Because standing in the doorway is Kara.
Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no.
I had no idea this was her house. Otherwise there’s no way in hell I’d have come anywhere near it.
Maybe she won’t recognise me. After all, I’m covered in half a ton of synthetic fur and dodgily applied face paint.
“Did the butler get ya?” Kara says, laughing.
Figures she’d get her kicks out of scaring people half to death.
“He’s fantastic!” Harry says.
I want to tell my sister not to talk to Kara, not to interact in any way, shape or form because she is much more evil than anything Halloween can conjure up, but I can’t. I’ll only give myself away.
“Oh, I nearly forgot,” Harry says. “Trick or treat!”
“Hey, look, it’s Harry!”
A young girl wearing a cat costume has pushed past Kara’s legs and is beaming at my sister. Harry grins back.
“Is this one of your friends?” Kara asks.
“Yeah, it’s Harry Puttock from school!”
I see the cogs turning in Kara’s brain. “Puttock?” she says, before turning to me. “Then…”
“This is my sister, Suzy,” Harry says happily. “She’s a werewolf. Isn’t her costume brilliant? It looked better earlier, before a man threw water on her.”
Kara’s eyes widen. “Oh this is too, too good… wait here while I get the Halloween treats.”
“Harry, we need to go,” I say, tugging urgently at my sister’s arm.
She shakes me off crossly. “I want to wait for my sweets. I bet they’re going to be really good ones.”
“Harry,” I say warningly, but then Kara’s back.
“This is definitely a treat,” she says.
Then she holds up a phone and snaps my photo, before thrusting a tub of sweets at us.
“Happy Halloween,” she says, grinning with glee.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“There aren’t enough words in the world to describe how much I don’t want to go into school today,” I say to Millie, as we walk along the road.
“You should have come and watched films with us,” Millie says, then sees me glowering. “Sorry. Not helpful.”
“How do Jade and Kara always manage to catch me in such stupid situations?” I ask. “It just keeps happening. I bet that photo’s all over the internet by now.”
I’m feeling proper down. The party planning is going terribly. There’s still no reply from The Drifting, or their record company. And now I’ve been photographed again, while being humiliated, again.
I just make it too darn easy for them.
“I completely understand where you’re coming from, but honestly, I’m sure it won’t be that bad,” Millie reassures me. “I’m not saying Kara won’t have shown anyone the photo she took, but it’s not like the whole school will see it, is it? It’ll just be a few stupid people, like Jade and Zach, who we don’t like anyway. Who cares what they think?”
I do, I think quietly to myself, although I don’t say it out loud. And yes, I know I should be better than that. I really shouldn’t care about Kara and Jade.
“Look, they’ll laugh about it for a bit and then they’ll forget about it,” Millie says.
“I hope you’re right.”
Why did I agree to go out in that stupid werewolf outfit? Why?
“Cheer up,” Millie says. “It’s the weekend tomorrow and we’re off to London, remember?”
We meet the boys by the corner shop on the way to school. Jamie’s already stuffing a sausage roll into his mouth.
“Didn’t you eat breakfast?” Millie asks.
Jamie nods as he swipes the pastry crumbs away from his mouth with the back of his hand. “I wanted a snack.”
“I don’t know where you put it all,” Millie says.
Danny gives me a hug. “Hey, you. You okay?”
I shrug.
“What’s up?”
“She’s stressing about the werewolf thing,” Millie explains as we start to walk in the direction of the school.
“Suze, worse things have happened and you’ve survived them. Like the time –”
“All right, all right, I don’t need reminders,” I say, interrupting him.
“The worst that can happen is that she’s shown some mates the pictures,” Danny says.
“That’s exactly what I told her,” Millie says, as we join the crowds entering the school gates as the bell rings.
I might be being paranoid here, but it looks like everyone’s staring at us.
I shake my head. This whole Kara thing has got me more rattled than I thought.
But there’s definitely a group of people over there pointing. And those guys are laughing…
I’m not so sure I am being paranoid now.
“Uh, what’s going on?” I ask, as one of the kids from the year below barges past, turning round to laugh and point in my face. There’s no missing that.
“I don’t know,” Millie says.
“People are acting weird, right?” I ask. “It’s not me imagining things?”
A piece of A4 paper blows across the tarmac, and then another. There’s something printed on it, but I can’t see what. Actually there are loads of them. These things are everywhere. Jamie makes a grab for one. “What the –?”
“What is it?” Millie asks, trying to take it from him.
“Nothing!” Jamie says hastily, holding the paper out of her reach. Millie reaches for another piece flying by and her eyes widen in alarm.
“Oh no…”
“What?” I say.
Millie clasps the paper tightly to her chest. “It’s nothing. Let’s go to registration.”
“What’s going on with you two?” I say. Has everyone taken a weird pill this morning or something? Why is everyone acting so completely crazy?
I grab at a piece of paper.
“Suzy, don’t,” Millie says, but it’s too late.
On the paper are four photos of me. In one I’m wearing the werewolf costume from last night, looking bedraggled and startled. Another one is of me from earlier this year, when I bumped into Jade in a department store, trying on the ugly bridesmaid’s dress Amber made me wear, which was way too huge around the bust area. There’s one of me lugging the enormous naked statue through the school. And the kicker – me dressed in a towel and cardigan, looking absolutely mortified as I’m paraded out to wait with the rest of the school during that fire alarm.
My chest tightens and my heart thumps as I stare down at the images. I can feel tears threating to fight their way out of my eyes.
A selection of my most embarrassing moments, set out for everyone to see. It’s like I’ve come to school wearing only my knickers. I feel totally exposed.
And everyone must have seen these pictures. Everyone.
I blink the tears away quickly, so I can read the text.
SUZY PUTTOCK –
ORGANISING YOUR FUNDRAISING PARTY!
Then, underneath the photos, it says:
DO YOU REALLY THINK THIS GIRL
CAN GET THE DRIFTING TO OUR SCHOOL?
THINK ABOUT IT…
THIS PARTY’S GONNA BE A DISASTER!
I’ve got no idea what to say. I can feel my friends huddling around protectively.
Well, there’s no prizes for guessing who did this. I know exactly who took all of these photos. Jade and Kara.
I mustn’t cry. I mustn’t. That’s what they want.
But this is so completely humiliating.
“Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God,” I say. It’s all I can manage. Over and over again.
“Suze, it’s okay,” Danny says. His voice is tight and angry. “We won’t let them get away with this.”
“Everyone’s seen it. Everyone,” I say.
And as we walk inside, it’s obvious that I’m right. The pictures are everywhere. Mrs Morgan and Mr Patterson are striding around, taking them down from the walls.
“Come with me to th
e toilets,” Millie says. “You can have a good cry there, get it all out of your system and then we can figure out how to fight back.”
“Murder’s still illegal, right?” I say, attempting to make a weak joke.
“Yeah. Fraid so,” Millie says. “But we’ll come up with a Plan B, don’t worry about it.”
Right when you think things can’t get any worse, Mrs Morgan spots me.
“Ah, Suzy, can you come with me, please?”
Just what I need.
Although, actually, this morning, unless I’m very much mistaken, there’s sympathy in her eyes. It’s kind of hard to tell, though, under all that mascara. Her eyelashes look like spiders’ legs.
“Um…”
I don’t even know how to respond. It’s like my brain’s completely scrambled.
“I was taking her to the toilets,” Millie says, trying her best to save me. “She’s a bit upset.”
“I can imagine,” Mrs Morgan says. “I know it can’t have been very nice coming into school to see this. I’d like to have a quick chat with Suzy. Millie, you’re in the same registration group, aren’t you? Go and tell your tutor that Suzy will join you in a bit.”
Reluctantly, Millie walks off down the corridor, shooting me a sympathetic glance as she hitches her dayglo pink satchel up over her shoulder.
“Let’s go into the staff room,” Mrs Morgan says. I follow her in and hover awkwardly. It’s weird being in here; I haven’t seen it from this side of the door before. There’s a random selection of brown furniture, posters on the walls and a kettle and a lot of cups on a shelf against one wall.
“Hot chocolate?” Mrs Morgan says, filling up the kettle and switching it on. “It’s good for shock.”
I can’t even bring myself to speak. Instead I nod dumbly.
“Do you have any idea who might have done this?”
I stare at the floor, deliberately avoiding all eye contact.
Of course I know who did it. But there’s no way I’m going to say anything.
“Hmm. Well, I can see why you might not want to answer that. I have suspicions of my own…”
I look up to see Mrs Morgan staring at me intently. “There have been quite a few problems with the party lately, haven’t there?” she continues gently. “Losing the props budget, nobody volunteering for anything… Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s anything we can’t sort out, but it’s been hard work for you, hasn’t it? And you certainly seem to have been covering for a lot of the other committee members who haven’t been doing their fair share.”
She noticed? I’m astonished. I thought she was too busy reminiscing about her RADA days.
“Suzy, I’m trying to say this sensitively,” Mrs Morgan continues, handing me a mug of hot chocolate. “This has obviously been very embarrassing, and I don’t want you to feel that you have to keep going with it all, staying in the full eye of the storm organising the party, as it were. You can take more of a back seat, if you’d prefer.”
I think about it. All the stress would go away. All the problems. I wouldn’t have to work with Jade or Kara any more.
It’s tempting. Oh so tempting, to say, yes, I want out.
And maybe I should quit. I could hand the whole thing over to Jade and Kara – they could do the party they wanted all along, with their red carpets and their awards ceremony and annoying Saturday-night celebrities.
But that would mean they’d win.
That would mean Jade and Kara would get what they wanted all along and their bullying would have succeeded. And we’ve worked hard to try to make this party a success. And yeah, okay, we’ve not done that well so far, but we’re trying. And there’s still time. Besides, what would I tell my friends? I don’t want to let them down.
I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to leave the committee.”
“Are you sure?” Mrs Morgan says.
I take a deep breath. “I’m sure. I know this party is going to be a success.”
“Okay. And I don’t want you to worry, the Head will definitely be getting involved in this whole situation,” Mrs Morgan tells me. “This kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable, and we don’t tolerate bullying here at Collinsbrooke. There will be repercussions for the people who did this.”
Mrs Morgan must know it’s Jade and Kara. She might be daft, and way too obsessed with all things thespy, but she’s not a complete idiot. She’s seen how they’ve been over the last few weeks. And there’s not many people in the school who are that nasty.
“If you do find out who did this, you know you can always come and talk to me. And do you know, I’ve got some friends who work on a music TV channel, I don’t know why I didn’t think of them sooner, I wonder if they’ve got access to any costumes? Leave it with me, Suzy, and I’ll see what I can do. Enough is enough, I’m not going to let anyone ruin this party of ours.”
Wow. Mrs Morgan sounds properly feisty. And I do feel a smidge relieved that it sounds like, at last, we’re going to get some proper help. As much as I hate what Jade and Kara have done, maybe this is the very faint silver lining to it all.
“I’ll keep you posted. You can go back to registration now,” Mrs Morgan tells me, helping herself to a biscuit. “And don’t worry about anything. Between us we’ll get it sorted.”
I let myself out of the staff room and stand in the now empty corridor.
All I can do is hope we make contact with The Drifting in London. Because now, more than ever, I need to prove Jade and Kara wrong.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When Millie approached her mum, Clare, about getting the train to London, apparently her reaction was even worse than my mum’s. I don’t quite know what they thought would happen to us on a just-over-one-hour train ride, but Clare’s decided to drive us instead, which is brilliant, because that meant Mum had to let me go. Clare’s going to drop us off at the radio station where The Drifting are doing their interview, meet her friends for a coffee at a nearby café, then pick us up at lunchtime. We’re not exactly sure how long The Drifting are going to be in the building, but hopefully that should give us enough time.
“You can just drop us here, Mum,” Millie says, as the car edges its way through the morning traffic at a speed even a snail would sneer at. We’re both shifting nervously, desperate to get out. I’ve been to London a couple of times before and always love staring at the city skyline, watching the crowds of people on the pavements and trying to spot the famous landmarks. But today, I’m too distracted to do any of that.
Despite the stern talking-to I gave myself earlier, my tummy’s fizzing with nerves and excitement. We could actually see the band today! Talk to them! I can’t believe this might actually happen… I’m refusing to think too much about the fact we also need them to come and play at our school to save my butt. That’s way too stressful. Right now I’m trying to stay focused on the fun part.
Clare indicates and pulls the car over. “Get out as quick as you can, girls,” she says, over the sound of furious honking from a black taxi behind. “I’m not supposed to stop here. I’ll see you later, okay? Good luck!”
Millie runs round and pops the boot, grabbing something from it.
“What’s that?” I ask.
Millie grins. “I made a banner.” She waves the A3 piece of card at me – on it she’s written: ‘I LOVE YOU NATE! STOP AND TALK TO US!’
“Thought it might help,” she says, sheepishly, as Clare finally manages to pull back out into the traffic and the car moves off.
Then Millie and I are left in front of the London Radio building. It’s huge, stretching up towards the clouds high above our heads.
Millie stares across the car park. It’s packed, but there are hardly any people to be seen. “See? I told you! There’s nobody here!”
It’s not until we get round the corner, searching for the main entrance that we see them.
Oh God.
There’s an enormous crowd, at least two hundred people, held behind a barrier. In front of th
e barrier are several burly men, each about the size of a small house. Or at the very least a bungalow.
“Maybe they’re not here for The Drifting,” Millie says weakly. But the banners waved by girls proclaiming things like ‘NATE, I LOVE YOU!’ and ‘MARRY ME, LIAM!’, plus the girls wearing The Drifting T-shirts, badges and holding camera phones, suggest otherwise.
Some of the girls are really dressed up, in tiny bikini tops and denim bum-hugger shorts. Despite the fact it’s autumn and freezing cold out here.
A group of four girls sprint past us, screaming, and join the crowds. “Are The Drifting here yet? Have you seen them?” they holler.
I want to cry. The boys were right to stay at home.
They’re never going to notice Millie and me. It just won’t happen. Even if we do manage to push our way to the front of the crowds, they’re not going to stop and have time for a chat.
“What are we going to do?” I say quietly.
“Don’t give up yet,” Millie says, grabbing my hand and running forward.
“What time did these guys get up to be so near the front?” I say.
“Some of them camped all night,” one of the boys standing nearby says. He shakes his head. “I wanted to give them a demo I’d made, but this is hopeless.” He stuffs the CD into his jacket pocket and wanders off.
Even if I stand on my tiptoes I’m still struggling to see anything. I’ve got a view of the backs of lots of people’s heads. If I jump in the air, I can just about see the doors… but no way are we going to be able to talk to the band. We’re too far away.
“What time are they coming?” Millie says, tapping the arm of a girl in front of us.
“Any time now,” the girl says, hopping up and down. “I’m so excited. Oh God, I think I’m going to actually pass out if I see Liam in the flesh. I totally love him. Like, so much.”
“Look, I’ve got a back-up plan,” Millie says to me.
“You have? What is it?”
“I wrote them a letter explaining everything,” Millie says, taking a red envelope out of her pocket. “In case we couldn’t get near enough to talk to them in person. Which we still might be able to – maybe everyone will leave when they go in. If we hang around until they come back out we might be able to talk to them then.”
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