Free Outback Hero by Sally Gould

married anyway. How did dressing
up and going to church change anything?
    And Mom and Nanna couldn't wait until Sophie
had a baby. Once Mom told me babies are hard work. She said, when I
was a baby I never slept and I cried all the time. So why did Mom
and Nanna want Sophie to have a baby so much? Maybe they didn't
really like her.
    I shrugged. Who knew? I just hoped this day
and night would go real fast. Now that I wasn't the pageboy I might
die of boredom.
    A woman wearing a large hat with feathers on
it came up to us. She said to Mom and Dad, "I'm Sophie's mother."
Mom introduced Charlie and me. Sophie's mother patted me on the
head and whispered, "You would've made a very handsome
pageboy."
    I smiled, but inside I was mad because I'd
wanted to be the pageboy. I wanted to be standing near Dan when the
minister said, Now you may kiss the
bride . I wanted my face in a wedding photo on their
mantelpiece. I wanted the guests to tell me how handsome I was.
    And I wanted to do something that Charlie
hadn't done. He'd never been a pageboy. And now he was too old, so
he never would be. Charlie had always been the chosen one. He was
captain of his soccer team again. When he was in grade six he was
captain of Yarra house. And last week the girls in his class voted
him as the boy they'd most like to kiss. It sucked.
    Dan had called me from London to ask, Would you do me the honor of being my
pageboy? I pretended to think about it for a minute,
before I said, Yep. I even went to
get my suit fitted. But three weeks before the wedding, Dan came
over to our place and said, Sorry sport, Sophie
has changed her mind. You'll find women do that.
    I decided I didn't like Sophie and I didn't
want Dan to marry her. Even though I'd seen her photo and she had
beautiful green eyes and smooth skin. Then a week later I met her
when we had a barbeque at Nanna's place. As soon as Sophie saw me,
her hand went over her glossy pink lips and she said, Oh, you're so cute and just the right
age . You would've looked perfect
with Lucy. She seemed really upset that she'd made a
mistake, so, being the kind, generous person I am, I forgave
her.
    I knew then that something fishy was going
on. All I found out was that I'd lost my place in the team to a
five year old named Hamish (tell me, what sort of pageboy is named
Hamish?), who was Sophie's twenty-third cousin or something. But
why? Someone must've told her I wasn't cute enough. Who would've
said that?
    As Sophie's mom told Mom all about Sophie's
Italian handmade beaded silk shoes, Nanna arrived. She wanted to
know the color of the bridesmaids' dresses. Mom thought they were
lilac and Sophie's mom thought they were lavender.
    Aunt Evil (as Charlie and me call her)
turned up. She parked in the loading zone out the front of the
church, probably so everyone could check out her red Mercedes
sports car. She came over and Charlie and me stood back while
everyone kissed everyone else like they hadn't seen each other
since Christmas (and not two weeks ago at Nanna's place).
    Charlie kicked a stone in my direction. Dad
spun round to see if we were doing anything we shouldn't be. I
stood on the stone and gave him a blank look. So far I'd made a
good impression. I'd been quiet and still, just like Dad had told
me to be. I wouldn't kick the stone back to Charlie. I'd let
Charlie suffer.
    Everyone turned to look at me.
    "I didn't do anything," I said.
    Then Sophie's mom stepped back and wrapped
her arm round me, squeezing me like I was a plastic duck that
spurted water out its mouth. Geez, I'd only just met her! "Avril,"
she said, "I think he's lovely and he seems perfectly behaved."
    Aunt Evil laughed nervously. "Trust me," she
replied, "he's programmed to make trouble."
    "Oh, he's a good boy," said good old
Nanna.
    I glared at my evil aunt. She looked guilty
and turned away. So it was Aunt Evil who told Sophie that I was too
naughty! My heart thumped like I'd just run a hundred-metre race. I
wanted revenge, but I wouldn't