Page 97 of Oar Than Friends

‘You did not.’

‘I did. Kate? Who won?’ demanded Alex.

‘I didn’t see.’ I rubbed my eyes. ‘What are we doing up so early?’

Hector and Alex both turned to Oz, who answered with a swipe of his fingers zipping across his lips.

‘Sorry, we can’t tell you,’ Hector replied with a shrug and a yawn.

‘You three get in the car, and I’ll find Pheebs,’ Oz ordered, running back up the stairs two at a time.

I trundled outside, not understanding why Hector and Alex had sprinted out of the front door, nor why they were so chipper, only to find small tubs of steaming porridge and a tray of wrapped, hot bacon sandwiches had been left for us on the passenger seat. Hector had already taken such an enormous bite of one sandwich that there was almost none left in his hand.

I slid into the seat next to him and picked one up. My mouth was already pooling with saliva as I unwrapped the foil.

Alex mumbled something I didn’t understand.

‘What?’

He swallowed his bite, ‘Oz will want you in the front seat.’

‘Oh, I don’t care. You’re all much taller, I’m fine here.’ I bit into my sandwich. ‘Where are we going?’

‘You’ll see,’ was all the reply I got.

‘Is your mom coming?’

‘No, just us.’

I went back to my bacon sandwich.

As Alex predicted, the second Oz walked out with Phoebe, who looked even sleepier than me, I was promoted to sitting in the front passenger seat because ‘I can’t hold your hand if you’re in the back’.

I didn’t argue.

An hour and a half later, along a surprisingly busy motorway for the time of morning, the sun was rising bright in the distance ahead of us. Phoebe and I had gone back to sleep almost as soon as Oz had driven through the estate’s gates, and waking up now I glanced around at the vaguely familiar surroundings. In front of where we’d stopped was a slightly ramshackle arch-roofed wooden building, which could do with a fresh coat of paint. I was having the strangest sensation of déjà-vu until I noticed the flag flying on top. One I recognized immediately.

I turned to Oz, while the others were piling out of the back seats into the cold London air. ‘Are we by the rowing club?’

He nodded, ‘Yes, the one across the river.’

I looked back up at the flag. It had been one of the first things I’d noticed the first day we’d had river-cleaning duties. That day when all I could think about was how mad I was at Oz, especially because all I’d wanted was for him to kiss me.

The week after, he’d done exactly that.

And every week since I’d made a wish of some kind, in case it was a lucky flag and perhaps a genie lived in the flag pole. It was the first thing I looked at whenever I’d come out to the river for Tideway practice, asking for it to bring me and my crew safely home.

‘What are we doing here?’

‘Tideway practice.’

My neck snapped around to him, hard enough that I needed to rub the sharp pain away. ‘What d’you mean?’

He picked up my left hand and sandwiched it between both of his. ‘You need the practice time on the river. You deserve a fair shot at coxing Blondie, and I want to give it to you because when we both win our races, we both get to celebrate.’

I stared, unblinking, as his words sunk in. We – not just him and me, but Phoebe, Hector and Alex too – had got up at the crack of dawn and driven to London so I could get Tideway practice in during the holidays, for a rival team. Something he’d arranged.

‘You did this for me?’ I whispered, too shocked to compute the magnitude of his gesture.

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