Little Bird Read Online Free PDF

before it began and life had just gone on as normal for Spence.
    What is love? A big crock, if you ask me. Look what it had done to Colette. Look where love had left me at the ripe old age of thirteen when Mum and Dad divorced. Love turned Shandra into Bridezilla. Love had stolen my best friend away. It was because of love I had to ride the school bus alone again.
    The hallway was emptying, Tegan, Blake, Spence and the music groupies were long gone. I shook myself out of my daze and rushed outside towards the school’s driveway, where the bus waited to take me rattling all around the suburbs, and, eventually, home.

5
    Shandra started her zippy black Baleno, took her foot off the brake and almost crashed into Stefan’s old ute.
    â€˜Aren’t you meant to put it in reverse?’ I asked.
    â€˜Shut up.’
    A car honked as she sped out backwards onto the road. ‘Moron,’ she muttered through her teeth, as she shoved the stick in drive. She took off down our street, screeched round the roundabout and through the suburban streets before swinging out over two lanes onto the highway with barely a glance.
    â€˜How are you still alive?’ I groaned.
    â€˜Guardian angel,’ Shandra said. ‘I think it must be Nana. Sometimes I smell tulips when I feel her spirit’s close.’
    â€˜Tulips don’t smell, do they?’
    â€˜Oh, you know. Roses or something.’ Shandra changed lanes to overtake a car sitting on the speed limit.
    â€˜Head check!’ I wailed. ‘Why would you smell roses if it was Nana? She lived in a small upstairs flat.’
    â€˜Old person smell,’ said Shandra. ‘All old ladies smell kind of flowery.’
    â€˜Nana smelt like onion soup.’ I screwed up my face, trying to recall the smell. ‘Sort of gassy. Like the end of a match.’
    â€˜Well, she wouldn’t choose to smell like that if she was a ghost, would she?’
    â€˜Hang on, is she a ghost or a guardian angel?’
    â€˜A presence?’
    Shandra accelerated, sticking her chin out fiercely, and changed lanes again. Another car swerved out of her way and blared its horn. ‘You’re just jealous because Nan loved me better than you.’
    â€˜I am so not having this conversation. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to pray quietly to Nana that she takes your licence away.’
    â€˜Go right ahead. But don’t be disappointed if she doesn’t listen to you. She always said you looked like a goblin, remember?’
    â€˜An elf! She called me her little elf.’
    â€˜Elf, goblin. What’s the diff?’
    â€˜I hate you.’
    â€˜I love you.’ Shandra smiled deeply at me.
    â€˜Watch the road. Please, watch the road.’
    Perhaps Nana was taking care of both of us because we made it to Colette’s North Hobart apartment in one piece. As we headed up the stairs, my palms became clammy with nerves. Could I do this? What if Maisy screamed the whole time Colette was gone? What about cot death and robbers and fires and terrorists?
    I wasn’t sure what I expected, but I was surprised by the clean, sparse appearance of Colette’s small flat. The front door opened straight into a living room with creamy carpet, a round rice-paper lampshade hanging overhead, two low couch-type things without backs and a long coffee table. Tucked away in a corner of the room, the smallest television I had ever seen. The best thing about the room was the view across the city to the sun setting behind Mount Wellington.
    â€˜Better give you the grand tour, Ruby-lee,’ Colette said. Her knee-length skirt was patterned with green apples and yellow lemons and it flared as she spun towards the kitchen. It worked effortlessly with her black shirt that had three-quarter length sleeves and a round collar, and bright red boots. I wrinkled my nose at my own baggy jeans and shapeless T-shirt, but even Shandra was just ordinary-pretty compared to