Valkyrie yawned and opened one eye. She was lying in bed, the blanket wrapped around her like a cocoon. She sat up slowly, spotting Skulduggery standing in front of the full-length mirror, adjusting his tie.
'Morning, Mr. Vanity.' She said. He spun round to look at her.
'Ah, you're up. Sleep well?' She shrugged.
'My bed kept creaking but, you know, fine. What are we planning to do today?'
'Well, I phoned a few people, and got our hire car changed.' Valkyrie grinned.
'Thank-you! What's it like?' He grabbed her hairbrush off the desk and threw it at her.
'Get ready and dressed first.' She rolled her eyes.
'Yes mother.'
Skulduggery and Valkyrie walked out of the hotel, Skulduggerys façade with sandy shaggy hair and dark brown eyes, Valkyrie wearing a deep green T-shirt and jeans.
'Where did they say the new car is?' She asked. Skulduggery pointed at a line of cars ahead of them. They both walked in front of it and checked the number-plate on the set of keys for it. Skulduggery tried each cars lock. He got to the last car, and tried opening it. The key fitted perfectly. His eyes flickered up to meet Valkyries. She looked at the car and ginned. Skulduggerys mouth broke into a proper boys grin and opened the car door.
'Ma'am.' Skulduggery said. Valkyrie nodded royally and snaked into the jet black Audi 5 convertible. Skulduggery sat in the driver's seat next to Valkyrie, pressed a button, and the roof slowly folded away. He started the ignition and backed out of the parking space. Valkyrie let her hair wave behind her with the wind as they sped down the road.
'Whoever chose this car, I'm going to marry them!' Valkyrie said. Skulduggery laughed.
'I'm sure they'd appreciate it.' She smirked and switched on the radio. 'Into the night' boomed out of the speakers. Valkyrie laughed and danced in her seat as Skulduggery tapped out the rhythm on the wheel.
'Singing ay-o-ay-ooo-ay-oo-ay!' Valkyrie sang, and threw her arms up into the open air. Skulduggery grinned and sped up slightly, singing along with the chorus.
'Where are we going?' He asked. Valkyrie grabbed the map that came with the car and flicked through the first few pages. She spotted what she was looking for and picked out the route.
'Go straight ahead and turned left.' He narrowed his eyes at her.
'Why, what's there?' she grinned.
'Trust me.' He sighed, but obliged.
Skulduggery braked the car and looked up at the Sydney Opera House. Valkyrie jumped out, switched on her camera, and started taking photos. Skulduggery pressed a button to fold the roof back on and stood out next to her.
'Why did you want to come here?'
'Because I'm in Australia!'
'I know, but I mean, did you want to do and see a show or something?' She looked at him.
'Whhhy?' She said, dragging out the word.
'What? I'm just asking!' She grinned.
'No, I'm okay-what I really want to do is…' She pointed behind Skulduggery. He turned around to see a large building with signposts of brand-names around it in the distance. He turned back round to Valkyrie.
'…Shopping.' He said. She grinned and tugged on his arm.
'Shopping time!' He staggered, trying to stay put.
'No.'
'Yes, come on.' Skulduggery shook his head.
'But I hate shopping!'
'So? We're going shopping.'
'No, we're, not!'
'Yes, we, are!'
'I refuse.' He said, and turned away, walking back to the car. Valkyrie sighed, reached around and grabbed his tie, tugging it towards her. Skulduggery lurched back towards her, inches away from her face.
'Yes we are.' She said, grinning. He looked at her and pulled his tie back.
'…Fine.' Valkyrie smirked and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the shopping centre.
Skulduggery and Valkyrie wandered through the shopping centre, Skulduggery weighed down with different shopping bags, as Valkyrie peered through shop windows.
'No more shops now.' Skulduggery groaned. Valkyrie looked at him.
'One more.' She said, walking into a bookshop. He sighed.
Valkyrie wandered through the shelves of paperbacks, breathing in their soft, musty, friendly smell. She looked over her shoulder; when she didn't see Skulduggery, she looked through the shelves of teenage romances, then classics, then modern classics. Skulduggery walked into the bookshop, pushing politely passed families looking through the children's books about caterpillars' and dogs called Spot; teenagers sobbing over books about vampires, young teenagers chatting richly about skeleton detectives and eleven year-old spies.
Valkyrie looked up from the book she was reading to see Skulduggery approaching her. She was sitting back in a leather chair, reading Jane Eyre.
'Bag-less?' She said.
'I put them in the car-what are you reading?' Valkyrie showed him the front cover, and closed the book. Skulduggery looked at the shelf of Classics, as did Valkyrie. He picked up War & Peace and sat down next to Valkyries seat. She sat next to Skulduggery, opening the book she chose. He looked up to see her reading Lady Chatterley's Lover.
'Whoa!' He yelped, snatching it off her. She looked at him, frowning.
'Hey!' Skulduggery dropped the on the book on the ground and glared at her.
'Why on earth are you reading…that kind of thing?'
'I told you, I'm intrigued.'
'Intrigued are you? Well…' He picked up the book, flicked through and read, very loudly, one of the so-called 'key-parts'. Heads turned, conversations ended abruptly, ears of small children were covered by anxious parents. Valkyries eyes widened and her face reddened with embarrassment.
'Skulduggery!' She poked his side. He stopped reading aloud and looked up from the book. Everyone was staring at them in utter silence. Valkyrie tugged at his sleeve.
'I…think we should go.' She whispered. He nodded slowly.
'Agreed.' They looked at each other, and bolted out of the book-shop.
