‘Is the water still rising?’ I ask Lara. It had stopped raining here at lunchtime, but Sutherbend always seems to have its own weird weather going on.
‘It’ll rise for a while after the rain stops,’ Lara says. ‘With all the run-off and everything.’
‘Is it as bad as last time?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe. The news crews are all saying different things.’
I call up Taylor. ‘How’s the river?’
‘I’m still at Michelle’s. I don’t know.’
I want to call Richard or Matt or Ginny, but I don’t have their numbers. Our friendship has been confined to the sagging fence line of Fairyland. Now that I’ve left, I’m alone.
***
It’s impossible to sleep that night, particularly when it starts to rain again. I sit in the doorway overlooking Kelly’s garden and stare out at the dark, drizzly greenery. Her fishpond is overflowing, but the fish don’t seem to mind.
I want to call Mum, but it’s too late. I know she’ll be asleep, or maybe dozing and listening to the rain on the roof of our cabin. I try to calculate how much higher the water would need to be to reach our cabin and that side of the park, but I’ve never been good at maths.
I find myself daydreaming, remembering all the times when I was young and upset and Clem would be there. I’m here, I’m here, I’m here. It’s okay. I’m here.
‘Keep them safe, keep them safe, keep them safe,’ I murmur.
In the morning, the sky has cleared. Mum calls me to say that the whole low side of the park has gone under, but no one has lost their home. They’re all okay.
I sit in the doorway a while longer, feeling strangely out of sorts that so much had happened and I’d been here, safe in the walled garden, watching Kelly’s pretty fishpond overflow.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
‘Year Twelve,’ says Zin. She’s got a floral scarf tied around her head. We’ve only just got to school and two teachers have already told her to take it off, but she just puts it back on once they’re out of sight. A few kids are off school while their families sort out flooded houses and shops, but the damage has been pretty limited. There’s a sense of relief at the school. It almost feels like the last day, rather than the first.
‘Year Twelve,’ I say, yawning into my hands. Parts of Sutherbend are still under water. There’s less damage than after the last flood, but only just. The sun has been out every day since, almost apologetically.
‘I can’t believe it! Our last year!’ Zin says. We get lockers next to each other and bags two others for Clem and Lara. The lockers are worn out, rusted in places. But we’ve been waiting for these lockers for five years.
‘You’re not really just staying with her for a holiday anymore though, are you? Not if school’s back. You live with her.’
‘I don’t live with her!’
‘You live with her.’
I find Richard at break time. He’s pale and drawn, fretting about all the plants and trees that have been washed away by the river.
‘We’ve lost all the beds near the water,’ he says wearily. ‘And it’s been so humid we’re getting fungus on everything and the tomatoes have split. It’s a mess.’
‘I can come by and help.’
‘Thanks – we’re still trying to work out what exactly needs doing.’ He shakes his head. ‘Gardening, hey?’
The only class I have that day with Clem is biology, but he sits across the room with his soccer friends and I end up with Lara, who’s been in a bad mood all day because one of her electives got cancelled at the last minute.
‘It’s preposterous!’ she says, stabbing her pen so hard that she punctures through her exercise book.
A girl called Fee who’s sporty like Lara sits down on my other side. ‘Wow,’ she says.
I sigh. ‘Legal Studies got canned, she only just found out.’
‘Oh, that’s rough,’ Fee says.
Matthew comes in and sits down on the other side of Fee. ‘Hey,’ he says. ‘How’s Lockwood?’
‘Very oceany. How’s . . . the park?’
‘Very rivery.’
I smile. ‘You doing okay?’
Matthew glances at Fee and Lara, who’s now hitting her pen against the edge of the table and swearing. ‘Yeah, fine.’
Clem gazes our way as Matthew sits down with us and then studiously ignores me for the entire class, and when the lunch bell rings he heads straight out to the oval.
‘You having lunch?’ I ask Matthew.
‘Nah. Said I’d drop in and catch up with Ms Huang in the library.’ I remember what Ginny had said, about Taylor covering for Matthew.
‘Hey, Matt?’
‘Yeah?’
Zin stops outside our classroom. ‘He’s not having lunch with us?’ she asks, watching Clem disappear across the grounds.
‘Never mind,’ I say to Matthew. ‘See ya.’
‘See ya.’
Zin cranes her neck towards the oval. ‘What about his pie? He always has a pie.’
‘He obviously doesn’t want his pie,’ Lara snaps.
Zin raises her eyebrows.
‘Legal Studies,’ I explain.
‘Oh yeah. Right. That sucks.’ She pats Lara’s arm and Lara bats her away and stalks up the stairs towards the lockers. Zin and I are lazier – we collapse into chairs by the canteen without putting away our books.
‘Clem’s being weird,’ I say. ‘He didn’t even sit with us in biology.’
‘Well, he’s upset,’ Zin says.
‘Why?’
‘You know why,’ Zin says a bit grumpily.
‘I don’t!’
‘Stella, c’mon.’
‘What?’
‘Are you really that dense?’
‘I’m not dense! I’m evolved!’
‘He’s crazy about you, and since all the family and Fairyland drama, you’ve totally iced him out, that’s all.’
‘What? Clem’s not crazy about me! That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!’
‘Wow. You really are that dense.’
‘You and Lara have never got it! How we’re just friends!’
‘No, you’re just friends. Clem’s always had a thing for you.’
‘He has not!’
‘If you say so.’ She counts her change. ‘If I grab some chips, you want to split them with me?’
‘Sure. Thanks.’ I frown. ‘Clem’s not crazy about me, Zin. That’s not what any of this is about.’
‘I’ll be back. Mind our books!’ As Zin goes to line up, I rest my chin in my hands and look out across the oval. Even from here, on the crowded grass, I can pick out Clem zipping across the pitch and it makes my stomach harden unhappily.
***
That night, Mary’s picking me up from Kelly’s. She’s taking me to meet my grandfather. When I get back to Kelly’s after school, Kelly’s already there. She’s vacuuming and I can faintly smell bleach. ‘Kelly?’ I call, a bit unsettled. I mean, she’s never home this early. I’d had to keep checking the text message to make sure I’d read it correctly.