Dad"s laugh sc.r.a.ped against my skin. *I won"t add sugar today, just for you." He poured milk on his cereal.

*Suit yourself. It"s not like I care what happens to you. Anyway, I won"t be visiting you in a nursing home that smells of wee. That"s if you survive the stroke." I s.n.a.t.c.hed up my bowl and spoon and slammed my dishes into the dishwasher.

*That"s what I love most about you, Ruby. You"re a little ray of sunshine."

*I"m nothing if not honest."

I stared straight into his eyes, longing to see doubt, or at least a shadow that proved he felt something about what I knew he was doing.

He stared back, eyes clear and blue, and waved his spoon, dismissing me.

I filled a water bottle and grabbed my hat and bag from the kitchen bench.

*Where are you going?" he asked.

*Sas"s place."

*Not dressed like that."

I looked down at my ripped jeans and holey T-shirt. *She told me to wear old clothes."

*Does your mother know?"

*Yeah. I told her last night, while you were ... out."

Dad froze, spoon loaded with cereal flakes midway between his bowl and his mouth. *What is that supposed to mean?"

This was my chance to confront him, but instead, I dumped my water bottle and hat into my bag and slung the strap over my shoulder.

*Nothing."

Mojo danced around my feet. I bent to scruff her behind the ears.

*Have you fed her?" Dad"s voice was stern.

*Yeah." I walked out the door.

*What time will you be home?" yelled Dad from the table.

I took my helmet off the seat and wheeled my bike up the drive.

*Before you," I muttered.

Sas Last night I was so angry I was sure my head would explode and splatter the walls with blood and stuff, but today, my head is light and buzzing. I want to jump, skip, dance and squeal all at once, only, I don"t have time. Ruby"s on her way over and we"re meeting Khaden at the hardware store so we can buy paint and stuff for my new room. Yes-at last! For the first time in months, I can write about something fantastic that is happening, instead of whinging like Ruby.

Last night, after Mum sent the others to bed, she called me into the dining room. After the nail polish thing, I was ready for another lecture. She did give me a lecture, but not about me ignoring Dad or even about my behaviour. The lecture was about turning the back room into an office and playroom, and the dining room into a bedroom for me.

MY OWN ROOM!.

I"m so HAPPY!

Operation Own Room has worked, even though I hadn"t started it.

Yaaaayyyy! Ruby"s here.

Ruby.

Sas burst out her front door. *Ruby! This is so exciting!" She wore mint overalls and a white T-shirt, with a paisley scarf tied around her head.

*You look like something from a home renovation show."

She twirled. *Like the overalls? They were Mum"s. Can you believe she actually wore these out in the 80s?"

I leant my bike against the trunk of the birch tree. *Seriously?"

*Yep." She nodded, then grabbed me by the wrist. *Come see what I"m..." she stopped and grinned *...what we"re doing." She led me to the lounge room.

*It"s quiet. Where is everyone?"

*Mum went in to work and the girls are with friends."

I groaned. *Hey, we"re not cleaning out the back shed are we?

*Nope!" She flung open the frosted-gla.s.s sliding doors to the dining room. *We"re decorating MY bedroom."

The dining room, which had been filled with bookshelves, computer stuff, *Open House" and *For Sale" signs, was empty.

*Where is all the..."

*Junk?" said Sas, finishing my sentence. *Back room. Mum and I moved everything last night. She"s turning the back room into a study and playroom, so this is now MY s.p.a.ce!" She skipped to the centre of the room and twirled.

*Cool." Only, it didn"t look cool. There were cracks in the cream walls, dents from furniture covered the green carpet, and the gla.s.s doors were plain ugly. The windows either side of the fireplace overlooked the carport, empty except for the rubbish and recycling bins lined up along the paling fence.

Sas rushed around the room. *Curtains over the doors, for privacy and to block the light, and Mum said I can paint these gross bricks."

The glossy, brown bricks around the fireplace were worse than gross.

*So how did you get her to agree to it?"

Sas pulled a face. *Long story involving two stupid sisters, nail polish and expensive, matching doona covers." She shrugged. *And a full-on tantrum." She grinned. *The tantrum part was me." She grabbed both my hands and jumped up and down. *No more Barbies, kitten and puppy posters and c.r.a.p pop music-no offence, Ruby-and no one talking half the night."

Her excitement was contagious. Plus, I love colour. Mum reckons I have an eye for it, but Dad says it"s just a distraction and that I should spend more time doing proper homework.

I jumped too, not so much in excitement but to trample thoughts of Dad. *So, where do we start?"

*First, we shop." Sas pulled a credit card from the bib pocket. *Mum"s! But only to be used on stuff for my room, and I have to bring home the receipts. Khaden"s meeting us outside the hardware shop in..." She glanced at her watch. *We"re late!" Sas slipped the card back in her pocket and rushed to the front door. Khaden was sending a text as he leant against the hardware shop wall.

*Who are you texting?" asked Sas.

He pushed off the wall. *Taj." Khaden looked around. *Where"s your mum?"

*It"s just us," I said. *Sas has her mum"s credit card."

*So how do we get the stuff back to Sas"s place? Paint"s heavy."

*You know about Sas"s room?" I asked.

*Yeah, we talked about it last-"

*On Facebook," snapped Sas, cutting him off. *Remember, Khaden? The three of us were on chat." The look that pa.s.sed between them was almost electric.

*That"s right-chat." Khaden smiled. *So let"s do this." He led the way through the sliding doors into the cavernous store, past power tools and ladders, to the paint section. Sas chatted to him about colours as though I wasn"t there. I trailed behind feeling alone.

At a wall of paint samples, Sas groaned. *Where do I start?"

*Pick a colour you like," I said.

Sas shot me a dur look and turned back to the wall of colours. She grabbed a green circle. *This is cool, but..."

A picture from one of Mum"s magazines flashed into my mind.

*That colour would look great as a feature wall. You could mix blues, green, purple and pink with it."

As though I hadn"t spoken, Sas held the green disc to Khaden. *Too pale?"

I gritted my teeth and handed her an aqua, called Glacier.

*They"re perfect together," said Khaden, taking the sample from me and resting it against the green.

*Not too dull?" Sas asked Khaden.

*Ask Ruby, she"s the colour guru."

Sas looked me up and down.

*I saw this picture in a magazine..." Sas nodded, so I kept going, *...of a room with a feature wall with different colour dots, circles really, across it, and written above the dots in funky script was *Love to Dance". But, you"re into music, so we could write song lyrics or something instead." I lay green discs on the floor as I spoke, and dotted Lolly Pink, Prose and Snow colour chips over them. *That"s the feature wall. The rest of the room would be Glacier."

Sas squatted down and studied the colours. *That looks amazing."

Khaden whistled. *You"re good, Ruby."

*Yeah, you should be an interior designer or something," said Sas.

*Yeah, like my dad"s going to let that happen."

Sas scooped up the discs. *Let"s get this paint mixed up."

Khaden and I waited by the exit while Sas paid for paint, rollers, masking tape and sandpaper.

*How cool did it look when that guy squirted the colours into the white paint?" I said.

Khaden groaned.

*What?"

*Have a look." He nodded at Sas, who was wheeling the loaded trolley towards us. *Where are the carry bags? I am NOT carrying paint tins to the bus stop, then Sas"s place. Those wire handles hurt."

I rolled my eyes. *Carry bags?" I marched to a bin filled with cardboard boxes and chucked three into the trolley. *These are better."

*I guess," said Khaden. *But they"ll still be heavy."

*Stop whining, you baby," said Sas. She wheeled the trolley through the sliding doors and into the car park. Outside she pushed it faster, lifting her feet off the ground and coasting towards the road. A car horn blasted. Sas lowered her feet, regained control of the trolley and bowed to the driver.

Panic pressed in on me. *She"s going to push that to the bus stop, isn"t she?" I said.

Khaden shrugged. *Better than us carrying it."

I looked around me. *Yeah, but..."

Khaden"s laugh was so loud, I jumped. *Ruby, ease up! It"s a trolley, not a bomb."

*There are fines for taking trolleys out of the car park."

We"d caught up with Sas, who shook her head. *Ruby, you need to toughen up."

*What"s that supposed to mean?"

*You"re chicken s.h.i.t."

*No, you are," said Khaden before I could say anything. *You"re scared of getting into trouble. I thought you were going to cry at the pool yesterday."

*You should have seen her face when I handed her my phone at school, Khade." Sas checked for traffic, before pushing the trolley to the median strip. *What did you write for that essay, Ruby?"

*Which essay?"

Sas sighed. *The "do one thing a day that scares you" essay."

*I wrote about how we need to challenge ourselves, try new stuff."

*Exactly!" crowed Sas. *And that"s what we are doing!"

*But-"

*Come on Ruby, doing stuff like the phone thing at school and making Khaden talk to that girl at the beach-it"s fun."

*The bombs at the pool were epic," said Khaden. *And Sas, her name was Erica."

Sas glared at him before speaking. *So doing this stuff makes life interesting, Ruby, makes us interesting." She thrust the trolley at me. *Your turn."