The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love

Chapter Forty-Four The spell’s been broken

It is a bright and unseasonably hot afternoon. The sun shines down from a cloudless sky, making the noisy crowds below seem to shimmer. The blue and green balloons and flags that decorate Clifton Springs High School on this special day sway in a well-mannered breeze, and the sounds of people celebrating the existence of their planet fill the air.

Sicilee, Kristin, Loretta and Ash sit together at one of the tables set up in the courtyard, talking and laughing excitedly – and often at the same time. In honour of the occasion, each of them is wearing one of Clemens’ handmade T-shirts, and they all look as if they’re enjoying themselves. They are best friends again.

Cody Lightfoot was wrong. His prediction that the tree protest would destroy the Environmental Club, cause Earth Day to be cancelled and heap ridicule, embarrassment and derision on Clemens and anyone foolish enough to join him turned out to be so far from the truth it was in another country. Ms Kimodo, on the other hand, was right. Ms Kimodo, also summoned by the principal, arrived only minutes after Sicilee, Maya and Waneeda joined Clemens in the tree. Ms Kimodo, unlike Cody, immediately gave the tree-sitters her support. “I’m sorry, Dr Firestone,” said Ms Kimodo, “but not only do I feel that these students have both legal and moral right on their side, I think you’ll find that the community as a whole will stand behind them too. I know I certainly do.” Which is what happened. Thanks, in large part, to Mrs Kewe’s many friends in the media and Maya’s Uncle Fabio, the protest forced the tree-cutting to be abandoned, and made celebrities of Maya, Clemens, Sicilee and Waneeda.

The press arrived before the police – setting up their cameras and recorders, pulling out notebooks, sticking microphones in the faces of anyone who didn’t move out of the way. Dr Firestone, as unprepared for them as he would have been for the ghost army of Genghis Khan, was surprised to find himself cast as the villain. He was no longer, apparently, anyone’s pal. He was a man who broke promises. A man who tried to have students who had Law and Right on their side arrested. A man who showed no respect for either history or the environment. An Unlikely Group of Eco Warriors Puts Principles Ahead of the Principal read one headline. Brought Together by Love not Dogma read another. Clemens, Waneeda, Sicilee and Maya were treated as heroes – photographed, interviewed and even singled out for special praise by the governor of the state for their courage and character. Sicilee herself was featured on the six o’clock news, leaning comfortably against an ancient trunk and looking (as the reporter pointed out) not like a fanatical environmentalist but a model on a magazine shoot. “Is this the face of anarchy?” asked the anchor as he introduced the story. “Or is this the face of the next generation, demanding its right to a future?” All of which has made Sicilee even more popular than she was before. Celebrities are forgiven a lot.

At the moment, Sicilee is sipping an organic tea, Kristin is finishing her veggie burger, Loretta is rearranging her environmentally friendly shopping and Ash is nibbling a vegan cookie that, against all predictions, doesn’t taste like sand.

Earlier, they watched the day’s first screening of a documentary on climate change, presented by Clemens (who everyone agreed was a lot nicer and far less creepy than they’d thought).

“That movie really makes you think, doesn’t it?” says Ash. “I never knew all that stuff about the glaciers and the polar bears and everything.”

Sicilee makes a face over her cup, though there is nothing wrong with her tea. “At least the polar bears weren’t hanging by one foot from a meat hook being clubbed.” Sicilee was on the committee that chose the films to be shown today and sat with her eyes closed or filled with tears through the one on meat production.

“Stop!” orders Kristin. “I don’t want to hear any more about that. It’s really gross.”

Finished with her cookie and her movie review, Ash sniffs at the plant she bought her mother for her birthday. “It reminds me of something.” She frowns, wrinkling her nose. A balloon that looks like the Earth seen from space waves above her head. “But I can’t think what.”

Kristin, too, is looking thoughtful. “You know, this burger isn’t so bad.” She sounds surprised. “I know it’s supposed to be really good because no animals were tortured and it saved the planet a ton of water and cow farts and everything, but it actually tastes OK. I mean, with the mayo and ketchup and pickles and everything, you wouldn’t really know it wasn’t real if no one told you.”

“Oh, um duh…” Sicilee rolls her eyes, but she is laughing. “Sweet Mary, what have I been trying to tell you guys?”

“OK, OK.” Loretta, too, is laughing. “I’m not going to, like, start eating tofu, but some of this Green stuff’s not so bad. It’s not all bean sprouts and Jesus sandals.” She pats the shopping bag (hemp, not plastic) on her lap. “I got some pretty awesome things today. That velvet top with the crushed flowers? It’s, like, perfect for Rupert’s party next week.”

“Merciful Mother!” shrieks Sicilee. “I haven’t even started thinking about what I’m wearing to that!”

“Well, you’d better.” Kristin smirks. “You want to look nice for Abe, don’t you?”

“Oh, please… It’s not a big deal,” says Sicilee, but she raises her cup to her mouth and swings her hair so the others can’t see the expression on her face. “It’s just a friendly date.”

Abe called her the night after the sit-in. Apparently watching her being led away by the police had made him see her differently. He said she was a lot feistier than he’d given her credit for and asked her out.

“Oh, my, my…” mutters Loretta. “What’s that old saying? Two’s company and twenty’s a crowd?”

Cody Lightfoot and a small herd of smiling girls from the year below are ambling across the courtyard together.

Sicilee watches them pass like someone watching a movie she’s seen before but doesn’t really remember. To think she tried so hard to impress Cody Lightfoot! She must’ve been out of her mind. It’s as if she’d been under some kind of spell.

“Hey, you know what this smells like?” Ash’s nose is still in the plant. “It smells like that plug-in air freshener my mom uses.” She gives another happy sniff. “I think she’s really going to like this.”