Free Ocean Pearl by J.C. Burke

to get whiplash or, worse, lose Ace's Kelly Slater
hat out the window. 'Are you going to tell Ace?'
    'Kia, I don't have anything to tell her.'
    'Yet!'
    'The OP guy just left a message. It's not like I'm
hiding anything.'
    'But what if he says that he's not going to extend
Ace's contact and that he wants to sign you up as the
new OP girl?'
    'Hope you like being public property,' I said.
    'Look, nothing's even happened!' Georgie spat.
    'They'll obviously keep Ace as their model.' Kia
needed to be gagged.
    'Yeah, not, not totally dump her,' I added, trying to
be helpful to Georgie, who wasn't slumped in the seat
anymore. Now she was sitting up so high she must've
thought she could disappear through the roof of the
car. 'Just not sponsor Ace's surfing as much. So it'd kind
of be like you'd both be OP girls! How cool would
that be?'
    'Wow! I'd be the Seahorse Girl and you two'd be the
Ocean Pearl gir–' Reg elbowed Kia and she stopped.
    I didn't have a sponsor. I didn't even have a product
sponsor. I had to sell chocolate bars at school to get the
money together for my travelling and camp expenses.
    But Reg and Jake, my surf instructor from camp,
told me to be patient. Luckily for me that was one of
my strong points. Plus, I didn't exactly need a surf
company doing a story on twenty-four hours in my life!
    Carla, our 'camp mum', hugged us like we were daughters
returning from an overseas trip. Her shirt smelt
clean and fresh like lemons but suddenly it made me
want to vomit.
    It transported me straight back home and suddenly
it was like I was smelling Dad when I'd hugged him
goodbye. But he hadn't smelt of lemons. He smelt like
cigarettes and stale sweat. His green Hawaiian shirt,
which he hadn't changed in days, reeked of BO and
bad deodorant.
    It didn't matter how many clean tops I put in his
drawers, he still seemed to stay in the same one, day after
day. The methadone made him sweat, badly. I'd say,
'Dad, you're getting a bit smelly.' And he'd answer, 'Yeah,
love, you're probably right. I'll go put a clean shirt on.'
    Then straightaway he'd forget.
    'Are we in the Starfish Bungalow again?' Kia was
asking Carla like she would die if Carla said no. 'Are
we? Are we?'
    'Yes. Of course you are.'
    'Thank you, thank you, thank you,' squealed Kia.
    Georgie, who'd been wandering around the empty
carpark, came back and very politely enquired if
Megan had arrived.
    'Her plane's late,' Carla told us. 'Poor Jake just
arrived at Brissie airport to find out. He'll have to hang
around for hours.'
    'Bummer!' Georgie mouthed to us with a smirk.
    'Here we are,' Reg said, carrying the last of the
boards over. 'Eight surfboards, all in one piece.'
    'Can we leave the boards here for a minute?
Pleeeaaase?' Kia asked, although she'd already grabbed
her bag and was running. 'I need to see the Starfish
Bungalow. Now!'
    Reg watched her and Georgie sprint down the
pathway. 'Excuse my daughter,' he said, chuckling.
'She's a bit excited.'
    'She looks wonderful, Reg,' Carla said.
    'She is.' He smiled before a tiny frown cracked his
brow. 'Now,' he said and coughed. 'As the official slave,
I'll put the boards to bed in the shed. Then I'll be off.
Unless there's anything else you need me to do, Carla?'
    'Are you offering to be my slave too?'
    'I'll help,' I piped up. I needed a minute with Reg. I
needed to ask him one more time if everything was
going to be okay. Since I'd smelt Carla's shirt that bad
feeling, like I was trapped in a box, had started to suffocate
me.
    'Don't you want to check out the surf?' he asked me.
'I'm sure Kia and Georgie will dump their bags and go
straight down.'
    'It's okay. I kind of like taking care of my new board.'
    The garden and walkways looked different. The
vines that in January had been covered in pink flowers
were bare and limp. The lawns were sick from lack of
rain. Even the tennis courts looked sad and empty. Or
was it me? Had I been fooling myself that it was okay to
come here while Dad would probably end up black
and