Star Reporter (11 page)

The doorbell rang at seven o'clock sharp. Dad got up to answer it but I dived across the room, practically breaking my neck in the process, to stop him from getting there first and unleashing some awful ancient joke (or worse) on an unsuspecting Nathan.

“Hi,” I said, as I pulled back the front door to reveal him standing under an umbrella. That's when I realized it was raining, that light, misty sort of drizzle that Shenice hates the most. She claims it turns her hair into frizz faster than sticking her finger in an electric socket, and I suddenly remembered when she'd turned up to my rain-soaked birthday party last year wearing a Sainsbury's bag on her head. Then I forced the memory away, because even if she repeated the look at the ball, I wouldn't be invited to share the joke.

“Hi,” Nathan replied, and held out a little square box. “I thought about getting you flowers but I reckoned your dog would probably eat them. So I got you this instead.”

With a little gasp of surprise, I opened the box. Nestling inside was a shiny key ring, with a tiny silvery dog attached to it. I smiled, happier than I'd felt in days. “It's gorgeous. Thank you.”

“Glad you like it,” he said, grinning. “Shall we get going? My mum is waiting in the car.”

I peered over his shoulder. His mum waved at me.

“I'm going now,” I called and both my parents appeared in the hallway. Dad made me cringe by shaking Nathan's hand and Mum insisted on taking our photo, faffing about with the camera and going on about how fast we were growing up – so EMBARRASSING.

“Dad is picking you and Liam up at ten,” she reminded me as I pulled on my coat. “Have a nice time.”

“I will,” I called and realized I actually meant it.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad night after all.

I didn't know who was in charge of turning our dingy school hall into a venue fit for a ball but they'd done an amazing job. Seriously, if I hadn't walked up the school steps and through the double glass doors, I wouldn't have recognized the place where I'd spent many an assembly picking at my nails and daydreaming. The hall had huge sheets of pastel-coloured satin sweeping down from the ceiling, like they have in swanky wedding venues, and twisty columns of balloons in each corner. At one end, there was a long table covered with food and drink with helium balloons on long ribbons, at the other was a stage with a sparkly silver backdrop behind it and a huge WOLF BRETHREN banner up above.

“Wow, it looks brilliant,” I said, pausing in the doorway to take it all in.

Nathan smiled. “My mum will be glad you think so,” he said and, when my forehead crinkled in puzzlement, went on, “she's on the PTA. They did all the organizing and decorating for tonight.”

That was even more amazing – my mum had trouble organizing enough milk for our breakfasts. Then again, Nathan's mum didn't have Joshua and Ethel keeping her up all night.

It was a whole new experience walking in with Nathan. Seriously, I wouldn't have been surprised if paparazzi had leaped out from behind the drinks table. EVERYONE said hello to him – the boys bumped fists and the girls fluttered their eyelashes. At first I smiled too, expecting people to say hi to me as well. But their eyes kind of slid over me as though I wasn't there and a few actually turned their backs. Once we'd moved on, I had the uncomfortable feeling that people were whispering about me. Nathan was too polite to say anything but I know he noticed. Inside, I was dying. What was going on? Surely this couldn't still be about my hair? Nathan must know about that but he'd never said a word.

Once I'd been ignored by what felt like the entire lower school, Nathan explained that the plan was for the band to play for about an hour and then one of the teachers was going to take over as DJ. I really hoped it wasn't Mrs Pitt-Rivers – my mental image of her on the decks, blinged up to the max, wasn't one I wanted to become a reality. I doubted she'd be down with the latest tunes, either, and nobody wants to bust a move to GREENSLEAVES.

And then I saw something that killed off the last shreds of my good mood entirely. In front of us, a few girls from our year were whispering, giggling and pointing. Following the direction of their gaze, I could see they were looking at Shenice. I wanted to warn her but she'd flashed me a “don't even think about it” look the moment she spotted me and Molly had shrugged, so I wasn't going to risk talking to them.

“Do you want a drink?” Nathan asked, oblivious to what was going on. “I don't suppose they'll run to a SUGAR RUSH MOUNTAIN but I can probably get you a Coke.”

For a nano-second, I thought about confronting the girls, but it would only make things worse and Shenice wouldn't thank me. Wishing I'd never heard of JUICE ON JUDE'S, or Kelly Anderson, I turned to Nathan and did my best to smile. “Coke would be great, thanks.”

It hurts me to say it but WOLF BRETHREN totally smashed it. Anjel fitted in so seamlessly that it felt like she'd always been part of the band, and she definitely looked the part as she strummed her bass. Everyone was rocking and a few Year Nine boys tried to create a mosh pit during “Hunt The Hunter” but the teachers soon broke it up. JOJ had been so certain WOLF BRETHREN were going to split up and it couldn't have been more wrong – it made me wonder how many other friendships Kelly was going to try and ruin with her poisonous pen.

“They're awesome,” Nathan said, nodding at the stage, and I felt a warm rush of sisterly pride. Liam might be a total pain but sometimes I didn't totally hate being related to him.

“Yeah, they're not bad, I suppose.”

I glanced sideways, to where Molly and Shenice stood. Molly wore her usual expression of total adoration as she sang along and it didn't look like she even remembered that Anjel had supposedly ruined the band dynamics. Everywhere I looked, people were dancing and singing and even Mrs Pitt-Rivers seemed to be enjoying herself. It reminded me of ST JUDE'S HAS GOT TALENT! when I'd first realized Liam could actually play his guitar. I'd been amazed then at how popular they were, and it seemed like their fan-base had grown, because the cheers and whoops after they'd played their last song went on for ages. And I almost forgot how miserable I was.

“Not bad at all,” I said, as Liam and his band mates left the stage. “I wonder who the mystery DJ is.”

“Don't look at me,” Nathan replied. “I don't know either.”

All around us, people were wondering the same thing. The buzz of excitement grew with each passing second. When the hall door opened, every single person turned to look and I wondered if the months of sleeplessness had caught up with me and I'd fallen asleep on my feet, because a nightmare was unfolding right in front of me. The DJ wasn't Mrs Pitt-Rivers at all. It was Mr Ramirez.

I glanced over at Shenice as the whispering started. She was frozen to the spot and looked like she was about to burst into tears. Oblivious, Mr Ramirez walked up to the DJ stand and put an enormous set of headphones over his ears. A minute later, a thumping bassline filled the room and drowned out the whispers.

Groaning, I put my hands over my face. “Please tell me this isn't happening.”

Nathan looked at me sympathetically and I guessed he must have heard about what had happened. “Poor Shenice.”

A stab of shame squirmed through me as I wondered what he'd thought of the eggy photo of me on JOJ, but my embarrassment was nothing compared to Shenice's. There was no way I could enjoy myself knowing that she was so miserable. Each time I looked over, her expression grew more and more upset. When I spotted a group of Year Eight boys circling Molly and Shenice, I knew straight away they were trouble.

Pulling silently on Nathan's sleeve, I edged closer.

“Does your dad do requests?” I heard one jeer loudly and they all cackled with laughter. Shenice's face turned a sullen red and Molly clenched her fists. I'd seen that look before – any minute now, she'd go all HULK SMASH on them and there'd be no going back. I stepped forward. “Leave her alone!”

The boys turned and stared at me.

“Shut it, Humpty,” one sneered.

“Don't start anything with her,” another said. “She'll put you on JOJ.”

That didn't even make sense but I didn't have time to think about it. “I'll tell Mrs Pitt-Rivers.”

“Oooh,” one mocked, clasping his hands to his face as though he was terrified. “Please don't tell on me!”

Nathan had clearly heard enough, because he stepped in front of me. “Leave it, George,” he said.

The boys looked up. “Yeah but—”

Nathan's tone was light but it had a cold edge to it. “I said, leave it.”

For a moment I thought they'd argue, but then they sloped off. I opened my mouth to speak but Shenice silenced me with a glare.

“Don't bother,” was all she said and, without a word, she and Molly stalked off.

I watched them go. Then I realized someone else was glaring at me. Hannah was standing to one side, and she looked like she hated my guts.

“Someone else you burned, right, Cassidy?” she sneered, with a hollow laugh. “With friends like you, who needs enemies?”

Firing a final filthy look my way, she disappeared back into the crowd and I realized I was suddenly the centre of attention. People were watching me, whispering, and from the looks on their faces, they weren't being kind. Feeling my cheeks flame, I shut my eyes, willing the universe to send an extremely localized meteor to vaporize me from the planet.

When that failed to materialize, I blinked and saw Nathan watching me. “What did they mean, Cassie?” he asked quietly. “Why did they say you'd put them on JUICE ON JUDE'S?”

And that's when the horrible truth dawned on me. The reason no one wanted to speak to me was because they all thought I was the person behind JOJ. They had no idea it was Kelly – they thought it was me who'd started the nasty rumours and spilled their secrets. But I couldn't explain any of that – who would believe it was super-nice Kelly, anyway? My lower lip began to tremble. “It's not what you think.”

He shook his head, a disgusted expression on his face. “It's you, isn't it? You write JUICE ON JUDE'S.”

The room started to spin as I fought back tears. Everywhere I looked, I saw furious faces. It was all too much.

“I think I'm going to be sick,” I croaked.

E-PETITION Number of signatures: 1377

Mum didn't ask why I was back so early, or where Liam was. She took one look at my tear-stained face, as Dad shepherded me in from the car, and took me straight upstairs to my room, where I threw myself onto my bed and howled my heart out. Sitting silently beside me, she stroked my hair until I stopped crying.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, offering me a mug of hot chocolate.

Rolo reached up and licked my hand, like he was trying to make me feel better. I rubbed his head absently and shook my head at Mum. The last thing I wanted was to relive the whole horrible evening. And now on top of feeling rubbish about Hannah and Shenice, Nathan thought I was a gossiping bully. It didn't matter how much I denied it, I could tell he thought I was too cowardly to come clean about what had really happened. All I wanted to do was go to sleep and wake up to find it had all been a dream.

I sipped the hot chocolate, letting the rich milky sweetness soothe my frazzled nerves. Those Hogwarts professors are so right about chocolate – it really does have magical properties. But it was going to take more than hot chocolate to make everything better for me. I'd been so stupid. If only I'd kept Hannah's secret to myself then Shenice would never have accused me of betraying her and maybe the whole school wouldn't think I was responsible for JOJ and – and – it made my brain hurt just thinking about it. I pushed the whole tangled mess away and closed my sore, swollen eyes.

“I think I threw up on Nathan's shoes,” I sniffed, after a little while.

To her credit, Mum didn't look remotely amused. “I'm sure he understands.”

And he thinks I'm evil and nasty, I wanted to add but didn't. Instead, I let out a long, miserable sigh. “There's no coming back from tonight. I don't think he'll ever forgive me.”

“He seems like a nice boy,” she said, in the same tone she used when she was shushing the babies back to sleep. “I'm sure he'll come round in time.”

I wished I could believe her but the truth was I didn't think Nathan would ever be able to look at me again, never mind speak to me. And no one would believe Kelly was behind JOJ, there was no point in even trying to tell the truth. It didn't matter that I'd been a victim too – everyone probably thought I'd posted the Egghead story myself to cover my tracks. The way things were going, I'd be a complete social outcast by the time the half-term holiday arrived.

My head felt hot and aching. “I think I might go to sleep now,” I said, and hesitated, scared that the horrible empty feeling would come back the moment I was on my own. It was like I was four years old again and afraid of the dark. “I – will you stay with me until I'm asleep?”

She smiled. “Of course. Why don't you get ready for bed while I go and check on the twins?”

Once she was gone, I got into my pyjamas and hung Molly's dress on the back of my door. Then I slipped into the bathroom to throw some cold water on my face. My reflection stared back at me from the mirror as I brushed my teeth, all puffy eyes and blotchy cheeks. I looked away and finished as fast as I could.

Mum was waiting when I got back to my room.

“Sweet dreams,” she said, as I wriggled under the duvet. “It'll all seem better in the morning.”

I nodded and laid my cheek against the cool cotton of my pillow. Rolo jumped up and curled up beside my feet. “Sorry for being such a baby,” I mumbled. “That's the last thing you need.”

She leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Don't be silly,” she murmured softly. “You'll always be a baby to me.”