

'She's probably only allowed to wear Ocean Pearl
seeing she's sponsored by them.'

'Bummer,' I sighed. 'I was thinking how good she'd
look in that green peacock one.'

'I thought you were going to wear that one.'

'I will.' My jaw tightened as I pushed out the lie. 'I'm
feeling a bit fluey.'

'Again?'

'Anyway, you promised you'd wear the one I
designed for you. Have you packed it?'

'Yep.'

It didn't look good neither of us Bikina girls wearing
our own product. I had to be careful not to push it with
Georgie, as I really needed her to wear one even if she
wasn't the greatest model.

'Well, I'm going to have a surf before everyone gets
here.'

'Okay.'

'This is going to be the best three weeks of our life,
Georgina Elwood Ross. So hurry up and get your bum
down here!'

Georgie answered with a groan.

Dad's car was parked next to the board shed but he was
nowhere to be seen. That suited me. I still wasn't ready
to speak to him.

He was probably rolling out the red carpet waiting
for Micki's arrival.

I grabbed one of my boards and headed down to the
beach.

'This sucks. This
sucks
!' With each step I dug my toes
harder into the sand. Wherever I turned I heard that
girl's name.
Micki's surfing great, Micki's so dedicated,
Micki's this, Micki's that. Dad's too gutless to say, 'Why
aren't you more like Micki?
' My nails dug into my wrists.
Micki's working on her backhand, why don't you? Micki's
eating shit sandwiches, why don't you?

I stopped and filled my lungs with air.

I'm not even going to speak to her
, I vowed.
I'll say the
hellos and goodbyes and how are yous, but that's it. That's it.
And that's only to keep you off my back, Dad
.

But it was hard to stay that angry when the ocean
was rippling like a piece of turquoise silk. And being
angry made me so tired.

A perfect little left peeled the entire length of the
beach. Coolina was renowned for this left really going
off. For a goofy-footer like me it was potentially a
blessed situation I'd found myself in.

That thought made my heart pump a few extra beats.
The big deal about this camp was the selections on the
last day for the Australian Junior Team Training Camp.

How stoked would I be if made it? That would be
my total dream come true. Imagine being able to say to
Dad, 'I made the team.' Imagine being able to say,
'I made the team. Sorry, Dad, Micki didn't. She just
wasn't good enough.'

It wasn't so great for Georgie, who was a natural
footer and preferred rights. She used not to mind
which way she faced. Usually she was all power and
speed and into giving anything a go. But lately
Georgie's surfing was crap, sticking to rights and stuff
she could do with her eyes closed.

A few weeks ago, I overheard Steve, our coach,
telling Dad that it was as though Georgie had suddenly
stopped challenging herself. I wasn't supposed to be
listening but I couldn't help it.

In a way I'd be glad if Georgie had stopped challenging
herself – although I'm not certain that's what it
was. I'd say it was more that she'd lost interest in
competition surfing. All she talked about last term was
her soccer team. Who scored what goal and how
amazing they all were. 'Like go and marry them,' I felt
like saying.

Georgie could be the hottest surfer if she wanted to
be. But maybe that was the thing. Maybe she didn't
want to be, and that suited me. I'd miss her heaps but it
would mean I'd have a better chance of making the
National Training Team. Then for once maybe Dad
would start noticing me!

Carla was right. The water temperature was divine. My
feet felt like they were wading through a warm bath.
But I was back to wearing my wetsuit. I'd almost made
it into one of our bikinis. I was feeling so proud of that
too. But then Dad got back from a weekend with
Micki's Dad, Dave, and all he could talk about was how
great Micki was surfing and how dedicated she was
and why didn't I set my alarm for five-thirty every
morning like she did.

For sure, Georgie would tease me, calling me the
'Steamer Queen', but she didn't know. Even though
she was my best fried I couldn't trust her with this.
She'd freak out and tell her mum. Then her mum
would tell my mum and my life would be over.

If I stayed really focused and didn't let my head talk
too much and get mad, then maybe, maybe by next
week, I'd be able to wear a bikini and actually get a
proper suntan.

There was a girl already out in the surf. She was obviously
from camp too as she was surfing in the part of
the beach that had been sectioned off just for us.

Ever since I could remember coming to Coolina, I'd
stare for hours at those 'elite' surfers in the special
sectioned-off area and think
I want to be like them one
day
. And now I was.

I paddled out feeling like a superstar. For three
whole weeks no one could snake you on the waves
because we were the elite. We were special.

The line-up was perfect, with glassy three-foot lefts
that went forever. For a while I just sat out there on my
board, my legs dangling in the crystal water. I'd done it.
I was here and it had to be 'cause I was good, not
because my dad was a volunteer for Surfing Australia
and already knew Carla and the others. They couldn't
select you because of that.

Then I saw it coming, my perfect wave. I started
paddling, imagining myself taking off, riding it all the
way in with maybe five or six perfect turns. Where was
Dad with the video when I needed him?

I was ready to jump up when from the inside I
heard a voice call 'Mine.' I'd been too busy daydreaming
and hadn't noticed the other girl had paddled back
out. I had to back off. I couldn't be accused of snaking,
especially on the first day.