by Beth Garrod
As the picture got projected up, I continued to ignore Luke’s ever-growing scowl. That’s what happens when a player gets played.
Zac nudged me in the ribs – I tensed any muscle I knew how to move. His dad was striding over.
Mr Lutas nodded up at the photo.
“I can’t believe you’d do that.”
Uh-oh. My heart-shaped cringey-ness didn’t seem as funny four-metres high. I wished both the real me and the giant photo me would disappear.
“I would have hoped you, Zacharrry, of all people, could have got that composition a little better?” Oh ha-di-ha. “Although Miss Fisher, one word of advice. . .”
Oh goodness, what now? Please don’t let it be about sculpting cheese.
“Choose your holiday rrromances more wisely. You can meet some verrry strange people in caravan parks.”
Mr Lutas winked at me the way Zac had done minutes earlier, and laughed. SO HE KNEW?!
“Did you really think I was born yesterrrday, Ms Fisher? Give me some credit!” He was loving how much I WAS NOT DEALING WITH THIS. “And while you’re at it, you should give a serious amount of credit to that young man too.”
Mr Lutas nodded his head across the room, and with a big smile for both Zac and me, he walked away. He’d nodded at Mikey. Who was in an impromptu dance-off with Jay as they tried, and failed, to recreate an entire Justin Bieber routine (Mikey looked more like my mum trying to do yoga when she’s pulled a muscle in her back). I turned back to Zac, but as I did, Luke barged through us both, knocking me sideways as he rushed to speak to the photographer. He was obviously still mad at me for the signs, although I was surprised that he didn’t give Zac a bit more respect. But I didn’t want to waste any more time on him than I already had done.
“I can’t actually deal with your dad knowing about us, so can we pretend he never said that, and can you explain about the Mikey thing instead?”
Zac looked sheepish. “M-bee.”
I prodded him with the sharp end of one of the signs.
“We’ve seen what happens when we’re not straight with each other.” I prodded him a bit harder. “Spill!”
“Oiii! OK.” He searched for the words. “I guess Dad just meant that, hypothetically, if say he’d maybe got a text from the caretaker saying he was going to close the school up, but hypothetically he knew that someone needed to get back in to work on something, he might, you know, tell his son. And his son, in this scenario, might mention it to someone he might have bumped into that evening. Someone who might have wanted to help, and might have, say, hidden from said caretaker, and stayed overnight to finish the job?”
Oh. My. Endangered. COD.
Was Zac telling me that, hypothetically, the person who was currently dancing like an injured puppet had been the one to finish up Tegan’s signs? That unhypothetically Mikey had spent a whole night behind a sewing machine to get Tegan to prom? This was so big. SEW big.
Zac laughed. He looked relieved to have let that cat out of the bag. Although goodness knows who puts cats in bags.
“Close your mouth, goldfish. I thought you might have figured it out?” I wasn’t going to admit that I was so far away from figuring it out, I’d concluded it was actually a fictional spectre.
“Well he was yawning all day. But I do that most days and I don’t have a super-hero sewing alter ego.”
Zac looked happy for the subject to move on.
“Talking of alter egos, Velvet Badger have got a gig in July. In Birmingham. I wondered if you and the others wanted to come?”
Nostril flare struck again. I would LOVE that. And I loved that after all that had happened, Zac was up for being proper friends, even after term finished. But as I went to try and regain control of my face, and tell him we were one big ‘yes’, loud laughs broke out over the music. Please don’t let Mikey be attempting a headspin again – last time he’d broken his own nose with his knee.
Along with the rest of the room, Zac and I turned to see what was happening. It deffo wasn’t Mikey, as people had stopped dancing and were looking up at the projections. The picture had no people in – just one big hand-written sign. I read what was written on it.
I instantly wished I hadn’t.
They were words I’d seen before.
WOULD YOU GET A FAKE PERIOD FOR TWO YEARS
RATHER THAN ’FESS UP? THAT’S WHAT MY FRIEND
R DID AFTER SHE YELLED ‘CAN I BORROW A TOWEL?’
My dress felt like it had morphed into a straight jacket, stopping any breath going in. I frantically scanned the room for the others. PLEASE don’t let them have noticed. But Tegan and Rachel were shoulder-to-shoulder, staring up at the screen.
A new photo popped up. And it was another sign. Just as big.
MY FRIEND TEE USED TO GET SO HYPED
PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK THAT WHENEVER
SHE HID, SHE WEED HERSELF.
The room began to spin. What was happening?! Why were my secrets on the wall?! Why wouldn’t everyone stop laughing?!
Another one came up.
WANT TO MAKE MJ BLUB? JUST ASK HIM
WHAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF HARRY POTTER.
**SHAME HE CAN’T GET A LOVE POTION FOR
HIS REAL-LIFE HERMIONE – TEE.**
Had the music stopped or had my ears sealed over with horror? The whole prom was now staring at the projections. Except Tegan, who was storming over, looking like her world was falling apart. Which was exactly how I felt. I’d never told ANYONE these secrets. Anyone but PSSSST. So why were they now on my school wall?! Who was doing this?! And how could I stop anyone figuring out they were about me and my friends?!
Very slowly, Tegan spoke.
“Was. This. YOU?”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Bella. Was this you?”
I felt so guilty I wanted to be sick on the spot. But that wouldn’t help me blend in and stop people realizing this was something to do with me, and figuring out who these stupid secrets were about.
“No. I mean . . . maybe?”
Rachel pushed her way through the hysterical crowd.
“Can someone tell me what’s going on?”
Tegan pointed at me.
“Ask her.”
EVER WONDERED WHY ONLY ONE OF OUR
TEACHERRRS GETS TO TAKE HIS STUDENTS ON
FORRREIGN TRIPS? COULD IT HAVE ANYTHING
TO DO WITH HIM PAYING EXTRA CURRICULARRR
VISITS TO A PERSON WHO HELPS HIM GET AHEAD?
(AKA OUR HEAD MISTRESS)
A bang came from the corner of the room as a furious Mrs Hitchman stormed out of the door, chased by a stern-looking Mr Lutas. Zac followed. As did a wave of sniggers. If there’s one thing people love more than a student scandal, it’s a teacher one.
HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT THE FITTEST SIXTH
FORMER IN THE WORLD IS EX-ZAC-TLY THAT?
WHEN YOU FIND OUT HIS DAD IS THE WEIRDEST
TEACHERRR AND STILL WANT TO SNOG HIS
FACE OFF AGAIN. THEN PUT HIS FACE BACK ON,
THEN RE-SNOG IT OFF.
My stomach knotted so hard I wasn’t sure how I was still standing upright. They were the words I’d posted on PSSSST, but I’d never used names?! Zac had been added in. But only Tegan, Rach, Zac and I knew the truth about what really happened at Black Bay, and surely it couldn’t be one of them doing this?!
Was this an actual nightmare? Please someone tell me it’s a nightmare. Mum, wake me up with a cup of tea. PLEASE. Mumbles, lick my face. ANYTHING!!
I’d never heard so much laughter in the hall. The DJ had turned the music off, as all dancing had stopped in favour of pointing fingers round the room, trying to figure out who each story was about. Please don’t let anyone work it out. I will never moan about anything ever again, including a weirdly long eyebrow hair I have, if someone, anyone, makes this stop before more damage is done.
What could I do?! Deep breath, Bella. Think logically. Or just think at all. I needed to stop anyone getting any proof
that they came from me. Then I could still protect the others. But I had to stop anything else going up. Anymore clues.
I barged my way over to the projector. Where was that stupid plug?
But I was too late. With one click the final picture came up. It was someone I knew all too well. Luke. And with a smile he was holding the worst sign yet.
THANKS BELLA FISHER FOR THE LOLS.
HAPPY PROM
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
“So let me get this straight?” From the other side of the cubicle door, Tegan repeated herself for the fourth time. Between tears I cringed for the eighty-ninth.
I’d done my best to explain what had happened. Why it had happened. Even though I still had no real idea how. The first time they looked shocked. The second time they looked baffled. They third time they looked so angry I thought I was going to see myself ugly crying in the mirror above the sink. To preserve any dignity, I’d run into the loo and locked myself in.
I could almost see their fury seeping under the door. But it was nothing I didn’t deserve.
Tegan was quiet angry – the scariest kind.
“You told EVERYONE the stuff we promised to tell NO ONE.”
I nodded my head. But that’s not so useful from behind a door.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of yes, or sort of no?” She was raging – and I couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t a leap for people to work out Tee was her, and R was Rachel. And Mikey probably wasn’t going to speak to me ever again. Not now the whole school had shouted things like ‘Snivel-us Snape,’ ‘Nothing Ron with crying’ and ‘Snogwarts’ as he’d run after Tegan. She’d brushed him away, mortified that her private life had now become so public. Please, please don’t let me have damaged their friendship for good.
I, Bella Fisher, am like human-disaster-Velcro that life-ruining just clings to. Can I at least stick to just messing up my own stuff from now on? Maybe I should become a nun after all. Plus, those robey things look really expandable if I comfort eat for the next forty years.
I took a deep breath.
“I WISH I could explain it. But I can’t. PSSSST was just a silly thing I did after we all fell out. I only did it to find Zac. But then people started liking my stuff, and I kept going. It said it was all anonymous. I never used names. I swear! I thought it was totally harmless. I didn’t feel like real people could see them?!”
It sounded stupid now. Who did I think had been liking everything?
As I apologized for the forty-seventh, forty-eighth and forty-ninth time, I messaged Jo. I needed her to come and save me before I attempted escaping from school via the toilet pipe thing.
Rachel peered under the door.
“I don’t get it, Bella. Why would you do this? I thought we were all friends again?”
“We ARE all friends.”
Tegan butted in.
“Weird thing for a friend to do, don’t you think?”
“But that’s the problem. I DON’T think. And I should. I will! In fact, I’m thinking RIGHT NOW. I’m thinking what a total idiot I’ve been.”
If only I hadn’t gone to Black Bay. None of this would have happened. I’d only used that stupid app to try and track down Zac.
“I know you hate me right now, and I TOTALLY GET IT. I hate me too! But please, please, please can you at least think about forgiving me? It was a weird, out-of-control accident. Like my whole entire life. I’d do ANYTHING to make it up to you. You guys are EVERYTHING to me.”
But nothing came back except silence, until Tegan cleared her throat.
“There’s no point in talking now. Rachel and I don’t want to miss out on all the fun cos of you.”
But if I’d learnt one thing this term it was to not give up on my friends. Yes, I’d messed up, but I knew I could put it right. I banged the door with my hand.
“NO. I’m not letting this happen. This is NOT ruining us. I CAN be a good friend. I will be.”
But Tegan sounded broken.
“Good friends are people you can trust. C’mon, Rach.”
The bathroom door swung shut as they left me alone.
I stayed alone, in my bad-mood cubicle – moodicle – until Jo messaged to say she’d arrived. I tried to wipe the mascara away from under my eyes, but smeared it up into the world’s biggest eyeliner flicks. Oh well. I couldn’t be any more humiliated than I already was.
Ignoring the no-running-in-corridors rule, I sprinted as fast as I could (not fast) towards the secret path through the bushes that led down to the school gates. I didn’t want to risk bumping into anyone.
But the one person I most wanted to avoid was taking a time-out too.
“Leaving so soon?”
If I hadn’t been wearing Jo’s ring that Grandma gave her, I swear I might have attempted my first ever punch, right into Luke’s face. I know violence doesn’t solve anything, but seeing Luke face down in a pile of twigs and crisp wrappers would at least cheer me up.
“Have I ever told you what a complete and utter douchebag you are?”
He laughed.
“Every day.”
But I couldn’t find anything to laugh about. Why had he done this? How had he done this?! And why drag Tegan, Rachel, Mikey and worst of all Zac, down with me? Zac had never even had anything to do with him.
“So what? You’re now some sort of internet stalker, are you?” I shook my head. “You’re pathetic.”
He smiled. “But you made it so easy for me.”
I definitely hadn’t. Easy was things like eating a pack of five supermarket doughnuts, not finding someone on an anonymous app that he shouldn’t even know about.
“How so, stalker?”
“Let me break it down for you.” He said it like I was three and he was teaching me my first words. “First off, you showed me the app in the library, so I knew you were on it.” Crapballs. That must have been when I almost showed him that picture of Zac. How could I have been so careless?! “Then, as literally everyone knows, when you sign up, it shows you the people who are nearby.” Everyone it seems, except me. “And cos of all your likes, and the fact we live three streets away, it meant you were the first person that came up.”
What the what? When I’d signed up it only offered random follow suggestions. Although – my heart sank – I had been on that motorway in the middle of nowhere. Maybe there had been nobody nearby to suggest. So hold up. Did this mean I’d accidentally been sharing my closest guarded secrets with people who lived the closest to me? How was this a good idea for an app?!
But that still didn’t explain how he’d linked PruneFlapper with me? Or discovered the truth about Zac? I’d been so careful to protect everyone.
“I’m not buying it, Luke. It doesn’t add up.”
“It adds up fine to me. I thought it was you when I saw that ankle bracelet on your profile pic.” My profile pic was just my feet on the windowsill at Black Bay? Surely Luke wasn’t that observant? “And then there was the er, time of the month thing, which y’know I could have thought was about someone we knew.” AKA – he totally knew it was about him, and I’d just wound him up even more. “And then last week when you posted about the camera, I knew it HAD to be you. It was way too big a coincidence.”
For someone whose mum spent her whole time trying to channel good energy, I sure had the worst luck. The one secret Luke knew about me was one of the final ones I’d posted up. The one person who I’d been posting most about had been the one person to piece it all together. I could kick myself. But I was bad enough on two feet, and falling over wasn’t going to help this situation.
“But why, Luke? Why do this?”
“What, despite you ruining my work?”
I cut him off.
“Which I didn’t do.”
“Whatever. And posting that stupid story about me. And –” he flinched as if not sure to carry on, but not quite able to stop himself – “and lying to me about Zac.”
“But I told you the truth. I made it
all up. Which you took great joy in telling the whole freakin’ school.”
“I saw the pictures, Bella. You really should be more careful what you keep on your memory card.”
Kicking myself wasn’t enough. Could I please run back and forth into this large tree? Had I actually been so stressed out about the sign situation that I’d handed over my camera to Luke, complete with all my pictures?
But it was weird. Luke didn’t look cross. He looked a version of . . . upset. The exact same way he’d looked when I’d told him I thought we should see each other less. The exact same way he’d looked when he saw my OTT heart-pose pic with Zac. Right before he’d shared all my secrets.
Could Mikey be right? Was Luke more bothered by our break-up than I’d ever imagined? I shook that thought right out of my head. Because it didn’t matter to me why he’d done what he’d done. He hadn’t just hurt me, he’d hurt my friends. And done it in the most public way possible. He was pathetic. So pathetic that I finally realized what I should have done weeks ago. That whatever Luke said or did from now on couldn’t hurt me any more. So I needed to stop wasting any more time on him, and focus on un-doing his damage and making it up to the people I love.
Without bothering to reply, I pushed past him, ran to Jo’s car and threw myself on to the front seat. I hoped she would forgive me for the mascara stain on her dress where my tears had pooled between my legs. As she drove away the lights flashed out of the hall, silhouetting Tegan and Rachel dancing. I guess I was happy they were putting Luke’s stunt behind them. As long as I didn’t get put behind them too. I tried not think about what Zac and Mr Lutas were in deep conversation about at the side of the hall, and not panic that Mikey was sitting alone at the edge of the room. But it was hard when at the exact same moment he messaged me to say thanks for blowing any chance with Tegan he ever had. I switched my phone off. I HAD to fix this.
Jo did me the favour of not making conversation the entire way home. When we arrived, she even popped into the kitchen to chat to Mum, giving me the distraction I needed to retreat to my room un-interrogated.
