The Crunch Campaign by Kate Hunter

picture of them in the Great Hall.’
    â€˜Seriously?’ Katie didn’t know anyone who’d had their portrait painted. ‘How come they didn’t ask you to do it?’
    â€˜I offered, but they said the uni had commissioned a proper painter .’
    â€˜Adults can be idiots, sometimes,’ said Katie. ‘But that’s good news for us. Dom, do you think you’d be able to get out?’
    â€˜Probably. I’ll need to think how to do it, though. Auntie Elspeth is a bit uptight about studying on a Sunday night.’ He scratched his jaw. ‘But this might be a way to lure Joel out of his cave. You know how much he likes a night excursion. He won’t want to miss it.’
    â€˜Exactly!’ Katie was excited. She’d work out something to tell her mum. One problem at a time.
    â€˜So, how do we get to Rocklea?’ Lorraine wondered.
    â€˜That’s what Google’s for.’ Katie switched on one of the Macs.
    It was close to eleven when Lorraine yawned. ‘I have to go home. I’m tired.’
    â€˜Me too.’ Clementine put down her pen and flexed her hand. She’d been drawing up billboard ideas for strawberries.
    â€˜Cool,’ said Katie. ‘We can get together tomorrow. But the plan is we get the train to Sherwood at seven, then walk. It’s about two and a half kays. So no stupid shoes, Lorraine. Then we suss out the strawberry action.’
    â€˜What do you mean, stupid shoes ?’ Lorraine looked lovingly at her gumboots.
    â€˜Just don’t wear anything that’ll make you fall over, give you blisters, or make you walk on tiptoe like a mutated Barbie doll. We need to get in and out as fast as we can.’
    â€˜And we’re just going to talk to the strawberry growers, right?’ Dominic drummed his fingers on the bench. ‘Not make any ads?’
    â€˜If we can get Joel to come and bring his camera, who knows what might happen?’ Katie tried to sound more confident than she was. The whole Rocklea thing felt a bit random, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing. ‘At least if we go there we can talk to some growers and ask them how hard it is for them to sell their stuff. I can talk to the prime minister about that.’
    â€˜Do you think if I give you a coat and some boots in her size, Clara Whiting might wear them on TV sometime?’ said Lorraine. ‘It’s cold and rainy in Canberra. It’d be great publicity for LorRAINWEAR. “As worn by the prime minister of Australia”. How cool would that be?’
    â€˜You never know,’ said Katie, not thinking about it. She was wondering how she could get Dominic to stay once Clementine and Lorraine had left. It seemed important to talk to him on his own. She wasn’t sure why.
    â€˜Well, I’ll get my history assignment out of the way,’ said Clementine. ‘I’ll be over once that’s done.’
    â€˜I’ve got assignments too – and a bit of LorRAINWEAR business to deal with, then I’ll be over in sensible shoes.’ She headed for the door.
    â€˜I might hang around a bit and work out some sort of strategy for our strawberry campaign – if that’s okay?’ said Dominic. ‘Not for long, though.’
    â€˜No worries,’ said Katie, hoping that Lorraine wouldn’t read anything into the smile in her voice. ‘I’ll see Clem and Lorraine off.’
    She almost ran back to the tree office. Dominic was at a Mac, studying the screen.
    â€˜So,’ said Katie, fishing for something to say, ‘what are we going to do about Joel?’ It was weird: she so badly wanted to chat to Dominic on his own, but now that they were together, Joel was all she could think to talk about.
    â€˜Don’t know.’ He shrugged.
    The silence seemed very loud and Katie was glad when a possum scuttled across the roof.
    â€˜Katie!’ Her mum’s voice from the house