Then Magda and Nadine say goodbye and Dan and I watch Wallace and Gromit videos with Eggs. Eggs badgers me until I make him his own plasticine Wallace and Gromit. Dan tries to make stuff too but his things go all hunched and lumpy so he says they’re aliens from outer space. So we all make plasticine aliens. I make my alien very thin with sticky-up short hair and big ears. Dan laughs and Eggs plays with it so enthusiastically that the alien’s legs fall off.
‘Imagine your legs falling off!’ says Dan, and then he keels over onto the sofa, pretending his own have done just that. Eggs squeals and jumps on top of him.
‘Come on, Ellie!’ Eggs yells.
‘Er . . . no, thanks!’ I say.
Eggs is still bouncing about, full of beans, when Dad and Anna set off for their night out. Anna’s left all sorts of stuff in the fridge for tea and Dad’s given us a tenner in case we’d sooner go to a McDonald’s.
We decide on the McDonald’s. We’ve got no transport and it’s a good half-hour’s walk, but maybe it’ll help tire Eggs out at long last.
I get just a tiny bit tense wondering if there’ll be anyone I know at McDonald’s but it’s still early and it’s mostly families. Dan pretends we’re a family too, Ma and Pa and Little Egbert, which makes Eggs chuckle. I hadn’t realized you could play daft pretend games with boys. He’s really great at it too. Nadine used to be good at imaginary games but she won’t do it so much now we’re older, and Magda’s never gone in for that sort of thing anyway.
I see someone I do know on the way home. Well, I don’t know him. Though I’ve thought about him so much I feel as if I’ve known him all my life. I stare at him and it’s as if the real and the pretend are all mixed up for a moment. Then they separate out, and I’m with the real Dan, and this is the dream Dan, though he’s certainly not called Dan and it’s even more unlikely that he ever dreams about me.
He’s with someone. Not a girl. Another boy, almost as good looking, but dark, with blue eyes. Dream Dan’s in black, the dark boy’s in white. They look great together. And then I realize something else. They are together.
They’re chatting and laughing, looking at each other – but just as they’re going past the dream Dan sees me. ‘Hi there!’ he says.
‘Hi,’ I say, smiling wistfully.
The real Dan stares. ‘Do you know him?’ he says, when we’re past.
‘Yeah. Well. Sort of.’
‘He’s ever so good looking,’ says Dan, and he sounds wistful now. He peers round at them. ‘Is that his boyfriend?’
‘It looks like it,’ I say, sighing.
‘Are you Ellie’s boyfriend?’ Eggs asks Dan.
‘Definitely,’ says Dan.
‘Not even possibly,’ I insist.
Dan isn’t my boyfriend. OK OK, he’s fun. And I have a good time with him. And I can say all sorts of stuff to him. And though he’s a hopeless nerd he’s also brave. And quick-witted. And imaginative. And it doesn’t really matter one hundred per cent if he looks stupid. Anyway, I’m hardly some Pamela Anderson type pin-up. He’s not cool. But maybe the truly cool guy doesn’t care if he’s cool or not. But he’s still not my boyfriend because I could never get romantic about Dan. Not in a Romeo and Juliet kind of way. I’m not too fond, like Juliet. No true-love passion.
Although . . .
We play Ma and Pa as we bath Eggs and put him to bed (which is a struggle, and takes hours). Then we settle down in front of the telly with Coke and crisps. We chat and crunch companionably. We laugh at something daft on the video and Dan rolls one way on the sofa and I roll the other way, towards him. And guess what? We kiss. My first real kiss. And it’s not at all the way I imagined it. I didn’t crack up laughing. I like it. Even though it’s only Dan.
Maybe because it’s Dan . . .
Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Copyright
About the Author
About the Illustrator
Praise for the Girls Series
Girls in Love
Nine Dedication
Nine Major resolutions
One Girl
Nine Heroes and Heroines
Two Best Friends
Nine Wishes
Three Boyfriends
Nine Thing i Hate About School
Four in the Family
Nine Dreams
Five Alive
Nine Parties
Six Letters
Nine Unexpected Odd Facts
Seventh Heaven
Nine Favourites
Eight till Late
Nine Most Embarrasing
999
Nine Romantis Couples
Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Copyright
About the Author
About the Illustrator
Praise for the Girls Series
Girls in Love
Nine Dedication
Nine Major resolutions
One Girl
Nine Heroes and Heroines
Two Best Friends
Nine Wishes
Three Boyfriends
Nine Thing i Hate About School
Four in the Family
Nine Dreams
Five Alive
Nine Parties
Six Letters
Nine Unexpected Odd Facts
Seventh Heaven
Nine Favourites
Eight till Late
Nine Most Embarrasing
999
Nine Romantis Couples
Girls in Love Page 11