“I’m sure they’ll figure something out,” I said soothingly. “You do want them to play at the May Ball, don’t you?”
From the look on Molly’s face, it was touch and go. “Yeah, of course.”
Oh dear. Anjel has got some serious work to do if she wants to win over WOLF BRETHREN’S number-one fan.
It turned out to be the easiest thing ever to find out about Hannah’s ears – all I had to do was ask her. She told me she’d had it done the summer after we’d finished primary school but had kept it to herself, hoping to start St Jude’s without any jokes. It hadn’t even hurt that much, the worst bit had been having to wear a weird Professor Quirrell turban thing to keep her ears flat. I listened, storing up as much detail as I could in my head to pass on to Kelly. And then she said she didn’t mind telling me about it because she knew I could be trusted. That’s when it all went wrong, because I knew right then that I couldn’t tell Kelly anything about Hannah’s operation. Feeling a bit sick, I told Hannah how great she looked, and went to find a brick wall to bash my head against.
Sitting on the steps outside the science block, I gnawed at my fingernails until they were all gone. I’m just starting to get the hang of journalism – I had this brilliant idea for a cutting exposé about Mr Peterson’s maths class and I’ll be gutted if Kelly kicks me off the magazine. She’s always been lovely to me, of course, but what if she doesn’t understand why Hannah wants her private life to STAY private? My new career will be over before it has really begun.
I wonder if it’s too late to join the circus…
I don’t know why I was scared about telling Kelly – she couldn’t have been nicer.
“Of course I understand,” she reassured me, when I passed on the bad news about Hannah. “I can totally see why she wouldn’t want her secret splashed all over the magazine.”
I heaved a sigh of relief and made a mental note to stick my tongue out at Molly and Shenice. They’d been convinced Kelly would demand that I spilled the beans. And if anything, the fact that she was so lovely made me feel even worse that I couldn’t give her the lead she needed.
“I’m really sorry to let you down,” I mumbled. “Maybe I’m not cut out to be a journalist after all.”
“Rubbish,” she replied, with a dismissive shake of her head. “I’ll just have to find another example for my story. It’s a shame, though. Hannah was a perfect role model to other girls who are unhappy with their looks.”
She let out a wistful sigh, making me feel even worse. I hadn’t thought of it that way. But Hannah had confided in me, I couldn’t betray her, no matter how desperate I was to please Kelly. “Sorry.”
She smiled as though it didn’t matter at all. “I’ll probably shelve the whole article now.” There was a brief pause, then she went on, “I’d love to know what she had done, though. I think she’s so brave.”
I looked sideways at her. Now that I came to think about it, Hannah had been brave. Maybe she’d feel better about it if someone as popular as Kelly was on her side.
“Uh…” I hesitated.
Kelly widened her eyes. “I wouldn’t breathe a word to anyone, I swear.”
And now I had a major dilemma. On the one hand, Hannah had trusted me with her secret on the understanding that I wouldn’t share it. But on the other hand, I had Kelly, Miss Popularity and the nearest thing I had to a boss, telling me I could trust her. She seemed to genuinely care about Hannah and I wanted her to like me so much it practically hurt. And it wasn’t as though Hannah was exactly a BFF – we’d just gone to the same primary school. But deep down, I knew I shouldn’t even be thinking about spilling her secret.
“Did I mention I’m having a party in half-term?” Kelly’s voice cut casually into my thoughts. “Only my favourite people are invited.”
My heart sank further towards my feet. I wasn’t one of her favourites – how could I be when I’d failed her? She glanced over. “I think Nathan Crossfield might even be coming. And Susie Carr.”
I stared at her for a few seconds, consumed by a sudden surge of jealousy. If Nathan and Susie were going to the party then I had to be there too: I HAD to. And maybe I was making too big a deal out of all of this, anyway. It wasn’t as though I was blabbing Hannah’s secret all over school – she never needed to know I’d told anyone.
In spite of this logic, it still took almost a minute for me to wrestle my conscience to the ground. “Okay,” I said eventually, pushing the last doubts firmly to the back of my mind. “This is for your ears only…”
Chapter Nine
E-PETITION Number of signatures: 745
OMG to the MAX. You will not believe who Shenice’s mum is dating. Seriously, I don’t even believe it and I have seen the evidence with my own eyes. I think I may still be in shock.
It is SO much worse than we suspected. I don’t know if you’ve ever followed someone but it is a lot less exciting in real life than it looks on TV. We waited a few minutes after Shenice’s mum had gone on Thursday evening, then sneaked out of the back door while her brother was playing SPECIAL FORCES – VAMPIRE ANNIHILATION on the XBox. At first, we bobbed in and out of doorways, pretending we were from MI5 (with a name like mine, it is practically the law to imagine you are a spy) but we soon realized Shenice’s mum had no idea we were there and started to act a bit more normally.
It didn’t stop Shenice from fretting, though. By the time her mum had disappeared into what we assumed was Julio’s house, she was all pale and sweaty.
“It doesn’t look very Spanish,” Molly said, as we stared at the small terraced house with its flower-filled hanging basket and neatly trimmed hedge.
“Were you expecting a bull in the front garden?” I shot back, trying to peer through the window. “Or maybe a piñata?”
“I’m just saying it looks like the kind of house someone ordinary might live in,” Molly said reasonably, and she threw me a meaningful look. “Someone nice.”
“What if that’s my future stepdad in there?” Shenice moaned, as a shadow flitted tantalizingly behind the curtains.
It was beginning to dawn on me that we hadn’t really thought this through. Now that Shen’s mum was inside, we had no real way to spy on her. “Erm, how are we going to see who she’s with?”
Shenice and Molly stared at me.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Molly admitted.
Suddenly an idea came to me. “Knock Down Ginger?”
As plans went, it wasn’t exactly MI5 material but it was the best I could offer at short notice. We didn’t have long – Shen’s brother was bound to notice we were gone sooner or later and my dad was coming to pick us up from our “homework brainstorming session” at eight o’clock. And nobody had any better ideas.
Molly and Shenice crouched behind a parked car while I crept up the front path. The plan was to sneak up and knock on the door, before running off to hide. But I failed to spot a milk bottle beside the door until it was too late. It clattered to the floor and rolled down the path, rattling all the way. A light snapped on behind the door. I turned and ran, hiding behind the hedge. As the door creaked open, I peered through the leaves. This was it – the moment when I got a glimpse of Shenice’s potential future. I blinked, and blinked again, not quite sure if I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. Standing on the doorstep, with a half-drunk bottle of beer in his hand, was our Spanish teacher, Mr Ramirez.
I gave a sigh of relief and crept back to the girls. “It’s okay, she’s not with Julio,” I told them, grinning. “She’s with Mr Ramirez from school.”
Shenice let out a horrified wail and Molly stared at me, stony-faced, until the penny dropped. I gasped and my eyes widened. “Oh, oh, I bet his name is Julio.” My hands flew to my face. “Shenice, your mum is dating Mr Ramirez!”
Molly held an imaginary microphone to her lips. “This just in from the Minister for the Completely Obvious.”
“I want to go home,” Shenice puffed, so pale that I didn’t know if she would puke o
r pass out first. “Please, just take me home.”
We didn’t talk much on the way back and even now, three hours later, I’m still in shock. I mean, Mr Ramirez is really nice but it’s a ginormous no-no for your parents to date a teacher. If this gets out, Shenice is going to DIE.
And I thought I had problems…
Mum’s voice turned my blood to ice as it floated up the stairs on Saturday afternoon.
“It’s Nathan, isn’t it?”
Nathan was already sitting on the sofa when I hurtled down the stairs two at a time before she did something embarrassing, like breathing. Right now she was swaying in the middle of the living room, a twin perched on each hip. I’d noticed the sway was pretty much a permanent thing these days, even when the twins were fast asleep in their cots.
“Yeah,” Nathan said, nodding. Mum looked ridiculously pleased with herself, like she’d just discovered the secret of eternal life or something. I don’t see how she can remember the name of someone who’s been to our house once but forgets to take the keys out of the front door when she comes in. Her baby brain seems to be a permanent thing now.
“Hi,” I said breathlessly.
“Hey,” he replied and cleared his throat. “I’d stand up but your dog is sitting on my foot.”
I looked down. Sure enough, Rolo was glued to Nathan’s trainer, globules of stringy slobber hanging out of his mouth as he gazed up, panting.
“Er, this might seem like an odd question but have you got cheese in your pocket?” I asked.
To his credit, Nathan didn’t seem to think I’d lost the plot. “No, but I did have cheese on toast for breakfast this morning.”
That explained it – Rolo is to cheese what sniffer dogs are to drugs. If cheddar ever gets made illegal, he will have a whole new career ahead of him. They will call him THE NOSE and he will have his own television show called CHEESE QUEST. And I will be his patient yet doting owner.
“It’s his cheese radar,” I told Nathan. “Our next-door neighbours only have to get their grater out and he tries to climb through their cat flap.”
“Right, no cheese for twenty-four hours before I visit next time,” he said gravely and I liked him a little bit more.
Mum coughed, as though reminding us that she was there.
“We should get going,” I said, pulling on my coat. My hand hovered over my scarf and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nathan grin. Maybe I’d brave the weather without it.
“Have fun,” Mum called. “Be good!”
I slammed the front door fast before she could come out with any more Mum-isms. I’m pretty sure they go to a special school to learn how to be embarrassing at all times. I explained my theory to Nathan, as we headed down the road to the town centre.
“Mine is the same,” he agreed. We walked in silence for a moment. “Your little brother and sister are cute.”
I grimaced. “You wouldn’t say that if you met them at three in the morning. They morph into monsters during the night.”
We chatted all the way to the town centre. I was dying to ask about him and Susie but I couldn’t think of a way to slip it into the conversation without sounding like a mad stalker girl, and by the time we reached The Shake Shack, he’d distracted me so much that I’d almost forgotten. It was busy but we managed to squeeze around a table in the corner. I couldn’t decide what was better, being on a non-date with Nathan, or being in a place where Oreo cookies and Maltesers were mixed together in one divine drink.
“How’s the magazine stuff going?” Nathan asked once we’d ordered. “Is it like you expected it to be?”
I hesitated. Part of me wanted to confess that I found being a journalist a bit harder than I’d expected. The ideas I had seemed good, until I started writing them down and then it all went wrong. My assignment about the Year Seven Outward Bound trip was due in soon and I couldn’t work out whether to make it serious or jokey. But journalism was supposed to be my THING – I couldn’t admit that I was struggling to anyone and I definitely couldn’t ask for help. So I plastered on a big breezy smile. “It’s amazing. Everyone is really nice. How’s being on the School Council? Is it like being a Member of Parliament?”
“It would be if the main business of Parliament was deciding how many water coolers we need and where to put them,” he replied, pulling a face. “You wouldn’t believe how many arguments that caused.”
I’d watched a bit of Prime Minister’s Questions on one of the satellite channels one afternoon, not long after my petition had started to get really popular, and it had been the most boring thing ever – just a load of grumpy old men mumbling away and a bossy voice shouting “Order! ORDER!” all the time. I don’t know where all the waiters were but some of the MPs had fallen asleep.
“If my petition gets enough signatures, it might be debated in Parliament,” I told Nathan, thinking that the idea had lost some of its shine now I knew that our MPs’ idea of debate was muttering incoherently until the opposition nodded off.
But Nathan seemed enthusiastic. “Yeah, nice work on that. I passed the link on to all my mates and they all signed it.”
My ears went hot as I blushed – Nathan was telling his friends about me! Well, okay, it was really the petition he was talking about, but still! “Thanks,” I said, suddenly shy.
“No problem,” he replied. “Listen, I’m sorry we haven’t seen each other much since the quiz team broke up. I kind of miss those cramming sessions we used to have.”
Did that mean he missed me as well? Or had he meant the team as a whole? It was probably a good thing our milkshakes arrived right then or I might have gushed how much I missed him too. As it was, I was awed into silence by my SUGAR RUSH MOUNTAIN. It was every bit as gorgeous as the description suggested – I could practically feel my teeth rot just looking at it.
“There was another reason I asked you here today,” Nathan said, after a few minutes’ industrious spoon-work, and I realized he suddenly looked even more nervous than he had on Thursday. “I – er – wondered if you – uh – wanted to go to the May Ball.”
Duh. Of course I did. “Yeah,” I replied, frowning. “Everyone is going, aren’t they?”
He flashed a frozen smile. “I meant with me.”
“Oh,” I said and felt my cheeks start to go red. “OH!”
The headline from JOJ loomed large in my mind. How could he be asking me if he was already going with Susie? “Um…won’t your girlfriend be upset?”
His mouth dropped open. “My girlfriend?”
Nervously, I fiddled with my straw. “I thought you’d be going with Susie Carr. Only it said on JUICE ON JUDE’S that she’d been to your house and everyone had kind of put two and two together…”
I trailed off uncertainly as a flicker of irritation crossed his face.
“You shouldn’t believe everything you read on JOJ,” he said, in a grim tone. “My mum is Susie’s piano teacher, so she comes round to my house once a week for lessons. That doesn’t make her my girlfriend.”
I looked down at the table, wishing I’d kept my stupid mouth shut. Of course there was nothing going on with Susie. “Sorry.”
As the strained silence stretched, I thought about asking if Nathan knew who was behind JUICE ON JUDE’S but then his fingers touched mine and I forgot the website even existed. “There’s only one girl I want to go to the ball with,” he said quietly, “and she’s sitting right here.”
A warm fuzzy feeling flowed through me as my eyes met his and all thoughts of Susie flew out of my head. “Really?”
He grinned. “Really. So what do you think?”
I squashed the urge to leap up and squeal with happiness. “I’d love to.”
I’m not one hundred per cent sure how I got home from Shake Shack. I think maybe Dad picked me up but I was so busy floating in a bubble of May Ball bliss that I might have pranced home on a purple pony for all I remember. I know I texted Molly and Shenice and I could practically hear their shrieks from the middle of town. We all agre
ed that I need to start thinking about what I am going to wear. Now that I am going with Nathan, I will definitely need a new dress and there are less than seven days to find one.
I wonder how much my MOSHI MOSHI MONSTERS would get on eBay?
Chapter Ten
E-PETITION Number of signatures: 801
Catching Mum in a good mood is as tricky as trying to get Batman and Bruce Wayne in the same room. But if I wanted a new outfit for the ball, I had to start dropping hints. I thought about hitting her with some really bad news, like I’d been excluded from school, and then following it up with an “Only joking! I do need a new dress, though…” but I doubted she’d be able to hear me with her head in the roof.
In the end, she gave me a gift-wrapped opportunity at dinner that Saturday night. Miracle of miracles, we’d been allowed to order takeaway pizza and the twins were catnapping in their cot upstairs. The television was on but might as well have been off, since the volume was so low I could barely hear it, and no one was allowed to speak in anything louder than a whisper. Dad was busy trying to convince Liam to do an Elvis cover at the May Ball and Liam was doing his best to pretend that he couldn’t hear him.
Mum leaned towards me, her eyes brighter than I’d seen them for ages. “So, Nathan seems nice.”
I saw this picture once of a painting called The Scream, which is basically someone looking like they’ve just heard The Droids are splitting up. That’s exactly how I felt when Mum winked at me. But I didn’t let her see that she’d got to me. “I’m glad you like him because he’s asked me to the May Ball. How amazing is that?”
In a flash, her smile turned into a frown. “I think you’re a bit young to be going to parties with boys.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When will she stop treating me like a baby? “It’s a school party, Mum. All the teachers will be there. And Liam.”
Liam stopped stuffing pizza into his face to glare at me. “Don’t drag me into it. I’ll be too busy being a rock legend to babysit you.”
Star Reporter Page 5
