Peppermint Kiss (12 page)

Jim offered to drive me back and Summer said she'd come with us, but I told them I fancied the walk. I didn't really want her seeing the flat yet, especially not now I'd seen how amazing her place was.

As we hugged goodbye, she said, “Make sure you stay right up on the grass verge on the bits where there's no pavement, and walk on the side with traffic coming towards you, apart from on blind corners, in which case cross over and—”

“Summer!” I cried, “I think I can walk two miles without getting myself run over!”

She grinned. “Well, you're such a city girl, I wasn't sure!”

As I headed off, I wondered if she was right. Was I still a city girl? I felt different somehow, since we'd been down here. I was still me, but not quite the same… Oh, it was too confusing to even think about, so as I strode along, I started coming up with ideas for how to display our products at Rainbow Beauty instead.

On Tuesday morning, we were putting our leaflets together in Media class. When it came out that Ben had helped me in the greengrocer's at the weekend Marco got quite moody. “You should have told me, I would have helped too,” he grumbled.

“Well, it wasn't planned—” I began.

“You had Saturday Music Club,” Ben cut in, “and besides, Abbie needed someone strong.”

Marco glared at him. “Huh! I'm stronger than you. Right, arm wrestle!”

“You sure?” said Ben. “We can't have you damaging your precious guitar-playing fingers before the gig, can we?”

“Dream on!” Marco growled. “It's you who'll be on your knees, begging for mercy!”

Luckily Mr. Mac came over then to see how we were doing, so they had to get on with their conservation group leaflet and stop acting like five year olds.

I ran into Grace in the corridor between lessons, and I almost didn't clock it was her at first because I'd forgotten she was wearing Summer's stuff (she'd surprised me by being okay about taking it). I told her she looked really nice, which she did – I mean, it would have helped if she'd taken down that harsh ponytail or put a bit of mascara on, but at least she was no longer rocking the pea-green posh girl look. I tried to get her to come and hang out with us at break, but she wouldn't. She didn't seem as unhappy as usual, though. She told me she'd mentioned the extension work to her Maths teacher, like we'd talked about, and that actually he'd been quite into the idea and said he'd see what he could do.

Mum seemed to be having a good day too – when I popped round to Liam's after school to get some money from her for milk and bread, I found them cosied up on the sofa in front of
The Wizard of Oz
. “Excuse me, I thought you were supposed to be working,” I said sternly, but they hardly even looked up. They were just staring at the TV, mesmerized by Judy Garland singing “Over The Rainbow”.

“Oh, she's so beautiful!” gasped Mum.

“I
so
love her!” cried Liam.

“Right, see you later then, I'm going now,” I said, and when they didn't react, I added, “I'm off to nick a car and go joyriding up Fore Street.”

Mum just murmured, “That's nice, love,” which totally proved they weren't listening. I didn't mind, though. It was just so nice that she'd made a friend here. Things seemed to be working out okay for us – I just hoped Saff would get a place at college too, and then we'd all be happy. Well, getting back towards it at least. I wondered whether, somewhere out there, Dad was getting back towards happiness too. A mean little part of me hoped not, and another part missed him so much it made my stomach ache.

On Wednesday morning it was Saff's interview. She was really nervous about it – she had all of her clothes spread out on the bed, and for once Grace didn't complain about her side of the room being taken over. Saff tried on about twenty different combinations before finally settling on the first thing she'd picked out: a red vintage-y dress with some of Mum's heels. We all wished her luck (except Grace who said “Break a leg” and nearly started another argument, until Mum explained that it actually meant “Good luck”).

As Mum and I hugged Saff goodbye (Grace isn't big on hugging), Mum said, “I'll be sending you lots of positive energy this morning.”

“OMG, you're going a bit Devon already, aren't you?” Saff giggled.

“You'll knock 'em dead,” I told her, giving her an extra hug.

“Yeah, but try not to actually
kill
anyone, won't you?” added Grace, with a wicked grin.

Grace and I walked in to school together. When I got to our form room, my mates were already there, sitting on the desks, and when we all said hi Marco just grinned and handed me a massive clinking bag.

It turned out he'd been to the big spa hotel at the edge of town, and a couple of the smaller central ones, and asked if he could have all their used little glass jam and marmalade pots for my free samples, so I could save on buying them from the specialist supplier.

“Oh wow, this is brilliant!” I cried.

“Calm down, it's no big deal,” he mumbled, blushing.

“Yes, it is,” I said. “You're a star, thank you.”

“He's even washed them all out and soaked the labels off,” said Summer, “so we can make sheets of Rainbow Beauty ones on the colour copier in the library, then cut them out and stick them on.”

“Cool, Grace has given me the list of official ingredient names we have to use, so we can start this lunchtime,” I told her.

“Aw, I bet you got a
Blue Peter
badge when you were little, didn't you mate?” Ben teased.

“I got two, mate,” said Marco. He looked so awkward and cute, I could have hugged him. In fact, I was just about to, but Mrs. Lurman walked in.

Later on, in the corridor just after French, something even more amazing than Marco collecting all the jars for me happened. The two of us were first out of the lesson, and we were walking along on our own and, for the record, his
exact
words were: “Abs, do you feel like coming to our gig tomorrow night?”

Well, I didn't say anything back at first, because I was too busy stopping myself from screaming my head off and dancing around like a total crazy person, going “Yes, yessity, yes, yes!” Then when I did speak, my mouth was so completely dry that my voice came out in a weird croaky whisper. And I knew I was going to sound like a sad case, but I had to make absolutely sure he did mean what I
thought
he meant. “Erm, Summer invited me already, remember?” I said.

“Oh, that's cool,” he mumbled, shoving his hands into the pockets of the black skinny jeans that passed for school trousers. “If you'd rather go with her then…”

“No, I didn't mean that, I'm just saying, I was already planning on coming, so…”

“I know you were. I meant, come
with
me.” He looked really uncomfortable that he was having to spell it out. Poor boy, and I was about to make it even worse for him. “What, like, as in a
date
?” I asked.

OMG, how uncool, but I just had to double-triple-check.

He shrugged. “Yeah. Kind of thing.”

I nearly couldn't control the “Yes, yessity, yes, yes!” dance then, and I ended up bobbing about a little bit, so I had to act out this whole thing of frowning at my foot and shaking it, pretending there was something in my shoe. “Okay, cool, then…erm, I mean, yes, I accept your invitation to go on a date, kind of thing.” Urgh! Geek alert! Still, at least there was no possible confusion. He had asked me and I had said yes.

While I was still behaving like a total weird girl, doing the foot-shaking thing, he said “See ya” and went off down the corridor, so then I
did
get to do my air-punching happy dance. I stopped when Summer appeared round the corner, but I couldn't help grinning like a maniac.

“Erm, what's going on?” she asked, peering at me.

“Oh, nothing much, us two are going to the gig together, that's all.” I said it as casually as I could, gesturing towards Marco's back as he loped down the corridor.

“What,
together
together?”

“Yeah. As in a date. Kind of thing.”

Summer gasped and I felt really anxious. “Erm, why the shock-horror?” I demanded.

“He asked you out!” she cried. “That must have made him squirm! Normally he makes the girls do all the running. Maybe things
are
different with you, Abs.”

I raised my eyebrows and she held her hands up. “Okay, okay! I'm officially giving him the benefit of the doubt.”

I had to force my mouth not to go into a ginormous grin when I heard that. Summer saying that it looked like Marco had changed was
massive
, but I tried to act like the whole thing was no big deal. “I'm still not going to take it too seriously, though,” I said. Ahem. LIE. “It's not like I'm that into him or anything.” Ahem. MASSIVO LIE. “But a date kind of thing might be fun after all the serious stuff going on with my family.” Okay, so that was true at least.

Summer didn't have to know that there was something really special between me and Marco. I'd felt such a strong connection, right from the first moment I met him, and I'm sure he had too. And I'd told myself that the reason he was a flirt and had lots of girls hanging round him was because he hadn't met the right one yet (i.e.
moi
!). Well, Summer had said it herself – I was different. Now I'd made
him
different.

That night me, Mum, Saff and Grace were all cleaning out the shop. Saff's interview had gone well (and so had her friend Emily's) but she'd banned us from talking about it in case we jinxed it. She said she just wanted to put it out of her mind until she heard back.

I wasn't going to tell them about my D.A.T.E. because I knew they'd only tease me and go on and on about it, but as I tackled the disgusting loo (with two pairs of rubber gloves on and a scarf around my face), I noticed Saff peering suspiciously at me. “You look very happy for a girl who's scrubbing out The Most Revolting Toilet In The World,” she said. “Come on, spill los beanios.”

And then Mum joined in, trying to guess what my secret was, and in the end I gave them all a cheeky grin and put on a bossy voice and said, “I'll tell you when all that broken furniture's piled up in the skip outside and not before.”

“Oh, you're cruel, Abbie Green,” said Mum, poking me in the ribs. “You know we'll do anything for a bit of juicy gossip.”

Half an hour later the skip was full and they were back on my case. “You do realize I've chipped a nail,” moaned Saff, “so this had better be worth it!”

So I told them about how Marco had asked me to the gig AS A DATE and they all got totally over-the-top excited.

“Is he fit?” (Saff, of course.)

“
Oh
yes.”

“Is he clever?” (You can guess who said that.)

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Is he your age?” That was Mum.

I nodded. “Yeah. He's in my form. I got lost on my way to class and he kind of rescued me from the storm.” My stomach flipped over, remembering Marco's blazer around me, the first time I saw his smile, us holding hands as we ran through the rain. “He's the first person I met on my first day,” I told them.

“Oh,
choosy
!” sneered Grace.

I stuck my tongue out, and Saff said, “Ignore her, I bet it was fate. You
have
to get together now, cos you've got such an amazing getting-together story! What are you going to wear to the gig? How are you doing your make-up and hair?”

Those were good questions. What
do
you wear to be the girlfriend of a rock god? Oh, hang on,
girlfriend
? Maybe I was jumping the gun a bit… But then, perhaps I
would
be his girlfriend after the D.A.T.E. “Well, I'm not sure—” I began.

“What?” Saff screeched. “How can you not be
prepared
? It's tomorrow night!”

“Well, I did pack my black dress and I thought maybe if I could borrow your silver boots…” I said. “But then Summer's just wearing jeans and a T-shirt so maybe I should go more casual…”

“Good for her,” Grace said. “She doesn't feel she has to dress for male approval, and neither should you.”

I didn't point out to her that Summer's so naturally beautiful she could turn up in my hideous too-short puppy PJs and still look like she'd stepped off the cover of
Zest
mag. I couldn't have got a word in anyway, even if I'd wanted to, because Saff was gabbling away, telling Grace not to be so stuffy and adding, “Anyway, Summer's not going to be there on a date with the future love of her life. Abbie
is
!”

I thought my inner glow was turned up to maximum already, but when Saff said that I felt it notch up even more. If we could have bottled that feeling and sold it at Rainbow Beauty we'd have been millionaires.

“The black dress really suits you, but you're right, it might be a bit done-up for down here,” said Saff thoughtfully. “Maybe if you wore some skinny jeans under it, and lots of strings of pearls… When we get back upstairs, let's have a look through my stuff and see what we can put together.”

“Oh, thanks, sis, that would be amazing!” I cried. I gave her a big hug then, and she went hysterical because I was still wearing the loo-contaminated rubber gloves.

The next evening, I was so excited about the D.A.T.E. I actually had to stop myself skipping down the pavement when Summer's car pulled up. Saff and I had put a fantastic outfit together the night before (the skinny jeans and dress had worked out well, with Saff's red shoes with roses on) and I hoped I looked nice. Summer said I did anyway, when I got in the back seat, and Ben didn't throw up or anything.

They'd been right about Dartington, it was totally gorgeous. It was a grand old hall on the outside but this cool venue on the inside.