Frankie and Joely Read online

  ‘We go yabbying here sometimes,’ says Mack. ‘Catch a bucketload and then take them home and cook them up.’ Mack looks at Frankie before adding, ‘Should hear them scream when you drop them in boiling water.’

  Tired of being made to feel like she’s a city girl who doesn’t know anything, Frankie strips off her singlet dress and looks at her friend. ‘Come on, Joel.’

  ‘Not yet.’

  ‘Please.’

  ‘Maybe later.’

  Frankie hates it when people pike. Especially when they promise. It’s just like her mum all over again. Angry, she shoots Mack a look. ‘Race you to the water.’

  She doesn’t wait for him to answer because she doesn’t want to lose her nerve. She runs straight in. The thick mud clings to her toes and stops her. The water is so cloudy, so murky that she doesn’t want to imagine what might be under the surface. But, hearing Mack thundering towards her, she takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and dives under.

  The water is not even cold. It’s like a warm bath that a hundred people have already washed in. Frankie surfaces and feels dirty, but she refuses to get out. She wants to prove something, show them all that nothing scares her.

  But then she feels a sharp nip on her leg and, screaming wildly, she starts running out of the water.

  ‘There’s an eel,’ she shouts, and is almost out when she hears someone laughing behind her.

  Mack. The eel.

  ‘Hilarious,’ she says, splashing him.

  Mack’s still laughing. ‘The look on your face.’

  ‘Yeah. Funny.’

  ‘Can’t you take a joke?’

  There’s something about the way Mack stands, legs spread, shoulders back, like he’s the strongest man alive that makes Frankie want to tear him down. He’s one of those. He doesn’t know how to talk to her so makes fun of her instead. It reminds Frankie of all the different schools she’s been to, where kids try to size her up. If they can’t put her in a box then they’re mean to her. It’s why she loves Joely so much. Joely’s always treated her like an equal.

  ‘Do you usually crack yourself up?’ says Frankie, walking slowly towards Mack.

  ‘No,’ he says, curling his lip.

  Frankie bends down and scoops up a handful of mud from the bottom of the dam. Mack holds his position, like he’s daring her to come for him. Frankie flings the mud at him, hitting him square in the chest.

  ‘Argh, you stupid—’.

  She laughs and runs out of the water, calling behind her, ‘Can’t you take a joke, Mack?’

  She can tell by the way Thommo’s looking at her that he’s impressed. Mack’s a pretty overbearing big brother, so it must be nice to watch him torn down.

  ‘How was it in there?’ says Joely, rubbing too much sunscreen over every centimetre of her body.

  ‘You’d know if you came in.’

  ‘I was going to, but you got out too quickly.’

  ‘Yeah, whatever,’ says Frankie, lying back on her towel and looking up through the gum tree at the sky.

  Mack stays in the water for nearly an hour. He doesn’t want to be near Frankie with her smart mouth and tiny bikini. He likes watching her from back here though. He wonders about her talking to Macleod yesterday. Perhaps he should tell her what that guy’s all about. But then maybe it wouldn’t hurt if someone messed with her a bit.

  By the time he comes out of the water, only Thommo looks awake.

  ‘Aren’t you swimming?’ says Mack.

  ‘Nah.’

  Mack suddenly realises why Thommo hasn’t moved. Frankie is lying next to him, her eyes closed, so Thommo can pretend to be sleeping but actually look at her all he likes.

  Mack sits down on Thommo’s towel, making his brother move, to give him some room.

  ‘Get off. You’ve got your own towel,’ says Thommo, kicking him in the leg.

  Mack digs his finger into Thommo’s knee, pushing as hard as he can, like he used to when they’d fight after school.

  ‘Ow, piss off,’ says Thommo loud enough to make both girls sit up. ‘Now look what you’ve done. It was all peaceful before.’

  ‘Screw this,’ says Mack jumping up. He’s not going to sit around feeling left out just because his little brother is trying to make it with some chick. He wishes Joely had never brought her friend.

  But as he starts to walk away, he sees a look in Thommo’s eyes that he’s never seen before. It’s a look of daring, like the look Rory gave him that year when they came back from summer holidays and suddenly Rory had grown. His little brother isn’t going to back down anymore.

  To make a point, Mack stands back over Thommo. He needs to take charge. Round them up and move them to another paddock just like he used to with the cows.

  ‘I reckon we should go out tonight. See what’s on at the cinema,’ says Mack, wanting to show Frankie the good bits of the town.

  Joely laughs. ‘It’ll be the same movie they screened last year.’

  Mack puffs up, angry that Joely’s not falling into line. ‘Nah. They screen all the stuff that’s on in the city,’ he says.

  But Frankie surprises him. She rolls over onto her stomach and says, ‘Yeah, that’d be fun.’

  He doesn’t answer because he’s too busy staring at all the little marks on her back, the criss-crosses from where the towel has left its touch on her skin. Even lying so close, she’s so out of his reach. It reminds him of Anna. He should’ve treated her better. He hates feeling like this, like he’s out of place and forgotten. Payne is his town and he won’t let Frankie or any other girl make him doubt that. If Frankie isn’t interested then maybe it’s not too late to win back Anna.

  Mack kicks dirt on his brother’s towel. ‘I’m outta here.’

  ‘Bye,’ Joely says. No one else says goodbye, making Mack feel even more left out than he already does.

  He kickstarts his motorbike and revs it loud. A billow of exhaust smoke wafts around him and he roars off across the paddock. He doesn’t want to go back to the house because his dad will probably put him to work, and his mum will have all sorts of questions he doesn’t want to answer. So he rides down to the back road. A truck drives past and the driver toots. Mack waves and turns into town.

  If he fixes things with Anna then he can show her off at the New Year’s Eve party and make Frankie realise she’s missing out. He stops outside the Ice-cream Shoppe, knowing she’s in there. She’s always there. Her dad owns it and she spends all summer holidays working, even public holidays. It must suck serving customers all holidays while everyone from school is just hanging out. Next year it’ll be his turn.

  He brushes aside the plastic strings in the doorway and tangles himself awkwardly. By the time he’s made it through, she’s already seen him, and it’s too late to prepare.

  ‘Mack,’ she says in that husky voice he fell in love with.

  ‘Anna,’ he croaks.

  ‘Double or single?’

  ‘Whatever.’

  He watches through the frosted glass as she turns around to pull a waffle cone from the stand. She seems to take ages to make a decision, but then pulls out the scooper and leans into the cabinet. Mack can see down her top to her boobs. He knows she’s doing it deliberately, showing him what he’s missing.

  ‘Four bucks’ll do,’ she says, handing him over a mint-chip cone. He hates mint chip, and he’s pretty sure she knows that.

  He slaps a five-dollar note on the counter. ‘Keep the change.’

  ‘A tip? Aren’t you the big man.’

  If only she knew how far from being big he felt.

  ‘Anna—’ he starts.

  ‘No apology necessary.’

  He wasn’t going to apologise. Why should he? ‘Whatcha doing later?’ he murmurs, licking the ice-cream even though he hates it.

  ‘Might go out with Rory.’
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br />   ‘Macleod?’ barks Mack, his heart beating fast.

  ‘Who else?’

  ‘Don’t.’

  ‘Piss off, Mack.’

  ‘I mean it, Anna. He’s bad news.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah. I know how you two feel about each other. It was all you ever talked about.’

  That isn’t true. Mack never talks about Rory. He just hates him. Always has, always will. He’s desperate to think of something to stop her, but then the scoop of ice-cream drops from the cone and lands on his foot, oozing onto his thong.

  ‘Shit.’ He shakes his foot. Ice-cream splatters everywhere. ‘You got a cloth?’

  Anna is already there with a mop. Mack can’t believe how good she looks.

  ‘Move, will ya,’ she says, mopping around his feet.

  He jumps back, wishing.

  ‘It wasn’t my fault,’ he says, knowing how pathetic he sounds.

  She stops mopping and shoots him a furious look. ‘What? The getting pissed bit? Or vomiting on my best dress? Or dumping me?’

  ‘I meant the blokes turning up.’

  ‘Oh that? I wasn’t even counting that bit.’

  ‘They thought it was funny. Crashing the dance. They made me have a drink with them. You know for old times.’

  ‘Old times! You’re seventeen, not seventy, Mack.’

  ‘Yeah, I know.’ She was making him sound stupid.

  Anna walks across to the plastic strings. She holds open a bunch. ‘See ya round, Mack.’

  ‘Just don’t go out with Macleod. Okay?’

  ‘You my dad now, too?’ she says as she lets go of the strings, shutting him out.

  Angry, he tosses the rest of his cone at a bin and misses. Everything sucks today.

  Chapter 18

  ‘Mum? Can you hear me? Mum?’ Frankie yells into the phone. She walks back and forth in front of the farmhouse, trying to find a spot to get three bars.

  ‘Frankie? Where are you, honey?’

  ‘In the country. Remember? With Joely. I’ll be home soon. You okay, Mum?’

  ‘Yeah. I’m good,’ she says, but Frankie doubts it.

  ‘Is that guy still there?’

  ‘Luke? Yeah. He’s lovely, isn’t he?’

  Frankie wants to shout into the phone, but she knows it won’t do any good. Her mum won’t listen anyway. ‘I stocked up on canned soup for you. It’s all in the cupboard. Make sure you eat some. Mum?’ But the signal’s gone or her mum has hung up by mistake.

  It’s not like Luke’s the first sleazy guy her mum has hooked up with, but he’s the first one Frankie’s felt she needed to escape. She doesn’t know how to handle him, what to do when he stays up at night and tries to talk to her. He hasn’t touched her. And if he does, she’ll find a way to fight him off. He doesn’t actually frighten her. She just wishes that for once her mum’s boyfriend would be into her mum.

  ‘Bit hot out here, Frankie,’ says Ged as he walks outside in his shorts and singlet, pulling on a boot.

  ‘Do you need some help? On the farm? Right now?’

  Ged laughs. ‘It’s too hot for working.’

  ‘Please?’ Frankie wants to be useful, needs to be useful. She can see Ged thinking about it and wants to hug him for not blowing her off.

  ‘Yeah, alright. You can help me check the fence in the bottom paddock. But you need a hat.’

  She nods, already moving inside to grab one so he won’t change his mind.

  Frankie walks behind Ged, letting him take charge. She knows he doesn’t need help, not really, but she appreciates being here. She watches him shake a post, and kick the bottom of the wood.

  ‘This one also needs to go. That’s pretty much this whole line,’ he says, as if she should be keeping note.

  Slowly Ged pulls out a hand-drawn map of the paddock. He hands it to Frankie with a short stub of a pencil.

  ‘Mark the posts off on the side of the paddock nearest the road,’ says Ged.

  Frankie nods, happy to actually do something. As she’s marking lines through the posts, Ged wipes the sweat off his face.

  ‘What’d you reckon that is?’ Ged says, pointing at something in the ditch across the road.

  Frankie sees flies circling before they get there, then spots a smattering of dead flowers hanging across a tree branch. The flies are buzzing crazily as Ged lifts up one side of the branch exposing the folded kangaroo below, its body all crumpled like it had been pushed into a coffin that was too small. The smell is rancid and Frankie tries to block her nose. She wonders if the flowers were Joely’s doing. The thought makes her worry about her friend and how sensitive she is, how upset she gets about things sometimes.

  ‘I think that’s the kangaroo they hit on the motorbike,’ says Frankie, unable to look away.

  Ged drops the branch, scattering the flies for a second and giving death back its privacy. ‘Well, I think I need a lemonade. What about you?’

  ‘Sure.’ But Frankie’s disappointed. She was hoping to farm with Ged all afternoon, not do twenty minutes of work and then head back.

  Ged’s already started walking. She can’t stay out here on her own, so she falls in line, following the prints his boots make in the dust.

  Chapter 19

  ‘What do you think? It was only three bucks.’ Frankie twirls around, showing off a strapless orange dress.

  Joely thinks Frankie looks like a little girl, testing out how cute she is in front of her mum. ‘You look like a beautiful sunflower,’ she says instead. Only Frankie could wear that colour. ‘But it is just the Payne Cinema. I know Mack thinks it’s a big deal, but it’s really not.’

  ‘I don’t care. I’ve been wanting to wear this dress forever!’

  Joely looks at the blister brewing between her toes. ‘Can you look at this?’ She holds up her foot to show Frankie.

  ‘What am I looking at?’

  ‘A blister,’ groans Joely. ‘Stupid thongs. It always happens when I get new ones that aren’t broken in properly.’

  Frankie leans down to study Joely’s toes. ‘Ow, you poor thing. You need a bandaid. Maybe ten bandaids. Are we walking into town?’

  ‘Unfortunately, yes.’ Joely hoped Ged would offer to drive them in, but so far, no luck. ‘Or we can ride.’

  ‘Nah. That’s okay. Someone might steal our bikes,’ jokes Frankie.

  ‘That’d be a real shame.’

  ‘You sure the bus isn’t running?’

  ‘Yes. Stops at seven.’

  ‘You ready?’ says Frankie

  ‘I’m just going to change.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because you look gorgeous.’ Joely’s still in the singlet and shorts she changed into when they got home from the dam. She hates how freckly her shoulders are. If they run into Rory then she wants to look as good as she can, and that means hiding as much skin as possible.

  ‘But you’ll die in that,’ says Frankie, looking at the long-sleeved top Joely is changing into.

  ‘It’s quite cool, actually,’ lies Joely, knowing that the shirt will be sticking to her body within seconds of being outside.

  Joely follows Frankie down the hall, watching the way she walks, amazed she can make even thongs look beautiful. Joely’s already regretting wearing hers, but she can’t face sneakers. Not when the rest of her feels so hot.

  ‘Pile in the car, kids. I’ll drop you in,’ shouts Ged from somewhere in the house.

  Joely squeals, delighted. At least now she might make it to the cinema without her blister bursting.

  Frankie’s squashed in the back of the car between Joely and Thommo. Thommo’s knee presses into hers and she wonders why he hasn’t moved over to make some space. He’s not looking at her, just staring out the window like there’s something to bother looking at. Frankie keeps glancing from Joely’s knee to Thommo’s, trying to
work out who has more freckles. She thinks maybe Joely’s winning, but then Thommo’s aren’t quite as dark as Joely’s, so they aren’t as easy to see.

  Ged pulls up in the main street and Frankie’s surprised to see so many people around. She expected a dead town, not crowds.

  ‘Out you get. You’ll have to walk back because I’ll be asleep!’ Ged laughs as they pile out. Frankie wishes he were her dad.

  As they cross the road, Frankie spies the queue coming out of the old hall and she starts giggling. She can’t help it. She’s so excited that if she doesn’t let it out, she might burst. It’s dark and it’s hot and the air feels almost electric. And hopefully she’ll see Rory.

  ‘What’s so funny?’ snaps Mack.

  ‘Nothing. Just excited.’ She grins and links her arm through Joely’s, pulling her along to join the queue.

  Every teenager in Payne must be here. Frankie scans their faces as they stare at her, checking out her dress, her thongs, her hair. She knows she’s being pulled apart, but changing schools so often has made her immune to it. Besides, she’s got her army around her, although Mack’s already gone off to find his mates. Whatever.

  ‘Thommo!’ calls a girl.

  Frankie turns and sees bouncy curls, pink lips and a strappy dress.

  ‘Hey,’ says Thommo, blushing redder than ever.

  The girl walks up to them. She glances quickly at Frankie and Joely, but then focuses all her attention on Thommo. In that second Frankie can see how she feels about him.

  ‘How’s your holiday been?’ the girl asks, as she edges closer.

  Thommo nods but doesn’t say anything.

  Frankie feels sorry for her. It’s like watching her mum try to impress a new boyfriend. ‘I’m Frankie,’ she says, holding out her hand. The girl looks surprised but then takes it, shaking fast and hard. As she lets go, she grins and Frankie notices the lines of silver on her teeth.

  ‘Maggie. I’m Maggie. I go to school with Thommo,’ she babbles.

  ‘This is Joely. She’s Thommo’s cousin.’

  Maggie checks out Joely and giggles. ‘You look just like him.’