Free Solo by Alyssa Brugman Page A

of the Guidmans’ gin for thirty dollars instead.
    The Guidmans never caught me, but the idea that they would was so exciting that it sent shivers over my whole body and made my heart beat fast. Sometimes I would wait until I heard their doors thump closed in the garage before I would leave.
    Rollercoasters have nothing on a bit of petty theft for kicks.

3

L ORELEI’S S HOES
    That girl Lorelei Darton from primary school knew I was a liar. In year 4 I stole her shoes. One sports day I saw her pull them out of her bag. She laid them on the seat next to her carefully, because she was proud of them. They were white and sky-blue with a shiny silver stripe along the side and heart-shaped silver buttons around the sole.
    They were new and when I saw them I wanted them.
    When everyone was paying attention, I told Lorelei that I had a pair of shoes exactly the same. I asked her where she got them and when she answered, ‘Rebel Sports,’ I nodded. ‘Yeah, me too.’
    Two weeks later, on sports day, I wagged till playlunch and then I went into the classroom and took Lorelei’s blue and silver shoes from her sports bag. I put them on and then I hid my plain black shoes in the bushes behind the photocopying room.
    Then I snuck around the back of the teachers’ carpark. I came in through the front gates just as the bell went and caught up with Lorelei as she headed towards class. I waggled my foot. ‘Now we can be twins.’ Lorelei smiled back, but it was a tight, closed-mouth smile because she thought she was better than I was.
    At lunchtime Ms D’Antoni asked me if I’d stolen Lorelei Darton’s shoes that morning. Lorelei stood behind the teacher with her arms crossed and an ugly frown like a scar up the middle of her face. I let my mouth drop open.
    ‘I told her ages ago that I had a pair exactly the same. Ask anyone. And besides, I wasn’t even here! Lorelei saw me come in wearing these shoes.’
    Ms D’Antoni asked me to empty my bag. I whipped the zipper around and shook it, letting everything spill on the asphalt. A pencil case and ruler, two library books, an empty drink container with a splash of cordial in the bottom, a brown, wrinkled apple.
    No shoes.
    I stared at Lorelei.
    ‘Apologise to Mackenzie,’ said Ms D’Antoni.
    Lorelei’s eyes narrowed. ‘Sorry.’ She couldn’t figure out how I’d done it.
    ‘That’s OK, Lorelei.’ I smiled at her. I knew that Lorelei knew, and she knew it too.
    I wore those sky-blue shoes every day, even though I got a note home for being out of uniform.
    Lorelei owed me those shoes for being so stuck-up and snooty. Besides, her parents would buy her a new pair. Itsy never would.
    Even now I’m not sorry. I enjoyed getting the better of Lorelei Darton, and the only person who really suffered was Lorelei’s mum or dad or whoever paid for those shoes, and they probably deserved it too, for thrusting their stuck-up, snooty daughter on the world. They should have bought a pair of shoes for every kid in my class.

4

F IREBUG
    I knew Nan and Pop had room for me, and I would have earned my keep. I could have helped them around the house – done cleaning and cooking and lifting when Pop got too old for it. I would have been grateful and loved them.
    I could have paid them too, if it was about money. I’m pretty sure I could have got rent allowance or Austudy, once I had a permanent address. I wouldn’t have run away from them either.
    They were fakers. They put on caring as though it was a costume.
    A few weeks after that afternoon when they should have taken me in but didn’t, I caught a bus to the park near their place. I waited until about two in the morning and then I went to their house. I snuck down the side and into Pop’s garage. He had red cans of petrol for the ride-on lawnmower. I grabbed the petrol can and poured some on the ground under the lawnmower, as if it had leaked. Then I got the long matches they have for the barbecue and I set fire to it.
    I ran up to