Part 9 (1/2)

Camilla thought for a moment. 'No problem,' she declared and Olivia wanted to weep with relief. 'I can write out most of the kisses and you don't have to do it for real in rehearsal.'

Olivia almost broke into a cheer, until Camilla said, 'But there's no way of taking out the last kiss, in the last scene. You will have to kiss Garrick once for the performance.'

Olivia sighed.

'Is there something you're not telling me?' Camilla prompted. 'I may be your director, but I'm your friend first.'

Olivia confessed about not having kissed Jackson yet. 'Having Garrick Stevens as my first kiss would be worth disconnecting my power supply to prevent.'

'Hm,' Camilla said. 'That does present a problem. But it's nothing a little cyborg stalking can't fix.'

'Huh?'

'You've got about ten days before the performance, right?' Camilla prompted.

'Right,' Olivia agreed.

'That means you have approximately two hundred and forty hours to get your dream hunk cyborg boyfriend to kiss you,' she explained. 'Preferably more than once. That way, Garrick's kiss will be a blip on the radar screen of love.'

Olivia giggled. 'Only you could explain it like that.'

Camilla winked at her. 'I have to get back,' she said, jumping down. 'See you in a few minutes?'

Olivia nodded and Camilla left.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Two hundred and forty hours. Camilla was right. Her new mission was to get Jackson to kiss her at all costs.

Chapter Seven.

'Where is he?' Olivia said aloud, searching through the crowds of students leaving their after-school activities. She was on the top step, just outside the huge school doors, but couldn't spot her boyfriend anywhere.

She'd successfully fended off Garrick for the remainder of the rehearsal and Camilla praised her when she tried out the gazelle plus robot movements.

But when Camilla had let them go, Jackson had darted off, thwarting her efforts to put Operation Cyborg Smooching into action.

'There!'

He was wearing a crash helmet with a visor to avoid being recognised by any eager fans, but she knew his light-blue eco-warrior s.h.i.+rt. He was unlocking his bike from the rack.

She bolted down the steps, narrowly missing knocking over a sixth-grader carrying some science experiment involving lots of gla.s.s tubes and something that smelled like rotten eggs.

'Hey!' she called to Jackson.

'Olivia!' He pushed up the visor and grinned. 'I thought you'd already left.'

Kiss me, kiss me! She wanted to shout, but she had to stay casual. 'Nope, still here.'

'Well, see you tomorrow,' he said, giving her a hug.

'How about not?' she said. 'I mean, how about seeing me now?'

Jackson looked confused. 'Do you mean in some other way than me looking at you looking at me?'

Arg! Why is this so complicated? Olivia thought. 'Yes, I mean, do you want to go to the mall? For a snack or something? Do you have time?'

'Time for my beautiful girlfriend?' he said. 'Of course.'

They sat down in the food court at a corner table, with Jackson facing the wall to minimise how often he got recognised.

Olivia was chewing on her fingernails again.

She'd tried to kiss him on the walk over, but with him wheeling his bike, it was hard to get into range. When they'd walked past the fountain in the mall, she thought he was going to kiss her, but he was just looking at the tennis rackets in the window of Sports Selector.

Now that they were sitting down, it was going to be even harder. She had always thought of the tables in the food court as small, but this one felt like Mount Everest now that she was planning on kissing the boy on the other side of it.

I'll practically have to flip over it to get to him! she thought.

'Are you OK?' Jackson asked.

'Huh?' Olivia replied. 'I mean, yes, I'm fine.'

Now, should I go over the French fries or around the ketchup bottle? Olivia wondered.

'Are you feeling faint?' Jackson was watching her closely. 'You seem to be swaying.'

'Ha!' Olivia tried to laugh nonchalantly and wave away his concern, but she knocked over the salt and pepper shakers and sent them flying. 'Everything's great!'

You can't be happy that I'm going to kiss Garrick before you! Olivia thought. So why don't you kiss me and make this all so much easier?

She placed her hands on the table, lifted herself slightly off her chair, leaned across and ... head-b.u.t.ted the tray of cakes and sodas being carried by the waitress who was bringing over the rest of their order.

It didn't hurt, but everything went flying with an embarra.s.sing clatter and smash. Jackson was doused with soda and Olivia had cake splattered all over her white-and-yellow sweater.

'Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry,' she said to Jackson and to the waitress.

The waitress grabbed them some napkins and Olivia wished she could disappear into the palm fronds behind her. 'Hey aren't you Jackson Caulfield?'

Covered in sticky soda, poor Jackson gave a weak smile. 'Yup, that's me!' Then he had to sign one of the napkins for the waitress.

'I'd better head home and take a shower,' Jackson said, after the waitress had skipped off to show her friends.

'Yes, yes, of course,' Olivia stuttered, her cheeks colouring. All she really wanted to say was, Kiss me, you fool!

He gave her an awkward hug goodbye and left.

'That could not have gone any worse,' Olivia said to no one, burying her head in her hands.