The Boyfriend Bet (5 page)

If I thought life couldn’t get any more embarrassing, it
did of course. He took me inside their house. Well I couldn’t climb back up to
the tree house and say ‘see you later’ could I? After me stressing that I was
fine about a hundred times, he let me go home. Well, actually he insisted on
taking me back. Jay just smirked at me the whole time with his eyebrows raised
and I didn’t even dare look at Riley.

Mum looked a bit shocked when she answered the door and
after Riley’s dad finally went, I knew I would have some explaining to do. I
had just about managed to persuade Mum that me, Sarah and Bex had just
innocently gone to get some fresh air when there was another knock at the door.
I nervously followed Mum to the door as she opened it.

“Charley you left these behind.” Jay laughed as he held
out those bloody stupid binoculars at me and I had no choice but to take them
as Mum stared at me. There was no getting out of this one.

I didn’t get as much stick from Mum as I was expecting.
Actually the next day she was acting really strange. I thought she would have
given me a massive lecture about spying on next door but she didn’t. When I
finally could be bothered to get up and go downstairs, I was surprised to see
Mum had made a real effort. I thought she was going to tell us something
horrendous, like we had to go out as a family or something.  Her hair was
not clipped up as usual - it was flowing loosely around her shoulders and let
me tell you, it had not just happened to look that good by pure chance, Mum had
spent ages doing it! No doubt about that. And she was dressed better than
usual: she had her smart jeans on and a floaty blue and silver top, which I
might add was a bit revealing.

“Are we going somewhere nice?” I asked sarcastically.

“Um...no. I’m fed up with looking all dowdy. Nothing
wrong in making a bit of an effort, is there?”  Mum raised her eyebrows at
me. I was still wearing my pj’s and it was mid morning. “You never know who
might pop round, do you?” Mum said in an unusually high pitched voice and then
she started to pretend to tidy the abnormally clean lounge. Weird!

But on the other hand she was totally right, I should go upstairs
and make myself look extremely gorgeous, immediately! Well, as gorgeous as I
could possibly ever look anyway.

“OMG! As if he’s trying to make out he’s over me
already?” I could hear Ella’s voice filtering out of our bedroom door. Oooh,
could I sense a little jealousy? She was probably on the phone to Amie, her
best mate.

“Well, I am so over him, maybe I should show him just how
over him I am.....”

Ha! Ella always loves everybody to be so hung up over
her. “Yeah well that new boy in Year Thirteen, he lives next door!” Ella was
gloating. Right, that really pissed me off. I saw him first and I really liked
him. He actually seemed totally nice and genuine (as well as completely
gorgeous) and Ella probably only wanted him to play her stupid mind games with
Sam.

I pushed open the door, interrupting Ella’s giggling. She
gave me an evil glare as though I had no right to be here. I felt like
screaming at her that this was in fact my bedroom too and could she please
refrain from keeping her dirty little mitts away from Riley. I bet she didn’t
even know his name!

“Gotta go... yeah someone’s listening.” Ella emphasised
the last word. She chucked her phone down on the bed and then went back to
reading her HEAT magazine.

“Is Sam not chasing after you anymore?” I snapped.

“Still bitter about Sam? Get over it Charley!”  Ella
flicked her hair over her shoulder, refusing to look at me. “And for your
information I dumped him.”

I wanted to just throttle her there and then. She was
just so casual about the whole thing, like she had stolen some shoes from me
and not my boyfriend. There was no way I could let her take Riley away from me
as well. Ok, so he’s not mine yet but I sure as hell am not letting Ella have
him.

“So, trying to get your claws into someone else already?”
I said. I could kick myself. I was being way too obvious. I hadn’t spoken this
much to her for ages.

“Yeah actually, that boy next door.” Ella smiled at me.
It was totally obvious that she knew I liked him and she was smiling in that
I-don’t-give-a-shit way.

“I saw him first, don’t even go there!” I snapped. You
would think that maybe she had one moral bone in her body and would let me have
him, after feeling ever so slightly guilty for what she had previously done to her
sister. No, she clearly hadn’t.

“Charley, do you really think you even stand a chance?
He’s like eighteen, if not he will be soon and not to mention he’s well fit.”
Ella said as she had sat up to gloat at me now. “Haven’t you got to go dance
with some little kids or something?”

“Whatever,” I muttered. There was absolutely no point in
arguing with Ella, not if I didn’t want to feel insecure and totally crap. Ella
has the power to make anyone feel inadequate or just damn right awful. She
actually has a really harsh mouth on her.

“Ok, Charley bring it on, you think you can get him do
you? Why don’t we make a little bet out of it, you know to add to the fun?”
Ella was now propped up on her elbows staring at me and her eyes were sparkling
with the idea of it.

“How much?” I narrowed my eyes.

“Not money Charley. Say I win and I bag him as my new
boyfriend, then you have to dye your hair pink.” Ella grinned.

“I hate pink,” I muttered. Ella’s side of the room had
always been painted this gross pale, sugary pink colour. She loves pink and all
her stuff has to be this vile shade, I think this has always helped my hatred
of the damn colour.

“Well yeah.” Ella said as though I was so dumb, “That’s
the point!”

“Well what about if I win?”

“Well in the unlikely event of that happening, you had
better think of something now before we agree. No going back then.” Ella was
grinning one of her evil smiles. She was such a bitch, she thought she had this
in the bag.

“You go to school for one month with no make-up, no fake
tan, no hair extensions, no heels and the uniform I pick for you.” I said, I
was trying to think of all the things she cared about most and I’m afraid, yes
she is that shallow.

“Whatever Charley, because there is no way you are going
to win.”

“Let’s get the rules clear. It’s not over until one of us
is officially Riley’s girlfriend.” I said ignoring her last comment. 

“What do you mean officially?” Ella was looking more
intrigued.

“Nothing else counts, you’ve got to be his actual
girlfriend. Just ‘seeing’ him doesn’t count, kissing or however far
you
want to take it, it doesn’t count until you’re a proper couple.” I smiled. I
knew what Ella was like.

“Very clever Charley,” Ella smiled back but she didn’t
look as cocky as before. “But I still don’t think you stand a chance.” She did
a pathetic spitting sound into her hand and held it out. Well if that’s how she
wanted to shake on it, I spat as much saliva into my hand and quickly shook
hers.

“That’s disgusting Charley!” Ella shrieked as I stood
there grinning at her, watching her make a very quick dash to the bathroom to
wash her hands.

There are only twelve months between me and Ella - I was
sixteen in September, two days after Ella turned seventeen. Ella always loves
to remind me that I must of course have been a mistake because no normal person
would have two children that close and of course tells me I’m to blame for why
our dad ran off shortly after I was born. She’s always had the upper hand over
me. Ella always wins, well I’m not going to let her win this time. I retrieved
my phone from my pocket and rang Sarah.

“Hi Charley, have you pulled him yet?” Sarah answered. I
mean honestly, who the hell answers the phone like that? Sarah is what my mum
would say ‘a penny short of a pound’, but then again I guess that’s why she
hangs around with me.

“Erm... yeah, he totally went for the crazed stalker
look. I think the binoculars just did it for him.”

“Really? That’s amazing!”

“No Sarah! I’m being sarcastic.” I muttered. “But are you
still up for doing my hair? Bring one of those highlighting kits you were going
on about and bring Bex.”

“Yeah ok, see you soon!” Sarah shrieked, wow she was
always so enthusiastic. I wondered if it was really such a good idea but then
Bex was coming too and Bex wouldn’t let her completely trash my hair, I hoped.

While I was waiting I stretched out on the carpet in the
lounge. I was doing all the usual stretches we do at dance for warm up. I’d
just managed to warm up into the splits when Ella walked in and gave me a dirty
look.

“Wow that’s impressive Charley. Well, to the five year
olds you help teach anyway.” She laughed as she walked through to the kitchen.
I really do hate her. Ella thinks she’s too grown up for dancing now. I never
ever want to quit, I would dance for a living if I could. Ella came back
through with a cereal bar and wandered back up the stairs. Good, I didn’t want
her hanging around when Sarah and Bex eventually got here.

It felt like an eternity before they finally did arrive. “It
took ages to find the right stuff for
your
hair!” Bex must have read my
mind. We made our way to the kitchen, and Sarah took forever reading the
instructions and pulling different stuff out of the box.

“Just make me look like her on the box!” I sat down and
started brushing my hair out.

“I’m now popping to the shops. Are you not planning on
going out today?” Mum popped her head in the kitchen and then raised her
eyebrows at the highlighting kit. “You should be careful with home bleaching,
why don’t you wait till Yvonne comes over?”

Yvonne is the mobile hairdresser that comes over and cut
and colours Mum’s hair and occasionally trims mine if I’m home. “Because I want
it done now, how hard can it be? Sarah knows what she’s doing.” I snapped,
stupid Mum always poking her nose in. Mum shrugged and then thankfully left us
to it.

Sarah looked unsure as she held out a highlighting cap (a
very thin plastic looking one I might add) and this weird plastic thing with a
hook on the end. Was it too late to go back on it now? Apparently so!

Sarah had one side of the plastic cap and Bex the other
and they stretched it over my head and then Sarah started prodding at my head
with the plastic hook contraption.

“Ow, ow, ow.” I kept repeating in a dead pan voice. “Not
too much!” I shrieked, I swear she was just pulling my entire head of hair
through the cap.

“It’s ok I’m doing every other hole in the cap.” Sarah
explained. Oh that was ok then, she sounded confident. Then I sat there while
she mixed the bleach up and plastered it onto the cap and then I had to have a
rather attractive plastic bag tied over the top of that.

“How long does it take?” I asked.

“It says wait until it is as pale as required and then
rinse off, but a maximum of 45 minutes.” Sarah screwed up her face as she read
the instructions from the box.

That was ok then, what could possibly go wrong? So we sat
and waited. It had only been on 20 minutes when Sarah started getting all edgy.
“What’s up? I thought you’d done this before?” I asked.

“Yeah, I have to Briony but we left it on too long and it
kind of snapped off.” Sarah admitted at this most inappropriate moment. Briony
is her younger sister and unlike mine she isn’t a complete bitch. “You know, I
think it looks done.” Sarah whined.

“Are you sure, she needs it to go blonde.” Bex looked
quite horrified at Sarah’s apparent ‘freak out’.

“Oh my god, I swear it’s going stretchy already. We need
to wash it off!” Sarah was panicking big style which made me kind of freak out
as well. Stretchy? Was my hair going to break off at any second and leave me
half bald? I should have never listened to them. Being a boring, mousy colour
was totally better than being half bald!

“Quick! Wash it off!” I yelled. I didn’t even bother
making it to the bathroom upstairs. I stuck my head in the sink and turned the
mixer tap on full speed and just plonked my entire head underneath. Oh my god,
it was freezing.

I scrubbed and scrubbed at my hair and ordered Sarah to
run upstairs and find my shampoo. Phew, there was no hair in the sink. I patted
my head after I’d finally convinced myself that I’d washed off all the bleach.
There was still hair attached to my head, it didn’t stretch or worse still
break, when I pulled it. Phew!

“Looks like you were over worried, no problem at all!” I
giggled as I tugged on my hair.  I felt so relieved until I saw Bex
strange expression and Sarah had a very worried face on her. “What?” I said,
making a run for the mirror in the hall.

“What have you done to me?” I shouted so very loudly, as
well as shouting out much worse things. I think I’d just about used every swear
word under the sun until I couldn’t think of anything else to yell at Sarah. I
instantly regretted it, as the whole street would have probably heard, which of
course meant next door would have most certainly got an insight into the not so
nice side of me.

“Maybe it won’t look so bad when you actually comb it
out.” Sarah said in a timid voice. She was standing behind me, looking a little
sheepish. My hair was so patchy, the ‘highlights’ were the worst shade of
orange you could ever imagine, and I had all these random orange spots all over
the top of my head.

“I think the bleach seeped through the holes I missed
out.” Sarah suggested a totally bloody obvious answer to the horrendous
monstrosity attached to my head.

“Do you think?” I snapped.

“I told you, you needed to leave it longer. You totally
freaked out Sarah.” Bex was now offering her insight but she hadn’t done much
in stopping the situation.

“What the hell am I going to do?”

“We could bleach all of your hair?” Bex suggested.

“Great, but I’ve got to help out at dancing at 1.” I was
yanking a brush through my hair now. “We won’t have time before I go.”

“Well let me dry it, it might blend in better when it’s
dry.” Sarah was trying to talk me round. Maybe she was right. Yes, hair did
always look much lighter when it was dry, didn’t it?

I took a few deep breaths and sat back down in the
kitchen. However much I tried to kid myself, I would be an idiot to think that
a hairdryer and a pair of straighteners was going to solve my ridiculous hair
problem but we all have to live in hope, don’t we?

It did look very different from when it was wet. It was a
more vibrant shade of orange. Wonderful. And the orange spots, well, that
really set the whole look off. I scraped it up. I preferred it up for dancing
anyway, but no, it still looked bad, just splodges of orange, and the ponytail
looked like some kind of deranged firework, sticking up on top of my head.

“Well, I’m going to have to go to dancing like this
aren’t I?” I checked the kitchen clock. It was already half 12.

“How old are the kids, 5 or 6? They aren’t going to
notice, are they?” Sarah tried miserably to reassure me.

“True, I’ll just have to rush there and back and then
hopefully come up with a solution later on.” I sighed as I slipped my trainers
on and grabbed my bag. “You two coming?” They nodded and followed me to the
door.

Just at the worst time ever, Ella came waltzing down the
stairs. She stared at me for a couple of seconds and then just put her head
back and roared with laughter. The worst part of it was, just to rub salt in
the wounds, she looked stunning. The whole time I had been ruining my hair she
had been upstairs getting ready. God knows where she was going but she had
clipped all of her extensions in, so her hair was even longer - nearly to her
waist. She had the skinniest skinny jeans the world has ever seen and a pair of
six inch heels that had made her legs look extremely long. What a cow.

“Off somewhere nice?” Bex muttered in her usual sarcastic
way.

“As a matter of fact, I knocked on Riley’s door earlier
and offered to show him around town. He’s new you know.” Ella smiled at me. I
did a death stare at her. Seriously, if looks could kill she would have been
dead a long time ago.

“Let’s go.” I muttered. I desperately hoped Riley was
going to bail out on Ella’s offer to ‘show him around town’, and how the hell
was Ella going to walk anywhere in those monster heels? I pulled open the front
door. I just wanted to go. I was in such a mad hurry that I almost knocked
Riley over! He had his hand out and was about to ring the doorbell.

“Sorry!”

“Hi...erm...interesting hair.” Riley was staring at my
head, and I was going a nice shade of red. What a lovely combination with the
orange hair. Ella was laughing her stupid pathetic, fake, girly laugh.

So not only was I wearing my dance stuff, I had orange
hair and no make-up on and a face that was getting redder by the second. I
might as well die now.

“Ella’s going to show me round.” Riley said as I squeezed
past him. I wanted to escape as fast as I could. “Do you wanna come?”

I stopped in my tracks. So he wanted me to come? He
didn’t want Ella all to himself, interesting....very interesting.

“Erm I can’t, I’ve got dance class.” I signalled to my
clothes in a lame attempt to explain what I was wearing. “And I kind of have a
slight hair situation at the moment.” I did my best chilled out smile, as
though I was in total control and had utter confidence that the hair problem
would be sorted soon.

“Shame.” Riley smiled at me and I think I kind of died
and went to heaven, and Ella was scowling at me behind him.

“You didn’t hurt yourself when you fell out of that tree
house last night then?”  Riley interrupted my brief moment.

“What?” Ella asked, looking intrigued.

“Tell you about it on the way, it’s really funny.” Riley
said. “Dad thought we had some sort of intruder. It was dark so he was about to
call the police!” Riley was laughing like it was the best joke he’d heard all
year. “And it was just Charley and her mates, bird watching!”

“Bird watching?” Ella said in surprise. She grabbed hold
of Riley’s arm and they started walking down the path. “In the dark?”

“Um...yeah, they had binoculars and everything.” Riley
carried on walking with Ella. Ella turned to look at me, she was shaking her
head in disbelief but she was mocking me too, no doubt about it.

“Are you sure he’s really the one for you?” Bex was also
shaking her head. “He’s such a dumb ass!”

“I think he was taking the piss,” I snapped. “Just like
everybody else does!”

*****

Two and a half hours later, I’d finally made it home from
dance and Sarah and Bex were sitting on my doorstep. I sighed because if it was
possible, I felt even more miserable than before. It obviously meant there was
still nobody at home and Ella and Riley must be having a super-fab day out. Oh
goody.

I opened the door and threw my bag under the stairs in a
totally pissed off kind of way. Sometimes you just want everybody else to share
your bad mood and this was one of those occasions; seeing as they were
completely responsible I didn’t think they deserved to be forgiven yet.

I could sense Sarah and Bex giving each other cautious
looks. “Are you alright, apart from the hair?” Bex stood behind me, demanding
that I speak to her. Did she actually want a punch in the face because that
last question almost sounded like she was asking for one.

“No I am not alright!” I snapped. “And for your information
even the five year olds noticed my hair looked shit!”

“They didn’t actually use the word ‘shit’ though, did
they?”

“No Sarah, of course not!” I yanked my hair out of the
high ponytail that only seemed to be accentuating the really crap highlighting job.
“So what are we going to do about this?”

“Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” Sarah
smiled, but she looked unsure of my reaction and that could only mean it was
crap news as far as I was concerned.

“What?” I huffed.

“I rang up my cousin Cheryl - you know the one who
qualified as a hairdresser last year?”

“Yeah,” I prompted Sarah to continue. God, she was being
particularly annoying today.

“Well she said it should be absolutely fine to bleach it
again, or even colour over it, if done properly by someone who knows what
they’re doing.”

“So not you then! Is that the good news or the bad news
that I’ve somehow got to find the money to pay to get it fixed?”

“Erm... that was the good news...you know - that it can
be sorted.”

“Well, what the hell is the bad news?”

“She said you should leave it at least 48 hours before
doing anything else to it.” Sarah looked really sheepish now.

“48 hours! You mean I’ve got to go to school like this on
Monday?” I was almost shouting now. I couldn’t go to school like this!

“I have some more good news.” Bex said very calmly, which
was annoying because I was obviously having a very non-calm moment.

“What?” I was almost frantic now. I mean, I’m not like
one of those really vain girls like Ella, but I could not go to school like
this.

“We bought you a hat.” Bex pulled out a black trilby hat
from her bag and chucked it at me.

“Thanks.” I muttered. This was the solution, to wear a
bloody hat all day? On the positive side of things it was actually a very nice
hat and surprisingly, after looking in the mirror, it actually suited me, but I
reminded myself that was not a reason to forgive my so called mates for not
only ruining my hair but also making me look like a complete tit in front of
Riley Jackson. And let’s face it I don’t need any help with that.