The Boyfriend Bet (11 page)

“Don’t bother trying to get me back in some horrifically
embarrassing way,” I snapped at her, “I lied to Mum for you.”

“Too late,” Ella whispered. “Operation ‘Destroy Charley’
already in progress.” And then she turned over and went to sleep, while I was
left wide awake, dreading what on earth she was going to do to me.

“We’re gonna get the bus to town after school, you
coming?” Sarah sort of demanded rather than asked me at lunch on Monday.

“I can’t, I’ve got to help out at dance tonight.” I
glared at her because she knew what the day was and what I do on a Monday
night.

“Whatever, but you need to find something for Saturday.
We’re only trying to help!” Sarah looked really put out as she took a seat on a
table right at the back of the dining room. I sat down next to her and Bex was
raising her eyebrows at me.

Another week had passed and now the impending party was
this coming Saturday - it seemed like it was all that mattered. Saturday the 30
^th
of November was obviously now the most important day of the year. I had heard
nothing else from Bex and Sarah for the last week. Ella was buzzing with it and
I was still looking for any clue about what she might be planning to do to me.
I had a bad feeling that perhaps she was leaving it for the party, which I had
to admit filled me with dread and was the reason that I’d felt on edge most of
the week. Even a moment of escapism was interrupted with that familiar feeling
of worry reappearing in the pit of my stomach every five minutes.

“Do you even care? Have you given up?” Sarah was still
huffing as she was pulling varying items of food out of her giant bag and
slamming them on the table. “I mean, you’re practically going to be late for
your own party!”

“I have to do the dance show, you know that.” I was
getting bored with this over and over again.

“Well, have fun at a show on a measly school stage when
we’re all getting ready.” Sarah sneered. Ok, so maybe it did sound lame that I
would be helping the kids do their show to promote the dance school but I
couldn’t let Stella down again. That would most definitely be the end of my
dancing.

“I was gonna go and support Charley.” Bex muttered, much
to Sarah’s annoyance.

“What? Why!” Sarah was visibly fuming.

“Yeah, that’s not necessary,” I shook my head at Bex.
“You don’t really need to see me dressed as monkey, jumping around with five
year olds.” I smiled. I hadn’t told her about the dance where we dressed as
elves. I would rather keep that one to myself - it was bad enough as it was.

“Actually, that sounds brilliant!” Bex grinned.

 I shrugged. I was about to think of a hundred more
reasons why Bex really didn’t need to ‘support’ me on Saturday when I was
distracted. Riley had just entered the dining room with Amelia in tow - I
watched as she giggled at everything Riley said to her, she twisted her hair
around her finger and cocked her head to the side, listening to every word.
Wow, Riley has the ability to make even the cleverest of girls act like dumb
bimbos.

“Are those two actually together?” Bex nodded in their
direction.

“Dunno,” I shrugged. I was feeling very defeated. “Ella’s
on the warpath anyway, so whatever there is between those two, I wouldn’t think
it will last much longer.”

“Really? Is she that good?” Sarah snapped. She was aware
I wasn’t paying attention because just at that moment Sam walked past our
table. She followed my gaze. Sam looked right in my eyes as if I was the only
one in the room and then smiled, one of those cheeky grins that always made my
tummy flip. It was only when Sarah nudged me in the ribs sharply I realised I
was smiling, as I watched him walk out of the dining room.

“Well she stole Sam from me, didn’t she!” I snapped back,
rejoining the conversation.

“I don’t mean to be rude Charley, but maybe Sam wasn’t
the guy you thought he was, maybe it didn’t take much for him to stray.” Sarah
stared at me.

“It really wasn’t all his fault. Ella was really
persistent, and she told him all sorts of stuff about me....” I realised I’d
said too much in my defence of Sam.

“And how do you know that?” Sarah looked mad, “You’ve
been seeing him again haven’t you?” She was nearly shouting now. I widened my
eyes at her. I wanted her to quieten it down. I looked around to see who might
be in earshot - some girls from Year Ten were looking over from the table next
to us, some silly Year Nine boys who had no interest in our spat whatsoever as
they were watching something on a phone. I saw a couple of girls from our year
a few tables away but they seemed not to have noticed yet. Jay Jackson was not
far away with Luke London (he’s an equally annoying boy from his form) but they
were too busy passing headphones to each other and listening to some sort of
shit music I imagine.

“Oh my god, you are as well!” Sarah jumped to her own
conclusions. Bex was just watching on, looking as embarrassed as me. I don’t
think Sarah quite knew how loud she could be. Sarah looked to Bex for back up
and when she didn’t get it, she yelled louder, “God, you’re so easy Charley!”

I swear even Riley and Amelia were looking over from the
lunch queue. Sarah had just practically announced that Charley Wallis was easy
in front of the whole dining room. I looked around - the Year Ten girls were
sniggering in my direction, even the teachers who sit on their own table up the
corner were looking over in disgust and Jay Jackson was shaking his head and
smirking.

“No I have not!” I yelled back in defence. “We’ve just
been texting each other” I then mumbled. I don’t know why I added that so
quietly. Maybe I thought that slight detail would be overlooked. No chance of
that!

“What!” Sarah shrieked. I don’t know why she was so
worried about me? Did she think she was my mother or something? “That’s where
it all starts. First you’re texting and next thing we’ll know, you’ll be in his
bed!”

Well, obviously this was all really good gossip, either
that or just very entertaining because I swear everyone was looking (more like
staring) at me and Sarah and I was livid that she would embarrass me like this.
I didn’t move. I should have grabbed my stuff and made a run for it but I couldn’t
resist looking around to see just who was staring at me.

Mr Harrison was looking down his nose at me, probably
pitied my poor mum because who would want a mess of a daughter like me, what
with my ‘behaviour problems’ and now Sarah had made out I was like the school
bike or something. People slowly started to return to what they were doing, I
picked my bag up, “Thanks a lot Sarah,” I hissed as I threw my bag over my
shoulder.

“I’m only trying to look out for you.” Sarah looked a bit
sorry now and she must have noticed that she had spoken way too loudly, as she
had turned it down completely and actually looked as though she was feeling a
bit silly. Well good, I hoped she did!

“You coming?” I looked at Bex. She looked mortified by
the whole situation and barely managed a shrug. “Whatever,” I snapped and
continued to walk away from them.

I had to walk past the group of Year Ten girls who were
whispering and giggling and predictably they all stopped and stared as I walked
past. “And what are you all looking at?” I yelled. How stupid of me. Why oh why
did I keep attracting unwanted attention to myself? I really don’t enjoy people
staring at me as though I have lost the plot, or the sarcastic head shaking and
I certainly don’t need to keep seeing ‘the Jay Jackson smirk’!

I could hear sniggering behind me. I would have been big
enough to not feel the need to turn around and see who else was laughing at me
but I could hear Bex calling me. I turned around. I was about to give Bex a
piece of mind over the Sarah incident when I walked straight into Jay. Luke was
following and then a very apologetic looking Bex.

“Can there not be a day where I don’t have to bump into
you!” I could feel the redness in my face. I was seriously losing it.

“Calm down, princess,” was Jay’s sarcastic answer.

“What?!” I was fuming now! Did he actually just call me
princess? I could quite easily slap him. “Seriously, if I had a stalker I don’t
think I’d see him quite as much as I have to see you!” I spat.

Jay raised his eyebrows in disbelief and he was about to
think of some smart ass reply when Luke London interrupted, “Speaking of
stalkers, did you hear about Mr Huntley?”

“No, what?” Bex suddenly came to life at the sound of
some potentially interesting school gossip.

“The lucky bloke has got himself a stalker,” Luke nodded
at Jay.

“Lucky?” I sneered at the pair of them. Just how pathetic
were they? “How would you know that anyway?”

“I overheard him speaking to Mr Harrison about it. I had
to wait outside of Harrison’s office for him and I heard the whole
thing.”  Luke tried to justify his outrageous comment.

“Don’t know if he’s lucky mate?” Jay nudged Luke,
“Imagine if it turns out to be some nut like this one here.” Jay signalled to
me and before I could even retaliate they were walking off laughing at Jay’s
crap comment.

Bex was opening her mouth. God knows what she was about
to offer but I didn’t find out because someone had just slapped me a little too
hard on the back. “Embarrassing yourself again, sis?” Ella smiled at me. “Keep
going! I don’t even have to do anything, as you do a good enough job of making
a scene all by yourself!”

“What do you want?” I sneered. Normally Ella would not be
seen dead anywhere near me. She was now waving at Riley and Amelia. I had to do
a double take because she was actually waving at Amelia.

“I can’t stop, Riley and Amelia are saving me a seat at
their table.” Ella smiled at my confused and shocked face. Sometimes she was
just too hard to keep up with and it was all too fake and complicated that I
couldn’t even be bothered with attempting to.

“Ella, I’ve booked those tickets for us!” Amelia was
calling over in our direction. She looked so excited that I don’t think she
even noticed the fixed expression of horror on my face. I didn’t like the look
of this.

“Since when have you been such good friends with Amelia
Hargreaves?” I said through my teeth, without tearing my gaze away from the
delighted looking Amelia.

“Well, you know what they say Charley, keep your friends
close but your enemies closer! Ella laughed, flicked her hair over her shoulder
and strutted towards Riley and Amelia’s table.

“What was that all about?” Bex snapped her fingers in
front of my face and I realised I was still staring.

“Who knows, but it doesn’t look good?” I shook my head. I
had no idea what Ella had up her sleeve but I knew it would end in tears and I
knew they wouldn’t belong to Ella. I felt even more uneasy than ever. Maybe I
couldn’t compete with her - she was a complete psycho and what the hell did she
have in store for me?

I watched as Ella laughed and joined in the conversation
between Riley, Amelia and a couple of Amelia’s mates. They all looked totally
taken by Ella, who was giggling as she wound her hair around her fingers. She
relaxed back in her chair and generally looked totally comfortable in the
company of her new ‘friends’.

“Let’s just get out of here.” I said in almost
desperation. I had to get out, I was suffocating and it felt like there was a
strong chance I might vomit all over the floor for the second time in my school
life.

I didn’t know what happened to Ella’s confident mood and
I had no idea what Ella’s plans were for getting rid of Amelia but maybe she
wasn’t as good as she (or I) thought she was because come Wednesday, Amelia was
very much still around. Nobody knew exactly what was going on between Riley and
Amelia but it was obvious for anyone to see that she was completely besotted
with him. They had the same group of friends and the same classes, so wherever
Riley was, Amelia was sure to follow.

Ella was obviously feeling it because since Monday night
her diet had been upped to literally not eating anything at all. I mean how
dumb is that? And she totally got away with it because Mum was actually
completely oblivious to our existence. However if anyone mentioned her weekend
away, then her face lit up and she came to life.  Mum had been frantically
packing, unpacking and then repacking all week. We didn’t have to worry about
hiding any details of the party that might slip out because I’m sure Mum
wouldn’t have noticed if we’d started walking around the house naked.

This competition between me and Ella was getting way out
of hand and if I’m completely honest, it was probably making us both feel
miserable. She would hide my hair straighteners, my nice clothes or anything
that she thought was obviously a necessity.  I was just grateful that I
had been helping out at dancing more often than not because life here was
borderline unbearable.

With only a few more days to go to the party, the word
had spread that the new fit boy from Year Thirteen and Ella Wallis were having
a house party. No mention of me, not that I lived here or anything! Most of the
people who seemed to be coming I didn’t like and when I confronted Ella about
why she’d invited the likes of Zoe Ryan, her crew and similar, she’d retorted
“Because it’s going to be a good party. How shit would it be with just the sad
acts you like to hang around with?”

That is typical Ella - she assumes the ‘good’ people are
the most popular at school, she doesn’t care about how awful they really are
because they’re the people who get talked about and she certainly wants her
party to be talked about.

“You’ve got like two and a half days to find something to
wear for the party,” was how Sarah greeted me on Wednesday lunchtime. I took a
seat next to Sarah in the dining room. I had plenty of food today. I think just
the fact that I knew that Ella was practically desperate for food made it all
the more satisfying to eat it. That’s the only thing I am blessed with - being
a little more skinny than perhaps I would prefer, but I never ever have to
worry about what I eat.

“Not too much point in choosing what I’m wearing before
Saturday anyway,” I muttered, about to stuff a huge tuna baguette into my mouth.

“What?” Sarah looked mortified at the thought that anyone
could pick an outfit the night that they wanted to wear it.

I shrugged.  “Ella would probably only take it or
‘accidently’ ruin it.”

“Speaking of Ella, look.” Sarah nodded at a miserable
looking Ella, sitting a few tables away, staring miserably into a tub of salad.
She slowly balanced the salad on her fork, lifting it up to her mouth. She was
screwing her face up, probably because it’s the best meal she was about to have
in weeks and it didn’t amount to much.

Aimie (who I like to jokingly call Ella’s BFF) was
nodding encouragingly and Ella looked as though she was about to punch her in
the mouth - I could see why when I saw what was on Aimie’s tray: she had two of
the greasy school sausage rolls, a packet of salt and vinegar crisps, a Mars
Bar and an almighty big chocolate doughnut (complete with chocolate sprinkles)!
Ella looked as if she was about to crack and I wasn’t going to miss it for the
world. I nudged Sarah and she followed me to the one remaining empty table next
to Ella’s.

Just when I think the moment has come and Ella has lost
it and looks like she’s about to assault her best friend in the entire world,
she drops her fork and makes a grab for Aimie’s Mars Bar. She opens it in some sort
of desperation and stuffs it in her mouth as though she hasn’t eaten for
months.

“What do you think you’re eating?” Aimie shrieked when
she not only realised that Ella had pinched her Mars Bar but had already
crammed the entire bar into her wide open mouth. “What about your diet?” Aimie
stuttered, “You were doing so well!”

“I have had enough!” Ella smacked her hand on Aimie’s
tray like the food deprived loon she was. Unbeknown to Ella, Riley was about to
come over to her but was now loitering to watch Ella’s apparent tantrum.

“I will eat what I bloody well like!” Ella screamed as
she grabbed Aimie’s sausage roll in one hand and the giant doughnut in the
other and then shockingly proceeded to stuff them manically into her big fat
gob at the same time - chewing frantically, there was food everywhere.

“What the hell has got into her?” Bex had finally joined
us. She was lowering herself into the seat next to me without being able to
tear her eyes away from the human dustbin in front of us.

“Aimie told her not to eat a Mars Bar ‘cos of her diet
and...and she’s lost it.”  I laughed.

“Brilliant,” Bex replied still staring at the crazy scene
that was continuing.

Bex was right - this was brilliant. Everybody was staring
(including Riley) at my perfect sister, who was being far from perfect. In fact
she was acting like a complete idiot! This was currently the best day of my
life so far.