Page 30 of Reluctant Chemistry

Making A Difference

Back home, CeCe parked the Kombi in front of the implement shed and rested her head against the steering wheel. Although she and Travis had split up almost four months ago, he still had an effect. Their infatuation started with a schoolgirl crush—she’d watched him strut around school as if he owned the show, and even though he was a year behind her, she’d still found him cute. One day, he’d kissed her in the gymnasium equipment room, and they’d started hanging out soon after.

The hourly news on the radio caught her attention. An American couple had gone missing in the ranges to the west of the national park. She wondered if Luka was out looking for them, and for a moment, she wanted to be out there too, adding her weight to the search effort. Making a difference.

CeCe jumped when her father opened the door. “Are you coming in for dinner?”

“Yes. I was just listening to the news.” She reached over and turned it off before following her father toward the house. “There’s a couple missing up by the Hikuwhai Hut.”

“Yeah? I’m sure that teacher friend of yours will find them. Brad reckons he has an uncanny knack for sniffing out leads.”

“He is not ‘my teacher friend.’ He just happened to pull me out of a rabbit hole.”

Frank entered the mudroom and began washing his hands. “Where have you been, anyway?”

“At Sandwater Bay. I saw Travis there.”

“Oh, yeah? How was that?”

CeCe shrugged. “Awkward. He wants me to go surfing with him tomorrow.”

Frank dried his hands as CeCe washed hers. “Would that be wise?”

“Don’t worry, I said no.” She turned to him with a smile. “But you’re asking my opinion again. Normally you’d speak your mind andtellme what to do.”

He shrugged. “Maybe, but as you keep reminding me, you’re almost nineteen. You know how I feel about Travis, but in the end, it’s your decision whether you see him or not.”

CeCe followed him into the kitchen and kissed her mother on the cheek. “Quick, grab the thermometer, Mum. Something’s seriously wrong with Dad. He just told me I was old enough to make my own decisions.”

Her mother laughed. “Don’t worry. It’s merely a phase—he’ll grow out of it.”

As her dad took a seat at the table, CeCe helped her mother serve the meal. With him in a good mood, maybe now was the time to bring up the subject of schools.

“Actually, I’ve been thinking about school.”

Frank accepted his plate from Andrea and turned to stare at his daughter. She tensed under his gaze as his easy mood from moments before vanished. “Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind again.”

“I still want to go to university, but I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing. I mean—”

“Whatever you decide,” he countered, “surely repeating your final year should be the next step. You need chemistry. Without it, you’ll struggle once you get to uni.”

“Yes, I know. I’ve not changed my mind, but I’m not keen on going back to Tulloch Point High with the younger kids.”CeCe sat across from her father. “I thought maybe I could go to Clifton Falls and board at Immaculate Heart.”

Her mother placed a bowl of salad on the table and took her seat while giving CeCe a knowing glance.

“Why on earth would you want to board at Immaculate Heart?” he spluttered. “You wouldn’t last a week at a boarding school. You’re hardly an Immaculate Heart girl, and I mean that in the nicest possible way.”

CeCe dished salad and potatoes onto her plate but passed on the pork schnitzel in favor of crumbed eggplant. “So, what do you suggest? I go back to Tulloch Point High and slum it with the younger kids? Settle for some mediocre school in a mediocre town?”

Her father took a deep breath. “Look, we’ve been over this until my jaw hurts even thinking about it,” he said sternly. “They’re giving you another chance. That ‘mediocre school,’ as you put it, is prepared to give you another chance.”

CeCe stared at the plate of food before her, her appetite lost in her father’s words. She couldn’t tell him about Luka. Not now. But the thought of sitting in his class, watching him at the whiteboard, having him mark her assignments, and the other students finding out about them made her sick to her stomach.

“Maybe I could give Immaculate Heart a call tomorrow,” her mother said. “See if they might have a place.”

CeCe had expected her mum to tell her dad about Luka, even though she’d asked her not to, but obviously, she hadn’t.

“No, Andrea. School starts in a few days, and I’m not paying thousands of dollars for some snobby boarding school when we have a perfectly good high school in our own backyard.”

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