Thyla - Kate Gordon [35]
‘Your father has tigers?’ I asked Erin, my eyes wide. She laughed.
‘Nah, mate. Not real tigers. Tassie tigers. He reckons he sees ’em sometimes, even though they’re extinct. Reckons it’s only white men who think they’re extinct ’cos they’re not in touch with nature like we are. He used to come home all freaked out from the bush and talk about seeing tigers, big as men, running around. Yeah, I know. Completely bonkers. I think he’s getting better, though. He hasn’t “seen one” since right before I came to Cascade Falls – not that he’s told me about, anyway. Hey, actually, the last time he saw one was with Mick Jones and Graeme and your dad, remember?’ she said to Laurel. ‘Isn’t it funny that we ended up being the kids who got sent here?’
Laurel laughed. ‘Mr Lord probably reckoned he was doing us a favour, ’cos our parents were so barmy. My dad reckons he never really saw one, though. He was just backing up your dad ’cos they’re mates. Our parents are all Van Diemen Industries labourers,’ she explained. ‘But most of the parents in Scottsdale are. Mr Lord picked us because we’re super-smart. Kelly and Heidi actually were as well. They just didn’t “apply” themselves like we do. We got those scholarships ’cos our dads were VDI and ’cos we’re young Einsteins. End of story. And we’re doing the families proud, aren’t we, E? Our parents have big dreams about us being the first in our families to go to uni and then becoming lawyers and doctors. Never mind the fact that I actually want to be in a rock band.’
‘And I would rather die than be a lawyer,’ added Erin. ‘I’m going to be a comic book artist. And you don’t need a diploma from Cascade Falls to be one of those. What are you gonna be when you finish school, Tessa?’
I shook my head. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was now, let alone what I would be when I was older.
I was Tessa. I was tough. I was brave. I liked waffles. That was all I knew.
My voice didn’t listen to my brain, though, because it suddenly blurted out, ‘I will be the leader.’
‘A leader, you mean?’ asked Laurel. ‘Like, the Prime Minister?’
‘Yeah, I can see it,’ said Erin, nodding. ‘Tessa Connolly. Australia’s second female Prime Minister.’
‘Or third or fourth,’ Laurel retorted. ‘I reckon now they’ve seen a chick can do it just as well – better – than a bloke, they’re never gonna let a bloke do it again.’
Prime Minister? Australia had a Prime Minister? And it was a woman? That all seemed very strange to me, but I resolved to find out more about it when my head did not feel as though it were about to collapse in upon itself. Besides, they were wrong. I did not mean the leader. I just meant leader of … of …
I sighed. I couldn’t think. My brain was too befuddled. ‘I need to go back to my room now,’ I said.
‘Okay, see ya,’ said Erin, looking at me curiously.
‘I’m just tired,’ I added.
‘No worries,’ said Laurel.
As I walked away, Erin called out, ‘Hey, Tessa. If you want to be a leader, do it! Don’t let anything get in your way.’
‘Thanks,’ I called back.
‘And Tessa, one more thing!’ Laurel yelled.
‘What?’ I asked.
‘If you’re feeling better, can I’ve my hat back?’ she called.
I reached in my bag and pulled out Laurel’s woollen beanie, the beanie I never got to wear.
Because I can’t leap walls.
I flung it over to her and it whacked Laurel in the face with an audible thwap.
‘Ow!’ she exclaimed, but she was giggling, and I don’t know how a woollen hat could really have hurt her. ‘You should join the softball team, with an arm like that.’
She looked down at the hat and screwed up her nose, then threw it back to me. I caught it with one hand.
‘You don’t want it back?’ I asked.
‘Nah, don’t worry about it,’ said Laurel. ‘You might need it again. Next time you break curfew.’
‘Thanks,’ I said again.
I wondered when that time would be. Would I get another chance to follow Rhiannah and Harriet and Sara? Or a chance to learn more about the bushwalk that took Cat.
As I reached the door of Cascade Falls, I looked back at Laurel and Erin, and then up at the moon. It was nearly