Zillie the Circus Freak Read online

  There was a knock at the door. Of course nobody else was around to answer it and there I was in my underwear. The knocking continued. I grabbed Aunt Jan’s dressing gown, which looked like a clown suit on the outside. It’s amazing what you can find on eBay these days! I opened the door and there he was. Bradley Peters. How could I not know? He was pretty hard to miss!

  “Ahh yes, thank you, I mean, yes? What do you want?” I stumbled nonsensically.

  “Wow you really take this circus thing all the way don’t you!” he said, taking in my outfit.

  “Oh no, not this, it’s just that-”

  “Your brother left this on the bus, I live in the next street so I thought I’d walk it over.”

  He handed me a book on insects.

  “Ahh thanks. Do else you want anything?” I bit my tongue and tasted blood. Come on Zillie, concentrate, what on earth are you saying?

  He smiled. “Well I see the circus tent is up, can I take a look?”

  “Really? Well, I guess, give me a sec and I’ll get changed.” Please don’t let there be blood pouring down my chin …

  I frantically threw my basket of now dry clothes into disarray, as I searched for something normal to wear. I had left my jeans at school, so I settled on a pair of tracksuit pants and a surf t-shirt my cousin Candice had given me for my birthday I had won by collecting coupons in a Weetbix competition. It was one I had been saving for a special occasion.

  “We’ll go through the backyard, there’s a gate backing straight onto the reserve.”

  I felt a bit guilty that I hadn’t even gone to see the tent for myself since it was set up.

  As we walked through the paddock, his blue eyes sparkled even more than usual.

  “Awesome!”

  The Romanian twins were practicing their trapeze act and I guess they did look impressive. It was all just so normal to me, I forgot how impressive it actually really was from the outside.

  Mum came running over.

  “Zillie! Are you going to introduce me to your boyfriend? Does he want to stay for tofu stir-fry with seaweed salad? I’ll be inside in a sec, I just need to do a quick poop patrol.”

  Mum didn’t give me time to answer her. I could feel my cheeks redden.

  “I can you know.”

  “Huh?” I couldn’t hear him on top of the screaming that I was doing at my mum inside my head.

  “I can stay … for toffee, or something, whatever she said was for dinner.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Sure, why not. Are we allowed to watch for a bit more?”

  “Okay, the best seats are here.” He followed me. I could not believe my luck. The cutest boy in the entire year was following me, Zillie Crombie.

  He watched the twins with awe, but I could not help just watch him. My stare was interrupted by a series of beeps. He grabbed his mobile from his jacket. He read the text aloud, “Party at my house tomorrow at 6. Love Holly.” As soon as the thought of her entered my mind, my heart sank. Holly. How could I ever compete with miss perfect? My imagination went into overload, what if he was just here to find out the scoop on the freak circus family so everyone could tease me about it tomorrow. They would bring in rotten tomatoes and hurl them at me – Feeling there was a fly on my arm, I slapped it.

  “Ouch!” he piped.

  “What? Oh sorry, I thought you were a bug.”

  He laughed. “No your mum just told us to come to the house. You looked like you were away with the fairies.”

  “You don’t have to stay. Won’t your parents be wondering where you are?”

  “Nah, they’re workaholics. Mum’s in local government so there’s always an opening, or something she’s rushing off to. And Dad, well, he’s lucky to be home by midnight.”

  Suddenly I felt at ease. The images of Princess Holly vanished, and I felt like he had let me in. Just a little bit, but I would take it. The two of us talked, non-stop, until we got inside the house.

  How I wished our house was another ten kilometres’ walk away …

  As we sat down, all squashed around the dinner table, I was so relieved at how normal my family was being. Well, until Uncle Stan went on about how he saw a UFO down the street and how the cars in this town were all fitted with tracking devices that reported back to the mothership. “Oh, you mean GPS! That just gives you directions on how to get places,” piped up Bradley.

  “I knew it!” screeched Uncle Stan. “One day, you will want to go to the supermarket and then all of a sudden it will give you directions that take you straight to their headquarters! Yep, makes perfect sense. No Crombie ain’t ever getting this GMPS thingy mijiggy, you can bet on it!” I looked at Bradley and he just smiled. Mum was so excited that he had eaten all his dinner. She then went on to explain how she made it and to name every single ingredient and spice that she’d used to make it. When he accepted second helpings, Mum was in mum-chef heaven.

  “You don’t have to,” I whispered.

  “This is the first home cooked meal I have had in weeks!”

  After having coconut smoothies in whole coconuts for desert, I walked Bradley outside.

  “Thanks for a great afternoon, your family is so cool.”

  “Huh?!” I didn’t know whether I’d heard ‘cool’, or ‘cruel’.

  “Look at them all, you get to eat together, talk with one other, you run a circus, your mum cooks, how cool can you get?!”

  “Well, not cool enough to get an invite to Holly’s party I guess.”

  He laughed. “Holly … Holly, yeah she is a bit full on isn’t she? I know she is quite bratty at times, I mean, she isn’t the nicest girl at school I know, but her mum is my mum’s best friend, so I guess that’s why I tolerate her as much as I do, but I won’t be going to her party. Did you see what she did to Stevie today?”

  He went on and on about Holly’s prank, but I wasn’t really listening. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t into Princess Holly, with her perfect hair, her perfect face, her expensive shoes and all the famous people she would rave on about supposedly knowing.

  “So do you think I could help out in any way with the Circus at all? I would love to be involved if you need an extra pair of hands.”

  “Sure, there is always something to be done, right up until the last opening minute! I’ll ask mum and let you know tomorrow.”

  I was actually looking forward to school and, of course, talking to Bradley. Mum said she would welcome any help. There were heaps of little jobs to fill. She was actually stressing about how she would get all of them done before the big day and the purse strings were tightening. When I had asked her, she was so excited that I’d shown interest, she wrapped her arms around me in a ginormous cuddle. I silently vowed to be more supportive to the family from then on.

  At recess I told Bradley about what jobs he could help with. When Princess Holly saw us, her cheeks blushed with rage and she stormed over towards us.

  “What are you doing talking to that!” she yelled.

  “Quit it,” said Bradley, sternly.

  “How can you be seen with her? Have you seen where she lives? All those dirty animals around the place, she has fleas you know, and worms, she is a pest and pests need to be exterminated.”

  “How dare you speak to her …” Violet had to stop mid-rage for a puff on her asthma pump and when we looked back up, Holly had left.

  “Just ignore her, she likes to control everything”, Bradley advised. As he helped Violet sit down on a nearby bench, Holly came flying furiously towards me. “Take that!” and with her finger firmly pressed down on the nozzle, she covered me from head to toe with insect spray. “My eyes! My EYES!” I screeched.

  “You pest! You pest! Go away. Nobody likes you!”

  Things were a bit of a blur after that. Turns out I fainted from the fumes and when I woke up in the sick bay, Mum was holding my hand. When I caught my reflection in the mirror, I gasped. My face was covered in a red, dotty rash and my eyes were puffy, googly golf balls. “Just an allergic reaction,” piped the nurse. “Should settle down in a few days love. Until then, try not to pest er yourself with any inspect spray!” She giggled, but neither mum, nor me found it very amusing.

  Mum took me home and for the very first time, she made me macaroni and cheese for lunch.

  I was curled up on the couch, feeling a tiny bit sorry for myself when pea-head walked in with Bradley and Violet.

  “Are you okay?” they asked at the same time.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess.”

  “You know she got into loads of trouble, she’s writing lines in detention as we speak. Hurrah!” Violet chirped.

  “Well not quite,” informed Bradley, “I stayed back for basketball try-outs and her mum marched right past me. She was furious. She was babbling something about Holly nearly missing an audition. She demanded that Holly be released from detention right away and said she would give Holly her own detention at home later.”

  “Ohhh right, that makes sense, because doing detention in that mansion of hers would be such punishment. She’ll probably pay the maid to do it for her! Oh poor Holly, I’ll be sure to bring a box of tissues for her tomorrow.” Violet rolled her eyes.

  “Actually her parents are quite strict on her. They have unbelievably high expectations. The day she was born they signed her up with an agent and they were always making her do one course, or another, she could never just come out and play. They hired staff to try and make her walk early, talk early, read early – well you get the idea. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not justifying her behaviour to you, I’m just saying I know her folks. They are pretty full on.” Bradley looked at our unconvinced faces and shrugged his shoulders.

  “That’s enough Holly talk for the day anyway. I officially declare this afternoon,
from this moment forth, a Holly-free zone,” proclaimed Violet.

  Bradley smiled and changed the subject. “You up for training your new circus helpers?” he asked.

  “Absolutely. Thanks guys.” And with that, sooking time was over.

  “We hope you don’t mind a few more helpers.” I heard someone say. Another eight kids walked in. I was shocked to see four girls from Holly’s very own fan club.

  “We’re sorry about what she did to you. We want to help too,” one of them said.

  Shocked, but pleasantly surprised, I smiled and together we all walked over to the tent.

  When mum saw all our helpers, you could see instant relief on her face. She delegated jobs to everyone and I snuck off to do poop patrol. When I came back in, she squeezed me tightly. “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Bradley was the last one standing later that night, he was helping the twins with their fire-juggling act by tossing them the flame sticks. He had a great throw. When they called it a day, we went inside for some vegie burgers and punch. After dinner he disappeared outside for a while. He came back with a little box and some freshly picked flowers. He gave the flowers to mum to say thank you for dinner and for letting him be involved in the circus, and gave the little box to Pea-head. The look on Pea-head’s face was priceless. He loved boxes! He opened it up and there was a little baby lizard inside! I couldn’t help but smile, seeing him so excited. That night, just before I fell asleep, I heard Pea-head talking to his ant and lizard. “Please let Zillie’s rash go away, make her better.” I smiled, wiped away a tear and closed my eyes.

  Well pigs must fly because I woke up blotch free. Either a miracle happened, or Pea-head was actually onto something and his ant indeed did have special powers. With such a good luck start to the day, I was determined to make it last for the rest of it. Imagine the excitement on my rash-free face, when I got paired up with Bradley for homework. “Find two separate items that relate to each other and present their relationship in a short play,” the teacher had vaguely instructed.

  “What about popcorn?” Bradley suggested. “We could bring in corn, a bag of popcorn, put on a movie and our play can be that we are pretending to watch it while eating popcorn!” he laughed. “Imagine that, we couldn’t even get into trouble!”

  “Wow a movie, I can’t remember the last time I watched a movie. It must have been when we still had our video player,” I pondered.

  “Video!?! You’re a crack up Zil!” Bradley laughed.

  I was actually being serious.

  “Hey, what were you munching on at recess?” He enquired.

  “I had strawberries and sunflower seeds, why?”

  “Perfect! You know we have sunflowers at our place? Come over after school and let’s pick one out. We can think up what we’ll do for our project tomorrow.”

  “That does sound perfect!” I smiled so much I was worried that I looked like a possessed Cheshire cat.

  As we walked up Bradley’s driveway, I was in awe, my jaw literally dropped and of course a fly happened to seize the opportunity and crash-landed right at the back of my throat.

  “Carggh-pfffftttt!” I tried to spit it out. Bradley looked over to find me hunched over, drizzling his perfectly paved driveway with saliva.

  “What’s wrong are you okay?” He took my bag from me and darted about helplessly.

  Gulp. Swallowed! Gross. Looks like my luck had officially run out for the day.

  “I think I just need water please,” I asked, deciding not to tell him that I had just eaten an unexpected afternoon snack.

  The inside of his house was even more beautiful than the outside. Everything was sparkling like it had just been polished. Everything appeared new and large, but it was so tasteful. It was elegant, regal and I felt like a princess just standing there. The princess that swallowed the fly.

  As Bradley lead the way, I secretly twirled and pranced behind him until I found myself inspecting the floor from a much closer perspective. Yep, turns out that the floor had just been polished. I tried to get up discreetly, but ended up on my bottom once more, this time with a loud thud. Bradley turned around. “Twice in two minutes,” he asked, “are you okay?”

  I tried to think of something funny to reply, but nothing came out. So I just sat there, all twisted and contorted with a weird expression on my face. He extended his arms to help me up but I fumbled and in the chaos I must have pulled him down instead. A little lady came shuffling around the corner in her slippers. “My floor! My floor!” she panicked.

  “Zillie this is Lydia, my Nanny. Lydia, this is my friend Zillie, who I think could very much use a drink, and an icepack!”

  We both started laughing.

  We had a brief relax on his couch that was as comfortable as soft clouds. As I drank my lemonade and took a bite of what I thought was a cracker with dip, my taste buds protested and expelled it out. It projectiled out of my mouth and onto their luxurious white rug.

  “I’m so sorry!” I tried to say, with crumbs still exploding from my mouth.

  Bradley cackled. “Sorry, it’s my fault. I forgot to warn you about Lydia’s pate. It can be quite intense!”

  “I think I’d better go before I can do any more damage,” I said, as I picked out specks from the mat.

  “Don’t stress, seriously. Let’s go choose that sunflower,” and with that, I followed him out.

  Outside was spectacular. Manicured lawns, gorgeous pebbled paths, water features, a vegie patch and the most relaxing, serene looking pool I had ever seen.

  “Ok, which one?” he asked, showing me three lovely sunflowers.

  I picked the one that looked the most wilted.

  “This one?” he quizzed.

  “Most definitely. I know what it’s like to not be perfect,” I revealed.

  “You are perfectly Zillie!” he assured, as he playfully elbowed me in the stomach.

  I got to school a bit earlier the next day and we quickly rehearsed our skit. When we got to the part where Bradley gave me the sunflower, we noticed some disgruntled sounds from a furious bystander and the stench of smoke, steaming out of her ears. Holly. She spotted the bucket of sunflower seeds on the ground and decided to hurl them at me. The sound of the seeds hitting the ground was like a bird radio call-out and before I knew it, I was surrounded by the entire bird population of the area, as well as several neighbouring areas too. The sensation of so many wings flapping so close to my face completely freaked me out and once again, I fainted and woke up in the sick bay. “Mac and cheese?” I asked mum when she came to collect me.

  The next few days at school went quite smoothly, that is, until we had to do a show and tell of something that represented who we were, or what we wanted to be. I had searched my room, which took no more than minutes due to its size, and felt as stuck as a shoe in bubblegum. I heard some of the other kids talking about how they were going to bring in their latest gizmos, iPods, icy poles, or iPavs or something. We didn’t have any of that. The closest thing would have been the Dora The Explorer pretend laptop I had won in a colouring competition, years ago. I went to find mum to ask her for some advice and found her with the Shetland ponies. She was cradled over one with a worried look on her face. I knelt beside her.

  “Is Prancer okay?”

  “She isn’t eating, something’s not right. I should call the vet but I’m just trying to think of a way I can pay the bill. Is your father back from work?”

  Dad had taken a casual job as a cook at a pancake café, which was just brilliant given his obsession with pancakes. My favourite day of the week used to be Sunday, when he used to make us all pancakes for dinner. Things were always too rushed in the Crombie household to ever have them in time for breakfast, but things had been so busy lately we hadn’t had them at all.