Star Reporter

by Tamsyn Murray

  “Don’t bother,” was all she said and, without a word, she and Molly stalked off.

  I watched them go. Then I realized someone else was glaring at me. Hannah was standing to one side, and she looked like she hated my guts.

  “Someone else you burned, right, Cassidy?” she sneered, with a hollow laugh. “With friends like you, who needs enemies?”

  Firing a final filthy look my way, she disappeared back into the crowd and I realized I was suddenly the centre of attention. People were watching me, whispering, and from the looks on their faces, they weren’t being kind. Feeling my cheeks flame, I shut my eyes, willing the universe to send an extremely localized meteor to vaporize me from the planet.

  When that failed to materialize, I blinked and saw Nathan watching me. “What did they mean, Cassie?” he asked quietly. “Why did they say you’d put them on JUICE ON JUDE’S?”

  And that’s when the horrible truth dawned on me. The reason no one wanted to speak to me was because they all thought I was the person behind JOJ. They had no idea it was Kelly – they thought it was me who’d started the nasty rumours and spilled their secrets. But I couldn’t explain any of that – who would believe it was super-nice Kelly, anyway? My lower lip began to tremble. “It’s not what you think.”

  He shook his head, a disgusted expression on his face. “It’s you, isn’t it? You write JUICE ON JUDE’S.”

  The room started to spin as I fought back tears. Everywhere I looked, I saw furious faces. It was all too much.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” I croaked.

  Chapter Fifteen

  E-PETITION Number of signatures: 1377

  Mum didn’t ask why I was back so early, or where Liam was. She took one look at my tear-stained face, as Dad shepherded me in from the car, and took me straight upstairs to my room, where I threw myself onto my bed and howled my heart out. Sitting silently beside me, she stroked my hair until I stopped crying.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, offering me a mug of hot chocolate.

  Rolo reached up and licked my hand, like he was trying to make me feel better. I rubbed his head absently and shook my head at Mum. The last thing I wanted was to relive the whole horrible evening. And now on top of feeling rubbish about Hannah and Shenice, Nathan thought I was a gossiping bully. It didn’t matter how much I denied it, I could tell he thought I was too cowardly to come clean about what had really happened. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and wake up to find it had all been a dream.

  I sipped the hot chocolate, letting the rich milky sweetness soothe my frazzled nerves. Those Hogwarts professors are so right about chocolate – it really does have magical properties. But it was going to take more than hot chocolate to make everything better for me. I’d been so stupid. If only I’d kept Hannah’s secret to myself then Shenice would never have accused me of betraying her and maybe the whole school wouldn’t think I was responsible for JOJ and – and – it made my brain hurt just thinking about it. I pushed the whole tangled mess away and closed my sore, swollen eyes.

  “I think I threw up on Nathan’s shoes,” I sniffed, after a little while.

  To her credit, Mum didn’t look remotely amused. “I’m sure he understands.”

  And he thinks I’m evil and nasty, I wanted to add but didn’t. Instead, I let out a long, miserable sigh. “There’s no coming back from tonight. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.”

  “He seems like a nice boy,” she said, in the same tone she used when she was shushing the babies back to sleep. “I’m sure he’ll come round in time.”

  I wished I could believe her but the truth was I didn’t think Nathan would ever be able to look at me again, never mind speak to me. And no one would believe Kelly was behind JOJ, there was no point in even trying to tell the truth. It didn’t matter that I’d been a victim too – everyone probably thought I’d posted the Egghead story myself to cover my tracks. The way things were going, I’d be a complete social outcast by the time the half-term holiday arrived.

  My head felt hot and aching. “I think I might go to sleep now,” I said, and hesitated, scared that the horrible empty feeling would come back the moment I was on my own. It was like I was four years old again and afraid of the dark. “I – will you stay with me until I’m asleep?”

  She smiled. “Of course. Why don’t you get ready for bed while I go and check on the twins?”

  Once she was gone, I got into my pyjamas and hung Molly’s dress on the back of my door. Then I slipped into the bathroom to throw some cold water on my face. My reflection stared back at me from the mirror as I brushed my teeth, all puffy eyes and blotchy cheeks. I looked away and finished as fast as I could.

  Mum was waiting when I got back to my room.

  “Sweet dreams,” she said, as I wriggled under the duvet. “It’ll all seem better in the morning.”

  I nodded and laid my cheek against the cool cotton of my pillow. Rolo jumped up and curled up beside my feet. “Sorry for being such a baby,” I mumbled. “That’s the last thing you need.”

  She leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Don’t be silly,” she murmured softly. “You’ll always be a baby to me.”

  I am starting to wonder if my mother IS secretly a witch. Firstly, she conjured up a mug of hot chocolate exactly when I needed one and then she cast some kind of magic spell on me because not only did I sleep for the whole night without waking up once, but her prediction that everything would seem clearer in the morning was right too. At the very least, she has been watching too much Derren Brown and did some weird hypnotism thing on me.

  I lay in bed for ages, thinking things through. There is no getting away from the fact that I vommed on Nathan’s feet, and Shenice and Hannah think I totally ruined their lives, and the rest of the school thinks I pretended to wash my hair in a frying pan. What I need is a way to put everything back to how it was a month ago but, short of getting my hands on a time machine, I can’t see what I can do to turn the clock back. It would be easier to start my life again under an assumed name.

  When I did go downstairs, Mum wasn’t impressed by my plan.

  “Changing schools isn’t the answer,” she said firmly, as she changed Ethel’s nappy. “You’d be better off facing up to whatever the issue is. Can Liam help you sort it out?”

  I stared at her, bouncing Joshua on my knee and wondering how to break it to her that her first born wasn’t in the running for Big Brother of the Year.

  “Not unless he’s discovered the secret of time travel,” I said.

  “Here,” she said, handing me Ethel’s used nappy in a little peach-coloured sack. Wrinkling my nose, I wrapped my arms around Joshua and tied a knot in the bag. They don’t tell you about the pure evilness that comes out of babies’ bottoms when you learn about reproduction at school. If they did, the human race would be doomed.

  Mum sat back and looked at me. “I think it’s about time you told me what’s been going on, don’t you?”

  And just like that, I did.

  When I’d finished, she pressed her lips together the way she does when she’s trying not to explode. Nervously, I eyed Ethel gurgling merrily in her arms – surely she couldn’t lose it with a baby on her lap?

  “Are you really angry?” I ventured, after a while.

  Her eyes flashed. “Not with you. I’m angry with this Kelly girl for being a nasty piece of work. I’m angry that the school aren’t aware that it’s happening.” She let out a long, slow breath. “And I’m angry with Liam – he should have told someone what was going on.”

  And that’s when my heart started thudding so fast that I thought I might have a heart attack. “Don’t have a go at Liam,” I begged, picturing what he’d do to me if he got into trouble over this. “He hates it just as much as I do, especially since WOLF BRETHREN was on JOJ so much.”

  Mum shook her head. “That’s the problem, Cassie. He’s old enough to know what to do in situations like this. Bullying is bullying.”

  �
��He’s going to kill me,” I said in a dull voice. “I won’t need to change schools. I’ll already be dead.”

  “Don’t be silly, of course he won’t. And you’re not going to change schools,” Mum said briskly. “Deep down, I think you already know what you have to do.”

  The really depressing thing was, she was right. I was the one who’d worked out that Kelly was masterminding JUICE ON JUDE’S, which meant I was the one who’d have to report her, even if it did mean owning up to my part in the whole mess. Bleakly, I nodded. “I’ll speak to Mr Bearman on Monday.”

  “Good girl,” she said, patting my knee. “You know it makes sense.”

  She got up and carried Ethel into the kitchen, leaving me reeling in unhappy silence.

  “Learn from my mistakes,” I whispered into Joshua’s fuzzy head. “Never trust Mum with anything.”

  Seriously, I’m not sure I even know what just happened. One minute we were discussing the possibility of changing schools and the next I was spilling my guts.

  I’m telling you, Derren Brown could learn a lot from her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  E-PETITION Number of signatures: 1458

  It is done. First thing this morning, I went to see Mr Bearman and even though I felt like the biggest grass in the history of grasses (and I don’t mean the wavy, green stuff), I told him everything.

  He listened without saying much, then thanked me for telling him and asked me to leave it with him. I overheard someone say that ten minutes after I spoke to Mr Bearman, the entire press gang except me was sitting outside the Headteacher’s office and then he and Mrs Pitt-Rivers called them in one by one to do Good Cop, Bad Cop with them. Apparently Mel, Kieran and Toby were sent back to class pretty quickly, because it became totally obvious they weren’t involved. The rest of them were sitting on the seats of shame for most of the morning. Meggie Defoe swears she heard screaming when she was monitoring the late book but I think she made that bit up. Anyway, their parents have been called into school, the website has vanished and someone said that Kelly might go to court but I think that’s probably an exaggeration.

  The other thing is that HEY JUDE’S! has been closed until further notice, which I’m kind of sad about as I never actually got anything published. Then again, I didn’t even finish my Year Seven Outward Bound article so maybe I’m not cut out for journalism after all – I’m fairly sure it shouldn’t be as hard as I found it. And I paid a pretty high price for my time in the press gang – Shenice still isn’t talking to me and I avoided looking at Nathan in registration. I suppose he knows who the real Juicers are by now but I’m too embarrassed to talk to him – I did vom on his shoes, after all. The news of my innocence will reach him eventually, I guess.

  Call me stupid but after speaking to Mr Bearman, I didn’t think about what Kelly might do afterwards. I was so relieved to get the weight of the website off my shoulders that for a blissful few hours I thought I might be able to put it all behind me. But when I saw Kelly waiting by the school gates at the end of the day, her two gum-snapping mates beside her, I knew I was in deep, deep trouble.

  It was too late to run – she’d seen me. A cruel smile crossed her face as she nudged her friends. Frantically, I looked around for backup – Liam, Molly or even Nathan – but although I was surrounded by people, no one was meeting my eye and I knew I couldn’t count on any of them for help. Most of them suspected I’d been involved in JUICE ON JUDE’S somehow and it was going to take time to set them straight. Quaking in my navy blue ballet pumps, I trudged towards the gate and prepared myself for the worst.

  “Look who we have here,” Kelly sneered as I got closer. “It’s Judas Bond.”

  A wide circle cleared around me, as though everyone knew what was coming and no one wanted to be caught up in it. I started to wish I’d gone for the swapping schools option after all.

  “I’m not scared of you, Kelly,” I called, and my voice only wobbled a little bit.

  Kelly bared her teeth. “You should be. I got in a lot of trouble because of you.”

  I drew level with her and screwed up as much courage as I could. If I had to go down, I’d go down fighting, or at least scratching.

  “No, you got in a lot of trouble because you wrote horrible things about people who couldn’t answer back,” I said, and all the misery of the last few days turned suddenly into furious rage. My hands balled into fists. “You’re nothing but a coward, hiding behind a computer screen and thinking you’re someone important because you know how to twist the truth. Well, here’s some breaking news, Kelly – no one likes a big fat liar.”

  Kelly’s mouth dropped open in shock and a flicker of uncertainty crossed her face. I guessed she’d expected me to roll over and beg for mercy but I was way too angry for that.

  We’d attracted a big audience now and they watched in uneasy silence as we squared up to each other.

  Kelly stepped forward and stuck her face up close to mine. “It’s three against one, Cassie,” she said, in a low, menacing tone. “We’re going to make you pay.”

  “Leave her alone!”

  The shout rang out from the back of the crowd. I looked up to see Molly pushing her way through, her face twisted with anger. Shenice was right behind her, panting as though she’d just run the cross-country course. My heart leaped with happiness as they came to stand next to me, and we glared at Kelly together.

  She looked them up and down and laughed. “I’m supposed to be scared of three Year Seven brats, am I?”

  I couldn’t help it – fear forced its way through the cracks in my bravado. They were Year Tens and much bigger than us.

  I didn’t even know Nathan was there until he joined us. “Make that four.”

  The breath caught in my throat – did that mean he DIDN’T hate me after all?

  Kelly let out a cruel-sounding cackle. “Oh, please. I can easily turn your life at St Jude’s into a living hell, Cassidy. And none of your little friends can stop me.”

  There was a rustling in the crowd and a voice called out, “How about a group of Year Tens, Kelly?”

  Liam stepped forwards, the rest of WOLF BRETHREN behind him, and a wave of absolute relief washed over me. I couldn’t wait to see Kelly try to stand up to THEM.

  “Get lost, Liam. She’s a dirty little sneak who needs to be taught a lesson,” Kelly spat.

  Liam glanced at me briefly and I tried not to cringe – it looked like he’d have plenty to say to me later. But right now, he had my back. “Yeah, but the thing is, she’s my dirty little sneak,” he said, standing protectively in front of me. “So if you want to teach her a lesson, you’ll have to go through us first, okay?”

  The mood of the crowd had shifted. WOLF BRETHREN were the closest thing St Jude’s had to rock stars and they had a lot of fans. And now that Kelly had made it clear she wasn’t PRINCESS PERFECT after all and I wasn’t the one who’d been behind JOJ, the tide of opinion seemed to be turning my way. A long silence crackled as Kelly weighed up her options. Then she wheeled abruptly away.

  “Losers!” she called over her shoulder.

  The word broke the spell and everyone started to talk at once. As the crowd started to thin, Liam turned to me.

  “I’ll see you at home,” he growled, before I could thank him, and sloped off down the road.

  Puffing out a shaky breath, I glanced at Molly and Shenice. “Thanks for trying to help.”

  Molly smiled. “I thought we were dead. Until our knight in shining armour turned up.”

  WHICH ONE? I wondered, turning to thank Nathan, but he’d vanished. And who was I trying to kid? Molly had meant Liam and this time, I couldn’t argue.

  “Nah, we had her running scared long before he showed up,” Shenice said, and we all laughed.

  We ambled slowly down the road.

  “Look, I’m sorry about your mum and Mr Ramirez,” I burst out. “It really wasn’t me who told Kelly.”

  Shenice’s cheeks went a bit pink. “Yeah, I know. I found out
this morning that Jimmy Nelson overheard me talking to you about it in the playground and told Kelly everything.” She squinted at me. “Sorry I accused you.”

  I couldn’t really blame her for putting two and two together and coming up with me – I’d have probably done exactly the same in her shoes. And the truth was, I had dropped Hannah in it – I owed her a huge apology. “It’s okay. Does your mum know her secret is out?”

  She nodded and looked even more embarrassed. “Yeah, that’s the other thing. It turns out Mum ISN’T dating Mr Ramirez at all. She’s booked this big surprise holiday to Spain for the summer and he’s been giving her Spanish lessons.”

  I stopped walking, my eyes wide. “Shut up! So he’s not going to be your stepdad?”

  Grinning, she shook her head. “Nope.”

  Linking my arms through hers and Molly’s, I let out a deep groan. “We’re complete idiots, aren’t we?”

  “Speak for yourself,” Molly objected. Her gaze slid sideways. “Nice of Nathan to stand up for you. I think he feels bad for the way he treated you.”

  Now that my problems with Kelly were out of the way, I had two bits of unfinished business. Making it up to Hannah was one, getting over my embarrassment with Nathan was the other.

  I pursed my lips thoughtfully.

  “Any idea what Riverside Secondary School is like?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  E-PETITION Number of signatures: 1534

  Things are starting to settle down again at Bond HQ. I’d really missed hanging out with Molly and Shenice. Even though we only fell out for a few days, it felt like the world had ended and it was great to be giggling and chatting with them again. Liam tried to have a go at me for exposing the truth about JOJ but his heart wasn’t really in it and I decided that he was secretly pleased it was gone. I’m just guessing here but it MIGHT have something to do with Anjel stopping me after their WOLF BRETHREN rehearsal on Wednesday night and congratulating me for standing up to the bullies. I really like her. Hope they don’t get together – aside from the fact that Molly would be totally devastated, Anjel is WAY too good for Liam. All I need now is to learn how to do MEMORY CHARMS so that I can erase Nathan’s memory of me redecorating his shoes and life will be back to normal.