Shift (23 page)

I gave a short laugh. ‘Somehow I don’t think it’s
me
he’s interested in.’ Tiredness was making me slump. ‘Hey look. I’m going home,’ I
said.

‘Oh
no
,’ pouted Miranda. ‘Not yet. Dallas will be devastated.’

‘I think he’ll cope.’

Miranda flung her arms around me, hugging me tightly. I don’t know what I thought it would feel like to be hugged by her. Spiky maybe. Or cold. But the hug felt good – warm and
friendly. When she pulled back, her eyes were sparkling mischievously.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I know that probably spun you out. But I’m just so glad you came tonight. It … well, it means a lot to me.’ She looked at me almost shyly
then. ‘See you at school tomorrow?’

I nodded, surprised at how natural this felt. ‘Yeah. See you then.’

Later, when I was home in bed, I put my earphones in and played ‘Steeple Chaser’ on repeat. It sounded different now. Maybe because for the first time it
wasn’t Dallas’s face I pictured as I drifted off to sleep.

By the time Miranda appeared at school the next morning I’d almost given up on her coming at all. And the strangest thing was that I’d felt disappointed.

She grabbed my hands, her eyes bright. ‘I
have
to talk with you,’ she said. ‘Now.’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘Go ahead.’

Miranda looked around with distaste. ‘Not here. Let’s ditch today.’

I hesitated. ‘Well …’

‘Oh come on,’ pleaded Miranda. ‘Just for an hour. Seriously, I will bust if I don’t talk to you.’

‘Just one hour then,’ I said. That wasn’t breaking a promise exactly. Just bending it a bit. It didn’t matter if I missed PE anyway – it wasn’t like I’d
be joining in.

When I used to drop school in the old days I would wait until no-one was around and then slink out as quickly as I could. But Miranda just strode along like she had every right to be heading in
the complete opposite direction to our home room. I trotted along beside her, fully expecting someone to jump out at any minute and ask what the hell we were up to. No-one did. We walked straight
out of the front gate – past Mrs Deane’s office – and down the street.

Around the corner from school Miranda stopped. ‘I have something to tell you,’ she said, chewing her lip. ‘Something really bad. And I can’t go any further until I get it
off my chest.’

‘What is it?’ Crazy things had begun jumping into my mind. Things that would’ve set Dr Richter’s pen clicking.
She’s going to tell you she is a shifter. And that
you’re her next victim.

‘It’s about Dallas,’ said Miranda. ‘Last night after you went, he asked me out.’ She clenched her hands and pushed them together, her forehead creased. ‘You
hate me now, don’t you? You’d just started
not
hating me and now you hate me all over again.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t blame you. It must feel awful to have the guy
you like ask someone else out. Especially when it’s a guy like Dallas.’

I laughed with relief. ‘It’s not your fault that Dallas likes you,’ I said. ‘It’d be pretty pathetic if I got upset about that.’

The look on Miranda’s face was hard to decode. She looked surprised, but there was something else in there. It almost looked like she was annoyed. ‘Yes,’ she said slowly.
‘That
would
be pretty tragic, I guess.’

‘So,’ I said. ‘How do you feel about him?’

Miranda closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself, swaying from side to side. ‘Dallas,’ she sang. ‘Dallas, Dallas, Dallas, Dallas.’

‘You like him
that
much already?’ I teased.

‘You know that feeling when you really
connect
with a guy?’ said Miranda. ‘When he just completely
gets
you, even though you’ve barely said a word to each
other?’

I thought of Lachlan. How surprising it was that he seemed to see and understand so much about me. How easy it was just to talk with him. ‘Totally,’ I said.

‘Well that’s how it feels with Dallas,’ said Miranda. ‘I mean, I only met him last night and it already feels like we’ve known each other all our lives.’

‘So when are you going out?’ I asked.

Miranda sparkled. ‘Tonight!’

‘Wow!’ I said. ‘So soon.’

I don’t know why I was surprised. That was how it worked – for people like Miranda and Dallas. They met, they liked each other, they arranged to go out. Simple. I, on the other hand,
had managed to convince the guy I was crushing on that I didn’t care for him at all. Nice one, me.

Miranda eyed me warily. ‘So you’re not pissed off?’

‘No.’ I said. ‘I’m happy for you.’

Miranda grabbed my hands and danced me around. ‘That’s
so
great! Hey, let’s go shopping. I want to find something new to wear for tonight.’

‘You won’t find anything around here,’ I said. ‘Unless you want to wear a nice new tracksuit.’

Miranda flicked her hand. ‘I don’t want to look around here,’ she said. ‘Let’s go into town.’

‘Now?’

‘Of
course
now.’

The idea of some mindless shopping in town was weirdly appealing. Maybe because it was something I hadn’t done in ages, not since I was friends with Katie.

Miranda must have seen me hesitating. ‘It’s just one morning,’ she urged. ‘We’ll be back this afternoon.’

‘All right,’ I said. One morning wasn’t so bad. ‘Train or bus?’

Miranda released her hair from its ponytail. It looked darker, like the colour she’d been using while she was friends with Katie had begun to fade and now her natural colour was returning.
It was funny though. I couldn’t quite remember what her natural colour had been.

‘Neither,’ she said. ‘Let’s drive.’

I laughed. ‘Do you have a chauffeur, then?’

‘I can drive,’ said Miranda, without a trace of a smile. Then she gestured to the cars lining the street. ‘Pick one,’ she said. ‘I can get it open in about fifteen
seconds.’

‘But the city is so crap for parking,’ I said.
Just play along. Don’t look like a wonk.
‘Let’s get the train today.’

Miranda shrugged. ‘Sure.’

Usually the train ride into town was pretty dull – travelling through endless bland suburbs and industrial estates. But that morning I enjoyed it. We talked a bit about
the Luxe gig – Miranda loved their music as much as I did – and then we talked about bands in general. Miranda had been to heaps of festivals while she was living in Europe, the same
ones that I could only read about online and daydream about attending. I was almost disappointed when we arrived in town.

‘Where do you want to go?’ I asked as we got off at Central. The last few suits were marching off the train and heading into coffee shops on their way to work.

Miranda looked around, her eyes kind of misty. ‘It’s weird to be here without Katie,’ she said. ‘Last time we were –’ She stopped, cleared her throat.
‘You know what? Let’s follow someone.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘That’s the way
I
find stuff,’ said Miranda. ‘I just look around for someone interesting and then I follow them.’

‘Well … OK then.’ It seemed like a pretty weird way to shop, but this was Miranda’s expedition.

We hung around the train station waiting for someone
interesting
to come by. For a while it felt like no-one would measure up. We’d been there for almost an hour, drinking hot
chocolates and people-watching, when a woman with dark hair intricately twirled up on her head came past. She was wearing large sunglasses and her high-heeled boots clacked loudly on the concrete
steps.

‘Her,’ said Miranda decisively. And we were off.

We followed the woman for several blocks, loitering outside a café when she stopped to pick up a coffee and pretending to examine the window display of a chemist when she went to the
bank. Frankly, I thought Miranda had made a bad choice. The woman seemed kind of dull. But then she turned off the main street and into an alley, making a series of quick left and right turns until
we found ourselves in a crowded laneway. Cameras flashed. At the end of the street was a building covered with thousands of silver balloons. The woman strode through the crowd and showed something
to the security guard out the front of the building. Some sort of pass. The guard nodded and held open the door for her. The door handle was in the shape of a bird, swooping upwards.

‘Interesting,’ said Miranda. ‘They must be opening a branch of Silver here today.’

I looked around. ‘How do you know what it’s called?’ I couldn’t see a shop name anywhere.

Miranda grinned. ‘I just know,’ she said. ‘Let’s go in. They have good stuff. You’ll like it. And their opening parties are a-
mazing
.’

I hung back. ‘We haven’t been invited,’ I said. ‘And we’re in school uniform.’

‘Just relax,’ said Miranda, tucking her arm through mine. ‘It’ll be fine. Or do you want to go back to school? You could be back in time for chemistry if you
hurry.’

I laughed. ‘No thanks.’ I was a bit nervous about crashing this fancy-looking party but I didn’t want to leave either. I was having fun.
Real
fun. For the first time in
ages.

As we approached the door the security guard clicked his finger at Miranda and grinned. ‘Don’t tell me. You
must
be Isabel’s sister,’ he said.
‘Right?’

Miranda smiled, and shook her hair. ‘We do look kind of the same, don’t we?’ she said sweetly. ‘Is she around? She forgot to give me our passes.’

The guard almost tripped over himself in his hurry to open the door for us. ‘Just go in,’ he said. ‘Say hi to her from me, OK?’ Miranda stepped through, taking a firm
hold of my hand like she thought I might make a break for it. ‘Will do!’ she chirruped.

Once upon a time, the building was probably a warehouse or a factory – cold and dank – but now it was a very fancy shop, all exposed bricks and a polished concrete floor. In each
corner was an enormous vase of long-stemmed flowers and in the centre was a huge aviary rising up almost as high as the ceiling and filled with grey doves, each with a large silver bow around its
neck. The clothes themselves were arranged on polished metal tables or strung on silver lines from the ceiling. There were no price tags on any of them.

Waiters in silver bodysuits glided around offering food and champagne to the guests even though it was only mid-morning. A DJ was hunched over his turntables. Everyone, including the waiters,
was ridiculously perfect-looking. The guests were all laughing and talking – easy and comfortable and totally relaxed.
Of course they are,
I thought.
This is where they belong.
I felt awkward and completely out of place. I glanced at Miranda. If she was feeling like me, it didn’t show. She swayed slightly to the music as she began looking at the clothes arranged in
artistically crumpled piles on a table nearby.

A waiter swished over and offered us champagne. He didn’t seem to notice that we were in school uniform. Miranda took two glasses and held one out to me.

‘Come on now,
Pepita
,’ she said. She was speaking in this strange voice – much deeper than usual and with some kind of foreign accent. ‘You know Leon said we
should have one before the parade.’

I smiled and took the glass, catching on straight away. ‘Well all right then,
Ilsa
,’ I said, with a theatrical sigh. ‘But if I topple off the catwalk it’s
your
fault.’