Free Girl Next Door by Alyssa Brugman

forward. I can feel each lump and bump in the road through the steering wheel. My heart is beating really fast. I'm trying to look everywhere at once. A car comes along the other way and I hold my breath till it passes.
    'Good, now turn right. Put your blinker on.'
    'Right? Across the road? Are you insane? There's a car behind me!'
    Bryce Cole watches as I drive straight past the right-hand turn. 'Okay, maybe we'll try the next one . . . Or the next one. Listen, Jenna-Belle, you will have to turn right eventually, or we'll end up in Alice Springs. Put your blinker on. The car behind will cope, I promise.'
    'Okay, I'm doing it!' I say, flicking on the right blinker, and then putting my foot on the brake. We inch to a stop. I look in the rear-view mirror. My eyes get wider as the car behind me rushes up and then swerves around us. 'I can't believe people can actually talk to each other and drive at the same time!'
    'You'll get used to it.'
    I turn the wheel and the car swings around. This street is quieter and I relax.
    'Give it some juice, JB! I could run home faster,' Bryce Cole says.
    I look at the speedo. I'm doing 20 km/h, but at least I feel in control. 'Go on, then. Run home. I dare you!'
    He opens the passenger door and I scream. He laughs at me.
    I take a left turn and then a right. I drive through my first traffic lights, squealing. Bryce Cole thinks it's hysterical.
    Soon we reach our street and I pull into the driveway, putting the car in P while Bryce Cole pulls on the handbrake.
    Bryce Cole is looking at our house's dark windows. He's checking out the parked cars on our street. I guess he's hoping nobody saw him letting me drive.
    'Actually, I've got some things to do. I might just drop you off, okay? Take those stinky chips with you.' He hands me the white paper package of cold chips.
    We both climb out of the car. He walks around the bonnet and then settles into the driver's seat and I head towards the front door.
    'Hey, JB,' he says through the open window, 'lock all the doors and windows, will you? And don't answer the door, unless you know who it is, okay? Look out the window first.'
    'I'm not five years old. I know about stranger danger,' I scoff.
    Still, when I get inside, the house seems very shadowy and hollow. We still have no power so the answering machine is dead. There's a note from Mum on the bench and I squint to read it in the gloom.
    Gone to hosp.
    She must have gone with Declan's parents. That's nice and neighbourly of her.
    In the same spirit I head over to feed Chairman Meow, but Declan's house is locked. The cat appears from around the corner, whining, so I bring him back to our place instead.
    I take my dad's old t-shirt out of the back of my cupboard and put it on over my clothes. I lie on the lounge in the dark and wonder what to do, while The Chairman kneads dough on my belly. I can't watch TV, or play on the computer. I can't go next door and see what Declan's up to. Will isn't here. Annie's not either.
    Soon I'm bored, so I wander back down the hallway. I peek into Bryce Cole's room. He has one open cardboard box in the middle of the room, and a sleeping bag stretched out on the floor near the window. That's it. There's a built-in wardrobe in his room. I look in there, but there's nothing in it. One box of stuff – that's all he has. Except for his car.
    The phone rings.
    'Is this Jenna-Belle?'
    'Yes.'
    'I'm calling from the hospital. Your brother's here and he asked me to ring you.'
    I'm about to explain that Declan isn't my brother, but the woman continues. 'Your mum has just come out of the operating theatre now.'
    'My mum?' This lady must have me confused with someone else.
    'She's okay, but I'm afraid she's lost the baby.'

11
WOLVES AT
THE DOOR
    I'm pacing around the house not knowing what to do. I wish I hadn't bought the stupid hot chips because then I would have twenty dollars for a cab. Now I only have six dollars seventy-five left and it's not enough. I can't get to the