Katie's Secret Admirer

by Holly Webb

  Katie looked almost reluctantly – Megan’s face had been worried, and she wasn’t sure she could cope with more stuff going wrong. She saw immediately what Megan had meant. Amy wasn’t standing next to Emily any more, and she certainly wasn’t watching Cara. Demurely fiddling with a lock of her long strawberry-blonde hair, she was gazing up at Josh Matthews as though she thought he was the most interesting person in the world, and batting her eyelashes at him. And Josh was positively lapping it up. As Katie watched, he smirked at Amy, and put an arm round her shoulders – just like he’d done with Annabel the day before!

  Katie had to concentrate very hard to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s dreadful performance. Thoughts were racing through her head – that she had been right all along, that Josh was a two-timing snake…

  Mrs Ross drew the agonizing practice to a close and they had to run the gauntlet of the boys to get back into school and change – but Katie couldn’t care less about their jeering remarks.

  “Well spotted,” she muttered bitterly to Megan, storming ahead. “I knew it! But Amy? Wow, I thought he had better taste than that.”

  “Scary, isn’t it?” Megan agreed.

  “What am I going to say to Bel? That’s the real problem,” Katie groaned. “She’s not going to believe me – she thinks the sun shines out of his eyes.”

  Megan looked thoughtful. “You know, I’m not sure you should say anything to her.”

  Katie turned round in shock. “What? I can’t just leave it!”

  Megan stopped walking and folded her arms, forcing Katie to come back to her reluctantly. “You can, you know. Bel can sort herself out. You and Becky have said loads of times that you think Josh is bad news, and she’s never believed you. You’re just going to have to let her work it out. Sooner or later she’ll realize.”

  “But – ” Katie got that far and stopped. She could see Megan was making sense, it was just so against her nature to abandon Annabel to her fate – she always rescued her sisters. Megan was right though – sometimes there was no telling Annabel – especially when it came to her specialist subject – boys. And it wasn’t as if Katie could prove he’d been flirting with Amy – if Annabel asked him he’d probably just say that he couldn’t get rid of her. Josh was easily smart enough to come up with a story on the spot.

  Katie sighed. Megan was right – maybe she had to let it go. And that meant that she just had to wait for everything to go wrong for Annabel…

  Chapter Seven

  It was so difficult for Katie to watch Annabel and Josh together and not say anything. She didn’t think that he’d spotted her and Megan watching him with Amy, but maybe he had and he just didn’t care? He turned up to chat to Annabel in the bit of lunch that was left after the practice, and he seemed to be smirking whenever Katie looked at him (which was as little as possible). Several times that afternoon Katie nearly blurted out what she’d seen, but something always stopped her. Generally it was the blissful expression on Bel’s face as she daydreamed her way through lessons. It was not the face of someone who wanted to be told that their boyfriend was a louse.

  When they got home on Tuesday night she did tell Becky, who wasn’t at all surprised.

  “Poor Bel! That’s so awful, she’ll be gutted! David’s always said how mean Josh is, but I never thought he’d do something like that.”

  A flash of irritation lit up in Katie. Honestly! Didn’t Becky even think without David these days? But Becky didn’t seem to notice. She was surprised that Katie didn’t want to tell Annabel what was going on, though.

  “But we have to tell her!” she said, stroking one of her bunches against her cheek worriedly. “We have to, Katie! We can’t let her go on thinking how wonderful he is, that’s not fair!”

  Katie shrugged. Megan’s common sense had worked on her by now, however much she didn’t want it to. “You tell her then.”

  Becky put the end of her hair in her mouth, and chewed it, her eyes panicky.

  “Becky, there’s no point in telling her, because she just won’t believe us, and we’ll only make her upset – and angry with us too. And if she’s not talking to us there’ll be nobody to help her sort it out when it all goes pear-shaped. All Josh actually did was talk to Amy – and put his arm round her. I mean, you could see they were flirting, but we can’t prove it.”

  “I can’t believe you’re so calm about this.” Becky sounded quite hurt – it seemed almost as if Katie didn’t care.

  Katie sighed exasperatedly. “I’m not calm! I wanted to go and throttle him, and that rat Amy! But I talked about it with Megan after practice, and she made me see that there was no point trying to rescue Bel when she doesn’t want to be rescued. We just have to wait.”

  Becky managed to look even more hurt – she did that trick where her eyes seemed to be swimming in tears, which in Katie’s current mood just made her want to throttle Becky as well as Josh and Amy.

  “Don’t look at me like that! Megan was there and you weren’t. You were probably painting hearts with David, or talking to David, or thinking about David.”

  Katie glared at her sister and stomped out of the room, starting to feel really, really guilty before she’d even got to the door…

  Becky clearly felt that she’d been letting Katie down – she was very good at assuming things were her fault, and she’d taken her sister’s outburst to heart. She didn’t (surprise, surprise) take it on herself to say anything to Annabel, though she did look edgy and worried when her sister started trying to decide exactly which film stars Josh looked most like. They’d been doing their homework, her and Katie at the big table in their room, and Annabel on the stairs. Annabel had rushed into the bedroom with a piece of paper, one that she was waving far too excitedly for it to be her science homework. It turned out that she’d adapted the flow chart they were supposed to be producing to detail all the features of the various actors, and then work out whose nose Josh had. She was disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm from Katie and Becky.

  “I was going to cut out the different bits of the faces from magazines and everything,” she finished grumpily. “What are you two looking so miserable for?”

  “We’re doing homework, Bel,” muttered Katie irritably, and Annabel sighed in disgust, grabbed a couple of magazines and a pair of scissors, and vanished in a twirl of flounced denim skirt.

  “You’re right.”

  Katie glanced up from the proper kind of flow chart again. “What?”

  “I’m saying that I’m sorry, you’re right about her and Josh.” Becky gazed hopefully at her with her huge dark-blue eyes. “And I’m sorry I’ve been hanging around with David so much, I didn’t realize it was getting to you.”

  “Not getting to me,” Katie muttered, feeling ashamed of herself. “David’s really nice. I’m sorry.”

  “Anyway, I’m going to be more thoughtful from now on – I feel really bad. Fran’s probably sick of me being with David all the time as well, and I didn’t even realize!”

  Katie sighed. “I bet she isn’t. I’m just being grumpy because I’m worried about Bel. And – well, other stuff.”

  She looked thoughtfully at Becky and considered telling her sister about her suspicions to do with Mum and Mr Cooper. But she really didn’t want to have the same conversation all over again – this time about Mum and Max’s dad instead of Josh and Annabel. And she could just imagine Becky’s reaction. Panic, loads of questions as Becky tried to get her head round the idea, and general fuss and bother. She shuddered slightly. She just didn’t feel like dealing with that right now.

  Becky raised an eyebrow enquiringly, and Katie had to think of something:

  “You know, football – I’m still really cross about how badly I did at that practice on Saturday, and I think everyone else in the team is going to hold it against me for ages. Mrs Ross has still picked me for tomorrow’s match, but she easily might not have done. I�
��ve got to be really careful, play extra well.”

  Becky nodded understandingly, and reached over to pat her arm. “Don’t worry – you will. You always pull it off in the end, don’t you?” She smiled encouragingly, but despite Becky’s trust in her, Katie was left feeling that this time she was up to her neck in a whole load of complicated stuff that she just might not be able to sort out.

  It didn’t help that Mum was definitely being a bit weird. She was even more forgetful than usual and a couple of times Katie had noticed her on the phone being quite giggly and smiley. She seemed to be really entering in to the whole Valentine’s Day thing, as well, and on Wednesday at breakfast she even asked Katie whether she wanted some heart-shaped cakes for the sleepover party.

  “Mum! It’s meant to be an anti-Valentine’s Day party! Of course I don’t want heart-shaped cakes!”

  “Oh yes, darling, I’m sorry, I forgot for a minute.” Mum smiled vaguely at her.

  “So what kind of cakes do you want?” Annabel asked, in a rather patronizing voice. “Footballs?” She sniggered into her cereal.

  Katie scowled. “How about we make some heart-shaped ones and tear them in half,” she growled. Then she slapped her toast down on the plate and went out to get her books ready for school, leaving the rest of her family staring after her in surprise.

  Katie’s walk to school could just about be described as with her sisters, but only loosely. She stalked about five metres ahead of them the whole way – and that set the tone for the rest of the day.

  “Have you had a fight with Becky and Bel?” Megan asked as they were changing into their kit after school.

  “Not really. It’s just like our entire house is being taken over by Valentine’s Day and I got a bit annoyed about it at breakfast. Why?”

  “Ummm, I don’t know. They haven’t spoken to you much all day. And they keep looking at you as though you’re a bomb that might go off any minute.”

  “Huh. Well, I feel a bit like that. I’ve got too many things I’m not telling too many people. It’s horrible.” Katie paused. “You do know how grateful I am to you for putting up with my moaning, don’t you?” she added, smiling a bit shamefacedly.

  Megan just grinned at her. “It’s fine – don’t start stressing about that as well.”

  Katie grinned back, relieved. “I tell you what though, I’m really looking forward to this game.” She slammed her locker door shut so hard that the whole row shuddered, and the rest of the team, scattered round the changing rooms, stared at her. She giggled. St Luke’s had better watch out!”

  St Luke’s certainly weren’t prepared for the avenging angel that was Katie Ryan that afternoon. And the rest of her team looked a bit bemused as well. It wasn’t that Katie was playing selfishly – Sarah and Cara still got plenty of time with the ball – but somehow, whenever the play was up front, Katie seemed to be in exactly the right place at the right time with a very determined expression on her face. By half-time Manor Hill were three goals up, and the St Luke’s team were displaying a range of grimaces from confused to upset via very, very sulky.

  “Wow!” Megan handed Katie a cup of orange squash and grinned at her. “I should think you need that. Two goals! And setting that one up for Sarah! Can we get you really annoyed before all the league matches? I haven’t had to do anything; I felt like leaning on the goalpost and having a snooze.”

  Mrs Ross happened to be right behind Megan, to hear this, unfortunately, but thankfully she didn’t take it too seriously. She did decide it was time for a team pep-talk though.

  “Right, listen up everybody! You’ve played brilliantly today – so far. But please don’t go getting too complacent. I know the St Luke’s coach and she’s very good. Right this minute she’s going to be telling her team that they need to pull out all the stops, and they’re going to come back on the field desperate to claw back some goals. If you’re not careful you could be in trouble – just remember that if we can score three goals in a half, so can they, and then they’d be just one away from winning. So, concentrate please, all of you!” Mrs Ross waited until the girls were all chatting amongst themselves again, and then sought out Katie, who was smiling happily into her squash. Seeing the coach coming she tried very hard to assume the expression of somebody who was not in the slightest bit complacent.

  “Well done, Katie! That was brilliant, two great goals – and I was really pleased with the goal you set up for Sarah as well. It’s great to see you girls playing for the team rather than trying to get goals for yourselves. Really good!”

  The second half was as Mrs Ross had predicted – St Luke’s were desperate. But they were so desperate that they were flailing about all over the place. Katie, watching one of their forwards lose possession to Cara through a silly mistake, felt like telling them just to calm down a bit, to stand back and think instead of running frantically after the ball with no idea what they were going to do with it if they got it.

  When they shook hands at the end of the game, Manor Hill were celebrating a four-nil win. At least something was going right, finally! The St Luke’s team climbed dismally into their minibus, and the Manor Hill girls headed off to change again.

  Katie was changed in double-quick time, eager to get off and meet Mum and tell her how brilliantly the match had gone. While she was waiting for Megan to get her socks on, she rooted round in the front of her rucksack for her lip balm, a present from Annabel that she did actually use.

  “Oh no.” Katie’s voice sounded almost frightened.

  Megan, who was hopping on one leg as she pulled her sock on, looked up in surprise and tried not to overbalance. “What’s the matter?”

  Katie pulled a familiar-looking piece of paper out of the pocket of her bag. “Look – another one.” She was holding it as though she expected it to bite her.

  “Aren’t you going to read it?” Megan asked interestedly.

  “I suppose so – I’d rather just throw it away. It might tell me who it’s from though, I guess.” She unfolded the piece of paper gingerly.

  SEE YOU AT THE VALENTINE’S BALL!

  WILL YOU DANCE WITH ME?

  Katie handed it to Megan. “Another good reason not to go to that thing,” she said disgustedly. “But Becky and Bel made me promise.”

  “Still no clue who it’s from?” Megan peered over Katie’s shoulder at the note.

  “Nope – anyone could know I’m going to the ball. Bel’s been going on about it every time she’s opened her mouth for the last week. What am I going to do? I’d almost forgotten about the last note, it was more than a week ago now. I was hoping whoever it was had given up or something.”

  “So at least you’ll probably find out who it is at the dance,” said Megan thoughtfully.

  “Great,” Katie muttered. “Then I just have to tell them to get lost. That’ll be fun.”

  The note put a damper on Katie’s excitement over the victory, and she trailed out to the car not looking like someone who’d scored two goals and been instrumental in two more.

  Mum saw her coming and put on a sympathetic face. “How did it go?”

  “Oh, we won. I scored two goals. What’s for tea?”

  Mrs Ryan looked slightly blank. She’d had understanding and reassuring mother all prepared, and now the wind had been taken out of her sails rather. “Ummm, fish pie. Er, is everything all right? Did you have an argument with Megan?”

  Katie looked thoughtfully at her mother. Was everything all right? Huh. How would Mum react if she told her what was really on her mind: “Well, I think Bel’s boyfriend is two-timing her with one of our worst enemies, some idiot’s been sending me lovenotes and I haven’t a clue who it is, and I think you might be going to date the father of the boy who deliberately crippled me last term. Hmmm, so no, not really.”

  Maybe it wasn’t a very good idea…

  Chapter Eight

  Katie d
ecided that she just had to slog through Thursday and Friday at school. It was so hard to be normal when she felt like she was holding so much back from the people she usually confided in. At least by the end of Friday evening one of her problems should be solved, although it wasn’t going to be much fun doing it. How did you tell somebody who’d been sending you love letters that you just weren’t interested? Katie was almost tempted to ask Annabel, but she seemed to be following Josh around all the time at school, and at home she was obviously just daydreaming about the next time she saw him – Katie wasn’t sure any advice from her would be worth much right now. Even Becky and Saima were getting a bit tired of Annabel’s one topic of conversation. Maybe the sleepover on Saturday would be a good time to sound out Bel about how she reckoned everything was going with him. After all, how long was Katie supposed to let her go on being messed around?

  As for the whole Mum thing, Katie hadn’t got a clue what to do. She’d noticed that Max had been behaving a bit weirdly recently. Could he have guessed what was going on as well? In geography on Friday afternoon she caught him staring at her with a really strange expression on his face. She was used to him giving her evil looks, or sneering at her, but this was different. He looked almost frightened, and when he realized she’d noticed him he ducked his head right down and stared at his book for the next ten minutes without looking up. There was no way that was normal Max behaviour. Katie felt even more worried. When it was just her and Megan with vague suspicions the whole idea had been horrible, but not very real. But if Max had noticed too…

  At the end of school that afternoon there was a noticeable air of excitement as people raced home to get changed. But Katie really wasn’t in the best place for an Annabel-style makeover. It wasn’t something she enjoyed much at the best of times, and right now she felt that looking as unattractive as possible for this party would be a good idea. She flatly refused to let Annabel curl her hair.