The Call of the Wild by Julie Fison Read Free Book Online

you.’
    ‘Thanks. But I’m not sure that’s the effect I’m going for.’ She looked at my shorts and top, frowning.
    ‘I’m not ready to go yet,’ I said.
    ‘I can see that.’
    ‘I’m just taking the banner down to the slushie stall.’
    ‘But you don’t have time!’ Annabel frowned. ‘They’ll just have to live without a banner.’
    I shook my head. There was no way I was leaving the banner when we’d spent the whole afternoon on it. ‘I’ll be back in a minute, promise.’
    Annabel sighed. ‘No, you won’t. You’ll be ages. And then we’ll be late for the party.’ She looked me up and down. ‘How about you just put on your dress now, and we’ll pick you up from school on our way to the party, It’ll be much quicker.’
    I sighed, realising I didn’t really have a choice.
    ‘Fine, but what about my hair? Don’t I need to wash it? Aren’t you going to do something with it?’
    ‘It actually looks really nice as it is. You’re lucky your hair is just naturally gorgeous.’
    Annabel sat on the bed as I slipped on my new orange dress. I put on my ballet flats and then turned around to face her. ‘What do you think?’
    ‘On fire,’ she said, fluffing up my hair. ‘You look amazing. You don’t need anything, except …’ She reached into her clutch and pulled out a lipgloss and some perfume. She sprayed some fragrance at me and then smeared some gloss across my lips. ‘Perfect.’ She spun me around to face the mirror. ‘A bit overdressed for a banner-delivery girl, but you’re gonna rock the party tonight.’
    ‘Thanks!’ I grabbed the banner and headed off for the slushie stall.
    ‘I’ll message you when we’re on our way,’ Annabel called. ‘Don’t dawdle.’

A smattering of kids were spread out across the oval, marking out their patches of turf with blankets and towels as I picked my way across the grass, clutching the banner. I felt a bit self-conscious arriving in a bright-orange dress when everyone else was in T-shirts, but there was no way I was leaving the banner at Kimmi’s after all the work we’d put into it.
    As I reached the top of the grassy slope at the edge of the oval, I could see the slushie trailer already in position.
    I walked over and found Liam on his own in there. He had his back to me and was mixing up a slushie, even though he had no customers at all – probably testing the flavours.
    ‘I’ll have seven hundred Borneo Sunsets please,’ I called, tapping my fingernails on the counter.
    He turned, and seemed to do a double-take, looking me up and down. ‘Phoebe, hey! I almost didn’t recognise you.’ He came outside to greet me. ‘You look like a Borneo Sunset yourself.’
    I think I blushed like a sunset, too. I wasn’t used to getting compliments from Liam, and I guess he wasn’t used to seeing me out of school uniform.
    ‘Er, right. I’m not really dressed for a slushie trailer,’ I said. ‘I just came to drop off the banner.’
    His smile fell. ‘Oh … I thought maybe you’d changed your mind and decided to come and help.’
    I shook my head, feeling really guilty about going to the party when Liam needed me here. ‘Are you on your own?’
    ‘Jack’s just gone to the toilet. He’ll be back in a sec.’
    Liam looked at me intently for a moment, as if there was something important he needed to tell me. Goosebumps sprang up on my arms, and I rubbed them.
    ‘You cold?’ Liam said.
    ‘I’ll be fine once I’m at Ryan’s par–’ I stopped mid-sentence as I saw Liam’s expression change. He looked hurt. It seemed he really did have a problem with me going to the party.
    ‘So, you want to help me with this banner then?’ I said, quickly changing the subject. ‘We’ll surprise Jack with it.’
    Liam’s face brightened and his mood changed completely as we hung the banner from the front of the trailer. It looked even better up than it had on Kimmi’s floor. A sunset stretched from one side of the stall to the other, and