Faking Sweet (20 page)

It was almost 6.00 pm. I'd been home for two hours, yet I hadn't done a scrap of study. I wasn't able to concentrate 'cause at 6.30 pm Jess was ringing me and we were doing three-way chat with Scott.

So what had I done in those two hours? Tried on about six outfits. All of them looked disgusting on me. I had a serious ‘no-clothes' dilemma on my hands. It was time to squeeze a bit of cash out of Dad so I could go shopping at Lipstix before the weekend. I still had the $200; I hadn't put it back in the bank – nah, I'd ask Dad.

At least I'd perfected my hairstyle after five attempts. It was a loose bun with a few stray hairs swept over the forehead to hide the remaining zits. Which led me to my next successful experiment.

Today at lunch, Saskia had given me a new foundation. It didn't end there. She then apologised for being such a bitch when I smashed her bottles jumping off the Science ledge. I was totally gobsmacked. Honestly, I almost saw stars I felt so giddy.

Saskia wanted to test the colour on me while we were sitting around, but I was too embarrassed. I was sure I could see Nadene ‘no-friends' eyeing me from the boundary of the ‘it' girls area. In some ways I felt bad that she would never get to cross the border, but most of me was happy 'cause I was sitting right in the middle of it!

Calypso once told me that the best way to use foundation was to mix it with a bit of moisturiser. I didn't have any so I improvised with a drop of vegetable oil from the kitchen cupboard. It worked a treat. I was shiny and glowing like I'd spent a week on a tropical island.

The other thing I'd done was check my emails. After busting Calypso and Miranda on MSN together, I thought maybe the ‘unbalanced one' would've sent me an email bursting with lies and excuses. She hadn't.

What I didn't get was that Calypso had gone to all the trouble to invent this revenge scheme. Then, on the day it's meant to go ahead, I never hear from her again. Well once, but one pathetic text didn't count.

So she was grounded, so what? She wasn't having trouble finding her way to Miranda's place. Wasn't Calypso curious to know if the ‘planting' had gone ahead? Or had she assumed that, like the other steps, I'd stuffed up number 5 too?

I was staring in the mirror, perfecting a few more poses and ‘Hi Scott's' when Mum came in with the phone.

‘What are you doing?' she asked me.

‘Nothing.'

‘What's on your face?'

‘Nothing.'

‘Jess Flynn's on the phone.'

I shooed Mum out of my room and closed the door. ‘Hello?'

‘Hey, Hol,' Jess said.

‘Hey.'

‘Is the space ready yet?'

‘Um, I'm making it now.' In three seconds flat I'd signed on as ‘Off line' and clicked on ‘Get a space.' ‘Yep. Ready,' I said.

‘Okay. I'll put you on hold and ring Scott.'

The classical-piano hold music started. I scrolled down the ‘MSN space' page. I'd never thought of getting one. I wasn't interesting enough, or rather no one was interested in Holly Hankinson and her non-existent life.

Jess: I'm back.

Me: Hey.

Scott: Hey, Hol.

My heart did a triple somersault with flip. Did Scott just call me Hol?

Me: Hey, Scott.

Scott: You got a space?

Me: Yeah.

Scott: Do you want me to take you through it?

I could read. And when last I checked, I did have a brain.

Me: Could you?

Jess: I've got the best saying from Saskia for your quote line. “Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow.” How cool is that?

Me: Can you say it again?

Slowly Jess repeated it while I typed it in.

Jess: And how appropriate is it for Calypso?

Me: Very appropriate.

Very appropriate for me too.

Scott: So enter your details then do the profile. Can you see that?

Jess: And where it says ‘loves' you've got to include Scott in that.

Thank God there weren't screens attached to these phones 'cause my face was burning up. The vegetable oil was starting to bubble on my cheeks.

Scott: The blog's where you can really stick it up her. Jess and I reckon you should do a search for quotes and poems and stuff on liars.

Me: How about the Black Eyed Peas?

Scott: Yeah.
Don't Lie.
Songs like that.

Jess: And after the weekend, you put the photos on and write captions. Bags being the caption writer. ‘Scott and me sharing popcorn; Scott and me outside Macca's; Scott and me …'

Scott: Yeah, yeah, we get the picture, Jess.

There was a second of silence. How I wished Scott was doing this 'cause he genuinely liked me.

Scott: Holly, you're cool about this, aren't you?

Me: Yeah. It's just pretend.

Scott: I don't mean that. I mean you're not, I dunno, scared about what Calypso might do. Are you? I know she's in Melbourne but she got pretty psycho with me on MSN and stuff. Even for a bit when she was in Melbourne she was still writing stuff about me and Jess too.

Me: She doesn't scare me, honest.

She didn't scare me. That was the truth. We weren't going back to Melbourne. As it turned out, that was a result. I'd never have to see her face again.

Scott: You're braver than me. I couldn't hack it after a while. She was fully poisonous to Jess, calling her a ‘lying thief'.

Me: She can talk.

Scott: So can you ice-skate?

Me: I've done it a few times. I'm pretty hopeless.

Scott: Good.

Jess: I'll be behind the camera.

Scott: You don't have to take photos all night, Jess.

Jess: I might want to.

Scott: Well, what if Hol and I just want to muck around and have some fun? We'll look like idiots if you're chasing us around with the camera all night.

Jess and I were laughing. I think I sounded a bit more hysterical 'cause the line ‘Hol and I …' had me seeing stars.

Scott: Besides, it's my digital camera you're using and you're a crap skater. If you fall and drop it …

Me: You can use mine.

Scott. Nah. Just kidding. It's cool. Jess is actually an okay skater. Hey, Dad reckons he can get us free tickets for the movies.

Jess: Great!

Scott: Not for you. Just for Hol and me.

I almost dropped the phone, and that wasn't because of the vegie oil all over my hands. ‘Hol and me.' What a line.

Scott: Well, I wasn't going to make Holly pay. That'd be slack of me.

Jess: You're so old-fashioned, Scott.

There was a smile on my face, and it was as wide as Australia.

The strangest thing happened today at school. In the morning, as I walked through the quadrangle, two ‘it' girls called out, ‘Hey, Holly.'

At morning tea, as I crossed the lawn towards the canteen, an ‘it' girl from the year above waved. I checked behind me, but I swear there was no one else there.

Then at lunch, Saskia came running up to me, hugged me and squealed, ‘Aggghhhhh. Your skin looks fantastic.'

Excuse me, but did an ‘it' girl just hug me? I could feel my heart racing so I knew I was alive. I pinched my arm. I was definitely awake.

‘You're wearing the foundation I gave you.' Saskia was dragging a finger across my cheek. ‘How did you get it to have that fabulous glow?'

I opened my mouth to say, ‘a drop of vegetable oil', then thought the better of it.

‘Dunno,' I shrugged.

‘It looks fabulous.' Saskia checked her fingertip. ‘A bit oily, but that's probably your skin type. Are your outfits ready for the weekend? I have this really nice black top that you would look divine in. I'll bring it to school tomorrow.'

‘I haven't really thought about what I'm going to wear,' I lied.

‘Now don't worry if Scott seems shy.' Saskia linked her arm through mine. ‘That's just the way he is. He doesn't talk much.'

‘He's been fine.'

‘It's so good you're doing this, Holly,' Saskia continued. ‘Especially for Jess. Calypso was so awful to her. Jess doesn't like to talk about the shoplifting incident, but Calypso tried to set her up sooo badly. She told everyone, including teachers, you know. Poor Jess just had to stay strong throughout the whole thing. It was really, really bad.'

‘Yeah.' I looked around to see if anyone was watching me, arm-in-arm with Saskia, probably the second most important ‘it' girl in Year 9.

‘Jase, that's my boyfriend, is dying to meet you. Scott's told him so much about you.'

‘Oh?' Did I want to know what Scott had said?

‘Scott told Jase he thinks you've got balls.'

‘Oh?' Was that a good or a bad thing?

‘It's so good your skin's cleared up.' Saskia patted my hand. ‘You know your forehead was a bit … spotty. Now we can look at you, you're actually quite pretty.'

I knew that was supposed to make me feel good. So why then was I praying for the earth to open its jaws and swallow me up?

I managed to pump a few bucks out of Dad. So after school Jess and I went to the mall.

‘I'm glad it's just you and me,' Jess said, as we took turns at slurping on a tropical mango smoothie.

‘Me too,' I agreed.

I'd been starting to feel like a freak show. The idea of all the ‘its' coming shopping to lend their fashion advice was way more than I could handle.

‘Wow, Holly, look.' Jess skipped off the escalators. ‘How cool is that?'

In the window of Lipstix, every colour of skinny-leg jeans was on display: yellow, orange, pink, red, jade, aqua and purple. Above them floated a matching bunch of balloons, with a sign that said: W
HAT COLOUR WILL YOU BE WEARING
?

‘Skinny-leg jeans.' I nudged Jess as we walked through the entrance. ‘Remind you of anything?'

Oops. I shouldn't have said that. Jess shot me a glare I didn't know she was capable of. Then I remembered Saskia said Jess didn't like talking about the shoplifting thing – ever.

‘Sorry.' I grimaced in pain. Why didn't I think before I opened my fat gob?

After a few minutes of Jess silently flicking through racks of clothes she began to defrost. ‘Hol, these are nice.' She held up a pair of red shorts speckled with the tiniest white spots. ‘They'd look good with that top of Saskia's.'

‘Won't I be cold?'

Jess shot me another look. This one told me my comfort was not even a consideration.

I looked at the price tag. I could afford them with one dollar and one cent to spare. ‘Should I try them on?'

‘For sure,' Jess said. ‘They come in orange and green too.'

‘Which do you prefer?'

‘Try them all on.'

Jess followed me through the shop, carrying the three hangers of shorts.

‘Hey, Pixie,' she waved. ‘Okay if we try these on?' Then she whispered to me, ‘If we say the shorts are for me you'll get a discount.'

I found an empty dressing room, and as I went to close the door I realised Jess was squeezing in behind me.

‘Shove over,' she said.

‘Sorry,' I chuckled.

This was the exact thing Calypso never did with me. She never once suggested we do something as basic as go shopping together like friends did. With her it was all about the revenge plan.

How I wished Calypso could see me now. In Lipstix, with Jess Flynn, while I tried on clothes to wear on a date with Scott. This was my moment of revenge.

I could almost hear Calypso's voice in my ear, nagging and criticising about how I'd missed the perfect opportunity to carry out Step 3, observing the dressing room habits of a shoplifter.

But if there was one thing I'd had to learn for myself, it was that Jess Flynn was no shoplifter. Jess Flynn was the nicest, most harmless girl in the world. Jess Flynn had become a real friend.

‘Sorry about before,' Jess muttered.

‘I'm sorry,' I replied. ‘It was a dumb thing for me to say.'

‘No, it's not that,' Jess said.

I stepped out of my school skirt, not the least bit embarrassed that I was in my blue floppy undies. Jess passed me the red shorts.

‘I'm just a bit flat,' said Jess. ‘I haven't told anyone this but …'

‘But what?'

‘I, um, I like Jase.'

‘Isn't he …'

‘Going out with Saskia? Yes.'

‘So?'

‘So what can I do? I'm no boyfriend thief.'

Instantly I thought of one of our first English classes. Jess had pretty much said that exact thing then. Yet I hadn't believed a thing that came out of her mouth. The shame still burned my insides.

If only I could tell Jess the real reason Calypso had fed me all her lies. Telling the truth about the revenge plan was the only way I could free myself from Calypso for good. It was hard living with the lie. But I knew Jess hating me would be even harder.

‘What do you think of these? On me, that is.' I was almost too scared to look at my reflection in case I saw elephant thighs splitting the seams of red spotty shorts. I would never recover from that. ‘Are they too tight?' I squeaked.

‘Open your eyes, you idiot!' Jess was laughing and steering me towards the mirror. ‘They look hot!'