Breathing Underwater by Julia Green Page A

Snooping on people.’
    It’s horrible. I start to cry. ‘I only wanted to stop you, Joe!’ I wail, but he pushes me aside and rushes off and in an instant it’s all over.
    I reason with myself as I wander back home. It’s not so terrible. So, he found out about Sam and Huw. Well, better that he did, really. Otherwise he’d have gone on thinking how amazing and lovely she was for ever. Better to know the truth. Even if it hurts. The truth’s always better.
    I don’t go straight home. I go across the island and past the church to the field, to see if Joe’s gone there.
    â€˜Are you OK?’ Maddie leaves the football game for a moment to talk to me. ‘You’re very pale,’ she says. But my throat’s sort of stuck: I can’t answer, and I rush off again, her voice echoing after me. Come and play, Freya! We need more people . . .
    I run along the shoreline path, jump down on to the disused lifeboat slipway. Once, each island had its own lifeboat and crew: nowadays, the lifeboat has to come from Main Island. Gramps’ rowing boat is stacked upside down next to the slipway as usual, but the dinghy has gone.
    I know instantly that Joe’s taken it out. All the time I’ve taken wandering around looking for him has been enough for him to get the boat down to the water, the sails up, and to make his way across the bay. I crane my neck, scanning the water. And yes, there it is: way beyond the rocky promontory, the white triangle of the sail. I can just about see it flapping as the boat catches a gust of wind.
    I should call out, or wave, or something.
    But he’ll be all right. He knows what he’s doing. It won’t be dark for quite a while. Not really dark. Joe loves sailing: he’ll come back feeling better. Everything will go back to normal. Only one more day and Sam will be gone, and we can forget all about her.

Seventeen
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    I try not to think about Huw. I reckon if I go and find Danny it’ll take my mind off things. Usually, I like walking through the campsite in the evening. Everyone’s cooking outside their tents, or sitting around chatting, and all the little kids race around playing games and it feels really relaxed. Once I’ve worked out Huw’s not around, I begin to chill too.
    I find Danny washing up at the outside sinks; I hang around with him while he finishes and help him carry bowls and stuff back to his tent, which means I get to meet his family. They are really friendly and easy and kind, so that makes a change from the rest of my day up till now. I end up staying ages. His dad makes me hot chocolate on their camping stove. Danny’s little sister Hattie bullies me into reading a million stories. (Actually, I like reading stories.) We read this big book of fairy stories, all in rhyme, and Hattie knows most of the words by heart. It’s cosy sitting on a camping chair with Hattie leaning against me, all warm and ready for bed in her pink fleecy pyjamas, both of us sipping hot chocolate.
    â€˜Football now?’ Danny asks. ‘Coming?’
    â€˜One more story, Freya?’ Hattie wheedles.
    â€˜Bedtime for you, Hattie,’ her dad says, scooping her up and kissing her tummy till she squeals.
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    Danny and I walk together without saying much. I’ve cheered up a bit, though, and it’s a relief to just lark about and run on the field. Neither Huw nor Matt are there. Izzy says they’re helping Dave with some boat trip, at Bryluen. She’s on the other team so we don’t get to talk much. She asks me how Gramps is, but that’s all.
    We play out till it’s too dark to see the ball. The younger kids drift back to the campsite. I sit in a circle with Danny, Izzy and the others, chatting about not very much. Maddie and Lisa decide to go to the pub. Izzy doesn’t want to go. In the end it’s just Danny, Izzy and me left.
    â€˜Let’s lie down and look at the