They lazed through so many summer afternoons under those achingly familiar black-lettered warnings to swimmers: Danger, aqua profunda. How many days of their lives have she and Liza spent laid out on the blue tiles of that pool? Hundreds at least, she knows. Breathing in that chemical-but somehow sweetly nostalgic-chlorine stink, she brakes hard and climbs down from the worn saddle of the bike. She can hear calls and laughter from the shallow end as kids begin their summer early. Sunlight glances off the bleached concrete of the stands and bounces over the blue tiles. Turning a hard left, she coasts past the wire enclosure on the north side of the local pool. The air rushes over her bare arms and shoulders, making her smile. When the descent begins, she stops pedalling and lets gravity draw her down the hill. She pulls the air in through her nose-air suddenly cleaner and cooler than the exhaust-ridden fug of her block. Pedalling hard across the intersection, she leaves the busy streets behind, replacing it with the leafy tunnel of tree-lined Moore Street. Liza is worried about going on a trip with girl who are more Kit’s friends than her, and whom she barely knows. In this section, her best friend Kit has just found out she can’t come on the trip. In this part of the book, the main character, Liza, has just come out to her parents and told them she wants to quit running. She just hadn’t planned on doing it without Kit by her side.Īnd they’re all learning that travel isn’t just about the places you go, but about who you’re with at the time. And there’s Olivia, so miserable about screwing up exams she’s not even sure she wants to get out of bed, let alone on a plane.Īll Liza wants from this trip is to discover a new version of herself. There’s Tam, who already has her doubts about leaving her sick father behind. But when Kit is suddenly forced to drop out, Liza’s left with three girls she barely knows.
It’s exactly what they all need after the final slog of high school. Kit and Liza have been looking forward to this trip forever.įive girls, five tickets overseas.
Publisher: Ylva Publishing (book available to purchase here). Here is an excerpt from my forthcoming LGBT YA novel, Points of Departure.
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