Ocean Pearl by J.C. Burke

is.'
    'She's you, Ace.'
    'She's pretty and she's smiling and she's happy –
successful. She has everything.'
    'You're still all those things.'
    'I know you think that this album is stupid. But I
want Jules to think of me as the girl in here. He doesn't
know this one. The one I am now,' Ace explained in the
tiniest of whispers. 'I've been very careful about him
not spending too much time with this one. That's why I
want Jules to have the album. When you give it to him,
tell Jules I said it's a little book of memories. So that –
that he doesn't miss "us" too much. Okay?'
    I nodded.
    'Soon I'll have my act together and my hair will have
grown back and Jules will never have known any of this.'
    I sighed. I'd been holding my breath. Holding it so
that Ace could get those words out and I could hear
them. 'You can count on me.'
    Kia and Micki weren't coming to meet Jules. Their
excuse was they were 'too embaaaarrassed', which was
totally pathetic. But I was happier going on my own
'cause I was the only one who knew how important
this was to Ace. The other two'd probably blow it.
    The first time I saw Jules was back in January at the
sushi train restaurant. That was the night Ace fell in
lurve with him. But I'd actually only met him once, on
the last day of camp.
    Ace had arranged for me to meet him today at the
huge rock down the southern end of Coolina beach.
Apparently this was their special place.
    I was feeling like the worst possible substitute for
Ace, because I was. I was like some bad impostor who
didn't even vaguely resemble the person they were
trying to be.
    Slim – stocky; tanned – pale; cascading blonde hair –
short, puffy strawberry-blonde hair; long legs – tree
trunks; stunning – can be pretty with enormous effort.
I'll end the list there and just say that standing around
waiting for Jules was – awkward.
    Oh my God, it became more awkward as a pair of
the most amazing crystal blue eyes came towards me.
They were attached to a face, Jules's face, but they
were so incredible it was as if they had a life of their
own.
    Stupid, stupid me! I had managed to forget how
good looking Jules was and now it was too late to leave
Ace's photo album by the rock and run.
    I tucked my hair behind my ears, took a deep breath
and waved back to him.
    'Hi, Georgie.' Another thing about Jules that Ace
totally fell for was that he had a Canadian accent.
Personally, I didn't think Jules needed to open his
mouth for a girl to fall for him. 'Thanks for meeting me.'
    ''S'kay.'
    Jules began to climb up the rock. Was I meant to
follow? Ace's instructions didn't include climbing up
too.
    'You want a hand?' he called down to me.
    ''S'kay,' I said, shoving the photo album under my
arm and hoping beyond hope that I didn't drop it into
the surf below.
    At the very top, Jules was stretching and taking deep
breaths. 'I love it up here,' he told me. 'I tell my mates
back home that I can stand on a rock and see another
state of Australia.'
    'Yeah,' I agreed. 'It's a shame it's the ugly high-rises
on the Gold Coast though.'
    'I don't tell them that,' he laughed. 'They think I can
see kangaroos and koalas from up here.'
    'You probably could have, once,' I said, looking for a
bit of flat rock that was big enough to hold my bum.
'They would've been out there for sure.'
    'Hey, that's what I think about every time I'm up
here. What it would've been like once.'
    'I hate that big cloud of pollution hanging over the
buildings. It's like, yuck.'
    'Please don't think I'm rude, Georgie, but I hate the
Gold Coast full stop. Ace loves it with all the cafes and
nightclubs but the main beach? No way. This beach is
what I call beautiful.'
    'Yeah, it is,' I agreed. 'It's a great break too. That's
probably why they made the national surf headquarters
here. Up the north end, where we are, there's a
perfect left that just goes forever.'
    'You know, I haven't even had a surf here.'
    'Noooo!' I went to punch Jules but luckily remembered
where I was and who I was