Page 48 of A Cornish Love Story
‘Don’t be nervous, you’ll be brilliant tonight.’
‘Can I be brilliantandnervous?’
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, youaredoing 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. ‘Youhaveto 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 theAlperwick Papers, the local magazine that had run the competition. She was introducing thePapersas 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 ather 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 theAlperwickPaperpeople.’ 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.’
