Worse Than Boys(17)

Then Rose dragged her out of the changing rooms and slammed the door shut behind her.

‘What was that all about?’ someone asked.

‘Oooo, annoyed your leader, have you?’

‘She’s not my leader!’ I snapped the words out. I was almost crying myself. She’s my friend, I wanted to say, but after what had just happened I wasn’t so sure any more. I scrambled to my feet, didn’t even bother changing out of my shorts. I ran out after Erin. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear the noise coming from round the corner. Lots of noise, laughing and jeering, and Wizzie’s voice was above it all.

‘Keep back, it might be catching!’ I heard her say.

As I turned the corner, Erin was surrounded by Wizzie and her gang. Rose was hugging her, shielding her, trying to steer her through the giggling crowd of girls. I ran towards them, ready to do battle, protect Erin too – stopped dead when I heard what they were all shouting.

‘Pssh …’ Wizzie giggled and the rest took up the chant. ‘Psssshhhh, Erin.’

‘Better go and empty your incontinence knickers!’ Grace Morgan shouted.

‘Pssshhhh!’

They knew. They all knew. But how?

I ran after Erin, shouting her name over and over. ‘It wasn’t me, Erin. Honest. It wasn’t me!’

And suddenly, Erin turned on me and spat right in my face. ‘Who else could it be? I’ve never told anybody else in my entire life.’

Heather came hurrying up the corridor, pushing everyone aside to get to Erin. She must have heard the commotion, but she didn’t seem to understand what was going on. All she could see was a friend in need. She put her arms round Erin, and I watched her face drain to grey when she heard what the others were chanting.

‘Who else could it be?’ Erin said again. ‘I should never have trusted you.’

Heather’s eyes darted to me – me, separate from my friends, left out in the cold – and her arms went tighter round Erin.

My friends were suddenly gone. They moved away, and I was alone in the corridor with my enemies.

I swirled round to Wizzie. ‘It’s a lie! What you’re saying about her, it’s a lie!’

Her eyebrow, and the pierced ring that was in it, shot up. ‘Who are you trying to kid? It’s all round the school. You only have to say one wee word … Pssssshhhh.’ She made the sound again, the sound I had made myself in the toilets at the wedding. ‘And your pal knows exactly what everybody means. As soon as she heard it she wet herself.’ Then she began to laugh like a hyena. She turned to her friends. ‘Get it, girls. She wet herself.’ Then she looked back at me and her face became serious. ‘No lie, Hannah, old chum. Miss Perfect ain’t so perfect.’

‘Who told you?’ I wanted to know, had to know. I had to tell Erin, then we could get whoever it was, take them on together.

But all Wizzie said was, ‘Good news travels fast.’ And she was gone, swaggering off with her giggling friends. They were all enjoying the joke.

How could they be so cruel? It wasn’t anything to laugh about. Who could have told them? And Erin’s words came back to me like a slap in the face.

Who else but me?

Erin had told me her secret. A secret she had never shared with anyone else. We’d been alone, sitting on the floor of the hotel toilets. No one else had been in there.

But someone must have been there. Someone must have overheard.

And I was going to find out who!





Chapter Sixteen


Erin wasn’t in the next class. Neither was Rose. There was an outright laugh when the teacher told us that Erin wasn’t feeling well and had to be sent home. Heather sat in front of me, back straight, ignoring me no matter how I tried to get her attention. I even sent a couple of rubbers flying in her direction – but nothing would make her turn round to me. She couldn’t ignore me in the corridor. I stood in front of her and wouldn’t let her pass.

‘Heather, you’ve got to convince Erin that I never told a soul. Not a soul.’

Heather kept glancing around her. She looked scared, as if she was afraid someone would catch her talking to me and pass the word back to Erin. ‘Erin says you’re the only person in the world she told. Only you.’ She paused. ‘Who else could it be?’

She tried to move round me but I blocked her way.

‘I would never have told anybody. It was a secret. You have to make her see that.’

Heather pushed past me. She couldn’t even look me in the eye. ‘I’ll try,’ she said.

‘Please, Heather. Please. You’ve got to convince her.’

She looked back at me for a second. I felt she wanted to stay, to say something else, talk to me, be my friend. Then she bit her lip to stop any words from spilling out. Only as she hurried away I heard her mumble again, ‘I’ll try.’