Bhangra Babes (14 page)

So did that mean I was giving up on the bet? Are you
crazy!
I was more determined than ever to win it and show Geena and Jazz exactly who was the boss around here! And anyway, I was still enjoying feasting my eyes on Rocky whenever the occasion arose.

But I should have guessed that trouble was just around the corner….

The bubble finally burst at the end of the week. Geena, Jazz and I were wandering on our merry way to school, feeling quite calm and at peace with the world. Well, I was. Geena and Jazz were moaning, as ever.

“It's impossible to get near Rocky these days,” Geena grumbled, “what with Kiran sticking to him like glue.”

“I vote we declare this bet null and void,” Jazz complained.

I raised my eyebrows. “Scared of losing?”

“Not at all,” Jazz shot back. “But like Geena said, it's impossible.”

“You two are never happy,” I sighed. “Mr. Arora landed us with looking after Kiran. I sorted that out. I got Auntie-ji fixed up at the community center. Which, may I remind you, calmed
our
auntie down and made life at home a lot more bearable.”

“I'll give you that,” Geena said grudgingly.

Auntie-ji had popped in for five minutes early one morning, just to see how the wedding arrangements were coming along, with just over two weeks to go. But she hadn't stayed long because she was taking a party of pensioners to the seaside. She had bounced out of the house, looking as happy as Larry, whoever he might be.

“That reminds me,” Jazz said, with the air of one who was determined to stir it. “What's going to happen after the wedding?”

I looked blank. “Auntie and Mr. Arora are going to live happily ever after, I suppose,” I replied.

“No, I meant Rocky and Kiran,” said Jazz impatiently. “He's only being friendly with her because you made that deal. Is he going to drop her like a hot potato after the wedding?”

“Ooh, good point,” Geena agreed. “Amber?”

“Of course not,” I blustered. “I think Rocky has actually discovered that he really does like Kiran. All

right, so he's never going to fall madly in love with her, but they'll stay mates.”

Geena and Jazz both looked disappointed.

“I could bang your heads together,” I grumbled. “You complain when my ideas don't work, and then you don't like it when they
do.”

Geena and Jazz were now grinning like two idiots.

“What?” I asked, looking round.

Rocky was walking down the road toward us. Did I say walk?
Stamp
would describe it better. Or
stomp.
Anyway, he looked very angry. But still beautiful, of course.

“Hello, Rocky,” Geena said in a Marilyn Monroe breathy voice. “Don't you usually get a lift to school?”

“Yeah, I do,” Rocky growled sulkily. “Only my daft mother has gone and pranged the side of the Merc. It's gone to be fixed. Dad's away on business and he's got the BMW. So I've got to walk.”

“Well, it's nice to see you—” I began, elbowing Jazz neatly into the gutter to get beside him.

Rocky ignored me. “We've got the van, but Mum won't drive it. Which is probably a good thing. She'd only smash it up, anyway.” He scowled. “Women drivers!”

Jazz frowned. I bit down on my lip. Geena wasn't going to let that go, however. Not even for the sake of a slave-for-the-day bet.

“What do you mean?” she said.

“You know.” Rocky shrugged. “They're always driving into things.”

“So your dad's never bumped into anything?” Geena asked coolly

“Well, yeah, once or twice,” muttered Rocky

Geena was going for the kill. “How many times?”

I think Rocky was just starting to realize that Geena wasn't too happy when something happened that grabbed our attention. We turned the corner, and there at the other end of the street we saw Kim and Kiran.

They were standing in the road, facing up to two boys who wore the uniform of Grange Street School, Coppergate's biggest enemy. The boys were older, and one of them was even taller than Kiran. It seemed as if they were arguing.

“What's going on?” I asked.

“Looks like trouble,” said Rocky.

I half expected him to race down the road ahead of us like some superhero. He didn't.

We hurried toward them. But before we got there, the two boys turned and walked off, making rude gestures as they went.

“Are you OK?” I rushed up to Kim and Kiran. Kim was looking quite pale and shaken, and I put my arm round her. “What happened?”

“I was on my way to school early to go to the library,” Kim gulped, “and those two boys grabbed my bag and threw it into the tree.” She pointed upward.

Kiran was already climbing the tree to get it. She retrieved Kim's rucksack from the branch where it was lying, and climbed neatly down again.

“Where did you learn to do
that?”
asked Jazz, mouth open wide.

“I was a monkey in a previous life,” Kiran said with a grin. She handed the rucksack to Kim. “There you go.”

Kim took the rucksack and hugged it to her. “Kiran came along and saved me,” she said shakily. “I asked those boys—assertively—to leave me alone. But they wouldn't.”

I stared at Kiran. “That was brave,” I said. “One of them was built like the Incredible Hulk.”

Kiran shrugged. “It was nothing.”

“Shame we didn't turn up a bit earlier,” said Rocky. “I'd soon have sorted them out.”

“Yeah, I'm sure you would have,” Kiran replied with a little smile.

I was still staring at her. Changes had been happening over the last few weeks, which I was only just noticing. Her cropped hair had grown and it was curling all over her head now. She looked smarter and generally a bit more together. And was that a touch of lip gloss she was wearing?

I watched Kiran smiling at Rocky. Those weren't the only changes. There was a sparkle in her eyes and a spring in her step.

And suddenly it hit me with all the force of a speeding train.

Had Kiran gone and fallen for the very obvious charms of Rocky Gill?

W
e walked the rest of the way to school together, but I didn't speak to or look at anyone. I was in a daze, a haze of guilt.

I'd pushed Kiran toward Rocky. Now she'd fallen head over heels for him—and there was absolutely no chance of him feeling the same way. I'd made the situation one million times worse… .

“You're very quiet, Amber,” said Geena suspiciously as we got closer to school.

“Is that a crime?” I retorted. “Can't a girl have a bit of time to meditate and be quiet within herself for five minutes?”

Geena stared hard at me. “Oh, now I know for a fact that there's something wrong,” she said. “You're never quiet, Amber.”

“You even talk in your sleep,” added Jazz.

“Shhh!” I jerked my head toward Rocky and Kiran, who were walking in front of us. “I don't want them to hear.”

“We're going to the shop to get some chocolate,” Rocky called, turning round. “Do you girls want anything?”

I shook my head. “We'll carry on to school,” I called. “See you later.”

“Right, what's going on?” demanded Geena as we hurried away.

“I'm a fool,” I said tragically.

“So what's new?” Jazz yawned. “I thought it was something serious.”

“This is serious,” I snapped. “Do you know what I think? I think Kiran's in love with Rocky.”

Geena, Jazz and Kim stopped dead and stared at me.

“Oh no,” Geena breathed. “You
are
joking? No, on second thought it makes perfect sense.”

“He's going to break her heart,” predicted Jazz dolefully. “I knew you shouldn't have interfered, Amber.”

“Has Kiran told you so?” Kim asked.

“No,” I replied, “but it's obvious. Just take a look at her.”

Kim was shaking her head. “Rocky's not Kiran's type,” she said. “She's clever and funny. Rocky's not that intelligent, and he can be a bit dull.”

It was interesting that neither I, Geena nor Jazz leaped to Rocky's defense, as we would have done before.

“But Kiran has changed over the last couple of weeks,” I persisted. “You have to admit that.”

“Maybe she's just settling in at last,” replied Kim. “And she might have started to deal with her father's death too.”

The three of us stared at Kim.

“How do you know about that?” I demanded.

“She told me one day last week,” Kim said casually. “We had quite a long chat.”

“Well, you're a dark horse, aren't you.” I felt somewhat annoyed. “You never said.”

Kim grinned. “You're not the only one who can keep a secret,” she retorted.

“So what are you going to do now, Amber?” asked Jazz. “Are you going to talk to Kiran?”

“No, she isn't,” said Geena and Kim together.

“Why not?” I muttered. “I got her into this mess. I'll have to get her out of it.”

“I think you've done quite enough,” Geena said sternly. “Leave it. You'll only make things worse.”

“But it was me who forced Rocky to make friends with her in the first place,” I said hopelessly. “Now she's in love with him, and he's only using her because he wants to play at Auntie's wedding. He might not even want to be friends with her afterward. How is she going to feel?”

Geena, Kim and Jazz stared at me in silence. When it was summed up like that, it sounded truly appalling.

“Surely Rocky couldn't be so insensitive and unfeeling,” said Geena cautiously.

Kim, Jazz and I didn't say anything. It was painfully obvious that not a single one of us had much faith in Rocky's ability to handle a delicate emotional situation.

Now, I wasn't going to tell the others this, but I did have a plan. If it wasn't a good idea to talk to Kiran (and I could see that maybe it wasn't), that didn't stop me talking to Rocky and trying to find out if his intentions were honorable.

I'm aware this is very strange. You might tell me I was wrong, but
honestly,
I didn't think I was. I believed that Rocky might—just
might
—have gone and fallen for Kiran himself!

I know it sounds ridiculous. I know I might have been fooling myself. And, truthfully, I didn't believe it to begin with. But all the signs pointed that way.

I spent the next few days trying to get Rocky on his own so I could have a word with him. Same old problem. If he wasn't talking music with Kiran, Geena and Jazz were forever hanging around, still determined to win the bet. To be perfectly frank, the bet was the last thing on my mind. But what happened was that I did start noticing exactly how Rocky treated Kiran.

He was nice to her. Sweet, even. He shared his chocolate bars with her. He brought her CDs to borrow. He looked out for her in the playground at every opportunity. He spent a lot of time chatting with her. He was certainly going far beyond the friendliness that our deal required.

“Could it be possible?” I asked myself, time and time again, “is it possible?”

And the answer I came up with was—why not? I dared to dream. And besides, it would get me very neatly off the hook…

“You were right, you know, Amber,” Jazz said solemnly. We were sitting on the canteen wall one lunchtime the following week, watching Rocky and Kiran making their way slowly across the playground toward us. “Kiran's in love with Rocky, and from here on in, that can only mean heartbreak and agony. And it's all your fault.”

“Not necessarily,” I said.

Geena, Jazz and Kim looked surprised.

“What do you mean?” asked Geena.

“Look more closely,” I told them. “Can't you see what's going on before your very eyes?”

They all stared obediently at Rocky and Kiran, who had stopped to look at a couple of CDs Kiran had taken from her bag.

“No,” they said together.

“Kiran and Rocky,” I explained impatiently. “It isn't all one-way traffic.”

“What have cars got to do with anything?” Jazz began, but Geena interrupted her.

“Oh, really, Amber!” she snapped, looking quite angry. “You're not suggesting—? That's ridiculous!”

“You think so?” Kim nodded several times. “I can believe that, actually. Amber could be right.”

“Will someone please tell me what's going on?” Jazz screeched.

“It's absurd, but now Amber thinks
Rocky
fancies
Kiran,”
Geena said curtly

Jazz glared at us. “Stop messing about and tell me what's
really
going on.”

“That's it,” I replied.

Jazz stared at me incredulously, then she burst out laughing.

“What's so funny?” I asked.

“Well,
look
at Kiran!” Jazz began. “Look at
us.”
She stopped, suddenly realizing that she was getting into deep waters.

“Go on,” I said.

Jazz blushed. “Do I have to?”

“You might as well,” Kim said. “It's what the three of you are thinking, anyway.”

“We're not all as shallow as Jazz,” Geena retorted.

“I'm not shallow,” Jazz said crossly. “Oh, all right, then. What I mean is that Kiran isn't even pretty, and we're all much better-looking. Even Amber.”

“Thank you for that vote of confidence,” I said. “But haven't you heard of the old saying that what's on the inside matters more than what's on the outside?”

“Yes, but I don't believe it,” Jazz replied. “Not where boys are concerned.”