I took a huge breath and then said, ‘Actually, Dad. I did go to the party.’ Then I added, lamely, ‘I sneaked out. But only for an hour.’
‘What?’ asked Dad, sounding surprised.
‘I’m really sorry,’ I said, looking away from him.
‘You actually went?’ asked Dad, obviously trying to get his head around the idea.
I didn’t trust myself to speak, but I managed to nod. As I looked back at him, I saw disappointment flood his face.
‘With Ellie?’ asked Jan sharply.
I didn’t want to drop Ellie in it so I’d started to say no when I heard, ‘Yeah, it was all my idea. I made her come.’
I spun round and saw Ellie, in her pyjamas, standing in the doorway. She walked over to the table and sat down next to me.
‘I’d already told everyone I was going, Mum, and then you changed your mind. I was mad. So I sneaked out. Frankie just came to keep me company.’
I think I was even more shocked than Dad was. I so hadn’t expected Ellie to say anything. And now she was even trying to take all the blame.
‘I could’ve said no, Ellie,’ I said, not wanting it to sound like she’d made me go. ‘It’s not your fault.’
She smiled really warmly at me. And it almost made it okay, but then Dad said, in his most hurt voice, ‘I can’t believe you’d do that, Frankie. I don’t know what to say.’
‘Oh, please,’ said Ellie, sounding angry.
Jan looked at her. ‘Ellie,’ she snapped, like a warning.
‘You guys keep us a secret from each other, and then drag us on holidays just so you can hang out together the whole time and pretty much ignore us. Of course we’re going to sneak out and go to a party,’ said Ellie.
She was right. It sucked enough that Dad and Jan hadn’t told us about each other, but then they left us alone most of the time. All we’d done was sneak out to a party for an hour. I felt like I had to say something, so I piped up with, ‘And at least we told you the truth.’
Jan and Dad looked at each other. Obviously they were thinking about what we’d said.
Then Jan nodded. ‘Fair point, El. We should have told you about each other. And we should be doing more things all together,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t the plan to leave you guys to entertain each other. I guess we’re just really new to this.’
Dad nodded. ‘Look, I’m sorry too. I want us to all get along and get to know each other. But Frankie,’ he said, looking at me, ‘there’s no excuse for your behaviour. You deliberately went out and did something behind my back that you knew I didn’t approve of. You did the right thing by coming clean, but you’re still grounded.’
I nodded, expecting that. I knew there wasn’t much point objecting, but it was going to make the rest of the holiday pretty ordinary.
Jan took Dad’s hand. ‘Maybe the grounding can wait until we get home from our holiday. They did tell the truth. And it was partly our fault. What do you think?’ she asked him softly.
Dad looked from me to Jan. Then back at me. ‘Jan’s right. But when we get home you’re grounded for two months.’
Argh, two whole months!
I’d miss out on so many things. Parties. Sleepovers. Going to the pool with Gen. But I guess at least I still got to have a holiday.
Then Ellie asked, ‘Can we still have surf lessons while we’re here, then?’
‘We?’ I asked, surprised that she wanted to come too.
‘It might be fun,’ said Ellie, shrugging.
Dad sighed. ‘Jan? What do you think?’
‘If they promise to be careful,’ said Jan, looking at Ellie and me.
Dad nodded. ‘All right. But on one condition: from now on, no more secrets!’
I couldn’t agree more.
As Ellie and I walked back into our bedroom I thought about what Dad had said. No more secrets. If I was going to spend the rest of the holiday hanging out with Ellie I had to be honest with her.
‘Last night, at the party, did you kiss Luke?’ I blurted out.
Ellie looked at me and laughed. ‘What? No! We’re friends. Just friends.’
‘It’s just that I saw you two dancing and you seemed so …’
Ellie flopped down on my bed and pulled me down next to her. ‘I’m sorry, Frankie, I didn’t even think. I was just trying to make Richie jealous.’
And then suddenly I knew I had been right the first time. Of course she liked Richie. That’s why I’d seen her crying. ‘Because he’s got a girlfriend?’
Ellie nodded. ‘Yep. I thought they’d broken up until last night. So I went to the party hoping …’
‘And then you found out they were still together and you wanted to pretend you didn’t care?’ I said, finishing her sentence.
Ellie smiled at me. ‘Wow, you really get it.’
‘Yeah. I do. It happened to me a few weeks back. I liked this guy, Tom Matthews, for ages and just when I thought something was going to happen, he introduced me to Jas.’ I pulled a face just thinking about it.
‘It’s the worst, isn’t it?’ asked Ellie.
I nodded. ‘But you know what? In a few weeks, it won’t feel so bad.’ And as I said it, I realised it was true. It still made me sad to think about Tom, but by the time I saw him again at school, I knew it would be okay.
Then I grinned at her. ‘Besides, I think surfing lessons will definitely help. Nothing like falling off a board over and over to make you stop thinking about a boy.’
Ellie laughed. ‘Who said anything about falling off? I plan to ride a wave all the way to the shore.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
Then Ellie really surprised me by slinging her arm around my shoulder, and saying, ‘I’m glad you’re here, Frankie. I think we’re going to have fun.’
‘Yeah. Me too,’ I said, and I really meant it.
‘Come on, Frankie, we’re going to be late,’ Ellie said as we ran down onto the beach. It was our last surfing lesson and we’d slept in.
We’d spent all week learning about safety and balance, and we’d learnt how to paddle in the shallows, but we’d also spent a lot of the week falling off our boards and neither of us could really stand up yet. But this was our last day and we were determined we’d stand up and catch a wave in to shore.
We paddled out together, just a little way, and when the instructor blew his whistle, we turned around and lay waiting for the next wave. Ellie reached out her hand for mine and grabbed it.
‘Here comes a wave, El,’ I said, getting ready.
‘It’s huge!’ said Ellie laughing.
As the wave rolled towards us, Ellie and I let go of each other and grinned. We were sucked back a little, and we paddled madly against it.
‘Go, go, go,’ yelled Ellie, as the wave started to break.
We jumped onto our knees as it rushed forward, then both stood up, screaming and whooping at each other, as we caught it all the way until our boards got bogged in the sand. We jumped up and hugged each other, and cheered so loudly I think Dad and Jan would have heard us from the house.