What did I look like! I hadn’t even checked my hair, and was sure I must have huge bags under my eyes from lack of sleep!

  ‘Violet, where are you going?’ Dad called as I ran through the kitchen and out of the back door.

  ‘Back in a sec!’

  I raced into the house and checked my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I was definitely puffy-eyed and my hair wasn’t great, but not totally diabolical. I smoothed down my cowlick (as much as I could), splashed some cold water on my face, took a deep breath and headed back to the café, silently vowing to stay as far away from Christos’s table as I could.

  ‘Violet?’ Mum called when I walked back in. ‘Can you take those smoothies over to the blue table, please?’

  You have got to be kidding me!

  ‘Um, what about those?’ I said, pointing to a tray with a couple of hot chocolates on it. ‘Can’t I take them somewhere instead?’

  ‘They’re not ready yet,’ Mum said. ‘Can you just take the smoothies, please?’

  I sighed and picked up the tray with shaky hands. As I slowly made my way over to Christos’s table, my stomach started flip-flopping and I could feel my face burning.

  You’ve got this, Violet, I told myself. Just remember, style and grace. Style and grace.

  But just as I was about to set the tray down onto the table, Christos glanced up and smiled at me. It was just a friendly smile—the kind you’d give to any waitress bringing your order—but it made my hands shake even more violently than they already were.

  The tray wobbled, and then—as if it was happening in slow motion—I watched in horror as a mixed berries smoothie tipped over, spilling bright-red liquid across the tray and onto the table.

  Why, universe? Why now?

  ‘Oh no! I am so, so sorry!’ I cried, setting the tray down on the table and grabbing a handful of napkins to mop up the mess.

  Christos grabbed a napkin to help. ‘No stress at all,’ he said, shooting me a sympathetic smile.

  ‘It’s okay, love,’ Ken said kindly. ‘Accidents happen.’

  ‘Yeah, it’s all good,’ another guy said.

  Mum was suddenly beside me. ‘Violet, honey, are you okay? What happ—’

  She stopped when she spotted the spilt drink. ‘Oh, sorry, fellas,’ Mum said. ‘I’ll make another one now. You okay to clean this, Vi?’

  ‘Yep,’ I mumbled.

  As soon as I’d cleaned up the mess, I handed out the rest of the smoothies, then headed back to the counter. ‘Poor kid,’ I heard one of the guys say as I was walking away.

  KID? How embarrassing! I immediately wanted to run out of the back door again, but Mum was calling to me from behind the counter.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah.’

  She leaned in to take a closer look at my face, then frowned. ‘What time did you go to sleep last night?’

  ‘I’m fine!’ I snapped.

  ‘Violet?’ Dad called from the kitchen. ‘Can you come and grab these rolls, please?’

  After that, I kept my head down and avoided eye contact with any of the Pirates, especially Christos. An hour later, I finally finished one of the longest and most excruciating shifts in the history of the world. I was out of the café like a shot, and it wasn’t until I was almost at the bus stop that a terrifying thought occurred to me.

  What if I embarrass myself like that at the talent show and Christos is in the audience? I could fall off the stage or forget my lines, and that would be totally mortifying. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to make sure everything was perfect for Saturday night.

  Absolutely perfect!

  ‘I was mortified!’ I said as we climbed onto the school bus. ‘I wanted the floor to swallow me up.’

  ‘I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,’ Abbie soothed.

  I stopped and stared at her. ‘No. It was worse.’

  Zi snorted. ‘I wish I’d seen your face when that guy called you kid.’

  The girls giggled and I couldn’t help smiling.

  ‘I reckon you can probably imagine,’ I said.

  My morning seemed slightly less mortifying after sharing the story with my friends, but only slightly. But all day, I kept getting flashbacks to that smoothie tipping over and Christos’s sympathetic look, and my stomach flip-flopped all over again. Also, I was SO tired that when Naira and I were waiting in the canteen line at recess, I yawned so loudly that the people in front of me turned around.

  ‘Whoa!’ Naira said. ‘No wonder you’re exhausted if you were up so early, plus you’re doing everything for the talent show too.’

  ‘I’m fine!’ I said. ‘I thrive under pressure. I’m like . . . a multi-tasking wizard . . . or witch.’

  Naira giggled. ‘More like a sleep-deprived zombie.’

  A zombie was exactly how I felt, and I hardly heard a word Miss Boyle said all day. Felix didn’t even annoy me as much as he usually did . . . until maths, when he started kicking my chair and flicking tiny balled up pieces of paper at my head.

  ‘Stop it!’ I snapped, turning in my chair to glare angrily at him.

  ‘Make me,’ Felix sneered.

  He was SO annoying!

  ‘I wouldn’t dare Violet to do anything if I were you,’ Zi said. ‘She WILL make you and then you’ll be sorry.’

  Felix snorted. ‘Yeah, right, and how exactly is she gonna do that?’

  I leaned back and narrowed my eyes at him.

  ‘I’m gonna pick up all those balls of paper you threw at me and shove them up your nose,’ I said in my most sinister voice.

  ‘As if.’ Felix laughed, but his eyes widened just a smidge. He left me alone after that, so I must have scared him. I made a mental note NOT to use that voice with the little kids at the sleepover party. If it worked on a big, rude twelve-year-old like Felix, it was probably way too scary for seven-year-olds.

  Oh no! The witch performance!

  I hadn’t even thought about what I was going to do, and the sleepover was this Saturday, right before the talent show! I’d just have to work on it when I got home tonight . . . after rehearsal . . . and after working on my history project. Oh, and I’d offered to help Zi with her project again too, so I’d have to do that first.

  I frowned and pushed away the little niggle of worry in my chest that I wouldn’t have time to do everything I needed to do. Of course I will, I told myself, because I have to. I don’t have any other choice!

  eighteen

  ‘WILL WE BE FINISHED BY 5.30 PM?’ ABBIE ASKED ON Wednesday afternoon as we walked into the club for our rehearsal. ‘Spike’s coming over for dinner, and Mum wants me to do some stuff before she gets home from work.’

  ‘Yeah, no worries,’ I said. ‘We’ll be done by then.’

  Spike was Abbie’s mum’s boyfriend. They’d only been dating for a year or so, but he spent a lot of time at their house. Abbie liked Spike, but she couldn’t stand his daughter, Esther, who was fourteen, grumpy and spent all her time scrolling on her phone. Luckily, Esther only stayed over at Abbie’s every few weeks, but when she did she hardly said two words to anyone. Abbie was happy for her mum and Spike, but wished she didn’t have to be around Esther.

  Bill had gone out for a surf, so he’d left the door open for us for rehearsal. We all piled into the big empty room, and I headed straight for the corner to set up the stools and campfire.

  ‘Does anyone know where the lanterns are?’ I asked, looking around. ‘I thought I left them next to the campfire.’

  Everyone had a quick look, but we couldn’t find them anywhere.

  ‘Are you sure you didn’t leave them at home?’ Mackenzie asked.

  ‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘I’ll go back and look.’

  I raced home and into my room, where I immediately spotted them on my bookshelf. I frowned as I picked them up. I couldn’t remember putting them there, but I’d been so tired lately that maybe I had done it in my half-asleep state and forgotten.

  ‘Got them!’ I said, walking back into the surf club and holding them up for my friends to see. ‘I must have—’

  I stopped when I saw their worried expressions.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘One of the stools is missing,’ Mackenzie said. ‘We can only find four of them.’

  ‘Really?’ I frowned. ‘Well, I definitely left all five of them here. Where would it be?’

  Zi grinned. ‘Maybe it’s an actual ghost moving things around?’

  ‘Ha-ha, very funny,’ Naira said, looking panicked for a second.

  ‘I’ll go ask Bill if he moved it,’ I said, and walked back out into the clubrooms, but Bill’s office was empty.

  ‘Probably still surfing,’ Abbie said, glancing over at the window to look out at the ocean.

  ‘That’s okay,’ I said. ‘He must have borrowed it. I’ll ask him later.’

  ‘Are you sure you left it here?’ Naira asked. ‘You’ve had a lot going on.’

  I frowned. ‘Maybe.’

  Had I taken a stool home, like I did with the lanterns? The stools weren’t very big, so maybe I did fold one up and put it in my schoolbag. The problem was that I had no memory of doing that, just like I couldn’t remember putting the lanterns on the shelf. Was I losing the plot?

  ‘Are you okay, Vi?’ Mackenzie asked gently. ‘You seem a bit stressed.’

  ‘She’s not sleeping enough,’ Naira said.

  ‘I’m fine,’ I said, slightly annoyed at Naira’s ‘mum’ tone. ‘We can rehearse with four stools, no problem. I’ll sit on the floor.’

  ‘Hey, what if we’re all drinking smoothies in the scene?’ Abbie said.

  I cocked my head at her, confused. ‘Huh?’

  ‘Abbie.’ Naira giggled, elbowing her. ‘Too soon.’

  ‘WAY too soon.’ Mackenzie grinned.

  As soon as I realised what she was talking about, I glared at my friend and shook my head.

  ‘Hilarious,’ I said, whacking Abbie across the knee with my script. ‘Okay, ACTION!’

  I’d planned to have an early night, but Zi wanted a bit more help with her project after rehearsal, and then when I got home, I still had to finish my own diary entries. I headed up into the treehouse to work on them in peace, and was pretty happy when I was done, reading them back with pride.

  23 JUNE 1855

  Today was awful. I felt sick all day and then tonight I collapsed at about seven. I don’t know why. One minute I was sweeping under one of the machines, and the next I was on the floor and Sam was crawling over me asking what was wrong. I finished the day’s work and then Mr Roach wanted to see me in his office. I didn’t even have to clean up. He asked me all these questions about how I was feeling, and then he gave me a funny look and sent me to bed. I’m so hopeless. Why did I have to faint? I hope he doesn’t make me go back to the orphanage. I don’t think I can handle it. I heard Mr Roach say something about cholera or something like that. I wonder what that is. I’ll have to ask Sam.

  25 JUNE 1855

  I’ll never forget today as long as I live. Before I started work this morning, Mr Roach said I’m going back to the orphanage tomorrow because I’m too sick to keep working. I fainted again twice this morning. At lunchtime, I told Sam I had to go, and we both cried. I said I loved her and would never forget her, and she said the same. This afternoon, I vomited and had terrible cramps. When work was finished, Sam and I hugged and wouldn’t let each other go, but her father gently pulled her away . . .

  I feel very sick. I don’t know what’s happening to me, but I feel so weak I can barely write. I will soon be on my way back to the orphanage. I’m determined to be somebody even though I’m only an orphan. I’ll be someone and so will Sam. I will make it. I’m very tired and I can’t write anymore. I’ll have to write again tomorrow . . .

  Miss Boyle was going to weep when she read these!

  Abbie’s head suddenly appeared through the hole in the treehouse floor.

  ‘Hey, Vi,’ she said. ‘Your mum said you were up here. Sorry, but have you put those Fairytale Sleepover photos on the website yet?’

  ‘Oh no, not yet, sorry,’ I said. ‘I’ll do it as soon as I go back inside, I promise.’

  ‘Okay, thanks,’ Abbie said. ‘See ya tomorrow!’

  Abbie’s head disappeared again and I felt terrible. I never usually forgot stuff like that, but I’d been so busy with rehearsals and the project that I hadn’t thought about Sleepover BFFs much this week, including my upcoming witch performance. I hadn’t even had time to film anything for my vlog because I was so busy. But I promised myself that as soon as I’d finished getting these diary entries ready, I’d put the photos on the Sleepover BFFs website.

  I climbed down the ladder to go inside, yawning and rubbing my eyes the whole way. Then I went into the kitchen and set up to do the tea staining and edges burning on my diary entries. I wanted my project to have a totally authentic feel.

  I wondered if I should wait for Mum or Dad to help me, but I could hear them going over bills together in the lounge room and I didn’t want to interrupt them, so I left them alone and got started. The tea staining went well, but as soon as I took a lit match to the edge of the first page, it caught fire much faster than I expected. I quickly shoved the burning page under the tap, and the flames sizzled out straightaway, thank goodness, but I’d lost the entries on that page in three seconds! I felt stinging in the corners of my eyes as I stared at the ashes in the sink.

  ‘Violet, is something burning?’ Dad asked, rushing into the kitchen.

  I turned to him, my bottom lip quivering.

  ‘I was trying to burn the edges, but now I’ve lost a whole page and . . .’

  I burst into tears and felt Dad’s arms go around me.

  ‘Oh, honey,’ he said gently. ‘Can you remember what you wrote?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I sniffed. ‘I’m just so tired.’

  ‘When is it due?’ Mum asked, walking in and stroking my head. ‘Can you go to bed now and work on it tomorrow?’

  ‘No, I have to do it now, before I forget what I wrote,’ I said. ‘And I still have to put the photos on the Sleepover BFFs website too.’

  ‘I can do that for you,’ Mum said. ‘You just focus on your project.’

  I scrunched up my face, trying to remember what I’d written, and my head started to throb. I reached up to rub my aching temples, but it didn’t help.

  ‘Are you sure you’re okay, Vi?’ Mum said, putting her arm around me.

  ‘Yes!’ I snapped. ‘Why does everyone keep asking me that?’

  ‘It’s our fault,’ Dad said, looking sad all of a sudden. ‘We shouldn’t have asked you to work in the café so much this past week. You’ve got too much on your plate.’

  ‘It’s not your fault,’ I said, trying to hold back more tears. ‘And I’m fine, I promise. I just need to go now and rewrite these entries.’

  Maybe they’re right, I thought as I headed to my room. Maybe I have taken on too much.

  But it was too late now. The project was due tomorrow, the sleepover booking was on Saturday and the talent show on Saturday night. I had no choice but to lock in and get it done.

  nineteen

  THE NEXT MORNING, I WOKE EARLY WITH A NEW idea for the talent show.

  Torches! Our characters should walk onstage with them, as if they were trying to find their way through the bush in the dark!

  I remembered Abbie saying that her mum had brought a bunch of mini-torches home from her shop, so I jumped out of bed, pulled on my school uniform and raced out of the back door.

  ‘Where are you going?’ Mum called after me.

  ‘Abbie’s! Back in a minute.’

  ‘It’s 6.30 in the morning!’ she shouted.

  ‘She’ll be awake!’ I yelled back. ‘She’s a surfer!’

  I ran up the hill and cut through Abbie’s backyard, where I could see her sitting out on the back deck, having her breakfast.

  ‘Hi!’ I called out.

  ‘Hey!’ she called back, standing up and looking concerned. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing,’ I replied. ‘Just need to borrow something.’

  Abbie ran down to meet me at the door, where I told her my idea.

  ‘Cool, come in and I’ll grab them,’ she said. ‘We just have to be quiet because Beau’s still asleep. Mum had to go to work early, so Grandpa’s coming over soon to mind him.’

  Upstairs, Abbie rummaged around in the kitchen drawers.

  ‘I’m pretty sure they’re in here somewhere,’ she whispered.

  ‘Hi, Violet!’

  I turned to see a sleepy-faced Beau in his PJs.

  ‘Hey, Beau!’ I went over to give him a hug.

  When I turned back, Abbie was walking out of the kitchen holding a bulging plastic bag. She frowned at her brother as she handed me the bag.

  ‘Beau, what are you doing up so early?’ she asked.

  ‘You woke me,’ he replied.

  Abbie grimaced. ‘Oh, sorry.’

  ‘That’s okay.’ He shrugged, then turned to me, eyes shining. ‘Violet, guess what happened at kinder yesterday?’

  ‘What?’ I said, grinning down at him.

  ‘Cooper Madison put a goldfish in his mouth, and when he spat it out, it was still alive.’

  ‘Wow,’ I said. ‘Good trick.’

  ‘And Spike and Esther are moving in with us.’

  I felt Abbie stiffen beside me.

  ‘What?’ she squealed, clearly as surprised by this news as I was.

  ‘I heard Mum talking to Spike on the phone yesterday,’ Beau chirped.

  ‘Beau! What did Mum say?’ At the sound of Abbie’s grandpa’s voice, we both turned around. He was standing in the doorway frowning at his grandson.

  ‘Oops!’ Beau said, slapping his hand over his mouth. ‘I wasn’t supposed to tell you!’

  Abbie stared at her grandpa, her face white.

  ‘Esther and Spike are moving in here?’ she asked in a wobbly voice. ‘With us?’

  ‘Your mum wanted to tell you herself tonight,’ her grandpa said, glaring at Beau, who had already lost interest in the conversation and was playing with a toy he’d found on the carpet.

 

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