Contents

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

RESOURCES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CHAPTER 1

It was so hot.

My best friends Katie and Jane thought they were doing me a favour, taking a train and a bus a whole hour south to meet me at the ridiculous stone cottage I now lived in with my dad and his girlfriend Caitlin.

I wish they hadn’t. I wanted to meet them at one of their places. Right near my old home where I lived with Mum, close to the city, except they insisted on checking out my new place.

I walked them through the cottage full of Caitlin’s silly books, recycled furniture, yoga mat and the smell of incense, until we got to my new bedroom. I wanted to chill in there with the air conditioning on, but it had to be boiling before Caitlin let me switch it on. Not like at Mum’s house. I missed my old room there, and the simple things, like being able to control the temperature in my own room.

Caitlin did my head in, and I knew we had to get out of the house before she started talking to us like we were besties, so I rushed my friends away from my boiling bedroom into the intense heat outside.

‘Can’t we at least wait on the verandah?’ Jane asked as we stood on the street. I looked at her pale, freckled skin and Katie’s reddening face. I considered it, or at least running inside to get hats or something, and then thought better of it. Better not take the risk.

After a while, Katie put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. ‘Call your mum, Phoebe?’ She caught her bag as the strap rolled off her bony shoulder.

‘She’ll be here any minute,’ I told her, glancing at the time on my phone.

Katie groaned. ‘She’s half an hour late.’

‘Yeah, well, I did say that I’d meet you in town,’ I reminded them.

‘Your mum knows that the game starts in an hour, right?’ Jane asked.

‘Of course she does,’ I said, wanting more than anything to be at the stadium and watching the Adelaide 36ers play the Sydney Kings.

Katie and Jane looked around at my new place, Caitlin’s hipster heaven. It was parked in the middle of the cul-de-sac in our new town. Caitlin’s face lit up when she called it The Village. I knew Katie and Jane were thinking about asking Caitlin to take us to the game. Hell no.

I dialled Mum’s number. She didn’t answer. I hoped she was speeding down the freeway.

‘No luck?’ Katie asked. I shook my head and she sighed.

‘It might suck moving here, Phoebe, but at least you’ve got those awesome new kicks.’ Jane pointed at my new Nike LeBron James shoes.