The Call of the Wild (9 page)

‘Please can we make brownies? Please, please, please?’ my little sister Lulu whined.

I was lying on my bed with my headphones on, trying to work out why I’d been so grumpy about Annabel and Liam, but my sister was making it impossible to think.

‘Please, Pee Pee,’ she carried on, using my least-favourite nickname. ‘Please can we?’

I took my headphones off. ‘I’m busy.’

‘No,’ she snapped back. ‘You said you would help me make brownies.’

I sighed and got up. I wasn’t going to work anything out with my four-year-old sister nagging me. And besides, she was right. I had agreed to help her bake while Mum got the washing done. ‘Okay, then. Go get the ingredients out.’

Lulu ran out of my bedroom squealing, her tutu bouncing up and down. She’d lasted at ballet lessons for no more than a month, but she really loved that tutu. I changed out of my pyjamas and followed her into the kitchen. Lulu was already dragging things out of the pantry. Flour, sugar, breakfast cereal, cake decorations, curry powder – a whole mixture of random ingredients.

I lined up the things that we would need for the brownies and let Lulu measure them into the bowl. She had a look of extreme concentration on her face as she did so, like she was working on a medical breakthrough. She loved to cook, but the problem was that she cooked like she was making mud pies: everything and anything went into the cake mix. One time, she even added peppercorns into a chocolate-cake mix when I wasn’t looking.

‘I’ll mix,’ she declared, when all the ingredients were in the bowl.

I handed her the wooden spoon and stood back. My sister could be very cute when she wasn’t whining. Baking was also a good distraction from thinking about Liam and Annabel. Was something really going on with them? They’d almost looked like a couple coming down the escalator at the mall yesterday – so close their hands were almost touching. I should have been happy to see my two friends getting on so well, but for some reason it just didn’t feel right. Annabel was a party girl and Liam was a nature boy. They weren’t suited at all.

That’s when I heard my phone beep.

‘Keep stirring,’ I told Lulu, and headed to my bedroom to find my phone. I had a feeling it would be Kimmi, trying to convince me to go to the party. I fumbled around on my bedside table and checked the message. My heart skipped a beat. It was from Liam.

Hi Phoebe, I have to go to Baitman’s Cove today. Do you want to come? My mum is making me help clean up down there. Long story. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but it would be cool if you did. Liam.

I blinked. Liam was asking me to hang out with him for the day? I felt like the breath had been knocked out of my chest.
Calm down
, I told myself.
He’s asking you to collect rubbish
. But I was actually excited about it.

Sounds like fun
, I replied.

A reply came straight back.
Cool. I’m heading there now. Come down when you can.

My pulse started racing as I read the message. Liam was leaving for the beach now, but I wasn’t anywhere near ready. What was I going to wear? What was the right look for collecting rubbish at the beach? I could hardly dress up, but I couldn’t really dress down either. I flung open my wardrobe and stared at my clothes. I really needed some help on this one. I decided to text Kimmi.

‘Pee Pee!’ my little sister called.

‘Coming,’ I replied, hastily tapping out a message to Kimmi.

Liam has asked me to meet him at the cove. He’s doing some kind of clean-up thing down there and wants me to help.

‘Pee Pee!’ my little sister yelled again.

I got back to the kitchen just in time. Lulu had poured the mixture into a baking tin and was about to put it into the oven. I raced to take the tin off her before she spilt the lot or burnt herself. Mum would freak if she knew I’d let Lulu use the oven alone, when I was meant to be looking after her. I slid the tray into the oven just as a message popped up from Kimmi.

Ah-ha! A date! That sounds so cute!

Definitely not a date!
I replied, texting with one hand. I slammed the oven door shut and put the timer on with the other.
We’re going to be collecting rubbish! But what do I wear?

I rinsed the mixing bowl and wiped down the bench, then handed Lulu the ingredients to put away.

Do you have any cute overalls?
Kimmi suggested.

Ah, no
, I replied. I went back to my bedroom and stared into my wardrobe again.

OK, no idea then
, she texted.
Soz, gotta go. But good luck!

Lulu appeared at the door a moment later. ‘Whatcha doin’?’

‘Thinking,’ I said absently, pulling out a top and then hanging it up again.

‘Where you going?’

‘Just going to the cove.’

‘I’m coming!’ Lulu announced, without waiting to be asked.

‘Sorry, not this time. I’m doing jobs. It’ll be no fun. And you’ll get your tutu all dirty.’

Lulu frowned and wandered off. I grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of shorts and put them on. I changed another five times before I was finally ready to go to the cove to meet Liam. By then the timer on the oven had gone off. I went to the kitchen and found Mum getting the brownies out of the oven.

‘Mum, is it okay if I go down to the cove for a couple of hours?’ I asked. ‘I’m meeting a friend from the Wild Club – we’re doing some cleaning-up project.’

‘Well, good for you,’ she said.

‘I might take the brownies with me.’ I took a step towards the bench.

‘No!’ Lulu shrieked, rushing towards the brownies.

I tried to ease past her. ‘Lulu, we can make some more later. When I get back.’

‘No!’ She pushed me away, screaming.

Man, she really howled when things weren’t going her own way.

‘How about you take Lulu to the cove with you,’ Mum suggested. ‘Then you can both have the brownies.’

‘Mu-um, really?’

‘Really!’ said Lulu.

I looked from Mum to Lulu and then glanced at the clock. If I tried to negotiate my way out of this I might miss Liam altogether. I accepted the deal with a sigh.

A short time later, I was on my way to Baitman’s Cove with a basket full of warm brownies and a sister dressed for a ballet concert.

‘I’m going to build the biggest sandcastle ever,’ Lulu said as we walked down the final set of stairs to the cove. We often came here in the summer. It was still a bit chilly to get in the water just yet, but it was always sandcastle-building weather as far as Lulu was concerned.

‘Can you make me a mermaid sandcastle?’ she begged.

‘We’re not building sandcastles,’ I said. ‘We’re going to be picking up rubbish.’

‘I’m going to be picking up shells and treasure!’ she replied, skipping down the stairs.

‘Okay, whatevs.’ There was no point arguing with a four-year-old.

I paused at the bottom of the stairs. From there, I could see the whole cove. There was a small band of volunteers at one end, with rubbish bags.

I spotted Liam waving at me from the far end of the beach – looking slightly silly. He was wearing a pair of gloves and was armed with long-handled tongs.

‘I didn’t think you were coming,’ he said when we met on the beach.

‘Are you kidding? A beach clean-up day? Wouldn’t miss it for the world!’

Liam laughed. ‘Okay, now you’re scaring me.’

‘I’m a ballerina!’ Lulu interrupted. ‘And I’ve made brownies.’ Her timing was pretty good, because I was sounding a bit weird.

Liam smiled at Lulu. ‘They smell pretty good.’

Lulu nodded and reached for the basket. ‘Let’s eat them.’

‘Not right now,’ I said, holding the brownies well out of Lulu’s reach. ‘First we’re going to help clean up.’

She frowned. ‘First we’re going to make a sand mermaid!’

She bolted off across the beach, in the opposite direction from the clean-up volunteers. I watched her go. ‘I knew this would happen,’ I mumbled.

‘It’s cool,’ Liam said, peeling off his gloves and tossing them in a nearby bin. ‘There’s hardly any rubbish left anyway. We should help your sister.’

I shrugged. ‘You think?’

Liam nodded. ‘Just don’t tell my mum. She said if I did four hours down here she’d help me buy a new skateboard. But you know, four hours building sand mermaids is like community service, isn’t it?’

‘Sure,’ I laughed. ‘You actually deserve a medal for hanging out with my sister.’

We walked across the sand to join Lulu and got started on the mermaid. Normally I got bored, making sandcastles with Lulu. But it was a lot more fun with Liam. He put up with all Lulu’s silly requests for mermaid scales and special fins. He even laughed when she ‘accidentally’ flung a whole handful of sand on his head.

‘Sisters, eh?’ he laughed, shaking the sand out of his floppy blonde hair. ‘Mine are even bossier.’

As Lulu went off to find shells to decorate the mermaid, Liam told me more about his family. His sisters sounded funny, and his parents seemed really cool. They studied coral reefs, and his whole family were vegetarians.

‘I’m trying to be a vegetarian, too,’ I told Liam. ‘But Mum keeps sneaking meat into my meals, thinking I won’t notice. I wish I had your parents.’

‘No you don’t, they’re completely nuts,’ said Liam. ‘I think it’s because they spend all their time with their heads underwater, looking at coral. All that water has to do something to your brain.’