Stuff Happens Read Online Free PDF

chair.
    Great. Just great. I got my phone back only to lose it again. I hadn’t even had a chance to check my messages from Eddie and Christian before Dad took it off me.
    I tried asking, ‘Can I just –?’
    â€˜Nope.’ Mum shook her head.
    How was I supposed to prove I was responsible?
    I tried cleaning the dishes after dinner. Mum just said, ‘Thanks.’
    I tried tidying my room, Mum didn’t even look in when she walked past.
    I went to school, listened in class, did all my homework early and read twice as much before bed. But my parents didn’t notice.
    What more did I have to do? Wash Dad’s car?
    On Saturday, that’s what I did. I scrubbed the outside while he vacuumed the inside, and still, nothing.
    â€˜Hi Sean.’
    I looked away from the door I’d been wiping. Karlie and Angelo were standing on the footpath.
    â€˜Hey guys. What’s up?’
    Karlie said, ‘We tried calling you because we thought maybe . . .’
    I shook my head. ‘Nope. I still don’t have my phone.’
    â€˜Well, do you wanna come over for dinner?’ she asked.
    I looked at Dad. He was vacuuming under the driver’s seat.
    â€˜Dad!’ I shouted.
    He couldn’t hear me over the roar of the vacuum cleaner. I walked over and switched it off.
    â€˜Dad,’ I repeated.
    He turned back. ‘Yeah?’
    â€˜Can I go to Karlie’s for dinner?’ I asked.
    â€˜When will you be back?’
    I looked over at Karlie.
    â€˜Seven,’ she said. ‘My mum can drive you.’
    â€˜All right.’ Dad turned around. ‘Switch the vacuum cleaner back on and tell your mother.’
    I went inside, told Mum, kissed her goodbye and then hurried out to meet Karlie and Angelo with three icy poles from the freezer. Together, we walked to High Street. Karlie and her family lived on top of the café. There was an entrance between it and the laundromat next door. It opened to a narrow staircase up to their living room.
    We went straight to Karlie’s bedroom. Karlie hopped on her unmade bed – she was halfway through the crossword from today’s newspaper. Angelo sat at the computer and resumed his game – he was commanding an army invasion.
    I looked around the room. The walls were covered in posters torn out of magazines – mostly of boy bands and actors, girl stuff. She had her own noticeboard. There were photos pinned to it and a small newsletter.
    I stepped up closer. It was called
The Year Five Times
. It reminded me of the school newspaper we had back home.
    â€˜Hey, what’s this?’ I asked.
    Karlie looked up.
    â€˜Last term, we made a 5J newsletter for a project. Mr Johnson wanted us to keep going, but it was too much responsibility. We had too much classwork.’
    I mouthed the words: ‘too much responsibility’.
    â€˜I can show my parents I’m responsible by making a new issue of the newsletter,’ I said. ‘Don’t you think?’
    Karlie hesitated. ‘I dunno,’ she said. ‘It took six of us to do that one issue. I made the crossword on the back.’
    I unpinned the newsletter and turned it around. Karlie had filled in the answers.
    â€˜Then let’s do it together,’ I said. ‘Karlie, you could make another crossword. I’d just have to write a main story and maybe put some other stuff around it.’
    â€˜And we could put a Captain Wondersmash comic strip in there,’ Angelo said. He’d paused the game and swivelled around in his chair.
    He had never shown anyone his finished comics. ‘Are you sure?’ I asked.
    He nodded. Karlie had already reached for a blank piece of paper and started drawing a grid.
    If we could make a newsletter by ourselves, then there was no way Mum and Dad wouldn’t think I was responsible enough to have my own phone. And the sooner we did it, the sooner I’d have Christian and Eddie back in my