Love and Muddy Puddles (3 page)

“Oh, I know what that is. It’s a funny word, I’m trying to think of it… Oh I know—fraternal. You guys are fraternal twins, right?” said Isabella. “Is that the word for it?”

“Whatever. Happy birthday,” said Tiger Lily, just slightly rolling her eyes.

“We got you something,” said Saffron and she delicately turned around and pulled out a pink and white striped package with a black bow. I tried to take it without getting mud from my fingers on the paper. I didn’t know whether to open it or not but Saffron was looking at me expectantly so I pulled the paper apart gently to find a very expensive box of chocolates.

I tried to look enthusiastic, even though I don’t particularly like chocolates. “Oh, thanks a lot!” I said, but I could feel Tiger Lily’s eyes in my back.

“Are you going to have one?” she said and she raised her eyebrows slightly.

“Would you like one?” I said and I offered them out to her.

“No thanks,” she said, so I passed it to Isabella and Lise instead.

“No!” declared Lise.

“Not for me, thanks, not today,” said Isabella, darting a look at Tiger Lily and then shaking her head as well. There was only one person left—Saffron—so I offered one to her.

“No,” she said sweetly. “I don’t eat chocolate. It makes me fat,” and she smiled again and tossed her head.

For a second I didn’t know what to think. Why would they give me chocolates but then refuse to have any? I suddenly felt nervous and chewed on my lips. What was going on? I put them down behind me. “I’ll take them home and give some to my sister,” I said.

And then something very surprising happened. Lise started to giggle. And then Saffron and Isabella joined in. It took a few seconds before Tiger Lily smiled but when she did, she almost looked happy. I was still confused.

“You see?” said Saffron. “I told you so.” She looked around at the others as if to say 
I was right
. Then she sat up and, with a big smile on her face, stuck out her hand to congratulate me.

“Welcome our group Coco. You’ve passed the first test,” she said.

My eyes went wide. For a second I felt sick.

“The chocolates were a test?” I said.

“Yes. And you’ve passed. We needed to make sure you weren’t going to pig out on them.”

I gasped. “Nice one. That was good,” I said, trying to look amused and cool. “I haven’t liked chocolate since I was three years old. It just doesn’t do it for me.”

“You’re so lucky!” said Isabella. “I love it so much, it’s so yummy... but we don’t eat it.” She sounded wistful.

“At all. Ever.” Tiger Lily came into the conversation. It sounded like a warning.

“No,” smiled Saffron. “And in fact, one reason we got you to come here today away from school and everything, Coco, is because we need to tell you the rules.”

“Rules?” I said, trying to get the alarm out of my voice and sound casual.

“Yes,” said Tiger Lily. “Rules. It’s pretty simple. We’re the top of the pile. I’m not being arrogant. I’m just stating a fact. We know we’re at the top and we’re going to stay there.” She waved her hand around as if to say, 
See how beautiful we are? This just doesn’t all happen by chance
. “The rules set the standard. If you break them, you get dropped.”

“Okay,” I said. “Um. That sounds... fair.”

Saffron came back into the conversation. “It’s not because we’re worried about 
you
,” she smiled. I felt a little relieved. “It’s because of what happened with Shannon. Basically, we want you, but you have to know that things can change.”

“Sure, sure, I get it,” I said, nodding my head off. “Just tell me what the rules are. It’ll be cool.”

I probably should have gone home and written up the rules that night on a fluorescent piece of cardboard with a massive great thick marker pen and then stuck them in the middle of my mirror so that I could see them every day, twice a day when I brushed my hair and put on my makeup. It would have saved me a lot of tears and a whole lot of disaster further down the track. But, as Mum says all the time, you only know what you know at the time you know it.

These were the rules of the most exclusive group in my school, told to me that day in the spa by Tiger Lily. These were the rules that I was to break at my own peril:

1. We always look good. (“ No!” chimed in Lise. “Perfect!”)
   
2. We don’t get fat. (“No chocolate or chips,” mourned Isabella. “Or chocolate chips either.” She giggled at her own joke.)
   
3. We don’t associate with losers. (“We don’t talk to losers, we don’t look at losers, we don’t flirt with losers, we don’t go out with losers,” said Tiger Lily.)
   
4. There are no secrets. (This is where Saffron spoke up, opening her big blue eyes wide. “We can’t risk our reputations. We don’t want to get surprised if we hear about something you’ve done that might make us look bad. What you do is our business now that you’re in our group. Soooo,” and she shrugged her shoulders, “we need you to be completely honest.”)
   
5. There are consequences for breaking the rules. (Here no one said anything. Isabella looked scared, Lise looked down, Saffron looked superior and Tiger Lily just looked at me full in the face, narrowing her eyes.)
   

At the end of it I was breathing faster and my head was spinning. This wasn’t going to be as simple as I thought. What if I forgot the rules? What if I accidentally did my hair wrong one day? What if I made a fashion faux pas? What if I talked to someone I shouldn’t talk to without realising it? Would they just drop me immediately or would I get a chance to make it up? And what were the consequences? Was I even game enough to ask?

The panic must have started to show on my face because Saffron came over to sit next to me.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I picked you for a reason. You’re different from the other, ordinary girls. You’re one of us. You belong here.”

I smiled bravely. “Thanks. I’m so glad I’m here. You have no idea. It’s really cool.” I shrugged. I didn’t really know what else to say. “I’ll try my best.”

Saffron’s face was warm and welcoming. “You know, you’re really pretty,” she said. “But you should do your hair like this sometimes,” and she scraped and pulled my hair into the highest ponytail ever. “Oh wow—that’s great. Hey girls, what do you think of this?”

“That looks heaps better,” said Isabella quickly. “That really suits your face, Coco. You should wear it like that all the time. It looks amazing, just like the way the model had it in that magazine I saw last week... what was its name? Sparkle? Spangle? Something like that...”

Saffron cut her off. “You could probably get it to be shinier, which would help. I’ll show you the shampoo that I use. It’s exclusive. You can only get it from the salon I go to and it’s really expensive but it’s so worth it.”

When we washed off the mud and the face gunk the conversation changed from being all about me to being all about people I’d never heard of. I focused on listening hard, trying to get used to everything and learning a whole lot of new names.

“Remember that girl Cecelia who was in Year Five with us?” said Isabella. “The one whose brother was school captain? Well my mum said that they’ve moved out of Sydney.”

“Where to?” said Tiger Lily. “Melbourne? Please don’t say Paris or New York or something amazing like that.”

“No, no,” said Isabella. “Nothing cool. Nothing cool at all. It was like out in the back of beyond or something. They moved to somewhere like Tamworth or Wagga or something. Out there—you know.” And she waved a hand behind her.

“Country?” said Lise. She stared dreamily in front of her. “Cows! Cute!”

Tiger Lily looked at her and rolled her eyes. “Cows stink and they do very big poos,” she said. She turned to Isabella. “Why did they go there? There’s nothing out there. How is she going to have a social life? Some parents are just stupid.”

“I know, right?” said Isabella. “But what’s even worse is that she’s going to some local public high school. So sad. She was quite nice.”

“Loserville,” said Tiger Lily. “You can’t come back from that, no matter how pretty you are or whatever. She’s stuck in Loserville.” She shook her head. “I would kill my mum if she ever moved out of the city. Actually, I just wouldn’t go. And I’d like to see anyone try and make me.”

“Let’s talk about something else,” said Saffron, getting impatient. “We’re breaking our own rules—even talking about losers. Let’s talk about someone heaps more interesting.” She gave me a secretive smile and winked.

“Oh yes, yes, yes!” giggled Lise, just about jumping up and down. “Tell her!”

I must’ve looked worried again because Saffron immediately tried to calm me down.

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s just that we’ve got someone who we really want you to meet.” Lise gave a chortle of joy and even Tiger looked animated.

“Who is it?” I said. Was it another friend of theirs? A hairdresser? A manicurist? I was confused.

“Well, he’s 16, he’s a friend of my brother, he goes to St Vincent’s School and he’s really good looking,” said Saffron, smiling.

I blushed. “A boy?” I said. “Cool.”

“Oh, believe me, he is,” said Tiger. “Cool, that is.” She looked at me. “If I wasn’t already going out with Toby, I’d consider him.”

“Do you already have a boyfriend?” I asked. I guess I should have expected it.

Tiger looked at me like I was stupid. “Of course,” she said. “We all do.”

“Well kind of anyway,” said Isabella. “Saffron goes out with Ed. He’s in Year 10 and he does rowing.”

“Muscles!” said Lise, grinning.

Isabella swatted her on the head. “Tiger goes out with Toby—they’ve been together for ages. I have a boyfriend in Brisbane—kind of—but I still flirt with a guy called Danny, and Lise won’t decide between Soapy and Foggo.” She looked at my surprised face. “Nicknames. Soapy is Sam and Foggo is Zac Fogarty. Get it? Oh, and they’re all pretty much friends of each other.”

“Are they all, like, older?” I asked.

“Of course,” said Saffron. “I mean, have you 
seen
 any Year Eight boys recently?” She made a face and rolled her eyes.

“Ick!” agreed Lise.

“We only talk to guys in Year 10 and up,” said Tiger. “We don’t bother with babies.”

“But anyway,” said Saffron. “The point is that we’re glad you’re here because Ed and Toby have a new friend called Darcy. We met him in the holidays and he is really good looking.”

“Mmm. Dark hair, nice shoulders,” said Isabella, nodding. “He’s a rower, isn’t he? Doesn’t he row with the guys? Isn’t he in the same boat?”

“Anyway,” said Saffron, ignoring Isabella, “he told us to find him someone—just like you really. He likes long hair and a cute face.”

“He said that he trusts Saffron to find him the perfect girl!” said Isabella. “How romantic is that?”

I could feel my face going pink and prickly all over. This was completely awesome as well as being utterly embarrassing. But his name was a good start. I’ve been in love with Mr Darcy from Pride and Prejudice ever since Mum first showed me the TV series. And if Saffron liked him, he must be extremely cool.

“So, what’s he like?” I asked.

“What?” said Tiger, looking at me oddly. “We just told you. Dark hair, good looking, rower, goes to school at St Vincent’s. What else do you need?”

“His dad is really rich—does that help?” said Isabella. “And his family goes skiing every year in the US.” She looked confused, like she didn’t really understand the question. I didn’t know how to tell her that I was talking about whether he had a sense of humour and if he was quiet or loud. Things like that. But Saffron came to the rescue.

“Here, this is what he’s like,” she said and she pulled out her phone. “I’ve got a photo of him and Ed. You can have a look.”

She passed the phone over to me and I nearly died on the spot. There on the screen was a photograph of the most beautiful boy I had ever seen in my life. He had dark curly hair, olive skin, black eyes and a smile that I couldn’t take my eyes off.

Before that minute I’d never understood books or poems that talked about things like hearts melting or people going weak at the knees, but as soon as I saw that photograph I felt both of those things at once. If I hadn’t been sitting down, I might have fallen over. As it was I had to catch my breath and control my voice.

“Wow,” I said, my eyes opening wide. And that was all I could say.

“She likes him!” said Isabella. “Look at her face. She’s in love! Woo hoo!”

“Crush!” said Lise.

Even Tiger Lily lifted her eyes in amusement to Saffron who gave me a great big smile. “See, I knew you’d like him.”

It was true. I liked Darcy, just from one photograph. And having seen how he looked, suddenly I didn’t even care about if he had a sense of humour or what his personality or his character was like or anything. I just wanted to go out with him. Besides, if someone was so good looking, surely they’d just have to be nice as well, right? My heart was gone and I hadn’t even met him yet.

“The best part is that he’s looking for someone just like you,” said Saffron. “I know. Let’s take your picture right now and send it to him.”

Before I had time to say anything, the four of them were fussing around me, wiping off stray bits of mud, fixing my hair and even putting on some make-up that they had whipped out of their bags. In two minutes flat I was photo ready and Saffron was standing in front of me with her phone saying, “Come on Coco, give me a good pose.”