I felt the start of a BLUSH creeping up my cheeks. “No worries.”
He held open the library door and we stopped outside. There was a bit of an AWKWARD SILENCE.
“So, I’ll see you around, then?” he said, raising his eyebrows.
“Yeah,” I replied, feeling a stab of disappointment that he hadn’t noticed my new look. “See you.”
I got about ten steps away before he called out my name. “Cassie?”
I turned around. “Yeah?”
He flashed a grin at me. “Looking good.”
This time, there was no stopping my face from turning red. I spun around so that he wouldn’t see. “Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.”
Okay, so it’s not going to win me the NOBEL PRIZE FOR COMEBACKS but I don’t care. Nathan Crossfield thinks I look good and that, for now, is all that matters.
Chapter Eleven
So, today scores about a 9.5 on the SUCK-O-METER. To start off with, I was tossing and turning all night and the only reason I know that I fell asleep at all was that I had a bad dream in which I was walking around school in MY UNDERWEAR and people were firing random questions at me. It doesn’t take a degree in dream interpretation to figure out what that’s all about – with less than three weeks to go until the quiz team regional heats, the pressure is building and I get the feeling Bilal and Rebecca don’t really understand what I bring to the table. So it’s not a massive surprise that I am a teensy bit stressed about it all. It took me ages to drag myself out of bed and when I did, I discovered that cute flicky-out layers are not so easy when you are in a rush and all you have to use is a broken comb and a travel hairdryer. Bring on next week, when I can sleep in as long as I like and it doesn’t matter if I look like a SNAKE-HAIRED MESS mess.
Mum was being her usual understanding self.
“Get a move on, Cassie,” she bellowed up the stairs as I was desperately slapping Liam’s wax onto my wayward hair, which made it look like a slug had dissolved on my head. “You’re going to school, not London Fashion Week.”
For someone who claims to get breathless just walking to the car, she hasn’t half got a loud shout. I wonder sometimes if she exaggerates the symptoms of pregnancy so that we all feel sorry for her. Then again, I accidentally caught a bit of ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE last night and now that I know what she’s going to have to do, I think she deserves my sympathy. Why do women ever have more than one baby? EWWWW. Although obviously I’m glad my parents didn’t stop at one or I wouldn’t exist. Liam probably wishes they had.
Anyway, I can’t afford to get in Mum’s bad books because I keep forgetting to ask if TEAM SJ can come round to study in the holidays, and there are only three days left until we break up. On Monday night she was out at her yoga class, and last night she fell asleep in front of the TV. Dad wouldn’t let me wake her so I haven’t had a chance to ask yet. I’m sure she won’t mind but I’m not jinxing it by telling Nathan we’re good to go until the FAT LADY nods. Besides, I’d rather not get too close to him with my hair looking like I’ve just landed from PLANET SLIME.
Liam took one look at me as I got in the car and shook his head. “Adopted, remember?”
I wonder sometimes if he’s the one who is adopted. It would explain so much.
In spite of all that, the day wouldn’t have sucked quite so badly if it hadn’t been for the GINORMOUS argument I had with Molly. We’ve been planning to go trick or treating on Halloween for months and now she says she can’t go because she has “other commitments”. I know she is practising a song for SJHGT but surely that doesn’t take up twenty-four-seven? And I bet she could take one night off if she really wanted to. That’s when I discovered the real reason she didn’t want to go – WOLF BRETHREN were rehearsing and Liam had invited her to watch them, presumably to keep her sweet and make sure she kept on doing their running around for them. I don’t know what annoyed me more – the fact that she’d dumped me and Shenice AGAIN or that she is TOO STUPID to see what Liam’s real motives are.
“Does he know you’re entering the contest?” I demanded, confronting her on the way home from school.
She thrust her chin in the air. “Yes. I told him ages ago.”
I snorted, trying not to feel weird that she seemed to communicate more with my brother than I did. “I’d double-check if I were you. How do you think he’s going to react when you wipe the floor with his stupid band in the competition?”
“Well, maybe I’ll pull out, then,” she declared. “The band is more important than me.”
I stared at her, wishing Shenice hadn’t had to go to a swim team meeting so that she could hear the RUBBISH Molly was coming out with. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my friend? The Molly Papadopoulos I know would never say something like that.”
“We’re not all as ME-ME-ME as you, Cassie,” she fired back. “Just because I don’t think winning is the be-all and end-all, you think I’ve gone mental.”
Me-me-me – er…ME? That was a bit rich coming from the person who was choosing a CRUMMY BAND over her BEST FRIENDS. And how had this suddenly become about me, anyway? I was just an innocent bystander. Besides, the last time I checked, Liam was way more self-absorbed than I was. I gritted my teeth. “No, I think you’re putting my waste-of-space brother first when he doesn’t deserve it.”
She tossed her head. “You don’t see what I see.”
I wanted to slap her, I really did. “Obviously,” I snapped. “But don’t expect any sympathy when he drops you like a stone after ST JUDE’S HAS GOT TALENT.”
She eyed me coldly. “Jealousy is a terrible thing, Cassie. Just because Liam got all the talent, doesn’t mean you have to hate on him all the time.”
And that was when I really lost it. “You know what?” I exploded, peeling off down a side road so that I wouldn’t have to look at her any more. “You deserve everything you get. And FYI, me and Shenice will be going trick or treating without you. We might actually enjoy ourselves without you banging on about WOLF BRETHREN the whole time, anyway.”
I didn’t wait to hear her reply. With angry tears filling my eyes, I stamped down the road. It wasn’t until I got around the corner that I realized I’d gone down a cul-de-sac. But I couldn’t go back out straight away because Molly might see me and think I wanted to apologize. So I sat on a garden wall to wait, replaying the argument in my head. Then an old lady came out and told me to shove off or she’d hit me with her broom, which was really unfair because I wasn’t even doing anything. That’s the last time I donate to the Age Concern lady outside Tesco.
Like I said, today is made of SUCKAGE.
Chapter Twelve
Shenice was totally on my side when I phoned her to explain what had happened. We both agreed that it was going to take something pretty drastic to force Molly to snap out of her obsession with Liam.
“Whatever happened to SISTERS before MISTERS?” Shenice asked, sounding aggrieved. “MATES before DATES?”
“BESTIES before BOYS,” I agreed, although my mind wasn’t really on the conversation. Mostly, I was thinking how weird it will be going out on Halloween without Molly, but she has made her bed and it is with the SMELLY WOLVES. She’s on her own from now on.
Mum was surprisingly keen to have the quiz team round in half-term. I think she has been worried that I would be bored and expect her to entertain me. Sometimes, I swear she thinks I am still four years old. But I wasn’t complaining – I don’t know where the first half-term at St Jude’s went but we were suddenly only two weeks away from the quiz and we needed to do some serious cramming.
So, on Monday afternoon, Rebecca, Bilal and Nathan arrived at the house for our revision session. I hadn’t mentioned that they were coming over to Liam – I decided that he was more likely to hang around if he knew there’d be an audience for him to show off to. And he’d try to turn them into WOLF BRETHREN fans. The thought of Rebecca and Bilal politely listening to their brand of shouty-shouty noise made me smile; I doubted either of the
m were big thrash metal fans. That wouldn’t deter Liam, though. It would be safest if he was out of the house. Luckily, the GODS OF PUT-UPON LITTLE SISTERS were smiling on me for once and he announced to Mum that he was going to the park for a kick-about.
Briefly, I wondered if Molly would be there. I bet she would – for the last few days of term she’d resolutely ignored both me and Shenice. Not that we’d been falling over ourselves to speak to her. It felt strange, being a pair instead of a trio, but at least Shenice and I had each other. I’d seen Molly sitting on her own in the playground at breaks and lunchtime and knew she must be feeling lonely without us. I almost suggested we went over to see her. Then I remembered how she’d put Liam before us and stayed where I was.
Even so, I kind of MISSED Molly. We’d squabbled and fought amongst ourselves before but never fallen out completely and she didn’t have any brothers or sisters to rely on for company in the holidays. In a way, I could hardly blame her for hanging around Liam.
I almost forgot about my problems with Molly once Nathan and the others arrived, though. Mum was actually quite sociable, waddling round offering drinks and biscuits.
“I’ve got cashew nuts and bananas, if you’re after something a bit healthier,” she twittered on as we sat down in the living room. “And I thought you might like to listen to one of my meditation CDs, to help you concentrate.”
Hang on, weren’t those CDs for giving birth? I heard muffled laughter coming from Rebecca and felt my cheeks getting warm. Grabbing the remote control, I zapped the TV into life. “It’s okay. We’ll have the music channel on. Stop fussing, Mum.”
She fixed me with a level stare and I thought for one stomach-flipping moment that she was going to sit down with us. But then she sighed. “Fine, whatever works best for you. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”
“When is the baby due?” Nathan asked once the kitchen door had closed.
“BABIES,” I corrected him, smiling. “TWINS, and they’re due on Boxing Day.”
Nathan’s eyes widened. “Wow. How do you feel about them?”
It was a good question and the answer seemed to change on a daily basis. At the moment, I was feeling OKAY-ISH to our expanding family. “Excited, I suppose. But worried I’ll be expected to change nappies, obviously.”
“I’d hate it if my mum had any more children,” Rebecca said, shuddering. “I think I’d leave home.”
I didn’t want to admit that I’d felt the same at first. “Trust me, my older brother is way more annoying than the twins could ever be,” I said. “He’s about as much fun to have around as a DEMENTOR.”
Nathan smiled. “Older sisters aren’t much better. Mine spends half her life on her phone and the other half in the bathroom.”
Mum came through from the kitchen and Rolo took the opportunity to bound through behind her. Tail wagging like he’d found some long-lost friends, he offered a slobbery greeting to my team-mates.
“Sorry,” I said, firing a meaningful look at Mum. “He was supposed to stay in the kitchen.”
Nathan ruffled Rolo’s ears. “Don’t worry, he can be our team mascot.”
Bilal cleared his throat. “We should get started. There are loads of sample questions to get through.”
“Ooh, do you need a quiz master?” Mum asked, her face brightening. “I do a brilliant Jeremy Paxman impression.”
It’s not brilliant, it’s ABYSMAL, and she does it every time UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE is on. Imagine a heavily pregnant woman impersonating a middle-aged posh man and multiply the cringe-factor by a zillion. For one SICK-MAKING second, I thought she was actually going to launch into it. Then Nathan rescued me. “They’re written questions, Mrs Bond. Thanks, anyway.”
I flashed him a grateful look before glaring at my mother. “Can you take Rolo out with you, please? He’s trying to eat the TV again.”
Once Rolo had been dragged into the kitchen, we got down to business. I was surprised at how many of the answers I knew; maybe my research was starting to pay off. It wasn’t until we swapped answer sheets that I realized I hadn’t got as many right as I’d thought.
“The capital of the USA is Washington DC, not New York,” Rebecca said with a tut. “I thought everyone knew that.”
I squirmed in my seat. “Right. Of course it is.”
She scowled over the top of her glasses at me. “The biggest animal on earth is the blue whale and the Battle of Hastings was in 1066.” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Remind me how you got picked for the quiz team again?”
It was all right for them, the three of them had gone to the same primary school, the kind that encouraged competitive quizzes. Molly and Shenice and me had been too busy playing POP STARS for that. The blood began to roar in my ears. “Sorry.”
“It doesn’t matter if you get a few wrong,” Nathan said, frowning at Rebecca. “We’ve all done these quizzes before, remember? Cassie hasn’t.”
The kitchen door swung open and Rolo barrelled in. I was so busy trying not to cry that I didn’t pay him much attention as he dived under a chair, growling. Blinking, I concentrated on marking the last of Nathan’s questions – twenty out of twenty. Glancing at the other sheets, I saw that Rebecca had got two wrong and Bilal one. My score was an accusatory eleven, written in ugly red pen on the paper in Rebecca’s hand.
“I guess I’ve got some work to do,” I offered, hoping my voice didn’t sound as WOBBLY as I felt. For a SO-CALLED GENIUS, I didn’t feel very clever.
“What is your dog chewing?” Rebecca asked, frowning at Rolo, who was half under the chair and tugging and gnawing at something pink and white with great enthusiasm. Her nose wrinkled with disgust. “Is it…a pair of KNICKERS?”
The embarrassment I felt at scoring so badly on the quiz evaporated instantly as a new kind of horror took hold. I almost didn’t dare look. Diving towards Rolo, I tried to snatch whatever it was from his mouth but he thought I wanted to play and bounced away, tail beating the air. His latest “TOY” dangled from his mouth.
“No, Rolo,” I groaned and grabbed for him. He leaped backwards, letting out a playful growl. Now I could see a leg hole and knew without a doubt that he’d got hold of a pair of pants. “Drop!”
He shook his head and pranced up and down with his prize. My patience ran out. “Rolo Bond, put that down this minute!” I bellowed.
With a whine, his ears flattened against his head and he dropped the knickers. And I realized how much I hadn’t thought things through when they landed right beside Nathan’s foot. In slow motion, I watched him stretch out a hand and pick them up. Then the FULL HORROR dawned. They weren’t just any old pants – they were mine. And they had a fairy on the front.
Man’s best friend? More like GIRL’S WORST NIGHTMARE.
Chapter Thirteen
Here we are again: Sunday evening. When we were in primary school, the holidays seemed to stretch on for ever – now that we are at St Jude’s, half-term week has gone by in a flash. I am wondering if it’s too late to join MI6 so that I can be sent on an UNDERCOVER MISSION and never have to go to school again. It doesn’t matter how many times I replay KNICKERGATE in my head, it doesn’t get any better and I cannot bear the thought of facing Nathan, Rebecca and Bilal at school tomorrow. It’s like when I thought Mum was going to cut all my hair off, except that there’s no possible silver lining to owning FAIRY UNDERWEAR.
On top of that, Molly is still not speaking to us. I ended up spilling the whole story to Mum when she found out it was just me and Shenice going trick or treating. She got all cross and told me I should be the BIGGER PERSON and make friends. But when I texted Molly, she ignored it and I know she got the message. I wasn’t sure what to do then; was I supposed to just keep getting bigger and bigger until she couldn’t possibly ignore me? Shen and I got dressed up in our HIPPOGRIFF costume anyway, and went trick or treating without her. We did our best but it wasn’t the same without Molly in her HERMIONE outfit – no one knew what we were supposed to be and one woman tho
ught we were GONZO from THE MUPPETS. And although we giggled a lot, neither of us got the hysterical can’t-breathe-from-laughing feeling we usually get. But we made a pact that if we ever make friends and Molly asks us about it, we had the BEST NIGHT EVER. Even if I did spend most of it with my face squashed against Shenice’s back.
As if I wasn’t enough of a STRESS-HEAD over Molly, I’m also fretting about my performance in the quiz. I’m clearly not as knowledgeable as the others, even though I’ve sat up really late every night reading Wikipedia and have learned all kinds of stuff. Who knew that seahorses can see behind them and in front of them at the same time? But what if I get a key question wrong and mess everything up? Then I’ll be the girl with the pant-munching dog who ruined their chances of getting to the next round. I’ll never live it down.
I might tell Mr Bearman that I’m quitting the team. That kills two of my worries with one stone. It won’t help with Molly but I’m not sure what else to do with her. The ball is in her court.
I coughed and I coughed until I thought I might actually throw up on Monday morning but Mum still REFUSED to believe I have MALARIA. She just rolled her eyes and told me to get in the car. Honestly, what do I have to do to get the day off school?
I managed to make it through to lunchtime without meeting any of the quiz team. And then my luck didn’t so much run out as SMASH the HUNDRED METRES WOLRD RECORD, because the one person I didn’t want to see was the one I bumped into. Quite literally, it turned out, in the canteen. And school canteen moussaka and water down the front of your blouse isn’t a good look. In case you were wondering.
Nathan was really apologetic. “I’m really sorry, Cassie,” he said, as I picked bits of aubergine off my legs and dropped them onto my empty plate. “I should have been watching where I was going.”
“No, it was my fault,” I sighed, dabbing at the spreading orange stain on my blouse. Typically, he’d had an empty plate and didn’t have a mark on him. It was the story of my life.
Completely Cassidy – Accidental Genius (Completely Cassidy #1) Page 5