‘Oh, sorry.’ Mel looked contrite. ‘I just, I’ve heard Dad call you that and I thought …’
‘It’s OK, I didn’t mean to snap, I …’ Daniel didn’t seem to understand his reaction himself. It was his turn to shrug.
‘He calls me Melly Belly and I hate it, so I totally get whereyou’re coming from,’ Mel offered, and the pair of them shared a conciliatory, if a little awkward, laugh.
‘Um, sorry to cramp your style, but I unfortunately have no idea at all how to scuba dive,’ Ore interrupted.
‘Well, Melanie and I could show you the basics and then maybe you can try going under for a little bit, or if you’re not comfortable with that, you can hang back while we go out together?’ Daniel suggested.
‘It’s Mel, actually, and no that’s silly – why don’t we just snorkel it? I have no idea why my dad was so obsessed with bringing all that scuba gear anyway. You can literally see everything cool from just below the surface, and that way Ore doesn’t miss out.’ Mel had perked up. She even seemed a little excited, and Ore was touched by her efforts to include her.
‘That’s very considerate, Mel. Are you sure though?’ Daniel asked.
Mel beamed at the compliment. ‘Yep, no problem, I’d hate to have to leave Ore here with creepy Claude and Dad anyway; that’s literally no fun.’
‘I’d hate that too, Mel. I think we should definitely try and avoid that.’ Like most teenagers, Mel seemed to enjoy being spoken to like a grown-up. She grinned at Daniel’s tacit agreement of her character assessment of Claude, before turning to Ore.
‘Well you’ll need a sun suit. I know you’re black and everything but the sun around here doesn’t mess around, and anyway you don’t want to like age prematurely.’
Ore was bemused by Mel’s directness. ‘Do you think you have something that might fit me?’ Ore was about the sameheight as Mel, but she’d grown out of that adolescent waiflike shape a while back.
‘I think there’s probably an old one of Mum’s lying around here somewhere …’
