‘This place is pretty awesome!’ I said, looking out over the ocean. ‘But I still can’t believe you’re eating a schnitzel and drinking Coke.’ The food arrived and Caitlin seemed to be cutting into the schnitzel before the plate even hit the table.

After she’d taken a mouthful, she said, ‘When it comes to food, I think you should eat ninety per cent for the body and ten per cent for the soul. I’m getting my ten per cent in now because when I start my instructor’s course, there’ll be no room for schnitzels and soft drink.’

We didn’t talk much as we ate. I could tell that Caitlin was enjoying the atmosphere and stuffing herself. I couldn’t help myself and interrupted her peace by shoving my fork into one of her chips.

‘Hey, you’ve got your own chips!’ she said.

‘I want some without the gravy.’

She rolled her eyes as I took a couple and then she moved her plate aside to keep the chips to herself.

The sunset was amazing, and Caitlin didn’t do anything to ruin it.

When we got home, Dad was sitting on the couch doing something on his laptop while watching the cricket and sipping a beer.

‘Nice night?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, it was good. Caitlin swims like an Olympian and she drank two pints of Coke.’

He laughed. ‘Really?’

‘Yeah, really,’ she answered, rolling her eyes and shrugging it off.

‘Want to watch the cricket, Phoebe?’ Dad offered.

‘Yeah. And how about we see if Nanna and Poppa are up for a chat?’

‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Give Poppa a call first and see if he can log on to his computer so we can see them.’

I called Poppa to say that we wanted to chat and after some wrangling, he and Nanna appeared on Dad’s computer screen.

‘Hello!’ Nanna said at the same time Poppa asked, ‘How ya going?’

They were hilarious over the computer, always kind of jostling each other to talk, as if the connection was going to suddenly cut off.

Dad told them that we were just about to watch the cricket. They talked a bit about the game before Nanna said, ‘And how’s the new school, Phoebe?’ all cheerily as if she thought it was the most exciting thing ever.

‘It’s okay, even though I’m the only Nunga kid there.’

‘Better you’re the only one rather than none at all. It wasn’t really an option for me to go past second year of high school,’ Poppa said. ‘Unfortunately there might be lots of times in life that you’re the only Aboriginal person in a room. You just have to remember that you’ve always got us.’

Speaking to Nanna and Poppa always helped me to see things differently and I opened up a bit about the things I liked about living in The Village and the school, like being close to the beach, playing basketball against the boys, the nice classrooms and how Caroline had invited me around on the weekend.