Friendship on Fire (22 page)

It didn't help.

I searched around wildly for Roman. He had arrived before me this morning and eyed me off when I came, but now he was nowhere to be seen, and I panicked. It was just me and the Blonde Brigade, who had rocked up early to the carnival by car instead of riding with the rest of the herded cattle. Let me clear one thing up; my blindness wasn't purely because of their early presence, it was more their attire that disturbed me.

Skye was at the front of the group of five. She was wearing white, see-through, triangle bikinis, a few sizes small and too revealing for a school function. I dreaded to think what they would look like when she got out of the water. The famous five were covered in orange blotchy fake tan, almost as bad as a case of eczema. Each carried an over-sized handbag, wore over-sized sunglasses and an over-sized hat, with only a sarong to keep their lower half semi-decent. I inspected their feet out of interest. The girls wore diamante-studded thongs and had silver nail polish to match.

I couldn't escape. I was trapped in this awkward meeting that would inevitably involve me being baited into being rude to them. May as well get it over with.

‘School captain,' Skye greeted me enthusiastically.

‘Hi girls. Glad to see you here so early to support the school. What colour house are you in?' I looked them up and down with my hands on my hips, being the absolute persona of school captain.

‘Who cares?' Skye said, putting her hands on her hips to match. ‘Everyone knows we're only here to see some skin. Don't be such a drag.'

Cadence, Bree and two other girls I didn't know well enough to have the pleasure of knowing their names started giggling at Skye's witty response. She smiled over her shoulder at their timing.

I eyed them coolly and raised my eyebrows. ‘Isn't it nice that you have such supportive minions, Skye? Did you shop at Cotton On Kids for your outfits?'

Their giggles quickly turned into scowls. ‘Some people appreciate what we have, you know. We don't get to show this off every day, so we have to take our opportunities,' said Bree, sweeping her hand up and down her body.

I stifled a giggle of my own. Sure the girls were attractive, but they weren't supermodels by any stretch of the imagination. Not unless supermodels had alien skin.

‘I think you will be showing more skin than seeing it today, girls. This is a school function. We need to be modest, not hang everything out for the whole world to see like skanks. Put it away, would you?' I turned to go.

‘You can't make us,' said Cadence, in her squeaky mouse-like voice. ‘We are here to support the school. Everyone knows kids would rather take the day off than come to a stupid carnival. None of the teachers will send us home because we are setting a good example as seniors.'

She looked quite pleased with herself that she had made a somewhat logical point. I desperately wanted to tell them what everyone would really think about their outfits, but it probably wasn't worth it. Let them embarrass themselves, my natural justice side told me. Let Mr Head tell them off and send them home if he thought they were being inappropriate. Let their bikinis become see-through in the water so I could laugh long and hard, along with the rest of the school.

I grinned at my own thoughts. The Brigade frowned back.

‘Of course you are. Welcome to the carnival, then. I hope you win every race, seeing as you have volunteered for them all. Mr Head will be so pleased to hear of your level of school support,' I cooed, smiling widely at them. ‘See you in the pool.'

They spluttered in a small circle together but couldn't come up with anything to retaliate. I walked briskly to find Mr Head, without being obvious to the girls. I couldn't have them follow me and counteract my brilliant lie, could I? I wove around Twin Rocks Swimming Centre a couple of times until I found my longsuffering principal in the staff lounge and told him of the generous offer of the Brigade.

He listened intently to me, then beamed and said, ‘Sounds marvellous. Well done, Daisy. You are turning into a fine school captain, even if your hair is still red.'

I opened my mouth to say something but thought better of it. He would always be judgmental like that and nothing I said would change his attitude towards redheads. Or was it only people who decided to change their natural hair colour? He couldn't talk. He needed to dye his hair black again to cover up the serious grey splotches on top of his head. I wouldn't be the one to point that out to him; he could continue to look ridiculous on his own.

Sticking my chin up in the air, I said, ‘Thanks for the compliment, sir. I'll keep setting up until the students come. Oh, one more thing. The girls don't want to be thanked for their contribution today; they only wish to be informed by you of the start time of every race.'

He nodded his approval and waved a hand of dismissal at me. I ran to find Roman; this was too good a prank to keep to myself.

Our job as school captains for the day was to listen out for what swimming events were coming up and make sure kids were participating in them. The Blonde Brigade had been announced by Roman at the start of the day as the role model standard of carnival etiquette for their amazing promise to go in every race. The girls smiled and nodded to the students and Mr Head, but I could see them plotting revenge against me. I wasn't worried. What could they possibly do to me in a pool? Besides drown me, of course. That would end badly.

I wasn't a natural swimmer so I chose to go second out of four in the relay team after lunch. It was all freestyle, but the rule was each team had to have two males and two females in it for fairness. Mr Head made an exception for the Blonde Brigade, because they had been so fantastic. They had no chance of winning, but also had no chance of getting out of the delicious mess I'd put them in. Being constantly wet for five hours mustn't have been the most pleasant experience for their fake skin, but I wasn't sorry.

When the gunshot sounded, I jumped next to my podium. Nervously, I waited while I watched Sarah swim fast towards me.

Don't stuff up the dive. Don't belly flop. Don't drown.

She hit the wall and in I went, diving a bit deep for this kind of race. I tried to swim like a fish underwater, moving quickly to scramble to the surface to start my freestyle. I wasn't going too badly. Not first, but not last. Was that Cadence last?

Hitting the wall, James jumped in after me and ploughed his way to Roman, who was last for our team. I felt pumped, hoping the boys could win the relay for our house. I measured his strokes to other lanes and it looked like we were catching up. James touched the wall and Roman jumped in. His muscles flexed in his perfect dive and he almost immediately started swimming hard. I was jumping up and down, screaming for him to go faster. I scanned the other lanes; it was very close. In the last fifteen metres, Roman didn't take a breath and hammered down the lane until he touched the wall. We both looked at the timer and she smiled back at us.

‘First place. Well done,' she said.

I squealed with delight, jumped back in the pool and hugged Roman tightly. His strong arms held my shoulders above the water as he panted heavily in my ear.

‘You did it. You won for us,' I screamed in his ear.

‘We all did,' he replied diplomatically.

‘I wonder what place the Brigade came?' I unlocked my arms from around his body.

‘Hopefully last. The whole day has been a shocking show,' he said, looking around for the drowned blonde rats. ‘Hey, Daisy. Hold still.'

I stopped kicking and splashing and eyed him curiously. ‘What is it?'

‘Hmm. Interesting. I guess I should have known.' He was staring at my head like a scientist.

‘What should you have known?' This wasn't a good sign. I felt uncomfortable about the sympathetic way he was staring.

‘It seems that your red hair has developed some interesting streaks due to the chlorine,' he said. ‘For now, you are red
and
green.'

I searched his face for any sign of a practical joke. There was none.

‘Far out, Roman. What else can go wrong? How can I cover this one up?' I whined. I imagined Mr Head accusing me of doing this on purpose, to annoy him. It was a great idea but I didn't have the balls to do it off my own bat.

‘I don't know. But I wouldn't mind watching when Head sees you,' he laughed.

I flicked my legs under the water and rose up, trying to push his shoulders and head down into the water to punish him for teasing me. To my disgust, he didn't move an inch. He watched me with amused eyes as I struggled to budge his body into the water. My shoulders slumped and I gave up, pouting.

Suddenly, he grabbed my shoulders and effortlessly pushed me under the water. I struggled underneath the weight of his arms and kicked frantically. Within seconds, he let me up, spluttering and cursing at him.

‘Prick,' I squealed into his face. He was laughing uncontrollably, eyes alight, hands holding my arms to stop me from smacking his chest.

‘Sorry. But you deserved it. Your cheek has to get you into trouble sometimes,' he said, winking at me.

My stomach twisted. I felt the same feeling as yesterday; the one where I couldn't say anything, only stare at him and wish I had a great comeback.

He frowned. ‘Daisy? Are you OK?'

I shook my head and hit my ear like an idiot. ‘Yep, fine, just got some water in my ear,' I lied.

‘Good. I didn't want to make you brain damaged or anything.'

‘Nothing a good slap won't clear up,' I murmured dryly.

Mr Head's voice boomed over the loud speaker. It was time for the awards ceremony before we headed back to school.

‘Could Daisy and Roman and the house captains please come to the podium area? Everyone else, out of the pool and under your house tents, please.'

Roman leapt out of the pool and reached back in to help pull me out. He was stronger than I thought. I felt like a feather under his arm.

While we were walking to the awards area, Mr Head continued, ‘I would like to thank the school captains for their commendable effort in the organisation of the carnival. They have made a great contribution to the smooth running of the day and I'd like everyone to give them and the house captains a round of applause.'

Everyone clapped in polite appreciation until we reached the microphone. Mr Head's eyes narrowed as he saw my hair, but he said nothing. It would come later.

We helped hand out the medals and certificates. Surprisingly, the Blonde Brigade didn't win any traditional award after their entries into every event. However, Mr Head was clearly so appreciative of their combined efforts that he made a special award for them; the ‘exceptional participation' award. I stifled a laugh as the girls paraded on to the podium and accepted their prize with mock grace.