Hide & Seek - Alyssa Brugman [12]
Shelby didn't know why she was making such a fuss anyway. It was only hot chips, and Chad might not even be there. He did say that he 'usually' hung out at the beach. He might still be fishing, and then she was going to feel like a dill.
She sighed and headed down the hall to the lounge room, where the rest of the family were playing card games or reading. Strips of coloured foil littered the floor. A half-eaten chocolate egg was melting in Blake's fingers.
They all stared.
'What?' Shelby said, feeling her face flushing.
'She's wearing a skirt,' Shelby's father said to her mother.
'Not much of a skirt,' her mother replied.
'I'd say definitely more than one hand-span above the knee,' remarked Aunty Jenny over the brim of her magazine.
'That's my beanie,' Blake remarked.
'I'm borrowing it,' Shelby said. 'Can I have five dollars? I thought I might go down to the beach and maybe get some hot chips or something.'
'You just had lunch,' said her mother.
'Yeah, I know. I might meet some other kids,' Shelby mumbled.
'Are you saying you have met some kids before and this is a prearranged meeting, or are you going to loiter at the fish and chip shop on the off-chance that you might meet some other kids?'
'Both,' Shelby answered.
Her mother laid her playing cards face down on the table and waited. Shelby's face grew redder. She was going to have to come up with an explanation.
'Well, what happened is, yesterday I met a . . . um, friend, and we said we might catch up today, maybe to have chips or something, but it's not confirmed.'
'An um friend?' Her father turned to her mother again. 'Shelby has an um friend!'
'Shut up,' Shelby muttered, her face flushed again.
'Did you hear that? She's telling us to shut up. She's wearing a miniskirt and meeting an um friend, and bam! Just like magic she's a teenager. Where's my camera? I want to record this moment.' He jumped up. 'We can have it blown up for her twenty-first. Our
little girl!' He hugged her on his way past.
'Dad!'
'He's right, Shelby,' her aunt told her, smiling. 'As painful as it is now, you might want to remember this later.' She sighed. 'Oh, first love!'
First love? Shelby thought. This was getting way out of control. 'It's no big deal! Can I have five dollars? Please?' she asked.
Her father came back into the room with his camera trained on her. 'Go on! Throw a tantrum. That will be the full box and dice.' He clicked away – the flash going off at two-second intervals.
Blake and Connor jumped and crowded around Shelby, giggling and using their fingers to pull their faces into grotesque shapes for the camera.
'Mum?' She begged her mother to let her escape.
'So who is this friend?' her mother asked. Her father stopped snapping for a moment, keen to hear Shelby's answer.
'Just someone I met on the beach.' Shelby chose her words carefully. 'I have met this person before, though.'
'This person?' her father repeated, beaming. 'A person, eh? What do you think about that, boys? Is it a he person? Or a she person?'
'He! He! He!' Connor chanted, and soon Blake joined in, punching his fist into the air in time.
Shelby covered her face with her hands.
'Off you go, honey.' Her mother took ten dollars out of her purse and handed it across. 'We're going to the movies this evening, remember. Don't be late.'
'Thanks, Mum.'
'No holding hands, or I'll have to come after your um friend with a pruning saw,' her father said. He tilted his head to the side. 'OK, you can hold hands, but definitely no smooching!'
'Smooching?' Blake giggled. 'Yucko!'
Shelby fled.
9 Hot Chips
At first Shelby waited up near the shops, but the breeze in the shade was cold around her legs, so she sat on the sand in the sun and watched the waves curl over one another.
She had known her dad would make a fuss, and now she was more nervous than ever, which