Chapter Nineteen
‘H ave you written your speech? Please can we come up with a word you have to include in it?’ Kira pinched a chip off Freddy’s plate then held one out to me as I stared at my untouched salad, nerves turning my insides to concrete.
‘I wish I’d never entered the writing competition.’ I had wanted to see if I was any good, to see if it was more than just my friends, my mum and my boyfriend telling me I could write.
‘Nah, you don’t wish that,’ Freddy said. ‘You won, didn’t you? One of four winners, and it’s a kick-ass story.’
‘A love story about a mermaid,’ Orwell chimed in. ‘All a bit Disney, if you ask me.’
‘That was a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale first,’ Kira said. ‘Disney changed the whole thing.’
‘Mine is about the Alperwick Mermaid,’ I said.
‘It’s not as if the guy ends up with her like Prince Eric – their shared experience of seeing the mermaid brings the couple together.
’ I was proud of my story, and had been elated when I found out I’d won, coming home to an A5 envelope on the kitchen table that didn’t have a plastic window or typed address, suggesting it was something worth opening.
‘What’s that?’ Ethan had put his arms around me, his chin resting on my head.
‘I don’t have X-ray eyes.’ I’d laughed and ripped open the seal, read through the letter then screamed. I’d turned in his arms, and he’d kissed me and spun me round, as thrilled as I was.
‘You have to get a word in your speech,’ Kira said again. ‘Like bandana, or flibbertigibbet, or cornucopia.’
‘I’ll be lucky if I say anything that isn’t a squeak,’ I told her, but then my nerves settled because Ethan was walking towards our table with a sandwich and a coffee, and Sarah was with him.
‘Hey, guys.’ He sat next to me, and Sarah slumped into a chair opposite, her long, dark hair obscuring half her face.
‘Hey,’ I said, as Ethan kissed me.
‘Don’t be nervous, you’ll be brilliant tonight.’
‘Can I be brilliant and nervous?’
He pretended to think about it. ‘I suppose so. But I’ll be in the front row. If you get too nervous, imagine me naked.’
I laughed. ‘Like that’s going to help.’
‘Gross,’ Sarah muttered, and I flushed, embarrassed.
‘How are you, Sarah?’ I asked. ‘Getting on OK?’
She shrugged. ‘I guess.’
‘Are you enjoying it here a little more now?’
She glared at her brother instead of answering.
‘Georgie’s my girlfriend,’ Ethan said calmly, ‘I tell her things. Anyway, you are doing better, aren’t you? She got top marks in her computer science coursework.’ I could hear how proud he was, how relieved.
‘It wasn’t that hard,’ Sarah said. ‘Everyone else got to go to parties while I was grounded, so I had nothing else to do. It’s not a huge surprise that I did better than the people who didn’t bother.’ She took a sip from a pink plastic water bottle, then spun it in her hands.
I wondered where all these parties were happening, because I wasn’t aware of them. But then I had always stuck to our close-knit friend group, instead of gravitating towards the popular students who threw house parties with ill-advised punch and absent parents.
Under the table, Ethan ran his palm up my thigh, rucking up the hem of my dress.
‘I’m going to try and get the word cornucopia into my speech tonight,’ I told Sarah. ‘Kira’s challenge.’
‘Had we fixed on cornucopia, though?’ Kira mused. ‘I’m thinking it should be fucksticks, now.’
‘I am not going to say fucksticks,’ I said, as Sarah burst out laughing. It was the first laugh – the first smile, even – that I’d seen from her.
‘Oh my God, that would be ace,’ she said. ‘You have to do it.’
‘You do not have to do it,’ Ethan assured me. ‘Just say what you want to.’
‘Are you coming tonight?’ I was desperate for Sarah to start feeling happier, for her own sake, but also for Ethan’s. I also wanted her to like me.
‘I might,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Ethan’s going to be there anyway. It’s all he’s talked about.’
‘Really?’
His grin made me forget my nerves. ‘I’m not going to bother even trying to play it cool. I can’t wait to see you get your award, and I’m going to cheer louder than everyone else put together.’
Alperwick village hall was not a glamorous place, but they’d tried to jazz it up for the awards ceremony, with golden fairy lights strung up along the back of the stage, and a red carpet covering the dusty floorboards in the aisle between rows of plastic chairs.
I stood at the side of the stage, waiting to be called by Grace, the woman in charge of the Alperwick Papers , the local magazine that had run the competition.
She was introducing the Papers as if she was Anna Wintour, and I pulled at the back of my dress, a new one I’d bought last week that was deep purple with blue flowers on it.
I should have cut the label off, because it was itchy between my shoulder blades, and my shoes were too tight as well.
I peered around the curtain that acted as the wings, and saw Kira, Freddy and Orwell in the front row.
Mum was a few rows behind them, tapping away at her tiny Nokia, and I spotted my English teacher, Mrs Elliot, beaming near the back.
I looked for a head of messy, red-brown hair, in case Ethan hadn’t realized the others had saved him a seat, but I couldn’t find him.
My fingers tingled, sweat prickling across my palms, and I glanced at the crumpled paper in my hand.
‘And now,’ Grace said, ‘the winner of the romance category, with her mesmerizing story, “A Tail in the Bay”, please give a huge hand to eighteen-year-old Georgie Monroe.’ The applause filled the hall, punctuated by whoops and cheers from my friends.
On Bambi-like legs, I walked across the stage to shake Grace’s hand.
‘Well done, dear,’ she said, ‘the entire panel loved it.’ She handed me the trophy, a little copper quill on a black resin stand, and turned back to the audience.
‘As you know, we are compiling an anthology of our winning and shortlisted entries, with all proceeds going to the local lifeboats. You’ll be able to read “A Tail in the Bay” along with all the other wonderful stories.
Georgie.’ She moved away from the microphone, and I stepped up to it.
I was shaking so hard I thought my voice would come out as vibrations, and I took a moment to scan the audience, looking for the one person I knew would ground me. I couldn’t find him, or Sarah, and everyone’s eyes were on me, eager and expectant.
‘Uhm,’ I started, ‘I was so surprised to win this award. Thank you so – so much Grace, and all the Alperwick Paper people.’ Someone tittered, and I swallowed. ‘I mean, Grace and the panel of judges. I just – this story was so fun to write, and I … just loved it.’
The resin stand was slipping in my palm. I looked at Kira, and she gave me a thumbs up. Mum was gazing out of the window. Ethan was nowhere.
I ran my free hand down my dress, and the label prickled.
‘I have wanted to write stories for as long as I can remember,’ I said, willing my voice to stop shaking, ‘and I fell in love with the Cornish Sands series when I discovered that the writer, S. E. Artemis, used to live in the house on the cliffs.’ People’s eyes were back on me, the titters had died down, so I kept going.
‘Her last book left me disappointed, because I’m a sucker for a happy ending, so my story, “A Tail in the Bay”, was my attempt to rectify that for myself, to write a happy-ever-after for my characters, just like I thought Amelie and Connor in the last Cornish Sands book should have had – though mine, Gemma and Ewan,’ I cringed at how obvious my name choices were, ‘are my creations entirely.’
I glanced at Grace, and she gave me a soft smile.
I said a silent apology for what I was about to do.
‘I wasn’t going to include the mermaid to begin with, and I know some people will frown at the fantastical element but, one, there are a cornucopia of books that have ghosts, mermaids and werewolves in them that do really well; two, the mermaid is a big part of Alperwick’s history; and three, all love stories need something that brings the two characters together to begin with, and I don’t think it matters if it’s bonkers or unlikely, so long as it makes sense to them.
So in the end, I just thought fucksticks, and I did it.
’ Kira’s whoop was so loud that everyone turned to look at her.
I could see that Grace was trying to work out if she’d heard me correctly, and I decided to wrap it up.
‘Thank you again for this amazing award.’ I held my copper quill high.
‘It really means so much to me.’ I waited a beat to soak up the applause, then I took myself and my itchy dress off the stage.
‘That was immense.’ Freddy flung an arm around my shoulder. ‘Cornucopia and fucksticks. You’re my hero, Georgie.’
‘It was the best,’ Kira said, but her response was subdued.
‘Nice trophy.’ Orwell touched the spike of the quill. ‘Shame your oh-so-dedicated boyfriend didn’t bother to turn up.’
‘Shut up, Orwell.’ Kira gave me an apologetic look. ‘He texted me, because he wasn’t sure if you’d get to look at your phone.’ She held her screen towards me.
Something’s come up with Sarah and I can’t make it. Please tell Georgie I’m so, so sorry.
‘Right.’ I hadn’t checked my phone yet, but I knew I’d have something similarly apologetic.
‘His sister’s a nightmare,’ Orwell said.
‘She’s unhappy,’ I replied, even though I was crushed that whatever Sarah had done this time had kept Ethan away tonight. ‘He’s doing the right thing looking out for her.’
‘You really believe that?’ Orwell smirked at me.
‘Shut up , Orwell,’ Kira said again, and before I could come up with an answer, I felt a hand on my shoulder and spun round to find Mum. I smiled, waiting for her hug, her congratulations.
‘I have to go and see a man about a cat,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you at home, OK? You were fab.’ She squeezed my shoulder and walked away.
‘Are you guys getting a cat?’ Freddy asked.