Shrinking Violet

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Shrinking Violet Page 9

by Jean Ure


  Lily had just come into the room. She gave me this irritated look.

  “What’s going on?”

  She wasn’t used to me having private conversations on the telephone. She was the one that was supposed to do all the talking!

  “Who is it?” she hissed. “Is it the Blob?”

  “No,” I said. “It’s Adroola.”

  “Who’s Adroola?”

  “Adroola the Drooler. She’s a pop star. Listen!”

  I held out the receiver. Katie’s voice came drooling down the line. Rather disgusting, actually. It sounded like someone belching into a bowl of syrup.

  “Have you gone mad?” said Lily.

  I shouted, “Yes! Raving!” and danced about in front of her with my eyes crossed and one hand held up like a claw. Lily stared at me, with her mouth gaping open.

  “Raving! Raving! Bluurgh!”

  “Mum! She’s gone completely mad!” wailed Lily.

  “Has she?” said Mum. “Well, I shouldn’t worry about it. She seems quite happy.”

  “But people might think I’m mad!” said Lily. “They might think she’s me!”

  It is true that just lately people do seem to have started getting us more muddled up than they used to. Even, sometimes, people at school. I can’t think why, since we are not in the least bit alike. Lily will tell you that I am completely mad. It is since knowing Katie. She gets you that way! She is so bright and bubbly, she makes me bright and bubbly, too.

  It is such fun to have a friend! We do all kinds of things together. I’ve slept over at Katie’s place, she’s slept over at mine. (Lily was excluded. But I might let her in on it next time. If she behaves herself!)

  What else have we done? We’ve been shopping together. Lots of times! We really enjoy shopping. We’ve been on the Eye. At last – and for real! Not just in my imagination. We’ve been ice skating! (Katie’s mum took us.) Oh, and we’ve written loads more for Girlzone. We did the celebs, and we did a quiz, and we did a special interview with Adroola. Our latest thing, the thing we’re working on at the moment, is Makeover of the Month. We’re going to have Befores and Afters. Like this:

  These are true photographs! We did all the makeup and stuff in my room, with the door barricaded so that Lily couldn’t get in. She was practically foaming at the mouth! She knew something was going on, she just didn’t know what. Hah! That makes a change. But I don’t see why I should let her in on all my secrets.

  I have lots of secrets, these days. I share them with Katie. Natch! Most of them are private giggle material, just between her and me. We go round the playground, arm in arm, giggling away together. Sometimes we giggle so much we give ourselves a stitch. People look at us as if we have taken leave of our senses. But do we care?

  NO WAY!

  Also by Jean Ure

  Lemonade Sky

  Love and Kisses

  Fortune Cookie

  Star Crazy Me!

  Over the Moon

  Boys Beware

  Sugar and Spice

  Is Anybody There?

  Secret Meeting

  Passion Flower

  Boys on the Brain

  Skinny Melon and Me

  Becky Bananas, This is Your Life!

  Fruit and Nutcase

  The Secret Life of Sally Tomato

  Family Fan Club

  Ice Lolly

  Special three-in-one editions

  The Tutti-Frutti Collection

  The Flower Power Collection

  The Friends Forever Collection

  And for younger readers

  Dazzling Danny

  Daisy May

  Monster in the Mirror

  Copyright

  HarperCollins Children’s Books

  An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

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  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  Text copyright © Jean Ure 2002

  Illustrations by Karen Donnelly 2002

  Cover illustrations by Nicola Slater

  The author and illustrator assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Source ISBN: 9780009143900

  EBook Edition © JUNE 2013 ISBN: 9780007439898

  HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this e-book has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

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