“Cuddle - I’d choose an extra special cuddle,” replied Tallulah, who had obviously given up on the non-existent D option.
Chanel sat upright and grinned happily at her friends. “Isn’t it just brilliant that we all have boyfriends!”
Coral groaned inwardly. So no matchmaking to be had here then.
“Having a boyfriend just makes the world seem brighter,” Saffron agreed. “Even if I’m having a bad day I just have to think about Max and suddenly I feel better.” She hugged herself and smiled in a warm and cosy sort of way.
Chanel nodded. “That’s the power of love. Having a love life is just the best! But it’s good that we still have time for our girlfriends too.”
The other girls all nodded and started talking at once.
“Right on, sister!”
“Of course we miss the boys.”
“But they’ll still be there when we get back from our holiday!”
“Here’s to girl power!”
“And the power of love!”
Coral stared awestruck at her shiny and sophisticated new neighbours. You really didn’t get girls like these in Sunday Harbour. These big-city girls looked and behaved like film stars. And they seemed to love ‘love’ just as much as Coral and Nicks did!
Suddenly, a cool wind sprang up and goosebumps popped up on Coral’s skin. She needed to get dressed. But she didn’t want to draw attention to herself - not in her plain old boring school swimming costume anyway. It had been at the top of the laundry pile and had made for easy grabbing. She scowled at her laziness. Of course she couldn’t wait to meet her fabulous new neighbours, but she wanted to make the best first impression too. So there was nothing else for her to do but slowly leopard crawl backwards along the deck in the direction of the door to Coral Hut. Along the way she stubbed her toe on a deckchair and scraped a knee on the bare deckboards, but it was worth it. She made it inside the hut without being noticed.
Her purple and pink heart-shaped backpack was still on the daybed and she zipped it open. All she’d brought with her was a hooded top, a pair of board shorts printed with yellow smiling starfish and her Crocs. It was hardly an outfit torn from the pages of a magazine, but it was all she had. She sighed and put on everything except for the Crocs. She was now as ready as she could be for her grand entrance.
She tiptoed back to the doorway for one more inspection. Her timing had to be perfect. She carefully put her nose round the corner. She glanced right. The girls were reading magazines, filing their nails and nattering. She glanced left. SCARY GUY WAS ON THE DECK OF THE RED HUT AND STARING DIRECTLY AT HER!
Coral screamed.
The big-city girls over at Headquarters screamed too (Coral’s scream had just given them the biggest fright).
Scary Guy quickly disappeared through the door of the glossy red hut and snapped it shut behind him again.
Nobody else moved. Coral stood still, framed in the doorway, her breathing slowing again. The girls were all staring at her. She hoisted up her eyebrows in an innocent sort of way, then gave a small whistle before tucking her hands inside her pockets. Or she tried to, anyway. As it turned out this particular pair of board shorts didn’t have any pockets, so she had to cross her arms instead.
Sienna was fanning her face with a nail file while Tallulah pressed her magazine against her chest. Finally Saffron spoke.
“Is everything all right, little girl?”
Little girl? Coral glanced around before she realised that they must be referring to her.
She coughed. “Oh yes. Oh, sure,” she replied as she stumbled out on to the deck. OK, so it wasn’t quite the grand entrance she’d planned.
“Have you hurt yourself?” asked Chanel, who was now nervously clutching her sunhat.
Coral shook her head.
“Did something scare you then?” asked Sienna with a sad face, like Coral was five years old and the bogey man had suddenly appeared from under the bed.
“Scare me?” she spluttered. “Definitely not.” She hadn’t got a plan, or time to come up with one either. But the girls were all staring and waiting expectantly. So she suddenly let out another scream. And then she grinned and shrugged. “When I’m really happy I just sometimes give a good scream.” She smiled sweetly.
The girls seemed to be thinking about this for a moment before slowly starting to move about again. Sienna resumed nail filing and Chanel put her sunhat back on.
“So happy I could scream…” said Tallulah with her head tilted left then right. “Yes, I think I’ve heard that saying before.”
Sienna nodded while she filed. “It does sound very familiar.”
“Aaaah!” screamed Chanel.
Saffron echoed her scream and then so did the other two girls. They all grinned at each other. Coral grinned at the girls. They grinned back. There was a lot of crazy grinning. Coral could see she was going to like these girls a lot.
The four girls had already disappeared off to explore the sights and sounds of Sunday Harbour when Nicks got back - pale and puckered - from her wave-jumping session. Coral didn’t mention the arrival of the fabulous, big-city girls next door. She simply locked Coral Hut and, with her best friend and her puppy on either side of her, smiled quietly before leaving for home. Not that there was any big hurry. The sun was still high in the sky and lunchtime was a safe distance away, so the two girls ambled along slowly and spoke even less.
Nicks’s cheeks had been painted pink by the sunshine; Coral’s glowed with happiness from her small sweet secret. Nicks was quiet because she was tired; whereas Coral was keeping silent as she wanted to savour the girls’ glitzy glamour (without interruption) for just a little while longer. She had a suspicion that Nicks might not be quite as impressed by the lipglossed, lovestruck ways of the four big-city girls as she was. Nicks was a much more sensible sort.
The trio were just strolling past the Seafood Shack when Romeo stopped. His black nose sniffed the air hungrily, but the girls kept on walking. They passed the bakery, but still the girls kept on walking. It was only when they came to the local charity shop that Coral slowed and came to a standstill.
“Come on, I’m bushed,” groaned Nicks, who was now a short distance ahead.
Coral’s nose was flattened against the shop’s window. “Oh, you have to see this!” She jabbed a finger at the glass and tapped it excitedly.
Nicks knew there was no point in resisting, so she trudged over to see what the fuss was about. Beyond the glass window pane were a pair of used ski boots and a set of four teacups with an uneven number of saucers. Neither of those could be what had got Coral so excited. And then Nicks noticed the mannequin with the missing arm that was half hidden by a bright pink feather boa. Now that was just Coral’s sort of thing.
“It’s pretty, but where would you even wear a pink feather boa?” she said.
“No, not the feather boa. Look!” Coral jabbed her finger at the glass a few more times.
And then Nicks noticed the square brown cardboard box with the words VALENTINE PARTY DECORATIONS (Going Cheap!) scrawled and underlined in thick blue marker pen across one side.
“Could we do this another time?” Nicks suggested half-heartedly.
But