Pulling the Moves by Margaret Clark

Author:Margaret Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2011-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

SAM

The guys light smokes.

‘We’d better stay here for a while,’ says Zac.

The smoke swirls round the van and stings my eyes. Or maybe it’s the hay making them water.

‘Pity there’s no green,’ goes Zac. ‘I could pull a good pipe right now.’

‘Wonder what hay’s like to smoke?’ says Macca.

Great. He’ll set us all on fire next.

‘Shit, I reckon.’

‘Yeah. Reckon.’

‘You smoke, Sammy?’ goes Cola.

‘No.’

‘Don’t do a little dope every now and then?’ says Zac.

‘No.’

‘A squeaky clean kid,’ says Macca.

‘He’s okay.’ Cola’s flirting at me with her eyes. Zac glares. If looks could kill I’d be dead.

‘Don’t go pulling any moves on my chick,’ he says.

‘I’m not your chick,’ snaps Cola. ‘We’re mates, that’s all.’

She twiddles with the radio and gets some hayseed program about drenching cattle. Tries to tune it in to something else and all we get’s static.

‘How long are we going to sit here, then?’ she asks.

‘Five, ten minutes,’ says Macca.

‘Wonder if the copter’s out there?’

‘Get out and have a look. But don’t let ’em see ya, right?’

‘Okay.’

She climbs out over some hay bales. I can see her through the rear window, cautiously poking her head round the hay.

‘Nothing,’ she says, coming back. ‘I reckon we’ve lost them.’

Sure, I’m thinking, they’re going to give up just like that. You’ve got to be nuts.

‘We’ll wait a few more minutes,’ says Zac.

I lie back and wonder what Mum and Leanne are doing right now. Mum’s probably been pounding on my bedroom door bellowing at me to get up. Then she’s discovered I’m not there. Panic stations. I wonder if they’ve cancelled the wedding?

‘Hey, Sam,’ goes Cola. She climbs over the front seat and into the back with me.

‘What ya doin’, Cola?’ says Zac.

‘Just talking to Sam.’

‘Get back here.’

‘In a minute!’

She sprawls next to me and glares at Zac. He glares back.

‘I can talk to him, can’t I?’ she goes.

He grunts, but watches her in the rear vision mirror as she relaxes next to me.

‘You got a mum and dad?’ she goes.

‘A mum. And a dad in Noosa. And I’m supposed to be getting a stepdad in …’ I glance at my watch … ‘about an hour’s time. My mum’s getting married and I’m supposed to give her away.’

Cola looks worried.

‘Sorry, Sam,’ she says. ‘But you shouldn’t have been sleeping in the van.’

She squeezes my hand. She’s nice. Not her fault that she’s got in with these two hoons.

‘Yeah. Well …’

I tell her about my fight with Mum, Steve and Leanne.

‘I’ve got an older brother and sister somewhere. No dad. My mum’s living with this real creep. Human octopus. I wouldn’t live with them if you paid me.’

‘So why are you with this lot, then?’ I ask. ‘You seem … I dunno … not like them.’

‘They let me live in the squat with them when I was on the run,’ she says simply.

‘Oh. Do you do drugs?’

‘I’ve smoked dope a few times but it makes me go weird. I don’t do it any more. And I don’t do speed. I have to look after these two.

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