Head of the River - Softcover

Harry, Pip

Softcover

ISBN 10: 070225326X ISBN 13: 9780702253263

Verlag: UNIV OF QUEENSLAND, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

Nine rowers, 2,000 grueling yards, and one chance for glory
 
Tall, naturally talented, and the offspring of Olympians, superstar siblings Leni and Cristian Popescu are set to row Harley Grammar to victory in the annual Head of the River race. With six months until the big race, the twins can't lose. Or can they? When Cristian is seduced by the easy route of performance-enhancing drugs, and Leni is suffocated with self-doubt, their bright futures start to fade. Juggling family, high expectations, study, break-ups, new relationships, and wild parties, the pressure starts to build. As the final moments tick down to the big race, will they make it to the start line or will they plummet from grace?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Pip Harry is a freelance journalist who has worked in magazines for many years. She is the author of I’ll Tell You Mine.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Head of the River

By Pip Harry

University of Queensland Press

Copyright © 2014 Pip Harry
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7022-5326-3

CHAPTER 1

Monday, 4 April Two days after Head of the River

Cristian

Assembly is like a funeral. There are no overconfident victory speeches from the Captains of Boats or pats on the back for a `job well done boys and girls'. Nobody holds aloft the precious Head of the River cup. Instead of a cheesy victory song like `Holy Grail' or `We Are the Champions' playing, there's a hushed silence.

Eight hundred students sit perfectly still and upright. A quiet sea of green blazers and white shirts. Usually, this would be the time our principal Mr Kentwell would ask us to settle down. `Monday morning, people, let's get it done'. Today, there's no need. Gripping the lectern emblazoned with our school crest, `Harley Grammar — Success Smiles on Effort', he has our full attention.

`As I'm sure you are aware the APS Head of the River was held on Saturday at the Barwon River in Geelong,' Mr Kentwell says. `It's customary to hold a celebratory assembly and to announce the results of our hardworking rowing team as the culmination of a very successful season, however, this year we felt that wasn't an appropriate course of action. One of our students is seriously ill,' he says.

A girl in front of me starts to sob loudly and I want to lean over and say, `Stop being such a drama queen. You weren't even friends. This has nothing to do with you.' I wish it had nothing to do with me.

Gossip swirls and Mr Kentwell momentarily loses control of the room.

Around the hall are guys I've rowed with for the past four years. I can pick them out by the slope of their shoulders, crookedness of haircuts or the way their ears stick out. Up close I know what they smell like when they're scared to death.

Nick, our stroke, is two rows in front of me. His head is dipped slightly to the right side as it is in the boat. Leaning into our riggers helps us find the balance. It's hard to shake the habit on dry land. Charley, Mal, Julian ... they're all here. It's tradition for Head of the River crews to sit together during this assembly. Last year I was even on stage. Here at Harley, winners are elevated.

But this year the rowing team is blown like dandelion fluff all over the room.

`We wish a speedy recovery to this very well-liked member of our school community,' says Mr Kentwell. `Some housekeeping — it's been requested that no flowers are sent to the hospital and no visitors are permitted at this critical stage. However, counselling is available for any students who witnessed this incident, particularly the rowers. Please see your home room teacher to make an appointment.'

That's it. The briefest of reports and onto the day-to-day running of the school — a visiting author, music exams, the upcoming school fete and the Year Ten trip to Papua New Guinea to walk the Kokoda trail.

There's so much more to say than Mr Kentwell's five-minute wrap up. I want to take the microphone and speak up, before everyone clatters out of the room to PE, chem or history classes. Could I put up my hand? Ask for a minute of everyone's precious time?

I could tell the students what colour skin turns when all the oxygen runs out of it. What a body looks like when the heart stops beating. How you can completely forget every single thing you learnt in Outdoor Ed about how to do CPR, how many breaths and what angle to tilt the chin. And all you can do is stand there like a statue while paramedics pound away, hoping for life to return.

I could tell them what it sounds like when a chest compression breaks a rib. Like cracking a stick, if you want to know.

Leni

I try to leave the house without detection, but Mum pounces on me as I'm heading for the front door with my schoolbag.

`Not so fast, Leni. I've made you an appointment with Dr Chang,' she says.

Dr Chang has been my GP since kindy. He's a kind Asian man who's liberal with jellybeans, but I don't want to see him today. I want to be at school with my crew, trying to make sense of what happened at the Head of the River.

`But I don't want to miss assembly,' I complain as she bundles me into the car.

`You need a check-up, sweetie,' Mum says firmly.

I knew I couldn't get away with letting her know I wasn't feeling well after the regatta. Mum's been a pediatric nurse at the Royal Children's for twelve years. No cough or sniffle has ever gone unnoticed by her.

`How do you feel?' she asks as she squeezes into a parking spot outside the clinic, which is already heaving with people and germs.

`Fine.'

`And how do you really feel?' she presses.

`Tired,' I admit, although actually I'm beyond exhausted. So knackered and sore I could barely get out of bed. `My throat hurts.' Probably from shouting all day at the regatta.

`Saturday was quite a shock,' she says.

`I'm so worried.'

I hardly slept last night thinking of the accident. Of one of my best friends being stuck in hospital.

`I know,' says Mum, patting my knee. `We all are. Any news?'

`Nothing,' I say, shaking my phone, as if the lost news might fall out.

We sit next to the healthiest looking person in the clinic. Across the room a man wearing a chicken beanie coughs up phlegm into a dirty hanky. I breathe under my hand. I don't want to get sick before nationals. They're only a fortnight away. And then there's the AIS trials. State crew selections. This is the worst possible time to be at a doctor's surgery.

Mum talks shop with Dr Chang, who's holding a plastic container of my urine. It's bright yellow. He puts it into a plastic bag and labels it.

Funny, I thought today would be the best day of my life. I thought I'd be swimming in relief, accepting accolades and sitting up on stage with my crew. Instead, I'm wrestling in a tangle of anxiety. Waiting for a test result that might ruin all my plans.

`How are things at the Royal, Jodie?' Dr Chang asks.

`Busy,' says Mum tightly.

Mum leans into me. I can smell the garlic she had last night for dinner — sour and close in my ear. `It'll be okay, Leni,' she says. `Whatever the result.'

I look down at my hands, which are clenched shut.

`Roll up your sleeve, Leni, and let's take some bloods,' says Dr Chang. `Which is your writing hand?'

What he should be asking is, which is your turning hand on the oar? I hold out my right arm.

My head is heavy with pain and I have an urge to lie down in Mum's lap and let her stroke my forehead with her cool palm. But I'm seventeen, so that might look weird. I sit up tall as Dr Chang prepares the needles. Staring at a tatty food pyramid poster on the wall. Dr Chang's face is expressionless as he plunges the needle into my skin. He would make an excellent poker player.

`Just a couple more, you're being very brave,' he says, as if I'm a toddler. These are the longest seconds of my life. Longer than the quiet, panicky silence before the starter's gun. Longer than being six and busting to get out of bed and look at Santa's presents, longer than waiting for a winter tram in the freezing rain without an umbrella. Longer than hearing paramedics say, `I've got no pulse', when someone you love is lying on the ground, not a single part of their body moving on its own. Longer than any seconds of my life so far.

The wrong result here and everything might fall apart, even more than they have already. They might disintegrate.

CHAPTER 2

October

Six months to Head of the River

Leni

The...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: UNIV OF QUEENSLAND
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 070225326X
• ISBN 13: 9780702253263
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Buchpark GmbH; gpsr@buchpark.de; ; Krügerweg 1; Trebbin; Brandenburg; 14959; Deutschland