Heart to Heart. Amber Aitken

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СКАЧАТЬ don’t be such a bore,” ordered a girl with wavy blonde hair. “Do you remember our last makeover? Now did we transform that girl from drab to fab?”

      Tallulah gave this some thought. And then she smiled. “You’re so right, Sienna, sweetie. We can make anything look beautiful!”

      Coral was still watching carefully; she was keeping a tally too. So there was sparkly Saffron. And Tallulah the redhead and Sienna with wavy blonde hair. That just left a girl with short feathery hair who seemed preoccupied with her shoes. She pulled one leg and then tried to pull the other. But her feet were stuck fast. She seemed to think about this for a moment, then she slid her feet out of the shoes. Bending low and using both hands, she yanked the shoes from the sand. She’d worn high heels to the beach!

      Saffron already had the double doors of Headquarters pulled wide open. She was surveying the interior of the hut with her enormous beach bag still dangling from her arm while she tapped a fingernail against her front teeth. She seemed to be thinking out loud.

      “Some glittery dangly decorations… a crystal bead curtain, perhaps… flowers… a few scented tea candles…”

      The other two girls - Tallulah and Sienna - had also taken an interest in the hut. Tallulah was testing the spring of the army cot bed with her bouncing bottom (except there was not much bouncing to be done). She looked less than impressed with the hard mattress. She muttered something about “So much for comfy afternoon naps,” while Sienna turned the Captain’s brass bugle this way and that in her hands. She then put the bugle to her eye and looked through it like a telescope. She seemed less than impressed too.

      Saffron meanwhile was humming a tune while she busily dressed one of the beach hut’s windows in her (unsurprisingly) sparkly sarong. After a few minor adjustments to the sarong tassels she stepped back to admire her decorating. At last somebody looked pleased.

      “Time to suntan!” squealed the girl who was now sensibly carrying the high heels in her hand. She had found a spot on the sand directly in front of Headquarters, and was dropping everything - a large pink towel, a glossy magazine, various bottles (suntan oil, sunblock, cooling mist face spray, mineral water) and her mobile phone. She then finally settled down on her towel with the magazine and began to read out loud.

      “How do you know if you’re loved up?” she demanded.

      Coral’s ears pricked up.

      “You have to answer A, B or C,” the girl finished.

      The other girls stopped what they were doing and nodded thoughtfully.

      “Question one,” the girl went on. “It’s your first-year anniversary and your boyfriend: a) buys you flowers and choccies or b) makes you a card or c) gives you an extra special cuddle because it’s not about gifts anyway?”

      The rest of the girls were silent. Tallulah was the first to speak. “Is there a D, Chanel?”

      Ah, so that was the girl’s name, thought Coral.

      “I told you there’s only A, B or C,” Chanel went on.

      “Are they fancy florist flowers or flowers bought from the local petrol station?” asked Saffron.

      Coral could barely stifle a snigger.

      “I think a handmade card is very sweet. I’d say B,” decided Sienna.

      “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 СКАЧАТЬ