I raced home to pick up my clothes to take to Cat’s. It was complete pandemonium when I got there with even more people dashing about than there had been in the morning. The Venetian theme had really taken shape. A trio of musicians were rehearsing in the hall and there were ornate candelabras in the corridor leading to the right of the house where the marquee had been set up for the party. It’s going to look really fab, I thought as I spotted Mum giving a group of caterers some last minute instructions.
‘Is Ollie back?’ I asked her.
She nodded her chin towards the stairs. ‘In his room with his friends, and oh, Lia, I’ll leave a selection of masks in your room for you and your friends to put on when you’re back from the school disco. Don’t be back too late, OK?’
‘OK. Thanks, Mum,’ I said. Ollie’s with his friends? Who else besides Michael, I wondered as I took the stairs two at a time. Never mind, the more, the merrier. I made a quick dash up to my room to brush my hair and spritz some Cristalle on before going to say hello and hopefully get Michael to notice me properly for the first time.
As soon as I opened my door, I noticed a blue envelope on my bed. My name had been written on it in beautiful handwriting. I ripped it open. It was a card with a red rose on it. Inside, it read: To the girl with silver eyes, from a distant admirer who’s waiting until the time is right to reveal himself. Happy Valentine’s. Then three kisses.
I felt a rush of excitement as I studied the envelope for clues. No stamp, so it must have been either delivered by hand or come from someone in the house.
Hmmm. Interesting, I thought as I heard Ollie and Michael’s voices in the corridor outside.
‘HEY, IF it isn’t little Lia,’ said Michael when I opened my bedroom door. Then he looked me up and down. ‘Only not so little any more. You’ve shot up in the last year. You look great!’
‘Thanks,’ I said and gave him my best flirty look. So far, so good, I thought as he enveloped me in a huge hug. He looked as gorgeous as I remembered – tall and dark, with velvety brown eyes and amazing chiselled features.
‘All ready for tonight?’ asked Ollie. ‘Is Cat coming?’
‘Yeah. Later with me. First we’ve got to go to our school disco. In fact, I wondered if you and Mich . . .’ At that moment, I heard the door of one of the guest rooms open and close behind us and as I turned, a girl with long dark hair was coming towards us. She was very pretty – Indian-looking, with lovely high cheekbones. Oh no, I thought. Ollie’s brought one of his ‘girlfriends’ with him. I hope Cat’s not going to be upset. I felt a flash of annoyance. He always does this. Keeps himself surrounded with different girls, so that no one can get too close to him.
‘Lia, this is Usha,’ said Ollie as the girl came to join us. ‘Michael’s girlfriend.’
As she slipped her hand into Michael’s, I tried to smile and look friendly, but inside, I felt like my chest was made of glass and someone had just shattered it. ‘Oh . . . er, hi Usha.’
‘So what were you just saying?’ asked Ollie. ‘Something about a disco?’
‘Yeah. Got to dash. Disco at school. Going there first. Be back later. See you then.’
I ran back to my room, locked the door, dived on to my bed and put my pillow over my head. Girlfriend? He’d brought his girlfriend! Stinking finking. I never saw that coming. But, of course, someone as attractive as Michael was bound to have a girlfriend and Ollie wasn’t to know that I fancied him. I lay on my bed for a while, stared at the ceiling and ran through all the swear words I knew in my head. I daren’t say them out loud as there were too many people in the house and someone might be passing my room and think I’d gone mad. Suddenly I wasn’t in the mood for a disco, or a party. I wanted to hide under my bed and come out when it was all over.
A moment later, Cat phoned to ask if she could borrow my red beaded choker and it all came tumbling out.
‘. . . so, you see, I just can’t come,’ I said. ‘I’d be lousy company and . . . ’
‘So what are you going to do? Hide in your bedroom all night? You know you can’t do that. Your mum or someone’s bound to come up and drag you out, then you’ll have to spend the whole night watching Michael with Usha. No, come on, Lia, best get out of there. Take your mind off it. And you never know, we might have a good time at school, then later, at least Bec, Mac, Squidge and I will be there with you.’
The school disco was well underway by the time we got there. In the end, it wasn’t me who held us up but Becca. She took six changes of clothes to Cat’s and couldn’t decide what to wear. She finally decided on black trousers and a black handkerchief top. She looked really sophisticated, more eighteen than fourteen.
Cat wore her short red dress and my choker and looked lovely as always. The name Cat suits her as she looks a bit like a cat – dark, glossy and serene. Mum and I had picked out a silvery coloured mini-dress with sparkles on it last time we were up in London, but it seemed a bit OTT for the school disco. I wasn’t in the mood for dressing up, so I just put on my jeans and a pale blue halter-neck top instead.
‘You’d look good whatever you wore,’ said Becca as we tried to apply lip-gloss beneath the glaring fluorescent lights in the girls’ cloakroom at school. I couldn’t help thinking how different it looked to back home where Mum had put jasmine scented candles, flowers and Floris soaps in all the cloakrooms. The only aroma here was the pong of disinfectant that the cleaners used to scour the loos with.
As we stood in front of the mirrors doing our hair, Kaylie O’Hara came in with one of her mates, Susie Cooke. Cat gave me an ‘Oh, here we go’ look as Kaylie is one of those girls who takes over a place even if it’s only the cloakroom. It’s as if when she arrives, no one else is important. She has to be the centre of attention and she’s certainly very popular, especially with the boys. Becca says it’s because boys are breast-fixated and she has the largest chest in our year. She always wears very tight tops that make her boobs look as though they’re straining to escape. She’s easily the prettiest of her group, in a baby-doll kind of way, and her mates are all clones of her. There are four of them. Kaylie, Susie, Jackie and Fran. Becca calls them the Barbies. Cat calls them the Clones. All of them are really girlie girls who have blonde highlighted hair that they flick around a lot. They all wear loads of shiny lip-gloss which they are always reapplying, even in the middle of maths. And lately, they’ve all started talking in this lispy breathy voice. Kaylie started it a few weeks ago and now they all do it. I guess they think it makes them sound sexy, but I think it makes them sound silly. Cat says Kaylie and her mates are as thick as two short planks. In her usual subtle way (not), Becca thinks that they will all probably marry some very rich but stupid men. ‘The type that likes arm candy, but doesn’t care that the candy is braindead.’
‘Tonight’s the night,’ sang Kaylie as she headed for the mirror next to us and began to apply pink gloss to her lips.
‘You look happy,’ said Becca.
Kaylie winked at Susie. ‘Indeed. Just heard some interesting news. Some very interesting news.’
‘Come on, then,’ said Becca, who never held back when she wanted to know something. ‘Spill.’
Kaylie smiled. ‘Ah, well . . .’ Then she began singing again. ‘Tonight’s the night . . .’
Becca shrugged and headed for the door.
‘Oh, all right,’ pouted Kaylie. ‘You’ll find out soon enough anyway.’ She folded her arms and leaned back against the sink. ‘Jonno Appleton’s broken up with Rosie.’
‘Is that all?’ said Becca. ‘So what’s the big deal?’
‘He’s free, you eejit,’ she said then raised an eyebrow, ‘but not for long if I have my way.’
Cat shot me a look as if to say, Yeah right, then turned to Kaylie. ‘But sometimes people need a bit of space when they’ve just split up with someone. He may not be ready yet.’
Kaylie tapped the side of her nose. ‘Oh, don’t worry. I know how to play it. I have it all worked out, in fact. I have an ickle plan.’
I guess I must have let out a sigh when she said that, as she turned to look at me. ‘You don’t think I can do it?’ she asked in a tight voice.
‘No, I . . . it wasn’t that . . .’ I blustered. I didn’t mean to dismiss her. I was just thinking that getting off with Michael had fizzled out despite all my plans. But I wasn’t going to tell her about that. I felt intimidated by Kaylie. She’s one of those girls who acts friendly, but you get the feeling that if you said the wrong thing, she could turn nasty. I’ve never crossed her, but I’ve seen her be really sarcastic to a couple of girls in our class. Luckily, she seemed to be in a good mood tonight.
‘Whatever,’ she said as she took out a can of hairspray and sprayed liberally around her head. Some of the spray hit me in the eye. ‘Oh sorry, Lia, did I get you? Oops.’
‘S’OK,’ I said as I rubbed my eye. I swear she did it on purpose, but there was no way I was going to say anything.
Kaylie stood back and looked at her reflection. ‘Tonight, Mr Appleton, you are mine, all mine.’
Susie laughed and flicked her hair back. ‘He doesn’t stand a chance, poor guy.’
At that moment, Annie Peters came in and stood next to Kaylie at the sink. I like Annie. She’s in Year Eleven and is a bit of an oddball. She does her own thing, has her own hippie style and is brilliant at art, particularly photography.
‘Hey, nice watch,’ she said to Kaylie as she applied some moss-green kohl to her eyes.
Kaylie beamed. ‘Thanks. It’s a Cartier.’
‘For real?’ asked Annie, taking Kaylie’s wrist.
‘Yeah, course. My brother brought it back from Thailand for me. Cool, huh?’
Annie examined the watch and nodded. ‘Yeah. Nice. There’s one sure way to tell if it’s real, though.’
‘How?’ asked Kaylie as I headed for the door. Now would be a good time to leave, I thought as I had the same watch on. My dad got it for me last Christmas and I’ve no doubt that mine’s real, as I was with him when he bought it from the Cartier shop in London.
‘Easy,’ said Annie. ‘My dad got my mum one for their twentieth wedding anniversary. She said that you can tell a real Cartier by looking at one of the numbers, I think it’s the V, under a magnifying glass. If it’s genuine, you can see the word Cartier written in minuscule writing.’
I gave Becca the nod to say let’s go, but she clearly wanted to stay and watch what was happening. Annie rummaged in her bag. ‘I’ve got a magnifying glass in here somewhere. Let’s have a look.’
She pulled out her glass, held it close to Kaylie’s wrist, then screwed her eyes up to look at the watch. ‘Nope. Can’t see any word.’
I thought it was a bit mean of Annie to humiliate Kaylie like that, as she’d obviously been chuffed thinking that she had a real Cartier. To me, it’s no big deal. A watch is a watch, main thing is that it tells the time, but I wanted to say something to make Kaylie feel better. ‘It looks real to me,’ I said. ‘It might just be on a particular model that the V has Cartier written on it.’ Big mistake as all eyes turned to me. Eagle-eyes Annie spotted my watch straight away.
‘Hey, same watch,’ she said, before I could hide my arm behind my back. ‘What a coincidence. Here. Let’s have a look at yours, Lia.’
Quick as a flash, she had my wrist in her hand and was scrutinising my watch. ‘Yep,’ she said. ‘Here it is. Tiny. Cartier. Want to look, Kaylie?’
‘Think I’ll pass,’ she said sulkily as she flounced towards the door. ‘Little things for little minds.’
‘Good luck with Jonno,’ I called after her, in an attempt to break the sour atmosphere.
‘Yeah, whatever,’ she said. Then she smiled back at me. But it was with her mouth not her eyes. She may be pretty, I thought, but there’s something hard about her. She’s clearly not someone to get on the wrong side of.
The music was thumping in the hall where the disco was being held. Already people were up, dancing and having a good time and the atmosphere was infectious. I soon forgot the incident in the cloakroom, as Becca and Cat pulled me out on to the floor and we began to dance. Mac and Squidge soon came to join us and after a while I began to really enjoy myself. Squidge is a brilliant dancer when he wants to be, but he was in the mood for looning about by doing Hawaiian dancing, then Greek, then Egyptian, then Russian – complete with knee bends and kicks. Then he fell over.
‘And now, so that the teachers don’t feel left out, we’ll have a golden oldie session,’ said the DJ. ‘Here’s a blast from the past for the wrinklies with an old Beatles number – “Can’t Buy Me Love”.’
The group of teachers, who were standing by the drinks table, smiled wearily then carried on chatting.
As we danced to the words, ‘Money can’t buy me love’, I thought, that’s so true. Money can’t buy a good time either. Like there in the hall. The decorations looked really tatty. There were a few token balloons scattered around the walls and an old faded glitter ball catching light on the ceiling, and that was it, but it hadn’t stopped anyone having a great time. Probably cost about five quid, I thought, whereas Mum’s party must have cost thousands.
After a few dances, we went to get a drink and Becca nudged me. ‘Over there,’ she whispered. ‘Kaylie gets her man.’
‘Or not,’ said Cat as she looked over. ‘I think it’s going to be a no score.’
I glanced over to where they were looking and saw Kaylie at the other end of the drinks table. She was desperately trying to get Jonno’s attention, but he seemed more interested in talking to one of his mates from the football team. She was flicking her hair and sticking her chest out for all she was worth, but he wasn’t taking any notice. When another Beatles track began to play, she pulled on his arm and tried to get him to join her on the dance floor, but he shook his head and turned away to get a drink.
That makes two of us let down by love today, I thought, feeling sorry for her for a moment.
Cat, Becca and I downed an orange juice then headed back on to the floor to join Mac and Squidge, who by now had moved on to sixties go-go dancing, à la Austin Powers style. We joined in and were having a real laugh when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see a handsome face smiling down at me.
‘Want to dance?’ asked Jonno Appleton.
Over his shoulder, I could see Kaylie watching from the drinks table. She didn’t look pleased.
WE LEFT the disco around ten o’clock and piled into Squidge’s dad’s van. He was great at ferrying us all around when we needed a lift.
‘You don’t mind roughing it, do you?’ asked Mr Squires as he spread an old blanket that stank of petrol on the floor in the back.
I wedged myself in between a tool box and Becca. ‘No, course not. Rough is the new smooth, don’t you know?’
‘Bet you never travelled like this up in London,’ said Becca.
‘Yeah, course I did,’ I lied. I didn’t want Squidge or his dad to think I was snobby about the van. I wasn’t bothered at all, but the truth was, at my old school, everyone used cabs to get about. One night, my friend Gabby’s dad even had his chauffeur pick us up and take us to the theatre in their Bentley. It was really cool. Her dad’s a politician and the car had tinted windows and was bullet proof, at least Gabby said it was. Either way, we felt like we were in a Bond movie.
Mac jumped in and sat back against Becca pretending that she wasn’t there. ‘Er, seats are a bit lumpy, mate,’ he joked to Squidge.
‘Gerroff,’ said Becca, pushing him off and into Cat who was squashed up in the corner.
‘Gerroff yourself,’ she said, pushing him back at Becca.
Mac made his body go limp and lay over both of them. ‘Ah, poor me. At the mercy of cold-hearted women again.’
‘Get in the front beside me, nutter,’ Squidge laughed.
Mac climbed out, then closed the back door on us before getting in beside Squidge in the front.
What a strange night, I thought. In fact, what a strange day. No Valentine’s card, then
a card appears on my bed. I still don’t know who sent it, but I guess Michael is off the list now. Probably Mum. It’s the sort of thing she’d do. No boy interested in me, then the most popular boy in school makes a beeline for me. I had one dance with Jonno and he was really flirty, putting his arms around my waist and stuff, but I was so aware of Kaylie’s eyes boring into me that I couldn’t let go and enjoy it. In the end, I made an excuse and went back to mad dancing with my mates.
‘You’re bonkers,’ said Becca as the van reached our driveway and the gates swung open. ‘Jonno’s gorgeous.’
‘I know,’ I said, ‘but I don’t want any trouble. Kaylie bagged him in the loos. You heard her.’
‘So what? It doesn’t mean that they’re an item,’ continued Becca. ‘Anyone could see that he wasn’t interested in her. He only had eyes for you.’
I shook my head. ‘Not worth the aggro. I don’t want to get on the wrong side of her.’
Becca sighed. ‘Tough for her, I say. You can’t let girls like Kaylie O’Hara run your life. Look at what you want to happen, not what she wants.’
‘Yeah . . . I will,’ I said. ‘In fact, at the disco, I invited a few boys from Year Eleven up to the party.’
‘Really?’ said Cat. ‘Who? Jonno?’
‘No. Not Jonno. Seth and Charlie from your class, Squidge.’
‘Yeah. They’re OK,’ he said from the front. ‘Do you fancy one of them?’
Teen Queens Page 2