SELFISH? ME?

The next day I had to wait for Ellie to get home from school before I could go and see the bunyip.

The hours crawled past. The Coogans were out at work, Bradley and Belinda were back in school, and Mom had gone off somewhere with my archenemy, Kell Weathers. What with Bradley and Belinda and Kell, not to mention the rest of the Surf Gorillas, that list of sworn enemies was getting longer than one of Georgia’s school supply lists. And that’s without bringing up all of the sworn enemies I had back in the US.

Of all my rivals, though, Kell was the one who worried me most. I wanted revenge on Bradley, but Kell’s friendship with Mom was a teeny-tiny concern.

Leo, who had been keeping a low profile recently, passed me a drawing.

“Very funny,” I said. But maybe Leo was right. Perhaps I was being shellfish—I mean selfish. Maybe Mom deserved some attention, even if it was from a hand-crushing creep like Kell.

Reluctantly, I crossed Weathers off my list of enemies. We’d never be what you might call buddies, but I didn’t need to let my dislike of him spoil Mom’s trip. I felt a warm glow inside, and it wasn’t because I’d accidentally swallowed a chili. I felt noble.

When it was time for me and my halo to go to Ellie’s place, I grabbed Bradley’s prized skateboard and zipped there as fast as I could go.

It was a hot day and the thunderclouds had been building for hours. As I reached Ellie’s street, the first fat raindrops began to fall and I heard the distant rumble of thunder.

Ellie lived a few blocks back from the beach in a less swanky part of Shark’s Bay, where the houses were made of timber and stood on stilts. Lots of them had small boats in the yard or old cars that were being fixed up. The streets were lined with shady trees, and the whole place was a lot funkier than down by the shore. It felt more like where I came from. I liked it.

I hoped this bunyip of Ellie’s matched my vision of it. My whole plan depended on it looking like a monstrous demon frog from Bradley’s worst nightmares.

I walked up to her door and knocked.

No pressure.