The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong by Kirsty Murray

Author:Kirsty Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: FIC000000, book
ISBN: 9781742692302
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2006-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

19

A single creased envelope

Maeve pulled her doona over her head. She wished Vivienne would stop talking. It was after midnight.

Vivienne was so homesick that she phoned her friends and family in Malaysia every night on her mobile. She was trying to speak quietly but every now and then she’d give a little squeal of laughter and it would drag Maeve back from the edge of sleep. She could dob her in, go and complain about her at the office in the morning, but that would be plain mean. Boarders had to stick together.

Maeve rolled over and tapped the wall beside her bed three times, listening for the response. When the seven short taps came in reply, she slipped out of bed, picked up her Maglite and padded down the corridor.

Gina was reading by torchlight when Maeve tiptoed into her dorm. ‘Is blabbermouth at it again?’ she whispered.

Maeve nodded and sat down on the end of Gina’s bed. ‘I wish they’d put me in here with you,’ she grumbled.

Gina laughed softly. ‘I’d drive you crazy too, girl,’ she said.

‘I’ve never had to share a room with anyone before. Except my baby brother, and he didn’t really count. He just made cute little snuffly noises.’

‘Lucky you don’t come from my family,’ said Gina. ‘I shared with three sisters but they were a lot noisier than this mob.’ She gestured towards the three sleeping figures in the other beds.

Gina pushed her ear against the wall. ‘I reckon Viv is going to be talking all night.’ She lifted up the doona and wriggled over to make room for Maeve. ‘I’ve got to get up early for training, so you’d better not kick me in your sleep.’

Maeve giggled and got in beside her. ‘Talk about kicking. You kick like a bloody kangaroo. Everyone reckons you’re gonna be the next Cathy Freeman.’

‘McCabe thinks that’s pretty funny. You know he got me a music scholarship to come here?’

‘I thought you got a sports scholarship.’

‘Yeah, everyone thinks that, but you know that Koori singer, Rosie Malloy?’

‘Nope,’ said Maeve, yawning sleepily.

‘You’re a city slicker, that’s why. She sings country, like Kasey Chambers except she’s really old, like a legend. She came to Tamworth and heard me sing and dobbed me in to McCabe. Next thing I know, I’m on a train down here. Then they find out I can run too, and so next year I’m gonna have a sports scholarship and McCabe’s going to give the music scholarship to someone else. That bloke is a serious do-gooder.’

‘Don’t you like being here?’

‘Sure, it’s good. But it’s not like being at home, is it?’

Maeve snuggled down under the bedding and tried to make enough space for herself on the edge of the mattress. She hadn’t imagined that life in the boarding school would be like this – so crowded, so full of gossip and new people. And so not like a home. When she’d read the Harry Potter books she’d imagined that boarding school might be like a home away from home, but it was more like a secret club.

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