‘I hate my legs,’ I moan.
‘There’s nothing wrong with your legs,’ Michael scoffs.
‘How would you know?’ I whine. ‘You’re practically elderly.’
Ben finds this very amusing.
‘You can talk, you’ll be thirty soon,’ Michael jibes.
‘Not for another two years,’ Ben objects.
‘The time will fly by, you mark my words,’ Michael says knowingly. I just stare down at the shorts in despair.
The next morning my mum waits outside the door to my bedroom demanding a fashion show.
‘Come on, Lily, they can’t be that bad.’
‘They’re worse,’ I cry.
The door handle turns. I leap to the door, holding it closed.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she snaps.
‘Come on out!’ Michael shouts.
‘I look a right state,’ I shout back. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror on the front of the wardrobe and want to cry. My mum turns the door handle again. I’m too slow to stop her and she bursts in.
‘Go away!’ I squawk, bending down to hide my legs.
‘What are you going on about?’ Mum says crossly. ‘You look fine.’
‘I do not!’
‘You’ll have a tan in a few days,’ she tells me.
‘Not if I keep applying Factor 30 like it’s going out of fashion. I’m so bored of wearing suncream every day,’ I whine.
‘Well, you won’t get any colour if you wear jeans all the time,’ she says. I peek at myself in the mirror, warily, and she senses that my reluctance is waning. ‘Think about what you’ll be able to buy with the extra pocket money,’ she adds.
I’m not getting paid much, but I’d work for free if they asked me to, so anything is a bonus. As it is, I’m doing five days a week until I start school at the end of January, which is about seven weeks away. I still can’t believe how lucky I am – many people would kill to be in my position.
‘Come on, darl. We’d better get to work,’ Michael says.
Trying to buck myself up, I follow him out of my bedroom door and immediately spy a sleepy-looking Josh in the corridor. He notes my shorts and sniggers.
‘Bugger off!’ I shout.
‘Language,’ Mum says, annoyed.
Michael tries to jolly me up on the way to work. ‘So, it’s your birthday tomorrow. What time are you doing your theory test?’
Since Sunday I’ve been religiously studying theDrivers’ Handbook– the Australian version of theHighway Code. The way it works here is I have to take a theory test before I can get behind the wheel, then I’ll have to use Learner plates until I can take my proper driving test. If I pass, I’ll switch to P – Provisional – plates for a year. I’ve wanted my licence for so long that I used to read theHighway Codejust for fun, and the laws are not that different here.
‘Eleven o’clock,’ I reply to Michael’s question. ‘Will anyone mind me taking the day off?’
‘Of course not. Especially not with all the work you’ve done up until now. We’ve been lucky!’
Ben doesn’t even acknowledge my shorts when I see him, and I’m grateful. For him, it’s business as usual.
