Katie's Secret Admirer

by Holly Webb

  “Told you!” Katie stretched, and heaved herself off the sofa. “Hey, we need to order pizza. I’ll grab the menu – and then I’ve got a game while we’re waiting.” She grinned to herself as she nipped into the kitchen for the menu – she was looking forward to this.

  It took a good ten minutes to work out what to order – and Megan was practically exiled for wanting anchovies. They ended up compromising on pineapple – as Katie said, “At least you can see pineapple if you want to pick it off. I wouldn’t even know what an anchovy looked like!”

  Once they’d phoned the order through, Katie quickly moved the coffee table, and the various cushions and bowls of snacks out of the way. Then she nipped out to the hall cupboard, where she’d stashed her creation from earlier, and carried it in.

  The others stared as she struggled in with it – it was massive.

  “What is that?” Becky asked, coming to help as Katie tried to turn it the right way round. Suddenly the others started to giggle. Katie had made a huge figure out of balloons, covered it in some old clothes, and taped a paper face on to it. The face wasn’t particularly recognizable, but the hair gave it away. It might only be yellow tissue paper, but somehow Katie had managed to give the balloon boy exactly Josh’s floppy blond hairdo.

  “I thought you might enjoy this, Bel – it’s therapy! We’re going to squish Josh.” Katie stretched the figure out on the carpet. “OK – count of three, we all jump on him. Ready? One – two – three!”

  Stamping, jumping and laughing, the six of them burst all the balloons – and Katie had used two whole packets. Eventually they sank back on to the sofa in a giggling pile, and Katie nudged Bel – “Feel better?”

  “Definitely!” Annabel sighed happily. “This is great! Loads more fun than yesterday.”

  “Yeah!” the others agreed, still breathless, and Megan summed it up – “Katie, you’re a star. This was the best idea ever!”

  Katie smiled. Valentine’s Day had turned out to be excellent fun after all!

  Read the opening of the next Triplets book:

  Becky gazed at her reflection in the mirror and smiled delightedly. She’d never worn anything like this dress before – it was beautiful. She bounced on her toes slightly, and watched the layers of silky skirts ruffle and flounce. It was fab!

  “Ftand ftill a minute, dear,” muttered the dressmaker through a mouthful of pins. “Jutht need to get the hem level.” She crawled round Becky on her knees, adding a pin here and there.

  It was the final fitting for the dresses that the triplets were to wear as bridesmaids at their Auntie Jan’s wedding in three weeks’ time. Becky was really excited – none of the triplets had been bridesmaids before, and she and Annabel had been talking about it for ages.

  Carefully making sure she didn’t move a muscle from the neck down, Becky glanced over at Annabel – her dress had been adjusted first, and now she was peacocking in front of the mirrors that surrounded the workroom, clearly even more entranced than Becky was. Annabel had played Cinderella in the school pantomime last term, and had a beautiful costume, but this dress was even better.

  Auntie Jan was a journalist for a smart homes magazine, and she was very stylish. Her wedding was being perfectly designed down to the very last rose petal, and everything was colour-coordinated. Auntie Jan’s dress was going to be made of silver-grey raw silk and she was going to have flowers in shades of purple and mauve, and an amethyst tiara. So the triplets’ dresses had silvery-white bodices with lilac-coloured skirts to match.

  Becky looked at her reflection again, almost shyly – it seemed hard to believe that the princess-like figure in the mirror was her! The silvery-white fabric of the dress brought out the deep blue of her eyes, and made her long golden-blonde hair all sparkly. Next to her Annabel seemed to be thinking the same thing. As the dressmaker heaved herself up off her knees with a sigh, Annabel tiptoed over, moving super-carefully in the precious dress. She stood close to Becky and they gazed at the effect of the gorgeous, identical dresses.

  “We look fantastic,” said Annabel smugly. She’d never had a problem with false modesty.

  Becky grinned at her – she’d never have said it herself, but yes, they did! She looked over her shoulder for Katie, wanting her to share in the excitement. Her other triplet was standing in the corner, waiting for the dressmaker to make the alterations to her dress, and she looked about as unexcited as Becky had ever seen her. In fact, she looked downright sulky. She’d kept her trainers on, and she was irritably scraping the toe of one back and forth on the carpet, and not even looking at herself in the mirror!

  “Katie!” Annabel hissed. “Come over here! I want to see all of us together!”

  Katie looked round, and shrugged, and just then the dressmaker, who’d been consulting with Mum about something, bustled back over with her pins and shooed Katie towards the centre of the room.

  “This is really so exciting,” she continued, still talking to Mum. “I’ve made dresses for twins before, but never triplets, and they’re so completely identical! No one will be able to tell them apart in these frocks.”

  Mum smiled, but cast a slightly worried glance over at the triplets. They generally weren’t keen on dressing alike – she’d had tantrums from them before about wearing matching outfits that their Gran had sent them.

  Katie stomped grimly into the middle and stood there, looking as unlike a bridesmaid as it was possible to do in a sticky-out net-skirted dress. She looked like she was going to bite the next person who mentioned the word wedding.

  Becky sighed. Katie just wasn’t a dress person – and as for crystal jewellery, and posies, and high-heeled lilac satin slippers… She moaned every time they had to go to a dress fitting, and whenever Auntie Jan rang up with more wedding ideas she rolled her eyes horribly, but Becky hadn’t quite realized how much she meant it. Looking at her now, Becky was starting to feel a teensy bit worried. Katie wasn’t going to scowl like that all the way through the wedding, was she…?

  Annabel didn’t seem to have noticed the danger signs. “Katie! You’ve still got your trainers on, you muppet! You need to put the proper shoes on, or the dress won’t hang right!” She clicked her tongue exasperatedly, and exchanged an “honestly!” look with the dressmaker.

  Katie sullenly went back to get the high-heeled shoes that the dressmaker had lent them to try on with the dresses, and Becky nudged Annabel. “Do you think she’s OK?”

  Annabel gave her a blank look. Most of her brain was filled with sparkly net just now.

  Becky went on trying to explain, although she had a suspicion that Annabel wasn’t actually capable of processing the idea that someone could not like this dress. “She looks – cross.”

  Annabel gave Katie a vague glance. “No, she’s OK. She’s just bored standing around, that’s all. Look, Becky, do you think that this dress needs something – I don’t know, more twinkly about it? I wish Auntie Jan had gone for that bead decoration I pointed out to her in last month’s Brides magazine. It would have just added that extra something.” Annabel pirouetted in front of the mirror, scowling thoughtfully. Perhaps she could … no, that wouldn’t be fair … but then again … the other two wouldn’t mind, would they? Deep in her daydreams of crystal beads, she entirely failed to register Katie’s miserable face, and the concern in Becky’s eyes.

  Mum didn’t seem to have spotted Katie’s bad mood either – she was inspecting the prices of shoes and tiaras and things, and looking slightly worried.

  It was definitely up to Becky to do something. She left Annabel trying to work out from which side she looked nicest, and went over to Katie, carefully gathering up the skirt of her dress – it wasn’t finally sewn yet, and it was delicate. She edged around the dressmaker, who was measuring Katie’s hemline, and stood next to her sister, mulling over the best way to cheer her up. Of course – Katie had been at football practice that morning
, and she’d been trying to explain Mrs Ross’s new team strategy to them all in the car on the way into town earlier, but Becky hadn’t really understood it. Well, she hadn’t exactly been concentrating – she tended to zone out when Katie went into football-speak. Now she decided to sacrifice herself. “Katie?”

  “Mmm?” It was partly a growl.

  “You know that football thing you were telling us about earlier? The thing Mrs Ross is doing?”

  “Mmm?” Slightly less growly, but a bit suspicious-sounding.

  “Well, can you tell me about it again, ’cause I didn’t get it.”

  Katie brightened up, and automatically unslumped herself.

  “That’th lovely, dear, jutht like that,” murmured the dressmaker, who’d been trying to get her to stand up straight for ages.

  Katie twitched irritably, but ignored the impulse to kick the stupid dress out of her way. Eagerly she beckoned her sister closer, and Becky gave a secret sigh of relief. Katie had taken the bait. Now, if she could just keep her amused for the rest of the fitting, Katie might forget how bored she was with the whole process. Becky screwed up her face in concentration and prepared to get her head round the complicated explanation that Katie was clearly about to launch into.

  “OK, so which bit didn’t you understand?” Katie asked enthusiastically.

  “All of it,” said Becky firmly. She might as well do it properly – in for a penny, in for a pound, as Mum sometimes said.

  “Well, Mrs Ross reckons we need to learn to be more versatile. She reckons that if we understand how every player in the team works, then we’ll know what to expect from them, right?”

  “Ye-es,” agreed Becky cautiously. This sounded like sense as far as she could see – Katie hadn’t gone into football gobbledegook yet.

  “OK, so obviously a striker plays really differently to a defender, yes? And a goalie is just like another kind of thing altogether, so it’s really difficult adjusting to the different style of play, but it’s going to be completely excellent because…” Becky drifted slightly here. She’d caught sight of herself in The Dress (it definitely had capital letters) in the mirror, and she was imagining what her boyfriend, David, would think if he could see her. She smiled happily to herself. There were bound to be loads of photos taken at the wedding. Maybe she could give one of them to David? She had a picture of him that had been taken by chance at the triplets’ birthday party last term, but she didn’t think he had a photo of her except for silly ones on his phone. She imagined him putting it in a frame and keeping it in his room, and it gave her a little glow inside. Then she jumped – Katie had stopped and was giving her an enquiring look. Becky shot a panicky glance from side to side, but there was no one to help her out, so she plumped for a fifty-fifty chance.

  “Oh yes! Definitely!” she exclaimed, nodding furiously, and gazing hopefully at Katie.

  Katie looked a bit surprised. She’d just asked Becky if she wanted to meet up with her and Megan in the park the next day so she could demonstrate what she’d been talking about, and she really hadn’t expected such an enthusiastic reaction.

  “Cool! I said to Megan that we’d meet up tomorrow afternoon – she’s going to show me some of her goalie moves and I’m giving her pointers on passing. You can try and put some shots past me too!”

  Becky realized too late what she’d got herself into and thought fast. “Is it OK if Fran comes too? I said I’d go for a long walk with her and Feathers tomorrow.” Actually this had only been a vague suggestion rather than a plan, but Becky reckoned having Fran and Feathers around for the football training session might make it a lot more fun.

  “Course!” Katie sounded so happy that Becky felt a little bit guilty. But at least she’d got her sister out of the glooms, that was the important thing.

  And with perfect timing, the dressmaker slid the last pin into the hem of Katie’s dress. “Done. You look lovely, dear.”

  Katie just sniffed, and raced – as much as she could in a floor-length dress – to get changed.

  Mum spotted her and realized that the fitting was finished. “Oh good – can you two go and get changed as well? Then we can have a look at all the other bits you need.”

  Annabel had looked mutinous at the idea of taking the gorgeous creation off, but when Mrs Ryan mentioned accessories she moved nearly as fast as Katie had, and it wasn’t long before all three triplets were back in their own clothes and gathering round their mother.

  Becky grinned to herself as she saw Katie. Now that her sister was wearing her own jeans, trainers and purple hooded fleecy top, she looked like she could breathe again. Of course the dress hadn’t actually been made with a corset, but it just seemed to have that effect on Katie. It was nice to be able to move without panicking that you were going to tread on the dress, or tear it, or do something else awful, though. Becky felt a bit more relaxed now that she was back in her own green cords and favourite cat T-shirt. Annabel was the only one of the three of them who looked as though she’d felt more comfortable in the dress than she did in her own denim skirt, stripy tights and silver Kickers, Becky mused. Although Bel loved those boots so much that Becky was surprised she wasn’t arguing to wear them to the wedding – after all, they’d fit in with Auntie Jan’s silver and lilac theme…

  But now, Bel was looking blissed out by the selection of shoes that was currently being waved under her nose. Mum usually wasn’t that keen on the triplets wearing high-heeled shoes, but the wedding seemed to have put that out of her mind. Apparently, heels were a necessity for bridesmaids, although Katie did try and argue for the pretty and, more importantly, flat ballet pumps. Annabel was disgusted.

  “Katie! Those are for three year olds! Are you mad?”

  “No!” Katie snapped back. “I just don’t fancy breaking my neck in those!” She glared crossly at the strappy, silver, high-heeled sandals that Annabel was ogling. “And have you forgotten that this wedding is in the middle of April? Those are going to be really fun if it pours with rain.”

  “It won’t,” said Annabel with supreme confidence.

  “How do you know?” Katie asked, slightly disconcerted by Annabel’s certainty.

  “Because. It just won’t.”

  Katie smirked, and Mum decided it was definitely time to intervene. “I do think those are a bit too summery, Bel. But these ones are nice, don’t you think?” She held up a pair they’d seen already, that actually looked a bit like the ballet shoes, only with small heels. “They’re very like the ones you wanted, Katie,” Mum continued, in a peacemaking tone of voice. “Becky? What do you think? Do you like them?”

  “Yes, they’re sweet.” Becky was uncomfortably aware that she might just have got on the wrong side of both sisters at once – the shoes were pretty, but they weren’t nearly glamorous enough for Bel, and they were far too fancy for Katie. As Mum and the dressmaker decided that those were definitely the right ones, Becky sighed. Annabel and Katie were still muttering insults at each other. (“You’re crazy!” “Well, you look like you bought all your clothes at a jumble sale – a really bad jumble sale!”) She had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be the only time between now and the wedding that she would be playing piggy in the middle…

  HOLLY has always loved animals. As a child, she had two dogs, a cat, and at one point, nine gerbils (an accident). Holly’s other love is books. Holly now lives in Reading with her husband, three sons and a very spoilt cat.

  TEN QUICK QUESTIONS FOR HOLLY WEBB

  Kittens or puppies? Kittens

  Chocolate or Sweets? Chocolate

  Salad or chips? Chips

  Favourite websites? Youtube, Lolcats

  Text or call? Call

  Favourite lesson at school? Ancient Greek (you did ask…)

  Worst lesson at school? Physics

  Favourite colour? Green

  Favourite film? The Sound o
f Music

  City or countryside? Countryside, but with fast trains to the city!

  Scholastic Children’s Books

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  First published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2005

  This electronic edition published by Scholastic Ltd, 2014

  Text copyright © Holly Webb, 2005

  Cover illustration copyright © Michelle Breen, 2014

  The right of Holly Webb to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her.

  eISBN 978 1407 14745 1

  A CIP catalogue record for this work is available from the British Library.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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